# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 02 20_S100
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

100

in glorified bodies, that is, eternal life — that all this is a consequence and effect of holy Baptism. —

What will the fanatics now do in the face of so clear a passage? Do they dare to skip over it in their favorite and accustomed way and to ascribe the new birth and renewal to their camp-meetings and protracted meetings, their mourners' bench with its appurtenances, their kneeling-prayers and screaming-prayers, or any self-made works of the law and contrivances whatever? Indeed they dare; but they prove thereby just this, that with seeing eyes they do not see, and with hearing ears they do not hear.

That, to be sure, for this blessed effect of holy Baptism, on the part of God, faith on the part of men is required, is clear and manifest from Mark 16, 16, where it says: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." For as the open eye belongs to the light, that one may see, the ear to sound, that one may hear, the tongue and the stomach to food, that one may taste and digest, the open hand to alms, that one may receive, so there belongs also to God's spiritual hand of grace and giving in holy Baptism the spiritual hand of taking in man, that is, faith, that one may receive those gracious effects of Baptism and become partaker of those divine treasures of salvation.

But as little as your eye gives the sun its light or helps it to shine, as little as your ear makes the sound or helps it to ring, etc., just so little does faith make the essence and effect of holy Baptism or help to make it, as the fanatics mostly chatter in confusion. It is God's work, will and ordinance alone that, for example, the sun shines, whether you open your eye or shut it; just so it is solely the LORD Christ's word of institution and promise that holy Baptism contains and gives forth that blessing, whether you believe or not; but as certainly as you remain in the dark, when you shut your eye to the sunlight, so certainly do you remain in the guilt of original sin, under the curse of the law and the wrath of God, when you shut your heart by unbelief to the divine grace and promise in the Gospel and in holy Baptism.

Let this suffice for this time concerning the essence and effect of holy Baptism against the attacks of the fanatics; the next time we will treat briefly of the right use and the abuse of holy Baptism. May the faithful God be pleased in grace to grant that we, through the present meditation, may be confirmed anew in the knowledge of the wholesome doctrine of holy Baptism, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our LORD. Amen! —

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

(Continuation.)

Davenport, Iowa, (Sunday evening) 19th November.

The enmity of the world against the Gospel was not lacking here. As I was about to betake myself this morning to the courthouse, to hold divine service there, word was brought me that a godless man had contrived by cunning to get possession of the key to the hall in question, in order to prevent the holding of the service and instead to arrange with his like a consultation for the formation of a German sick-benefit society! It was the more gratifying, therefore, that the Presbyterians allowed me the use of their church for a couple of hours in the afternoon, in which I then preached before a not very small assembly on Matth. 16, 26. To be sure, the content of my sermon may not have been to the taste of some.

After the sermon I made, to my astonishment, the acquaintance of a Holstein pastor, who chiefly on account of the precarious political conditions of Holstein had laid down his pastoral office, arrived with his family only a few weeks ago, and is at present staying in the country with his brother, one of the schoolteachers. He inquired exactly concerning the pastoral conditions in North America, as also concerning our Synod, and when I asked him whether he would not be inclined to take charge of the German Lutherans in Davenport as pastor, he declined it for the same reasons which had already previously so lowered my hope for this place.

This evening I discussed with some the formation of a Lutheran congregation and the calling of a pastor, and recommended to them as a suitable man our dear Holstein friend St. But just the majority, and among them the most influential, want a man who is learned, many-sidedly educated, a captivating speaker, and withal so smooth and polished that he offends none, but pleases all. Well, for such a one they may well search a long time!

So far as I have come to know the people, I found that the number of those who have not yet laid aside their simple catechism faith as useless ware is very small. These, as one of them himself admitted to me, are not content with the ways and doings of the majority and would gladly have an orthodox pastor; but partly they are too weak, partly too faint-hearted, to purchase the pure preaching at the cost of somewhat heavy sacrifices. For these few we ought therefore to be able to place a preacher and to support him from our synodical treasury until the congregation had grown larger in number. That would not be so very long in coming. Around a pastor faithful to the confession perhaps more would gather than appears, and, as that pastor and others assured me, a considerable influx from Holstein is to be expected for the coming year. How much is done in this way by the sects! Are we Lutherans still to remain behind them in zeal for home mission?

Davenport lies so lovely and so attractive to the German heart; German speech and custom could here so easily be preserved and properly cultivated — and in hearts and houses it looks so desolate and sad to an eye that seeks more than an outward culture! O LORD, that yet in this earthly garden Thy pure Word and Sacrament might still be found, and about it a little flock of living confessors!

I accompany this letter tomorrow as far as Bloomington. From there on let it go its way alone, and soon reach thy hands. Remember me in intercession,

Thine, etc.
Lochner.

Bloomington, Iowa, 26th November.

Dear Brother!

For a few days I have been lying here, longingly waiting for a steamboat that is to bring me to Burlington. The room of the inn in which I lodge is filled with guests, and "dollars" and "per cent" are the eternal monotony of the conversation. Weary of listening any longer to such talk, I have withdrawn into a corner and taken pen and paper in hand, in order to draw so much the nearer to thee with this letter.

This is already the second time that I am here. When I arrived here on Monday, I learned that on the next morning there would be a conveyance to Iowa City, which lies thirty miles inland from here. I had already heard on my journey hither that in this city, only now springing up, many German people without a preacher were living, and so I was at once resolved to set out thither the next morning. In company with a Presbyterian preacher, who has been staying only a short time as a missionary in Iowa City, I arrived there on Tuesday evening. Through a butcher from Gera, whom I had come to know shortly before my departure, I was recommended to a widow, whom I then also sought out immediately upon my arrival. The woman regarded me at first with distrustful eyes, and told me what she had already had to suffer from spiritual vagabonds, both in her former place of residence in Ohio and here in Iowa City; but when I conversed further with her and then offered her catechisms and some other writings, she let her distrust go and became quite open-hearted. She complained to me among other things that as a Lutheran she had long suffered bitter lack of pastoral care, and because there was no prospect at all that an orthodox preacher would ever come to Iowa City, and the longing for divine service became often too strong in her, she goes, because