# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 06 12_S168
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

168

and found it quite as our Pastor said. If I am to tell thee in a short sum what kind of hymnbook this is, I cannot say it better: it is a book for all sorts of people, but scarcely for a true Christian, least of all for a believing and faithful Lutheran.—There is at the front in the table of contents a mass of sections or rubrics, as the learned say, and each rubric has again its compartments and little compartments, and when one opens them, that is, searches, there is unhappily nothing of value in them. Yea, sometimes one finds expressions and whole verses which truly, as our Pastor says, wring sighs from one. I never troubled myself about this table of contents, but this time, when I wished to examine the whole hymnbook closely, from front to back, I naturally began there too first and looked at it. And there at the very first moment our old Pastor in Germany came to my mind, who confirmed us. Thou wilt say, how so? Why, when I saw the many compartments concerning the attributes of God, I thought of how we were then taught by our Pastor merely of the divine attributes, but heard little of Christ and his precious redemption.

Now to be sure there are also many compartments and little compartments recorded there concerning Christ and his work; but when one searches again, everything is so bare, so bald, and withal also false, that one can perceive blood-little spirit behind it. For the few hymns from the old hymnbooks are so mutilated that one no longer knows them, and all the spirit of the ancients they have driven out with their new wisdom. — With the hymns on the holy Sacraments it is no better. Where are the hymns that speak fresh and free, like the old ones, e. g. "JEsus Christus, unser Heiland," etc., and "Gott sei gelobet und gebenedeiet," etc.? — When one now looks further at the rubric on the "Moral Precepts," and opens the multitude of drawers, it becomes quite otherwise to one's feelings. There comes toward one no little holiness, namely Pharisaic holiness; since there is so much said of one's own merit and virtue and the reward of virtue. More than sixty times the word virtue occurs in this hymnbook; that I have noted in passing. Now "virtue" is indeed a fine word, and moreover a biblical one; but these hymn-makers take virtue in quite another sense; they take it, briefly said, for one's own merit, which God must reward. — And as these rubrics are arranged and filled, so it is also with the remaining part of the book, with the hymns "for special times and circumstances."

Thou mayest at first moment object to me that this is surely made too bad, and perhaps even demandest proofs. Well, these I can and will give thee the next time; perhaps more than thou wilt like. Examine in the meantime what I have said to thee in general about it, and by the time my next letter comes, thou wilt perhaps need no more proofs. In the meantime be thou commended to God!

Thine
Andreas.

Communication of World Affairs.

Already for 14 months the disorders of unhappy Germany have lasted, and still no turn for the better is to be seen; rather, in most recent time a storm has again arisen which threatens to become more devastating than any of last year's. The three kings of Würtemberg, Hannover and Saxony have fled from their residences; in Rhenish Bavaria and Saxony a kind of provisional (of course democratic) government has been formed; in Leipzig, but especially in Dresden, a four-days' murderous struggle of the people against Saxon and Prussian military has broken out, in which the military conquered and the insurgents had some 300 dead. Also in many noted cities of Prussia, especially in the Rhine provinces, considerable uprisings had broken out. The immediate cause of it was this: The Frankfurt Imperial Diet, which, although sprung from last year's revolution, had obtained a sort of legitimacy through the indeed forced and feigned consent of the princes, had its German imperial constitution finished on paper and demanded in the name of the sovereign people unconditional submission of the princes to it. The smaller princes, conscious of their impotence and hoping to find in the King of Prussia, to whom the imperial crown had meanwhile been offered, a support for their own existence, had declared their submission; but the kings of Bavaria, Hannover, Würtemberg and Saxony persistently refused to give their consent; the King of Prussia also at last threw off the mask and declared that he could not accept that constitution in its present form, and declined also the imperial crown definitively. Those parts of the popular representations in the several five kingdoms which contained a predominantly democratic element and urged the carrying out of the Frankfurt resolutions were adjourned or dissolved, and preparations were even made to bury the Frankfurt Diet with honor or dishonor. Thus the strings are strained to the utmost and have already begun to snap. It is not improbable that an important decision is near: should the republican party conquer, it would hardly capitulate with the princes; should the princes keep the upper hand, the endeavors of the party of freedom are perhaps frustrated for a series of years; but that a lasting peace will return is, with the too deeply rooted licentiousness, which regards neither divine nor human laws and laughs to scorn the divine right of existing authorities as a fable, hardly to be expected even on reasonable grounds. In vain does a Christian eye seek among all diplomatic notes, proclamations, popular speeches, etc., for a testimony that princes and subjects would repent and give God the glory.

The Emperor of Austria suffers continual defeats from the Hungarians and leans upon the staff of reed, Russia, Ezek. 29:6. Already, upon his cry for help, great Russian masses of troops are said to be on the march to protect Vienna, threatened by the Hungarians. On the 14th of April the Hungarian Diet declared the independence of Hungary and excluded the Austrian imperial house for all time from dominion over Hungary.

The Danish war is still continued, though without zeal. Prussia is said to have the intention of concluding a one-sided peace with Denmark, and would accordingly leave the German cause in the lurch.

A strange political fratricide has the President of the French Republic committed upon the Roman Republic, in that he sends an army against Rome, ostensibly to forestall an interference of the Austrians, but at bottom to restore the papal dominion over Rome. The Romans, however, thanking him very much for the friendly intention of his mission, have repulsed the French with bloody heads. Whether L. Napoleon will succeed in paving for himself the way to the imperial throne by way of Rome, or whether Rome shall become his grave, at least political, the nearest future will teach.

Dreadful Outcome of a Jest about the Cholera.

We read the following story in the "Lutheran Observer": Dan. Marble, the celebrated actor, died of the cholera on the 10th of May, at Louisville. The play-bills had announced his appearance with the mocking heading: "A Cure for the Cholera." Who would have thought that, when this announcement had been made, precisely at the time when the comedy was to be performed, that chief player would become a prey of the cholera? And it came to pass. In less than twenty-four hours Dan. Marble was gone.

May every one let himself be warned not to mock God's judgments!

Books and Pamphlets to be had at the Office of the Lutheraner at the prices affixed.

Dr. Martin Luther's small Catechism, unaltered reprint. ... $0.10
The dozen $1.00. Hundred copies $7.00.
Remarkable Letter of a Lady who in the year 1703, on account of the Evangelical Lutheran religion, with six mostly unprovided-for children left her fatherland and all her goods and possessions... 0.05
The dozen 50 cts. 25 copies $1.00.
Dr. Luther's Sermon on "Preparation for Dying." ... 0.05
The Constitution of the German Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States, together with an Introduction and explanatory Remarks. ... 0.05
The dozen 50 cts. 25 copies $1.00.
First Synodical Report of the German Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States, of the year 1847. ... 0.10
Second Synodical Report of the same Synod, of the year 1848. ... 0.10
Third Volume of the Lutheraner, 1846—1847, Nos. 8—26. ... 0.50
Fourth ditto, 1847—1848 (complete). ... 0.50
(The 1st and 2nd volumes are out of print.)
Christliches Concordienbuch, that is, Symbolical Books of the Ev. Luth. Church, New York edition, bound in pressed leather ... 1.25
Conversations between two Lutherans on Methodism, (in pamphlet form) 2 copies ... 0.05
Dr. M. Luther's Tract on the True Church (printed separately from No. 9 of the Lutheraner), 2 copies ... 0.05
Dr. Luther's Hauspostille, or Sermons on the Gospels for the Sundays and Festival days of the whole year, New York edition, bound in calfskin ... 2.00
Kirchengesangbuch for Ev. Luth. Congregations, published by the local Ev. Luth. Congregation U. A. C., bound, per copy ... 0.75
1 dozen $8.00 } for cash payment.
100 copies $62.50 }
A B C Book, New York edition, per copy... 0.10
By the dozen... 1.00
The Pastoral Letter of Pastor Grabau of Buffalo (more fully noticed in No. 17 of the Lutheraner) ... 0.25

The printing of the

Spruchbuch zum kleinen Katechismus Lutheri, compiled by order of the Synod of Missouri, etc., by Fr. Wyneken, Pastor of the second German Ev. Luth. Church in Baltimore, 112 pp. in 12mo, is finished, and may be had of the author at $1.80 the dozen.

Printed by Arthur Olshausen,
Editor of the Anzeiger des Westens.