# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 12 19_S68
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

68

stroke of policy, whereby, as at one blow, the Baptists mean to conquer the dignity of being the truly reformed pure church. Now that the first wild fire of German Methodism has again pretty well burned out, the German Baptists hope, as it appears, to relieve it for a while and to come to the helm. And it may be that they will bewitch some ignorant people out of all sorts of religious communions and draw them into their communion, but they also, like all such sects, will, like shooting stars, shine a few moments and then burst and vanish, while the orthodox church, founded on the Word alone, shall not be overcome even by the gates of hell.

An important purpose of our little work seems to be this also, to prove that the Anabaptists of Münster with their horrible atrocities were neither the children nor the fathers of the Baptists. It goes without saying that sensible Christians know well how to make a distinction among the Anabaptists and therefore by no means put well-meaning Baptists in one row with those abominable fanatics. Yet again and again the Münster tragedy must be set before the eyes of the Baptist gentlemen and of all honest Christians, that men may see whither the fanatical contempt of infant baptism and of the secular government, which is peculiar to all Baptists, and whither a foolish zeal against national churches leads of necessity in the end. Quite rightly therefore Dr. Rudelbach writes: "The matter must not be put as a later Baptist writer has put it, that either Münzer and similar bands descend from the Baptists, or conversely these from those, and that one of the two must be demonstrable: it was rather the bloody stream which rolled from Altstädt to Münster, a point of transit, which with a judgment of God in every issue showed what fruits this doctrine could bear, if the roots were not cut off and cleansed."

Open Confession concerning the Condition of the Congregations in the Old German Fatherland.

On the 17th and 18th of July of this year a pastoral conference was again held in Fürth (Bavaria). At this conference Pastor Löhe delivered two addresses. The first dealt with the worth and importance of private and public Confession, in which the speaker, while giving the preference to private confession as a means of education, yet seeks to maintain also for the so-called general confession its right. The other address had discipline for its subject, on the basis of Matth. 18, 15-18. As the "Correspondenzblatt der Gesellschaft für innere Mission nach dem Sinne der lutherischen Kirche," edited by Bauer and Stirner, reports, Pastor Löhe presented among other things the following on the latter subject: "Here (in church discipline according to Matth. 18, 15-18) there is need of a congregation, in order to exercise discipline. Where there is no congregation, there the highest and most important member is lacking. That one can perceive from the process of discipline. If the brother will not hear the brother, he shall take witnesses and help in the work; it shall (finally) be brought before the whole congregation. With what intent? 1) that it may convince itself that something has happened that ought not to be, 2) that it may strengthen the admonition and bring the sinner to see that he has erred. There one sees that the highest member of discipline is the congregation. But it must be imbued with the same thought as the individual, with the impulse of love to bring the sinner back. If this is not so, that it is the highest member in the work of love, then something essential is lacking. From this point of view the outlook upon our congregations is a gloomy one. There it is extremely hard to bring such matters before the congregation. A concord is hardly to be attained. Besides, if in case of failure (of the punishment) a suspension of fellowship (the ban) must take place, this cannot be thought of if it (not?) has first been united in love. If one cannot trust it with this, one cannot trust it with the other. . . Think of the time when the world became Christian, then Augustine says: it is impossible to exercise discipline in the apostolic manner. So long as the conditions remain as they are, it will also be impossible. . The fellowship has great weight for discipline. But this spirit is not present in our congregations, the congregation would fall apart at the very first thought of discipline." —

Who must not thank God for the freedom here, when he reads this? For to God's honor we can and must confess that here in America in our most numerous congregations it is not so. We can exercise discipline here, and we do exercise it also. To be sure, some congregations, hopeful at first, as we thought, go "asunder" over it, but we think here that our highest task is not to hold the congregations together, but to do what God has commanded, and to leave the rest to God. In the old Fatherland considerations for the great whole may make a greater caution and reserve in the introduction of discipline necessary: we are far from judging on that account the Church in which we were born. But say it we must, that after the above confessions we count ourselves happy that God has deemed us worthy to serve His Church precisely here. Let us not forget, however, dearest brethren in the ministry and you, dear congregations, that, since God has given us much here, so much the more will be required of us!

Demands upon Missionary and Similar Church Papers.

The Leipzig "Missionsblatt" seems to fare similarly as the "Lutheraner" here. For it is complained that it is not edifying, not popular, not lovely enough. But we must agree entirely with the editor of that paper, Director Graul, as he has expressed himself in regard to these demands. Thus it says in the annual report rendered on the 22nd of August of this year:

While the Saxon delegates expressed the request that the editorial staff of the Missionsblatt might continue in the direction last taken, there was pressure from the Prussian side for still greater popularity, from the Thuringian side for still greater edification, especially for the purpose of missionary prayer-meetings. Director Graul recognized the demand that our Missionsblatt should become still more popular *) as quite justified, but warned not to set up "edification" as the supreme principle, since the deliberate striving to give mission events an edifying character is all too inclined to do injury to truthfulness. His chief aim in composing the Missionsblatt had always been: "Truth and thereby true edification," and he had taken as his model in it less one of the newer mission papers than rather the oldest mission report, — the holy Acts of the Apostles. He feared that if we begin to emphasize "edification" in the editing of the Missionsblatt, we should fare badly, for we as good Lutherans could not compete with certain other papers which do not spare the varnish. **) That the former manner has had its admirers is proved, among other things, by what the Petersburg brethren say: "Truly heart-refreshing it was to us to read the mission reports. It is the fidelity, the poverty, the humility, the quiet, the patience, the spirit of truth, the unvarnished and unadorned — the unpretending manner of the lily of the field, that so beneficially appeals to us from it and fills us with confidence. A mission so speaking and working is the Lord's work and no human contrivance." Every pastor of the church of Scriptural confession should make it his task to educate his congregation members to a taste for sober mission reports. —

*) That is, more intelligible to the people (populus). But, alas, one now commonly understands by "popularity" of style an affected one, wherein the writer forsakes his own natural way of thinking and expressing himself and imitates the naive (simple-hearted) manner of speech of an uneducated person gifted with mother-wit. Whoever can best disguise himself in this manner, of him one says that he understands how to write for the people. Everything therefore now snatches after such a style. We shudder, we confess it, at the consequences of such untrue artificiality, whereby even nature is made to lie and the reader from among the people is spoiled and misled, instead of delighting in the truth, in the narrative itself.

**) Yes, Graul is quite right. It is hardly to be believed what the Union mission papers are often able to make, out of a simple, everyday occurrence, by pouring in a so-called "edifying" sweetly devout sauce (gravy), into a "touching" story.

So far Graul. We say to this Yea and Amen and would have these words communicated here also in favor of the "Lutheraner." A paper should not be written in order that it may be read at any price, but if one is not content with the truth in it, if it is to serve only a spoiled spiritual stomach, it had better stay at home.