# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1855 07 31_S195
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

195

to unite, a. in bodily things, outward security, manifold blessing and peace, b. in spiritual things, freedom of religion." Remarkable is the conclusion of the sermon, in which the festival preacher discloses to his hearers certain doubts which pressed themselves upon him. It says therein: "The first doubt is: will also the posterity still have the pure Word of God and walk in the light of the Gospel? Or will darkness and gloom of errors drive the sun of truth out of these borders? — If you are startled at this strange question of doubt, my friends, and are almost angry at the author of it: then I must say in my just defense that I have sufficient ground for it, and that the same is perhaps to be sought also in your own conduct. Ah! you see for yourselves how little people now, among high and low, any more heed religion and faith, yea, how they almost want to cry down as follies what has cost the confessors of the Gospel goods and blood. How many there are nowadays to whom every religion is a matter of indifference, whether it have God or Satan, Mohammed or the Pope for its author! how little it concerns most of them that 200 years ago a religious peace was established for the support of the needful freedom of conscience, since they have unhappily persuaded themselves that one can be saved either without any religion or in all religions! Tell me, what is still lacking in such a man for the complete passage into the kingdom of Antichrist? Nothing, in truth nothing, except a small hope of temporal advantages in honor, money and goods. Show him these only from afar, and he will make no further scruple to lay down religion and faith at the feet of Baal and to set up an eternal fellowship with the grimmest enemies of the Gospel. If one adds further that in general the contempt of the Word of God and of the holy Sacraments increases from day to day, and the public services of God are either neglected or attended without devotion, and also otherwise the care for salvation is set out of sight by most, then it may indeed still be asked: Will also the posterity have the Word of God still pure and unadulterated? Will it still walk in the light of the Gospel? He who knows the threatenings of God against those cities and lands where His holy Word, together with other benefits from Him, is no longer regarded; who remembers that upon the despised long-suffering of God a so much the sterner justice shall follow: he must become anxious for our posterity. For upon them God must visit the iniquity of the fathers unto the third and fourth generation. The first evangelical pastor at Gotha, Frederick Myconius, in his short history of the Reformation wrote the weighty words: "Ah! eternal God, how much toil, lifting, bearing, journeying, counsel-taking, expense, goods and innocent blood it has cost before Thy dear child was brought again out of Egypt into our promised land, that is, before Thy pure Word, Sacrament and service was set up in the Church! — and our posterity shall so lightly forget and despise it!" What a spirit of prophecy must have animated the pious divine! What secret presentiment must have so clearly pictured to him the middle of the eighteenth century even then, that his pen with so great boldness, to our shame, could write down the lament just mentioned: And the posterity shall so lightly forget and despise it!? Every time at the reading of these words the tears have fallen into my eyes. But now I humble myself before the God of peace in the name of JESUS Christ and beseech Him imploringly that He would make all the inhabitants of this city and of the whole land into true evangelical Christians, who confess the heavenly doctrine of JESUS with heart and mouth, and may prove their faith by a godly walk in deed, so that His wrath may not have to draw the just conclusion not to remove the candlestick of His Word out of its place. The other doubt is: will one, however, also after 100 years be able again to celebrate such a festival of the religious peace? One sees indeed the number of evangelical confessors decrease from time to time. The great ones of the earth, the heads of the lands, forsake our Church one after the other, and soon it might seem as if God were no more exalted among the shields of the earth. But if this is done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? This doubt is brought forward with the good intention of leading you, who fear the LORD and work out your salvation with fear and trembling, to a hearty trust in God with regard to the needful preservation of religion. Your Savior has affirmed that heaven and earth would indeed pass away, but not His Word. His Apostles add that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble would follow the call of God and the light of the Gospel. Let, then, among the great ones of the earth one Demas after another love the world and forsake JESUS Christ; let the visible kingdom of grace of the Savior become ever so small before human eyes; let the whole world rise up against JESUS and His confessors: nevertheless the city of God shall remain right merry with her little wells, where the holy habitations of the Most High are; for God is in the midst of her, therefore she shall remain; God helps her early. Nevertheless God will have a seed that serves Him, till the moon be no more. Nevertheless a Jerusalem and Zion shall remain, which shall praise and extol its God, as the Lord of truth and of peace, with heart and mouth." — So far the dear Löw. May his word, as a noble seed-corn that is now cast again upon the soil of our hearts, spring up therein and bring forth fruit! —

At Regensburg the pastor there, A. W. Grimm, set forth on the basis of Jer. 33, 9.: "the precious religious peace as a most praiseworthy benefit of God, 1. what a great and manifold benefit has befallen us through the religious peace, and 2. how we should recognize and praise this benefit not as a work of men but as God's." *)

*) We cannot wonder enough that Mr. Past. Dr. Petri in his Zeitblatt of the 31st of March of this year gives, among other things, this as the reason why he is against the celebration of the festival of the religious peace: "The Church comes into danger of rejoicing over deeds which she has not done." We think there is danger precisely only then when the Church rejoices over deeds which she imagines she has done. Are not all festivals of the Church festivals of rejoicing over God's deeds?

At Frankfurt on the Main the renowned, godly Senior of the Ministerium there, Dr. J. Philipp Fresenius, delivered the following on Psalm 147, 12—15.: "The Sacrifice of Praise which the Believers Bring to Their God for the Religious Peace; 1. who praises God for it? 2. whom do they praise? 3. how do they praise? and 4. why do they praise?" In the introduction Fresenius says: "The religious peace, which was established 200 years ago and whose memorial we celebrate solemnly on this present day, is of very great importance. This peace is 1. important when we remember the things that went before. The Reformation of the Church went before .. A very dangerous war went before, which from the beginning threatened destruction to the Evangelicals .. Many persecutions went before for the Gospel's sake .. The peace is 2. very important when we consider it itself. It arose in the greatest haste, if one considers its first ground, which was laid in the Treaty of Passau. As the rod of Aaron in one night budded, blossomed and bore fruit, so this peace. It arose contrary to all men's expectation. No one could imagine that the embittered minds would so soon be appeased. But before one knew it the peace was there, as a plain token that it was granted by the hand of the Almighty. It arose with the mutual consent of the contending parties. The heart-turning power of God so ordered it that at last one party sought the peace as strongly and promoted it as willingly as the other. Especially, however, this peace is remarkable because it has been made a lasting fundamental law of the Empire, by virtue of which our religion is not only tolerated but has equal rights and liberties. It is not only lawful with regard to the divine commandments, according to which even in the greatest persecutions the true religion remains lawful; but also with regard to the laws of the Empire. Finally this peace is 3. very important with regard to its glorious consequences. There followed upon it an outward quiet .. There followed upon it freedom of conscience. We may now serve God freely, publicly, and confess our faith, both in writing and orally. If the confessors of the Gospel before had for the most part to serve God in secret, then their