# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 09 23_S23
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

23

on account of the good cup? I at least hold it to be a great sin when one in anger lets fall such and such words." (He reminded her thereby of her unseemly speeches against the child.) "Herr Pfarrer," said the woman, "we are but weak human beings, and I am otherwise not at all given to anger, but that the forward person should want to lie to me and say she does everything skillfully and never did any damage, that she thinks herself good in everything, that vexes me far too much." "And you, dear woman," said the pastor, "did you not just now lie to the Spirit of God just as much, when you said you had never committed a sin? Or, who is then the liar, God, who says that the heart of man is evil from his youth, or you, who give out the contrary of yourself? And are you not just as forward as your foster-daughter, since you hold yourself altogether good, and believe you have no need of a Savior and forgiver of sins?"

The woman wept and gave the pastor her hand. She saw her sin well now, she said; he should only not forsake her, but help her pray that God might be gracious to her. The pastor prayed with her the little children's verses which she had before so greatly despised, and tended her sick heart with love and patience. The woman was brought thoroughly to the knowledge of her sin and to repentance, and at the same time also made sure of forgiveness in Christ. She lived eight days longer and died with a contrite but also joyful mind. (Pilger aus Sachsen)

Another Incident from the Official Experiences of Pastor Eichhorn in Baden, Told by Himself.

(From the Lutheran Church Paper for Prussia.)

Soon after the first baptism in the Lutheran congregation at Ihringen had brought me into custody, a second was announced, for the speedy performance of which the parents urgently begged me. The father was unwilling, except with the greatest reluctance, to decide upon an emergency baptism, since the Lutheran pastor might come at any moment—the same Lord of the Church would protect against threatening danger, who had hitherto guided everything wonderfully and in our defeat had given us the victory over the enemies of His Church. Then I dared not hold back. I arrived near Ihringen at the fall of dusk. Two members of the congregation received me, and soon afterward the father of the child that was to be baptized joined them. Only now had all manner of misgivings come to him and to the others.—The watchmen, they said, were active and watchful by day and by night; the house in which the little child was born was literally surrounded. Money had been promised to one of the watchmen if he brought me in captive. Only yesterday this man was heard to say: "If only this business were once over! I have no rest day or night!" His hands trembled for the promised money.—Nevertheless I wanted to enter the place; I had a strong confidence that the Lord this time would not let my enemies become mighty over me. He has not let this confidence be put to shame. Praised be He, the gracious and faithful God!

At midnight I set out with a faithful companion on the way to Ihringen. We went along pathless mountain trails, and a streaming rain fell; often we had to wade through broad ditches of water.—After two hours we had arrived at the place Ihringen. Without delay and with hurrying feet we went to the house in which the little child lay. We felt well and quiet in mind; it was to us as if the LORD Himself set our feet upon the paths on which we walked, as if the pillar of fire were going before us. All was still, and without the least hindrance we reached the house and the room in which the mother and the little child lay. All was solemnly still. We proceeded to the baptism. Several members of the congregation were present, and indeed in festive attire. All was in deep devotion, for all felt vividly that they stood under God's very special protection. Only now did I learn that the watchman to whom money had been promised was keeping watch hard by. He had only to lift his head from his bed, in which he was doubtless resting, and he would have seen us through the window in the brightly lighted room!

After an hour I left the house again; I had performed my office of the Word and of the Sacrament to mother and child.

I had just left the place when the watchman awoke and betook himself again to his post. He learned that the baptism had been performed, and then he broke out in the words: "I did not believe in miracles until now! Now I must believe in them! For eight days this was the only hour that I slept!"—But we said: "He giveth it to His own in sleep; from strangers He taketh it in sleep."

The Union of the Church with the State.

Testimony against it from a Lutheran pastor in the Hanoverian country, from a letter of his of the 7th of April of this year.

I use this opportunity, which offers itself to me through an emigrant, to indicate to you in a few words that I think of you. My thinking of you is mostly mingled with pain, because at the same time the freedom which the Church has obtained among you, and the lack of which we here bewail, hovers before my eyes. Not as if I thought I should be a stout man if we enjoyed it; but the enjoyment of such freedom would come to the help of my weakness. I do not believe that the government of the Church belongs to the secular authorities, as is indeed the opinion of many here; I also do not believe that the Church here with us needs government through them; rather, the mingling of the secular and ecclesiastical power is just a spring whose troubled water hinders and disturbs the health of the Church. If we had eyes to see what profits the Church, we should let this Union fall, like the other between the different churches, and the Lord would provide means whereby, after the separation, there might be more sincere friendship than now. I do not know whether it is true, what they assert, that upon the separation of the ecclesiastical and civil power everything would fall asunder and countless sects arise. That remains to be seen; but that we hold together everything that is inwardly divided, and in doing so cannot come to rest and order, is also no enviable condition. And it seems to me the question here is not what comes afterward, but what the Lord has commanded. The Lord has, however, commanded to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but not what is God's. Neither shall a priestly order govern the Church, as the Romans have it, but the government belongs to the Church herself.—Of course there would be a great stir if the Church with us received her freedom, and there would be defection and disgrace; but what is once divided perhaps does better to separate also outwardly. And if one should say that many souls would be lost thereby, who would not know whither they should go: I answer that just as many souls, who still gladly wish to be saved but now drift along in the whirlpool, would then find a safe resting-place in the little ship of the Church, and the question would be whether the little flock of the Church with its bright light would not save more souls than now, when she is a great multitude. But I also know that it cannot be made right at once, and that we have not the right to overturn the present condition by our own choice. Yet confess we should, what is to be confessed, and do what is to be done, that the Church may come out of her captivity, and also suffer what is to be suffered.

What does it help me that one says: You have indeed the freedom and the obligation to preach God's Word purely and clearly according to the doctrine of the Church, and you also still have much freedom to exercise discipline, if only you are not lazy, and capable people work here just as well as there. But we are not all pioneers, and wisdom and understanding are not given to all in the same measure. If the Church does not come to our help by her government and sustain us, most of us will remain weak and waver to and fro. For example, a few days ago I was to allow a bridal couple a wreath, where the mother had confessed that all was not right with the bride. Now they had to count as sinners at the banns and be married without a wreath also; that was in the church; but what could I do when afterward at their wedding feast they went about in the wreath, and they and the congregation thereby proved that they cared nothing for the pastor's discipline. And what would it help to pursue such rotten matters further, until they lose themselves in the sand of the Consistorial rescripts!