# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 12 26_S71
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

71

1593 sentence was passed upon her, which ran to this effect: that she should burn her Bible with her own hands upon a scaffold before the town hall at Valencin, that she herself should afterwards be strangled at a stake, but her body be cast out unburied upon the gallows-field outside the city.

When she had mounted the scaffold, she prayed aloud and audibly, with great devotion, the Our Father, and when she saw her Bible burning, she cried with a clear voice: "You people are burning the holy Word of God, which you before declared good and holy." Thereupon, when she had once more spoken the Our Father aloud and fervently, she was strangled, and also after her death — so the old chronicle tells — changed her color in her countenance as little as her faith in her heart.

Teaching without Example.

A peasant related his conversion thus. "One day I heard my two boys scolding each other and cursing dreadfully at one another. I take the boys — of 12 and 14 years — aside, set before them the great sin of cursing, and give them besides a sound reminder upon the back. The boys creep away into the stable, to weep out their pain together. I steal quietly after. Then I hear. The little one says to the big one: "Fritz, dat is unrecht, dat üs de Vader darum schleit, und hei fluchet sülben," (that is wrong, that our father beats us for it, and he himself curses.) — I bethought myself. Yes, the boys were right. I was ashamed, ashamed before my own children! And I was converted."

(From: Grobe, Werth und Weise der christl. Kinderzucht.)

Letter of Professor Harless to the Lutheran preachers returning from the Union who were assembled this year at Gnadenberg in Silesia.*)

Beloved in Christ, gentlemen and brethren! It has been written to me by several brethren in office of your country that on the 17th of July many clergymen would come together at Gnadenberg to take counsel on the affairs of the German Lutheran Church. I need not say with what emotion of heart I heard of it. For of this I am certain: if it pleases the LORD to build once more among the German people, instead of shattering it with the hammer of well-deserved judgment, then out of the rubble of the devoured state churches the one German Church of the Confessors will arise, of the Confessors who fight and contend under the banner of their fathers, and into whose mouth God will also give a new song to the glorification of His name. Nevertheless I have even now a care, and this care drives me to write, and I hope the brethren will excuse this my unbidden word with my care. It is grounded, however, upon facts. And there I will cite only the one thing which is known, namely the manner in which they are now beginning in Pomerania to lay hand to the rebuilding of the Lutheran Church and act as though those who for the sake of the Confession went out earlier and have suffered were not present at all. So at least it appears, and so runs the complaint. If this were so, verily! that would be ill done. He who would now build must above all have learned not only to forgive and forget, but to smite his own breast and do penance. And whoever's heart swells at the thought of a free German Lutheran Church must also guard against the least thing that might lead to offense, since to the poor and misled people whom one wishes to gather one offers in the end nothing but two Lutheran churches in one land. Therefore I beseech you, beloved brethren! for the Lord's sake, that you would lay hand thereto, that this may become otherwise and better. If all does not seem good to you that you perhaps observe in the members of the Lutheran Church already come together in your land, then consider first how it could and must have come about, where for years nothing was known but to persecute and trample down, and then add the second thing, and reach out the hand to those with whom you are one in confession, and come to an understanding with them, and ask that they may take counsel together, how then perhaps a great rebuilding may grow up with united powers. If that does not happen, if in Prussia no union on the ground of the Confession is to be attained, then we have ready not merely a Prussian, but a German split of Lutheranism. For although the Lutherans in Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, Holstein, etc., have hitherto not been able or permitted to act, I shall yet probably not without ground assure you that, when for these lands the hour comes, the faithful members of the Church, who gather about the Confession, will regard the cause of the Lutherans of Prussia who have withdrawn as a cause of their own house, as they have long since greeted them as brethren.

It may be that many ill-feelings and difficulties are to be adjusted. But only patience and brotherly forbearance! And if two brothers are at variance with one another and cannot come right, they surely have still a third common friend, that he may set the matter even. I would that God gave me skill and authority for it. But what I can, I would at least do: ask and earnestly ask, that the assembled brethren may be mindful of this wound with all concern and prayer, if here or there an attempt should be made to tear the wound open, instead of seeing whether healing be not possible and the restoration of a sound body conceivable. Forgive me the writing. It is a wretched thing, a cornered, cold, bare, written word. Had I been able, I would have come as one uncalled and besought you by word of mouth, eye to eye. But if all my doing is superfluous and the assembly had no need at all of this my request, then send me home with my lesson: the Silesians would find the right thing without me, and I will thank God for it upon my knees.

The LORD JESUS Christ be with you and strengthen you in this fearfully earnest time and glorify His holy name in you. A mighty fortress is our God. To Him be the honor now and forever. Amen. In Him
Yours
A. Harless.

*) This is the letter already mentioned on page 47 of this volume.

Oregon.

The Deutsche Tribüne of St. Louis reports under the 5th of December of this year the following: "In Oregon the army was reinforced by 300 men; the Indians had withdrawn to the mountains. They were meanwhile minded to make peace, but the whites would enter into no terms unless the murderers of Dr. Whitman and his family were first delivered up. This the Indians refuse, because from their tribe also a number have already been killed, and this is a sufficient equivalent (retribution)."

Thus the Indians appear to be already humbled. May the war against them soon be ended, that among them, God willing, the work of peace, namely the preaching of Christ, may shortly begin. Fick.

Comparison of the two divine works, Creation and Redemption.

In the first work God gave me myself, in the second Himself; and when He gave Himself to me, He gave me myself again. Bernhardus.

As in the kingdom of grace no sin is so great that it will not be forgiven, so apart from grace no work is so good, no life so holy, that it is not damnable. Luther VI. 2609.

Paul Gerhard.

At Brandenburg once ruled
The Elector far and wide;
But a new doctrine splits
The unity of faith.
Laws indeed restrain
Forbidden chatter,
As the edict names it;
But will he succeed
In forcing the free spirit
Of the singer, who knows no fear?

He stood in holy place,
The Church's bright star,
Through teaching and prayers
Proclaiming the LORD:
"And let thee never be afraid,
Thou must trust yonder in Him,
Whose name is Sabaoth!
And though the barriers of heaven
And all the strongholds shake,
A mighty fortress is our God!"

The Elector, however, sent;
Then came the pious man;
The Prince's eye burned,
And wrathfully he began:
"Whoever, to his own whims,
Not to the will of the law,
Thought it wise to conform,
He hath — be it pronounced! —
Forfeited honor and office,
And shall henceforth shun city and land!"