# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 10 17_S25
# 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., October 17, 1848.  No. 4.

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.

(Contributed by Pastor Dr. Sihler.)

The Lutheran Observer and the German Lutheran Church at Detroit.

In No. 33 of the present volume of the Lutheran Observer there is quoted an extract from a traveler's report to the editor, in which, among other things, concerning the state of the Lutheran church in Detroit, the information is given that after the completion of the church building the Lutheran pastor there had insisted on introducing a crucifix, burning candles (and pictures?); that a part of the congregation, however, had not consented to this, and, since the pastor did not yield, they had separated from the congregation, and that there was prospect of their joining the German Methodists.

Dr. Kurz calls his readers' special attention to this communication and expresses his regret that, through those "remnants of Popery" and such "anti-apostolic and popish abuses," Lutherans are driven with reluctance out of their beloved church "and into the German Methodists and other parties"; and then he charges the "Old Lutherans" with a self-contradictory course of action, in that, while on the one hand they attack the doctrines and customs of the Methodists so fiercely, on the other hand they themselves, by the above-mentioned manner of acting, repel and scatter their own people and drive them against their will into the Methodist congregation.

Although now this and that Old Lutheran, and so also the pastor of the congregation at Detroit, do not belong to our Synod, yet may it be permitted, since we are once for all taken for the so-called "Old Lutheran Synod," to adduce a few things with regard to the above remarks of the Lutheran Observer, partly in order to clear ourselves of unjust suspicion, partly at the same time to inform our own people once more more closely.

As to those reports and remarks, then, first of all in general, we are so minded that we by no means place the essence of the Lutheran church, in and of itself, in the adoption of old Lutheran customs and ceremonies, but solely and alone in the pure and unadulterated preaching of the divine Word and in the administration of the holy Sacraments in accordance with the institution of the LORD Christ; for these two are the only essential means of grace of the Holy Ghost, which He has entrusted to the Church for the salvation and preservation of souls. Everything else, however, let it have what name it will, and especially the particular forms and customs of public divine service, we do not regard as unconditionally essential, but as left to the Christian liberty of the Church, and therefore also of the individual congregations. Yet no churchly ceremony may contradict the divine and the pure confession and doctrine of the Church founded thereon, but should rather be, nearer or more remote, a significant expression thereof and serve for the edification of the congregation, according to the Word, 1 Cor. 14:40: "Let all things be done decently and in order." Under this reservation, true Lutherans care, in and of itself, little or nothing about what churchly forms and customs are practiced in public divine service here and there in the individual Lutheran congregations of different lands and languages; where only pure Word and Sacrament are in vogue, there they are at once at home, even should this or that ceremony be strange and unaccustomed to them at first. And if anywhere a definite form of divine service were to be forced upon them as of equal essence with confession and doctrine, as an equally binding matter of conscience, as equally necessary to the salvation of souls, they would not acknowledge and accept it, even if this form were altogether scriptural, ancient-churchly, and ever so edifying; rather would they sooner lose goods and blood, body and life, than approve and concede it in the manner demanded, let alone put it into churchly usage and practice. For if they did this, they would sin:

1.) against God's Word and the pure doctrine of the Church in general, as though besides it another thing, not commanded by God and not definitely ordained, were equally important and essential to the salvation of souls.

2.) against the most precious article of justification in particular, as though besides it that form of worship also belonged to the obtaining of the forgiveness of sins, to the disgrace and dishonor of the sole and fully sufficient merit of Christ and of the Gospel which alone offers it, and of the faith which lays hold of it.

3.) against their own conscience, which is to be taken captive and bound alone in God's Word and pure doctrine, but not equally in human customs and ways.

4.) against the most weighty and tender article of Christian liberty, as though any human order of divine service were of itself just as essential and necessary as the divine order of the pure Word and Sacrament.

5.) against the imposers of that form, be they worldly princes, or spiritual authorities and superiors, pastors or members of the congregation, since these would be confirmed by false compliance in their error, or in their wickedness and violence.

It is another matter, however, when the question is how Lutherans faithful to the Confession wish to use their liberty to set up an edifying form of divine service, after they have rejected the impropriety of that compulsion. In that, outward circumstances and surroundings count for very much. In this country, for example, it is an undeniable fact that into the Lutheran congregations, not merely of the so-called General Synod but also of other synods, the Reformed form of divine service has penetrated to excess. There, to begin with, almost all churches already look more like secular lecture-halls; the pulpit (that is, orator's platform, where the hired spiritual speechmaker gives forth his speeches) is for the most part worldly and ostentatiously fitted out, but either no altar at all is present, or a tiny thing that looks more like a little washstand than an altar; but by this and by the total absence of a baptismal font, or standing-