# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 01 06_S77
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

77

wisdom, the usefulness and fitness of whose purpose is so evident. S. So it seems to thee, then, that he who in the beginning made man endowed him, for his benefit, with senses, whereby he might receive sensations and impressions from the outer world; with eyes, to see what is visible; with ears, to hear what is audible; yes, and the sweet-smelling flowers, herbs and spices, what could they profit man, if a sense of smell had not been given him? What perception and enjoyment would he have of sweet and bitter, and of all else that is agreeable to the taste, if a tongue had not been created for him to perceive the difference of these things? Does it not seem to thee, further, that this also is a work of Providence, that the eye, because it is so tender and delicate, is protected and guarded with eyelids as with doors, which, when one wishes to use the eye, draw up like a curtain, and close again in sleep? that these are furnished with eyelashes as with a veil, so that the sharp air may not harm the eyes? that the eyes above are guarded by the eyebrows as by pent-roofs, that the sweat flowing down from the head may not injure them? Is it not admirable that the ear receives all kinds of sounds, and yet is never filled with them? That the front teeth in all animals are fitted for cutting the food, but the molars, which receive the food from the former, for grinding it? That the mouth, through which the animals take in what they desire, is situated so near the eyes and the nose (whereby they perceive and distinguish what is fit for nourishment)? that the natural outlets, through which the loathsome excrements are discharged, are turned away and removed as far as possible from the organs of sense. Since all this is made and arranged so according to plan and purpose, dost thou still doubt whether it is the work of chance or of a wise Providence? A. No, truly, I doubt no more: and indeed, the more I consider it, the more plainly it becomes manifest to me that man is the masterpiece of a wise master and lover of men.1) S. Further, what sayest thou to this, that in all living creatures there is implanted such an impulse to the propagation of their kind, that in the mothers of every kind there is implanted such a love for their young, and such a care for their nourishment and preservation, as also in the offspring so great a love of life and so great a fear of death?2) A. Without doubt all this is the work of a wise Creator, who willed and determined that living creatures should be and continue. S. When thou considerest thyself, thou perceivest in thyself, and art conscious of, a rationally thinking power: but apart from man, thou thinkest, there is nowhere else any rational being? And thou holdest such an opinion, although thou seest and knowest that thy body consists of the elements, yea, that thou hast of the great mass of this earth only a small part in thy body, as also only very little of the great quantity of fluids that are in nature; that, in short, he who put thy body together out of matter and the various elements took only a small part of each for it. So thou thinkest that thou alone hast, by some happy chance, snatched thy spirit from somewhere, although elsewhere, apart from man, no rational spirit exists? And this incomprehensibly great and immeasurable universe also, with all its admirably great, manifold and numberless bodies, thou thinkest to be so well ordered and so beautifully adorned by chance, without a wise Providence? A. How can I do otherwise? by Jupiter! I see not the lords and masters of this fabric of the world, as I see the builders of the buildings that are built here on this earth by men 3)? S. But thou seest not thy soul either, which is the mistress and ruler of thy body: yea, if this objection of thine proved anything, thou wouldst have to say also that thou thyself doest nothing with sense and understanding, but everything by chance. A. I do not despise the divine Being, my Socrates, but believe rather that it is far too exalted above us to need my service and my veneration. S. On the contrary: the higher and more exalted the Being is who condescends so far as to concern himself about thee, and to deem thee worthy of his care, so much the more art thou bound to him in thanks and honor. A. Be assured, if I could believe that the gods concern themselves about men, I would not neglect their service and veneration. S. Thou believest not, then, that the gods care for men? Consider, then, the great benefits and advantages which they have bestowed on men above other creatures: to him alone they have given an upright posture and gait; this upright posture affords him the important advantage that he can look farther into the distance, and better observe what is above him, and better guard himself against harm and danger. Further: to other animals, which bend their gaze to the earth, Providence has given feet, which serve them only for walking: but to man it has given hands also, with which he can prepare and procure for himself so many things, whereby he lives more agreeably than the other creatures. And while other animals do indeed have a tongue also, yet man's tongue alone is so formed that it can touch now here, now there, now this, now that place of the mouth, whereby man can articulate his voice and sound, and one can give another to understand what he wills. Yet it was not enough for God merely to provide and equip the body, but, what is the greatest thing, he gave him also, at his creation, so excellent a soul with such glorious powers. For what other creature's soul recognizes and perceives the existence of this God, who has created and ordered such great and beautiful things; what other kind, but man, honors and serves God? what other soul than the human is more able to guard and protect the body against hunger and thirst, against cold and heat; to find and procure counsel and help against diseases, or to exercise strength, or by diligence and pains to learn many things and to train itself in arts and sciences, or to hold fast in memory what it has heard, seen and learned? Is it not entirely plain to thee that men, compared with other creatures, lead a life like gods, since by the excellence of their nature in soul and body they possess such great advantages over them? For by no means could a rational human soul, if it were united with the body of an ox, accomplish what it would, nor would it be of much use to any irrational creature to have hands. Since thou hast now become a partaker of these two gifts, which are of so high a value, namely a rational soul and such a body, through which it can work conveniently, dost thou not believe that the gods care for thy good? or what should they do, to convince thee that thou art an object of their care? A. I would believe it, if they sent me counsellors, who would tell me what I should do or not do; as thou sayest that they send to thee. S. But if they answer all the Athenians through the oracle to their questions, thinkest thou not that

1., The wiseacre freethinkers and lying Christians of the present time, however—whose light, by God's judgment, has become darkness—maintain, as is well known, that man, in soul and body, is a product of the earth and of the forces of nature, and will not or can no longer recognize, since God has given them over to a reprobate mind, that this which in itself is without consciousness and without reason can never of itself bring forth a self-conscious rational being, such as man undeniably is, and that it is always preposterous and nonsensical that a living structure higher in kind and degree, also in bodily constitution, should have developed upward out of a lower one, and that, for example, the ape should have ennobled itself upward into man.

2., Our present-day deniers of God do indeed do their utmost to mock away and argue away this fear of death for themselves and their companions. Their merry motto is: "Let us eat and drink! for tomorrow we die." Yet out of their own natural conscience the heathen Socrates bears witness against them and asserts that a fear of death exists in all living beings; and in the deepest background of their conscience there stands nevertheless, in unquenchable letters of flame, the saying written: "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment," however much they scoff and laugh against it, rage and rave.

3., Our atheists of today are just as dull-witted; they would rather accept the absurdity of an eternal world, arisen of itself and sustaining itself, than follow the unavoidable demand of the natural light of reason and the voice of conscience, which both compel every man to regard the universe as an effect and a work, and from it to infer back to an almighty, all-wise and all-good Maker, Creator and God, who created this universe, preserves and governs it, and therein reveals himself to every man.