The Canada Lutheran, vol. 4, no. 11, September 1916, Sept. 1916, p. 1

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

The Canada Lutheran "The Faith of our Fathers in the Language of our Children." TRUE CHRISTIANITY. "The true imitation of Christ consists, in the first place, in the knowledge that without Him we are lost and condemned sinners, and in laying hold by faith upon His merits and His propitiatory death, whereby we are justified in the sight of God. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit"--( John xii., 24). It consists, in the second place, in continued repentance for our sin. 'The whole life of the Christian,' Luther writes, 'is continual repentance.' It consists, in the third place, in each one's bearing the cross in the condition, station and age into which God has placed him, whether the cross of poverty or of riches, of disease or of health, of honor or of disgrace, of toilsome labor or of quiet waiting, of the praise of men, or of being misunderstood and despised by them ; for, apart from God, anything in this world, even fortune, riches, and honor, may be a cross for Christians. From this imitation of Christ there will proceed of themselves the breaking of bread for the hungering, the clothing of the naked, the doing good in the spirit of Jesus according to every man's ability and station. Not, do good to the poor, in order that you may be Christians ; but become Christians, then doing good will result from within of itself, not as a duty, but as a natural enjoyment, like breathing or eating and drinking." . . . . . 0 Jesus, how differently dost Thou stand before us, Thy disciples, from be- fore the world that is biassed by falsehood. When, ac- cording to the divine counsel, the revolving ages had progressed far enough in the heavens of heavens ; when Thy hour had come, Thou didst leave the glory which Thou didst have with the Father before the foundations of the world had been laid, and didst descend into this apostate world, sent of the Father, and impelled by ardent love, to seek and to save them that were lost. God and man, Thou didst fulfill the law and the prophets without sin. Salvation and thanks be unto Thee, Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, and my sin ! Thanks be unto Thee that Thou didst redeem us, "who through fear of death were all our lifetime subject to bondage, from him that had the power of death," "unto the glorious liberty of the children of God.' To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believed and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." --Bettex. No. 11 VOL. 4. UNIONVILLE, SEPTEMBER, 1916.

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy