# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 09 17_S15
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

15

customary that more was read. In short, it is this very book which, among other things, has raised for us these storms and tempests by which we have well-nigh been swept away. And truly, if one considers the same (the book, the Bible) with reflection, and thereafter weighs singly and in order everything that has been customary in our churches, one will see that the two are very different from one another, and that this our doctrine is wholly divergent from that, and often even contrary to it. But as soon as the people perceive this, being stirred up, namely, by one of our learned adversaries, they make no end of crying out, until they have spread the matter everywhere among the people and have made us hateful to every one. Therefore a few leaves will have to be concealed, yet good caution is to be used therein, lest the matter raise for us greater confusion and tumult."

Some years afterwards, in the Index of Heretics [published the 30th of December, 1559], among other things the printing, reading, or having of all Bibles written in the vernacular [in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Flemish, etc.] was forbidden, unless the "Holy Roman Inquisition" had given special permission for it.

God's Judgment upon Blasphemers of the Evangelical Truth.

At the Diet at Nuremberg in 1524 the papistical Chancellor of Treves, among others, let himself be heard at table to this effect: "Before Martinmas of this year the Lutheran cause will be put to an end with the sword." What happened? Two days afterwards this man, to the terror of all who stood by, fell suddenly lifeless, struck by apoplexy. Moreover, a bishop at the same time, at the summons of Archduke Ferdinand to fight against the Turks and the Lutherans, added publicly: "It were better that the Lutherans than that the Turks should be exterminated, and he would sooner render help against the former than against the latter."

When in the year 1547 the Evangelicals had been defeated by the papists at Mühlberg and the Elector of Saxony taken prisoner, and this news came also to Horar, a little Saxon town, the citizens dwelling there who adhered to the Augsburg Confession were thereby plunged into deep sorrow. But the burgomaster of the town at that time, by name Bartholomew Masco, who still clung to the papistical faith, was all the more heartily delighted at it, and called out mockingly to the dejected citizens: "Well, well, where is your Gospel now? where are your Sacraments now? Is it not manifest from this victory of the Emperor who and where the true Church is?" — Sorrowful and without answer the mocked citizens slunk home. But behold! — now God answered. For the Herr Burgomaster thereupon invited a company of his coreligionists together, in order now to celebrate the Emperor's victory with them and to make himself a good day of it. They were merry until night and mocked heartily, amid the clinking of glasses, the Evangelicals who in the meantime were sighing and weeping in their houses. But scarcely was the feast ended, when the burgomaster, who had now sought his bed, was seized with such great pains in his bowels that he straightway roused all the members of his household in the middle of the night and gathered them about his bed. His people saw that the sickness increased with every moment, and sent therefore in haste to the preacher of the town, although he had been hateful to the burgomaster because he was devoted to the Gospel. The preacher indeed followed the summons at once, but when he appeared at the man's bedside, the latter had already given up his spirit in torments of body and soul. God had not deemed the wretched man worthy to hear, in his last distresses, the saving Gospel, so often mocked in life. Be not deceived; God is not mocked!

(Contributed.)

Luther.

"Through the arch of heaven
Shines a brightness from the sanctuary;
For an angel comes flying,
To proclaim the everlasting Gospel
To all that dwell on the earth,
Sent forth to all heathen, nations,
To all people and all lands.

And he spoke with a loud voice:
Fear God, give Him the honor;
Fear ye His wrath;
Serve false gods no more.
His judgment has now begun:
Worship Him whose call
Made heaven, earth, fountains of waters,
And the great seas."

What John prophesied
Is now fulfilled in Luther,
Who, consecrated by the Holy Ghost,
Has unveiled the Antichrist.
Luther is the one sent of God,
Who with swift flight struck the Pope
Deep mortal wounds
Through the Word which he confessed.

Luther is the messenger of heaven,
Who pointed the world to Christ, —
The world which, misled by the Pope, relied
On dead works of its own:
Neither merit nor holy life
Can obtain God's favor:
Believe on JESUS, and forgiven
Will be your guilt by grace."

Thus after long lamenting,
After so long a night of sorrow,
With mighty beat of wings
God's angel has brought us light.
God's Word, the blessed sun,
Shines again pure through him,
And the Church beams with joy
In the bright shining of the truth.

Thanks be to God for His faithfulness,
That this dear hero
Has restored Christ's doctrine anew
Pure and clear.
Let us, like Luther, faithfully bear witness
To God's truth unto death,
And like him bow ourselves as children
Beneath our LORD's command.

Let us abide by Luther's doctrine;
For he has taught nothing
But what the Apostles write,
And what Christ Himself has explained to us.
Only on this ground do we still
Call ourselves after Luther,
Because we, like him, confess
The whole Word of God.

Hermann Fick.

(Contributed.)

4.

From the Song of Songs.

Tell me, O thou beloved, O tell me,
Thou whom my soul loveth,
Where thou feedest at the high noon,
Where the apple tree gives thee shade?

Shall I go to and fro
By the folds and ask after thee?
Shall I ever see only strangers,
And go about the fences here?

Let him kiss me with the kiss
Of the most holy mouth indeed!
Let him look upon the Queen's repentance:
Let him regard the wretched one.

How flow, how flow the tears,
I have so much to weep!
I have, alas, to long,
I scarcely know how much I will.

The vineyard committed to me,
I have, alas, not kept.
O how the Queen dreads!
I have laid up sorrow for myself.

G. Schaller.

Anecdotes from the Domain of Learning.

When at the time of the Reformation a church visitation was held in the Palatinate by counselors of the Elector, the latter met a papistical parson who, upon the question whether he did not know the Decalogue [the holy Ten Commandments], gave answer: "No, I have no acquaintance with him, but I have often heard that Mr. Decalogue is a pious, honest man."

Of almost equal learning must Lud. Jacobus a S. Carolo have been, who in his Bibliotheca Pontificia, published in 1643 at Lyons [II. 455.], writes: "Articulus, a German Smalcaldic Lutheran, has published a book on the primacy and power of the Pope." [The learned man had heard of the Smalcald Articles.]

He who thinks to live without sin does not go about to have no sin, but to obtain no grace.

Augustine.

"Help that we may remain pious sinners, and not become holy blasphemers!"

Luther.