# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1852 11 09_S45
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

45

faith of his fathers, yet he resolved, even as an old man, upon a careful examination of the writings which were extolled by the Christians as divine. He read and read again, and the oftener he read, the more he felt himself drawn by the holy simplicity of Scripture and laid hold of by its divine power. And to this every honest examination of the holy books must surely lead, if only a sincere longing after truth guides the inquirer, and the certainly praiseworthy examining is not taken in that sense in which many today demand it, namely, that the verdict of rejection upon a book of truly divine origin shall be pronounced beforehand in silence, and that in the reading of the book, only further grounds for this worst of all prejudices that can be imagined are sought out. Whoever with such a mind, with the intention, though not openly confessed yet secretly cherished, of allowing nothing in the Bible to count as divine except what one already holds to be such, and of rejecting outright as contrary to reason whatever at first sight appears strange and new; whoever with such a secret, more than natural, wilful unbelief comes to the Word of God, will indeed find what he seeks, but let him not hide himself behind the philosophical cloak of examination, but say it plainly, what at bottom he means, that he simply does not will to believe, and in the pretended examination only declares what he was already resolved upon before the examination. The oft misunderstood and misinterpreted demand that one must search the Bible with a believing mind, can mean nothing else than that one should not do so with an unbelieving mind, that is, one resolved not to believe, but with earnest longing after divine truth should yield oneself without prejudice to the impressions of the Word of God. This may indeed be required of everyone, as our Savior also demands it, in the exhortation: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear, and when He seeks the reason why men did not receive the testimony of Scripture concerning Him in the evil will: “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life” (John 5:39, 40); and where the Bible is not taken up with this good will, there the light of life will hardly, and only in few cases, arise upon the eye out of it, for these are the blinded eyes and the stopped ears and hardened hearts, which see nothing and perceive nothing, lest they should be converted and be healed by Him. John 12:40.

Victorinus, to return to him, did not hide himself from the light which fell into his heart out of the holy books of the Christians, but went on only the more zealously to read and to search. What a struggle the newly won truth must have had to endure in his soul with all the prejudices, which were the harder for him to lay aside because they had grown old with him and had grown, as it were, into his life, and especially also because before the eyes of the whole people he had hitherto won so much renown for acuteness and learning by defending them! All at once the truth could of course not carry off the victory over self-love, which was here in the sorest straits. Yet after some time Victorin came to a Christian in Rome, Simplician, and declared to him, though under the seal of secrecy, that he should know that he was already a Christian. But the other answered him: “I will not believe it, nor count thee among the Christians, until I shall have seen thee in a Christian church.” But Victorin did not yet have courage enough for such a free and public confession; he sought to put off the request, saying merely in mockery: “Then do the church walls make a Christian?” The same conversation was repeated many times between the two; Viktorin always wished to let the matter rest with the inner conviction of his heart, ostensibly because he held the outward side of religion to be unessential, but at bottom because he shrank from angering too greatly, by an open apostasy, his many distinguished heathen patrons; Simplician, on the other hand, insisted always that the faith of the heart cannot do without outward confession, and that he is not yet a true Christian who shrinks from giving a frank testimony of his hope. At length the truth of the Gospel, through continued occupation with it, penetrated ever deeper into Victorin’s mind, so that all petty, earthly considerations had to yield to the higher command of faith; especially had the word of the Lord, Luke 12:8: “Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before the angels of God; and whosoever denieth me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God!” laid hold of him and made him ashamed of his former half-heartedness. One day, quite unexpectedly, he entered the house of his Christian friend with the words: “Come now, let us go to church; I will be a Christian!” The other could hardly contain himself for joy and went with him. The old man, famed for his learning and art, placed himself, to the astonishment of all Rome, after the custom of the Christian church, among the pupils, received the preparatory instruction for admission into the congregation with zeal and attention, and he who had hitherto been everywhere the first was not ashamed to become one of the least in the Christian church. In vain was he spoken to from every side, in vain his distinguished friends begged and threatened, in vain the wrath of the ill-disposed arose and spread the most hateful slanders against him, who had been accustomed hitherto only to be praised. Viktorin bore everything with joyfulness and quietly let the raging waves of the world roar and foam behind him, from which he himself had just escaped through the grace of God. The day of baptism drew near, awaited by him with longing, by all Rome with curiosity. It was the custom in the Christian church that the candidates for baptism had to recite aloud, from a raised place in the church, before the whole congregation, the confession of faith which had been given them beforehand to learn by heart, before they were admitted to the holy bath. But since it was supposed that Victorin would shrink from this confession, which seemed to be a loud recantation of all his former words and writings, he was offered what was wont to be permitted to the timid, to make his confession of faith quietly before a few presbyters. But Victorin had taken hold of his portion too surely to tremble now at anything; he preferred to declare his conviction aloud before the assembly with the rest. The church was crowded full on that day, a great throng of Christians, who rejoiced heartily to count such a man henceforth as one of their own, stood in expectation gathered about the altar. When Victorinus mounted the platform, a soft murmur went through the whole assembly, and the name Victorinus! Victorinus! sounded as if in congratulation from one mouth to another. But immediately it was again deathly still, that none of his words might be lost. He uttered his faith with a firm voice and with great joyfulness; the whole congregation was moved and left the church full of deep admiration of the man to whom such a wonder had happened, but still more of the grace which had done such a wonder to this man. And so Victorin’s conversion, and afterwards the shining example of his faith and steadfastness, served many for awakening and confirmation.

Indeed Victorin had now to renounce the practice of his art, since the apostate Emperor Julian had just forbidden the Christians to give instruction in the sciences and in rhetoric. But that troubled him little; and it did not last long before that law was repealed with Julian’s death. Now Victorin could open his school again, and from that time applied his talents to the defense of Christianity and to the service of the truth. He died about the year 310, and left behind various writings in which he, in contrast to his former endeavors, helped to teach and defend the faith which had now become the dearest possession of his life.

(From an older devotional paper.)

The Little Preacher.

The proverb says: “What is to become a hook bends early.” By this one commonly means that it usually shows itself early in youth, when