# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 03 20_S117
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

117

protection of the Lord and thought continually of the host of shining attendants round about the carriage; and when I then arrived here safe and sound in the night, and still more when on the following evening I learned that the same carriage on its return journey had been overturned and that several persons had broken arms and legs by it — then the verse I have cited became yet doubly precious to me, and I praised Him who covered me with His wings and whose strong angels stood at my side.

But still more do I praise the Lord that in these parts He soon opened a door to me and, as it seems, accompanied my labor with His blessing. From my countryman in Burlington, whom I mentioned in my last letter, I had been recommended to his brother, who is overseer here in a steam mill. As soon as he heard that I was from Nürnberg and a Lutheran preacher, and had already been with his brother, he left work and everything standing, led me into his house and then to several Lutheran families in the town. I learned indeed in these visits that the number of Lutheran families amounted to only about twelve; but when I heard further that in the bush, not far from the town, several Bavarian families still lived who greatly longed for a preacher; moreover, that five miles down the river on the Illinois side lay the little town of Warsaw, where a great number of Lutherans without a preacher were to be found — then I took good courage and straightway drew up a plan of my labor. The afternoon of the same day — it was Thursday — I appointed for a visit in the bush, the Friday evening for a sermon in Keokuk, the Saturday and Sunday morning for a visit and a sermon in Warsaw, and the Sunday afternoon for a sermon in Keokuk.

After some wandering about I found one of the families in the bush, and a few moments sufficed to make me feel at home there. The manner in which my greeting was returned, the dialect, the costume, the kitchen utensils — everything betrayed to me at once that I was among countrymen from the region of Nürnberg, and how great was not my joy when I heard that these people had once belonged to a congregation in Germany whose pastor I know personally very well. There was indeed then much asking and telling, but also lamenting and tears, when I turned the conversation to the spiritual blessings of the old homeland and to the spiritual distress in which these people, with so many of their fellow-believers, find themselves in America. The latter they confirmed by their own accounts. They, like the Lutherans in Keokuk, have for a long time been deprived of all spiritual care. Formerly a Lutheran preacher from Würtemberg took them under his care, who at present is staying in Fort Madison, a town on the Mississippi lying between Burlington and Keokuk. He came a couple of times a year to this place, preached and held the Lord's Supper, but was compelled, by the far too great distance and his many official labors, to give up his visits altogether. Thereupon they were hard pressed by the Methodists, and when they declared to them that they wished to remain faithful to their Lutheran Church, the word was spoken to them thus: "You have now been here several years, live without God's Word just so, and your church asks nothing about it and sends you no preacher. We Methodists, on the other hand, come to you, shun no trouble and hardship, and demand no money for our trouble — who now, think you, means better by your souls, your fellow-believers or we Methodists? How can you still remain longer faithful to a church that acts so entirely unlike a mother toward you?" The people confessed to me that such talk caused them temptation, and that only the diligent reading in their books of devotion, especially in their Postils, had kept them steadfast again and again.

We, dear brother, know well what we are to think of the love of the Methodists for our fellow-believers; but what shall we say to the reproach they make against us? Ought we not to recognize in it a pressing admonition, which comes to us from the Lord through the mouth of enemies, to look about us in all earnestness for the forsaken children of the Church and to think day and night of their help? How many of our people may perhaps already have let themselves be led astray by such talk, to despair of the love of their Church and to fall away "from the comfort of the true faith"! — With one of these families I stayed over night and the next morning, in the house of my host, held a sermon for the four families whom I had come to know, sold catechisms after the close of the service, and had the joy that three heads of families asked me to send "Der Lutheraner" to each of them, for which they also handed me the amount at once. Thereupon I betook myself on foot back into the town and preached before a small assembly in the church of the local Presbyterians, who at my request opened it to me most heartily and gladly, especially since one of the trustees, who understood some German, had read your letter of recommendation.

When on Saturday noon I was about to make ready for my intended tour to Warsaw, two of the fathers of families from the bush came to me and asked me whether I would perhaps permit them to accompany me? I asked the reason and received for answer: "We should not like to lose any of the sermons which you hold in these parts; then, too, we have many acquaintances in Warsaw whom we should gladly persuade to unite with us for the calling of a pastor." Against such reasons I had of course nothing to object.

Shortly before sunset I arrived in Warsaw. Partly through my companions, partly through others, my arrival was made known everywhere in a trice, and already after half an hour the request came to me to preach that very evening, and likewise the next morning, in the Presbyterian church. How glad I was when already in the evening I had a considerable number of hearers and saw it still increased on Sunday morning! After the close of the morning service I put before the people how easily they could keep a preacher together with the Lutherans at Keokuk, and to my joy a subscription for a pastor's salary was at once opened, and a meeting for the discussion of this matter was announced for the afternoon.

This meeting I could no longer attend, since I was already expected again in Keokuk at three o'clock. Having therefore first performed a baptism in a house, I set out with my companions on the return way. On my return I had just so much time left to exchange my clothes, made wet by the rain, for dry ones; then I hastened to the church, where they were already waiting for me. The news that in Warsaw they were ready to unite in a Lutheran congregation aroused in Keokuk no little joy and called forth here likewise a like resolution. Thankfully and with cheerful countenance my companions took leave of me and hastened home to their own, to bring them the glad tidings that they should now soon again be partakers of the Word and Sacrament.

If now the formation of a congregation at both places comes to pass, as indeed I hope it will, they can for the present be served by One man, and indeed in such a way that Warsaw would be the parsonage seat and Keokuk the filial church. Warsaw, by reason of its advantageous situation, rises more and more and is already inhabited by a considerable number of Germans, among whom alone about forty families of Lutherans are said to be; Keokuk, on the other hand, lets no considerable increase be expected, at least not so long as an old lawsuit is not at an end, which is being carried on between two parties over the lots of the town and the lands of the neighborhood, in consequence of which no reliable deed is at present to be obtained.

My intention of still visiting Quincy I have given up. I hear from various persons who were there not long ago that two "Lutheran" preachers are already to be found there, a certain Preacher Jung, who has already been there longer, and one of the General Synod, by name Kuhl, who has been called only for some months by a small number of Lutherans. What shall I do there as a third, especially since a violent strife is said to prevail between the two congregations and their preachers!

And so you receive herewith my last letter. Soon, thanking and praising, hastens to the dear homeland

Your
loving
Lochner.