# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 06 06_S164
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

164

Jesus, my Jesus! if I am forsaken, yet thou holdest unceasingly by me. Jesus, my Jesus! if I am driven from one place, yet thou hast very many other places in the world, where thou canst provide a dwelling for thy believing followers. Jesus, my Jesus! if I am poor, thou hast all heavenly goods in thy hand. Jesus, my Jesus! if I have no food, thou art the richest and most provident Householder, who knows best how to provide for his own. Jesus, my Jesus! if I know neither out nor in, thou hast already from all eternity provided for me, and upon such thy diligent care I rely at all times. Amen. LORD Jesus! Amen!" —

We journey on with the brethren in the faith and accompany them to Halle. Here Johann Franke, the son of August Herrmann Franke, the founder of the orphan house, spoke to them. They were led, amid singing and the ringing of bells, into the orphan house, where refreshment for soul and body was offered them, and besides each received an imperial guilder and, whoever could read, a Bible and Arnd's True Christianity. While they were in Halle, many of them also received the Lord's Supper for the first time after the Lutheran manner, with great emotion and fervour. When they left Halle, the students also accompanied them and comforted them out of God's Word. A young theologian went with them from here as far as Prussia, and exhorted them in the inns, and prayed with them and encouraged them on the way to sing. They liked this very much, and the heads of families asked him especially often to exhort the young people among them, some of whom perhaps sometimes erred in discipline, that they might truly turn to the LORD and adorn the Gospel with a blameless walk. It also did not please the elders that many of the young folk, to whom in Salzburg in the last time the priestly blessing upon marriage had been refused, and who had therefore pledged themselves only before the heads of families, and, as they also supposed, before God, still lived together without the public confirmation through church wedding. They therefore insisted that, as soon as they came to Lutheran places, they must be formally married.

At Potsdam the first Salzburgers now arrived on the 29th of April, 1732. The King was at that moment staying there. The royal commissary, who had already received them near the Prussian territories, was ordered to enter the city with them singing and to halt at the garden before the palace. The King then stepped up to them, the first of his new subjects, whom he had taken up so like a father. To the question to the court preacher Cachius, whether he had spoken with the people and how he had found them, the answer was: they were good people, and one had found, even among many of them, a knowledge good beyond expectation. Then the commissary had to report how they had behaved on the way and how they had been received. Thereupon some of them were called forward and in the King's presence questioned about their faith, who answered with great joyfulness, to the King's high satisfaction. And when this catechization was closed with prayer, such emotion was perceived among the bystanders that even several distinguished officers fell with them upon their knees and prayed, and tears of emotion were shed by all the bystanders. There was found among the Salzburgers a boy of 14 years, who for religion's sake had left father and mother. The King asked him how he would answer for that before God? The boy said: "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me!" Who then would now take him in, and what he would now do, since he had neither father nor mother? "Father and mother forsake me," was the answer, "but the LORD taketh me up!" This answer pleased the King especially, and he gave presents to all of them richly and encouraged them by the repeated words: "Children, you shall have it well, you shall have it well with me!" — They were provided at royal expense richly with food and drink, and an order was given them not to travel further that day but to rest. The Queen also gave them rich presents and had a hearty joy in these confessors of Jesus, who had at last found a safe place of refuge and a land where they could have the Word of God, for the sake of which they had come out, in abundance.

On the 25th of June, 1732, there came again a troop of 800 to Potsdam. The King was not there this time, but travelled to meet them directly from Berlin. He was very gracious and friendly toward them and asked them why they had emigrated. They answered: for the Gospel's sake, which had been taken from them. The King thereupon assured them of his grace and promised them also in Prussia fields and farms and years of freedom from taxes, and finally demanded that they should strike up the hymn: "Upon my dear God, etc." The commissary represented that they did not know how to begin the hymn and to sing it in the manner of that country. Thereupon, to the highest wonder of the Salzburgers and to the deepest emotion of all present, the King himself began the hymn and intoned it verse by verse, whereupon all joined in singing and passed by amid such singing. When all had passed by, the King called after them: "Journey happily!" and drove to Potsdam. — The emigrants, however, went to Berlin.

Before Berlin preachers and schoolmasters, together with the pupils, came to meet them. The Salzburgers marched toward the city singing: "When in the hour of utmost need, etc." When the deputation had reached them, a halt was made. Those who had come out to meet them placed themselves facing the deputation, and they struck up together "A mighty fortress is our God." Thereupon Pastor Campe addressed a speech to them upon Ps. 115, 14. 15. "The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children. Ye are blessed of the LORD, which made heaven and earth." Thereupon New Testaments were distributed among them, whereby the Salzburgers expressed, filled with thanks toward God: "At home they took the Word of God away from us, but here they bring it to meet us!" Thereupon they made their entry with several hymns and were led past the royal palace, where the royal family took them in view. They were then led out through the King's Gate, where the quarters were prepared. Here Pastor Schönemann received them with a speech in verse. On the following day several more arrived. To them Provost Raue delivered an address upon the words which had already been called out to them from other places: "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, unto a land that I will shew thee." (1 Mos. 12, 1.) They were escorted like the former into the city, and they also were full of thanks and praise toward Him who had led them happily through tribulation to joy, to the joy of now dwelling among Lutheran brethren and tasting the gracious Word of God unhindered and abundantly, and so growing in grace and knowledge! Also in Berlin many partook of the holy Supper. As to their entry, it was always touching to behold. All the streets and squares through which they passed were always filled with crowds of people. Tears of pity and sympathy flowed everywhere, and not without cause, for they had for the most part, especially the first of them, gone out poor and needy and had left everything behind; only when they were on the march did they find, little by little, relief of their distress. Hoary heads, aged men badly clothed and tottering on their staves, weak, sick, infirm, cripples, newborn children and infants were found among them in multitude. Many, especially the first, came without bringing the least thing with them and counted themselves happy, having left their possessions behind, to have saved only their souls. Some rejoiced that they had happily rescued an aged father, a mother tottering to the grave. Others knew nothing to show but their children, whom they had been able with toil to carry off from the hands of the persecutors as their best treasure. And in all outward want there was yet a peculiar joyfulness to be perceived in them. Among others one saw at Berlin among them a very old man, who could scarcely move from the spot. He went with a staff and led a horse behind him. On both sides of the horse hung a cradle, in which children of a few months lay, who were twins. On the saddle sat the third child, nearly 5 years old. This was all that the man had saved. But the cheerfulness and the joy in the LORD shone upon his countenance, and the child that on his sad-