# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 05 11_S151
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

151

ren sacrifices, has hitherto so hindered the printing. For the material for the volumes still to be delivered has for 20 years been so prepared that, as soon as the costs of printing and paper are covered, by a larger sale, even only somewhat better than hitherto, nothing stands in the way of the speedy completion of the edition. That suitable indexes will follow at the close of the whole was already publicly promised in the announcement of 1826, and therefore requires no renewed assurance

Report from the Mission.

Shibahyongk, the 5th of Febr. 1852.
To the Right Reverend Mission Commission of the Synod of Mo., O. and other States.

Reverend Fathers and Brethren in Christ!

Since the time has again come when, according to order, we send in our estimate, I will herewith do so, together with a report of our station.

Although in general we have much cause to thank the LORD heartily for His grace richly bestowed upon us in the past year, yet on the other hand we can look back upon it only with sadness and mourning. It was a time of manifold conflict within and without, and the unfriendliness of the weather, the many dreadful storms, the terrible thunderstorms, and the horrible raging and roaring of the lake before our door, yes, all nature, seemed to be in accord and harmony with our experiences in the mission.

The temptations of the devil, direct and indirect, were never so great for our young and small Christian congregation as in the latest time; never were the helpers of the wicked Enemy, namely those who deny the power of godliness, but go about in the show of godliness, 2 Timoth. 3, 5., the Methodist missionaries, together with their creatures, so busy to root out the tender plant of our Lutheran mission as just in this time. Finely they spin, at least in their own opinion, their threads wherewith they seek to ensnare our people; but there is nothing so finely spun, it comes at last to the sun!

Let it suffice to adduce some examples of this. In Sibiwaiing the old chief offered to the Germans living there some land for sale, which they wished to buy. The Methodist missionary on the Caucalin River, together with his interpreter, an Indian, heard of it and warned the chief against the Germans, because they might cheat him, and also told him what he should demand for his land, etc.; but in order that it might seem as if they meant it heartily well with the old man, they came, at his invitation, the bad road from Saginaw and measured off the piece of land offered for sale, and although they understood as good as nothing of land surveying, yet they impressed the Indians with it not a little, and knew how to set themselves in their favor by their flatteries. Our German friends, however, after this wished to know nothing more of the land. Herewith the Methodists could now influence our Indian congregation in an indirect way. A member of ours had, namely, long since married a woman of the Sibiwaiing Indians, who was still a heathen. At first she was induced from Sibiwaiing, by threats, to remain a heathen against her conviction. But since this woman as well as her husband have brothers and sisters among the Methodists, these constantly enticed her by all sorts of pretenses and promises to Methodism, to which the Indians of Sibiwaiing, worked upon by the Methodists, also faithfully helped. At last it happened, in spite of all the entreating, admonishing and warning of our member on our side. Also all the admonitions of the old father of this man and of our congregation were fruitless; he went away with his wife and child, as a prey of the Methodists.

Soon afterwards, however, a better catch was to be made. This apostate, with his elder brother, who in the meantime had become a Methodist preacher, now came and demanded of their parents that they should move away from Shibahyongk to them, where the preacher promised to provide for them, because they had now become old and helpless. The old father replied: he would know nothing of the Methodists and their false doctrine, but would abide by the truth. Now they went to the mother, and while they consumed their parents' corn, they spoke continually only of providing for them. It lacked not much, and they would have persuaded her, for they pressed her to leave her husband — if he would not go, etc.: a fine proof of the ability of these so-called preachers to make proselytes, but also of the godless doctrine and God-forgetting practice of the Methodists; and it does not surprise us that this preacher so urgently pressed his mother to commit this abomination, for he himself two years ago, driven by his conscience to renounce the false doctrine of the Methodists and to join the Lutheran Church, had a like experience, in that his own wife was then induced by her missionary to leave her husband if he should join the Lutheran Church; which, because his wife also left him at once, moved him, penitent, to seek forgiveness again from his wife and from the missionary. The old father, however, remained steadfast in this heavy temptation by God's grace, and said again: If then your mother will go, she may also go, since I cannot hold her: I abide by the truth. But the LORD, who has given this married pair to love one another faithfully (which is rare among the Indians), thereby prevented the violent rending of His ordinance, this marriage. A remarkable experience we always had in this, both with children who were in our school and with adults; they may have been loaded by us with love and benefits, and they themselves may be as affectionately inclined to us as they will, as soon as they are seduced by the Methodists they become our worst enemies, and that so suddenly that one can scarcely believe the possibility. Our heart bleeds at such experiences, and we complain of it to the LORD, who in His time will look into it! Such fruits only Methodism can indeed produce, and we do not wonder so much at it, since one plainly sees that not only poor ignorant Indians are seduced by them and cheated of the salvation of their souls, that not only we Lutheran missionaries are made suspect to the heathen and, if possible, to the members of our own congregation: — but that Methodism everywhere, in every place where it has taken root, bears like fruits, as the "Lutheraner" lately showed us abundantly in the case of a Mr. "Mulfinger."

Yet as distressing as such experiences are in the mission, it is also as gratifying to us to see that God's Word, if not in many, yet in single souls proves itself mighty, as we perceive in the old man above, who earlier already, and more and more, shows traces that he is laid hold of by the LORD Christ and His Word. HE preserve him by His Spirit in faith unto the end. But also others in our little congregation give us much joy and encourage us to thank God. When we compare in general in our congregation the Formerly with the Now, the difference is striking. When we consider how joyfully they now come to the house of God, how they sing with us the precious hymns of Luther in their own language, how attentively they hear God's Word and the preaching of the same, how they quietly return home again and await their calling, how immediately after birth they bring their children to the LORD Christ in baptism, how gradually cleanliness enters among them, how they no longer go in winter with their families to their hunting grounds, but dwell quietly and peacefully in their little log houses, etc.: when we compare this and other things with the Formerly, we marvel at the great change which the LORD has wrought through His Word, and see that HE has done more than we ask or understand, and more than we ever dared to hope!

Our school this winter is smaller than in former years, because we have no children from Sibiwaiing as formerly, since for lack of proper accommodations we could not receive them, even if their parents were willing (which is not the case) to give them over to us. It numbers from 6 — 10 scholars, sometimes more, namely when our chief with some other adults comes to the school and sets himself as a scholar among the children. A young-