The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1907, Page 21

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

21

Confirmation.

O Jesus, I have promised

To serve Thee to the end;

Be Thou forever near me,

My Master and my Friend.

I shall not fear the battle

If Thou art by my side;

Nor wander from the pathway
If Thou wilt be my Guide.

O let me hear Thee speaking
In accents clear and: still,
Above the storms of passion,
The murmurs of self-will.

O speak to reassure me,

‘To hasten or control;

O speak, and make me listen,
Thou Guardian of my soul!

O Jesus, Thou hast promised
To all who follow Thee,
That where Thou art in glory
There shall Thy servant be;
And, Jesus, I have promised
To serve Thee to the end:
O give me grace to follow
My Master and my Friend!
PL.

Paul Gerhardt.

There is, we think, no Lutheran hymnal which
has not some of the beautiful hymns of Paul Ger-
hardt. Also in the hymnal used in our colored Lu-
theran congregations there are a number of hymns
at the end of which we find the name of Paul Ger-
hardt. Now, who was Paul Gerhardt? He was a
faithful and conscientious pastor of the Lutheran
Church in Germany, loyal to the pure doctrines of
God’s Word and ready to sacrifice all earthly ad-
vantages for the sake of truth. Next to Luther, he
is considered the greatest hymn-writer of the Lu-
theran Church, and as such his praise is in all the
churches, most of his hymns having been translated
and taken as precious pearls into the hymn-books of
many different nations.

Paul Gerhardt was born March 12, 1607. So
the present year brings us the three hundredth an-
niversary of his birth, which will be thankfully re-
membered in many:of our churches and schools.
After having received a good Christian education in
Lutheran schools, Paul Gerhardt entered the service
of the Church, proving himself a zealous preacher,
and a faithful, loving pastor, gaining the affections
of his people.

He had to pass through much tribulation. In

his lifetime the dreadful Thirty Years’ War raged
in Germany with all its horrors and troubles. His
own home was often darkened by deep sorrow. But
“in the midst of his darkest sorrows he wrote his
most beautiful hymns as the nightingale sings the
sweetest in the darkness of night.”

He spent the last seven years of his life as pas-
tor at Luebben. When in his seventieth year the
lonely widower felt his end approaching, he wrote
in a paper which he left to his only surviving son:

PAUL GERHARDT.

“Waving attained my seventieth year, and having
the joyful hope that my dear, righteous God will
soon deliver me from this wicked world and bring
me into a better life than I have had upon this
earth, I thank Him for all the kindness and faith-
fulness which He has bestowed upon me from the
time of my birth to this day, bodily and spiritually.
Moreover, I pray Him from the bottom of my heart
to grant me a joyful departure at the hour of my
death, to take my soul into His fatherly hands, and
to give my body a gentle rest in the bosom of the
earth till the last day, when I shall awake and rise
again with all my kindred that have been before me
and-may be after me, and that I may see face to