842 The Lord's Prayer, the Pastor's Prayer condemns God as not conforming to man's sense of equity. (See September issue, pp. 605 ff.) How shall we escape these "horrible, perilous offenses"? Let faith rule, the faith which abstains from investigating and harmonizing and leaves the matter to God. And we will desist from these curious, evil investigations the more readily as God has assured us that He will solve the difficulty for us in His own good time (1 Cor. 13: 12)! "Was darueber ist, wird uns unser Seligmacher Christus 1m ewigen Leben selbst offenbaren." We read in the P1'Oceedings of the Eastern District, 1876, p.30: "Why so many do not hear the Gospel and as a result thereof do not believe, is a great, unfathomable mystery. Let the world heap scorn upon us Christians on that account and blaspheme God. The day is coming when all shaH see that God, in spite of the perdition of so many souls, still is the eternal love." (See also Proceedings Northern District, 1876, p.29.) Faith can afford to wait. And it is of the nature of faith to wait for the Lord. Our present discussion may be summed up in the words with which Dr. Stoeckhardt concludes his study of 1 Peter 3: 19 f.: "Everything now depends on what the sinners do here on earth about Christ. That determines their eternal fate. Here one might ask: But how about those who have heard nothing of Christ? And why is it that all did not hear? Why has God not given His Word at all times at all places? These questions touch upon a domain which is utterly closed and hidden to us. Here begin the mysteries of God, into which we cannot and should not search. Scripture confines our thinking to the state of affairs produced by the Gospel, the offer of salvation through Christ. Our sole business is to carry out Christ's command and preach the Gospel to every creature, to testify to all that without Christ there is no salvation, that he that believes on Christ is saved, but he that believeth not will be damned." The question is not: Has God done His duty toward the heathen? The question is: Are we doing our duty? With that, faith concerns itself. Doing that, it rests content. TH. ENGELDER ----.-.----The Lord's Prayer, the Pastor's Prayer The COl;lclusion Matthew 6: 13: UQ-tL aoii EaTLV ~ ~ a <