# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 11 26_S49
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's doctrine shall pass away nevermore."  (Rev. John, Chap. 14, vv. 6, 7.)

Published by the German Ev. Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States.

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 7.  St. Louis, Mo., November 26, 1850.  No. 7.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who are to pay for it in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 cents. Only those letters which contain communications for the paper are to be addressed to the editor; all others, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent hither under the address of Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

(Communicated.)

Luther and Melanchthon.

Under this title there appeared in this year's February number of the "Kirchenfreund" an article which for several reasons makes a reply on our part necessary. Were we to keep silent about it, we should deny the purity of our doctrine as well as the testimony of history; we should make ourselves guilty of the basest ingratitude toward God and His gifts, as also of the most shameful indifference in matters of our most holy faith; we should give it to be understood that we had lost even the last trace of senses exercised to discern between good and evil, and that, like the people of Nineveh, we no longer knew what was right or left; our silence might awaken in those who give themselves up to the sweet dreams of a union of contradictory doctrine a far too hasty hope, according to the proverb: he who is silent consents; we should also deny love, if we were not at least to try to warn those who might be lured by the siren song of irenical writings, even though we know beforehand that we shall accomplish little thereby and shall only draw upon ourselves anew the reproach of narrow-heartedness and lovelessness.

But this subject also has a general importance; he who has arrived at a sure judgment concerning these two dear men of God and their mutual relation has gained much thereby toward the right judgment of a multitude of kindred matters, from the time of the Reformation down to our own days.

Of the four points of difference set up in the article mentioned, we now wish to take up the first three, and to reserve the last for another time.

First, the assertion is made that the bond of friendship formed between Luther and Melanchthon was repeatedly clouded, partly by the vehemence and moodiness of the former, partly by the yielding disposition of the latter toward Roman Catholics and the Reformed, especially since the year 1536. In the further description of both characters it is said of Luther: "Battle was his proper element. All his deeds are battles; in all his words one smells powder. To be sure, he was not seldom too stormy, let himself run like an untamed steed, and in his polemics made the sharpest attacks upon persons, such as Eck, Emser, Henry VIII." Of Melanchthon, on the other hand, it is said among other things: "Gentleness, mildness, calmness, and prudence were his leading qualities. He loved peace above all things."

For a more exact judgment of what is here said about Luther's vehemence against friends and foes, we will first hear Melanchthon's own testimony, which he gave out of twenty-eight years' experience in his oration at L.'s burial: "Everyone who knew him aright and was often about him must bear this witness, that he was a very kind man, and wherever he was among people, gracious in all his speech, friendly and lovable, and not at all insolent, stormy, willful, or quarrelsome; and yet there was withal an earnestness and courage in his words and bearing, such as ought to be in such a man. In sum, there was in him a heart true and without guile, a mouth friendly and gracious, and (as St. Paul requires of Christians) whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, etc., etc. Hence it is evident that the harshness which he used in his writings against the enemies of the pure doctrine was not the effect of a quarrelsome and malicious disposition, but of a great earnestness and zeal for the truth. This we all must testify of him, and many other strangers who have seen and known him. — But as to the fact that some well-meaning people have at times complained that Doctor Luther was somewhat too hard and rough in writing, I will dispute nothing about it, neither to excuse him nor to praise him, but leave it with the answer which Erasmus has often given on this point: that God has given the world in these last times, wherein great and grievous plagues and infirmities have gotten the upper hand, also a hard, sharp physician. And thus God has raised up such an instrument against the enemies of the Gospel, who with great pride, insolence, and wantonness run against the truth, as He says to the prophet Jeremiah, Chap. 1, 9: Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth, that thou mayest root out-