# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 03 29_S102
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

102

the minds of the poor Indians. — And if one would not acknowledge the example of the Brethren's Church as normative, one will surely hold to that of the Scripture, and it teaches us also that Peter and John were sent thither to the Samaritans for the strengthening of the young believers; and that Peter afterward went about everywhere to visit and to strengthen the little flocks converted by others. Acts 8, 14 ff. Acts 9, 32.

3. Finally I beg you, at your visits to the mission stations, to take an interest also in the school; that is, both to examine the children and to encourage the parents to send their children diligently and regularly to school. Together with the missionaries you will then best find out how the school may be improved, and how a right desire for it may be awakened in the parents as well as in the children. — There is a youth of about 17 years here, who indeed no longer goes to school, because he must hunt both for his mother, a widow, and for himself, but who comes every evening to practice reading in the little book provided by us. In a short time he has made such noticeable progress that, both in view of his ability and of his zeal and delight in God's Word, he awakens in us the hope that he could be trained up to be a capable native helper, if he were properly taken in hand, and a churchly consciousness awakened in him. And this again can be done with real force only if the connection of the local mission with the Church and Synod is demonstrated to him in fact, that is, by deeds and not by words alone. For Indians, especially such as have only lately been torn out of heathenism, want to be taken in hand and treated differently from Germans who are born and brought up in the Church.

Do not despise these requests, honored brethren; they may well be the last from me. — And I can say that they are well weighed, often thought over, and founded on experience.

Finally, however, permit me to lay before you two further proposals, both for yourselves and through you for our dear Synod.

I. The members of the Missions-Commission, at least the President and Secretary, ought to live in Michigan. I am convinced that the Commission will never fulfill its task, never become to the mission what it could and should be to it, if its members live scattered hundreds of miles apart, and scarcely get to see one another once in the whole year. The task of the Missions-Commission requires that its members be able to confer more often, even orally, and to consider the welfare of the mission. Only then can they also visit the station regularly, and at times of special need also appear in person at the station outside the usual time at the missionary's request, which indeed can often become urgently necessary. Whereas at such a distance it must of course happen that one or another member of the Missions-Commission never hears, or sees, or learns anything of the Synod's mission; and that his whole activity as a member of the Missions-Commission consists in signing his name once a year. —

II. The cause of the mission ought not to be put off until the last session of the Synod, because then there is so little time that scarcely anything more than the accounts can be presented. It is surely very necessary that the whole Synod should bear the cause of the mission upon its heart and help to deliberate upon it. But this will not come to pass until the whole Synod takes closer cognizance of the mission, for which, to be sure, one or two sessions, and not merely so many hours, are required. In the first days of the session there would be time enough for it, while in the last days the business naturally accumulates. The Brethren's Church has held synods expressly on account of the mission. Only with closer knowledge of the mission can the Synod also bear it upon its heart in intercession. For how should anyone feel constrained to intercede for something of which he knows little or nothing? Likewise it is only then that provision will be made, by the pastors as well as by the delegates of the congregations present, for procuring the necessary means. For how are the pastors to keep their courage for asking, and the congregations their cheerfulness for giving, and how is this courage and this cheerfulness to be increased, if they hear so little how the dear God has also blessed their mite? If at the synodical sessions the mission is treated so hastily and so coldly? —

Thus, dear and honored brethren, I have laid before you the requests and wishes which my heart has long kept. I do not doubt that you will willingly open ear and heart to them, and, with Christian love and care, take up the cause of this poor little flock here, forsaken by all the world, deceived and trodden under foot, and so become helpers of its joy, both here on earth and one day yonder in blessed eternity.

And so I remain, dear brethren, in the LORD, bound to you, and sign in hearty love and esteem and with the greeting of peace

Baierlein.

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It is well known to every evangelical Lutheran Christian how many severe struggles and sufferings, how many tears and how much blood it cost, before the work of the Reformation was victoriously carried out and before our fathers obtained the long-desired freedom of religion. For when God, by His servant Dr. Martin Luther, caused the dear Gospel to be proclaimed again pure and clear, the Pope, the Emperor and the whole world arose with all their might to destroy the truth. But what did our believing forefathers do then? They did not yield or waver; they remained faithful to the LORD JESUS unto death, they joyfully confessed His Word before all the world and sealed the evangelical Lutheran doctrine with their blood. Thus thousands and again thousands have died for the Gospel; and not only men and youths, but also women and maidens, yea, even children of the tenderest age have obtained the beautiful crown of martyrdom.

With right, therefore, the evangelical Lutheran Church has from of old held the memory of her martyrs in high honor. Luther himself set a good example in this, in that he carefully described the martyrdom of the faithful confessors and made it known by print. Dr. Bugenhagen, Dr. Rabus and others followed him in this.

But those older martyr-books have for the most part perished in the course of time. What? shall we now suffer that the memory of our dear martyrs also perish with them? Never. We should thereby only rob ourselves of a great blessing. For the holy martyrs give us a glorious example, which spurs us on powerfully to all Christian virtues. They were merciful and charitable toward all men, they forgave their enemies, they prayed for their murderers, they persevered firm and steadfast in faith and in love to the end. Their history is, at the same time, also very instructive. For it proves to us most plainly that the Pope, who so fiercely hated and persecuted the Gospel, is the Antichrist foretold in Holy Scripture, and that the Roman Catholic Church, which shed the blood of the dear confessors in streams, is the antichristian Babel and the great red harlot, which is drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. Rev. 17, 6. And finally, according to the Word of God, there is probably nothing that so strengthens faith, so awakens holy courage of witness, as the very reading of these holy martyr histories.

Those martyrs were weak men like ourselves, and yet! — what wonders they wrought in the power of God! For JESUS' sake they joyfully gave up the dearest thing they possessed on earth; they endured the most unheard-of torments rather than deny even a single letter of the divine Word; as knightly warriors they followed the LORD JESUS faithfully through prison, reproach and pain, through fire, water and sword; they thanked the LORD JESUS that He counted them worthy to die for His sake, and praised Him to the last breath. So heroically they fought for the pure doctrine of the divine Word and for freedom from papal heresy