# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 04 11_S129
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.
"God's Word and Luther's doctrine pass not away, now or evermore." Rev. John, Chap. 14, v. 6, 7.
Published by the German Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States.
Edited by C. F. W. Walther.
Volume 10.  St. Louis, Mo., April 11, 1854.  No. 17.
Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for subscribers at a distance, who must 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 Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

How Do They Speak in Germany of the Doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States?

Since our dear readers have of late had to hear several voices from the old fatherland which seem to testify that our Synod is regarded only with disfavor across the sea, they will no doubt be glad to hear other voices from there as well, which bear witness that there is no small number of German theologians who, at least, acknowledge with great joy the doctrine of our Synod as the genuinely Lutheran and Biblical doctrine. We think that this comforts us richly for the disfavor with which our manner of proceeding in the matter of the Buffalo Synod has here and there been judged; for this concerns our life, but the decisive judgment concerns our doctrine. However firmly we are convinced that our opponents as well as our friends cannot rightly censure our manner of proceeding either, yet it is important for us that both must at least leave our doctrine untouched. That we cannot stand before God with our life, that we know and confess; but of our doctrine we boast before God and men. We recall in this connection that word of Luther: "In sum, my doctrine is the main point, on which I defy not only princes and kings, but also all devils, and I have otherwise indeed nothing more that sustains my heart, makes it strong, cheerful, and ever the more defiant. The other part, my life and personal conduct, I know well enough myself, that it is sinful and nothing to defy with: I am a poor sinner, and let my enemies be nothing but saints and angels. Well for them, if they can remain so! Not that I wish to be such before the world and the unchristian, but before God and His dear Christians. Before the world also I will be pious, and am, so much so that they shall not be worthy to unloose my shoe-latchets; they shall not be able to charge me truthfully with wronging anyone before the world in my life or conduct, as I could well charge them. In short, I am too humble for no one and too proud for no one, even as St. Paul says: 'I can be proud and can also be humble, I can lack and can also have enough!' Phil. 2, 3. For my doctrine's sake I am far, far, far too proud, stiff and haughty for the devil, emperor, king, princes and all the world; but for my life's sake I am humble and subject also to every child. Whoever has not known this, let him hear it now." (Answer to the King of England's Libel. XIX, 510. 511.)

So let the reader hear how they judge our doctrine in Germany. The opportunity to express themselves about it was given to the German theologians by the book published by our Synod: "Die Stimme unserer Kirche in der Frage von Kirche und Amt."

First, then, this is the review (appraisal) of the said writing of our Synod in the "Leipziger Repertorium der deutschen und ausländischen Literatur. With the cooperation of the University of Leipzig, edited by Dr. E. G. Gersdorf.

"While our German brethren are moving across to America in order to found there an asylum of a bodily kind, America is in a position to take the evangelical Lutheran Church in the German motherland by the arm with counsel and help. It was in the days after the Leipzig Conference when Professor Walther of St. Louis once more visited the German fatherland, and on that occasion took notice of the sad paralysis of the Protestant consciousness and of the sickly phenomena in the field of the church there. Church and Ministry had occupied the Conference and yet had not been brought to any sure conclusion, perhaps because, with all recognition of the honest will of that Conference, they were constituting anew more than developing historically. And it soon showed itself that the evangelical church of America, born anew amid a thousand storms, tribulations, disappointments and