# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 04 11_S134
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

134

conformable confession, the old confession of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, set again upon the candlestick, whereas before him it was obscured and forgotten. For so far as the praise is justified which our Lauenburg church now enjoys, namely, that it has become again, no longer merely nominally but in fact, a real Lutheran church, so far is it to be thanked to him. And indeed for this there was no need of any peculiar contrivances and all sorts of new means, but simply of an open, courageous and decided return to the old church order. The old excellent church order of our land, the Low Saxon of the year 1585, had indeed never been expressly set aside as the legal foundation of our church, but it was regarded as antiquated and had lost its real authority with the authorities, clergy and people; most did not even know it. True, outward arrangements and customs still recalled its validity, but the chief point, the maintenance of the confession and of the pure doctrine, had become a side matter; the Consistory itself, like the consistories everywhere at that time, had more or less lost the consciousness that it rested upon the church order and occupied a spiritual position specifically different from the secular authorities. And this is now the great, abiding service of Catenhusen, that he first, over against the secular government, brought the church order again to conscious, actual validity, and that he won again for our church and its spiritual superior authority, the Consistory, the freedom and independence which belong to it according to the church order. Hand in hand with this went in Catenhusen the endeavor to bring the church order to validity also inwardly; he insisted unshakably that everything in churches and schools should be conducted according to the church order. Above all in the filling of parishes and in the pledging of the church and school servants to the confession. For that reason also in the theological examination the chief thing for him was always to test the purity of the confession, the understanding of the church's doctrine, and only then the knowledge of the examinee. Then the otherwise so mild and gentle man could be hard and iron, when anyone desired a church office and yet contradicted the faith of the church. Yet it was far from him to set himself up as a judge of consciences and inquisitor over individuals: with magnanimous confidence, always hoping the best, he held only to the open, unmistakable confession which anyone gave of his faith. Then in the church visitations, which according to the church order are to be held at every church every two years, whereby many abuses were removed and many a word of admonition was addressed by him to the congregations which has borne fruit; in school affairs: the founding of a special preparatory institution for schoolteachers, as well as the founding, which took place in the year 1845, of a Lauenburg Latin School at Ratzeburg, which stands on the foundation of the Lutheran church, is properly Catenhusen's work alone and is to be thanked to his influence in Copenhagen; in the revival of church discipline, of which indeed a small outward reputation from olden times was preserved, but the proper practice of which was begun again only under his superintendency. For this is well to be noted, that, as decidedly and unshakably as he held to the confession of the church order, so wisely and cautiously did he proceed in the reintroduction of the outward arrangements and customs prescribed in it. It was his conviction that one must not force upon the congregations the whole severity of public church discipline in the present time, when it would by no means serve for edification and furtherance, but must wait in patient hope upon God until the congregations through a new life of faith should have ripened to Christian manhood. For not from outward means and institutions, but from the Word of God alone did he expect the healing of our hurts and better times for the church, if such are granted us at all.

Catenhusen's blessed activity for our land showed itself, however, not only in the restoring of the church order, but just as much also in the great, wholesome influence which his distinguished personality had upon the congregations and clergy of the land. He was free from love of domination and did not strive after the ambiguous fame of binding a party to his name; neither has it ever occurred to anyone to make this reproach against him; nevertheless his courageous, unmistakable testimony, truly a personal testimony, has had the strongest and clearest effect in all circles, and even those who resisted have not been able wholly to withdraw from it. Whereas before him here, as elsewhere, the Lutheran name was proscribed, there are now among the clergy only a very few individuals who do not strive after the Lutheran name as after a glory. The unbelieving elements, which were perhaps present, have at least hidden themselves under his superintendency and lost the courage for open denial; the, God be praised, far preponderating believers, on the other hand, grew strong the longer the more in his testimony and ripened out of faithfulness to churchliness, out of general Christian decision to confessional knowledge and decision. Yet by this all is by no means to be ascribed to his merit alone; we know indeed that we have to thank the mercy and the guidance of God that our land is now blessed with many faithful preachers and that God's Word is plentifully present in it; yet without doubt Catenhusen's testimony has been one of the most important means of divine guidance. While he was thus a true champion of the clergy, the influence of his personality extended also to all other classes and to all the congregations of the land. As he knew all the conditions of the land to the minutest, became personally known to all congregations through the church visitations, and through his faithful memory had exact oversight even of particulars, so also all sought and found with him fatherly counsel and comfort: his ever-unchanging affability and friendliness, which showed itself just as much in high earnestness of admonition as in loving exhortation, won him the hearts of all. In particular, besides his own congregation, it is the pastors, the candidates, the students of theology, the teachers in towns and villages, who had in him a true counselor, who, though he was daily besieged by many, always found access and ready hearing with him, who now feel painfully that they have lost a father. For the prominent trait in his character was gentleness, meekness and love, and what is reproached to him is mostly to this effect, that he was too soft and too mild, that he understood too little how to give hard and refusing answers to requests and questions. Yes, what made personal intercourse with him so attractive and blessed was his unfeigned love and faithfulness, which had to awaken confidence, his exceeding great affability, which won him the hearts of all the troubled, the poor and especially of the lower classes, the calm and firm assurance which was spread over his whole being, his manner of speech, as lovely and gentle as it was instructive and seasoned, his childlike cheerful and carefree gaiety, to which he could give himself when it was the time for it, which made him especially a pleasant narrator and everywhere a welcome companion. His dying corresponded to his life. True, neither he himself nor others had expected that he should be called home so soon, (he was only 61 years old,) yet the numerous heavy, almost excessive duties of his double office of pastor and superintendent had long undermined his otherwise vigorous health, and it belonged to his great faithfulness and conscientiousness that he would not let even the smallest part of his official business be taken off him by others. In addition the storms of the last revolutionary years, however equipped and unshakable they found him, had done much toward the wearing out of his strength. In those heavy years our land was preserved from the revolution and outward ruin chiefly through his faithful confession; "through him, so the funeral sermon may boast of him, the Lord at that time safely guided the ship of the church and of the state joined with it through the waves and rocks. Holding fast to the whole Word of God, so also to the word: Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, the power that has authority over him! he held the Word of the Lord as a sheltering shield over our land." But it had cost years-long hard struggles to set his breast against the onrush of the revolution and to