The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1907, Page 9

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The Lutheran Pioneer,

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

PuBLISHED BY THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNODICAL CONFERENCE OF Nortit AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFF, Editor.

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

Vol. XXIX.

St. Louis, Mo., February, 1907.

No. 2.

As Thou Wilt.

“Where Thou wilt, Lord Jesus,
With my loved ones round,

Or in lonely stillness,

Not one friendly sound:

Still beside me Thou wilt stand,
Ever hold my trembling hand.

“How Thou wilt, Lord Jesus,

Lingering sickness known,

Or with sudden swiftness

Called before Thy throne:

Freed from fear and cleansed from guilt,
Send what messenger Thou wilt.

“When Thou wilt, Lord Jesus,
’Mid life’s busy care,

Or my day’s work ended,
Serving but by prayer:

When the chosen hour is come,
Take me, Lord, to rest at home.”

Readiness for Death.

When the Child Jesus was brought into the
temple to be presented to the Lord according to the
Law, the aged Simeon joyfully took Him up in
his arms and said: “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy
servant depart in peace, according to Thy word;
for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou
hast prepared before the face of all people, a light
to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people
Jsracl.” Simeon was ready for death “not merely
because he saw the Savior with his bodily eyes, but

because he looked at Him with the eye of faith and,

trusted in Him. Other Jews were present then
and likewise saw the Child; yet they went to hell
because they believed not,” says Luther. Faith in
Jesus made Simeon ready for death. He saw in
the Child Jesus God’s salvation, the salvation which
-God has prepared for all people, the Jews and the

Gentiles. He firmly believed that this salvation was
prepared also for him, and-that this Jesus was also
his Savior from sin, death, and damnation. This
faith made him ready for death; for to him death
had lost its terrors and had become a departure in
peace, a going of God’s servant from the place of
toil to the‘place of everlasting rest.

The believer only can be ready for death. The
unbeliever, he who rejects the salvation prepared
by God in Jesus, is still in his sins, and to him
death means a falling into the hands of an angry
God, a going into an eternity of punishment and
woe. For it is written, “He that believeth not shall
be damned.”

However, “he that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved.” By faith in Jesus and His Gospel
the believer has salvation from sin, death, and dam-
nation. To.him death has lost its sting and its
terrors and is only the blessed door to glorious life,
a departure in peace, the homecoming of the weary
pilgrim to be forever with the Lord. Thus the
Apostle Paul, feeling that his race was nearly run,
calmly said, “I am now ready to be offered, and
the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought
a good fight, I have finished my course, I have
kept the faith.’ And again he declared with the
greatest: confidence that he had “a desire to depart
and be with Christ.”

To be thus ready and prepared for death at all
times, is of the greatest importance, since death is
certain, but the time of death uncertain.

“TJ know full well death must befall ime,
But know not when, nor where, nor how.
It may be that my God will call me
To-day, to-morrow, even now;

Ere yet this present hour is fled,
This living body may be dead.” .