# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 03 30_S126
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

126

to preach to all nations concerned not merely the apostles, this the promise of the LORD, inseparably bound up with this command, proves most clearly: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Not in their own strength, but in the strength and name of the LORD were the apostles and other witnesses of the truth to go into all the world and bring to all nations the glad tidings of the free grace in Christ Jesus, and to this end the LORD promises them His special guiding, protecting, blessing nearness. And since this promise holds until the end of the world, the command also, to preach the Gospel to all nations, on account of which this very promise is given, must hold until the end of the world, and does hold, as truly as God wills "that all men be helped," and not only those who lived at a certain time.

Therefore, my dear reader, let yourself not be carried about by any wind of doctrine, but stand fast upon this rock foundation of the Word of God, and you will do well.

And that you may also know with how great injustice the one "Auszug" in the "Informatorium" speaks of lies which are said to have been written from the East Indies to Germany by the blessed missionaries Ziegenbalg and Plütchau, and which, as it says, those "know best how to relate who come from thence" (as if their mouth were a mere gospel-book, that could never report an untruth!): so I will here set before you such a testimony "come from thence," which without doubt will prove to your heart also a truly evangelical testimony. It is an extract from a letter of a native Indian preacher on the island of Ceylon, named David, which he wrote some time ago to the Evangelical Lutheran Mission College at Leipzig. It reads therein:

"It pleased almighty God, according to His unsearchable and unfathomable grace and mercy and His holy counsel formed before the foundation of the world, to move the heart of the pious and magnanimous King of Denmark, Frederick IV, to send in the year 1705 the first missionary, the faithful and renowned Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, to Tranquebar, that he might enlighten the darkness which enveloped my poor countrymen, and set up among them the banner of the all-holy cross."

"After his arrival in Tranquebar Ziegenbalg labored day and night to spread the Gospel, and he succeeded in bringing many to the knowledge of the saving truth. And the gates of hell have not yet been able to overpower the congregation founded through him. Many faithful and distinguished Lutheran missionaries have also afterwards been sent after us from your blessed homeland, among them especially the venerable Father Schwarz."

"I thank my heavenly Father sincerely that He has prolonged my worthless life and helped me hitherto, so that I can see the prosperity of the mission supported by your Society in my fatherland. Therefore, when I learned that your missionaries had all together on the 1st of June 1846 celebrated the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Bethlehem Church in Poreiar, in which I was baptized on the 1st of April 1775 by the old Lutheran missionary, the venerable Mr. Klein, I at once turned to Missionary Cordes to express my joyful sympathy, and also had a description of this festival in the Morning-Star printed separately and distributed."

"It is known to you that through the most persevering exertion and labor of Ziegenbalg and his successors two printing-offices, a Tamil and a Portuguese, were founded, and in them, under their direction, there were printed, besides the Holy Scriptures, also the precious Lutheran hymns, which have such rich power to kindle in the hearts the mysterious heavenly fire of the love of God. These Bibles and hymn-books found a wide circulation on the coast of Coromandel and on our island (Ceylon) among the Christian inhabitants, and were diligently used by them and carefully preserved. Even now they are regarded as precious relics. The translation is in a high degree clear and simple, so that it is easily understood by learned and unlearned, by men and women. The later translations, which proceed from missionaries of the most diverse societies and confessions, are artificial, turgid and obscure, and for that very reason almost wholly unusable. Might a renewed impression of that old translation but be made under the supervision of your missionaries, some of whom are said to be especially proficient in Tamil; it would be of great blessing for the congregation and the rising generation."

"Remember me before the throne of grace of God and pray Him that He would send me, by virtue of His gracious promise, His Holy Spirit, that I may persevere in faith unto the end. I promise you that I will not cease to pray for Zion and for your Society, and for the messengers whom you send out."

"Since I am eighty years old, I perceive daily the plainest and most gladdening signs of my speedy deliverance from this vale of misery, and I wait for the coming of my LORD. I know not, therefore, whether I shall yet live to see the joy of receiving an answer to my letter, and of hearing something of the further prosperity of your mission; but of this I am certain, that even when I am transferred into the eternal dwellings of peace, I shall never forget you and your work. Before the throne of God we shall find each other again, to praise Him, the Triune, eternally."

Behold, my Christian reader, what a savor of life unto life the first missionaries of our Church in India have been! And behold, this David, whom you have surely come to love, is one of the ripe fruits of their labor. And if we also, once removed from the land of tears and of strife, have entered into the rest that remaineth for the people of God, we shall find there yet hundreds and thousands whom God the LORD, through His servants, the missionaries of our Church, has rescued from the power of darkness, and brought to the marvelous light of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Therefore rejoice, and praise God that even in the last days He sends out His messengers, and causes the poor heathen to be compelled to come in, because there is yet room also for them, in the everlasting habitations of peace. Rejoice in this, and be assured that so long as the day of salvation still lasts, so long as the LORD still calls: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth" (Isa. 45, 22.), so long as He Himself is not yet come "to see the guests": so long are the gates of His grace still open for all men; so long "there is yet room," and therefore also it is the will of the LORD that His messengers go forth again and again "into the highways and hedges" to invite all and to "compel them to come in, that my house may be filled."

So long, therefore, as nations are yet far from "the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise"; so long as peoples yet walk in the shadow of death and know not the way of peace; so long as they yet live "without God in the world" and therefore also without hope in life, without comfort in suffering, without confidence in death; in short, so long as they do not yet know Him whose will it is that all men be helped, and that they come to the knowledge of the truth, because He has given His blood, Himself, "a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Tim. 2, 4 — 6.): so long do you also, as a Christian, hold yourself bound to do your part, that the name of God may be "made known to the heathen, and that they may turn to God."

Sierakowski.

Five Virtues,
which according to Hieronymus Weller, Luther's house-friend, a preacher should have.

"The first virtue is to work out the sermon carefully, guarding oneself most earnestly against accustoming oneself to deliver sermons offhand.

Next, let him come forward with fear and trembling, that is, let him call upon God, that He would give him the Holy Ghost, that this may govern his tongue. Pericles prayed every time to the gods before he mounted the speaker's platform, that he might say nothing that would hurt anyone. How much more must the teacher of the congregation of Christ pray, that he say nothing which