The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1909, Page 1

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

0 er eee

PuBLIsHED BY THE EvancenicaL Lutneran SyNopIcal, CoNFERENCE oF Nortn AMERICA.

R. A. BISCHOFE, Enviror. =

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

Vol. XXXI.

A Pilgrim’s Song.

ror TIE NEW YEAR,

Let us by faith draw nigh,

And thankful off’rings bring

To Him who reigns on high,

Our Savior and our King;

Join the triumphant host above,
And gladly praise the God of love.

By His all-gracious hand
Thus far we have been led
From Egypt’s gloomy land
Of darkness and of dread;
We joyful sing upon the way
That leadeth to eternal day.

Though in a desert waste,

We are not left alone;

We forward press in haste,

Right onward to the Throne,

Where we shall with our Lord sit down,
And cast at His dear feet the crown.

As pilgrims here we roam,

But Christ the Lord is near;

And He to call us home

Will presently appear;

We soon shall meet upon the shore,
Where partings will be known no more.

We Are Pilgrims.

We are pilgrims and our life is but a journey.
Of this the passing years remind us. Year after
year is numbered with the past, and every day
brings us nearer to our journey’s end. What shall
that end be? It must be either an eternity of woe
and misery or of bliss and joy. We should there-.
fore so “number our days that we apply our hearts

ST. LOUIS, MO., JANUARY, 1909.

No. 1.

unto wisdom.” It is not wisdom, but folly, not to
heed the lesson of the passing years: Prepare to
meet your God! It is not wisdom, but folly, to
say: “Let us eat and drink and be merry, for to-
morrow we die.” Foolish man! Death does not
end all.. The Bible says: “It is appointed unto men
once to die, but after this the judgment.” The man
who lives in sin and dies in sin, rejecting by his
unbelief the only Savior of sinners, passes through
the dark gates of death to the judgment-seat of
God with all his sins upon him. The wrath of a
just and holy God will hurl him into’ everlasting
damnation; for it is plainly written: “He that
believeth not shall be damned.” And again the
Bible says: “He that hath not the Son hath not
life.” And again it is written: “He that believeth
not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of
God abideth on him.”

They only heed the lesson of the passing years
and apply their hearts unto wisdom who see to it
that they are prepared to meet their God by faith
in Him whose name was called Jesus because He
saves His people from their sins. In Jesus they
have “redemption through His blood, the forgive-
ness of sins,” and they are happy. It is written:
“Blessed,” or happy, “are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”
The believer knows from the Word of God that his

sins are “blotted out,” “cast into the depths of the -

sea,” “removed as far as the east is from the west,”?
“forgiven,” and “remembered no more.” Why
should he not be happy in his journey through life?
The new year may bring grief or gladness, pain or
pleasure, but whatever the morrow may bring, it
shall surely bring Jesus with it, who says: “Lo,

or