# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1855 04 24_S142
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

142

several would fall upon one and the same piece with their choice, and that thereby ill-will and strife would arise, rose now to the highest, and I could not refrain from acquainting them with my fears and at the same time exhorting them to concord. When they had come to the land to be divided, they soon brought my fears to naught by their peaceable consulting together. One after the other chose his piece peaceably, and if it did happen that two men fell upon one and the same piece, the younger yielded to the elder. I was vividly reminded thereby of the parting between Abraham and Lot, where Abraham said: "If thou wilt take the right hand, then I will go to the left; or if thou depart to the left hand, then I will go to the right." — The pieces of land allotted to the Indians are partly on account of the course of the Pine River, partly also on account of the needs of individual families of different size, containing from 15 to 23 acres. After the distribution of the lands to the Indians I made out for each a contract, in which they are declared lawful owners of the land in question and at the same time bound and obligated to pay the purchase sum provisionally laid upon them by us to the seller, that is, the mission committee. For this past summer all the inhabitants of Bethany once more confined themselves in the accustomed manner to the old land; for the winter they intended to lay hand to work and to let their axes swing in the desolate primeval forest and to win from it in honest fashion their daily bread.

It was at first our intention to buy much more land than has been done, and that for this reason, that, for one thing, the congregation at Shebahyonk was minded to break up from its former dwelling places and to unite with their brethren in the faith at Bethany into one congregation, and, for another, because we had prospect and hope that strange, still heathen Indians, namely relatives of our own, would move hither and so come near to the blessings of Christianity. Unfortunately our hopes, at least for the present, have come to shame. Of the heathen Indians who wished to move to Bethany we have heard nothing more, and what a sad end it has come to with the congregation at Shebahyonk, we became aware in these pages months ago.

So the foundation stone has been laid for an essential change in the manner of life of our Indians, although the same has not yet actually taken place. — Besides the changes described above, our Bethany is experiencing many alterations through the frequent influx of English families. Already, a few miles above Bethany, farm after farm has been laid out, whereas otherwise we had in all directions nothing but dead primeval forest. Much that was harmful for our congregation I had feared from English neighbors, and it has unfortunately turned out so, even though not with the knowledge and will of the Americans who have come near us. Above all it is the wretched swindle of liberty which pervades and animates the English part of the North Americans. The Yankees live for the most part, in the proper sense, without God and without His holy Word in this world from one day and one year to the other. The better among them do no work on Sunday, as they have brought this custom over with them from England. Therein lies the essence of their Sabbath observance, of their divine service. They come now and then also to our church and hear the sermon of the divine Word, which, since it must be preached by us in the English language, is at the same time intelligible to them. But with all that, the free, unrestrained and unbridled disposition shows itself only too much, and indeed to the great disadvantage of our still minor Indian Christians, who also boast of being children of a free nation. That the English neighbors of Bethany come to church when they have a mind and just as well stay away at pleasure, but otherwise stand in no churchly relation to us, has already become a temptation to many of our young people. Already the attendance at church with some is no longer so regular as formerly. Further I must also complain that the craving for finery of dress, through the example of the vain Americans, especially of the female sex, is spreading morally corrupting in my congregation. With this vice, so highly ruinous for our Indians, go pride and covetousness, two great enemies of the Gospel, hand in hand, and hinderingly oppose the Word of God. Ah, there are so many enemies and adversaries against whose attacks one must pray and fight! Yet these are only the enemies from without. Far worse and more dangerous are the enemies of the kingdom of God who have lately arisen in our own congregation, the combating of whom has already caused me much grief and wrung many a sigh from me. I have wished also to communicate this to the dear brethren, for in order to give a complete picture of our congregation I cannot refrain from setting forth also all its shadow sides.

It is true, Bethany is, as its name says, a house of poverty and affliction. The Indians were poor when they were first greeted with the treasures and riches of heaven, and they are poor still today. In our little flock there are no fewer than six widows, who often have scarcely bread for themselves, much less for their children. This distress has often broken the heart of their former pastor, the missionary Baierlein, and made him open his hands, as is still the case today with his successors. From the chief Nagischik, who, by the way, is the worst at begging, down to the poorest orphan, our help is much called upon. And how could we close our hearts and withdraw our hands when it is really want that compels our Indians to ask. But the latter is just not always the case. Only too often individuals seek our help in order thereby to give furtherance to their natural sloth. Indeed with several it has become clear to me, to my great grief, how they have been so spoiled by the charity which they enjoyed formerly. They abuse the same now in the most shameful way and make defiant claims upon it, even where they are by no means in want. They think we are bound to fulfil all their wishes and demands and to give them everything they ask for; hence also the grossest reproaches, abuse, yes the most impudent and godless threats on the part of individuals have occurred when anything was refused them. — How could I approve such disorder and such impurity, yes how could I satisfy those who thus sin by a timid giving way and by fulfilment of their wishes?! I should thereby confirm them in their utterly false delusion, in their wickedness become manifest, and make myself partaker of other men's sins; I should sin grossly against my God, to whom I am to present my congregation as a pure virgin to her Bridegroom.

Such excrescences must rather be cut off and rooted out, cost what it may. And it has already cost many a hot struggle.

To be sure, I have drawn upon myself many coarse reproaches and accusations by combating the vices mentioned above, to which I was constrained in my conscience, and threats, such as that they would no longer be Christians or would become Methodists etc., if this or that were not done which they wanted, have occurred without number; indeed the merciful God would well have had cause to give this one or that one over to a reprobate mind; but His patience and long-suffering endureth still.

Above all a man named Misquaanaquod has sinned grossly against his God. He still keeps away from us and no longer comes to hear the divine Word. O that the LORD would once more take pity on his poor soul and give him time and space for repentance!

My congregation in its great majority knows no difference at all between "needy" and "well-to-do." If I break my bit of bread with poor widows and orphans, and cover the nakedness of the needy with clothes which have been sent us by German brethren in the faith within and without the Synod, then the others want to share equally. If the desire of the latter is then not fulfilled, I must not wonder at reproaches, as if I preferred one to the other, as if I loved this one and that one more than others. As I said above, that is a dangerous enemy who has crept into the midst of my congregation and fills the hearts of many with malice and wickedness. I know no more fitting name for this enemy than bread-Christianity. If I combat it with the representation that we are not bound to be also the bodily providers of the Indians, then