# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 02 18_S97
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.
"God's Word and Luther's doctrine shall not pass away now or ever." (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.
Year 7.  St. Louis, Mo., February 18, 1851.  No. 13.
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 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, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent hither under the address Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

(Submitted.)

My dear Martin!

The grace of God and peace be with thee and with thy whole house, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!

For the rest, thou art still the same queer fellow thou wast before. Here thou comest again with the so-called "Friedensbote," trundling it along, and sendest me the trash by post right into my house, and sayest I should tell thee my opinion of the "Evangelical Church" with which the Messenger goes about; that thy head is going round with love, that thou scarcely knowest any more what to think of the Lutheran Church after this; that the Friedensbote has put thy whole concept out of joint."—

Well, no offence, Martin! We have known each other a long time, and thou knowest well enough how I mean it; but a foolish fellow thou art, and I verily believe that if thou hadst driven a fly off thy nose six times with scolding and swatting, and the shameless creature came back the seventh time, as is the way of flies, especially in sultry, damp weather, thou wouldst no longer have the courage to drive it away, but wouldst grow anxious in thy mind, and wouldst think it might perhaps have some right to thy nose, otherwise it would surely not settle upon it so shamelessly time and again! But God forbid that shamelessness should be a sign of a good right; then the devil would long since have won!

No, Martin! My coat I give to the poor, and my shirt too, if it comes to that; my good wife, God willing, will make me another; but my nose I do not give to the gnats, and my faith and my church I do not give to the "Evangelicals," for my Anna could not give them back to me, much as she loves me.

Dear fellow, do bethink thyself! Thou hast learned far more than I, though thou hast not had half so many whippings; thou hast more judgment too than I! But that is thy fault: thou dost not hold thine own together, and when thou hast most need of it, thou lettest it go, and that perhaps comes from thy being too rich!

"Hans"! my late old grandmother used to say, — thou dost remember the dear old grandmother, dost thou not? — "Hans," she used to say, when I had crept home again with a blue-beaten back, and buried my head, red with weeping and vexation, in her lap, "don't take on so! See, if thou hadst been meant to be cleverer, it would have been an easy thing for the dear Lord God to make thee cleverer, so that thou couldst also learn the queer things that are now taught in school, and of which, thank God, nothing was heard in my time, as well as the others; but it is better so, my child, believe me. Only see to it that thou keepest the little bit of understanding that thou hast neatly together in one place, and thou wilt get through all right! With much one keeps house, with little one gets along!"— That I have remembered, and since I knew no better place where I might keep my little bit of understanding together, I put it all into Luther's Small Catechism, God's dear Word, and into a few more old books besides, and so, thank God, I have got through thus far, and mean to bring it to an end with Him; at least the "Evangelicals" will not catch me for a long time yet, and over thy "Friedensbote" I will not even let my pipe go out.

When a hard time comes, Martin, it does small capitalists not much harm (N.B. if they are not swindlers), for they do not scatter their capital, and can then bear a jolt, the great capitalists. who have much money, perhaps still more credit, venture upon it, and lay it out here and there, and even go beyond that; if now such a jolt comes, they have not their own together at once, and then it breaks. Thou understandest well, I think, what I mean, Martin, and wilt not be angry if I point thee thus by the way to Matt. 11:25.

"But," sayest thou, "thou speakest very well, but how dost thou help thyself out? There it stands, printed in the 'Friedensbote'!"— I do not help myself out at all; the whole rubbish does not concern me in the least, it may stand written in the "Frie-