# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 10 29_S36
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

36

other denominations and sects, that in hymn-books which are supposed to be "Lutheran," Reformed Communion hymns have been admitted. No wonder, however, that here and there Reformed congregations are said to have introduced this hymn-book even into their own congregations; for the Reformed can — according to the doctrine of the Lord's Supper contained therein — use this hymn-book, although it bears the name "Lutheran," just as well as the former common hymn-book, especially since a whole multitude of hymns from the Common Hymn-Book were admitted into this so-called "new Lutheran" one, regardless of whether the hymns are pure or not pure, as will be shown more at the close. Hence it is quite in order that Professor Schaff has praised the Pennsylvania Hymn-Book very much in his Kirchenfreund, for Professor Schaff, as a Reformed man or Union man, would otherwise have contradicted himself. — That the Reformed Communion hymns were admitted into the said hymn-book in order to satisfy also those who deny the true Lutheran doctrine, this is betrayed sufficiently by the circumstance that New-Measure heads and hands have worked upon it, as may be seen from the three letters S. S. S. (Schmucker) at the end of the preface; so that no one may any longer be in doubt about this. Here it might well be in the right place to insert some remarks from the "Conversation between Two Lutherans on Methodism, by Dr. W. Sihler." It says there: "Who then are properly the so-called New-Lutherans, of whose way you just now made mention? Martin. In essence and in truth they do not belong to the Lutheran Church at all, and are a hodgepodge of Reformed doctrine and Methodistic practice; for on the part of their heads and spokesmen, certainly not in sheer ignorance, they have now voluntarily, out of brotherly love, made a present to the Reformed of the golden vessels of honor of the old evang.-apostolic Church, which their fathers cleansed from Roman papistical filth and then rescued from the hands of the enthusiasts, preserved, and left to their sons, and have begged of them their brazen vessels;" and further there: "They have, to mention here the most essential point, let go the Lutheran, that is, the pure and churchly doctrine of the Sacraments, especially of the holy Supper, and have accepted instead of it the Reformed, i.e. enthusiastic, false doctrine concerning it." These words of the Reverend Dr. Sihler certainly find their full application to the "new Hymn-Book"; therefore I preferred to speak with the words of an acknowledged orthodox theologian rather than with my own words, for the learned can always present matters more fittingly than one of us; and it also finds, as a rule, more applause with the people, although the learned (as Luther says) are also often the perverse, as shines forth clearly enough in the Pennsylvania Hymn-Book.

Another point, my dear Andreas, which I wished still to touch upon, as I remarked at the beginning: "The doctrine of works." Of this also the Pennsylvania Hymn-Book is not free; I would therefore still adduce something on this point also, for you know, we backwoodsmen do not always see all the points so quickly, as is the case with the learned, who have practiced eyes for it, and at times still wear their spectacles on their noses. Likewise time is sometimes lacking; however, because the evenings are growing longer, and the "hymn-book feud" has now once arisen, I have set myself to the matter, and will communicate to you only some things which I have found out in my small study, and I hope it will be agreeable to you; only you must excuse me that I am at times somewhat prolix, for you know that one of our sort cannot put everything together so briefly and neatly as a learned man can. Now to the matter.

The doctrine of works, yes, the doctrine of works, where one seeks something meritorious in one's own works, inverts the order of salvation and demands good works first, and sets faith down as following afterward, I cannot any longer endure, since I have become better acquainted with Luther's writings; for I too am one of those who in former time, in a falsely pietistic manner, tormented themselves under the law and the works of the law, in the erroneous opinion that I must first of all earn my salvation, which was nevertheless already earned by Christ; also already given me in Baptism, and revealed through the Gospel. But alas! there are even within the Lutheran Church still preachers who do not yet rightly understand the matter, who point the people in part, with respect to salvation, to their own works: the cause being that they cannot sufficiently distinguish the Law and its end from the doctrine of the Gospel. And, oh! how ought such congregations to thank God who have orthodox preachers, who set before them God's Word pure and unadulterated; but alas, it is just the way of the world that it is not only not thankful for this precious jewel, but is often even sworn enemy to its preachers and sometimes treats them worse than cattle-herders and swineherds (yet the preachers themselves are often to blame for it, especially when they let themselves be hired and bargained for as if they were farmers' servants and not servants of Christ.)

But forgive me! Already I have again strayed from my purpose. Back to the hymn-book. In the new Pennsylvania Hymn-Book, "under No. 418, you find a hymn, where it reads as follows:"

I shall press on to life,
For which God created me,
Shall strive toward heaven,
That, that is my calling.

In a world full of sins,
I shall devote myself only to Him,
Flee them, overcome them,
And only then be blessed.

In my earliest youth,
I was taught that.
Fair, divine is virtue,
And worthy of my zeal.

Dear Andreas! So it went with me in my earlier youth, just so; there I also was taught to strive toward heaven, to devote myself to God, to flee sin and to overcome it, and only then to be blessed. But God have mercy! how dreadfully is the order of salvation inverted in this hymn! If one can be blessed only then, when one has first overcome sin, one would have to earn salvation first of all by one's own works and virtues! Fie! what Christian could speak so? That would be verily the greatest vilifying of the merit of Christ, if one were to say that our doing must also help toward this, that we become righteous and blessed before God. Not so: but we become righteous and blessed without merit of works, of pure grace and for nothing, for the sake of the merit of Christ, and no work done by us, no matter whether it happen before or after justification, shall be mingled in this article of the righteousness of faith before God, in order that the honor of Christ be not diminished, and the poor consciences have constant comfort. First one becomes righteous and blessed through faith alone, and thereafter the good works follow behind. — But similar seductive doctrine of works you find also under No. 275. There it says in verse 6: "To be virtuous, for that we are on earth." But what the hymn writers understand by the word "virtue" is sufficiently known, and I should think one would fairly have spared this "new Pennsylvania Hymn-Book" the "virtue hymns," which, if one regards them in a clear light, contain nothing further "than heathen ethics or rationalism; it would have been sufficient that one had enough of such "virtue hymns" in the common hymn-book.

Just the same content you find also under No. 367; there it says in verse 4: "If thou practisest virtue, which God thy Lord commands; whom servest thou? Strivest thou not after thy salvation." Here again salvation is evidently promised, in plain words, to "practising and striving after virtue"; no one can contradict this, even if one understood how to turn a philosopher's cloak to all the winds. According to this (I cannot refrain from mentioning it again) one has therefore no need of the merit of the Lord Christ, in which alone the sinner has comfort and forgiveness of sins. At No. 696 you find a hymn of similar content: it says there in the 5th verse: "Here I seek it only, there I shall find it; there I shall become holy and transfigured, feel the whole worth of virtue, the unspeakably great worth." — In this verse salvation is again tied to the unspeakably great worth of "virtue," and no Christ and faith is thought of. Under No. 515, verse 2, it says: "Rank bestows never, goods bestow never to man contentment; the true rest of the soul is virtue and contentedness." According to this, the mind again rests in and upon "virtue" and not in the strong fortress and refuge of the perfect merit of Christ. Is not this verily error and doctrine of works?" Such a thing resembles more the heathen doctrine of Aristotle than the doctrine of the Lord Christ, who says: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." What shall one now say of a hymn-book which contains such anti-Christian doctrine of works? what of the editors?, but that the editors of the book have become acquainted with the hymns found therein, and have not accepted the same unexamined, is plain from the preface of the hymn-book,