# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 07 29_S197
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

197

by this we, for our part, can best prevent the priceless treasure of pure doctrine, which God has now placed in our hands, from being given out of the hands of our children again, when we have gone to the grave. But above all may we emulate the fathers in the power of the LORD, and redeem the time of rest and peace, that we may build ourselves up ever more in our most holy faith through the Holy Ghost, that we may pray for ourselves and for the Church for faithfulness and steadfastness and an increase of the gifts of the Spirit, that we may keep ourselves in the love of God and join ever more firmly together in brotherly love, and, waiting for the mercy of God and free from the filth of the earth, strive in good works after eternal life. For very soon God may see fit to put us to the test and to see what kind of disciples of the Word we are; and who knows how soon conditions may be brought about in this New World in which we Lutherans must experience the same as those Salzburgers, if not worse, from our old hereditary foe, the Roman harlot. Therefore

Hasten on, O golden rain,
Upon us, thy parched heritage and land!
That we may be true to thee,
And heed not fire and sword.
As drunk with love,
And sunk in thee!
Make thy Church rich in faith,
That the end may equal the beginning!

M.                    F. L.

Notice of a Death.

However richly blessed and refreshing this year's assembly of our Synod in St. Louis was, by God's grace, for all who could take part in it, yet it pleased God to plunge its members at the same time into deep sorrow. Among those present was also Pastor Otto Eißfeldt of Sheboygan in the State of Wisconsin. He had arrived in St. Louis fresh and well, and in the first six days of the sessions had taken the most active part in all the proceedings. But the unusual, almost unbearable heat prevailing here at just that time seems at last to have exerted a particularly harmful influence on the peculiar bodily constitution of the deceased (he was of very full-blooded habit). Already at the night session on Tuesday the 27th of June he could take part only with difficulty. On the following day he did not appear at all at the morning session, excusing his absence on account of indisposition. Until noon twelve o'clock the ailment had assumed no alarming character, wherefore he still thought it unnecessary to consult a physician on that account, to which the writer of this had urged him. A few minutes afterward, however, the patient rose and suddenly left the room, accompanied by a friend, with the declaration that he would seek out the physician, who lived but a few steps from the house. The physician pronounced the symptoms of illness to be forerunners of a violent fever, which he yet hoped to be able to counter, prescribed the appropriate medicines, and bade the sick man remain for the present in his, the doctor's, dwelling until he should have returned from some visits to patients. Before this had happened, however, the feverish condition had increased with unexpected speed; unconsciousness set in, and with it the symptoms of an impending apoplexy. When the writer of this entered the doctor's dwelling that afternoon about the fourth hour, he found with dismay the dear brother already in this condition. All the means applied now proved wholly without effect, and half an hour later we had to see with tears how the LORD called His young servant from his labor to rest. The reader may imagine how shocking the news of the departure of the beloved brother was to the assembled brethren. On the following day toward evening the Synod, together with a great number of members of the local congregation, escorted the mortal body of the departed to its rest in the congregation's burial ground near the College.

The departed was a pupil of Concordia College. For his admission into it, that is, into the Seminary, he submitted, according to the custom here, a brief sketch of his life written in the Latin language. From this we communicate the following:

"I was born in the year 1825, on the 6th of May, on a piece of land of Count Stolberg-Wernigerode, called Sophienhof, leased by my father. My parents took great pains to bring me up in godliness and in the knowledge of the divine Word. But they had not at that time attained such a degree of Christian knowledge as to see through the shameful manner of teaching of our teachers; wherefore it came to pass that we, although instructed in biblical history and in the doctrine of faith, nevertheless did not receive the wholesome food. Until the twelfth year I remained in my father's house, whereupon I was sent to the Lyceum at Hannover, to obtain a scholarly education there. But when my parents saw that the temptations of the city exerted a ruinous influence upon me, they called me back into the parental house, where I again enjoyed instruction for a year by means of a private tutor. In the autumn of the year 1840 I was thereupon sent by my dear parents to the Pädagogium at Ilefeld, to be prepared there for academic theological study. Here I remained 4 years 6 months, and received indeed the certificate of maturity for leaving for the university, but with the impressions of the Word of God received in youth I had at the same time lost the desire for theological study. It was therefore quite welcome to me now to obtain a position as a railway official, in which position I remained 1 year 6 months. My father died, and my dear mother therefore took the position of matron at a hospital and poorhouse in Hannover, whither I also now turned, to study mechanics and architecture at the polytechnic institute there. I cannot praise God enough that He led me thither, since here, partly through intercourse with a believing Christian, partly through the sermons of the renowned and distinguished Pastor Dr. Petri, I was torn out of the ruinous ways of the world which I had trodden, and brought not only to an insight into my spiritual misery, but also to a living knowledge of my Savior and of the salvation in Him. After I had later held the position of a revisor in Clausthal for one year, the impulse awoke mightily in me again to enter upon the calling for which I was originally destined, namely to become a preacher of the saving Gospel. Dr. Petri strengthened me in this and procured for me the means to emigrate to America, whither three of my brothers had already gone, in company with my dear mother, and to prepare myself here for the service of the Church. According to the direction received, I turned first to Fort Wayne, where by God's help I arrived safely in September of the year 1849 and entered the seminary there. To my honored teachers, Dr. Sihler and Prof. Biewend, it seemed however more fitting that I should complete my theological studies in Concordia College, wherefore I, sharing their conviction, have now turned hither."—

So far the words of the departed himself. On the 16th of April 1850 he arrived here, accompanied by his intimate friend Georg Bolck, who had already preceded him into blessed eternity, afterwards pastor at New Orleans, and remained with him in the institution until Easter 1853, being with his friend a pattern of a godly student. Thereupon he received a call as pastor of the Lutheran congregation at Scheboygan, Wisconsin (with two branches), in whose midst he was ordained on Trinity Sunday, the 22nd of May of last year, on the same day on which his friend Bolck was also consecrated to the holy ministry at New Orleans. He conducted his burdensome office with great faithfulness and exceeding zeal. The glorious gifts connected therewith, with which the departed was equipped, gave ground to hope for a great blessing for our Church here from his labor. But the LORD, whose ways are not our ways, and whose thoughts are not our thoughts, had decided otherwise. To Him be praise and honor in eternity. Amen