The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1895, Page 1

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~The Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

.

PusuisHep By THE EVANGELICAL LurHerRAN SynopicaL CoNFERENCE OF NortH AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

ol. XVII.

St. Louis, Mo., January, 1895.

No. 1.

A New Year's Prayer.

Thy way, not mine, O Lord,
However dark it be!

Lead me by Thine own hand,
Choose out the path for me.

Smooth let it be or rough.
It will be still the best,
Winding or straight, it matters not,
It leads me to Thy rest.

_ I dare not choose my lot:
I would not if I might;
Choose Thou for me, my God,
So shall I walk aright.

The kingdom that I seek
Is Thine: so let the way

That icads:to it be Thine, se yee
Else I must surely stray.

Take Thou my cup, and it
With joy or sorrow fill,

As best to Thee miy scem;
Choose Thou my good and ill.

Choose Thou for me my friends,
My sickness or my health,

Choose Thou my cares for me,
My poverty or wealth.

Not mine, not mine the choice,
In things or great or small;
Be Thou my guide, my strength,

My wisdom, and my all.
Y ¥ M Selected.

—_+ +e eo oe

‘His Name was called Jesus.”
°

This is the message of the New Year’s Gos-
pel, and a sweet and comforting message it is.
It shows us the source of all true happiness.
In Jesus alone we have a happy new year.
Without Him there is no true happiness; for
without Him there is nothing but sin, and ‘‘the
wages of sin is death.’? Man can not enjoy
true happiness as long as he is on the road
to everlasting damnation. The joys and the
wealth and the pleasures of this world can
give him no true happiness: they can not take
away his sins; they can not take away God’s
wrath; they can not save him from hell; they
Can not give him the sure hope of everlasting
life in the hour of death. ‘True happiness is

found in Jesus only, because in Him alone we
haye forgiveness of sin and life everlasting. 14, 1. 2.

His name was called Jesus, because He saves
us from our sins. Jesus means Saviour, and
that name was given Him, because He is the
Saviour. He took our sins and curse upon
Himself and bore them in our stead. Thus
He secured forgiveness of sin and salvation
for us. All that flee for refuge to Him, all
that believe in Him as He with all His treas-
ures is brought to them in the Gospel are safe
and happy, whatever may befall them in the
new year. Troubles and sorrows and death
may come to theni, but all this can not take
away the happiness they have through faith
in Him whose name was called Jesus. He who
has forgiven them all their sins and has made
them God’s children and heirs of heaven, also
‘cares for them during théir pilgrimage here
on earth. He guides them with His own eye
and bears them in His strong and everlast-
ing arms.
“Everlasting arms of love

Are beneath, around, above,

Christ it is who bears us on,

His the love we lean upon.

“tHe our ever present guide,
Faithful is, what'er betide;
Gladly then we journey on,
With His arm to lean upon.”

_—___—<»—- oa 0 -

Life is Short.

That life is short and time flies, is often for-
gotten. Many spend their years without think-
ing of the swiftness of the passing days. Itis
a mark of wisdom to remember the shortness
of life and to prepare for the life to come.
So teach us to number our days that we may
apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

The Bible reminds us again and again of
the shortness of life and of the swiftness of
time. ‘My days are swifter than 2 weaver’s
shuttle,” Job 7, 6. ‘My days are swifter
than apost; they flee away, they see no good.
They aré passed away as the swift ships; as
the eagle that hasteth to the prey,”” Job 9,
95.26. ‘Man that is born of a woman, is of
few days, and full of trouble.
forth like a flower, and is cut down;
also as a shadow; and continueth not,”

He cometh|have you never any clouds?”
he fleeth | said the old woman, ‘‘clouds? Why, yes, sir.
Job } Else where would all the blessed showers come

“Behold, thou hast made my days from

as an hand-breadth; and mine age is as noth-
ing before thee: verily every man at his best
state is altogether vanity,’’ Ps. 39, 5.
In the “prayer of Moses, the man of God,”
it is said that we are carried ‘‘away as with a
flood ;’’ we ‘‘are as a sleep;’’ we are in the
morning ‘‘like grass which groweth up,”’ and
‘tin the evening it is cut down, and withereth ;?’
‘we spend our years like a tale that is told;”’
for ‘‘we fly away,’’ Ps. 90, 3—10. So our
life is like ‘‘a shepherd’s tent,’’ Isa. 88,°12;
‘“we all do fade as a leaf,’’ Isa. 64, 6; ‘Sfor
what is your life? It is even a vapor, that ap-
peareth for a little time, and then vanisheth
away,’’ Jas. 4, 14. ‘All flesh is as grass,
and all the glory of man as the fléwer of grass,”
1 Pet. 1; 24.7 sca gia
How blessed it is to turn to ‘‘the word of
God, which liveth and abideth forever,’’ 1 Pet.
1,23. The days fly swiftly by, the years come
and go, ‘‘and the world passeth away, and the
lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God
abideth forever,’’ 1 John2, 17. Happy, there-
fore, is the believer. He has laid hold of that
which outlasts the fleeting charges of this short
and swiftly passing life. ‘The word of the
Lord endureth forever,’’ 1 Pet. 1, 25. ;
“Our years are like the shadows
O’ver sunny hills that fly,
Or grasses in the meadows
That blossom but to die;
A sleep, a dream, a story,
By strangers quickly told,
An intermitting glory
Of things that soon are old.
“© Thou, who canst not slumber,
Whose light grows never pale, -
Teach us aright to number ~
Our years before they fail;
On. us Thy mercy lighten,
On us Thy goodness rest,
And let Thy Spirit brighten
The hearts Thyself hath blessed.”

0 0 ae
Clouds.

An old Christian couple were asked: ‘‘And
‘*Clouds?”?

222 “5 .