# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 02 14_S102
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

102

yourselves also in this as faithful, grateful sons of your dear Lutheran Church, which so motherly cherishes and cares for you and your children. —

To you I turn further, you Christian young men of our body, who are equipped by God with the necessary gifts and, because you still stand in the fear of God, are also admonished now and then by the Holy Ghost to be mindful of the bitter need of the Church and to place yourselves at her service, but who have hitherto been too timid and too weak, or too indifferent, to tear yourselves loose from the earthly bonds that hold you back! Ah, consider what the LORD Jesus Christ has done and suffered for you before you were thought of; think of the countless benefits which He has poured out upon you from the day of your Baptism until today; let it go to your hearts, the unspeakable and undeserved grace that He has let you be born and brought up in the Church of pure Word and Sacrament, and ask yourselves then whether it would be anything great, if out of thankful love toward Him, who so ardently loved you and gave Himself for you, out of compassionate love toward your brethren who suffer the bitterest need, the spiritual need, you were to give yourselves to it and devote yourselves to the service of the Church. What do you have from it, if, after the custom of this land, you are intent only on securing for yourselves a good livelihood and a comfortable life, and your heart clings to earthly dirt and filth, and yet you must leave all that behind you sooner or later and perhaps even go to hell over it, unless your heart gets free from it in time, and then in any case only with great pains. By contrast, what a fine, glorious opportunity offers itself to you here to prove your faith by your works, and to spread the honor of God and His holy Word, and to snatch immortal, dearly bought souls from the jaws of the infernal wolf, and to preserve them with Jesus Christ in His holy Church, which is the mother of us all. O therefore do not delay, confer not with flesh and blood, but come and place yourselves at the service of the LORD, and sacrifice yourselves to Him and His holy kingdom with body and soul, and shun no danger, toil or tribulation, but strive after the glorious crown of honor, when you shall one day shine as the brightness of heaven and as the stars for ever and ever. — You also, you dear Young Men's Societies, do not think that it is enough if, with good earnings and the prospect of a comfortable earthly livelihood, you now and then assemble and speak of the need of the Church and give some gifts out of your abundance to relieve it, but consider that you should be and become nurseries from which our institutions of learning could be supplied. Look diligently, therefore, to see where among you, with the right godly mind, the gifts needed for the ministry are to be found, and entreat and exhort, incite and encourage such, that they devote themselves to the service of the Church, and make a way for them, and help with them and through them to spread the kingdom of God, that all lands may be full of His honor. —

To you also I speak, you preachers and teachers: be pleased not to lose sight of this either, and not to be found slothful and remiss in it, but to take notice where in your congregations or schools godly boys and young men are to be found who are endowed with the necessary gifts, and to cherish and tend such precious little plants with all care, and early to awaken in them the mind to sacrifice themselves to the service of the Church, and to incite them and their parents to it, to exhort and entice them with all patience and teaching, and to spur on the others, that where it is needful they at least help to further so blessed an undertaking and so godly a purpose with their gifts. For that is what it means to build the Church of the future, when we so well provide and care for the present one, and arrange everything so excellently and keep it in order, that, God willing, whether we die today or tomorrow, the coming generation also is so well provided for that they may partake with us of the same divine grace, and thank us for it even in eternity.

To us all I call: Ah, let us not sleep and be idle; let us also bear this need of our dear Lutheran Church fervently upon our hearts; let us all vie with one another, that each in his place do whatever he knows, can and is able to do; let us all help together and not grow weary in willing giving of temporal goods, in sacrificing ourselves and our children, in begging, enticing and exhorting others, but above all in unceasing crying to the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. And if we do so, the pressing need of our dear Lutheran Church will soon be relieved. For He who bids us pray the LORD of the harvest for laborers, He can, yes, He will, for His holy name's sake, not leave this our unanimous prayer unheard. And so also through our service the pure virgin, the Church of the purer, Scriptural confession, will spread ever farther, and to the salvation of the nations let the voice of the gracious Gospel sound ever clearer, ever louder, and our enemies with all their devilish scorn and mockery will be put to shame, and the sweet fruits of our faith will make them blush. And if death should come today or tomorrow, yes, if the world should fall in ruins and the dear Last Day break in — happy are we if the LORD then finds us in His service as faithful servants, for then He will surely take us out of the strife of this time to Himself into glory, and we shall rest in eternal joy and blessedness. —

May the faithful God help us to this in grace, for Christ's sake. Amen.

A. Crämer.

Prospectus
of the Illustrated Evening School.

A glance at our American conditions must convince every discerning person that in respect of popular and youth education much still remains to be wished and done. Gratifying beginnings have been made toward this end; yet they are for the present only beginnings, to which further efforts must be joined, if our German population, which is in rapid increase, is not to sink spiritually, but to be promoted as befits the exceedingly favorable conditions of the country and the State. The principle of the self-government of the people is here put into practical application, and that necessarily presupposes a corresponding measure of general mental culture in the people who are to govern themselves, quite apart from the fact that general popular education is a benefit in and for itself. Here, however, there is undeniably a relatively great want, a want not of capacity for culture and willingness, but of means and opportunity for culture. The reason lies in the peculiar nature of American national development, which in its peculiarity does not permit the efforts toward popular education to keep even pace with the headlong growth of the population and the material and political flourishing of the State. The conditions of the people's welfare are given in such abundant measure that they are almost a hindrance to mental flourishing, just as in a soil impregnated with rich fertility an excess of plants sprouts up at the same time, whereby precisely the noblest and tenderest are crowded out.

For all its size the American State is youthful and in the making. The people who are forming themselves into a State by emigration must create everything for themselves. With the exception of the principles of our constitution and laws we find no ready-made tracks into which we could step. The historical ground is lacking, the preparatory work of forefathers sprung from this country itself, from whose legacy we might live and take up the work of mental development and carry it further where the ancients left off. The testimonies of parental diligence are lacking, the land tilled and cultivated through centuries, the old buildings and works of art, castles, cities, cathedrals. The peculiar, heart-appealing popular treasures are lacking, the local memories handed down from generation to generation, monuments, popular and national legends. The national chronicles are lacking, the gradually accumulated treasures of libraries, the old foundations and institutions of learning — everything is new, everything youthful and not native and peculiar to the soil itself, grown up and inherited, but by the living generation, according to the conditions found, partly created by itself, partly adapted and transplanted. America is for its inhabitants an adopted fatherland, and they are its adopted children. The process of emigration and of settling into the new conditions claims the powers all at once too much, and at the same time the opportunity of gain is too rich and alluring for strength and leisure to remain for mental training. What was chiefly lacking or stinted and stunted in the old fatherland, that one seeks chiefly in the newly chosen: bodily livelihood, ecclesiastical and political freedom. And that we have found, God be thanked! That is our wealth here, our great blessing.

But must we and shall we therefore remain poor in education of understanding, mind and heart? Shall America be richer and happier than the countries of Europe merely in political and material respects? And it is not to be forgotten that the durability and stability of our happy political conditions depend on the general