The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1921, Sheet 19

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Dhe Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusLIsHED By THE EvaNGELICAL Lutueran Synopicat ConNFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.

REV. F. J. LANKENAU, EDITOR.

Published monthly by Concordia Publishing House, St. Louls, Mo. Subseription price , 50 cis. per annum, payable strictly In advance.
879.

Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., under the Act of March 3

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Acceptancé for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 5, 1918,

Vol, XLITI.

ST. ‘LOUIS, MO., “MARCH, 1921.

No. 3.

On Easter Day in the Morning.

Our lives were cold and dreary,
Our portion was despair,

We were so sad and weary —
Eternal woe our share.

But in a stable lowly

For man, of hope forlorn,
The Christ, our Savior holy,
At Bethlehem was born.

And suffering without measure,
He freed us from our thrall,
And, dying, earned the treasure
Of heaven for us all.

On Easter Day, in the morning,
He from His grave arose,
And in the stead of mourning
We now have sweet repose.
H. Osteruus.

Easter and Our Missions.

“Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” ‘This is
the glad, comforting message that comes to us at
’ Eastertide. “If Christ be not raised, your faith is
vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which
are fallen asleep in Christ are perished,” 1 Cor. 15;
17. 18.

But now is Christ risen from the dead. Our
faith is not vain. We are no longer in our sins,
and those who have died in Christ are living in bliss
with their resurrected Lord.

By His glorious resurrection He has infallibly
proved, not only that He was the Son of God and
the Savior of the world, as He often testified, but
also that the ransom He came to pay was paid in
full, and ‘accepted and acknowledged in full.

The fact that the Son of God was manifest in
the flesh and died to save sinners, and that He
triumphantly rose again from the dead, having led
captivity captive, is so well established that only
those who are blinded and kept in bondage by Satan
can deny it. he Church knows it with the certainty
of the Holy Spirit’s infallible testimony, and there-
fore devoutly celebrates her sad Good Friday and
her joyous Easter.

“Te was delivered for our offenses and was raised
again for our justification.” Adam’s sins were ours,
but they were imputed to Christ, who knew no sin,
who bore them on His holy body on the tree, and
atoned for them. In like manner is the righteous-
ness of Christ, which He brought with Him from the
open tomb, imputed to us, who have no righteous-
ness of our own, for our justification. I¢ is ours by
faith ‘in the resurrected Savior. “Therefore as by
the offense of one, Adam, judgment came upon all
men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness
of One,, Christ, the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life.” Rom. 5,18. It is procured
for all and offered to all, but possessed by those only
who accept and believe it.

Now the witnesses can go out into all the world
and proclaim with’burning hearts and fiery tongues:
“Be of good cheer, sinners! Christ, who died for
your sins, is risen again for your justification. He

“was your Substitute before God and His Law. He

has been acquitted, released from the prison-house

-of the grave, and declared righteous, and you are

declared righteous in Him. The debt is paid; the
Law is fulfilled; justice has been satisfied; Satan
is crushed; death has lost its sting, the grave its
victory; from His open grave He has brought the