# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 08 30_S7
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

7

such bitter mourning—but only a sweet lament of love: Oh, might I die with thee!

If one looks into the registers of the dead, and makes a reckoning, it is found that among the children of men more than half die in minority and childhood: since God has now given us hitherto five children, and taken three again, we need not yet think that we are hard attacked before others: especially as these tender souls have thereby obtained a good lot. It has certainly something great in it, that so many human souls, soon after they have come into this world, are at once removed into the other world, according to which the number of the elect is for the most part filled up from such little ones; and these are like the plants in a garden, which one gathers in immediately upon their ripening; whereas the grown are like the few plants which one saves for seed, and for that reason must leave standing outside longer in wind, frost and snow.

That which the natural love grieves most is the loss of a delight which one has in the lovely, innocent behavior of a growing child: but even this one may fairly renounce in expectation of what is better; is there not also in the blossoming of flowers and trees in spring something pleasing, and yet it falls off in very great quantity without being lamented: because a fruit comes that brings a much more important enjoyment.

Had no child been born in our house a year ago, we should indeed not mourn now: but as we accompany it today out of the house, it is, as to the outward, again just as much, and we have yet this to our gain, that we count one more in heaven. Who then should think that it was born in vain, and that the care meanwhile bestowed upon it was laid out for nothing? Now since together with this one the responsibility also ceases, we have so much the freer time in the household to think of the one thing needful, and to instruct the two still living so much the more carefully thereto.

As soon as the death-stroke is past, the little body, a handful of ashes, is already honored again with clean linen, flowers, citrons, wreaths and the like, which indeed all decays with it, and gives a very fading comfort to the eyes; but how beautiful must the adornment be wherewith the soul is endowed in heaven by and before God, the LORD Christ and the holy angels?

That which most disturbs or hinders our contentment is this, that the visible things have so much power over us, and the eternal, invisible are still so unknown and strange to us. But if we could only take one look at that which befalls a soul departing in this manner, we should not lament the departure of our relatives, but rather the weakness of those who mourn.

So then let us accept the wind of grace, of which through the door of heaven opened for our departed something also has blown upon us, to this end, that we may be quickened, not to wish them back, but to hasten after them. No one would deem one of those who have already been 10, 100, 1000 or more years in rest and security happy, if he had to return again into the perils of this life; why then do we reckon it a misery when one of us arrives there? If a gap has been made in our rooms, on the other hand a place in heaven is filled again! The nearer it draws toward the end of all things, the more agreeable it is to die, since those who go before meet so many more predecessors, and need no longer wait long until the rest also follow after, and thus all are gathered together, that we may be with the LORD forever.

At the funeral I received the condolence (expression of sympathy) and the consolation of good friends as though I had no store of such things for myself, and thereupon God has let me hear through their mouth many an agreeable word, for example, of the communion of our dear children, whom we have partly already in heaven, partly still with us, of our remembrance in heaven at the entrance of our own, etc. In going out I looked at the serene sky, and my mind also became so serene, as though the corpse did not concern me.

In the churchyard the coffin was once more opened, and the nosegays that had been fastened upon the cloth were put in with the others. When I now saw the face of the blessed child uncovered once more, and the sun stood before me in the bright heaven, I was moved, pointing to both, to say to those who stood near me: Thus will the dear child, which now does not look like itself, look! —and in such hope it would have been an easy thing for me to take from the gravedigger the spade, which at the burial of the late Albrecht Friedrich (the firstborn) had stirred so mightily in my heart, and to close the little chamber of rest with my own hands. I came so comforted into the church that I desired that what was now superfluous might be reserved for me for the little hour of my own departure.

Now we have once more been before the gate, and though we engage ourselves even now again in the necessity of this vain life, we are nevertheless again the surer that in time it will also fit itself to the real entrance. The name of the LORD be praised!

An Old Prayer-Hymn

against the Sacramentarians.

The Sacramentarians, or those who deny that in the holy Lord's Supper the true body and the true blood of JESUS Christ, according to His true and clear Word, are present, are distributed and orally received by all communicants, believing and unbelieving, have, in order to give some appearance to their perversion of the words of institution, been obliged at the same time to lay hands upon the most holy person of JESUS Christ Himself, and to deny that the human nature of Christ has been exalted, through the personal union with the divine, to divine majesty and glory. We see from this, first, in what intimate connection all the doctrines of the Bible stand, so that, if one is attacked, all the others are attacked with it; and secondly, how dangerous it therefore is not to submit humbly to God's holy Word even in one single point. For by the Reformed having rejected the pure doctrine of the Holy Supper, they have at the same time put themselves under the necessity of taking from Christ, the God-man, our Saviour, His crown from His head, and so either retracting the error they have adopted, or becoming enemies and opponents of Christ. Few are willing now to see this. But our old pious fathers perceived this vividly. Therefore they not only wrote earnestly against the sacramentarian error, but also prayed fervently. Such a prayer Nicolaus Selneccer, among others, composed in the form of a hymn in the year 1571, and appended it to a sermon which came out in that year in Heinrichstadt. The hymn is as full of great faith as of fervor of love to Christ and zeal for His divine honor. We herewith communicate it to our readers. May it find as fervent readers and singers, and prove its power to awaken and to warn in all.

It runs as follows:

Thou great King, true man and God,
Who didst suffer torment, anguish and scorn,
Lord Jesus Christ, Thou faithful refuge,
Keep us ever by Thy Word.
With God the Father Thou art eternally,
The Holy Ghost also is with Thee,
The eternal, one, true God,
Who hath created all things.
Thou hast all things in Thy hands,
Almighty, good, chaste and pure,
Art become our flesh and blood,
Brother, comfort, treasure, and highest good.
Therefore Thou sittest on the highest throne,
God the Father's, and Mary's Son,
At the right hand art Thou chosen,
And stillest the Father's great wrath.
Hast all power and eternal honor,
True God and man, and art the LORD,
In heaven and on earth far and wide,
To whom all lies beneath His feet,
Not alone according to Thy Godhead,
Which hath all and can do all,
But also according to Thy manhood,
As Thou hast adorned the same,
And hast wholly united it with Thyself,
In Thee exalted, adorned,
With infinite glory,
With divine power, high, far and wide,
With true majesty adorned,