# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1934 masthead not in scan _S354
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

354

but also the irrational animals. The Psalmist knows this, and therefore he exclaims in wonder: "who gives the cattle their food, the young ravens that call upon him," Ps. 147:9. Is it chance that the salmon, when its spawning time comes, leaves its true home, the sea, and with closed mouth swims up the rivers with irresistible force, to spawn there and to perish? Is it chance that the ground wasp, when its time has come, digs a hole in the earth, catches a caterpillar and paralyzes it with its sting, but does not kill it, and buries it in the hole after it has laid its eggs on it and thus provides the young wasps with living food? Ah no, but as the LORD has numbered the hairs on your head, so he has also thought of the young salmon and the young wasps. As the LORD guides the flight of the angels, so he also protects the flight of the swallows when they travel homeward. In him all men live and move and have their being, yes, all creatures. God has fixed time and goal and foreseen beforehand how long and how far they shall dwell, Acts 17:26-28.

But is that not blind fatalism, if I believe that everything is ordained and foreseen beforehand, that everything will come because it must come? There is a great difference between blind fatalism and divine providence and ordination. Blind fatalism works without plan, goal, and purpose. It shoots, but it shoots into the blue. The arrow shot blindly must fly and fall, but it does not hit the target. It is a wasted force, which can never do good but can certainly do harm. In divine providence too, everything must come that is to come, but according to a well-prepared and beneficial plan. In the plan of a wise master builder every stone and every beam and every nail and every door and every window must take its place, but not by blind chance, but for the use and adornment of the house. So also in God's plan and purpose all things must work together for good to them that love God, Rom. 8:28, and this cannot fail, because the LORD has even numbered all the hairs of their head.

God cares not only about men, the great and the small, about the animals and insects, but also about the thoughts of men, and directs the heart of them all, Ps. 33:15. Such direction of the heart must also serve to carry out his counsel and will. It was God's will that Christ should be born at Bethlehem in the Jewish land; for the prophet had prophesied: "And thou Bethlehem in the Jewish land art in no wise the least among the princes of Judah; for out of thee shall come to me the Governor, who shall be a Lord over my people Israel," Matt. 2:5, 6. But the parents of Jesus lived not in Bethlehem but in Nazareth. What reason did they have to leave Nazareth now and go to Bethlehem, especially since Mary was with child and was nowhere better off than at home? So it seemed as though Christ would be born in Nazareth and not in Bethlehem. But God's promise must not fall to the ground. And the means? He directs the heart of all. At that very time the mighty Roman emperor Augustus issued "a decree that all the world should be taxed," Luke 2:1. Why? It had never happened before. And why could the people not be taxed in the place where they lived? Why must "every one go into his own city"? Because the emperor Augustus wanted it so, and above all because God wanted it so; and so it came about that Jesus was born not in Nazareth but in the city of David. How wonderfully God directed the heart of Pharaoh, so that he freed Joseph from prison and made him lord of Egypt, "to save much people alive," Gen. 50:20. Yes, the LORD has not only numbered the hairs, he also directs the hearts of men like watercourses. It takes only one blow with the hoe, and the water trickles in a completely different direction.

"But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." What inexhaustible comfort lies in these words of our Savior! How touching it is to observe how a mother worries about her child! She watches over the arms and legs, whether they are sound and healthy. She feels and counts the teeth that have already come through and those that are about to come through. A little cough puts her in anxiety. When the child does not like its food, her appetite goes too. She washes and combs its hair. But one thing she does not do: she does not count the hairs of her child and does not know whether one of them has fallen to the ground. How much more exact is God's care than the care of a mother! So it must be; for in him we live and move and have our being; and if his care were to leave us for only one moment, we would be no more.

When your relatives live far away, you cannot get to them and they cannot get to you. Perhaps you have had no news from them for a long time, and now you say: "I have such an anxious foreboding that some misfortune has befallen them." But why do you want to worry yourself, since you know that God has numbered their hairs? What misfortune could befall them then? When God cares for them, then it goes according to the saying: Misfortune is their fortune, night their sunshine.

What blessed people we are! Jesus, our Savior, has not only redeemed, acquired, and won us with his holy, precious blood, he also gives us the promise: "But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Whoever believes this can then also pray with the Psalmist: "I lie down and sleep wholly in peace; for thou alone, LORD, helpest me, that I may dwell in safety," Ps. 4:9.
M. J. Von der Au.

On the Church Situation in Germany.

The following lecture was delivered by Dr. Martin Willkomm, rector of the Free Church theological seminary in Berlin-Zehlendorf, at this year's assembly of the Free Church in Saxony and Other States in Berlin. Dr. Willkomm sent us the lecture, which gives a factual description of the church conditions in Germany from the standpoint of the Lutheran Confession, for our information, and remarked in doing so that he has nothing against its publication in the "Lutheraner." Our readers who take an interest in the church conditions in Germany will read the lecture with interest. Officials of the secret political police attended several sessions of the synod, also requested the manuscript of the lecture, but in no way hindered the assemblies, just as the whole church work of our brethren in the Free Church in general continues, as before, without any disturbance whatever.
L. F.

1.

For fifty-eight years our Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Saxony and Other States has now been engaged in the church struggle. This struggle is for the keeping pure of the doctrine