# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 08 31_S6
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

6

nourishment, God has promised in his Word that he will, as it were, pay the account of his servants. A cup of cold water, given to a disciple of Christ for the Savior's sake, shall not remain unrewarded. Yea, the reward has already gone before in manifold measure. The LORD gives to his believers also for the servants of his Church, when he blesses them in the field and in the cattle; in their handiwork, and above all with health and strength.

3. Although Herod's bloody scheme was not hindered, yet he thereby filled up the measure of his wickedness. He did not sign bloody orders much longer, though many still went out from him in his last days of life. Death overtook him soon afterward, yea, as has been reckoned with great probability, so quickly after Jesus' flight that he was absent from home only a few weeks. — So even the worst adversaries of Christ are not able to quench the cause of the LORD according to their lusts, because they have One higher over them, whose judgments of punishment often strike them in the midst of their schemes against his kingdom. The history of our holy Church furnishes more than one example of how the strong hand of the LORD has so smitten the most bloodthirsty enemies of the believers that they either desisted of themselves from persecuting them or were forced against their will to desist. That descendant of our Herod, of whom the Acts of the Apostles tells, the angel of God smote, so that he died, after he had caused the apostle James to be beheaded (Acts 12, 23.). A Roman emperor who wished to bring back heathenism, after Christianity had already been spread over the circle of the earth, fell in battle soon after he had ascended the throne. All persecutors of Christ have been able to oppress his little flock but a short time at most. At last they have, the one like the other, sunk into the grave and gone down to hell, and would gladly exchange with those to whom, by all their raging, they could here only help into heaven. From the high council at Jerusalem to the Turk and Pope, nothing is left of the power of the enemies but curse and contempt upon earth, and the smoke of their torment, which indeed shall ascend forever and ever, but no longer to the pain of Christ's members, but to that of them, the enemies themselves.

What, then, is there to fear, as though Christ could not remain in the world? Why are we anxious that we shall not get through the world with Him? Does it not show itself so plainly that, although his flock must live and lodge in this world as though it were the most wretched people on earth, it is nevertheless upheld by the mighty hand of Him who, though he is in this world, yet at the same time reigns above the world? Therefore only be of good cheer, beloved! God's Church abides nevertheless. She hangs only into this world, as a net is let down into the sea by the fisherman; she rests in the hand of Him who waits for her on the rock-foundation of eternal life, to draw her up to himself. May He let us remain in this world in such wise as long as He will, but not forget that, so long as He leaves us here, He will also use us for the rescue of those whom he brings to us, as a fisherman his net. Amen.

How the Heathen Caliphas, King of the Tartars, Came to Faith.

Once there was among the Tartars
A king, Caliphas,
Who swore to the believing hosts
Death and hatred of the Christians.

He spoke to his counsellors:
"Ye lords, say on,
How I may kill the Christians,
And exterminate them."

"There is good counsel to be found,"
Spoke one forthwith,
"Thou must overcome them
With Christ's own word.

For therein it is written:
'Whoso were strong in faith,
And should say to the mountain yonder:
Arise, cast thyself into the sea!

So shall it be done.'
Now, O king, my counsel is
That thou shouldest see for thyself
Whether it be so indeed."

The king hears it with joy,
He sends out messengers
To summon the Christians
Into the royal house.

And at his word there appears
The whole host of the Christians:
The king asks them: "Think
Ye that Christ's word is true?"

And "Yea" resounds with one voice
From the mouth of all the Christians.
Then the king grows grim,
And cries aloud at that hour:

"Ye know, it is written
In the Gospel:
That faith would overthrow
The mountain yonder.

If ye now within ten days
Do not this with the mountain,
I will have you slain;
Go hence, ye know it now."

Thereupon the servants of God
Speak to the congregation:
"Fear not thine enemies,
Thou, little flock, thou."

They fall at God's feet
In their great distress,
And plead in true repentance:
Deliver us, O God.

Then God graciously reveals
That for the mountain
A cobbler, who is one-eyed,
Shall speak the words.

Indeed the poor pious man
Declines the honor,
Because he is a sinner;
Yet at last he accepts it.

Now when the time had passed
That was fixed by the king,
The whole people streams full of eagerness
Into the field.

The heathen all step
Over to the one side,
Ready with bare sword
To kill the believers.

And yonder stands the small,
Distressed band of Christians,
And waits until the help
Appear to them wondrously.

Then the poor cobbler
Falls upon his knees,
And says: "God Jesus, behold
The grim mind of the heathen.

Already they stand armed
For the murder of thy Christians,
And mock, as it pleases them,
Thy eternal, holy Word.

Yet thou hast promised
That those who trust in Thee,
Thou wilt mightily snatch
From all dread of death.

Almighty, then incline
Thine ear to our crying,
Do wonders, Lord, and show
That thou alone art God.

Ah, let us not be slain
To the scorn of thy name,
Lest the heathen say:
Where, then, is now their God?

Deliver thy beloved,
Show forth thy glory,
And cast down the mountain yonder
By thine almighty power."

Then he rises and proclaims:
"In Jesus, who founded the All
And thee, O mountain,
I command thee: Fall!"

And lo! the mountain trembles
With a loud clap of thunder,
And falls over, shattered,
With a roaring crash.

Then the Christians, full of joy,
Praise God's hand,
The heathen see, shaken,
The great wonder.

The king, together with his own,
Believes that Christ's word is true,
And by baptism they unite
Themselves with the host of Christians.

Herrmann Fick.

N. B. This story is reported by Vincentius in his speculo historiali. It happened in the year 1225.

Kirchliche Nachrichten.

On the 6th to the 10th of June of this year the German Evangelical Lutheran Ministerium of Pennsylvania and the adjacent States held its 105th annual convention at Lancaster, Pa. The report of the proceedings of this convention lies before us. We learn from it some things which we think it our duty to communicate to our readers.

Already in his annual report the president of this Synod, Dr. J. W. Richards of