The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1923, Page 89

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PuBLisiEeD BY THE EVANGELICAL LuTHERAN SYNODICAL CONFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.
REv. F. J. LANKENAU, EDITOR.

Published monthly by Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, 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. XLV.

ST. LOUIS, MO., DECEMBER, 1923.

No. 12.

OUR MONTHLY MISSIONARY MOTTO.

‘‘Enthusiasm for missions is the measure both of our faith in Christ
and our love to man.’’

Christmas Greeting.

“Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings
of great joy, WHICH SHALL BE TO ALL PEOPLE.
For unto you is born this day, in the city of David,
a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

Every Reader a Missionary.

Why should every reader of the ProNeEr be an
active missionary? TJ*or several reasons.

In the first place, every one of our readers
should be a missionary because of Christ’s com-
mand: “Go ye and teach all nations,” and: “Preach
the Gospel to every creature.” Even if we had no
reason to expect that our work would do the least
good to those among whom we worked and to
whom we brought the Gospel, the plain command
of Christ, our Lord, to teach the nations and preach
the Gospel should suffice to induce.us to do so. An
unfaithful servant is he who refuses to obey his
master; a poor soldier who declines to obey the
marching and fighting orders of his commander!

In the second place, what we have ourselves re-
ceived through the Gospel should make us anxious
to tell it to others who know it not. Without the
Gospel we should all be the heirs of hell, but
through the Gospel we have become the heirs of
heaven. Without the Gospel we were without hope
in this world, but by the Gospel the glorious hope
of life everlasting has been planted in our hearts.
Without the Gospel we were the objects of God’s

wrath, but through the Gospel we have been made
acceptable to the heavenly Father in Christ, our
Savior. Yes, grace and peace and love and hope
and salvation are all ours through the Gospel.
Such being the case, how can we otherwise than
exclaim with the psalmist: “What shall I render
unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?”
Thus gratitude to God should impel us to become
missionaries and make us willing at all times and
under all circumstances to spread the light of the
Gospel far and near as a token of appreciation for
all the spiritual blessings we have received.

In the third place, love and pity for our less
favored fellow-men should prompt us to carry and
send the light of the Gospel in every direction.
Without this light of Truth men are buried in
falsehood, groping in fear and doubt, and lost in
superstitions. Without the guidance of the Gospel
men never can find the way to God end truth and
love and happiness. Christ, who is the sum and
substance of the Gospel, declares: “I am the
Way ... ; no man cometh unto the Father but
by Me.” Hear you not the wail of the countless
millions moving on to eternity ignorant of the
birth. of God’s own Son, uninformed as to His
atoning death, His resurrection from the dead, His
ascension into glory, and unaware of the full and

‘free deliverance from sin, death, and hell through

Him who is our only, but all-sufficient Savior? As
you hear the sobbing of these millions who live and
suffer without Christ sounding in your ears, are
not your hearts moved to attempt to measure some-