# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 08 30_S1
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

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

Published by the German Ev. Luther. Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States.

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Year 11.  St. Louis, Mo., August 30, 1854.  No. 1.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who are to pay for it in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 Cents.

Only letters containing communications for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, containing 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.

Preface of the Editor
to the Eleventh Year of the "Lutheraner"

Nothing do inexperienced, and in part dishonest, Christians complain of more often than this, that Christendom is almost everywhere so greatly torn and split by strife and discord.

They say: Is not Christ called a Prince of Peace? And did He not come into the world for this very reason, to bring the peace of heaven to this peaceless earth and to found with His Church a kingdom of peace here? Have not the prophets prophesied of this: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks? For nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid"? and so forth. (Isa. 2, 4. 11, 6.) Have not the holy hosts of angels therefore, at Christ's birth, sung in heavenly antiphonal choirs: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men"? And did not Christ, after the completion of the work of reconciliation with God, finally come out of His grave with the greeting: "Peace be unto you"? Yes, has He not Himself said: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another"? — How can then the true Church, the real kingdom of Christ, true Christendom, be there, where nothing is to be seen and heard but quarrel, strife, conflict and discord? —

But since, above all, the teachers in the Church are those who, if they do not begin the strife in the Church, yet take it up, keep it going and increase it, those complaints in the mouths of many Christians about the rent condition of the Church become accusations against their teachers.

They think, and perhaps also say it aloud: Are not the preachers to be heralds of the gospel of peace? Is it not said of all true evangelical preachers: "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach peace, that bring glad tidings of good things"? Has not Christ therefore expressly commanded the apostles, together with all their successors in the teaching office, that whenever they come into a house, they are to let their first word be: "Peace be to this house"? (Luke 10, 5.) and does He not therefore add: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves"? Is it not required in God's Word of all servants of the Church that they be "gentle, not quarrelsome, not contentious, but kind toward all men, not self-willed, not soon angry," that they "avoid foolish and unlearned questions, knowing that they do gender strifes," that they in particular "strive not about words"? (1 Tim. 3. 2 Tim. 2. Tit. 1.) Yes, is it not commanded in God's Word to all common Christians, and therefore surely in still higher measure to those who are to be an example to the flock: "Forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace"? (Eph. 4, 2. 3.) "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord"? (Heb. 12, 14.) "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men"? (Rom. 12, 18.) And has not Christ, finally, adorned all these commandments with glorious promises: "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God"? — Is it not now dreadful when preachers, instead of preaching peace, proclaim unpeace, instead of establishing concord bring about discord, and thus instead of building up the Church tear it down, instead of gathering scatter, instead of holding together and tending the body of Christ rend it? —

Dear reader, it is indeed true in the first place, Christians must certainly recognize it as a great misery and as a great heartache that the Church of the great Prince of Peace now looks like a great battlefield on which brothers fight against brothers; that