# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 08 17_S206
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

206

have they all the same office? Each has his gift and serves with his gift the whole body, but therefore the gifts are not alike. To whom belongs by right, in worldly as in spiritual affairs, a greater share in the public conduct of the word: to him who, with all his otherwise simplicity and honesty of heart, is nevertheless shortsighted and limited in his grasp of circumstances, or to him to whom God has given exercised senses for the discerning of the true and the false, and an eloquent mouth to set forth the doctrine clearly and convincingly? What would become of a Synod if the order were reversed, if folly should rule and wisdom should submit? Would Pastor Grabau want to set up such an order, or rather disorder, in his Synod; is it not evident that he himself is the one who carries the weightiest word in his Synod, and could we not therefore make against the Buffalo Synod the same reproach which he makes against our Synod? Yes, certainly with much greater right. And if Pastor Grabau made the most successful attempt to prove that his colleagues and the congregations connected with him share his opinion in the present controversy quite independently of him, and defend his hierarchical principles, he will nevertheless never persuade a judge of men and good observer of things that those would not be noticeably influenced by him.

The undersigned believe they may without hesitation make this concession to Pastor Grabau, in the name of their brethren of the Missouri Synod, that among us the gifts of our prominent members are indeed recognized and honored, and that a certain modesty toward them does not ill become us, but rather befits us well. But we protest against the notion that we should let our eyes be dazzled by the splendor of a gift and give up our conscience captive under the authority of men. The word: "One is your Master" stands written in our hearts in indelible letters. God forbid that we should ever set up other masters.

Only then would Pastor Grabau have just ground for his accusation, if anything had occurred on the part of the members of our Synod, who are the acting persons in the whole controversy with him, which is in no way to be justified by God's Word; and the Synod had nevertheless accepted and approved it without examination. Then he might with right conclude the lack of independence of the Synod. But let Pastor Grabau remember that at the Synod of 1850 and '51 all these matters came before its forum, and each of our members had opportunity to become acquainted with the state of affairs and to form a judgment of it according to God's Word. Everyone who had any scruple was permitted to speak; those two members of our Synod, of whom Pastor Grabau writes that they had admonished the Synod to repentance, but were talked over and pacified by Professor Walther, are precisely a proof that the Synod has accepted nothing on the faith and credit of its spokesmen (we beg that the bad sense which this word otherwise has be disregarded). They were heard, all their scruples were weighed, as the Synodalbericht of 1851 shows, and the withdrawal by those two members of the Synod was a voluntary one, out of conviction. Had we wished to think otherwise of them, we should surely only have grieved these our dear brethren.

All the facts which were laid before our Synod concerning the churchly practice of Pastor Grabau, especially concerning the administration of the ban, and confirmed by witnesses, were by no means suited to make him manifest as an upright shepherd of souls in the conscience of every Christian, and to determine the same to reject as unauthorized and unjust the Synod's previous procedure of again offering, through faithful shepherds, to such souls as had fallen victim to the harshness and domineering spirit of their preachers and been robbed of spiritual blessings. In the second place, the assertions of Pastor Grabau concerning the false doctrines of those whom he calls the Missourians were really too monstrous to work in us the conviction that Grabau is a pure teacher of the Lutheran Church, and that those Christians had sinned grievously who had separated from him and his Synod. When Pastor Grabau continually charges our Synod with having false doctrine concerning the ministry, concerning the ban and the office of the keys, concerning the spiritual priesthood, concerning the right call, concerning ordination and concerning the Church, and we are nevertheless conscious of holding faithfully and sincerely to the Scriptures and the Confessions of our Church in all these points; how can we think otherwise than that Pastor Grabau must indeed hold a divergent doctrine, colored by hierarchical principles, as indeed is plain as day in his Hirtenbrief and the writings relating to it? And yet he demands of our Synod that we, against our conscience, should say to the people who take offense at his doctrine: You sin if you separate from so pure a Lutheran teacher as Pastor Grabau is.

No, truly, Pastor Grabau would have to become manifest in our conscience quite differently before he can demand of us that we should do penance for the wrong which in his opinion has been done to him. And if he did, there would be no need among us of a summons to repentance, but we would do it before it was demanded. But let Pastor Grabau by no means think that he becomes manifest in our conscience as a faithful servant of the Lord by continually filling his Informatorium with his self-justification and bitter attacks upon us; rather this increases our distrust. An upright teacher does not become manifest in the conscience of others by zealously contending for himself, but by his doctrine and by his conduct. Had doctrine joined with deed attested Pastor Grabau as a faithful Lutheran teacher in the eyes and consciences of all upright Lutherans, it would truly not have come to the point that one has had to take excluded or banned members of his congregation under protection against him.

If Pastor Grabau thinks that he commends himself to us thereby, or awakens sympathies for himself in our Synod, when he now quite unsparingly attacks even the character of our brethren, so dearly loved and highly esteemed by us, he is mistaken; thereby he stifles in us the last little spark of confidence, and, unless God works wonders, makes every agreement impossible, which perhaps would not have been so impossible had Pastor Grabau shown himself more dispassionate. If Pastor Grabau knew how it cuts like a murderous sword into our soul, and how it perhaps fills thousands of honest children of God with deepest grief, if not even with righteous anger and indignation, when he, as he has done in No. 17 of his Informatorium, calls one of the most venerated and meritorious members of our Synod a Stephanist fox, a Stephanist serpent's head*) and the like; he would have thought twice before writing down such a thing.

*) What embitterment and darkening of mind there must be in a heart where one reproaches brethren, again and again with spiteful abusive words, for their errors which have long been recognized, publicly confessed and forgiven by God and men. To cast up forgiven sins is the work of Satan. Note of the Sender.

In such expressions one can read nothing but a mind filled with bitter gall. The passionate, heresy-hunting zeal of the former so-called Orthodox in their strife against the Pietists, little as their tendency is to be justified from a sound churchly standpoint, is down to this present day a disgrace in the history of the Lutheran Church; does Mr. Pastor Grabau then wish to lay a like disgrace upon himself and the Lutheran Church of America? Can brethren in their own house not settle their family quarrels, so to speak, in any other way than by tearing and rending one another; or does zeal for God's honor consist in this, that one takes from one another the honest name, prepares a scornful laughter for the devil, confuses many innocent minds, thereby hinders the course of the Gospel and holds the truth in unrighteousness? It would be no wonder if Grabau's embittered attacks, for which the Informatorium seems to have been created exclusively, had also provoked passion on our side (which is just what Satan would gladly have); and yet every impartial person, yes, Mr. Pastor Grabau himself, must confess that he has not been met with such carnal weapons as he has wielded. The impartial reader of both papers must often wonder how frequently quite well-meant, harmless