# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1909_S1 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) Che Lutheran Pioneer. A MISSIONARY MONTHLY. 0 er eee PuBLIsHED BY THE EvancenicaL Lutneran SyNopIcal, CoNFERENCE oF Nortn AMERICA. R. A. BISCHOFE, Enviror. = Entered at the Post Ofice at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter. Vol. XXXI. A Pilgrim’s Song. ror TIE NEW YEAR, Let us by faith draw nigh, And thankful off’rings bring To Him who reigns on high, Our Savior and our King; Join the triumphant host above, And gladly praise the God of love. By His all-gracious hand Thus far we have been led From Egypt’s gloomy land Of darkness and of dread; We joyful sing upon the way That leadeth to eternal day. Though in a desert waste, We are not left alone; We forward press in haste, Right onward to the Throne, Where we shall with our Lord sit down, And cast at His dear feet the crown. As pilgrims here we roam, But Christ the Lord is near; And He to call us home Will presently appear; We soon shall meet upon the shore, Where partings will be known no more. We Are Pilgrims. We are pilgrims and our life is but a journey. Of this the passing years remind us. Year after year is numbered with the past, and every day brings us nearer to our journey’s end. What shall that end be? It must be either an eternity of woe and misery or of bliss and joy. We should there-. fore so “number our days that we apply our hearts ST. LOUIS, MO., JANUARY, 1909. No. 1. unto wisdom.” It is not wisdom, but folly, not to heed the lesson of the passing years: Prepare to meet your God! It is not wisdom, but folly, to say: “Let us eat and drink and be merry, for to- morrow we die.” Foolish man! Death does not end all.. The Bible says: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” The man who lives in sin and dies in sin, rejecting by his unbelief the only Savior of sinners, passes through the dark gates of death to the judgment-seat of God with all his sins upon him. The wrath of a just and holy God will hurl him into’ everlasting damnation; for it is plainly written: “He that believeth not shall be damned.” And again the Bible says: “He that hath not the Son hath not life.” And again it is written: “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” They only heed the lesson of the passing years and apply their hearts unto wisdom who see to it that they are prepared to meet their God by faith in Him whose name was called Jesus because He saves His people from their sins. In Jesus they have “redemption through His blood, the forgive- ness of sins,” and they are happy. It is written: “Blessed,” or happy, “are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” The believer knows from the Word of God that his sins are “blotted out,” “cast into the depths of the - sea,” “removed as far as the east is from the west,”? “forgiven,” and “remembered no more.” Why should he not be happy in his journey through life? The new year may bring grief or gladness, pain or pleasure, but whatever the morrow may bring, it shall surely bring Jesus with it, who says: “Lo, or