# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 01 17_S86
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

86

mans here, closes the essay. They are as follows:

"Are you not yet weary of the fetters which the German revolutionaries of 1848, who knew how to bring the control of the press into their hands by cunning means, have laid upon you? Will you any longer let your religious, moral and social circumstances be misrepresented before your American fellow-citizens? You can, if only you will, quickly bring to silence these blasphemers, who scoff at your God, mock your faith, and besmirch the good name of your wives and daughters. Hold congregational meetings, and pass resolutions in which you declare yourselves decidedly against the editors of the newspapers; request them to publish such resolutions, and if they refuse to admit them, withdraw your support from them! Set up new papers, in all places, which do not misrepresent your views, but faithfully mirror them! Up and at them! Put a stop to this mischief and cast off the fetters which you have now borne so long already with displeasure. We are ready to take such congregational resolutions into our columns, if the local papers refuse to admit them. But you, editors of German newspapers, who honor God, who hold to discipline and decency, speak a word for the good cause! We shall publish the names of all papers that declare themselves in our sense through our columns!" —

The "Lutheraner" has nothing to add to this, except the wish that God may strengthen the dear editor of the "National Demokrat" to testify ever more powerfully against the German satanic press here, which has also here in St. Louis such zealous tools, among others in the editor of the "Anzeiger des Westens," the Jew Börnstein.

Judgment of the Reformed on Luther, Zwingli and Calvin.

In the latest number of the "Reformirte Kirchenzeitung" of Chambersburg in Pennsylvania there is found, among other things, the following: "Luther agreed with Zwingli in almost everything. In the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, however, they differed from one another. They therefore came together at Marburg for a conference (1529), but could not agree. This could not well turn out otherwise; for what Christ, the supreme schoolmaster (!), has not been willing to explain, we men ought not to presume to explain either. Zwingli held to the doctrine that bread and wine in the Supper are only signs of remembrance or symbols of the death of Jesus. Luther, on the contrary, persisted in the proposition that in, with and under the blessed bread and wine the body and blood of Christ are received in an invisible and incomprehensible manner. This latter therefore took the words 'this is my body - this is my blood' literally, whereas the former wished to explain them by: 'this signifies my body, my blood.' — — Of Calvin it is now said: "His quarrelsome and violent behavior brought him so many enemies that he was banished from the city... Thus, for example, a magistrate was removed from office and sentenced to two months' imprisonment, because the manner of life of this man was irregular and he stood in connection with Calvin's enemies. Another was beheaded, because he had written godless letters and immoral verses and had sought to overthrow the church ordinances. Calvin most of all stained his reputation by the following deed: A Spanish physician, by the name of Servetus, denied in a book, 'the Restoration of Christianity,' the Godhead of Christ. Therefore he had to flee from Spain and came to Geneva. Calvin had him arrested and delivered him to the court, which condemned him to the stake. Intolerance was altogether Calvin's greatest fault. He recognized this himself, so that he wrote thus to a friend: 'I have no harder struggles against my great and numerous faults than against those in which I seek to overcome my intolerance. Of this ravening beast I have not yet become master.'" —

Truly, remarkable confessions about the heroes of the Reformed Church! If one now adds, as concerns Calvin, another confession of his, namely: "I confess that I am by nature of a timid, soft and bashful disposition" (Pr. ad Ps.) — then one really does not know what to think.

(Sent in. *)

World Affairs.

The year 1853 is drawing to a close amid events which seem to portend much impending misfortune. The European nations, who were just rejoicing that the Turks on the Danube and in Asia at the Caucasus had triumphed over the Russians, the French and English in particular, were suddenly startled by the tidings that the Russians had triumphed over the Turks both at sea and soon also on land. The English commander of the Turkish fleet had just returned to Constantinople with the report that in the whole Black Sea no Russian warship was to be seen; the mighty war fleet of the English and French, assembled there for the protection of Turkey, lay idle in the harbor of Constantinople as before, and the officers amused themselves with dancing and banqueting. Then a swift steamboat hastened up and reported that on the 30th of November a part of the Turkish fleet under Osman Bey, 11 ships, in the harbor of Sinope had been completely destroyed by a Russian fleet of 24 ships under Admiral Nachimow; 5000 Turks are said to have met their death. Whether now the loss of the Turks is really as great as the Russians assert is uncertain, but this is certain, that the Russian admiral could only just bring his own flagship into the harbor of Sebastopol; so shattered was it; only some prisoners, among whom Osman Bey himself in particular, but not a single Turkish ship could he show as proof of his victory. Since, however, the Russian Emperor has been the aggressor on this occasion, the English and French will now probably be compelled to send their fleets into the Black Sea against the Russians, so that they would thereby now really begin the war on their side also. The English government indeed still hesitates to give the order to attack, and with it the French, but there is already great discontent over it in both countries, especially as, according to the latest news, the Russians have also been victorious in Asia in two places and the Shah of Persia threatens to harass the Turks from the south. Austria is laboring diligently to mediate peace between the combatants, but Nicholas will not be permitted, on account of his Russians, nor Abdul Mejid on account of his Turks, to make peace. — God be praised that we have the peace which the angels proclaimed to men on the holy Christmas night!

*) We make known once for all that the report on World Affairs is given by a correspondent from Philadelphia, in order that, if the "Sent in," as has already happened, is forgotten, no one may think we wished to adorn ourselves with borrowed feathers. D. R.

In this country nothing in particular has happened in the last weeks. The beautiful holy Christmas festival has probably again been kept everywhere with abominable noise and much gorging and swilling; in Philadelphia at least, on the two holy days, no fewer than 270 drunkards were locked up. How is it possible that the Christian congregations which consist of Americans cannot come at all to any Christian observance of the festivals and of the church year generally? Is it then so hard to grasp that through the observance of the church year and especially of its beautiful high festivals children already learn to live in the holy history which tells the great deeds of God in Christ? that thereby these divine saving deeds are impressed not merely on the memory but still more indelibly on the heart? that in general the whole life receives thereby a divine consecration, I would say a heavenly luster, and we are led by the Holy Ghost, as by a dear friend's hand, from one act of God's grace to another, year in, year out, until the day dawns and the day star arises in our hearts? The dearest memories of our youth in the old fatherland cling to the beautiful festivals of the Lord; it is to me as if I had myself been in the stable at Bethlehem and had knelt at the manger and worshiped the Savior of the world, as if I had stood beneath His cross, looked down into the empty grave, gazed after Him into heaven, seen the Pentecostal wonder itself. Oh, that all Christians of this country would learn to keep the beautiful holy days of the Lord! Many indeed think that this is Catholic, but it is not