# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 09 19_S9
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's doctrine shall pass away now and nevermore."

Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States.

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 5.  St. Louis, Mo., September 19, 1848.  No. 2.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for subscribers living at a distance, who are to pay the same 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 addressed to the editor; all others, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, moneys, etc., are to be sent hither under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

Preface of the Editor to the Fifth Volume of the "Lutheraner."

(Conclusion.)

Whom God sends into an office, him He also makes fit for it. This has, as we have already seen, proved true also in Luther. That he was specially chosen by God for the work of the Reformation, that he was called to it in an extraordinary manner, the wonderful success has also demonstrated, with which everything that he undertook in the name of the LORD was at last crowned.

What a wonder it was that Luther was not soon after his appearance laid in chains and fetters and put to death! There has probably never been a man in the world, at any time, who had so many and so great enemies as he. The mightiest of the earth he had against him, and he wrote so sharply, so biting, so mercilessly against them, that they read his writings gnashing their teeth. Laid under the Pope's ban and the Emperor's proscription, he hovered every hour of his life in danger of death. How often he found himself defenseless in the midst of his enemies! and instead of entreating his exalted patrons, such as the Electors of Saxony, for their protection, he declined it. When, against the will of his Elector, as one outlawed by the state and banned by the authority of the Church, he left the Wartburg in order to hasten to the aid of the flock at Wittenberg entrusted to him and threatened by fanatics, he wrote to the Elector, who had threatened him that he would have to withdraw his protection from him if he should wantonly leave his place of refuge, the following: "Let this be written to your Electoral Grace, with the intent that your Electoral Grace may know that I come to Wittenberg under a far higher protection than that of the Elector. Nor have I it in mind to seek protection of your Electoral Grace Yes, I hold that I would protect your Electoral Grace more than you could protect me. Moreover, if I knew that your Electoral Grace could and would protect me, I would not come. In this matter no sword can counsel or help; God must here work alone, without all human care and cooperation. Therefore, whoever here believes most will here protect most. Since, then, I now perceive that your Electoral Grace is still very weak in faith, I can by no means regard your Electoral Grace as the man who could protect or rescue me." Shortly before he had written that he was ready, as to Worms, so also into the city of Leipzig, at that time most hostile to him, to go without protection and escort, "even if it rained nothing but Duke Georges for nine days, and each were nine times more furious than this one is." So Luther conducted himself, and behold, although thousands and again thousands of those of Lutheran mind had to pay for their confession with their death, yet not a hair of Luther's head was bent. In what else can we seek the cause of this wonderful occurrence than in this, that God held His protecting hand over Luther and had also spoken over him the word: "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophet no harm"?

And what must we say when we see with what rushing swiftness, bordering on the incredible, the work of the Reformation spread, as soon as it was begun through Luther's ministry? Already Emperor Charles IV in 1352 summoned a Diet at Worms for the reformation of the Church in head and members, and Emperor Maximilian I, with Louis II, King of France, in 1511 a council at Pisa; but though kings and emperors might unite with their estates and with whole councils, all undertakings were in vain, for — God's hour had not yet come. But at last Luther appeared, the defenseless poor Augustinian monk, with only the Bible in his hand as his sword. He had no thought at all of reforming; he only confessed what God had taught him in his cell in his highest distresses as the only saving truth; and behold! with the speed of lightning his word went from mouth to mouth, from city to city, from land to land. Like a winged angel of God he flew in his writings through the heaven of the Church. Rev. 14:6. Though the Pope might demand the surrender of Luther, set a high price on his head, hire assassins and poisoners against him, and have his books burned, and though all the mighty of the earth might rise with fire and sword against the "new" doctrine: the fire that had fallen from heaven, the blaze which God Himself had soon kindled in millions of hearts, no human hand could quench. After a few years Luther had adherents from all estates, high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, in Germany, in Switzerland, in France, in Spain, in Italy, in England, in Denmark, in Sweden, in the Netherlands, in Hungary, in Poland, yes, even in Syria in the midst of the followers of Mahomet, and thousands of them everywhere stood ready not only to lay down their lives for the newly risen Gospel, but also actually sealed it with streams of their blood. There now spread over the whole of Christendom a light such as had not shone since the times of the apostles. Though the enemies might move heaven and earth, the evangelical confessors were comforted, but on the contrary Pope, Emperor, kings, princes, prelates, and bishops trembled at the tremendous upheaval that was now taking place, for whole nations now stepped forth, armed with God's Word, into the lists against the Pope and his antichristian kingdom. Luther himself therefore writes: "It is not possible that a man should begin and carry on such a thing. It has also come so far without my consideration and counsel; it shall also go forth well without my counsel, and the gates of hell shall not hinder it; there is another Man who turns the little wheel."

Who can now, after this, still doubt that Luther was not only a witness of the truth, like a Wycliffe two hundred years before in England, and a Huss a hundred years earlier in Bohemia, but that he was the true Reformer called by God? Others wanted to reform, and they could not; Luther