# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 07 19_S161
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.
(Rev. John, Chap. 14, vv. 6, 7.)
"God's Word and Luther's doctrine pure shall now and evermore endure."
Published by the German Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States.
Edited by C. F. W. Walther.
Volume 9.  St. Louis, Mo., July 19, 1853.  No. 24.
Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who are to pay for it in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 cents.
Only those letters which contain communications for the paper are to be sent to the Editor; all others, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent to this place under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

(Submitted.)

The Voice of Our Church on the Question of Church and Ministry.

A Collection of Testimonies on This Question from the Confessional Writings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church and from the Private Writings of Orthodox Teachers of the Same. Presented by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States, as a Testimony of Its Faith, for the Repulse of the Attacks of Rev. Mr. Grabau, in Buffalo, New York, through C. F. Walther, Professor of Theology and Pastor at St. Louis.

This work, the preparation of which was resolved upon by our Synod in the year 1850 at St. Louis and entrusted to Professor Walther, and was then examined and approved in the year 1851 at Milwaukie, is a book of our Synod itself, and for that reason alone ought to be in the possession of every member of it. For we should not merely all of us, by procuring and circulating this book, confess ourselves to be one with it, but also rejoice to see in it the pure Lutheran doctrine of the Church and the Office of the Ministry, in all its relations, clearly and plainly set before us. We need such instruction, although we ourselves have already declared the doctrine of this book to be ours; for in the first place, the pure doctrine of Scripture is like a finely cut diamond, and therefore requires that we study it without ceasing, in order to learn by degrees to know all its brilliant facets; in the second place, however, the air is full of the haunting of false doctrine, and our own heart is easily overcome in defiance and despondency, wherefore we must constantly renew and strengthen ourselves in the faith of the pure doctrine; thirdly and finally, it is a mighty comfort to see that we confess the same doctrine which, out of God's Word, has at all times been confessed by the orthodox Fathers and witnesses of the truth. You shall have your joy in the book, and not be disturbed in your joy by its form or manner of speech; it speaks intelligibly to everyone, and if one must often pause in reading, this comes not from strange and obscure words and phrases, but from the fullness of the contents.

As the title promises, the book treats, in two distinct parts, of the Church and of the holy Office of the Ministry. Both doctrines are first set forth in theses, that is, in briefly summed-up chief and fundamental propositions, "in order to present to us, in short and plain words, the chief points on which everything here depends." Then each thesis or chief proposition is taken by itself, and it is shown first how God's Word teaches precisely this and nothing else; secondly, how the evangelical Lutheran Confessions, contained in the Book of Concord of the year 1580, set forth precisely this and no other doctrine; thirdly, how the orthodox teachers of the Lutheran Church, e.g. Luther, Chemnitz, John Gerhard, and finally also the ancient Church Fathers, e.g. Ignatius, Jerome, Augustine, likewise found this and no other doctrine in the Holy Scripture and unanimously set it forth. The immediate occasion which brought about the composition of this work, namely the attacks and accusations with which Rev. Mr. Grabau in Buffalo continually heaps us, is not further mentioned in the body of the book: there is no need of it; for if we have here proved that we maintain the same doctrine of Church and Ministry which the orthodox teachers of the Church have held in agreement with the Word of God, then all the accusations of Rev. Mr. Grabau, as though we erred in those doctrinal points, are thereby brought to nought. But that proof lies clearly before us here.

Consider the first part, the 9 theses on the Church. There it is first explained, and proved as the doctrine of Scripture and of the Church, that the one holy Christian Church, which we confess in the third article of the Christian faith, is the communion of saints, and therefore cannot be seen, but only believed; secondly, that this Church has received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, God's Word and Sacrament, from God as its own, and therefore can be known by the pure doctrine of the Word of God and the right administration of the holy Sacraments; thirdly, that the external, visible communion of Christendom in the improper sense also