# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1855 01 16_S86
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

86

ence. Although there is also in the Evangelical Church no lack of sins, yet such can by no means be put forth as consequences of the doctrines of this Church, since these give occasion neither to idolatry, bloodthirsty persecutions, superstition, nor the like. We wish herewith heartily that the eyes of all who read this writing may be opened, to recognize the unhappiness of fellowship with Antichrist and to abhor the same." (p. 17 ff.) Even the renowned historian Löscher says in a review of this book that he had read with astonishment the disclosures of papistical abomination-mysteries contained therein.

The second half of our English-American work contains, pages 217—408, still several valuable additions, partly descriptions of the horrible errors and abuses, partly information about the state of the Roman Church in the United States.

The work is to be recommended to all who wish to take a look into the dreadful, otherwise concealed interior of the Roman hierarchy. It is to be had from Samuel Jones, Boston, Mass., strongly bound in muslin with rich gilt ornamentation and well executed emblems and illustrations, for the price of $1.25.

The New Theological Periodical.

It is true that our Synod has left it to the present editor of the "Lutheraner" to postpone the publication of the theological periodical until the entering upon office of the Director of the Gymnasium to be elected; yet three reasons, after consultation with our Right Reverend President and several other brethren in office, have determined us to begin the publication of the said monthly already in this month, in God's name. First, several of the gentlemen collaborators have already made us so many valuable contributions for it that the first two numbers are thereby almost completely filled, among which in particular one essay treats a now "burning question," whose publication is therefore right now truly timely; it is a review of Wucherer's writing on the holy ministry. Second, it appears as though the filling of the vacant directorship here might be put off for quite a long time, while among us the need of a periodical which can also take up what the "Lutheraner," intended more for a general readership, must either reject or can accept only with prejudice to the rights of a great part of its readers, is becoming ever more felt. Finally, the beginning of a year seems to us just a particularly suitable time for the beginning of a new periodical, which we should not like to miss.

As to what the periodical intends to offer, no report is needed for the members of the Synod, since they themselves have prescribed to it its tendency, matter and form. For our friends outside our connection the following may serve for information:

The paper appears every month (later on the first day of each month) in a number of 32 pages in octavo, with cover excluded, one volume of 12 such numbers for the price of $2.00 payable in advance, under the following title:

Lehre und Wehre.

Theological and Church-Historical Monthly.

The paper shall not be a friend of the Church, but a servant of the Church; it shall stand not above or beside, but in and under the Church. It will not lend itself to being a playground also for those who aim at attacking the doctrine of the orthodox Church and her hallowed institutions, and, if not overthrowing them — for that even the gates of hell cannot do, to say nothing of the chatter of wisdom-mongering men — yet at trying their hand at it and shaking it. The Holy Scripture, and after it the Book of Concord of our Evangelical Lutheran Church, will be the norm of all essays to be admitted, Scripture the norma normans, the Symbol the norma normata; both in their simple sense according to the guidance of the indisputably orthodox fathers of our Church, first of all a Luther, and then a Chemnitz, a J. Gerhard and other holy witnesses of the truth.

As the title says, the matter will be both thetical and antithetical, both didactic and polemical. Herewith, however, it will at the same time, according to the title, be the task of the periodical to give as vivid a picture as possible of the state of the Church here and in the old fatherland, for which purpose, as regards the position of the Church in the homeland, extracts from the churchly periodicals of the fatherland are to be communicated most abundantly. Moreover, care will be taken to put into the hands of the preachers here, in particular, for their conduct of office, so rich in the most various difficult cases that occur, excerpts from the treasury of our churchly casuistic works, and to give reliable information about the best books of old and new times for the founding of a Lutheran pastor's library.

Nothing could surely dash all hope for the paper more than the disclosure that the former editor of the "Lutheraner" has been appointed by our Synod to the editorship of "Lehre und Wehre"; yet we can give our friends the assurance that so many able collaborators are placed at our side that our share in the monthly will be reduced to something very small and will by no means determine its substance. We must, however, add to this disclosure the remark that our Synod, with the publication of this "theological periodical," by no means intends to set beside the learned journals now current in Germany a similar one for America. Its purpose in this is by no means to go out for new discoveries in the field of learning and in particular of theology, but to have an organ which shall serve above all to set forth again for view and appropriation the old doctrinal and other treasures of the Church, and to defend the same against new so-called theological or untheological, churchly or unchurchly highwaymen, but also to make as generally known as possible among us whatever is a true yield of new labor in the Word of God and in the records of the history of the Church for the same, and in particular for the Church here.

However small the gift may be which is hereby to be laid upon the altar of the orthodox Church of America, we nevertheless hope by God's grace that He will bless it for the furtherance of the truth, the overcoming of error, the edification of the Church, and also the winning of many of her adversaries. May very many, that this may come to pass, unite their believing prayers for it with ours to JESUS Christ, the invisible one Head of the Church! —

We remark finally that Mr. Cashier F. W. Barthel will dispatch "Lehre und Wehre," as he does the "Lutheraner," and will receive subscriptions for it.

To the "Lutheran Standard"

there has come, according to No. 387, a rejoinder to Prof. Dr. Sihler's "Denkwürdigkeiten aus der letzten Versammlung der allgemeinen Synode von Ohio" (see "Lutheraner" No. 7 of the current volume). A nameless member of the editorial board declares, however: "it is incompatible with a becoming self-respect to stoop to an answer" to such "outbursts of a fanatical zeal." We must confess that we cannot refuse the writer of this our admiration. The saying, "Be ye wise as serpents," the gentleman seems to have impressed well upon himself; only we are sorry that he does not seem to understand this word of the LORD in its connection with "and harmless as doves," and still less to practice the latter. For prudence did indeed bid him, for the sake of his so-called "self-respect," to which nothing was of course more dangerous than public discussion of his own misdeeds, to keep silent; but did this also bid the simplicity of the dove, which becomes the Christian at the same time? Probably the honest sender had expressed in his rejoinder his astonishment that the "Lutheraner" had accepted Dr. Sihler's essay; the man behind the closed visor therefore says, "it does not in the least astonish him that the 'Lutheraner' has been willing to serve as an instrument of such fleshly zeal. It is evidently at home in such matters, as all the world knows." The man who zealots so spiritually (?) is perfectly right in this. The "Lutheraner" will also henceforth be "willing" to be an instrument of "such fleshly zeal" (as one is pleased to call the same); yes, it will not ask in the least whether it thereby makes bitter enemies not only of all the enthusiasts but also of all the comfortable fashion-Lutherans. The "Luther-