The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1891, Page 41

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the Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PosuisHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LurHERAN SyNnopicaAL CoNFERENCE oF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XIII.

St. Louis, Mo., November, 1891.

No. 11.

“Blessed Are Those Servants.’’

Blesséd are the faithful servants
Who are watching for the Lord:
They shall meet His full approval,
They receive His great reward:
With their Lord shall enter in,
Dwell forever with their King.

Blesséd are the faithful servants
Who are toiling all the day,
Bearing all the heat and burden
Of the earthly, pilgrim way;
They shall enter into rest—
With the Lord be ever blest.

Blesséd are the faithful servants
Who are watching unto prayer,
Overcoming flerce temptation,
Casting on the Lord their care:
They shall reach the blesstd shore,
Where the tempter tempts no more.

Blesséd are the faithful servants
Who with meckness bear the cross,
For the love that Jesus bears them
Counting all things else but loss;
Soon their sufferings shall be o’er,
. And the cross be felt no more.

Blessed are the faithful servants
Who the Master’s battles fight;
Causing right o’er wrong to triumph,
Chasing darkness with the light:
More than victors they shall be,
Crown’d with joy eternally.

Blessed are the faithful servants
Who the Saviour’s impress wear;
Soon they shall be wholly like Him,
And His perfect image bear:
They shall see Him as He is,

In the land of light and bliss.
Selected.

——_—_—+~+ oo >

Holding On.

An infidel passing through the shadows that
hang around the close of life, and finding no
rest and peace for his soul in the dying hour,
was told by his infidel friends to ‘‘hold on’’.
He answered, ‘I have no objection to holding
on, but will you tell me what to hold on by?”

Here is a question which men will do well to
consider before they reach the last bitter hour.
If they are to hold on, what are they to hold
on by? Where is their trust? Where is their
confidence? What certainty have they as they
go down into the dark shadows of death?

Surely a man who comes to his dying hour
needs something better than infidelity can give
him; he needs Him who is the resurrection
and the life, who has conquered death and
triumphed over the grave, and who alone can
lead us through the shadows of the valley of
death into the bright light of eternal glory
and joy.

In his dying hour the Christian holds on to
Jesus with the hand of faith. He can there-
fore say, ‘‘Though I walk through the shadow
of the valley of death, I will fear no evil; for
thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they
comfort me.” As the things of this world pass
away, Jesus and the things which He has pre-
pared for His children in heaven occupy the
Christian’s mind.

“Talk to me of Jesus,”’ said an aged Chris-
tian, when on the banks of the river that was
soon to bear him away. ‘‘Tell me of Him
whom my soul lJoveth, and of the many man-
sions ‘where He dwells with his own’ in glory,
and where I shall ‘soon see Him as He is.’
It is the news of the Master's household, I long
to hear; advancement of His cause, and the
progress of His kingdom. Do not tell me of
things that are passing away. I care not for
them. This world and all its possessions must
soon be burned up, and wherefore should they
dwell in my affection? I have a home that fire
cannot touch; a kingdom and a crown that
fade not away; and why should I be concerned
about affairs of the day?”

——_——

Flee from the Wrath to Come!

One fine morning the boats sailed out into
the sea. But during the day the wind rose,
and when evening came, the sea that had
sparkled in the bright sunny morning was
tossed up and down in high billows. The thick
clouds made the darkness set in early, and
everything about and above seemed to tell that
there would be a stormy night. Most of the
fishing-boats had come back and found shelter
in the village harbor.

But there was one fishing-boat that had sailed
out with the rest that fine morning, but which
did not come back with the others. The men
on board knew the wind was rising, they knew

the storm would come, they knew the harbor
was open for them; but trusting in their own
strength they thought they could brave the
wind, and did not heed its warning voice, and
would not seek shelter in the harbor.
the darkness came on, and the deeper tones of
the howling storm sounded over the sea, and
the boat was seized and driven on to the rocks
that lined the coast, and was dashed to pieces
by the fury of the angry waves, which, as if in
triumph, leaped and danced to the wild music
of the howling storm.
sun rose over a miserable and total wreck.

And so

The next morning’s

My dear reader, there is a storm coming from

which you must seek shelter. The black clouds
of the Judgement Day are rising, and therefore
God warns men to flee from the wrath to come.
Let us heed the signs of our time! The spread
of infidelity among the high and the low, the
spread of false doctrines, the growth of the
pope’s antichristian kingdom, the many dis-
asters on the land and on the gea, the preaching
of the Gospel in all the world as a witness unto
all the nations—all tell us that the day of the
Lord is at hand, which “will come aga thief in
the night; in the which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, and the elements shall
melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the
works that are therein shall be burned up,’’
2 Peter 3, 10.

There is only one place of shelter against the

coming storm. There is only one place of safety
opened by God forall sinners. There is only one

harbor of grace pointed out to us in the Gospel.
Which is it? It is—Jesus, the Saviour of sin-
ners. He that bled and died for our sins upon
the cross comes to us in the Gospel and is ready
to receive and to keep all that believe in Him.
He is our only refuge. Let us flee to Him from
the wrath tocome. Having found shelter and
rest in Him, we need not fear the coming storm.
The day of the Lord’s coming to judge the quick
and the dead will be a day of joy tous. The
strong arms of Jesus will carry us away from
the storm, away from the clashing elements,
into the haven of everlasting rest and heay-
enly joy.
«OQ sinner, seck His grace
Whose wrath you can not bear;

Fly to the shelter of His cross,
And find salvation there.”