# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 12 12_S63
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

63

were it not that the clearness of Christ stood beside such clearness of Moses, no one could bear such splendors of the Law, the terrors of sin and of death. These fall away from all works and presumption, and learn from the Law nothing more than only to recognize sin and to sigh after Christ; which is also the proper office of Moses and the nature of the Law, Gal. 3, 24."

So writes Luther in his Preface to the Old Testament. Now ask thyself, dear reader, to which class of scholars of the Law thou belongest; for to one of these three thou must belong. Examine thyself well. Perhaps thou dost not belong to the first class, perhaps thou art not manifestly godless and vicious, yet perhaps thou dost still belong to the second class, namely to those who hope to stand before God by this, that they keep the Law or the holy ten commandments after a halfway fashion, or, as they say, as much as lies in their weak powers, and live according to them. If thou art still such a scholar of the Law, if thou reliest upon thy mere worldly respectability, and sayest self-sufficiently: "No one can say anything bad of me, therefore I hope that I am a good Christian, and expect also to come into heaven," then thou understandest the Law not yet; then a veil still hangs for thee before Moses; when thou shalt once look this man rightly in the face, thou wilt be terrified. Woe to thee, if thou waitest for that until the hour of death! Then thou canst easily fall into despair. Therefore pray God that He would now open thine eyes, that thou mayest learn from the Law to know thy misery and to despair of thyself, and to sigh after Christ, who alone could perfectly fulfil the Law, and after His grace. Then thou belongest to the third class. Well is thee, then thou wilt be saved.

(Communicated.)

A Reply.

In the "Proceedings of the Third (this year's) Session of the German Ev. Lutheran Synod of Indianapolis" there is found, pp. 9 and 10, the following committee report concerning my person:

"Committee No. 2 has the honor to report that the document handed to it is a letter of excuse from the Rev. Pastor Kunz of Indianapolis, in which he asks to be excused for his non-appearance at the Synod. His reason is that he has now come to a different conviction concerning the serving of mixed congregations by Lutheran preachers, and since he recommends this very matter to the Synod for deliberation, he thinks, as he will not depart from his conviction, that he would only be a hindrance by his personal presence.

The Committee cannot recognize this reason as valid, for if he were in earnest about defending his conviction to the honor of God and the welfare of the church, his personal presence would be most necessary of all. That he cannot be truly in earnest about his conviction is also evident from this, that he does not act according to this his conviction; for it is known to the Committee that he has already come to this conviction a year ago, and he has nevertheless (not to mention that he formerly founded mixed congregations himself) until five weeks ago still served a mixed congregation, which he did not give up according to his conviction, but the congregation dismissed him, because it no longer needed his services. Consequently there is found in the theory and practice of the Rev. Mr. Kunz a contradiction."

I owe it to myself and to the cause itself to set the following over against this report.

1.) I had already brought up the above-mentioned subject, namely the serving of mixed congregations by Lutheran preachers, at last year's session of the Synod; but the experience which I had in doing so, how namely a member of the Synod fell into violent zeal over it, let me hope nothing profitable from my personal appearance at this year's session, but rather fear that I should thereby only pour oil upon the fire. This experience and the great importance of the subject moved me to send to the Synod a letter of admonition and exhortation, in which I sought to show at length what injurious consequences the serving of so-called Evangelical congregations has 1. for the preacher himself, 2. for the congregation, 3. for the neighboring Lutheran congregations, and 4. for the Lutheran Church in general. Out of consideration for the member of the Synod concerned, I omitted to state the most important reason of my staying away, and only for propriety's sake I added a request to be excused for my absence. The committee report contains not a word to the effect that my reasons against the serving of mixed congregations had been weighed even in the least. This was, in my judgment, the duty of the Committee and of the Synod. It is plain that it was bound to do so even in the case that I myself had acted contrary to my conviction.

But this is, as I

2) must remark, a groundless assertion. For my city congregation, and the country congregation hitherto served by me, belong to the Evang. Lutheran Church. The congregation on the Cicero I have never regarded as committed exclusively to my pastoral care, as I also never reported it as my congregation in my pastoral report. But even if it were otherwise, and I had stood in a closer connection with it, I should still have no cause to blush, for it also stood (but now still?) as a Lutheran congregation. Moreover, that congregation did not dismiss me (as the committee report says), but when an English preacher undertook to serve it regularly, I was asked to preach to them in German, which I declined for good reasons. Or has the Committee perhaps in view the few families whom I visited several times in the last period? These were formerly members of the Lutheran congregation on the Cicero, but have withdrawn from connection with it for conscience' sake, and at present form no separately existing congregation.

So much for the illumination of the facts stated in the committee report. Let the impartial reader judge for himself accordingly upon what a bottomless ground the opinion stands.

J. G. Kunz.

Church News.

On the 23rd Sunday after Trinity, the 26th of November of this year, Mr. Carl Heinrich Gottlieb Schliepsiek of Mennighüffen (district of Herford, administrative district of Minden, Kingdom of Prussia), called pastor of the newly constituted German Evangelical Lutheran congregation at New Bielefeld, St. Louis Co., Mo., was ordained to his office, at his own and his congregation's request, in the midst of the latter, by the President of our Synod, with the assistance of Pastor Müller of Central Township, with solemn obligation to all the confessional writings of our church. He had previously, as may be seen from a communication for the present number, sincerely and decidedly renounced the United Evangelical Church and its erroneous principles, and had also been publicly examined by the Synodical President as to his fitness for the conduct of the holy pastoral office. May the faithful God strengthen the dear brother in office together with his dear congregation in the acknowledged truth, to faithful perseverance unto the end. Amen.

The Activity of True Faith.

Where faith is, it cannot hold itself back, it proves itself, breaks forth through good works, confesses and teaches the Gospel before men and ventures its life thereon. And all that it teaches and does, that it directs to the neighbor's profit, to help him, not only also to come to such grace (as it has), but also with body, goods and honor, as it sees that Christ has done to it; and so follows the example of Christ. This Christ also meant when at the last he gave no other commandment than love, by which men should know who were his disciples and true believers. For where works and love do not break forth, there faith is not right, there the Gospel has not yet taken hold and Christ is not yet rightly known.

Luther in his Preface to the New Testament.

Alluring Admonitions.

The LORD speaks to thee: thou shalt not despair, for I am come into the world for thee and all sinners. I stand before thee pale and bloody, as I hung on the high stake of the cross, between the severe judgment of my Father and thee. I am thy brother, I have forgotten everything that thou ever didst against me, if thou only turnest wholly to me. Wash thyself in my blood, lift up thy head, open thine eyes and take good courage. Behold, I have bought thee so right dearly. If all the earth were a bright fire, and in the midst of it lay a handful of flax, this would not be so susceptible to the flames as the abyss of my mercy is to a returning sinner.

Suso.

The Divine Distance.

For many, Christ is indeed born, died and risen, but not yet ascended into heaven. They are devoutly disposed the whole day, weep at their prayers, sigh at their meditations, everything is solemn to them, and a continual hallelujah they hear in their