# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 10 31_S40
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

40

to fall, whom God makes use of to accomplish great things in his Church; that in his apostolic calling he nevertheless tasted the sufferings and joys of a small-town German father of a family, and before the outbreak of the din of war awakened by him ended his life by a quiet death.

Theremin.

How a Little Jesuit Pupil seeks to help himself.

We had, as the reader knows, made known in Volume 4, No. 25 of our paper, seven golden little Jesuit rules, which alone would be sufficient to bring the Jesuit order to light in its whole depravity. To Mr. Oertel, who went to school with the Jesuits for a considerable time, and therefore pays them childlike reverence, this has not escaped notice. How now does the little Jesuit pupil seek to help himself? First he writes: "Even if — to assume the worst case — propositions had ever been set up by individual Jesuits which could be approved neither in form nor in content, it would first have to be proved that the Church itself teaches such things." Secondly, Mr. Oertel sets over against those seven little rules seven paradoxical (strange) sounding sayings of Luther. As to the doubt, first, which Mr. Oertel lets be noticed against the genuineness of the Jesuit sayings communicated, we by no means take it ill of him, since he has also otherwise attested that he is not exactly steady in the Roman doctrine, and once took a good deal of it into the bargain against his better knowledge. But when Mr. Oertel says that it "would first have to be proved that the Church itself teaches such things," that is plainly stinking fish, with which he wants to divert the readers from the matter and to slip away, for here it is not at all a question of the "Church," but of the Jesuits (of whom, moreover, it is known that none of them may edit a book without the permission of his superiors, that is, of the order). Finally, as to the paradoxes which Mr. Oertel sets over against the Jesuit doctrines we have given out, out of Luther, let the reader see by one example that the "holy fathers" have not labored in vain upon the dear son. For in order to show what a godless heretic Luther is, Mr. Oertel adduces from Luther's Tischreden, in answer to the question: "What is Holy Scripture?" the following answer: "Do away with the ten commandments of God," said Dr. M. Luther once at table, "and all heresies cease; for the ten commandments are a fountain, from which all heresy springs and flows, for Holy Scripture is a book of all heretics." Mr. Oertel does here again as he did several years ago, when he also set forth Luther's description of a preacher, as he must be according to the judgment of the world, as Luther's own opinion. For Luther speaks ironically in the words cited, that is, he pretends as though it were his true earnest, in order thereby to mock the enemies of the Word of God, that nothing but heresy comes from Bible-reading. He means to say: "It is true, dear papists, if there were no Word of God any more, there would indeed also be no heresies, no falsifications of the Word of God any more! It is therefore true, if one were to do away with God's Word and commandments, as you papists would gladly have it, then the evil of the heresies, over which you so lament, would be remedied at one stroke forever." To adduce, moreover, over and above, only one proof-passage from Luther's writings, he writes among other things as follows: "Here the papists will indeed cry confidently: Behold, thou thyself confessest and complainest that many factions and tumults arise; but who has given occasion for it other than thou thyself (Luther) with thy doctrine, from which such filth has come? — That is now their art, whereby they, as they fancy, overthrow Luther's doctrine from the ground. But their art reminds me of one who, after their fashion, would subtilize and say: if God had not created good angels, there would also have been no devil, for out of the good angels the devils have come, etc. So it went also with the Biblia under the Pope, which was openly called a heretic-book, and it was blamed that the heretics help themselves out of the Biblia; as they also still do and cry: Church! Church! against and over the Biblia. And Emser, the wise man, would not know whether it were advisable that the Biblia be put into German, perhaps also not whether it was written in Hebrew, Greek or Latin, since it and the Church are so wholly at variance. Since then the Biblia, which is the Holy Ghost's own peculiar book, writing and word, must suffer this from them, and is disgraced as the mother and protectress of all heresy; why should we not much rather suffer that they lay upon us the blame of all heresy and tumult? A spider sucks poison from the dear rose, in which a little bee finds pure honey; what can it do, that its sweet honey turns to poison for the spider?" (Luth. Werke. Hall. A. XIV, 480. ff.)

The dear reader sees that our Jesuit disciple knows how to extricate himself from the affair (pinch) only by ascribing to Luther himself what Luther in holy mockery speaks out of the heart of the enemies; as if someone should wish to draw the conclusion from that mockery of Elijah (1 Kings 18, 27.) that this prophet believed there was a god Baal, who sometimes went across the field and slept, so that one had to bring him to waking by loud crying.

The Weathercocks.

When Emperor Constantine the Great became a Christian and publicly acknowledged it, there were many among the imperial officials who now also forsook heathenism with him and accepted Christianity, not from conviction, but from fear of losing the favor of the Emperor and with it their lucrative posts of honor. To the Emperor, however, to whom his Christianity was a serious matter, this did not escape notice; he therefore resolved to put his counsellors and servants to the test. And what does he do? One day he calls his whole court household before him and declares that he had unfortunately been obliged to perceive that Christianity was not the right religion, and he was therefore resolved to return to heathenism, and to reintroduce the public veneration of the old Roman gods; he would indeed compel no one to follow his example, yet it went without saying that those among his servants who wished to remain Christians were herewith dismissed from his service. Forthwith an altar with an idol was set up, and to those who would sacrifice to it the Emperor's special favor and promotion to the highest posts of honor were promised. What happened? Unabashed, not a few of the courtiers now denied the Christ whom they had confessed aloud but shortly before, when yet another court wind was blowing, and sacrificed to the idol; only some remained steadfast, and declared to the Emperor that they would rather be poor and despised with Christ than rich and honored without Christ, and left, indeed amid the scorn of the apostates, but joyfully and with good courage, their offices and possessions. Hardly had this happened, however, when the Emperor assembled the fallen ones about him, disclosed to them that all this had been only a measure to put their fidelity to the test, and gives them now the answer: "You wretches, how should you be true to me, who are untrue to your God and Redeemer? Get you hence and come never again before my eyes." But in haste those who had remained faithful were thereupon called back to the court, and from that time on were deemed worthy by the Emperor of the highest confidence.

The Union.

A considerable number of clergymen from the province of Saxony and Pomerania have petitioned the Ministry of Worship for the dissolution of the Union, whereupon they received the answer that no hindrance any longer stood in the way of the Lutheran Church to organize itself freely and independently. According to a call in the "Evang. Ktzg.," a meeting of Lutheran clergymen was to take place on the 28th of June at Wittenberg. (Der deutsche Kirchenfreund.)

Received

for the building of a church of the "First German Ev. Lutheran St. Paul's Congregation" in Chicago, Ill.

Through Rev. P. Hoffman from the Ev. Lutheran St. Peter's Congregation at Schaumburg, Ill. $9.00
" P. Johannes, from the St. John's Congregation at Sulphur Spring, Mo. 3.00

further received:

From Mr. Winkler in Detroit 1.00
Through Rev. P. Streckfuß from the Ev. Lutheran Zion's Congregation, Van Wert Co., O. $2.00
Through Rev. P. Streckfuß from Mr. Bienz 1.00
3.00

Through Mr. F. W. Barthel, in St. Louis:
from Mr. G. H. Brockschmidt $2.00
" Conr. Kalbfleisch 1.00
" Georg Vetter 0.75
" K. E. Schuricht 0.95
" Father Schuricht 0.25
" F. W. Schuricht 5.00
" Siegm. Koch 1.00
" Römer 1.00
from an Unnamed Person 1.00
from an Unnamed Person 2.00
from Mr. Conrad Eckart 2.00
from an Unnamed Person 2.00
from Mr. Sauer 1.00
from an Unnamed Person 1.05
from Mr. N. in Altenburg 0.25
from Mr. L. in Altenburg 0.25
through Rev. P. Müller in Central Townsh., St. Louis Co., collected 1.70
$23.20

God's rich blessing upon the dear givers.

A. Selle, Pastor.

Received

for the Lutheran mission on the river Cass in Michigan:

$2.25 from the congregation of Rev. P. Schieferdecker near Waterloo, Ill. $2.40 from his congregation in Columbia, Monroe Co., Ill. $3.00 from Mr. Traug. Volz. $1.00 from the Lutheran congregation in Gallion, Crawford Co., Ohio. 50 cts. through Rev. P. Lochner.

for the Synodical Mission Treasury:

$2.50 from congregation members in Altenburg. 50 cts. from Unnamed Persons.

Paid.

For Volume 4. The Messrs. P. Best (5 copies), Drenkhahn, Joh. Friedrich, Friedr. Klepper.

For the 2nd half of Volume 4. Mr. Hofstädter.

For the 1st half of Volume 5. The Messrs. Drenkhahn, Hofstädter, Louis Hemme.

For Volume 5. The Messrs. Ameis, Baum, P. Best, Brockschmidt sen., P. Becker, Duhardt, Hermann, Hinkelmann, P. Lehmann, Markworth, Nönnig, Poppitz, P. Richmann, P. Röbbelen (11 copies), Peter Rückert, Joh. Schmidt, Gottlob Schmidt, Joh. Schmidt, Steinbrück, P. Strasen, P. Streckfuß, Hnr. Thöle, P. Wolff, Schuppan, Gf. Schmidt.

For Volume 6. Mr. Baum.

Printed by Arthur Olshausen,

Publisher of the Anzeiger des Westens.