# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 11 21_S51
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

51
the same (although we, in confidence, and for the comfort of anxious applicants be it said, do not intend to inquire especially after it); those, however, of our dear brethren and reverend fathers of this our synodical body who are already members of such societies may quietly and in undisturbed enjoyment of their lodge secrets and in the exercise of their self-serving benevolence and calculating philanthropy remain therein unhindered, yes, if they otherwise have sufficient gift of the tongue, become Master of the Chair; only they must not make it too coarse "in indifference toward the kingdom of Jesus" and must take care not to fall into "complete estrangement from Christianity and into unbelief," that is, they must still visit the Synod now and then and still bring some dollars from their congregations into the synodical treasury; in such a case they have no church discipline and no possible exclusion from the synodical connection to fear; for although it is (since we now find it good to join in a special earnestness and zeal for churchliness and Confession) a serious matter of conscience to us to receive no one into our connection who is already a member of a secret society, unless he renounced it, yet it is by no means a serious matter of conscience to us to remain, as before, members joined in the same synodical body with such brethren as are at the same time members of secret societies, although it does indeed give, for so churchly-minded a Synod as we are, a certain evil appearance outwardly, as if it were not really serious with us about our Christianity and churchliness, and as if we were afflicted in no small part with fear of men and man-pleasing, and also feared to bring a certain disturbance into our time-honored, peaceable synodical routine; for to be sure, according to the opinion of this and that impetuous and stormy zealot from the fatal Missouri Synod, who does not understand our wisdom and gentleness at all and cannot esteem it as it deserves, we ought to proceed thus: that we should give you, dear brethren and fathers, who are at the same time members of secret societies, a thorough instruction out of and according to God's Word, that and how such your membership conflicts with your Christian and churchly calling and is impossible to reconcile with true knowledge, sound faith, a good conscience and genuine godliness; and we should have to give you time for consideration, after the lapse of which and after the overcoming of your objections we should then call upon you to separate from your secret societies, the refusal of which would then indeed place us under the painful necessity of excluding you from our synodical connection.

But, to return now to seriousness, this latter procedure the Ohio Synod, according to conscience and love, would have owed to those of its members who are at the same time members of secret societies (and there are really several such present *) and whose remaining in such fundamentally unscriptural fellowship now counts in part to the account of the Ohio Synod. It would then also have avoided the self-contradiction that it has two kinds of conscience in the same matter, in that the one forbids it to receive Lutheran brethren in office who are at the same time members of secret societies into its connection, the other permits it to acknowledge as before as brethren and members of the same church connection members of it who likewise belong as members to secret societies.

*) Accordingly these have also helped to resolve not to receive among themselves people such as they are, because they are such! Ed.

This, however, is again the same sham which characterizes the Ohio Synod, which behind the signboard of the churchly Confession, yet out of excess of mere human ways, servility and belly-care, and from want of sound faith, of true reverence and obedience toward God's Word, and of sharpness and definiteness of the Christian conscience held captive therein, continually practices and pursues in all sorts of ways essentially the same unchurchly practice, contrary to Scripture and Confession, despises all instruction and rebuke with indifference or haughtiness, and thus, according to the righteous judgment of God, labors with its own hand at its spiritual dissolution and self-destruction.

Ah! would that at least the upright and sincere who are still in this Synod might at last have their eyes thoroughly opened, and might so increase in knowledge and courage of faith that they would at last, against these manifold abominations and gross injuries, especially against the leaders and directors, to whom, without a special miracle of the converting grace of God, also on account of their haughty ignorance and unwillingness to learn, of the inability to keep silent, it is hardly possible to help, raise a decided testimony and press for thorough and radical change and improvement. For if they continue to omit this out of fear of men and false modesty, or out of a kind of despair of a favorable outcome, they must not wonder if, by God's righteous decree, the light of better knowledge already arising should be darkened again, the conscience already awakening lulled to sleep again, the courage of faith and of witness already breaking forth dampened again; it could then hardly turn out otherwise with them than that in a kind of dull resignation they would succumb to the sinful conditions and, after the example and pattern of the dead and dying synodical brethren, become more and more mere spiritual men of business, belly-servants, hirelings and menservants of men, who also for their part, instead of being a salt, would increase the corruption of their synodical body and promote the spiritual ruin of the congregations committed to them by God; "for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that he hath."

A Testimony of Dr. Heinrich Müller
on the Necessary Bodily Support
of Preachers.

Alas! especially here in America not a few of the preachers suffer bitter want. But if they complain of it, they must often hear the reproach that they are hirelings, misers, belly-servants. And this happens not only in poor congregations, but even in such in which many members of the congregation live in all abundance, while their preacher is in constant embarrassment for the most necessary needs of life. Our dear readers will for the most part know the old Dr. Heinrich Müller, and therefore know that he certainly did not seek his own. Let him therefore preach to us here in America what a holy duty it is for hearers to provide well for their preachers bodily. God grant that his words may find good acceptance!

We here communicate a passage from a sermon which Müller delivered on the Epistle of the 15th Sunday after Trinity and which is found in his so-called "Apostolische Schlußkette." There it says, on Gal. 6, 6, thus:

"In the practice of well-doing one must in particular look to three things: toward whom, how and why it is to be practiced. As to the first, Paul makes a threefold order. First he sets the teachers who labor in the Word, for these must necessarily be provided for by others, since their care of the office does not permit them to support themselves by the work of their hands. ""Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things."" Between teachers and hearers there shall be a lovely interchange and joyful exchange. The teachers shall impart to the hearers the Word through pure, thorough and edifying sermons. What can they give better than the dear Word of God, which is a treasure above all treasures? Is not a little text of comfort, when it goes to the heart and leaves a power behind it, better than a world full of gold? What can all the world help you in tribulation or in the distress of death? If God and His holy Word do it not, you are lost eternally. This David acknowledges in Ps. 119: ""Unless thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished in mine affliction."" For this treasure the hearers shall impart to their teachers all manner of good things, not all that they have, but of that which they have, according to ability, all manner of necessity. To this communion Paul leads us in the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, chap. 9: ""If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your