# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1949 10 25_S360
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360

vanced, so that then others can be helped again with them.

With this cry of distress we do not propose a special synod-wide collection, but we do hope that our request will not be left unheeded, and we pray God that He would once more make our Christians willing, without thereby otherwise diminishing their church gifts, to bring a special offering and so serve their Savior, who indeed is the one who asks them to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide the sick with medicines, procure shoes for the children so that they can go to church and school, and somewhat relieve the great misery of many old and homeless refugees.
Emergency Planning Council
L. Meyer, Executive Director

The Length of Our Life

On the one hand Scripture teaches that the end of every man's life stands fixed immovably. "Seeing his days are determined. . . . Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass," Job 14:5. On the other hand Scripture says just as clearly that human life is capable of being lengthened and shortened. Hezekiah prays to God for the lengthening of his life, and his prayer is heard. With regard to the shortening of life it is said in Ps. 55:24 of the bloody and deceitful men that they shall not live out half their days.

Both, the immovably fixed day of death and its shortening and lengthening, are to be held fast as true. The former is spoken from God's standpoint, the latter from the human standpoint, to which God condescends and according to which God directs us men to the means that He has ordained for our life here on earth. To consider the end of our life from the divine standpoint, setting aside the means ordained by God, does not suit the power of comprehension at our disposal in our earthly life. Therefore it is God's will and ordinance that we hold to the means to which we are directed for the preservation and lengthening of our life. The exceptions, according to which God can preserve us also without means, we leave to Him. Such means are working, eating and drinking, leading a godly life, also fleeing from danger. Because these means are ordained by God, they are included in divine providence. By holding to the means ordained by God or despising them, we come to the end of life that God has immovably fixed.
Dr. F. Pieper
(in "Christliche Dogmatik")

In Memoriam

Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God. Heb. 13:7.

Rev. Julius Nickel was born on December 1, 1868, in Richton, Ill. He took his preparatory studies at our institutions in Milwaukee and Fort Wayne. After completing his theological training in St. Louis in the year 1891, he served the Lord of the Church for 55 years in the following congregations: Salem, Springdale, Ark.; First English, Fort Smith, Ark.; Concordia, Akron, Ohio; Grace, Strasburg, Ill.; St. Paul, Wine Hill, Ill. During the First World War he served as pastor to the Lutheran soldiers in Camp Dodge, Iowa, then became institutional missionary in Cleveland, Ohio, where he also served St. Peter's congregation, then organized Concordia congregation in Dayton, Ohio, and last labored at St. John's congregation in Perham, Minn. To his Synod too he devoted a good part of his time and strength, namely, to the Southern Illinois District as vice-president and chairman of the mission board and to the Minnesota District as visitor in the West Park Region Conference. In the year 1946 he retired and moved with his wife to Winfield, Kans.

Pastor Nickel was married twice. His first wife was Miss Ada Belle Campbell of Springdale, Ark. This marriage was blessed with seven children. In the year 1928 he married Miss Hulda Krato, who survives him.

There was a peculiar circumstance about his departure from this vale of tears. As evening twilight fell, the old man, who suffered from absent-mindedness, wandered out into the country and there fell unawares into the river. His body was found two days later by some students of our Winfield institution. The funeral service took place on October 4 in Trinity Church, at which the undersigned preached on Rom. 8:31-32. The burial took place in Highland Cemetery in Winfield.
C. Zehnder

Rev. Herman C. Wehrs was born on November 4, 1873, in Gilmer, Ill. His parents were the Rev. H. W. and Anna Wehrs, née Hemmer. His father was one of the first pastors of our Synod in the State of Iowa, and he also taught him the classical languages early. Herman Wehrs was dismissed into the ministry by Concordia Seminary, Springfield, Ill., in the year 1895. His first charge was St. John's congregation in Bleecker, N. Y., where he was ordained and installed on September 8, 1895, by the Rev. J. C. Kretzmann. From 1900 to 1901 he served St. John's congregation in Depew, N. Y., from 1901 to 1905 St. Paul's congregation in Eden Valley, N. Y., and from 1905 to 1914 St. Matthew's congregation in Hudson, N. Y. On September 13, 1914, he was installed as pastor of the oldest Lutheran congregation in Wisconsin, Trinity congregation in Freistadt. The Lord of the Church blessed his work there, so that in the year 1927 he was able with his congregation to build a four-room brick school. He was also a very diligent student of Luther. He introduced English services in the Freistadt congregation and was known far and wide as a powerful pulpit orator. In the year 1948 he resigned his office but served the congregation until the end of December. He spent the last months of his retirement in Burlington, Wis.

During his ministry he rendered excellent services in many respects to the South Wisconsin District. For thirty years he served as a member of the District Board and with great faithfulness from 1927 to 1948 as visitor of the Freistadt circuit. When the Valparaiso University Association was organized, he joined it at once and served the university as representative in his circuit.