The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1889, Page 1

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY

MONTHLY.

PUBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LurHERAN SynopicAL CoNFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

Entered at the Post Office at St. Louis, Mo., a3 second-class matter.

Vol. XI.

St. Louis, Mo., January, 1889.

No. 1.

The New Year.

JESUS! shall our watchword be

As the New Year’s dawn spreads o’er us;
Jesus’ Name alone will we

As our standard bear before us;
In His covenant we stand

Journeying to the promised land.

JESUS’ Name and Jesus’ Word
Shall resound in fullest measure
In our churches and be heard.
May we tread His courts with pleasure,
That our hearts through grace anew
Prove a holy temple too.

JESUS’ Name shall lighten pain,
And in all our ills relieve us;
Losses thus shall turn to gain—
' And to blessings what seemed grievous.
» Jesus’ Name is Sun and Shield,
Here must all our sorrows yield.

B. Schmolke.

s+ oo

A Happy New Year!

We wish you a happy new year, dear reader. | of God which tells us that Jesus came into the

But do you know that Jesus only can render the
new year happy? As long as we travel through
this world without this Saviour, we are on the
road to eternal damnation, yea, we are con-
demned already; for it is plainly written, ‘‘He
that believeth not theSun is condemned already”
(John 8, 18); ‘He that believeth not shall not
see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him’’
(John 3, 36). How can there be any happiness
as long as we are under the wrath and curse of
God? ‘Perhaps you expect to be made happy
in the new year by the wealth and joys and
pleasures of this world. But these things can-
not give you any true happiness; they cannot
take away ycur sins; they cannot take away
the wrath of God; they cannot save you from
hell; they cannot give you the sure hope of
everlasting life in the hour of death. True
happiness and salvation can be found in Jesus
only. His name was called Jesus because He
saves His people from their sins. He came
into this world as the Saviour of all sinners.
The poor Jewish shepherds from the fields of

Bethlehem, and the rich wise men from the
distant heathen land found their happiness and
salvation in Him. And for ages kings and
beggars, wise men and unlearned men, found
salvation in this Saviour. He has brought
true happiness into the palace of the rich and
into the cabin of the poor. He comes to you
in the Gospel, and you find Him there by
simply trusting in this Gospel.

Men often, in looking for salvation and happi-
ness, follow their own thoughts. They resolve
to do better in the coming year by their own
strength; they want to turn over a new leaf;
they trust in their own works, in their own
feelings, in their excitement at the revival
bench. But they cannot find true happiness
by thus following their own thoughts. When
the wise men from the East followed their own
thoughts, they went to Jerusalem to find the
Saviour. They did not find Him. But when
they trusted the word of God which directed
them to Bethlehem, they found Jesus. So we
must simply trust in God’s word. We must
not think: Well, there can be nothing in that
Gospel; it is a mere empty sound of words.
No! We must simply put our trust in the word

Redeemed.

It is said that just before the civil war in this
country a wealthy gentleman, who was walking
the streets of a southern city, had his attention
called to a group of negro slaves about to be
sold. One of them was weeping bitterly, and
when be asked her why she was crying she
replied that she did not know what kind of a:
master was going to buy her, nor where she
was going. He said nothing more, but when
she was placed upon the block for sale, he bid
a higher price for her than any one in the
crowd, and she was knocked down to him as
his property. She was still weeping, because
she did not know him, nor where she was going,
until he gently said, ‘‘I have not bought you:
to make a slave of you; I have bought you to
set you free; go where you please.’’ She in-
stantly turned to him with the glad cry, “Let
me go with you, I will serve you all my life.’
Christ has redeemed us with His precious blood:
Let us gladly serve Him with all our powers.

Empty Religion.
world to save us from all our sins, and that
‘the that believeth naTH everlasting life’ (John
6, 46). We must not think: Well, there can
be nothing in Baptism; a little water can bring
me no blessing. We must simply trust the
word of God which tells us, ‘‘ He that believeth
and is baptized SHALL BE SAVED” (Mark 16, 16).
We must not think: Well, the bread and wine
in the Lord’s Supper can be of no blessing to
me. We must simply trust the word of God
which tells us that with the bread Christ give
us His Body which was GIVEN FoR Us, and with
the wine His blood which was SHED FOR US, FOR
THE REMISSION OF OUR SINS (Matt. 26, 26—28).
By thus simply trusting in God’s word we find
the Saviour, and in Him we have true happi-
ness and eternal salvation. We may then joy-
fully enter the new year. We know that we
are God’s children by faith in Jesus, and that
our Father will take care of us, and that all
things that will happen to us in the coming
year will be for our own good. To all our
readers we wish such a happy new year!

Ah,’ how many there are with a good name,
a respectable character, envied by others, and
yet they havea secret lurking in their breasts
that, in spite of all their fair show in the flesh,
something else is needed which they have not
got. ‘The thought of dying and meeting God.
makes them tremble. They hear of others.
being converted, and Inugh or wonder at it, yet
feel uneasy as to their own standing before
God. Their foundations shake, and so they
may—they are only sand. They feel there is
something more needed than a mere empty-
profession—a Christless religion, yet they do
not like to admit that they have been wrong
all their lives: it humbles them too much..
And thus they go, hoping for the best, till they.
are shipwrecked forever—their hopes blasted
forever, and themselves lost forever.

—— Pe oe

Mosr men will strive much harder for an
estate here than they do for heaven.