# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 12 10_S57
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

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

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

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 7.  St. Louis, Mo., December 10, 1850.  No. 8.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who must 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 sent to the editor; all others, however, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent here under the address Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

(Submitted.)

Luther and Melanchthon.

(Continuation.)

The fourth point which the "Kirchenfreund" brings out concerning the mutual relation of Luther and Melanchthon is this: "They supplemented one another not only personally, but they also necessarily belonged together, in order to carry through the more surely, and to preserve from extremes, the work of the Reformation, which was far too extensive for one man." By this "surer carrying through" and "preservation from extremes" nothing else can well be meant than this: Melanchthon's excessive yieldingness toward the Papists ("through which the Reformation would for the most part have been undone again") was supplemented by Luther's steadfastness, and Luther's excessive steadfastness against the Reformed was supplemented by Melanchthon's yieldingness, and so the work of the Reformation finally came to be accomplished. Concerning the latter the "Kirchenfreund" says: "that Melanchthon supplemented the strictly Lutheran tendency also in its relation to the Reformed Church. Luther, as is well known, was, on account of their differing view of the Sacrament" (consequently the Swiss had not the doctrine of Scripture, but merely a view about it) "unrelentingly strict and sharp, yea unloving and repellent. From him no union of the two tendencies of Protestantism was to be expected" *) (quite natural; for Luther had to protest against the false doctrine of the Reformed, while these felt themselves called to protest against Luther's right doctrine.) "Melanchthon, on the other hand, inclined later, when the Lutheran zealots pushed the matter so much to the extreme" (a favorite, rather worn-out term of reproach for the needful sharpness in setting forth the right doctrine and rejecting the false, though the Word of God itself is sharper than any two-edged sword,) "more and more toward the Reformed side, not indeed toward the Zwinglian, but toward the Calvinistic doctrine of the Lord's Supper, which in the meantime had stepped in as an attempt at mediation" (thus not as an attempt to bring the truth to light — quite true!) "between the two extremes. Melanchthon's theological tendency is to be regarded as a bridge from strict Lutheranism to the Reformed Church". (That is at last said right out, and unfortunately this too is only too true.)

*) When Mr. Kirchenfreund wrote this, he had probably not yet read our dear Friedensbote here; it would in the end have brought him to other thoughts about Luther. For this Bote understands his union-making trade evidently better; it lets the past be the past and makes its history for itself; by this little device the widely traveled Bote changes even Luther into a newfangled Union man. In olden times such a fellow would of course not have been called a Friedens- (peace) but a Lügenbote (lying messenger), and no honest man would have had anything to do with so shameless a lying mouth. Ed.

Before we pass on to a closer examination of this assertion, we must declare ourselves against an expression which is connected too closely with the matter in question for a declaration against it to be regarded as a mere quarreling about words, and that is the expression Reformers; this high title of honor, as is well known, is applied not only to Luther, but also to Melanchthon, yea also to Zwingli and Calvin, in that one regards them as common promoters of the great work of the Reformation; but this, to our knowledge, has never been done by decided Lutherans, at least not intentionally, but has been done now and again only by the Reformed and Unionists, or by those who incline toward them. That the honorable name of Reformer belongs to Luther alone, we shall take some testimonies, namely from such theologians as can least be charged with a certain partiality. Of Melanchthon, Selneccer cites in his Recitationen the following words: "Unless we would be altogether blind, unreasonable and ungrateful, we must say that God in our Germany, especially in Meissen and Saxony, chose for Himself the one Luther, raised him up, taught, led, ruled and protected him for the purification of the doctrine of the Gospel". Bucer has therefore