# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 06 20_S169
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's doctrine pass away now and nevermore."

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.

Vol. 10.  St. Louis, Mo., June 20, 1854.  No. 22.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who must pay it 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.

(Contributed for Der Lutheraner.)

The So-Called Great Hanoverian Catechism, Judged by Wege.

(Continuation.)

On the Sacraments.

A sacrament, in the sense in which the word is used of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, is a holy act which was instituted by God Himself, and in which, under visible signs, heavenly goods are distributed and received, and thereby the divine grace is offered, presented and sealed.

The Hanoverian Cat. in explaining that word leaves out the signs, and exchanges the goods for promises and the holy act for one that is merely very solemn. *)

By leaving out the signs, it takes away precisely that by which Baptism and the Lord's Supper are distinguished from all other holy acts; for that they are holy all acts of divine worship have in common with one another, but the visible signs, instituted by God Himself, are peculiar to Baptism and the Lord's Supper alone. If this is not held fast, those two highest acts, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, are lowered in their rank.

By speaking, instead of goods, only of promises, it not only makes the present, immediate efficacy of the sacrament doubtful, but also causes prayer and preaching, etc., to be allowed to be called a sacrament just as well as Baptism and the Lord's Supper, for the preaching office and prayer are also acts which are ordained by our Saviour Himself and bound up with His promises.

By calling the act merely a very solemn one, instead of a holy one, as is customary in ecclesiastical usage and also generally among the people, the author proves either that he did not know the difference between solemn and holy **) (which can hardly be assumed), or that he does not much care to claim for Baptism and the Lord's Supper an honor derived from God.

On Baptism.

The proper final purpose of Baptism is regeneration, because it is the proper means of the same.

Therefore it is false to make the purpose of Baptism (as the author does) a mere consecration †); for a consecration (e. g. to an office, an order, etc.) indeed involves a reception and admission, a solemnity or ceremony, but not a miracle of grace, such as happens in Baptism through regeneration.

Who, then, does not see how, by the degrading of Baptism to a mere consecration, the holy is made common, and the sanctuaries are emptied of their treasures?

But when the purpose and aim of a matter is mistaken and missed, how must not the whole treatment of it become crooked and uncertain?

Thus we find the well-known passage Tit. 3, 5, He saveth us by the washing of regeneration, etc., strangely enough as a proof-text for the proposition "that by Baptism the

*) Sect. 8. Q. 1. p. 151. "What do we understand by this?" (by the sacraments.) Ans. "Two very solemn religious acts, ordained by our Saviour Himself and bound up with His promises."

**) Solemn and holy both signify something that has a claim to a certain esteem. But with the holy the esteem is grounded on this, that it has an inner worth and concerns God; with the solemn, on the other hand, on this, that the outward presentation expresses a serious esteem, without regard to whether with full right or not. Thus, e. g., an imperial coronation is solemn, but it is not holy. — Therefore solemn is not just the same as holy.

†) Q. 4. p. 152. "For what purpose was Baptism instituted?" Ans. "For consecration to Christianity."