The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1922, Sheet 27

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

Oe

Poupiisnep BY THE EvanGcerican Lurueran SyNoprcaL ConFERENCE oF NortH America.

REV. F. J. LANKENAUD, EDITOR.

Published monthly by Concordia Publishing Mouse, St, Louls, Mo. Subscription price, 50 cts. per annum, payable strictly in advance.

Entered as second-class matter at the Post OMice at St. Louls, Mo., under the Act of March
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103,

3, 187
Act of October 3, 1917, “authorized on July 5 5, 1918,

Vol. XLIV.

ST. LOUIS, MO., APRIL, 1922.

No. 4.

OUR MONTHLY MISSIONARY MOTTO.
Love never asks, ‘‘How much MUST I do?” but, ‘‘How much MAY I do?”’

The Prince of Peace.

When Christ had risen from His grave,
His peace He to th’ Eleven gave.

He comes to us on Easter still

And brings us peace and God’s good will.

He carried out His Father’s plan,
Who now is reconciled with man;
This Gospel-truth does not grow old,
However often it is told.

Then Iet us bless the Prince of Peace,
Who bids our fears and sorrows cease,
Till we shall join that shining throng
And evermore His praise prolong.
HH. Osreruus.

—_—

The Church and the Lodge.

VI.

The Church teaches that our prayers should be
addressed to the true God, Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, and that they should be made in Jesus’ name,
that is, with the sure and certain confidence that
our heavenly Father will hear our prayer for Jesus’
sake.

Prayer is an act of worship, and Christ says,
“Thou shalt worship the Lord, thy God, and Him
only shalt thou serve.” Matt.4,10. The Psalmist
writes, “O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee
shall all flesh come.” Ps. 65, 2.. To address our
prayers to any other being would be depriving God
of that honor which He claims as His due, since He

has said, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.”
Ps. 50,15. But all our prayers offered to the true
and living God can be acceptable to Him only when
offered through the mediatorship of our Savior
Jesus Christ. John 16, 23 Christ makes the most
solemn declaration for all time: “Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father
in My name, He will give it you.” It is only when
we come trusting in the merits of Jesus that our
prayers are acceptable to God, according to these
words of Christ. He is the only person that has
a right to the desired boon, for which reason that
which we ask for can only be granted us for Jesus’
sake. Christless prayers must, therefore, be an
abomination to the heavenly Father, since they are
actually a denial of His dear Son and His merits.

The prayers of the lodge are neither offered to
the Triune God nor made in Jesus’ name. Since
the god of the lodges is not the Triune God, Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, it necessarily follows that
their prayers are addressed to some self-made idol,
the creation of their own thoughts and imagination.
Masonic authorities agree in stating, as we have
seen, that Masonry does not teach the Trinity in

.Unity as we Christians understand it, neither does

it teach that its “Great Architect of the Universe”
is Immanuel, God With Us, Christ. In short,
Masonry does not recognize the God of the Chris-
tians. Odd-Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Woodmen,
Elks, Owls, Eagles, Moose, and all the others just