# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 03 04_S109
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

109

and would she not be a light in the Lord?!

Has she, however, also already shone into our hearts and kindled us with her pure doctrine, so that we can say: Now are we a light in the Lord? Many, indeed, are born in the evangelical Lutheran Church, but the evangelical Lutheran Church is not born in them! Therefore they bear her a grudge, or do not fight for her in the day of battle.

The Lutheran Church has the pure light, — but hast thou it also? hast thou received it into thy heart? The sun shines, to be sure, but does it shine also into every place? how many remote valleys, how many caves and ravines, where not a single one of its rays reaches, — and so also: how many people live in the Lutheran Church, into which not yet a ray of its light has come! For all this, that the light of the Gospel shines among us, there are still so many living in blindness, but by their own fault, because they love darkness more than the light!

In every man, if he is to be saved, there must be a "once" and a "now"; he must feel it: once I was darkness, — and must also feel that he has been instructed and quickened, and that he can say: Now am I a light in the Lord!

What, then, are we now? — Are we all a light in the Lord? Is God's Word no longer strange to us, has the bright morning star risen in our hearts?

Mark this: if we do not now let ourselves be enlightened, while the light still shines upon us, then the night will overtake us, and darkness will be our portion to all eternity!

O how beautiful it would be, if the preaching of the Gospel among us had the effect that all scales fell from the eyes and all blindness from the hearts, and if one were to ask you: who are ye? ye could answer confidently, not merely: we are "evangelical Lutheran," and our church is a light in the Lord; but also: we evangelical Lutheran Christians are a light in the Lord!

III. And what shall we do?

This is the third and last Reformation question for the church dedication. We shall also walk as children of light, — we shall do honor to our church by our lives! Boast as much as thou wilt that thou art Lutheran, Protestant, evangelical, etc., that thou hast faith or love, — show me this by thy works, by all "goodness and righteousness and truth"! Prove that thou art a light in the Lord, by confessing thy faith, bearing the reproach of the church faithful to the confession, supporting the evangelical Lutheran mission, and also walking according to the commandments of the Lord in house, church and state in the light, as a child of light. Prove thy faith and thy love by loving not merely those who carry on Union works, but also thy Lutheran brethren, thy household and fellow believers, and by building thy own church. How can he be light who is a house-thief, who spreads false doctrine, favors the mingling of churches, plays the hypocrite with the world; how can he be light who does not put off the old man with the works of darkness and put on the new man, which after God is created in true righteousness and holiness? How can the wild stock say: I am a good tree, if it has not received the good graft and through it also brought forth good fruits? If it has not taken Jesus and his light into itself and thereupon shown the fruits, namely (v. 9): "all goodness and righteousness and truth?!"

Not merely the evangelical faith in general, but also the right life of faith proceeding of necessity from the right faith, as well as the faithful struggle of faith in house and church, make up the evangelical Lutheran Christian.

So rejoice, then, that ye may still have the light now. O let us use this light in the Bible, and in the testimonies of the evangelical Lutheran Church that are in accordance with the Bible (see the Book of Concord).

Let us use the short "Today"; let us take away the veil that hangs before the eyes; let us take to heart the divine preaching and let us be thoroughly converted to the light, otherwise the responsibility is terrible; for whoever wilfully thrusts the light from himself and does not let himself be judged and led by it upon the right road, whoever puts it under a bushel in heart, house or church, whoever does not confess, — of him it shall one day be said: I never knew him, bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be his howling and gnashing of teeth. From this, however, preserve us, Lord, Lord our God. Amen.

Hßr.

(Contributed by Dr. Sihler.)

A Memorable Incident from the Last Meeting of the West Ohio Synod,

held at New Bremen, Ohio, in June 1850.

It is perhaps still remembered by the readers of the Lutheraner of several years' standing that in this paper, about three years ago, the Ohio Synod was defended against the attacks of the so-called General Synod, which took it very ill that the former had openly and decidedly confessed all the Symbols of the Lutheran Church. At the same time, however, the Ohio Synod was made clear, out of hearty good will, what abuses in its churchly manner of acting, which stood in direct contradiction to that Lutheran confession, it must now also put away, if the latter is to be meant honestly and earnestly.

One of these abuses and evils was now also the serving of mixed congregations, as such, by Lutheran pastors and members of their Synod; for it is clear and manifest that no confession-faithful servant of the Lutheran Church can with an unwounded conscience administer the Holy Supper to a Reformed person, as such; for even if the latter, after some instruction in the Lutheran doctrine of the Supper, does not contradict it, but in inherited and customary indifference of the land declares that the Lutheran doctrine is according to God's Word, yet no earnest and thorough preacher can rest satisfied with this, but must, after exact correction of the Reformed person concerning the false doctrine of his church communion, also see whether he is further willing, after he has recognized it as erroneous, to confess and reject it also as such; for only from this can a servant of the Lutheran Church obtain peace of conscience and a joyful assurance that that acknowledgment of the Lutheran doctrine, as agreeable to Scripture, is meant sincerely and earnestly by the Reformed person and that God's Word has touched his heart. But then the Lutheran pastor shall and may not finally withhold from him that he, the Reformed person, after the now ensuing partaking of the Supper with a Lutheran congregation and from the hands of a Lutheran pastor, make also a public confession by deed to the Lutheran Church, indeed in fact step out of his Reformed church communion and into the Lutheran. For it is impossible, he might say, after attained knowledge of the truth and of error, to belong with a good conscience any longer to a heterodox church and to avoid the membership communion with the orthodox, whereby he would again confirm by the deed the false doctrine and deny the pure, thus with his doing give the lie to his knowing, and fall into contradiction with himself.

How little it concerns the Ohio Synod to show fidelity to the confession in the case just cited, and, instead of actual mingling of faith and churches, to maintain the churchly practice in accordance with the confession, as just indicated, two things furnish incontrovertible proof. The one is that it has not yet passed any resolution, after it has declared its confession to the symbolical books, to arrange its churchly manner of acting in the present case also in conformity with the same, but, as before, goes on in a unionistic way in the already existing congregations and continually administers the Supper to the Reformed, as such; the other is this, that it also, in the enlargement of its synodical connection, retains this loose and frivolous practice, and even receives into its connection such preachers as declare themselves straight out unionistically, and consequently declare themselves in their practical execution against the churchly Symbols, to which nevertheless the Synod has confessed with the mouth.

Such a contradiction was also at the last meeting of the western district