The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1884, Page 1

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

Che Autheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PuBLIsHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LutHeraAN SynopicaL ConreRENcE oF Nortu AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. Vi.

St. Louis, Mo., January, 1884.

No. 1.

Mottoes for the New Year.

Waiting! — Working! — Warning! — Waking! — Watching!
(Luke 12, 36.) Qfark 13, 34.) (Ezek. 3, 17.) (Cant. 5, 2.) (Mark. 13, 37.)

We are waiting for the coming of the Master we
hold dear;

We are longing just to grect Him and to hail His
drawing near,

For our loins are girt and ready, and our lamps are
trimmed and bright;

We are waiting for the signal that will say He is in
sight.

But we would not have Him find us standing idle
all the day, :

So we learn to work while waiting, doing something
by the way;

And we find that working for Him is a toil so rarely
sweet,

That we almost wish for tarrying in the coming of
His feet.

And we know that He has bidden us bring others to
His love,

And we long to fill the mansions that are waiting us
above;

So, then, while we work we dare not fail to warn
each straying heart,

That in our Lord and in our home they too may
have a part.

Sometimes we are almost weary of our constant
gaze on high,

And our hearts grow dull, and hopeless of His specdy
drawing nigh;

Then there comes our need of waking, for each mo-
ment brings Him near,

And the signal lights of Heaven daily shine more
bright and clear.

Thus we stand with waking heart-look, till the night
of life shall cease,

Watching for the golden day-dawn that shall herald
light and peace;

When the dim ecarth-mists that sadden flee before
the sunrise bright,

And our hearts be fully gladdened in our Saviour’s
glorious light! —Eva Travers.

————2—— ee 0 a

Turning Over a New Leaf.

The beginning of the year is regarded by
many as a favorable time to break bad habits
and to form good resolutions, which they intend
to carry out by their own strength. They call
this “turning over a new leaf.’? Now suppose
they could carry out their good resolutions in

_ every particular, what about those past black

leaves of guilt? The school-boy who has spilt
ink on the page of his copy-book, and then
turns over a new leaf, does not thereby take
away the blotted one. The grocery man who
finds himself in difficulty at the end of the
year, and then takes his cash book and begins
a “new leaf,” does not thereby get out of his
difficulty. The new figures on the new leaf
won't pay the old debts. And so if it were
possible for man to live a sinless life in the
future, this would not take away the sins of
the past. Those sins would rise up against him
on the Day of Judgment and hurl him into
eternal damnation.

Good resolutions, however, do not give man
the power to overcome sin in the future. No.
Did you ever see'a man try to lift himself over
a fence by the straps of his own boots? If you
have, you surely thought him to be a fool. It is
just as foolish for man to try to change his sin-
ful will by his own good resolutions. Man’s
whole nature is sinful, and in that sinful self
there is no strength to war against self. Man
may modify or control certain outward habits,
but the heart remains just the same; and it is
a heart full of sin. Is there then no help for
sinners? Yes. The New Year’s Gospel tells
us of the Babe of Bethlehem: ‘‘His name was
called Jesus,’’ Luke 2, 21. And why was His
name called Jesus? The angel said: “Thou
shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His
people from their sins.” Our good resclutions
were not called Jesus. Nothing in man’s sinful
self was called Jesus. But the Son of God who
became man to take away the sin of the world
was called Jesus; for He alone is the Saviour.
The sinner who trusts in Him finds pardon of
all sin and eternal salvation. He will also war
against sin, not by his own strength, but by the
strength which he finds in Jesus. In turning
over a new leaf, do not trust in your own sinful
self, but trust in Him whose name was called
Jesus.

men go on insensible to these astounding facts.
The Bible tells us why this is so. It tells us
that they walk according to the prince of the
power of the air, that the god of this world
hath blinded their minds. Business, riches,
pleasure, lust, vice, crime, drunkenness, fash-
ion, excitement, these rule the fleeting hour,
and men rush on to the grave, and ungodliness
triumphs, and devils laugh, and angels might
weep.

But amid this din and wild revelry, that
sound like echoes from hell, there is a voice
that seeks to reach the ear of the thoughtless
traveller to the tomb, the voice of the Son of
God, ‘‘What shall it profit man, if he shall
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?’”
(Mark 8, 36.) Man, woman, pushing off the
day of salvation, stop and think! Thou art
hurrying to the grave with thy sins upon thee!
thou art rushing into eternity unprepared to
meet thy God! Do not neglect it any longer.
A year of grace is come again to thee. Sal-
vation is offered to thee in the Gospel. Oh, do
not neglect it even until the next day, for the
close of the next day might find thee in hell!

0 2

The Traveller’s Psalm:

Do you know that one of the Psalms is called
“The Traveller's Psalm’’? When you are go-
ing to take a long journey, when you go by the
railroad or sea, I advise you to think of the
Traveller’s Psalm —the one hundred and twenty-
first. It is beautiful—all about taking a jour-
ney. And as you enter upon life’s journey
for another year, read this Psalm:

“J will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from
whence cometh my help. My help cometh
from the Lord, which made Heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: He
that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold,
He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber
nor sleep. The Lord is thy Keeper: the Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun
shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by
night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all
evil: He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord
shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in
from this time forth, and even for evermore.’”

sea or oe -

- S$top and Think!

It is said that at least 90,000 persons die
every day. This would give unto death 3,750
every hour, 62 every minute, and 1 every
second of time. How strange it is that most