# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 02 28_S105
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.
"God's Word and Luther's doctrine shall pass away nevermore."
Revelation of John, Chap. 14, v. 6, 7.
Published by the German Ev. Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States.
Edited by C. F. W. Walther.
Volume 10.  St. Louis, Mo., February 28, 1854.  No. 14.
Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for subscribers living at a distance, who are to pay in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 Cents.
Only those letters which contain communications for the paper are to be sent to the Editor; all others, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent hither under the address of Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

Sermon

delivered at the Bible Festival on the 22nd of September, 1853, in the Immanuel Church at St. Louis, Mo., and communicated by request.

In the Name of Jesus.

God, how shall we thank Thee worthily? How shall we worthily praise and extol Thee? — The world has fallen away from Thee and become Thine enemy. And yet Thou hast so loved the world that Thou hast given it not only Thine only-begotten Son, but also Thy heavenly Word, that in it the world might find Thy Son, and in Him the life it had lost and the blessedness it had forfeited. O unfathomable love! O unspeakable grace! Herewith Thou hast testified before heaven and earth that Thou desirest not the death of the sinner, but that he turn and live. O so help, that the counsel of Thy love, to make all sinners blessed through Thy Word, be not brought to nought by the fault of our sloth. Raise up more and more such as with the zeal of divine love labor to the end that Thy Word may come into all houses and hands; and as often as Thou grantest this to succeed, there help that Thy Word also accomplish that whereunto Thou sendest it; there bring Thy Word from the hands also into the hearts; that more and more lost souls may recognize and enjoy Thy grace, and more and more rescued sinners may praise and extol Thee, and more and more perfected righteous ones may attain to the crown of honor; until at last the number of Thine elect is fulfilled and, the house of this world having at length been taken down, the eternal marriage feast begins in Thy golden city. Amen! Amen!

Beloved hearers in Christ JESUS!

As you know, we have bound ourselves to work to the end that the Holy Scripture be spread in our mother tongue, first of all among our kinsmen here, and, in order to encourage one another to this work, we have assembled this evening for a common celebration of a Bible Festival.

Now since, in order to pursue a work with joy, it matters above all to know whether the work is also a good work, pleasing to God, it is only fitting that at our first Bible Festival today this should be the first question which I raise here among us: Is the work which we are carrying on really a good work, pleasing to God?

To this, to be sure, every one among us will certainly answer at once without hesitation, with great assurance and joy: Yes, if any work whatever is a good work, pleasing to God and blessed, then without doubt it is the work of spreading the Holy Scripture in the language of the people. Yet however certain we all, my friends, may be of this, we must by no means conceal from ourselves that, as with every good work, so also with this one we shall meet with no small opposition.

What are you doing? the Rationalist and Atheist first cries out to us; what are you about? Do you not see that the sun of enlightenment has risen and has already poured out its bright rays over all the countries of the earth? What do you want now with your Bible? Would you enemies of the light, with this old book that has long since outlived itself, obscure the sun of enlightenment and lead the world, which is now hastening forward with giant strides, back again into the old darkness of superstition and ignorance? Would you transgressors thereby lay hold of the spokes of the wheel of time, which rolls on irresistibly and sweeps along with it those who would stop it, and crushes them together with their works? Foolish undertaking! Though you cause thousands and thousands of Bibles to be printed and spread abroad, you will not thereby bring the world to a standstill. The world simply will no longer have anything to do with your wrathful Bible-god and your crucified Son of God; it has once for all cast both down from their thrones: nothing is able to lay the world at the feet of the Christians' God and the Christians' Saviour again. The day of light has dawned: no exertion and no power will therefore conjure up again the old night of blind faith.