# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 05 25_S157
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

157

congregation proclaim, and to delight and to learn in this manner how he practically handles the liturgy in pulpit and at altar, of whose history and meaning, down to each of its individual parts, he is, as is well known, undoubtedly the greatest connoisseur in our day. Now although, as regards the disputed points of doctrine, we did not come to a conclusion with him in every expression even during our present stay in the house of Pastor Löhe, yet we can already assure the dear readers with joyful confidence that, by God's grace and favor, a unity in the truth and in love has been attained which is of greater worth than one which has its warrant only in a signature, given on both sides and obtained by one side through importunity upon the other, beneath certain strictly formulated propositions. The more important, however, a true unity reaching into the finest fibers of the development of doctrine is, and the more certainly such a unity is not the work of men but of God alone, so much the more unceasingly and earnestly and fervently let the dear Christian Lutheran reader call upon God that He would further and complete the work begun of a holy Concordia (concord) to the honor of His name and to the welfare and blessing of His Church here and beyond the sea. In the measure, moreover, in which our relation to Pastor Löhe became ever more intimate, in the same measure this intimacy grew also between us and Catechist Bauer and Pastor Stirner in Fürth, with whom two, among all those standing nearest to Pastor Löhe, we found opportunity to converse most frequently and most thoroughly. Catechist Bauer was this time also several days with us in the parsonage at Neuendettelsau.

We cannot, finally, leave unmentioned that, being urgently invited by Dean Bachmann, we made on one of these days (the 26th of November), in the company of Pastor Löhe and Catechist Bauer, a walk to the nearby little town of Windsbach, where in the house of the Dean we spent some glorious hours, refreshing us bodily and spiritually. Also present were Pastor J. T. Müller of Immeldorf (the present editor of the Nördlinger Sonntagsblatt and editor of the Stuttgart splendid edition of the German-Latin Book of Concord with a historical introduction and critical remarks) and the teachers in the orphanage for pastors' sons existing at Windsbach. The closer acquaintance with Pastor Müller, with whom we had already spoken once in Neuendettelsau, was also a very welcome one to us, in that we came to know in him, as in the Dean, a man of as amiable a personality as of Christian faithfulness. A rare enjoyment was prepared for us here, among other things, by the choir of the pastors' orphan boys in the foundation, who, under the direction of their music teacher, Candidate Hacker, performed several old liturgical chants. We must say that we have never heard a more beautiful and more moving choral song than this one in its old rhythms, chords and sequences of harmonies. Strengthened in body and soul, we then walked back home at nightfall.

On the following day, finally, we departed with thankful hearts also from Neuendettelsau, in order to return once more to North Germany and from there to begin our homeward journey as soon as possible.

(To be concluded.)

Something on the "Letter of Pastor Grabau "to Pastor and Professor Winkler in Detroit, Right Reverend."

In the 14th number of the Buffalo "Informatorium" there is found, among other things, a letter as designated in the heading. Therein Pastor Grabau seeks to quiet, or, if one prefers, to instruct, his fellow minister Pastor Winkler regarding the reproof administered to him by us in No. 15 of the "Lutheraner."

It might almost seem as if Pastor Grabau, if he has not himself felt the force of the proof conducted by us against Pastor Winkler, had at least feared that others would feel this force and would therefore not be quieted by Pastor Winkler's reply. But be that as it may; Pastor Grabau concedes: "If indeed H. Heshusius said nothing further than what Mr. Walther cites, he could thereby confirm that one is authorized to send mob-preachers into foreign congregations, who would then be Christ's servants;" that is, in the language of Pastor Grabau, that we so-called Missourians were authorized to confirm in his office another preacher chosen by them, at their request, for those who had separated from Pastor Winkler on account of certain matters. Now, however, Heshusius really says nothing further than what was communicated about the "case in which preachers are obliged to impart the sacraments to strange good Christians." Thus we stand justified by Pastor Grabau's own confession as people who in the Pastor Winkler controversy acted according to the old practice of our Church and according to the counsel of our old, unsuspected divines.

Pastor Grabau indeed reproaches us that we left out what Heshusius says about the case in which one may not accept strange parishioners. But that is a most singular reproach. It is about as if one wished to reproach a man who had proved justification by grace alone through faith from Rom. 3:28 with having omitted the words immediately preceding: "Who will render to every man according to his deeds: namely, glory and honor and imperishable being, to them who with patience in good works seek after eternal life." Rom. 2:6-7.

It is, moreover, remarkable that Pastor Grabau in his "Letter" has himself fallen into the pit which he wished to dig for us. He charges us with omissions, and in having what we left out printed, he himself leaves out precisely the words in the passage cited by him that speak for us. After the words cited by Pastor Grabau it says, namely, in the Heshusian opinion further: "Therefore let every pastor look well to it that he receive no strange little sheep, unless the case of necessity be present, as mentioned above," etc. Herewith Heshusius testifies clearly and distinctly that he persists in the judgment pronounced by him above, which was communicated by us in the Lutheraner. We will indeed not pay Pastor Grabau back in the same coin for this omission and write out into the world: "One sees here also, as always, how dishonestly the gentlemen (of Buffalo) use everything that is good,"—these words, namely, Pastor Grabau uses of us—: but let him learn from this how true it is, as an old proverb says: "He who has a glass roof must not throw stones at others."

Pastor Grabau further makes it a reproach to us that we communicated nothing of the vote of the godly Mansfeld superintendent Mentzelius, cited in Heshusius' opinion. To this the answer is the same as to number two. In addition, Heshusius does not refer to Mentzel's vote (which, moreover, we subscribe to from the heart) for instruction concerning the case that concerns us, but to the one previously named, whence Heshusius continues thus: "But when the case occurs that other people, who do not belong in our parish, sit either under the antichristian papacy . . . or are burdened by their tyrannical pastors against their conscience . . . , in such and the like case it is free to us preachers to impart to every man . . . the sacrament," etc.

It is droll, finally, that Pastor Grabau, in order to leave nothing good in our citation of an old theological opinion, in great zeal even accuses us of having "erroneously given" the page number. He should in fairness have considered that there are valuable books which have passed through various editions and therefore have also undergone a change in pagination. If perchance Pastor Grabau does not trust us when we assure him that our edition of 1623 has the page number given, we are ready, if necessary, to make out an affidavit for him about it. —

As to the second theolo-