The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1913, Page 1

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The Lutheran Pioneer,

A MISSIONARY. MONTHLY.
PUBLISHED BY THE EvaNGenicaL Lurueran SynopicaL Conrerence or Nori AMERICA.

Rev. F.
Entered at the

Vol. XXXV.

New Year’s Hymn.

Come, let us anew our journey pursue,
Roll round with the year,
And never stand still till the Master appear.

His adorable will let us gladly fulfill,
And our talents improve
By the patience of hope and the labor of love.

Our life is a dream; our time as a stream
Glides swiftly away, és
And the fugitive moment refuses to stay.

The arrow is flown, the moment is gone;
The final year
Rushes on to our view, and eternity’s here.

O that each in the day of His coming may say,
“T have fought my way through;
I have finished the work Thou didst give me to do.”

O that each from his Lord may receive the glad word,
“Well and faithfully done!
Enter into my joy, and sit down on my throne.”

New Year’s Thoughts.

“Titherto hath the Lord helped us!” Thus
cried Samuel when the Lord had given His people
the victory over the Philistine host. “Hitherto the
Lord hath helped us!” Thus should we also grate-
fully say at the beginning of a new year. ‘Truly,
the Lord has helped us till now; He has granted
us peace, and given us health, food, and clothing.
Great is the number of bodily blessings we have
received at the hands of our heavenly Father during
the past year. In view of all the mercies of God.
we must exclaim with Jacob, “I am not worthy of
the least of all the mercies, and of, all the truth,
which Thou hast showed unto Thy servant.”

And oh, what streams of spiritual blessings has

Post Office at St. Louis, Mo.,

ST. LOUIS, MO., JANU ARY,

J. LANKENAU, EDITOR.

as second-class matter,

1913.

the bountiful God poured out upon us! He has
fed us upon the green pastures of His Word, and
led us beside the still waters of His gracious prom-
ises. During the whole year He has taught, com-
forted, admonished, and strengthened us with His
Word and Sacraments. Through the means of
grace He has preserved and increased our faith, our
love, and the hope of life eternal.

Yes, we surely have reason to thank God for all
the spiritual and temporal blessings we have en-
joyed, and we have good grounds to sing with the
poet :

: I praise and thank Thee, Lord, my God,
For Thine abundant blessing
Which heretofore Thou hast bestowed
And I am still possessing.
Inscribe this on my memory:
The Lord hath done great things for me,
And graciously hath helped me.

“Hitherto hath the Lord helped us!” O the
comfort these words hold out to us for the future!
If the faithful heavenly Father has stood by us in
the past, He will surely not forsake us in the
future. Having delivered us out of six troubles,
He will permit no evil to touch us in the seventh.
The Lord will let us taste His goodness also in this
year. We may look into the future without, fear
and trembling, for the Lord will be our cloudy
pillar by day and a pillar of fire by night upon our
journey through the wilderness of this life. The
faithful Shepherd of Israel will defend His sheep
against all harm, and faithfully provide them with
bodily and spiritual food and drink.

“Hitherto the Lord hath helped us!” -O how
joyously shall we sing this song when once we enter
upon the eternal New Year in heaven. There our
joyous “Ebenezer! ‘Hitherto the Lord hath helped