# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 03 02_S108
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

108

filled us, was the combination, with the most unprejudiced appreciation of everything truly good that is new, of the most conscientious fidelity to the old and ever new Confession of our Church and the most humble subordination to our old teachers. What had already been testified to us elsewhere we learned here also, namely, that our American Lutheran Church can now hold out little hope of being supported from Germany by the sending of capable, orthodox candidates of theology, since now in Germany not only many so-called church patrons, but also many who sit in the church government, no longer, as formerly, set aside precisely the orthodox candidates, but rather seek them and complain of a shortage of such. Herr Oberhofprediger Dr. Harless therefore agreed with us that under these circumstances the most important help which can come to us from Germany consists in this, that there be procured for us from there, in particular, material means for the furtherance and enlargement of our own institutions here for the training and education of preachers for our Church here. With great interest the Herr Oberhofprediger heard the report which we gave him of our already existing preachers’ seminaries, and in particular he turned his hearty sympathy to our Concordia College. Since at present attention to American church affairs has been aroused in Germany, chiefly in Bavaria, Herr Dr. Harless first of all handed us a letter of recommendation to Her Majesty, Queen Marie of Bavaria, and her father confessor, Herr Dean Ritter Burger in Munich, in order that through the mediation of the first named a general collection might be granted us in the Lutheran Church of Bavaria. The Herr Oberhofprediger expressed the hope that, when the Bavarian Lutheran Church shall have taken the lead, the Saxon, in which the cause of the American Lutheran Church is still little known and brought to attention, would without doubt follow. The plan of the book which our Synod intends to publish on Church and Ministry I also communicated to Herr Dr. Harless, and he gave it his express approval. It was pleasing to him to hear that this book would not only keep far from all personal attacks, but also on the whole would not be so much of a polemical character as would set forth the doctrine simply, and indeed by abundant testimonies from our Symbols and from the writings of our best theologians.*) Herr Dr. Harless assured us that he also regarded precisely this way, adopted for our defense, as the most profitable, since we must by no means presuppose that the development of doctrine as it is found in our old theologians is as well known among the German theologians as one should expect. —

*) The book mentioned was, according to the promise of the publisher, Herr Th. Blaesing of Erlangen, to appear last month, and as soon as it has left the press, it is to be sent hither in a corresponding number of copies. As soon as the shipment is here, it will be made known to the dear readers through the „Lutheraner.“ Both Herr J. H. Bergmann in N. York and Herr F. W. Barthel in St. Louis will have the kindness to attend to any orders for the book as soon as practicable. The title of it is as follows: „Die Stimme unserer Kirche in der Frage von Kirche und Amt, eine Sammlung von Zeugnissen über diese Frage aus den öffentlichen Bekenntnißschriften der ev.-lutherischen Kirche und aus den Privatschriften rechtgläubiger Lehrer derselben. Von der deutschen ev.-luther. Synode von Missouri ꝛc. als ein Zeugniß ihres Glaubens zur Abwehr der Angriffe des Herrn Pastor Grabau in Buffalo, N. Y., in deren Namen und Auftrag vorgelegt durch C. F. W. Walther.“

In Dresden there is a number of Lutherans who were formerly members of the congregation here and have wandered back to Germany; to see them again here and to speak with them was for us a joy the greater because we heard from the mouth of all a good confession of their faith. Here we also met an old Christian friend from my candidate days, the candidate Herr Rudel. He was now serving as hospital preacher in Dresden. With him too we recognized ourselves, after a brief mutual conversation, as fully united; formerly entangled with us in the same errors concerning Church and Ministry, he had come, through a thorough, unprejudiced study of the Confessions of our Church and of the writings of our older theologians, to the same results as we. The fellowship, brief indeed, which we were able to cultivate here with this man, so excellently gifted and well-informed, afforded us great refreshment and strengthening.

When we called here upon Herr Justus Naumann, bookseller, we were surprised by the news that the gentlemen professors and doctors of theology: Höfling, Thomasius, Hofmann and Delitzsch in Erlangen; Kahnis, Lindner sen. and jun. in Leipzig, and Krabbe and Baumgarten in Rostock, already in July of the current year, had let go forth a lithographed circular signed by them to a great number of German publishing booksellers, with the request for support of our seminaries, in particular of the one here, with literary aids. It ran therein, among other things, as follows: “Your Honor is surely not unacquainted with the ecclesiastical distresses of our emigrated North American fellow-believers, and we, the undersigned, can presuppose in you the conviction that it is our duty to supply to the Evang. Luth. Church over there, in the midst of the onset of foreign churches and sects, the necessary means of self-preservation and self-edification, and to help it preserve, together with the confession of the mother church, also German language, German custom, German learning and especially theology. In recognition of this our holy duty, our sympathy has turned, beside the preachers’ and schoolteachers’ seminary at Fort Wayne, especially to an institution which has made the cultivation of German ecclesiastical learning its proper task. It is the college that blossomed in Perry County and is now transplanted to St. Louis. The two presidents of the Synod of Missouri etc., the pastors Wyneken and Walther .., are on an official journey to Germany and will arrive in the course of August. To be able to give them a considerable gift of books from the field of theology, philology and the adjoining general branches of education for the college in St. Louis is one of the most heartfelt wishes of the undersigned. The acquisition of such a selection of books in the ordinary way is not well practicable, in view of the multitude of other needs which require immediate supply of money, and we have therefore resolved to approach German booksellers with the request to make the needy fellow-believers in North America a gift from their publishing stock. The bookselling firm of Dörffling and Franke in Leipzig is ready to undertake such friendly gifts, and the undersigned vouch for the exclusive use of the same for the purpose designated,” etc. On our return journey through Leipzig we had the joy of seeing that the intercession of the highly esteemed, worthy gentlemen had been answered abundantly beyond expectation.

Whereas Pastor Wyneken now returned from Dresden directly to Leipzig and there took the opportunity to confer with Herr Prof. Lindner sen. (Prof. Bruno Lindner jun. was unfortunately away from home), I now made a detour by way of Kleinhartmannsdorf, where I visited the other of my two still living sisters, and by way of Leulitz near Wurzen, where I visited for a few hours an old school and university friend, Pastor M. H. Hasse there. As to the latter, no little injury had naturally been done to our intimate friendship, formed already in early youth in a mutual lack of Christian knowledge, by this, that God let me come already at the university to confessional decision, while my friend Hasse alone attained a general Christian standpoint. To my great joy, however, he had not remained standing at this standpoint formerly maintained by him; precisely the storms of the latest time, in which with so many the foundation of their faith has become wavering, the LORD had blessed in him to this end, that he had been convinced of the necessity of casting anchor also upon the rock of the ecclesiastical Confession.

After another short, blessed stay in Leipzig, on my passage through this city, I now hastened toward the real goal of our journey, Bavaria.

(To be continued.)