# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 06 26_S172
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

172

at all. On the contrary, you cannot deny that precisely those members of the congregation who are at the same time members of these societies conduct themselves, on the average at least, most decorously, and have at all times shown love for the congregation, and activity and zeal for its welfare, and that cannot be otherwise, since the societies themselves look to propriety and seriousness in conduct, and admit no immoral person.

P. With many that may be the case, because they have taken this step without reflection and examination, and they also will withdraw again as soon as they have come to see that it does not agree with Christianity. Meanwhile, that a very great part are estranged from the congregation and from Christianity precisely through the secret societies, daily experience teaches, alas, in our own congregation also, and if it should once come to the "pinch, the zeal and the activity for the congregation" will soon change into the opposite; for even now one cannot look on without sorrow how with most of them their society lies more upon their heart than the Church, which they will let go quite willingly and without much heartache, yes, will thrust from them with insolent contempt, if one once touches their rotten spot.

C. Well yes, that may be the case with individuals; however, it need not at all come to the pinch, as you say. We put nothing in the way of the congregation, so it may also let us go!

P. A Christian congregation cannot let anything manifestly unchristian go, but must set it right again, though slowly, or put it away from itself, or it becomes insipid salt, and must be rejected by the LORD. Meanwhile, we were speaking of offenses; you cannot deny that many look upon you with distrust and suspect abominable things behind your secrecies, to which they have a right according to the saying of the LORD, for, he that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light; should they not take offense at it, especially since they see that so many among you have become enemies of the faith and of the Church, with whom you, who still confess Christ, enter into the most intimate fellowship, yes brotherhood? Are you not to blame that distrust, suspicion, strife, quarrel, and contention arise in the congregation, which yet should be bound together in love most intimately as the body of Christ? Are you not to blame that the work of the LORD is thus hindered, in the individual as in the whole?

C. Why do they harbor suspicion and distrust? That is truly not Christian! They have no proofs, why do they not wait until one gives them occasion for it?

P. That is just what you do by your secrecies! That is against the Word of God! Even if there were nothing behind it, you would yet not be innocent, but guilty of this, that your brother fell into sin. You give the offense, in that you do not as the Apostle commands: Abstain from all appearance of evil, 1 Thess. 5, 22. And now consider the grave earnestness of our LORD JESUS Christ, Matt. 18, 6—9.: "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea! Woe unto the world because of offenses! For it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!" Truly, I should not like to have this "woe" hanging over me; I should fear it would press me down into hell; and even if I were bound to the societies with the strongest bands, I would tear them asunder, according to the saying of the LORD, v. 8.: "Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee," etc.; for if, in spite of seeing how your brother is offended at you, you nevertheless remain in the societies, they will become to you yourself a stumbling-block and offense, whereby you fall into perdition.

C. You take all that much too seriously! If it went so exactly, one could do nothing at all, out of mere fear of giving offense!

P. Everything in Christianity is very serious. It was a very great earnestness when Christ became a curse for us, and shed His precious, holy blood for us sinners. Pray, "destroy not with thy society him for whose sake Christ died." Rom. 14, 15.

C. Well then, one had better sit quietly behind the stove, and stir neither hand nor foot, so that one may give no offense to the hypocrites and pietists, who just put all their holiness and piety in this, to find fault with others and to judge them.

P. Then you would first set up a real offense for all truly pious and believing people, for such lazy bellies and stove-sitters have been so thoroughly curried by the dear blessed Dr. Luther that they are at least a real disgust to every sound Lutheran. No, my dear Carl, just come along quite fresh and cheerful in a simple Christian walk, and prove yourself according to the holy Ten Commandments an upright Christian toward God, your neighbor, and yourself; then let him be offended at you who cannot help it. But now you offend the congregation and others with unchristian conduct, and to such belongs, according to the saying of our LORD, the millstone and the depth of the sea.

C. You are truly a hard, unfeeling doctor.

P. For proud flesh lunar caustic is the thing, and it bites always, though the heart and hand of the doctor be ever so soft.

C. Do you perhaps even take offense at the music, banners, and regalia?

P. The trifling things are too petty for me, and the other matters too important, for me to take offense precisely at them, although I cannot deny that it disgusts me when I see grown people, often with gray hair, who call themselves Christians, take pleasure in such tomfoolery and worldly spectacle, and I hold such things unseemly for a Christian, especially at funerals. I think the walk to the grave is too solemn for one to think of such a worldly pageant. For my own part, at least, I should be ashamed to go through the streets hung with such gaudy rags; but tastes differ, as the saying goes.

C. You can easily imagine that all these signs and symbols have a meaning, and I do not see why that should be repugnant to you, since you are otherwise so much for ceremonies.

(To be continued.)

(Submitted by Pastor Keyl.)

The Original Order of Divine Service in the German Churches of the Lutheran Confession.

(Continuation.)

With regard to the difference between the divine service in cities and in the country the following is to be noted. In general the Church Orders give uniform directions on this point; only they let the corresponding German pieces be sung in the country instead of the Latin ones, whereby, to be sure, the sexton has to take the place of the whole city choir. The deviations of the divine service in cities and in the country relate — with the exception of other points not belonging here, for example, the Bible lesson with summaries — more to the number than to the form of the services, and more to the secondary than to the principal services.

To this magnificent wealth of the Lutheran Church the divine service of the Reformed Church stands opposed as an equally magnificent poverty; for since the Reformed Church has not, in the sense in which the Lutheran has, a principal service, and consequently, strictly speaking, nothing in the Reformed Church can be compared with it, we can set over against it only the preaching service and the celebration of the Lord's Supper, which, however, according to the view and practice of the Reformed are to be regarded as separate. The preaching service now begins, according to the Geneva order of service of 1543 drawn up by Calvin, with the confession of sins spoken by the minister from the communion table, of which confession the Reformed Church in general makes an inexhaustible use, because in it, neither in the Word nor in the Sacrament, does it ever come to a really valid absolution; upon the confession of sins follows a psalm sung by the congregation, at the close of which the minister ascends the pulpit; the sermon begins with a prayer ending in the Lord's Prayer and closes with the minister's speaking the creed, prayer, Lord's Prayer, and blessing; and a psalm sung by the congregation then closes the service. This whole arrangement is, to be sure, so transparent that it requires an explanation of its mean-