The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1891, Page 2

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2 The Lutheran Pioneer.

(For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer.’’)

Our New School.

While it was not a little gratifying, that the
erection of several new school-houses was re-
solved by the Synodical Conference last sum-
mer, it was still more encouraging that some-
thing more tangible than resolutions was soon
forthcoming, which enabled the Board of Mis-
sion to have the resolutions carried out.

A new building for our Bethlehem School in
New Orleans is in course of construction. It
will be a neat two-story frame-structure afford-
ing. accommodations for two hundred pupils,
and be ready for occupation, we hope, by the
15th inst. The school now has an attendance
of more than one hundred children, and at the
rate that the new applications are coming in at
present, the new school will be filled from end
to end at its very opening.

Mr. Schaefer, formerly of Los Angeles, Cal.,
who has been called to take charge of one of
the classes, has already arrived, and is la-
boring in another field until the new build-
ing shall be finished.

Anybody having his pockets overburdened
with those valuable little gold- and silver-
cakes turned out in our mints, or those pe-
culiar green paper-scraps, which worry some
s0 much, may prevent the danger of having
a hole worn into his pockets and save him-
self all annoyance on that account, by send-
ing a portion of them to the Board of Mis-
sion, whose members will never hesitate to
receive them. Nor are they particular about
the denomination. Whether the coin bears
the stamp ‘One Dollar” on its face or
whether it has a few ciphers annexed
to that figure, those reverend gentlemen will
prove equal to the emergency and find no
trouble in disposing of the donations tendered
them. In all seriousness, every worker in the
mission trusts that his Lutheran fellow-Christ-
ians will continue to respond generously to the
appeals made to them for the sake of that
blessed manger-cradled Infant which entered
this gloomy, cheerless world to remove the
tremendous curse pending over it on account
of its guilt and restore it to God’s favor.

How happy you are to hear your children
lisp the prayer: :

*O dearest Jesus, holy child,
Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.”’

Is it not a fact, that your hearts are trans-
ported with joy when you behold your little
ones, these precious loans of your heavenly
Father, thus devoutly kneeling by the side of
their cribs and pouring out their souls before
their God and Saviour? Remembering, then,
‘that by your gifts hundreds of little colored

__ children are learning to do the same, you will

_ certainly feel constrained to exclaim: O blessed

‘privilege! I have availed myself of it in a

slight degree; in future, dear Lord, help me
0 so in a much greater measure. Ava.

“It Is 1.”

In our picture we see Christ walking towards
His disciples on the sea. They did not know
Him as He drew near to them with His foot-
steps planted on the waves. They who had so
recently witnessed His miraculous feeding of
the five thousand, were filled with terror as He
came to them walking upon the sea, and they
said, “‘It isa spirit.”’ And He said unto them:}|
“Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.”

We may wonder at the disciples’ not knowing |
their Lord, but do not we ourselves often make |
a similar mistake? How often when trial and |
sufferings come upon us, we call it ‘‘evil.”
Like the disciples of old, we are troubled and

cry out for fear, until our gracious Lord whis- |
pers with His still, small voice, “It is I, be not
afraid,’’ and we find that what we had dreaded
as a great calamity proves to be a manifestation
of Christ Himself.

Little did the disciples expect to hear the Sav-

yr Is iI.”

iour’s voice from what they deemed ‘‘a spirit.’’
And bas not that blessed ‘‘It is I,’”’ often greeted
us when we least thought of it? All Christians
surely know by experience that events which
seemed all darkness at first have at last brought
them nearer to the light, nearer to God. The
cloud of affliction has proved to be only a veil
under which God hides His mighty power.
His gracious “It is I’’ has greeted them in the
darkness, and He has turned what we thought
to be a curse intu a blessing. Can we then not
trust Him in the darkness as well as in the
light, knowing that He can bring calm out of
storm, and that He often chooses the darkness
and the cloud as a special means by which to
reveal Himself?

Clouds may darken our path in the coming
year. There may be sickness, or the loss of
some loved One, or the struggles with poverty,
or the weary toiling day after day without see-
ing much result, or the anxiety for those we
love, their misfortunes, unkindness or wayward-
ness, while we watch their courze in the down-
ward path, although year after year we are
praying for their return. But when tempted
to grow restless under the trials of this life, let
us think of the many instances in which Christ
has revealed Himself most unexpectedly; and
this should strengthen our faith. No pathway

is too dark or steep for Christ, no calamity so
great but that He can reveal Himself through
it. May our ears be ever open to catch the
first sound of His ‘‘It is I,”’ the first appearance
of blessing coming out of evil. Soshall we be
able to meet all the trials of the new year with
the confidence which says, ‘It is the Lord, let
Him do what seemeth Him good.”’

qx +o  -

The Happy New Year.

How lonely it Jooks, as it hangs upon the
wall, that last leaf of the calendar! If it could

speak, how much it would have to say to us all!

When we hung it up on Jan. Ist of the then
New Year that had just dawned upon us, how
long it seemed until the last page of that thick
package of leaves should be reached! But
to-day, in looking back, we exclaim: ‘Can it
be possible that another .year is almost gone?’’
One by one the leaves have been torn from the
calendar, and scattered about like the fading
leaves in the Autumn time. They have
been thrown into the waste-basket or con-
signed to the flames, and perchance some
of them have been gathered from the alleys,
like waifs and strays, and been carried away
in the rag-picker’s bag.

There were certain dates that marked
events which we shall never forget. The
figures are stamped upon our hearts. There
was the day that some great and unlooked
for happiness came to us—we marked it as
a red letter day in our lives. Then there
are dates we could not remember without
utter crushing of spirit, were it not that
the glory of the Lord shone about them,
and the strength that enables us to look up and
say: ‘‘Thy will be done,’’ was given us.

But though the leaves of the calendar have
been lost to our vision, the record of them all
has been kept in heaven. And what a precious
thought it is, that there is One that is ever
making intercession for us there! ‘‘He know-
eth our frame; He remembereth that we are
but dust.’’ He knows our infirmities and weak-
nesses: for ‘‘ He was in all points tempted as we
are, yet without sin.’’

Some one has said, ‘“ We are forever taking /

leave of something that will never come back
again.’’ And now those of us who live to see
the dawning of the morning of 1891 will wish a
loving, heartfelt ‘‘Happy New Year’’ to each
and every one of our friends. In our homes let
us endeavor to make this new year the brightest
and happiest of our lives, as far as we may,
with God’s help, be enabled to do so. All that
is required of us is to do our work each day as
it comes to us, in the very best manner we are
capable of, with the talents the Lord has given

us. No matter how lowly that work may he,
if it is faithfully performed, we shall receive
the commendation “ Well done, good and faith-
ful servant; enter thou into the joy of our Lord.”
We can ‘‘enter into the joy of our Lord’’ every
day that we live, even before we reach the cit

where we shall look upon His face.—S. F. P.

/

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