# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 12 20_S69
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

69

...ought to; but then, according to Guericke's Church History, I should still have had to call this Tertullian "a polemicist and one-sided opponent of infant baptism."

Besides, I must confess that the feeble undertaking was not without success. The enemies were so beaten that from that time on they no longer dared to make attacks as before; so too the friends in this matter were not a little strengthened, and soon afterward 4 full-grown children from two families of my congregation, who went to school with me, were baptized, and with the consent of their parents, formerly Amish in sentiment, demanded holy Baptism.

But so that, should those long-beards raise their heads boldly again after my departure, the sharpened weapons might be held up against them, Father Arnold and some others with him begged me most urgently to hand over the manuscript to them, so that they might have it printed, because none of the Pennsylvanians can read German script. I consulted with my successor in office, who not only approved it but even advised having a great deal printed. I should therefore be sorry if, on account of the publication of the Nota bene, the beaten enemies should become still bolder and the others distrustful. I add this further: the advice of one dear brother in office, to set forth in sermons the right doctrine of the lawfulness of infant baptism, I could certainly only honor, but unfortunately could not follow; for the crafty Amish avoided my services, in which I so often preached on infant baptism, but outside the services they were all the more diligent in going after the members of my congregation. And when the Amish preacher unexpectedly challenged me to a disputation, what was I to do? Take a cowardly retreat? No, here it was a matter of fighting, which was hard and bitter enough for me, standing so entirely alone among so wicked a generation.

But if anyone should instruct me better out of the Word of God concerning the content of the pamphlet, I will gladly hear and accept it.

Fr. Besel.

Herr Dr. Benj. Kurtz

is zealously agitated in the last numbers of his "Luth. Observer" again very much over the godless "Old Lutherans." Among other things it is dreadful to him that lately another such Old Lutheran preacher has gone from the West to the East, and indeed into a city where there is already a faithful Lutheran preacher, who merely does not believe in the presence of the body and blood of JEsus Christ in the holy Supper, "and other related errors." Herr Kurtz concludes with the well-known General Synod litany: "Lord God, deliver us from such Lutheranism!" We do not blame the poor man for becoming so heated again on this occasion. Yet he should also consider that we can regard people of his faith as Lutherans just as little, despite their calling themselves so, as we can take a wolf for a sheep when he puts on a sheep's skin. You who insist on the name Lutheran and demand recognition as such, and yet publicly mock and revile the doctrine of Luther and of the whole Lutheran Church, are nothing but the Jesuits among the Protestants, who lack, to be sure, not the perfidy of that order, but its prudence.

(For the Lutheraner.)
From the Life of Pastor Flattich.
(Entirely from the South German originals.)

In the company of some gentlemen the talk was of the state after death; since one knew nothing certain about it, it was better, they said, to say nothing about it at all. I happened to be standing at the window and saw the cows being driven to the well, and I therefore said to them: Gentlemen, look out of the window and consider these cows. When they then wanted to know what I meant by it, I said to them: these cows are content if they only have their daily drinking and feeding; what would they want with the state after death? Whoever, then, wants to know nothing of the state after death, and does not even think about it, is a cow.

One wishes a person the blessing, but that is the blessing, not that one has much, but that one makes do far with little; so Christ blessed the five loaves and fed five thousand men with them.

Of Secret Societies.

As for their secrets, of which those who are in the lower classes know nothing, but only those who are in the higher classes, this has given me something to think about; for in the New Testament two opposite mysteries are known to me, namely: "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness," 1 Timothy 3, 16, and: "upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great." Rev. 17, 5. Since I do not believe that the Freemasons' secret has to do with the mystery of Christ, I surmise that it has to do with the mystery of Babylon.

From Pastor Flattich's Collection toward a Biblical Doctrine of Education.

James 5, 7. As a husbandman must not only be diligent, but also wait with patience for the divine blessing, namely the early rain for the springing up of the seed, and the latter rain for the ripening of the fruit, so also a teacher and a learner must not only apply diligence, but also wait with patience for the divine blessing. But the divine blessing shows itself both in the beginning and in the progress of learning, and also in this, that one can use for oneself and for others what one has learned. Progress in learning does not stand in the power of the teacher and of the learners, however much trouble they may take and however good a method is used. There is something special about patience, since one can accomplish many things through it; for "he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty." (Prov. Sol. 16, 32.)

(To be continued.)

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

Ps. 137, 5.

What? Should I be ashamed of the Church
That is named after Luther's name?
Should I take offense at it,
That she is blasphemed and misjudged?
Yet we too must weep and lament,
Like Judah once in a foreign land,
And mourning beat upon our breast
Over our Church's state of misery.

How many have fallen away
From our God's holy Word,
Who with the world now securely journey
The broad way on to hell!
How many have let themselves be blinded
By the hypocrisy of false sects,
Who now craftily disgrace the Church
In puffed-up hypocrisy!

How is she oppressed in German lands
Cruelly by princes,
Who with glittering pretext
Have forced upon her the compulsion of union,
Who have mixed our Luther's pure teachings
With Calvin's enthusiasm,
And served this up to the people, to pervert it,
As "evangelical."

Ah! how many brethren are deceived
By the sweet sound of this word;
How many are still drawn now
Into the net of the false Union!
Of brotherly love the "evangelical"
Preachers speak sweetly,
And yet rob us, like thieves,
Of the full truth's pure gold.

Baptists and the Methodists,
They have robbed many a heart,
So that, seduced by their wiles,
It no longer believes the pure doctrine.
How desolate the Church is now,
Which once was so full of people,
Driven out and shamefully forsaken
By her own children's host!

And if only all who still called
Themselves Lutherans with the mouth
Would confess Luther's doctrine
Sincerely and from the bottom of the heart!
But alas! the fewest remained
True to the faith of our fathers,
And by the most there is promoted
Much false doctrine without fear.