# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 09 23_S21
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21

but his teachers recognized that it would be more suitable, both for him and for his friend Eißfeld, now pastor at Sheboygan in Wisconsin, to complete their last theological preparatory studies in an institution where the original languages were pursued more than could then be done in Fort Wayne; they therefore induced the two to exchange the seminary at Fort Wayne for the Concordia College here. Both accordingly arrived here on the 16th of April, 1850. As his exemplary, Christian and godly walk and his devoted, sincere character soon won for our Volck the love of all who came in contact with him, especially of the congregation here and of his younger fellow students, of whom he took charge with the most self-sacrificing love and faithfulness, so the gifts that developed in him swiftly and ever more gloriously, joined with the most persevering diligence, awakened the fairest hopes for his future labor in our Church. We can say with truth that during his three years' sojourn here he was a great blessing both to the congregation here, and above all to its young men, as well as to the pupils of our institution, and served many as a pattern of a Christian young man. Among the many fair gifts with which the LORD had favored him, he revealed in particular a splendid gift for preaching, so that it was especially often he who had to take the place of our preachers here and of the preachers in the neighborhood in preaching, always to the rich edification of the congregations, so that they will surely keep the dear man in unfading, blessed remembrance.

When and under what remarkable circumstances our Volck, after obtaining the theological candidacy, received a call to the Lutheran St. John's Congregation in New Orleans and followed it, our readers already know from a communication made in No. 23 of the previous volume. Brief as the work of the dear man was there, the zeal with which he accomplished the work entrusted to him by the invisible Head of the Church was ardent. Of this both his own letters, addressed to the writer of this and to many of his friends here, and also letters from the congregation there bear witness. All his letters express, in a truly touching way, both the deepest sense of his own weakness and the warmest desire to save the souls entrusted to him and to keep them in grace, and the holy earnestness to preserve the jewel of pure doctrine, to be found a faithful servant of the orthodox Evangelical Lutheran Church and to ground his congregation firmly and deeply in her pure doctrine. The appearance of the yellow fever, which broke out so fearfully in New Orleans soon after his arrival, far from making him despondent and crippling his zeal, was for him only an occasion to prove his love for souls the more. He wrote to us that he knew well the Lutheran principle and comforted himself with it, "that oratio and meditatio without tentatio make no theologian."*) A member of his congregation wrote that, out of concern for his life, so dear to them all, when the plague had grown ever more devastating, they had made him the proposal that until the danger was past he should leave the city and, like other inhabitants of the city, go to the lake; he should only write out the sermon for each Sunday and an elder should read it aloud to the congregation. But his answer had been: "A shepherd must never leave his flock, and when dangerous diseases are present, least of all."

*) That is, that prayer and the diligent study of the Word of God, without trial, make no theologian.

The same member of the congregation who reported this wrote to us, shortly before the dear man's death, among other things as follows: "May the merciful Savior again give His blessing to your labor, that the Word which you speak in the power of the Holy Ghost may go very deep into the hearts of your pupils, and that all may become truly sincere, faithful, zealous laborers in the LORD's vineyard. O how needful it is in our troubled times! O how great is the field of labor, and yet how few faithful and sincere laborers there are! But how happy and favored is a congregation that has a pastor in the right sense of the word! With joy I can assure you that we too belong to these happy and favored congregations. Our dear Volck becomes ever more zealous and earnest; he reproves, exhorts and entreats from the bottom of his soul. He is in thorough earnest to be saved, and at the same time to make the congregation entrusted to him saved. But for that reason he also stands alone, and must be the stiff-neck; for there is little blood here for the pure doctrine; most here want only a fashionable Christianity. Yet why do I complain? I would rather go out of the house of complaint and look around at what the Lord has done for us thus far and still does: then I find cause enough to fall down and to praise, to thank and to extol Him for His great goodness and mercy, etc."

Especially comforting in this is that our dear Volck, with all this exemplary faithfulness, yet evidently always stood in true poverty of spirit, and for all his courage in the greatest danger by no means let himself think he was safe from near death, but made ready for a speedy departure home. To one of his friends here, to whom he had a message sent even as he was dying, "that he should know that he had loved him unto death and had thought of him," he wrote on the 8th of August, after he had confessed to him his inward struggles and his hope of a speedy victory, as follows: "Perhaps God will soon take me away altogether, for He sees too that I am not equal to the post here. I expect daily, yet without fear, the yellow fever, and if I get it, it only grieves me that I cannot see you and the other dear St. Louisans once more and thank you all for all your love. God be merciful to me a sinner! Amen. Do write soon, for the correspondence between us might soon come to an end altogether."

How hard the congregation of the departed, which stood with him in true communion of spirit, has been struck by this death above all, and how painfully it feels the loss suffered, the dear readers can well imagine. The news of his death, which came to us from the congregation, was, as the reporter wrote, written "with trembling hand and quaking limbs." It said therein: "Ah, my dear brother, I know it is a very hard blow for you, but is it not doubly hard for us? Ah, I cannot say and describe how many tears have flowed over his corpse. Ah, may the Lord Jesus comfort you and us and all who mourn for him."

With this wish we too close this our report, and add: may all, and especially all the younger preachers who read this, let the memory of the servant, who after short but faithful labor has already received its reward, be a blessed one, that is, let his fair example be a pattern for emulation, and may everyone help to pray, zealously, fervently, believingly pray, that God would soon heal the deep wound dealt by this death to our Church and especially to the dear congregation in New Orleans, soon again grant the latter a faithful shepherd, and bestow upon him doubly the gifts of the early-perfected one, so that, building upon the same golden foundation, Jesus Christ and His pure Word, he may continue the good work begun there and lead it happily toward the blessed goal. May God also help in grace (and let this too be our prayer) that the dear parents beyond the sea, who had devoted and consecrated their beloved son to his Savior from his youth, may now also feel the richest comfort of God when they receive the tidings that their beloved son has now through his faithful service become a sacrifice of his Savior. Amen.

(Sent in.)
Private Correspondence from Silesia.

L....., the 22nd of June, 1853.

..... The strife over the Office has also brought great agitation into our Prussian Lutheran Church; yet the Lord has prevented a rent. At our synod in September and October of last year, where no important new resolutions were passed, we were permitted to rejoice in a great, uplifting unity. Also in the practical consequences of the question of the Office, the proposals concerning the establishment of an