# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1949 10 25_S358
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

358

for acceptance. If the union goes into effect, there will thus arise a new united Lutheran church that is somewhat stronger than our Missouri Synod.
J. T. M.

For This Year's Reformation Festival. At the end of October the Lutheran churches of our country celebrate a so-called Reformation festival. The Reformation festival reminds us of what Luther, by the grace of God, did some four hundred years ago for the restoration of the pure doctrine of the Word of God.

For the Word of God, which has been given to us pure and unalloyed through Luther, we thank God above all at the Reformation festival. At the same time we vow to God anew at this festival to remain faithful to His Word and to preach it fearlessly everywhere. That gives the festival its proper consecration.

In his work of reformation Luther himself was concerned above all with God's Word in church, school, and home. In his Table Talk Luther once said:

"O what a precious, noble thing it is to have God's Word before one! For that same [man] can at all times be secure, joyful, and of good courage. But let him see to it that he has it rightly and purely!

"Another, who does not have God's Word, falls into despair, for he lacks the heavenly voice and comfort. He follows the vanity of his heart and useless thoughts, which then drive him to despair. Therefore the 119th Psalm, verse 21, says: 'Cursed are they which do err from Thy Word!' That is: apart from the Word it cannot go well with them."

Again Luther says: "God's Word is His light that shines in the darkness. And [it] shines brighter than the sun at noonday. For in death not only the light of this sun goes out but also reason with all its wisdom. Then the Word of God shines with all faithfulness, an eternal sun, which faith alone sees and follows into the eternal, clear life."

We have taken these quotations from the well-known Luther concordance "Geist aus Luthers Schriften." Whoever owns this noble work should read it diligently. Formerly there were printed in our hymnal, before the "Epistles and Gospels," Luther's Small Catechism, the Table of Duties, and the Augsburg Confession.

In this "Luther appendix" our fathers and mothers then read diligently and so acquainted themselves with Luther's chief writings for the people, and that to their rich blessing. The Augsburg Confession also rightly belongs among Luther's writings. For even though Luther did not himself write this glorious work, yet it is entirely and altogether his doctrine that is set forth in it.

Let us therefore read Luther's writings diligently and let ourselves be led by them into the Holy Scriptures, that is, into God's Word! So one celebrates the Reformation festival in a blessed way the whole year through.
J. T. M.

Gone with the Wind. Such is the title of a very long novel that appeared in the year 1936 and aroused enormous interest not only in this country but also abroad.

Perhaps the title could be rendered in German thus: "Fort mit dem Wind." Whoever has toiled his way through the novel finds much in it that is true, but also much that is extravagant. It deals with the hard years during the Civil War and after, which our fellow citizens in the South had to suffer through, and shows in particular how the harried, poor people of that time, with a tenacious will to live, fought their way little by little out of misery to a secure position in life.

But we do not wish to review the novel here. We call attention to it for two reasons.

First for this one: everyone knows that some time ago the still young authoress of this novel lost her life quite suddenly. The novel had brought her wealth, honor, and esteem. Since 1936 close to eight million copies of it have been sold. It has been translated into thirty different languages. Almost the whole world has read it or seen it as a motion picture.

But all the money, all the fame, could not prevent death from coming quite suddenly, taking all earthly things from the authoress at a stroke, and setting her soul before the divine Judge. "In the midst of life we are in death." Let us think of that as it now becomes autumn.

The second reason is this: there are still, thank God! Christian stories, and these not only entertain but also teach rightly. For the most part they are written as excitingly as Gone with the Wind. What they offer may help to counteract the poison that mostly lurks in worldly literature.

What Are Our Young People Reading? Recently a work on modern English poets much used at the colleges, with long extracts from their works, was handed to us for examination. They were all there — the modern poets: Byron, Shelley, Keats, and whatever all their names are. But what these men wrote, and what is set before the students from their works as brilliant literature, is for the most part soul-poisoning.

Let us take good care what our children read in school and out of it! Many a one reads himself into hell.

Gone with the Wind! Who does not think here of the words of the Psalmist: "The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away," Ps. 1:4.
J. T. M.

American Freedom and Catholic Power. In the city of New York there is a large store that is generally known under the name "Macy's." Among other things it also sells many books.

Among these books there was also a work by the well-known American writer Blanshard, entitled American Freedom and Catholic Power ("Die amerikanische Freiheit und die katholische Macht").

This book was in especially great demand after Cardinal Spellman had attacked Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt so violently in the press in July of this year. The matter is probably still in our readers' memory.

In the book mentioned it was shown how quite uncannily Rome is active in this country politically and in every other way. It was, in short, a warning to guard American freedom against the unfolding of Catholic power.

All at once Rome's mighty, though quietly working, hand was felt. Large newspapers refused to advertise the book. Stores were afraid to offer the book for sale.

And Macy's? As a communication before us says, it can still be had there. But it is not