The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1907, Page 35

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

35

For Wuom SHoutp Wr Pray?

The apostle exhorts us to
prayers, intercessions, and to give thanks for all
men, 1 Tim. 2, 1. And when the apostle says that
we shall pray for all men, he does not want us to
exclude ourselves. It is God’s wish that we pray
for ourselves and everybody else. You shall “pray
for them which despitefully use you, and persecute
you,” Matt. 5, 44, as your Savior on the cross
prayed for Iis enemies; you are to pray for friend
and foe, for acquaintance and stranger, for your
near neighbor and for those who live hundreds of
miles away from you; in short, for all living men.
I say, all living men, for we are not to pray for the
dead. Our prayers for the dead would be useless,
for from Scripture it is plain that judgment is
passed upon the soul as it leaves the body, and this
judgment of God no prayers can reverse. “It is
appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment,” Hebr. 9, 27.

It may be necessary to state here that the
prayer which it is customary in our Church to
speak at the death of members is not a prayer for
the dead, but for the living. We do in this prayer
indeed give thanks for what God has done to the
deceased during life, but there is nothing in the
prayer which can in any way be understood as
though, by our prayers, we expected to change the
state and condition of the soul of the departed.

make supplications,

Wuern AND WieErE SHoutp WE Pray?

The apostle tells us that we shall pray every-
where. As God is omnipresent, it is certain that
He hears us anywhere. But as far as we are con-
cerned, it is sure that there are certain places
which, owing to circumstances, are particularly
suitable for prayer: the church during divine serv-
ice and the privacy of our room. Concerning
prayer during divine service, David says, Ps. 26,
12: “In the congregation will I bless the Lord;”
and with reference to prayer in the privacy of our
room, Jesus gives the advice, Matt. 6, 6: “Thou
when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when
thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which
is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret
shall reward thee openly.”

As to the time of prayer, God gives us no
special commandment in His Word. But for our
own sake it is well that we have special times of
prayer. Morning and evening are appropriate
times for prayer, and we should never sit down to
take a meal or rise from the table without prayer.

Special times for prayer are the days of sickness
and trouble in general. The apostle tells us,
1 Thess. 5,17: “Pray without ceasing,” and thereby
informs us that our whole life should be spent in
prayer; that is, our heart should always look to
God and trust in Him. F. J. i.

A Useless Member.

“Yes,” said Aunt Sarah, looking at her ban-
daged wrist, “the doctor says it’s a bad sprain; and
the minister says, I know now how the church feels
in not having the use of all its members. The
minister didn’t mean that just for a joke, either;
he looked at me as if he wanted to see how I’d
take it. I had sense enough, too, to feel I deserved
to have him say it to me. A word like that comes
home pretty straight when one of your own mem-
bers is useless, and worse. :

“ve never thought just what being a member
of the church meant before, though I’ve been one
for thirty-five years. I’ve never felt obliged to do
what the church wanted done. I felt it was a favor,
my doing it at all, and half the time I let some one
else do it instead. When I was through with work
at home, and with what things I liked to do out-
side, then I was willing to do something in church
—if it was that kind of work that suited me.
I guess I’ve been about as useless 2 member to the
church as the sprained hand is to me, all stiff and
crippled, and refusing to bend more than an inch
or two.

“There’s lots of things I need to do, but I can’t
use this member to do them—that’s certain.
That’s the way the minister felt about me, I guess.
T’ve been a useless member for thirty-five years,
that’s the long and short of it; and, if the rest of
the members had been like me, the church would
have been as paralyzed as old cousin Josiah Jones,
who can’t move hand nor foot. I’m ashamed of
myself —I truly am — and things are going to be
different from now on,” and Aunt Sarah.nodded
her head with a firm determination, as she looked
at the church spire from her window. — LZ. M.

The Office of the Holy Ghost.

Christ Himself indicates the office and preach-
ing of the Holy Ghost when He says: “He shall
bear witness of me, He shall glorify me; for He
shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you.”