# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 03 02_S111
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

111

His promise-laden name has become Yea and Amen to us; for wondrously has the Lord helped, wondrously out of all distress. For example, when the distress, the want of money, was greatest, and the prospects were darkest, the County Commissioners had to give us, at His bidding, 350 dollars for eighteen feet of width of our building lot, which the County required for a public building. — Strengthened in faith, the congregation now set about the completion of the building with vigor; — so that our church could be dedicated on the first holy Sunday in Advent.

With hearty thanks to the donors we also acknowledge the receipt of 152 dollars from the Lutheran congregation in St. Louis and the assistance from Pastor Seidel's congregation, whereby our confidence in God in this matter received its first strengthening.

The church is a brick building erected in the pure Gothic style, with which the interior furnishing of pulpit, altar, sacristy, etc., is also in harmony. The house measures 55 feet in length and 33 feet in breadth. — The interior of the church is so arranged that, with the organ loft at the end, two side galleries can still be connected. In accordance with the style of the building, the ceiling is not flat but vaulted. The whole building is adorned by a massive tower built up from the foundation, which has a height of 89 feet to the top of its spire.

The dedication took place before a numerous congregation, by the Secretary of our Synod, Pastor Habel of Pomeroy. At this festival, with great assistance of the Holy Ghost, he preached on the Sunday Gospel, Matt. 21, 1-9, and in particular on the words of verse 5: "Behold, thy King cometh unto thee", and at the afternoon service on the Epistle, Rom. 13, 11-14, while the liturgical part of the service, at the Holy Supper, etc., was performed by me, the undersigned.

The Word of God, which was dispensed so powerfully and abundantly with the assistance of the Holy Ghost, will, according to His promise, not return void, but, as the good seed, will also have found good ground and bring forth fruit, even though some may have fallen by the wayside, upon stony places, and among thorns. May it preserve the hearers in an honest and good heart. We feel ourselves also under special obligation of thanks to Pastor Habel, who, notwithstanding his bodily weakness and the rough winter weather, did not shrink from the toilsome journey of more than 70 miles to bring us the Word of the cross and to enhance our celebration.

And now, in conclusion, one more request to the kind readers of the Lutheraner:

Upon our church, which cost us over two thousand dollars, there still rest four hundred dollars of debt. Apart from the assistance mentioned above, we have had to raise all the money among ourselves, in spite of our poverty, partly because, in accordance with the apostolic admonition, 1 Thess. 4, 12, "and that ye may have lack of nothing," we were unwilling to appeal to strangers for assistance, and partly because we had already been so slandered by our enemies among our English neighbors that from them, who are in any case averse to the true Lutheran Church, scarcely any assistance worth mentioning was received. Accordingly the members of our congregation have strained themselves almost beyond their means, and have had to contribute from 25 to 100 dollars. To be sure, we know well that the need within the Lutheran Church is great, and that the cry for help resounds on all sides, on which account we have hitherto, out of scruple of conscience, not ventured to increase the number of petitioners, fearing that others might be more in need of help than we. But our strength is too much weakened, and necessity urges us to lay our want upon the heart of the brethren and fellow-believers, wherein we take the liberty of calling their attention to the important situation of our congregation, which it has for our Synod. Situated in the heart of Ohio, surrounded by sects and pseudo-Lutherans — "who set upon her all" — it stands, with the two country congregations connected with it, lonely and forsaken, like a rose upon the barren heath. Does it not need special care and tending? Kind donors, to whose hearts our condition appeals, are therefore requested to send any gifts to the undersigned.

As God has hitherto blessed our Immanuel's congregation in all manner of bodily and spiritual goods, so may He also in future have mercy upon it, not withdraw His hand from it, neither forsake nor neglect it, — tend and cherish it by pure doctrine and preaching, by right administration of the Sacraments, lead it further and further, and establish it, in the knowledge of His will, in fidelity to the confession, in faith and in unfeigned, sincere love; may He especially strengthen it by His grace to strip off all the fear of man and man-pleasing and false peace-making and flattery still clinging to it, and to strive for the good pleasure of God alone; that it may more and more, in the midst of this perverse and godless generation, become a witness of truth and righteousness. So may our God bless us and be gracious unto us, and prosper the work of our hands among us; yea, the work of our hands do Thou prosper. Amen.

F. W. Richmann,

Pastor of the German Ev. Luth. St. Immanuel's Church in Lancaster, Ohio.

The Four Foundations of Prayer.

(By Johann Gerhard. Translated from the Latin.)

Whoever is a child of God through faith will daily address the heavenly Father in his prayers with childlike confidence. In whose heart the Holy Ghost has made His dwelling, he will daily, as a spiritual priest, offer that incense-offering of prayer. But there are four immovable foundations upon which our confidence rests, by virtue of which he can be sure of the most gracious hearing of his prayers, namely, 1. the almighty goodness of God, and 2. His unfailing truth; 3. the intercession of Christ, the Mediator, and 4. the testimony of the Holy Ghost.

The first foundation of the hearing of prayer is the almighty goodness of God. How great things has He given us unasked! Soul and body He has given; yea, His own Son also He has given us: what will He not give when asked? The greater thing which He has done for us should give us courage, that we also have confidence in regard to the lesser. For everything that we can ask is less than that the Son of God has deemed us worthy to suffer and to die for us. This goodness of God is immeasurable and infinite; what could He therefore refuse us? For if that love with which we embrace God, however wretched and slight it may be, works in us that we desire from the heart to obey the divine will in all things: how much more can we promise ourselves the same from the inestimable love and goodness of God! Unless we were minded to suppose that our love is greater than the divine. "The LORD will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him," says the Psalmist (Ps. 145, 19), namely, because He is attached to them with the most heartfelt and perfect love; but now perfect love gives itself wholly to the beloved and obeys his will. This goodness of God is almighty; what can it be that it could not perform for us? To that supreme power nothing of that which it has promised is hard and difficult, to say nothing of impossible to do.

The second foundation of the hearing of prayer is the unfailing truth of God. He has most graciously promised that His ears shall incline to the voice of our prayer; this promise is a word of eternal and immovable truth; since He is the truth itself, He cannot deny Himself and His word. God has promised that He will hear prayers; if this seems too little, Christ has confirmed it also with an oath. "Verily, verily, I say unto you," He says to the Apostles, and under their name to all true believers, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." (John 16, 23.) If you do not yet believe the Promiser, then believe the One who swears. "My heart holdeth unto Thee Thy word: Ye shall seek my face. Therefore will I seek, LORD, Thy face."

The third foundation of the hearing of prayer is the intercession of Christ, the Mediator. For He "is at the right hand of God, and