# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 09 26_S23
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

23

Celibacy,*) the sale of indulgences,
The Mass, so dear to the Pope,
Because he took the world's goods by it.
The Pope is the child of perdition,
Whose abominations are not to be counted.

*) Prohibition of priestly consecration.

I am a Christian and will defy the wiles
Of the devil forever.
The atheists, humanists,
Freethinkers, and the host of scoffers,
They seek to root out Christ
And say freely: "There is no God!"
But God lets himself not be mocked,
And will one day punish this rabble.
Whoever denies God, loses
Reason, conscience, and grows brutish.

I am a Christian and will remain so;
Therefore I abide by Lutheranism.
What God lets be written of the Supper
The enthusiasts shall never overthrow,
They say: "It cannot be
That Christ gives us his body."
But I remain standing by the Word,
Though reason love it not:
That Christ's true body and blood
In the Supper come to our good.

I am a Christian and will not yield,
Therefore I yield not from Luther's doctrine.
"Baptism is an empty sign,"
So says the enthusiast, "and nothing more"
Against this witnesses with one mouth
The Church, that, as God promises,
He in Baptism's holy covenant
Begets us anew through his Spirit,
Redeemed from devil, death, and guilt,
And bestows on us his fatherly favor.

I am a Christian, therefore I will remain
By Luther's doctrine till my grave.
The false Anabaptists drive
The children away from Baptism.
What? hear you not the LORD's desire?
Displeased he speaks also to you:
"Forbid not the children!
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
Therefore woe to him who despises Baptism,
Which yet makes the children blessed.

I am a Christian and will not waver,
Therefore I waver not from Luther's doctrine.
If to sinful thoughts
Absolution does not please much:
Yet Christ, our life, has
Given the Church this power,
To forgive the poor sinner,
Who believingly relies on him.
I trust Absolution,
As if God's Son himself spoke it.

I am a Christian and will not flee,
Therefore I flee not from God's Word,
And will nevermore let myself be drawn
To the falsely Unionist church,
Which in the Lord's Supper has put the lie
On a level with error,
And, that it may deceive our people,
Prates much of pious love.
The church which unites Yes and No
Cannot be the true one.

I am a Christian, therefore I will cling
To Luther's doctrine at all times.
The Methodists may make a show
With their great holiness.
I let myself not be deluded by it,
I know that I am a sinner,
Yet I rejoice to hear the comfort:
The LORD takes my sins away.
Whoever holds himself pure and sinless,
The devil has already felled him.

I am a Christian, therefore I will shun
Those who blaspheme Luther's doctrine,
And separate myself from false sects,
Which ever bring something new.
I will not draw at the strange yoke
With those who twist the Scripture,
Rather flee out of their Babel,
That their plague strike me not.
He resists the Holy Spirit,
Who knowingly lives in error.

I am a Christian, will not part
For this reason from Luther's doctrine.
To recognize the true Church,
That is according to God's Word not hard.
Where Word and Sacraments are in vogue
Unadulterated and pure,
There we may confidently confess:
Here must the true Church be,
Here is certainly God's house,
Here God dispenses heaven.

I am a Christian; therefore I will love
Those who Luther's pure doctrine
Confess and practice in faith;
I am ashamed of them nevermore.
With them I will diligently keep
The unity in the Holy Spirit.
Be pleased, LORD, to rule in grace,
That the devil tear them not asunder.
I forsake not the assembly
In which the true Church speaks.

I am a Christian, and will praise thee,
O LORD, for Luther's pure doctrine,
For thereby thou givest me from above
The boundless rich sea of grace.
Be pleased to comfort my soul
With all the noble good of grace
That thou out of love for the redeemed
Hast obtained by thy precious blood.
Only from the pure doctrine wells up
The comfort that stills our longing.

I am a Christian, thou wouldst strengthen me,
O LORD, through Luther's pure doctrine,
That I may grow in good works
And virtues more and more.
Help, LORD, that in me may perish
The old man through penitence and contrition,
And daily in me arise
Thy image, fair, free, and new.
The pure doctrine alone has power
To produce a pure life.

I am a Christian and will remain so;
Therefore I abide by Lutheranism.
O LORD, be pleased to incorporate me
Among the blessed to thy praise.
LORD JESUS, let nothing rob me
Of thy holy Word and Luther's doctrine,
And take me at last in true faith
To thee and thy host of heaven.
The pure doctrine alone shows
How one may at last die blessed.
Hermann Fick.

Great Lords, Great Sins.

When Bogislaus, Duke of Pomerania, in the year 1523 traveled through Wittenberg and had heard Luther preach there, he went after the sermon to Luther and made this request: "Father, I should like very much to confess to you." Luther replied: "Yes indeed, it can be done; but Your Princely Grace is a great lord to me: and will doubtless be a great sinner." Far from this frankness of the faithful servant displeasing the Duke, the latter answered rather: "Yes, that is certainly true."

This is the highest punishment of God, that he does not punish, but holds still, and lets a man live on after his own wantonness from day to day.
Luther.

Fruitfulness of Sin and Heresy.

No sin is alone, but always draws another after it. And this is wont to happen in all falls into sin. Whoever does not soon rise again, repent, and amend, the same soon falls into another temptation. So it goes with heretics also. No one becomes a heretic on account of one article; but where they fail in one article of the right understanding, so that they have let the devil delude them, there they soon err also in more other articles. Luther on Genesis 39:15.

Benefit of Fellowship, Especially for the Tempted.

Therefore it is exceedingly dangerous and harmful for a man who is tempted and sad to be alone; "woe to him that is alone," says Solomon, Eccl. 4:10, "for when he falleth, he hath not another to help him up." Therefore the founders of monasteries and nunneries have given countless men occasion to despair. For a man who is alone and solitary in temptation can neither help nor counsel himself even in the least trouble. Luther on Gal. 3:14.

A friendly rebuke profits more than a stormy accusation. — Ambrose.