# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 03 20_S118
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

118

Be not deceived, God is not mocked.

The French newspaper "Le memorial" in Rouen reports, under date of the 21st of February 1847, the following judgment of God, which is retold in the "Pilger aus Sachsen" of the 29th of January 1848.

In the last days a sad occurrence has taken place in the parish of Gonpilleres. A company of factory workers was at table at the house of their landlord Levaillant. One of those present allowed himself to swear by the name of God, more from habit than from wanton malice. The host made some friendly remonstrances to him about this, which were well received by the workman, who otherwise was not a wholly irreligious man. But another workman, a weaver named Herubel, now wished to show himself a strong spirit. First he denied that there is a God. Over his own boastings his boldness for godless speeches grew, until at last he uttered the most dreadful blasphemies against God. Levaillant sought to meet this madness with gentle words, in order to calm the profane man. But Herubel answered mockingly: "What are you telling me of your God? I will sup with him tonight." In the same moment he fell, as if struck by thunder, on his face to the ground. He was dead! Let one imagine the horror of those present, who in this sudden death recognized the divine punishment.

Political Correspondence from Germany.

Through friend L. your wish has been communicated to me, to receive for the Lutheraner from time to time news from the old fatherland concerning the things which are now taking place in it, and I did not wish to decline his request to undertake such regular reports for the benefit of your paper. You herewith receive the first sample, and it depends naturally upon this, how you and your readers declare yourselves satisfied or dissatisfied with the new correspondent, whether the correspondence shall be continued or handed over to a better reporter.

It is just as little in order to go out of the house by the door as to fall into it, and therefore let me be permitted, as a fitting introduction, to report to you how we here in your old homeland find ourselves under the new — order we cannot yet say, and disorder we do not wish, since it has, God be praised! not become a complete one — thus how we find ourselves under the new shape of things and how we regard it.

Our friends beyond the sea, who at the first tidings of the unexpected events on this side thought of us with such hearty sympathy in their letters, in their conversations, and in their closets, no doubt pictured our situation to themselves as a most agitated, anxious and dismayed one, and when they transported themselves in spirit into the capital and residence cities of the German lands, especially the larger ones, they certainly had perfectly good reason. With us in the open country, on the other hand, although there was no lack of all sorts of tension, apprehension and anxious expectation of tomorrow's news, especially at the beginning of the events, the mood of those who know what they want and what they hold to is a quiet, composed and in many respects cheerful one. Whoever observed the events of the day, especially in North Germany, the increasing riots, the impotence and clumsiness of the governments, which showed itself therein, the increasing godlessness, which made itself ever more known in the origin and spread of German Catholicism and of the Friends of Light, and came forth ever more undisguised, on the other side the injustice and the irresponsible pressure upon conscience which the governments, foremost the Bavarian under the Abel Ministry, exercised, the cunning and faithlessness with which the constitutions were violated, the diets led about by the nose, the most just grievances of the subjects rejected with a haughty "We have not found ourselves moved," or even with scornful replies: whoever observed all this with some reflection could not find the outbreak of a revolution altogether strange, and only the suddenness of the outbreak and the swiftness with which the fire of revolution spread over all Germany was the surprising thing. Yes, we ourselves, who never approved revolutions nor will approve them, found our situation, especially as regards the church conditions, so desperate that we, humanly speaking, could expect the so necessary re-shaping of the Church and the freedom of it presupposed for that, only from a revolution, which naturally we would not make. When now it was suddenly there, and with it and out of it the cry for freedom and equality of all confessions, for separation of the Church from the State, resounded, we felt ourselves no less gratified than surprised, and the prospect of a better shaping of church life and being outweighed the apprehensions which in regard to civil peace and earthly prosperity forced themselves upon us indeed inevitably, by far. We were and are ready for sacrifices, and our only wish and our constant supplication is merely that the Lord may take up the cause of His Church, that He may bring the sincere confessors of His pure Word into a living fellowship and make of His Church a handmaid who not only knows and has in her mouth His holy will, but also does it. That this will be the blessing which from these storms will remain at last and bloom in the midst of them, that is our hope, that the Gracious and Merciful One will indeed administer, and that makes us comforted and quiet.

But whoever did not look at matters so decidedly from our standpoint felt himself, after the first surprise and fright, tolerably quieted by this, that the princes everywhere yielded to the pressure of circumstances and let go forth the most liberal promises, that they gave their consent to a parliament to be called to Frankfurt, which was to constitute the united constitution of Germany and thus secure the "achievements," as they were called. Over this arose a jubilation — to be sure quickly dying away — in all lands, in which the more sober-minded and earnest could not heartily join. For though the promised liberties were likewise welcome to them, yet they could not find the manner in which these were "achieved" pleasing, nor worthy of their applause and jubilation. Yet by their consent, even by the praises which were bestowed by the princes upon the days of such striving and pressing and upon its result, the violently brought about condition had become a humanly lawful one. Moreover the mood of the people in those first days was predominantly constitutional-monarchical. Although Republicans were already beginning to agitate, most nevertheless saw that the establishment of a republic would be nothing other than the greatest injustice and the greatest misfortune under our circumstances, or whoever did not see it let himself easily be instructed, and so it came about that the elections for the National Assembly at Frankfurt turned out for the greatest part in this sense. But that these elections had to be hastened as much as possible was a dispensation or permission for which we cannot thank God enough. For before one was aware, the disposition of the multitude had turned and become decidedly republican, to which partly the doings of the former Baden deputy Hecker contributed not a little, who had partly stirred up the Baden Lake district, partly drawn it to his side by threats and levies of contribution, and partly the appearance of the Left in the Frankfurt Diet. These, with their mighty voices and their mighty impudence, with their couple of subversive ideas and their cheap wisdom, soon had the great multitude everywhere on their side. It availed nothing that Hecker's band treacherously shot the noble General Gagern while he was parleying, that he himself was driven out, that his election to the Parliament was declared void, that the folly of his whole undertaking, the faithlessness and violence of his proceeding was brought to light: he was everywhere proclaimed the man of the "people," his name became the watchword of the "friends of the people." It availed nothing that the most shameless lies and intrigues of men of the Left came to light, that their deliberate endeavor to obstruct the proceedings of the Imperial Assembly lay before the eyes, that at that assembly on the Pfingstweide they plainly enough summoned to a violent demonstration against the National Assembly itself, that thereupon the riot in Frankfurt broke out, beside which the distinguished deputies von Auerswald and