# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 08 02_S173
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

173

turn, everywhere we see the wonders of our God, and from all sides we hear the cry: The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad! — Into this song of praise your dear letter also joins, in that it speaks of the great deeds of God in the Church in North America. Verily, to look upon the work of the Lord and upon the business of His hands, to proclaim His wonders and to praise His holy name, becomes us above all things, us, whose eyes He hath opened to see His work and to know the might of His strength. Therefore let our mouth also be full of His praise and our tongue full of His glory! — To be sure, among you also there is no lack of manifold conflict, and you must be armed on the right hand and on the left. But that is a very gratifying sign. The Church in which we find ourselves here is a militant one and lives in constant conflict. Where this ceases, there is sleep and death. The more conflict, the more prayer and the more victory. As everywhere, so also with you the conflict is not turned merely outward against the ungodly nature and the kingdom of darkness; there is also among your own household so much that must be resisted. This is indeed greatly to be lamented, but lies in the nature of the case. Sin does not stick in human nature like a peg, which one need only pull out in order to bring everything into the best condition, but it has poisoned our whole being, and the process of healing is not a momentary one, but one that goes on through the whole life. So long, however, are we also exposed to error, and against it we must watch, and the sword of the Spirit must ever be wielded. * * * *

May the Lord of the Church grant that all misunderstandings among those whom He hath called to the building up of His kingdom may be removed, and that between the mother church in our dear German fatherland and the daughter church in your America, as there is unity in the confession of the truth, so also unity in the conflict outwardly and in the further building of the house of God inwardly may remain, so that neither the mother may withdraw her hand from the daughter, nor this one look disdainfully upon that one, because she discovers in her so much that does not correspond to the ideal toward which she strives.

In my last letter I communicated to you, in a short survey, how the Lord has blessed His work and His Church here in Southern India in the recent time, and it will certainly not be unwelcome to you to hear something further about it. The Lord has also since then not left Himself without witness among us, has looked kindly upon His mission and Church and graced it with rich blessing, and has especially helped in this, that the breach by which the arrival of the Rev. Director Graul in our mission was marked was not widened, but for the most part closed. I can imagine that you wish me to give you some closer particulars concerning those distressing occurrences; but since the ground of the dissensions lies deeper and farther back than I can set forth in this letter, it is better to commit it to the Lord and to keep silence about it. * * * * Soon after I had sent off my last letter to you, my own position also underwent a considerable change, which for a long time put me in no small distress and made my remaining here in India very uncertain. Since, however, this matter is now settled, and I also do not like to reopen old wounds, I would rather not burden you with the narration of this story. I now no longer have the care of the Bethlehem congregation in Poreiar, but that of the congregations belonging to our Church that lie scattered in the west, in Pudukotto, Trichinopoly and Tanjore. If I am not mistaken, I have already told you in what manner the field of labor in Pudukotto fell to us, and how a little congregation in Trichinopoly joined our Church. In the course of last year our field of labor there has by God's grace been still further enlarged, in that chiefly in three places, in Tanjore, Tiruweior and Mottupotti, several families separated from the English Church and went over to our Church, to which they also for the most part originally belonged. The westernmost chief place of this field of labor is Trichinopoly, 90 English miles from here. It is a considerable place of about 80,000 inhabitants, lies on the right bank of the river Kaveri, and is of considerable importance in a military respect, on which account several regiments of soldiers are always stationed there in garrison. Since the Nabob, a Mohammedan, formerly resided there, there is among the inhabitants of the city a not small number of Mussulmans, whose fanaticism has hitherto frustrated all efforts of the missionaries upon them. But among the heathen there also the Gospel has thus far celebrated few victories, although for almost 100 years a Protestant mission station has been there. The first evangelical missionary who settled there permanently was the blessed Ch. F. Schwarz, whom missionary Pohle followed upon his removal to Tanjore. The few Christians there are not so much gathered out of the heathen as rather descendants of such Christians as had moved thither from here for the sake of their livelihood, or had come over from the Roman Church. — 37 English miles from Trichinopoly, in a south-southeasterly direction, lies Pudukotto, the capital of the Tondiman, a little prince who, although an English vassal, yet enjoys considerable favors as a reward for the attachment which his ancestors in the last century showed to the English. To call him an independent prince would be too gross a mistake; officially he is styled by the English government only "Excellency," while even the pensioned rulers of Tanjore, Arcot, etc., receive the title "Highness" In the city of Pudukotto itself there are only few Christians, and in the country the mission work is only just beginning. The Rajah (king) is wholly in the hands of the Brahmans and anything but favorable to the Christians. — From Pudukotto, 38 English miles to the northeast, lies Tanjore, the residence of the king of Tanjore, who now has nothing further in his power than the city of Tanjore itself, which he may not even leave without the permission of the English Resident. — The founder of the mission there was the blessed Ch. F. Schwarz, in whose lifetime it also had its time of flourishing. After his death his pupil Joh. Caspar Kohlhoff especially attended to the work there, a pious, faithful man, who, however, was wholly lacking only in confessional clearness and decision. Beside him there labored still other men who were often more or less eaten through with Rationalism, and therefore spread no life, but only death. — The Lutheran church order, which the older missionaries had indeed introduced everywhere in the congregations founded by them, was soon abolished after the appointment of English bishops in India, the churches consecrated anew, and the congregations harnessed in the yoke of the High Church. — This, however, aroused here and there dissatisfaction and moved in more recent time several congregations to seek again the fellowship of their mother church. So, at the beginning of this year, a little flock in Tanjore has returned to our Church, and others have sought admission. — I scarcely need to remark to you that we are not in the least bent on making proselytes from the English Church, but rather make the passing over to us considerably difficult for them. Our calling is first of all to preach the Gospel to the heathen, to commend to them the unsearchable riches of divine grace, and to invite them to the enjoyment of it. But since our Church, as she has received grace from the Lord, to possess the pure preaching of the Word of life and the right administration of the holy Sacraments, has also the command not to withhold these gifts of grace from anyone who desires to partake of them, we cannot, in duty and conscience, simply turn away those members of other confessions who wish to share in the grace which the Lord has given to our Church, unless we are certain that their desire is not sincere. We are indeed not lords over God's mysteries and treasures of grace, but merely servants, who cannot rule and manage in God's household according to their own pleasure, but have to render obedience and compliance to the commands of their Lord and Master. — Precisely this conscientious proceeding according to our official duty has brought upon us an enmity from all the English missionaries scarcely to be described, and we must now pass here through many sorts of rumors. — One of these missionaries, a most ignorant man, has now thought to lay us, his opponents, low at one stroke, if he publicly accused us of seeking, in connection with the