The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1880, Page 41

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PuBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNODICAL CONFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

Edited by Prof. R. A. BISCHOFF.

Entered at the Post Oflice at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter.

New Year.

Now let us raise our voices

In prayer, and let rejoice us

In God who strength from heaven
Unto our life hath given.

The stream of years is flowing,
And we are onward going,
From old to new surviving,
And by His mercy thriving.

In woe we often languish,

And pass through times of anguish,
When fearful war aboundeth

And dread this earth surroundeth.

A faithful mother keepeth
Watch, while her infant sleepeth,
And all its grief assuageth,
‘When angry tempest rageth:

Thus God His children shieldeth
And full protection yieldeth ;
When need and woe distress them,
His loving arms caress them..

In vain is all our doing,

The labor. we’re pursuing

In our hands prospers never,
Unless God watcheth ever.

We praise Thy mercies gaily,
Which Thou renewest daily ;
To Thee, our strong defender
From grief, our thanks we render.

O God of mercy, hear us;

Our Father, be Thou near us;
’Mid crosses and in sadness
Be Thou our fount of gladness.

To all that bow before Thee

And for Thy grace implore Thee,
Do grant Thy benediction

And patience in affliction.

With richest blessings crown us;
In all our ways, Lord, own us;
Give grace, who grace bestowest,
To all, e’en to the lowest.

Of all forlorn be father,

And all the strayed sheep gather,
And of the poor and needy

Be Thou the succor speedy.

Grant help to all afflicted,
And to all souls dejected,
By melancholy haunted,
y cheerful thoughts be granted.

St. Louis, Mo., January, 1880.

All earthly gifts excelling,

Thy Holy Ghost indwelling
Give us, to make us glorious
And lead to Thee victorious.

All this Thy hand bestoweth,
O Life, whence our life floweth;
To me and all believers
Grant, Lord, these New Year’s favors.
(Paul Gerhardt.)
——\»+> +o oo

New Year’s Message.

We know no better New Year’s message for
our readers than that which is found in Luke
2, 21.: ‘‘When eight days were accomplished
for the circumcising of the child, His name was
called Jesus.’’ Do you know what that name
Jesus means? It means Saviour. This’we
plainly see from Matthew 1, 21., where the
angel, speaking of the virgin Mary’s child, says
to Joseph: ‘‘Thou shalt call his name JEsus;
for He shall save His people from their sins.”

Now, this may seem a queer New Year's
message to some of our readers; but it surely
should be a welcome message to all that wish
to have a happy New Year. For without this
Child Jesus, without this Saviour there can he
no true happiness. Those that try to find hap-
piness in the riches and joys of this world know
not what true happiness is. In the time of
need, in the gloomy days of sickness and sor-
row and in the dark hour of death their treas-
ures will fail them. Yes, the new year into
which they go forth so merrily, may be their
last year upon earth, and if they die without
the Saviour, they go into eternity with the load
of their sins upon them, and those sins of the
past years of their lives will rise up in judgment
against them, and on account of those sins the
wrath of a just and holy God will cast them
into eternal misery. Oh, dear reader, I wish
you a happy New Year, and I therefore tell you
that Jesus only can render the new year happy-
Looking back on the past years, you will find
that by many, many sins you have offended
God, who has shown so many mercies unto you
from day to day. Will you now enter the new

“th all those sins and with the wrath of
yon HUNG I ct any true
God upon you? Can you then expe aie
happiness? Do you not know that this year

No. 11.

may be the last year of your life?
thén?

You may say, ‘Well, I'll make up my mind
to do better in the new year.’’ Now, suppose
you could do better, what then about those sins
of the past? They are recorded in God’s Book
of Omniscience, and your better life cannot blot
them out. But the trouble is, I tell you, you
cannot do better by your own strength. Those
good resolutions are easily taken on New Year’s
day, but they are very soon forgotten. Dr.
Luther well says: ‘‘The way to hell is paved
with good resolutions.’’ Do you not know that
you are a sinner by nature, ‘‘dead in trespasses
and sin’? Do you think you can change that
sinful, corrupt nature of yours by dropping
this or that bad habit, by leading an outwardly
decent life? ~Yo can never do it. And re-
member you can satisfy God only by being per-
fectly holy. God says, ‘*Ye shall be holy: for
I the Lord your God am holy.’’

You may now ask, ‘‘What then shall I do?”’
Oh, let me tell you the sweet New Year's mes-
sage: ‘His name was called Jesus!” Why
was His name called Jesus? The angel tells
us the reason why. He says, ‘‘Thou shalt call
His name Jesus; for He shall save His people
from their sins.’ Your good resolutions were
not called Jesus, for they cannot save you.
Your own righteousness and your own good
works were not called Jesus, for they cannot
save you. But He, the Son of God and Mary’s
Son, was called Jesus; ‘‘for He shall save His
people from their sins.’’ And, oh rejoice! He
is not only named Saviour, but He really is the
Saviour. He has accomplished the work of
our salvation. He was ‘‘made under the law’’
and in our stead fulfilled that law of God per-
fectly. Our sins were punished in Him, and
in Him ‘we HAVE redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the
riches of His grace’? (Eph. 1, 7.). It is for us
to accept through faith the forgiveness of sins
which is brought to us in the Gospel.

Rejoice then in the name JEsus! It is the
sweetest of all names. It is a bottomless sea of
mercy and love! Throw all your sins into it
and they will sink and disappear forever!
What a happy new year you will then haye!
The name of Jesus will brighten all the days,

And what