# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 04 17_S129
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

“God's Word and Luther's doctrine pure shall evermore endure.”

Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States.

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 5.  St. Louis, Mo., the 17th of April 1849.  No. 17.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for subscribers at a distance, who are to pay the same in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 cents.

Only those letters which contain communications for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, however, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent here under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

How the Lutheran Mission First Came to Its Beginning.

One evening of the year 1705, in the month of March, King Frederick IV of Denmark had dismissed his ministers at about eight o'clock. This Frederick belonged to that old pious royal house which embraced the purified Gospel with full love right at the beginning of the Reformation. His ancestor Frederick II, when he was nearing his end, had given most earnest command that the verse should be sure to be read to him as he lay dying: God so loved the world, etc. This precious and dear word had remained among his descendants, as it were, the family's comfort in death. Our Frederick IV was now sitting, sunk in many thoughts about the grievous time, in his red velvet armchair. Two fierce wars were raging through Europe at that time, and in both of them he had a part. Beside him on the polished floor stood a plain oaken chest, to which he alone had the key. It contained petitions which had come in during the day, and which he was accustomed to look through himself every evening. Then there came before him one, well written indeed, but very sorrowful in its contents. A widow, mother of five children, implored his mercy. Her husband and her eldest son had gone out to the East Indies two years before with a Danish detachment of troops. They had been stationed in garrison at Tranquebar on the Coromandel coast, which Offre Giedde, an envoy of King Christian IV, had acquired in the year 1618 from the Sultan of Tanjore for the crown of Denmark. On a pleasure ride they had been attacked by the heathen natives and cruelly murdered. Her two providers were now dead; she implored the king for support for herself and her children. Kings are appointed by God to be providers of the widows and fathers of the orphans. Lord Frederick knew this right well. A stroke of the pen, and the need of the bereaved was relieved. — But God had put this petition into his hands for another end besides. By the letter his thoughts had made a pilgrimage to the East Indies. Over the murder of his servants the heathenism of his subjects there had risen before his soul in all its darkness. Already in the lifetime of his father, Christian V, the blindness of the heathen had often fallen heavily upon his heart. He had sometimes wondered that the Protestant Church did so utterly nothing for their conversion. So he took no other petition out of the chest that evening. Truly kingly thoughts went through his heart. “Wherefore has the LORD put the scepter into our hands, us kings? Wherefore has He set us as shepherds of the nations? We are to bring back to Him, as faithful servants, the straying sheep. To the poor Indians the Gospel must be preached!” He rang the bell. A servant came in. The king commanded him: Call me at once Provost Lütkens. This Provost Lütkens was his court preacher, and had formerly been employed in Cöln on the Spree, a part of the present Berlin. When Lütkens entered, the king said to him: “Do not wonder that I have you called so late; the LORD of heaven and of earth has need of you, through me His call comes to you.” Thereupon he led the old man to the map of the territory of Tranquebar, and went on: “This piece of land the LORD has given into the possession of my excellent forefather, Christian IV. You know how I send out troops every year to secure the same for my crown. Master Doctor”, he went on more softly, “what think you? Apostles will I send thither, to prepare the way of the LORD! I build lighthouses on the coasts, that the ships may take no harm, that the people may take no harm in body and goods. I will also set up candlesticks, that my poor heathen may not suffer shipwreck in their soul. Procure me men for it!” “My lord and king”, answered Lütkens, “God has put the thought into your heart. May He bless you richly. But whom will you send thither? Where is a Paul who does not shun the dangers that await him beyond the sea? Yet”, the old man went on with a transfigured countenance, “one I know who follows the call of the LORD to the nations that sit in the shadow of death. My king, send me!” “Never”, Frederick broke in, “you shall stay, you shall stand by my side as friend and counsellor. You shall not expose your gray head to the dangers of the sea voyage. You shall not give your health as a prey to that devouring climate. Master Doctor, procure us men. Consider it yourself and speak besides with Bishop Bornemann of Zealand. But if you can find none in my realm, then you shall write to Germany.” Lütkens rose and went. He praised God in his soul, in whose hand is the heart of kings. After some days he came again to the king, who received him with the words: “I have already been waiting for you; we have already delayed too long in so urgently needful a work. Have you found laborers?” “No”, was Lütkens' answer, “I know of none in Your Majesty's realm, and Dr. Bornemann also knows not what to advise.” “That grieves me very much”, the king replied, “that my realm has no such instruments of God. That is no fine divinity in which there lives no love for the poor benighted heathen. Well then, write to Germany.” Lütkens wrote to the preacher Lysius in Königsstadt, and to his former colleague Christian Campe in Cöln on the Spree. These, however, knew nothing better to do than to send the letters to August Hermann Franke in Halle, and to ask him for counsel and help. So there came in a short time to Provost Lütkens the answer that two fine men were at hand, who feared God from the heart, and had ground enough in the saving doctrine, and that these were willing to accept the proposal. — But here we must pause a little and behold side by side the wonderful ways of the LORD. The same God who in the Acts of the Apostles directed the centurion Cornelius to inquire of Simon Peter for the way of the Savior, at the same time signified to this Simon Peter in a vision that people of every nation should be received into the Church. The same God, who