# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 05 25_S154
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

154

country custom, over good Bavarian beer and a tolerable supper, apparently as a daily guest, in chatty company, was comfortably celebrating amid the cares of office and family; of what faith, however, the clerical gentleman was, we were not able to discover.

The next morning we drove in a hired carriage to Neuendettelsau, about 5 hours' journey distant from Gunzenhausen. Here, as the reader will expect, there soon took place again a lively mutual exchange on the oft-mentioned controversial subjects. We cannot indeed conceal that the oral discussions also at this meeting did not have as their result perfect agreement in all individual points of doctrine. In particular it came out that between us there exists a difference, for the present not to be removed, concerning the doctrine of Ordination. For while we held fast that ordination in the narrower sense†) is not of divine institution and is an ecclesiastical ordinance, however venerable and wholesome, yet only apostolic, for the public solemn confirmation of the call with prayer and laying on of hands, Pastor Löhe on the other hand declared that he could not give up the conviction that ordination is a divine ordinance and more than a mere confirmation of the call received to the ministry of preaching. But since we on our side could testify to Pastor Löhe how high and holy the act of ordination nevertheless stands with us, and how greatly we abhor the levity and wickedness of those who, although they could have sought ordination, for any unworthy reasons undertake to assume the most holy functions of the holy office without this solemn consecration; and since we naturally also gladly conceded this, that the prayer belonging to the act of ordination, when it is sent up to God in faith and grounded upon the particular glorious promises given to the holy ministry of preaching, will certainly not remain unheard, but without doubt will be crowned with the outpouring of the necessary gifts for the office, etc.; — since, on the other hand, Pastor Löhe on his side expressed as his conviction that all the rights and glories which Christ has acquired belong originally not to any particular estate, but to the congregation of the believers and saints, of the justified children of God; — since finally, as we had to concede to Pastor Löhe that individual theologians within our Church, and in particular some church orders, spoke the same language with him about ordination, so Pastor Löhe conceded to us that precisely the most distinguished Lutheran dogmaticians stand on our side and have set forth the type of doctrine represented by us on the point in question: it could not fail that the difference still remaining we both could and did regard as no hindrance to our reaching each other the hand of brotherhood in spite of it, and further carrying on in common the work of the Lord. We must in general confess that, even if at certain expositions of Pastor Löhe in his printed writings, where he speaks of the Church as it ought to be shaped, one is at times startled and may well come to the thought that questionable principles lie at their foundation, yet when one hears the excellent man himself, not only when in the holy place he sweeps everything along with him with glowing eloquence, but also when in private conversation, in plain speech, he opens the bottom of his heart; when one comes generally to know more closely the man, full of the noblest simplicity, truth, gentleness and humility, with that high esteem for every child of God and for everything good wherever and as he finds it: then all misgivings vanish at once and one must say to oneself: here is no breath of priestly pride to be seen, here is that humility which forgets itself and thinks only of the Church, the "worthy handmaid," and of her Bridegroom of blood; here the Spirit of Christ reigns, here beats a true Lutheran heart. So we parted this time also in peace and in the firm conviction that the devil shall not and will not succeed in casting anything between us and this dear instrument of God which could separate us from one another and destroy the blessing of being bound together in faith and love.

†) For that ordination in the wider sense, namely the ordering of the ministry of preaching itself (in which metonymic sense the Apology, among others, uses the laying on of hands), is of divine institution, we not only do not deny, but hold fast as a jewel of our most holy faith with our whole heart.

On the 15th of November we returned to Nuremberg. For we had still, in particular because of the work in Erlangen which had necessarily to be finished, found no time to inspect more closely an institution located in Nuremberg which concerns us so nearly; and this was now at last to be done. It is the so-called Missionsvorbereitungs-Anstalt (mission preparatory institution) existing there under the direction of the catechist Friedrich Bauer. For when in the year 1846 the preachers' seminary here at Fort Wayne was called into life almost exclusively from means which the love of the brethren in Germany offered, under the stimulus and faithful mediation of Pastor Löhe, and through the entrance of some students sent from there, a circle of like-minded candidates at Nuremberg at the same time founded a preparatory institution, first of all for that seminary, since it was to be foreseen that the latter would for a considerable time, with few exceptions, be recruited solely by pupils from the old homeland. To this was added that more and more young men over there expressed their desire to be received into the seminary established here, whom one did not dare to send across the sea unexamined. "As regards, therefore, the chief task of the preparatory institution, it is here," as its board expresses itself in an earlier annual report, "to examine by teaching and to teach by examining. It regards its task as first of all accomplished when the surest possible conviction has been gained that the bent of faith, the character, the capacity for education and the necessary gifts for teaching are present in a young man, which are indispensable to him for his future high calling (Tim. 3, 1.) Since, however, a certainty of judgment can be gained only through longer and closer intercourse and through thorough instruction, namely in theological subjects, by which the powers present may be measured: the time of examination is therefore used as a time of instruction, namely to lay a foundation in the most important theological knowledge, as well as in general knowledge and skills, to train them further, and to give guidance and opportunity for the practical exercise of the future calling. The requirements for admission are: not mediocre, but very good talent in general and for the spiritual calling in particular; good schooling, namely correctness and readiness in oral and written expression; a Christian knowledge already matured in the school of experience and sincere attachment to the Lutheran Confession; true earnestness in the sanctification of life and walk; a good reputation and recommendatory testimonials. Besides: good health, freedom from binding obligations, consent of the parents, etc." The institution has on the one hand an independent position, on the other hand it is to be regarded as essentially belonging to the "Society for Inner Mission in the Spirit of the Lutheran Church," formed in the year 1849. This proves itself in that the plan of instruction and the house and daily order must be approved by the "Obmänner" (chairmen), and the sending out of pupils can take place only after their consent has been given. Of unpretentious origin, the institution has grown up in quiet together with its North American twin sister, whom it serves in free love and with which it is most intimately grown together into one whole — "as it were," as it says in that report, "a tree with a double root, one in the old native soil and the other across the ocean, yet so that shade and fruits come to the benefit of the spiritually forsaken brethren in the faith and kinsmen in America." Up to the close of the year 1849, 46 pupils had already received instruction in the institution, of whom up to that time 18 had already been sent out (to Fort Wayne). An essential change took place in the institution in the last-named year, in that its first director, the catechist Mr. Bauer, through voluntary resignation of the office formerly held by him as teacher at the District Agricultural and Trade School at Nuremberg, was put in the position of devoting himself exclusively to the purposes of the Insti-