# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 10 17_S32
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

32

Politics in the Pulpit.

In a recent paper, the German "Dorfzeitung," we read, among other things, the following, which also permits a glance at the present religious condition of our old fatherland:

"The interesting question is now frequently raised, whether and how far politics, the reference to the events of the world and of the day, belongs in the pulpit. Many clergymen preach as if they had just come from the newspapers and popular assemblies. Many congregations, e. g. Halle, have decidedly protested against such political sermons. If ever, they would now take refuge from the passionate discussions and movements of life in the quiet holy peace of the church."

O that in very many, amid the present tottering of all things earthly, and amid the present general discord in the realm of the world, a longing might awake after that which abides forever, and after the peace which man finds nowhere but in Christ!

(Communicated.)
A Proof by Deed of Christ's Godhead.

At Caesarea there lived, at the time when Basil the Great was in that city a teacher and faithful shepherd of the congregation of the LORD, a Jew, by the name of Joseph, who possessed such deep insight and great experience in natural science and medicine that no other physician of the country could be compared with him herein. Among other things, this Joseph had so sure a foresight of the outcome of diseases that, when he was called to incurable patients, he determined for them the time of death, without ever having failed hitherto, from the motions of the pulse and other signs, three, yea even five days beforehand. With this physician learned in nature, who was an object of the envy and hatred of all other physicians and their following, Basil the Great, who himself in his younger years had diligently devoted fifteen years at Athens to philosophy and natural science, was wont often to hold conversation and intercourse. Yea, the two, although of different faith, loved each other as friends, and upon this love rested the wish and the believing firm hope which Basil often expressed to Joseph the Hebrew: that, before God should call one of them out of life, it should come to pass that Joseph would acknowledge JESUS the Anointed as his LORD and Savior and be baptized upon his name. But as often as Basil expressed this his hope, the Hebrew answered thereupon each time, that this would never come to pass, for he intended to live and to die in the faith of his fathers. And when then Basil, who was not only well practiced in the human art of speech, but a man full of divine eloquence, endeavored in every way to prove to his friend: that Christ is the beginning and end of histories, the desire and hope of the nations, as also the fulfillment of the law, Christ the cloud under which the people of the old covenant were baptized there in the wilderness, the rock from which it was given to drink, yet Joseph remained unmoved in his opinion, and his ear was closed to all such discourses.

After this it came to pass that Basil came to die. Now as he felt his end quite near, he sent to Joseph the physician, with the pretext that he would ask his counsel on account of his bodily weakness. The Hebrew came, looked upon the dying man and felt his pulse. Then Basil asked, smiling: "Say, what thinkest thou of my sickness?" — Joseph, however, moved, turned to the friends standing around and said: "Prepare yourselves and procure what seems needful to you, for his end is at hand." Then Basil said: "How? Should I not be able to be kept alive until tomorrow?" — The Hebrew answered: "My lord! this cannot be; this day one sun will set with the other, — Basil the Great will not see the coming morning. Therefore, if my lord has yet any arrangement to make for his church or for his own, let him make haste, for beyond an hour he will no longer be living." — Thereupon the dying man said: "But how, if I should now live till tomorrow?" — Joseph, in the certainty of his art, answered: "Then would I die." — "Well," said Basil, "die to the sin of unbelief and live to the LORD JESUS, who for the salvation of thy soul also became a man and died on the cross." — The Hebrew, who perceived the good intention of his dying friend, replied thereupon: "Well then, my lord! if this serve for thy comfort, I vow to thee: that, if thy life be prolonged until tomorrow, I will have myself baptized upon the name of Him who only by a miracle of the almightiness of God can give new motion to the heart already standing still, and to the broken eyes the sight of the light again." Hereupon Joseph departed. But Basil folded his cooling hands and prayed: "LORD JESUS, who hast given to this wretched body life and breath, and hast given me strength to use this breath so many a year in Thy service and for the winning of human souls for Thy holy kingdom, grant Thou to the dying members yet for some hours life and breath, that the soul of this man may become partaker of Thy salvation, O Thou my God, and of Thy blessedness." — When now the morning had come, Basil commanded that the physician should be called. Joseph would not believe the messengers what they told him, and although the many years' friendship which he bore to the man at last moved him to follow them, yet he went with them only in the firm opinion that they wished perhaps only to move him by the sight of a beloved dead man. But when he enters the room, and Basil, still living, greets him with his wonted friendliness, the man is so moved with admiration that he sinks upon his knees beside the bed of the sick man and cries out: "Now I perceive of a truth that thy God, O Basil, is the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the comfort and hope of the fathers, for He only, the God of gods, could work this miracle. Well then, I do what I vowed yesterday, I go hence that I may be baptized upon the name of JESUS, with all my house." "Tarry yet," said Basil, "my friend! I myself will baptize thee." Then Joseph felt the pulse of the sick man and said: "My lord! of strength there are only very few left in thee; it will be impossible for thee to rise from thy couch and to speak some words." But Basil said thereupon: "We have a LORD who called the nothing into being and gave to the creature its essence. He, JESUS Christ, has been from my youth the strength of my weakness and my great comfort. To Him it is an easy thing to give me also for this matter the needful strength." Thereupon Joseph the Hebrew goes to prepare himself and his household for this work. Now when the hour of the holy act had come, behold, it is Basil, the seemingly already deceased, who calls together the assembled congregation of the Christians to the praise of God and to common intercession, who then baptizes the Hebrew and all his house upon the name of the LORD JESUS and breaks to them all yet the bread of grace — administers the holy Supper. Concerning this great matter all the captains and chief men of the city had assembled in the temple of God. To them all, once more, Basil testifies that in none other is salvation and health, but in JESUS, and that we shall remain faithful to Him in love, in faith, in patience, unto the end. When now Basil had thus delayed the office of the Word until the third hour after noon, it was as if his countenance were illumined by the power of a friendliness and love which is not of human, but of divine kind, and thereupon the man departed.

This happened on the first of January of the year 379 after the birth of our LORD.

Joseph the Hebrew received at his baptism the name John. And this John, as long as God yet preserved his life, became to all who knew him a pattern of faithful love to the LORD and to the brethren. For all his strength and goods he so employed, that he thereby testified that it was no longer he who used his wretched body and the goods of life for himself, but that it was Christ who had created for Himself this body as a blessed temple, and had consecrated the same to His praise and to the service and salvation of men.

Dr. G. H. v. Schubert.

Notice of Death.

A friend writes us just now the exceedingly afflicting news that Pastor Oster, who some time ago went with a company of Prussian Lutherans to Australia, has died at sea.

Notice.

The Second Synodical Report of the German Evang. Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States of the year 1848 is to be had, the copy at 10 Cts., of

F. W. Barthel.

Received

for the Lutheran Mission on the River Cass in Michigan:

$10.00 from the congregation of Mr. P. Sihler at Fort Wayne.
A. Crämer.

$5.00 from Mr. F. W. Schuricht. $1.00 from Mr. Benj. Hofmann. $1.00 from Mr. K. C. Schuricht. 50 Cts. from Mr. Nagel.

for the Synodical Mission Treasury:

$7.07½ from various members of the Lutheran congregation in St. Louis.

Paid.

The 3rd volume. Mr. Lind.

The 4th volume. Messrs. Peter Gräb, Fr. Straub, Lind.

The 2nd half of the 4th volume. Messrs. Fr. Fey, Chr. Fey, Joh. Popp.

The 1st half of the 5th volume. Messrs. Fr. Fey, Chr. Fey, Mich. Kreutel.

The 5th volume. Messrs. Aufdembrink, Joh. Bäcker, P. Crämer (11 copies), Aug. Claus, Gerh. Heinr. von dem Fange, P. Gräbner (4 copies), P. Lücken, Lind, Joh. Diet, Pahlmann, P. Sievers (3 copies), Fr. Sandfort, P. Schmidt, Thöle, Heinr. Trimpe, P. Trautmann, Gerh. Heinr. Vornhold, Joh. Heinr. zur Oeveste.

Printed by Arthur Olshausen,
Publisher of the Anzeiger des Westens.