The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1921, Sheet 75

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The Putheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PusLisHED BY THE EvANGELICAL LuTi1erRan SynopicaL ConFERENCE oF NorTH AMERICA.

REv. F. J. LANKENAU, EDITOR.

Pubilshed monthly by Concordia Publishing House, St. Louls, Mo. Subscription price, 50 cts. per annum, payable strictly In advance.
Entered as second-class matter at the Post Office at St. Louls, Mo., under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for In section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 5, 1918,

Vol. XLIII.

ST. LOUIS, MO., OCTOBER, 1921.

No. 10.

Hosts from Babylon Returned.

Hallelujah! God hath wrought
Marvelous salvation,

Great deliv’rance He hath brought
By the Reformation.

Christ still sitteth on His throne
As our only Master;

We are saved by grace alone
From our sins’ disaster.

These and other teachings clear,
Which the Pope had banished,
-In those days did reappear;
Gloom and bondage vanished.

Hosts from Babylon returned
Unto-Zion’s mountain,

Hastening, with hearts that burned,
To Siloah’s fountain.

God Himself delivered men

By the Reformation,

And made known on earth again

His divine salvation. H. OsTErnUvs.

_» The Church and the Lodge.

The Church teaches that the written Word of
God is the only rule and standard of faith and life.
As the sun was placed by God in the heavens to
._ Yule the day, so also the Bible is and remains our
absolute and supreme rule in all matters of re-
ligion. The Church holds that Christian knowl-
edge is not given by God through nature, nor by
private manifestations. Nature may tell us that
there is a God, and may also tell us some things
about God; but how we can get into the right re-

lation to God, how the conversion and salvation of
the sinner occurs, these things we must learn from
the Bible, since it is the only source of Christian
teaching. The Bible, the revealed and inspired
Word of God, is our light, to lead us and guide us
through this life to heaven above. The Church be- -
lieves and teaches that whatever is taught in spir-
itual matters in disagreement with the Bible will
lead man astray and never bring him to heaven.
This teaching of the Church is in perfect agree-
ment with the Bible itself, as anybody can. easily see.
Abraham told the rich man in hell that if his
brothers were to escape hell and gain heaven, they
must hear Moses and the prophets. Luke 16, 29.
The prophet declares, Is. 8,20: ‘To the Law and
to the Testimony; if they speak not according to
this Word, it is because there is no light in them.”
And Christ says, John 12, 48: “The Word that

‘I have spoken,.the same shall judge him in the last

day.” Paul commends the Bereans for searching
the Scriptures and comparing his preaching with
the written Word of God, and the Savior says:
“Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and
keep it.” Deut. 4,2 the Lord declares that nothing
shall be added to nor anything be taken from His
Word, and Paul invokes upon all that walk accord-
ing to’the rule of God’s Word the peace and mercy
of God. Gal. 6, 16.

If anything is plain, it is this: God in His
written Word has given us in all spiritual and re- -
ligious matters a rule and guide which is infallible
and which He wants us to follow implicitly in all
matters of faith and life.

Now, what does the lodge say about the Bible,
the inspired and inerrant Word of God and the only