# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 02 06_S93
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

93

we found a wretched piece of work, put together by a rationalist of the meanest sort, furnished with pious-sounding phrases and rhymings that here and there feign faith, and displaying beside this the barest and most blasphemous unbelief. It sickens us to have to write down the proofs of it here. Nevertheless we hold it to be a sacred duty to do as much as we can in our narrow circle to prevent this book, which sails under a flag so highly respected in the kingdom of God and is therefore exceedingly dangerous, from gaining entrance also where one wants to give children early the pure milk of the divine revelations and not to pour poison into them. The whole book is written in a style in which anyone who believes God's Word from the heart immediately perceives that the writer was no believing Christian, but a faithless moralist. We wish here only to draw out some of the grosser passages, in which everyone who has grasped but a few letters of the Christian doctrine will hear the language of unbelief.

At the end of the story of the Fall it says in the old, genuine Hübner: "But God said to the serpent: The seed of the woman shall bruise thy head. By the promised seed of the woman, however, no one else is understood than JESUS Christ, who in the fulness of time was to be born of a woman." And in the rhymed verse belonging to it it says among other things: "From pride I will turn myself to true humility, and always think of Adam's fall when I look at my clothes." In the new Weyl Hübner it says: "Thereupon God drove men out of Paradise. Yet he gave them hope that one of their descendants would be a deliverer from the evil." As the rhymed verse for this there follows:

O how gentle, LORD, is thy yoke!
O how light thy Father's will!
Would that all souls felt
That peace, that stillness,
Which dwells in pure hearts
And rewards the diligence of virtue!

Further it says in the new Hübner: "It was a sweet reward to Abraham that Melchizedek acknowledged how much he had done." To this the rhymed verse:

If I show my goodness,
Let there be in my mind
No pride and boasting, etc.

Further it says at the end of the story of Joseph in the Weyl Hübner:

"Gentleness, fear of God, and virtue
Reward with ever joyful youth,
Reward with heavenly bliss."

(Compare Eph. 2, 8. 9.)

Of the sacrifices and other customs of the Old Covenant it says: "Israel was thereby to be drawn away from its gross sins, from its ignorance, so that Jesus might one day introduce a purer light and a worship of God in the Spirit." (Compare Heb. 8, 3-5. Col. 2, 16. 17.)

Of David's fall it says: "When the wicked falls, he remains lying; but the pious man rises again." (Did David then do penance because he was a pious man? Or was his sin a sin of weakness?)

On the occasion of the story of the twelve-year-old boy JESUS we find the rhymed verse:

"Well for him who in his youth
Never missed this path,
And chooses wisdom, truth, virtue
For his goal, like JESUS."

(Virtue, then, was also the goal of JESUS? Compare John 6, 38. 39.)

Of the baptism of John it says: "The baptism of John was to remind men of the purification of the heart. Water cleanses men from stains and softens what is hard. So man is to cleanse himself from the stains of the soul, and to acquire a feeling for truth and virtue." (Compare Luke 3, 3.)

After the account of the temptation of Christ it says: "Conquer thyself in silence, only then canst thou do good on earth. JESUS could not have done so much good publicly if he had not in silence come to know the dangers of virtue. He had come to know and to despise want, scorn, the untimely use of his high powers, false confidence in God. Now he could fearlessly go to meet every danger from within and without... He bore the hunger, for this too he had to learn in his calling. He could easily have become a powerful man, if he had flattered the world. But he wished to fulfil the will of his Father, who laid sufferings upon him." (Are these not all blasphemies?)

On the story of the woman of Samaria at the well the Weyl Hübner makes the remark: "Do not speak of religion everywhere. But when thou meetest truly pious people, use the hours," etc. (Compare Matt. 10, 32. 1 Pet. 3, 15.)

Of the man sick of the palsy it says: "JESUS certainly saw by the sick man that sins oppressed him.. Therefore he called out forgiveness to him." (Compare John 2, 25.)

Of the blasphemers of Christ it says (p. 182.): "Bad men have no right to judge the noblest of men."*)

For the story of the merciful Samaritan this rhyme is given: "One Creator have we, One Father all." (Compare John 8, 42-44. 1 John 3, 10. Eph. 2, 3. John 1, 12.)

On the story of the man with the dropsy this remark is made: "JESUS did not withdraw himself from the joys of life." (Compare Heb. 12, 2.)

On the parable of the great supper: "If thou wilt enter into the heavenly feast, first acknowledge thy sin, learn to abhor it, cast from thee guile and deceit, be reconciled and dry the tears which thou hast wrung out. The king himself desired to give the wedding garment. God desires to assist thee for good, if thou seekest it sincerely." (With this compare the beautiful little children's verse: Christ's blood and righteousness, that is my adorning, etc.)

Of the prodigal son it says: "With the hard master he had not deserved what he could have deserved with the father." (Compare Rom. 11, 6.)

On the story of the Pharisee and the publican: "What men obtain mercy with God? Those who recognize themselves as sinners and do not despair without strength, but take refuge in God's love, and earnestly amend themselves." (Is faith in Christ, then, not necessary?)

On the account of the conversion of Cornelius: "No religious party is the only saving one; but the one makes it harder for us than the other to attain to the bright light and to pure peace. Cornelius was a heathen, and his prayer was heard by God just as well as the prayers of the Jews," etc. (Was Cornelius, then, saved as a heathen? Compare Matt. 7, 13. 14. John 14, 6. Acts 4, 12. 2 John 9.) —

Let this suffice. Let everyone, then, be hereby warned against this godless book, who is willing to be warned. We repeat it: we hope Mr. Weyl did not publish this book as Hübner's work out of malice, but out of sheer ignorance. But we ask: what boundless ignorance in respect of the Christian doctrine it takes to pass off such a book as good Lutheran and Christian! God have mercy on all hearers who have such teachers! For "can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?"

*) Indeed Christ is also called in the book here and there the Son of God and divine Redeemer, but one must not let oneself be deceived by that. The Weyl Hübner, as one sees from the above, nevertheless holds Christ to be a mere man. How that is possible, this is told among others by Dr. Krehl (a rationalist) in his "Handwörterbuch": "No true rationalist can call Jesus divine in any other sense than that in which philosophic enthusiasm speaks of the divine Plato (a heathen sage); it is self-deception if one imagines that this epithet signifies anything other than human excellence, or, in relation to Jesus, religious genius." (Preface, p. IX.)

Letters of the "Visitor" (home missionary) of the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States to the Editor.

Dubuque, Iowa, Nov. 16, 1848.

Dear W.!

At last it is possible for me to give a sign of life and to send you a few lines, which according to our agreement should long since have been in your hands.

You see, I have gotten into the north of Iowa. This is indeed the farthest goal of my journey, and even if the shortness of the time and the duty laid upon me by the Conference, to visit especially the towns of Quincy, Burlington and Bloomington, did not compel me to turn southward again from here, the weather alone would do it. Everywhere snow and ice and the roads so impassable that any further advance into the north is not to be thought of at all. Many of our