# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 09 15_S15
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

15

shaky conscience is present as to how, for example in the doctrine of the holy Sacraments, God's Word is to be understood, whether the Lutherans or the Reformed are right, or where they, in culpable indifference and lack of reverence for God's Word, imagine that it matters little who is right in these and other (so-called) secondary doctrines, if only one be united in the chief doctrines: there can naturally be neither desire nor strength for the struggle for God's Word and the pure confession; there this highest and noblest struggle of faith cannot indeed be fought, and the true sanctuary of God cannot be maintained against the violent and crafty assaults of Satan and his own; there it comes at most to a pietistic skirmishing against individual sins and infirmities of life and to a pietistic zeal for individual virtues and excellencies.

Ah! would that the poor men of the Union, and especially the former Lutherans, might be wholesomely awakened by the earnestness of this time and the greatness of the struggle already broken out, in which no one can long remain neutral, might cast from them the spirit of giddiness and delusion of the false Union, break through the mist, look about them wakeful and sober, and, returning penitently to their church, gather together with all faithful Lutherans and true brethren in the faith around its good and strong confession, which defieth the gates of hell, and fight with them the great and noble fight of faith for the highest good; for no man is crowned except he strive lawfully; and only he who hath thus fought in the church militant can press through to the church triumphant. —

But if they despise the earnest call and admonition of God to repentant return in the signs of this time, it may come to pass that they grow ever more weary and fall asleep, after they have in cowardly flight withdrawn from the great struggle and for a while sought to maintain a neutral ground, and finally are yet unable to withstand the onset of the enemy, fall away wholly from the faith, and unite themselves with the spirit of the world. May God in mercy prevent that!

Dedication of the Ev. Luth. Church on Horse Prairie, Randolph Co., Ill.

Since I know that the dear readers of the "Lutheraner" take hearty part in the affairs of the kingdom of God, and rejoice together over every victory which the kingdom of light wins over the kingdom of darkness, I believe I may presume that tidings of the building and dedication of new houses of God will not be unwelcome to them. I cannot therefore refrain from reporting here something of a joyful church dedication on Horse Prairie, which I lately attended.

Invited by the congregation and its pastor, Rev. A. Brandt of the Indianapolis Synod, to the celebration of this joyous festival, I rode on the Saturday before the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity to Horse Prairie, and found upon my arrival that Pastor Birkmann had already arrived before me. Heartily received by him and Pastor Brandt, we went, after a short rest, together into the church, where the pastor held confession with the congregation and the communicants, after previous announcement for confession. Through the afternoon and even far into the late night many hands were busily employed in adorning the church festively.

The festival morning dawned; majestically and beautifully the sun rose up the blue vault of heaven, and, promising a fair bright day, invited all far and wide to take part in the festival. It was scarcely 8 o'clock when great throngs of festival guests were seen hastening hither from all sides in wagons and on horseback. The question: whither hasten the people so early in the morning? the stranger might also spare, for that it was the celebration of a feast of joy could be plainly read in every countenance. The church whose dedication was today in question is a fine frame building of some 40 feet in length and 30 feet in breadth, with a pretty steeple towering far over the plain. At 10 o'clock the service was to begin, but already a good while before, the spacious church was filled with festival guests, small and great, so that even the entrance into it was occupied, and many had to stand outside and hear through the opened windows and doors. Besides the Germans, many English also had gathered, because an English sermon had been promised them on this occasion. As the celebrants, so was also the church festively adorned. Outside before the church door stood two slender, shapely birches; under a great arch woven of foliage one entered the church. The walls, pulpit, and altar were hung with garlands of foliage and with wreaths woven of all manner of beautiful flowers. The pulpit is situated above the altar, and both afford a pleasing sight. The black altar cloth offers to him who enters the words to read: "Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown," Rev. 3, 11, and from the pulpit cloth the words of Jesus sparkle forth to meet him: "Repent ye, and believe the gospel," Mark 1, 15.

Thus assembled, the festival service began with the singing of some verses from the hymn: "O heiliger Geist kehr' bei uns ein," whereupon Pastor Brandt performed the altar service, and then the congregation sang the dedication hymn: "Dreifaltig heilig großer Gott!" Pastor Birkmann, after the singing had died away, ascended the pulpit, and preached the festival sermon on the Gospel Luke 19, 1-10. He set forth as his theme the question: How can this house of God become such a place wherein salvation befalleth souls? and answered thereupon: 1. when the pure doctrine is here proclaimed and preserved, and 2. when souls desirous of salvation assemble here, who receive the proffered salvation in the power of the Holy Ghost. The festival preacher spoke very heartily to the assembly, and this seemed also to sense it, and therefore listened to him with great eagerness and tension. While a verse was now being sung, at the end of the same the writer of this went up into the pulpit and delivered a short sermon in the English language on Mark 13, 33-37. At the close of the same the celebration of the holy Supper took place. The consecration was performed by Pastor Brandt, in that he chanted the "Our Father" and the words of institution, and thereupon the body and blood of the Lord Christ were distributed to the communicants by him and Pastor Birkmann. After the administration of the Supper Pastor Br., turned toward the altar, spoke a solemn, heart-stirring dedicatory prayer, whereupon the congregation was dismissed with the blessing of the Lord. — In the afternoon the congregation assembled again in great number, and the writer of this preached on John 14, 27 a sermon in the German language, wherein he sought to portray and lay upon the heart the peace which Jesus giveth, as to each individual, so to the congregation in its entirety. He believed that this word might be a word in season, because in this congregation the fire of strife and discord had so gained the upper hand that its former pastor, C. Strasen, was compelled to leave it. Through the intervention of Pastor Br., however, the congregation was moved to let its former, expelled pastor come, and made apology to him. If this repentance was of the right kind, as we so gladly wish it may be, then surely Pastor Strasen and God Himself have forgiven this congregation everything, and we wish it, together with its well-meaning pastor, once more the peace of God, that, as it is strong in number, so it may become ever stronger and stronger in true churchly Christianity, in the life out of God.

M. Eirich.

Chester, the 5th of Sept., 1851.

New York, the 26th of August, 1851.

Dear Readers!

Many among you will doubtless be surprised to learn from the present letter that we, the undersigned, are at this time in the city named above; and this surprise will perhaps be still more increased when you hear that we have journeyed from the distant West of our new fatherland to the farthest East for no other purpose than to sail still farther across the ocean to our old homeland. Perhaps some among you say hereupon in your hearts: What? Do you also, Old Lutherans, now want to go to Germany, to convert the people there? Have you also become Methodists, that you think the church is nowhere but with you, and that without you the poor people must go to perdition? Or do you perhaps want, like the Methodists and the Albrechtsleute, who now uncalled