# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 08 07_S200
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

200

And never ceases such growing,
So long as a man pursues his life's course,
And only when the shovel strikes down,
Has one from his beard a rest.

So also remains in us the sin
And stirs itself after old evil custom,
Until beneath clods rough and hard
The shovel scrapes the cold body.

Then it is: with all earnestness resist,
Right diligently go over it with the knife;
And without pity evermore
Cut off all its bristly hair. —
(By Fr. B. in Dr. Barth's Jugendblättern.)

"Bless, and curse not." Rom. 12, 14.

Wilisch relates in his "Kirchenhistorie der Stadt Freiberg" an example of the befalling of a curse upon a disobedient son, which indeed will be laughed at and mocked as a mere fable by the so-called enlightened of our time, but which is not only reported by several men as eye- and ear-witnesses, whose truthfulness is above all doubt, but is also altogether like the Christian faith, that is, agrees very well with the doctrine of the Holy Scripture. As eye- and ear-witnesses the history is related by: Hieron. Weller, then school-inspector at Freiberg, and Michael Hempel, then rector of the Latin school there, which latter has sung the history in a special poem. Furthermore, there were in the archive of the Freiberg town-hall, as late as Möller's time, judicial records which had been taken down concerning the occurrence and from which Möller relates the event at length in his Freibergische Chronik. Also Nic. Selnecker, Cyr. Spangenberg, Phil. Camerarius, and other contemporaries make mention of the occurrence, as a generally known one, in their writings. The history is as follows:

Lorenz Richter, a citizen and linen-weaver at Freiberg, had a son of 14 years. When he once commanded him to do something, but the son, a stubborn boy, despising the paternal command, purposely remained standing in the room, the father forthwith cursed the son with angered and enraged heart, speaking the words: "Well, stand, so that thou mayest nevermore be able to go away and mayest have to stand all thy life long!" What happens? — Instantly this paternal curse goes into dreadful fulfilment. As if rigid the boy remains standing; he is not able to move even one step; when they wish to carry him away, he is seized with such unspeakable pains that he is like to go mad with pain; one sees oneself therefore compelled to let him stand. So he stood then three whole years as a monument of the divine wrath over a disobedient son, motionless on the same spot, so that he gradually trod a considerable hole in the floor. The only relief which could be procured for him in this time was a desk, which was set before him; upon this he laid head and arms, especially by night, when he wished to sleep. But because the place where the unhappy man stood was not far from the room door, near the stove, and therefore all who entered saw him at once, which was each time very painful to him, the preachers of the town, after common fervent prayer, at last resolved to make an attempt whether they could not remove him from this place; so the preachers lifted him up in the name of God, and, though with great trouble and exertion, brought him at last happily and without harm into the opposite corner of the room. At his request a curtain was now made before him, as he always earnestly desired to be alone, and, sunk in constant sadness, spoke only unwillingly and little. After he had again stood here almost a year, God at last granted him some relief; six months before his subsequent dissolution he could namely at least sit, and at the last lie down in the bed standing beside him. His face became pale, his whole body ever more haggard and wasted; food and drink he took little. But as much as his outward man decayed, so visibly God began His work of grace in his inward part. He showed himself heartily penitent. If anyone asked him in the last half-year what he was doing, his usual answer was: He was being chastened by God the LORD for his sins, but he committed everything to His holy will and held to the merit of his LORD Jesus Christ, whereby he hoped to be saved. So at last the hour of his deliverance came. It was on the 11th of September, 1552, when he, firmly assured of the forgiveness of his sins, fell asleep gently and quietly. As soon as his corpse was buried, the father indeed made arrangements to have the visible footprints of his son in the floor of his room removed, because they were at the same time a perpetual reminder of the curse spoken thoughtlessly and in anger against a child; but when the matter soon came to the knowledge of the city authorities, they forbade him to do it, and the above-named Wilisch, who about the year 1737 was preacher at Freiberg, writes that those depressions in the floor were still to be seen in his time and had been inspected by him several times.

May this example of a heavy judgment of God warn parents and children; parents, not to wish evil upon their children in anger, and children, not to provoke their parents to anger by disobedience and so draw God's curse upon themselves.

Church Notice.

After Mr. Wolfgang Stubnatzy of Fürth near Nuremberg had finished his studies in the preachers' seminary at Fort Wayne, and had also passed his candidate's examination before our Synod during its last sessions, he received from the Evangelical Lutheran congregation at Coopers Grove, Cook Co., Illinois, a regular call, in consequence of which he was, on Thursday after Domin. 4. after Trin., the 5th of July of this year, ordained by Pastor Selle before his congregation and installed in his office. May the blessing of the LORD rest upon the labor of this new servant of the church!

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

Books and Pamphlets to be had at the Expedition of the Lutheraner at the prices appended.

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 Ev. Lutheran religion, with six mostly unprovided-for children, left her fatherland and all her goods and property ... 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 of 1846—1847. No. 8—26 ... 0.50
Fourth do. of 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 Tractate 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 Festivals of the whole year, New York edition, bound in calf ... 2.00
Hymn-book for Ev. Luth. Congregations, published by the local Ev. Luth. Congregation U. A. C., bound, the copy ... 0.75
1 dozen $8.00 } for cash payment.
100 copies $62.50 }
A B C Book, New York edition, the copy ... 0.10
By the dozen ... 1.00
The Pastoral Letter of Pastor Grabau of Buffalo (reviewed more fully in No. 17. of the Lutheraner) ... 0.25

Received

for the Heathen Mission in Michigan:
$5.00 from two members of the congregation in St. Louis. $2.00 from the congregation of Rev. P. Krauß in Bucyrus, O.

$3.37½ for the College at Altenburg, from the Lutheran congregation at Horse Prairie, Ill.

Paid.

For the 5th volume: Messrs. Joh. Mich. Vehe, Heinr. Welker.

For the 6th volume: Messrs. Friedr. Buuk, Ernst Buuk, P. Fürbringer, Johannes Gräsch, Peter Hofmann, P. Jäbker, Christian Kiefer, Conr. Könemann, Ludwig Kaatze, Johannes Merz, Ernst Stoppenhagen, Hermann Wefel.

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