# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 04 01_S127
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

127

The angel said: "Behold, here dwell the blessed! They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and bear palms of peace in their hands! in their midst is enthroned the Prince of Peace. Behold the man! It is the LORD, JESUS Christ, the Lamb that was slain! Him they worship, and sing: "Salvation to our God and unto the Lamb!" Everlastingly they thank Him that He hath redeemed them and made them more blessed than we angels are. See here how the poor sinners, blessed as children, look Him in the face — that is their blessedness. Wilt thou dwell with them?" The man had turned away and covered his face. At last he cried aloud: "Bring me away from here, I cannot endure the sight! No, He hath still no form nor comeliness for me! I see that it is true, what I would not believe: but it is dreadful that it is true, — for I love Him not!" So spoke the man, and gnashing his teeth he saw himself in a moment surrounded by the inhabitants of hell, and — joined in the howling which the sight of Him whom they pierced wrings from them (Revelation 1, 7.).

(Besser, Bibelstunden.)

Zechariah 12, 10.

But I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

The LORD hath spoken,
Let this come to pass:
Me, whom they have pierced,
Me shall they look upon;
They shall mourn for me,
As for an only child;
And for me bear sorrow,
As for a firstborn child.

Bitter indeed is the grief
That a mother harbors,
When to her last slumber
Her only darling lays him down;
When his strength departeth,
The little eyes fall shut,
His cheeks grow pale,
He goeth to eternal rest.

Yet more bitter are the pangs
Of the Church, Christ's bride,
When with rent heart
She beholdeth the Beloved:
How on the stem of the cross
He, languishing, bleeding, there doth struggle,
From glowing flame of love
Sinketh into the pains of death.

Him whom God's crown adorneth,
A crown of thorns doth pierce;
Him who ruleth the world,
The soldier's lance doth pierce;
At hands and at feet
Hard steel doth pierce him:
O unheard-of penance! —
O torture without number!

The sun will not shine
At her Creator's pain,
As if she would weep thereat
She loseth her light.
A deep woe thrilleth through
The whole wide land,
In darkness it mourneth
As in a garment of grief.

And when now God departeth
And dieth with a loud cry:
The cherub standeth stripped:
The veil is rent in twain:
The earth herself lifteth up
Loud lamenting her voice,
Is startled and trembleth
In deep wrath of anguish.

Behold! the rocks also lament,
Are rent and fall asunder:
The chambers open themselves
Of the saints, who arise.
The host of the heathen trembleth
At Christ's mighty death;
The centurion standeth shaken,
And praiseth Him as God.

Why tremblest thou, O earth?
Why quakest thou, Nature,
With mournful bearing
In fear and terror only?
Ah see, creation wrappeth
Herself in her mourning garb,
Since her Creator is filled
With death's bitter woe.

And thou alone wouldst
O mankind, be unfeeling,
And harder than the stones
At thy God's pain?
Ah weep, weep, weep,
Ye men everywhere!
Raise and unite
The sound of the lament.

So fair and chosen,
A sweet image of love,
The life of all beings,
So friendly, true and mild:
Eternal grace and goodness,
Which itself came down from heaven,
Appeareth in its bloom
On the cross, winneth the victory.

There have I pierced him
With my guilt of sin;
There is his heart broken
For me out of pure favor;
There hath the Lord vanquished
Death, devil, hell's fire,
And victoriously won for himself
Mankind through his blood.

Therefore will I mourn for Christ
Whom my sins have grieved;
I will with tears declare
How my Saviour loveth me.
In his sufferings lieth for me
My eternal ground of life,
Therein shall I from the heart
Be refreshed and made whole.

Ah come, ye fountains of life!
Take death and sin away;
Ah come, ye waves of love!
And sanctify my mind.
Shut me in thy wounds,
My sweet JESUS,
Thine let me be, to thee united
For ever, for ever more.

Hermann Fick.

Why did the holy Apostles first preach the Gospel orally for a time, and only then record it in writing?

To this question our Martin Chemnitz answers in his masterwork: "Die Prüfung des Tridentinischen Concils" among other things the following:

"Before the doctrine of the Gospel was recorded in writing, it was first to be confirmed, against the calumnies and objections of Jews and heathen, by the preaching, signs and wonders of the Apostles throughout the whole round world, and corroborated by the assent of the believing multitudes; that we might be certain that what is written is not doubtful, uncertain and ungrounded, but, as Luke (according to the original text, Luke 1, 1.) saith, was by God through the Apostles most surely confirmed and by the first believers throughout the whole world approved as perfectly credible. Thus nothing is lost to the Holy Scripture by the fact that it was not at once in the first years of the apostolic preaching composed in writing, but its dignity and authority receive thence only a greater lustre." This brief answer of our incomparable Chemnitz strikes down at one blow all the specious pretexts which the Papists think to gain thence against the necessity of Scripture and for their oral traditions, that the first Church subsisted some years alone by the oral preaching of the holy infallible Apostles, and kept itself secure.

Popish Superstition and Idolatry.

Thus writeth Gabriel Vasquez, a Jesuit (died 1604): "Nothing hindereth that one, with pure faith and with right intention directing love and mind solely upon Christ, should reverently kiss the lips of Judas (the betrayer) and other things by which Christ was unjustly touched, as is plainly concluded from the doctrine of the 110th Disputation; and hence it is also clear in how far the ass on which Christ sat may rightly be worshipped (adorari)." (Comentar. in 3. P. Thomae Tom. I. Disp. III. C. 6. p. m. 878.)