# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 05 25_S159
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

159

ical that they nevertheless seek to give themselves the appearance before the people that they are, notwithstanding, thoroughly moral men, on whose words one may indeed rely; that their actions also are guided by noble principles, etc. Of such hypocritical, cowardly atheists there are, alas! a multitude also here in St. Louis, and many of our poor Germans in particular, given over by God to a perverse mind, are often stupid enough to lend credence to the hypocritical prattle of such atheists about "morality, nobility of mind, pure motives, good principles, etc."

There have been, however, atheists who have said straight out what their religion actually is. Most honestly of all comes out with it, among others, the bosom friend of old Fritz, the atheistic Doctor de la Mettrie. He writes, for example, the following:

"Happiness is the right of every man; he must find it where it is; it belongs to the vicious as well and as justly as to the best. The enjoyment of love in its natural sense, intelligible even to the beasts, the finest titillation of the senses, is our only good; it alone, even without the honor and applause of the world, makes us happy. To obtain this, virtue, that pedant (who picks at every trifle), must not hinder him. She is a figment of the brain, a brood of art and a foreign growth which does not sprout by nature in our bosom. Remorse, which is so obstinate as to pursue us, one must banish from one's thoughts, and the inconvenient conscience, a fruit of the blows and prejudices received in our childhood, one must stupefy, bid be silent, and stop its mouth so long until it can speak no more. There is no thinking of God, and that there is no other life is proved; therefore one has nothing to fear except the one being that stands in the way of our happiness: the hangman—before this judge the philosopher must indeed be on his guard, since otherwise he fears nothing either above the earth or beneath it." (Traité de la vie heureuse.)

Church News.

Candidate Jesaias Andreas Häckel, trained and examined at Fort Wayne, received a regular call from the Ev. Luth. congregations at Sulphur Spring and at Big River in Jefferson Co., Mo., which had become vacant through the calling away of their former pastor, Mr. M. Johannes, and was solemnly ordained in the latter congregation on Sunday Cantate, the 9th of May of this year, by Pastor Bünger, by commission of the President.

May the LORD Jesus Christ give to the work of this newly called servant of the Word His rich blessing in the widely extended parish.

Washington, D. C., May 1, 1852.

Beloved friends in the LORD Christ Jesus!

To our great joy we can make you, dear fellow believers, a communication in which you will certainly take the most sincere and heartfelt interest. We have namely seen and experienced that the Lord does not cast off forever, but He indeed grieves—compare Jeremiah, Lamentations, chapter 2, verses 14 and 15—yet He has compassion again according to His great mercy. He lets His soul-saving Word be preached again purer and clearer among us and His holy Sacraments be administered again according to His will, both of which we had to do without for so long a time. To Him be praise, glory and honor for it!

It was on the eighth Sunday after the Feast of the Holy Trinity, 1851, when, upon our urgent request and upon the commission of the Reverend Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States, to which we had turned for the sending of a preacher, Pastor Keyl, of the Evangelical Lutheran congregation at Baltimore, came to us for the first time to preach God's Word to us. He was accompanied by Pastor Wyneken, who was at that time on a journey to Germany. Both reverend gentlemen preached on the said Sunday, the one in the forenoon, the other in the afternoon. Great was our joy on that day to hear God's Word through their mouth, which the Lord has fitted with much wisdom.

Pastor Keyl came to us again afterwards a few times at our wish, and with the joyful consent of his congregation, and after we had united ourselves into a congregation on the basis of a constitution conformable to the Word of God and the confession of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, we called Pastor W. Nordmann on the 2nd of November, 1851, as our preacher and pastor. He accepted the call to our joy, but could not come to us at once, since his former congregations near Baltimore could be supplied only by him until the arrival of a successor. A considerable time passed before the successor arrived—from the 2nd of November, 1851, until Sunday Laetare Pastor Nordmann served us and his former congregations.—At last came the time to which we had looked forward with great longing, that he could remain with us without interruption and be introduced into his holy office among us. The latter took place on Palm Sunday.

Pastor Keyl, commissioned with the introduction by Pastor Brohm in New York, Vice-President of the Rev. Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States, arrived for that purpose, in the company of some brethren and sisters in the faith, on the eve of the said day. On the next morning the first railroad train brought us about 70 of our dear fellow believers, men and women, sons and daughters of the neighboring Lutheran congregation at Baltimore. They wished to unite with us for the praise and thanksgiving of the Most High for His grace which He has shown to us, and the singers' and musicians' choir among them wished to praise the LORD with psalms and songs of praise for His mercy. At 10 o'clock in the morning we betook ourselves with our friends into the house, whose smaller hall must otherwise serve us for our worship. For the service on this day we had, because a greater number of hearers than usual was to be expected, which also came, rented a larger hall therein, which became a friendly house of God. Opposite the entrance to it, at the rear wall, stood upon a raised platform covered with a beautiful carpet our altar, hung with a purple silk cover, on the front of which was a golden cross, and set with a crucifix, at whose sides stood vases with flowers and two silver candlesticks with burning candles. Behind the altar was a white altar-wall, covered with fresh greenery, upon which stood the words from the Sunday Gospel: Hosanna to the Son of David! The service began with the "Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit," whereupon Pastor Nordmann at the altar pointed the hearts to the Father in heaven by singing: "Glory be to God on high!" which call the congregation, accompanied by instrumental music, together with the Baltimore congregation, answered with the hymn: "Allein Gott in der Höh' sei Ehr'!" Thereupon Pastor Nordmann sang at the altar: "The LORD be with you," and the congregation: "And with thy spirit." After the singing of the Collect he read the Epistle. Upon this followed the chief hymn, No. 44, and after it the reading of the Gospel. Thereupon the music and singers' choir of the Baltimore congregation performed a piece of music—it was the first part of the 96th Psalm—undoubtedly to the edification of all present, with great skill. To this piece of music then followed the Creed. There followed the sermon of Pastor Keyl on the Sunday Gospel. He showed that the LORD still enters ever and always into the hearts of men with His blessed Word and with His holy Sacraments, if both are received in true faith. As always, as often as this dear and highly revered servant of the LORD proclaimed His Word to us, so we also received through this sermon rich instruction, counsel, comfort and peace. At the close of the sermon he, visibly giving himself up to the joy over his work founded among us with God's gracious help, made reference to the entering of the LORD into us, with His pure and clear Word and with the holy Sacraments. After the sermon the Baltimore choir sang the hymn: "Macht hoch die Thür, die Thür macht weit!" Thereafter followed the holy act of the Introduction. Pastor Nordmann, together with the elders of the congregation, stepped before the altar, and Pastor Keyl admonished the former to feed his flock with pure-