# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 03 16_S117
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

117

Lord, although he knew in the Spirit that he would not return. He had his shroud packed with him into his chest of books and then went confidently to meet his appointed end. Once more the heathen trembled before the thunder of his preaching, and thousands drank the streams of grace of the divine Word from his lips. The fire had not gone out in the aged man, grown as one dead; it blazed up once more in mighty flame. Again, as once in Thuringia and Hesse, the rude crowds streamed together, bowed their stubborn necks before the man of God, and let themselves be baptized. Churches were built by the converts, and clergymen set over them. The completion of the work in Friesland, however, was reserved for another. On the banks of the Burde Boniface had pitched his camp and was awaiting a number of baptized persons for confirmation. It was the 3rd of June of the year 755. The sun had risen, and Boniface had prepared himself for the holy act. Approaching footsteps broke the solemn stillness. He took them for those of the Christians he was expecting and went out to meet them in his episcopal vestments, to greet them. But as he stepped out of the tent, it was a band of heathen, breathing vengeance, with flashing swords. Boniface's companions wished to defend themselves. But he forbade them, since it was not for them to repay evil with evil, and concluded: If the love of God ever filled you, if you ever heeded my exhortations, then take to heart at this moment the words of our Lord and God, and be not afraid of them that kill the body, but are not able to kill our soul. Cast out the anchor of your hope far, let us, let you not be robbed in this holy conflict of the victor's crown which we have already won through a long and toilsome struggle. Endure in the living power of faith, manfully and heroically, the last trial that is kept in store for us, and go fearlessly into death out of love for Him who suffered for us, and with whom we shall rejoice forever in the house of the Father.

With such words the hero of the faith fell, in the 75th year of his age, together with most of his companions, under the blows of the heathen. Punishment soon overtook these. Having fallen into strife over the division of the booty, they cut one another down, and the rest were seized by Christians who came up. Boniface's body, in accordance with his wish, was brought to Fulda; for he wished to lie in the midst of the peoples of his preaching, between four tribes converted by him, and so remain faithful to his office even in death. He rests there to this day. There also an old book is shown with a deep axe-cut. Boniface is said to have had it in his hand when he fell. A few years ago the gratitude of German Christians erected to him a magnificent statue, which adorns a fine open square in Fulda. Grant, dear Christian and German reader, to this man also a place of honor in your heart. He is rightly called the Apostle of the Germans, for few men since the days of Paul have accomplished so great a work for the outward extension and inner prosperity of the Church as he. He was not born in Germany, but he belonged to a kindred people and had a German heart as only one could, for he had consecrated to the German people all his strength and his whole life. What Charles the Great built, he built upon Winfrid's building, and the house which Luther cleansed and swept out has Winfrid for its master-builder. He, however, has built all upon the one foundation which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Though he may not have built upon this foundation only gold, silver and precious stones, but also wood, hay and stubble among them: that will be consumed by the fire, and is in part already consumed; but he himself will remain, and as long as there is yet a German heart that calls Jesus its Lord, he will be gratefully called the Apostle of the Germans. Each of the chief tribes allied with Germany has had its hero of the faith, but all have wrought for Germany. The Englishman Winfrid planted Christianity among us, the German Luther purified it, the Swede Gustavus Adolphus came and protected it with his faithful sword. May the work of these three men remain for ever and ever on earth, as it is imperishable above!

Herr Pastor Winkler in Detroit

has already related, in a whole series of essays in the "Informatorium," under the title "The Raging of Satan against the Church of God," a whole multitude of hair-raising stories of misdeeds which those people are said to have committed who have separated from him. Suppose now that it were all true that Herr Pastor Winkler reports of such misdeeds, which of course we do not believe, for we know, alas! from our own experience how dim hierarchical fanaticism makes the eye: but suppose, as said, that all of that were true, Herr Pastor W. would still not thereby prove what he wants to prove and ought to prove, namely that it was wrong to take up the cause of these people; provided that they at first showed themselves Christian, for into the heart one cannot, to be sure, look in people. But that in a case like the present it is right to take up the cause of such as have separated from their pastor: this has been the doctrine of our Church always and ever. Thus, for example, Tilemann Heshusius, the distinguished theologian, of whom Herr Pastor Grabau himself has had a tract reprinted, writes:

"But if it happens that other people who do not belong in our parish — sit either under the antichristian Papacy or under false teachers, such as Calvinists, Synergists, Majorists, Adiaphorists, Schwenkfeldians, against whom a Christian must guard himself, or are burdened against their conscience by their tyrannical pastors, or are otherwise on a journey, are perhaps seized with sickness, or otherwise need comfort, and wish to strengthen their conscience by the use of the Sacrament —, desire our service and seek the Sacraments from us: in such and similar cases it is free to us preachers to impart the Sacraments to every man, let him come from the rising or the going down of the sun, provided he repents aright and believes the Gospel, by virtue of the saying John 16: He (the Holy Ghost) will reprove the world, that is, the kingdom of Christ and the holy office of preaching extends over the whole circle of the world and is bound to no place, nor person, nor time. And that Christians, who avoid their pastors who give out false doctrine and blasphemy, or want to burden their conscience against God's Word, and seek the Sacraments in other parishes from upright teachers — act in a Christian manner, appears from the words of Christ: 'Beware of false prophets,' Matt. 7. Likewise Paul: 'Mark them which work evil'; Philipp. 3, and Rom. 16: 'Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them!'" (See Dedekenni; thesaur. Vol. I, pag. 438.)

Further, Wolfgang Waldner writes, in an opinion likewise taken up by Dedekennus into his Thesaurus:

"What Christ, the LORD, says of Himself, that He says also of all teachers and Christians, that they should have one mind toward all men and say with Christ: Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And this the holy patriarchs and prophets have done from the beginning of the world, and after them the dear apostles, fathers and teachers: whoever came to them from another lordship and parish and sought God's Word with them, him they did not only not send away, but received most willingly and gladly. And St. Paul sets forth a proper reason for this for each and every servant of God, ruler and Christian, in his own person, Rom. 1, and says: 'I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.' Why? — Chap. 3, he says: 'God is not the God of the Jews only, but also the God of the Gentiles.' The brethren and Christians whom one would ensnare at home in their conscience with false doctrine and human ordinance are true captives and sorely plagued people, who also daily await their bodily imprisonment and are kept like sheep for the slaughter. When, then, these come to our Church, seeking counsel, help, comfort and instruction from the preaching of the divine Word and the true use of the