# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1855 06 19_S169
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.
"God's Word and Luther's doctrine shall pass away now and nevermore."
Revelation of John, Chap. 14, v. 6. 7.
Published by the German Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States.
Edited by C. F. W. Walther.
Volume 11.  St. Louis, Mo., June 19, 1855.  No. 22.
Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the annual subscription price of One Dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who pay for it in advance and bear the postage.— In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 cents. Only those letters which contain communications for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, however, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent hither under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

Sermon,
for the opening of the sessions of the German Evang. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Western District, on April 25, 1855, in Chicago, Ills., delivered by F. Wyneken, and communicated by resolution of the said Synod.

LORD, show us thy grace, and help us. Amen.

Grace be with you, and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ! Amen!

Beloved in Christ Jesus, our only Lord and Savior!

When the children of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, after the subjugation of the Canaanite peoples, were dismissed by Joshua to go over the Jordan into the inheritance appointed them, they felt for the first time how deeply they were bound up with the other tribes of Israel who remained on this side of the Jordan. Seven years they had waged the wars of the Lord together with the other brethren, had fought many a victorious battle, and had made the remembrance of the one, true, living and holy God live again among the fallen peoples. Now there was to be a parting from the brethren. The feeling of separation grew heavier and more oppressive the farther they removed themselves bodily from them on their march, and when they had at last arrived at the Jordan and were about to cross the river, which from now on was to form the boundary between them and the rest of the people of God, their brethren, they hesitated. "What if the bodily boundary should become a spiritual one also, and the Jordan, as it divides our bodily inheritance from the inheritance of the other children of Israel, should now also estrange us spiritually from them, and through this estrangement at last cut us off from the true common inheritance, our God himself and the true worship of God?" So they were anxious, so they conferred with one another, so they took counsel together concerning the means of averting from themselves such nameless misery. Then they agreed to build a great and goodly altar on the hither bank of the Jordan.

But when the tidings of such a building came to the ears of the rest of Israel, they were dismayed; they feared the wrath of the holy God must break out over the whole people, because a second altar was suffered in another place than that chosen by the Lord himself. They resolved to go up with an army, in order, if need be, to resist the wicked undertaking with armed hand. Phinehas, the zealot for the honor of God, went with them. But how their hearts were turned, when, upon their earnest representations, the children of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh assured them with the most sacred protestations: "God forbid that we should rebel against the Lord, and turn away this day from him, and build an altar for burnt offering, and meat offering, and other offerings, besides the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle. Nay rather, we have done it out of care for this thing, and said: Today or tomorrow your children might say to our children, What have ye to do with the God of Israel? The Lord hath made the Jordan a border between us and you, children of Reuben and Gad, ye have no part in the Lord! thus your children would make our children cease from the fear of the Lord. Therefore we said, Let us build an altar, not for burnt offering and other offerings, but that it may be a witness between us and you and our descendants, and your children may not say today or tomorrow to our children: Ye have no part in the Lord!"

When the children of Israel heard these words, they were pleased with them, and Phinehas said: This day we perceive that the Lord is among us! And they went home, and carried such glad tidings to their brethren.

May the Lord fill us, and all the members of our dear Synod, the shepherds as well as the flocks, with the same spirit that then prevailed among the tribes of Israel; may the same zeal for the unity of faith and of love sink by the Spirit of the Lord into our hearts! the same anxious concern of love, the same earnestness to preserve it!

Among us also God the Lord, in this time of disunion here in a strange land, has established such an intimate fellowship of life. We also have fought many a battle of the Lord together, have celebrated many a victory of the Lord together, and are bound to one another ever the more closely. Before the division of the Synod we did not conceal from ourselves the danger which the division itself might bring us. This