# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 09 18_S15
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

15

pressed, caused an authentic explanation and elucidation of it to follow as well. Those 29 governments, except Würtemberg, which has repeatedly assured that it will hold fast to the Frankfurt Constitution, are already inclining to the Prussian constitution; some have already openly declared their accession. Gagern's party has also already issued a call for a day at Gotha, to deliberate privately how the transition from that constitution to this one may best be prepared and brought about. The Bavarian minister von der Pfordten has gone to Vienna, in order, if possible, to bring about a desirable agreement between Austria and the rest of Germany, after the Bavarian Diet, on account of the obstinate insistence of the majority on the unconditional adoption of the Frankfurt Constitution, of which under present circumstances there can reasonably be no further question, had been dissolved.

We stand, then, now at a new turning point. May God give the princes wise and upright hearts, that they may build up their own welfare and that of their peoples on new foundations firmly, freshly and liberally, and yet by no means overlook that there is only one rock foundation upon which those foundations can and must be supported, that the grace of Him may not forsake them, by whose grace they so gladly, God willing, now in the right sense and understanding and with believing and upright hearts — call themselves. This grace has not yet departed, neither from the princes nor from the peoples. For the earnest chastisements which have come upon both parties, as also the preservation from foreign enemies, and the ever again newly granted points of rest, which summon to calmer reflection, to moderation, and to penitent return from perverse ways, are unmistakable proofs of it. — My next communication I hope to be able to give within a far shorter time.

(Sent in.)

Politics.

The article which appeared under this heading in the last number requires a correction in respect of history, which is hereby kindly offered out of love for the truth.

The principle which called the Roman republic into life in our days is so little new among the Roman people that we see, rather, this principle brought into force among the Roman people already in the oldest times of the papal dominion. Thus, for example, the republic that arose in Rome about the middle of the 12th century had sprung from no other principle; for when the Romans in the year 1143 renounced their temporal obedience to Pope Innocent II., elected a "Senate of the Roman People" and issued all public documents with the old S. P. Q. R. (the Senate and the People of the Romans), they had the following motto: "The popes are clergymen and are to live by their spiritual duties without temporal dominion." And that this "idea" itself was not merely cherished and brought into force by individuals, but was public opinion, would seem to be indicated on the one hand by the fact that the bold herald of it, the priest Arnold of Brescia, was almost deified throughout all Upper and Central Italy; on the other hand, by the fact that four popes in succession assailed the young republic in vain, ban upon ban glided off from it without effect, and it was first possible for the sword of the German Emperor Frederick I. to shatter it. The Roman people, however, avenged the execution of that priest by a fearfully bloody uprising.

"There is no new thing under the sun." Eccles. 1, 9.

(Sent in.)

Notice of a Death.

It has pleased God, according to His unsearchable counsel, on the 31st of August, in the morning, about 10 o'clock, after an illness of scarcely ten hours, of the cholera, to call home my beloved brother in office and in faith, Pastor A. Wolter, teacher at the seminary here, and to translate him from the church militant into the church triumphant, after he had reached his 31st year a few days before, and had served the church nearly three years in his teaching office here.

However heartily we now rejoice in spirit that the LORD has redeemed him after so brief a suffering from this vale of misery, and has transplanted him from the congregation of the saints on earth into that in heaven: yet so deep at the same time is our mourning and affliction that we, and moreover so suddenly, are bereaved of him. For our institution, and mediately the church, has lost in him a teacher as faithful as he was capable, our young brethren a fatherly friend and a shining example of noble Christian virtues, and I myself a brother in office, who with me also in and for our common labor, from the same ground and toward the same goal, was of one heart and one soul; for not even for minutes has there ever been between us the faintest shadow of a misunderstanding, let alone anything strange and strained or a merely dead living side by side; for, with, and in one another we have at all times served the LORD and His church.

Especially characteristic of him were:

1. A rare, unfeigned humility, truly from the heart, by virtue of which he abased himself not only toward God and older brethren, but also toward other people, yes, even toward his pupils, with pleasure and love, and always held himself for the least, without therefore, however, mistaking or underrating the grace and gift from God which he had.

2. An eminent purity of the whole disposition, through which all his thinking, speaking and doing, his official and other activity, issued in simplicity to God's honor and to the neighbor's profit and benefit. To seek something of his own at the same time therein, to mingle his person carnally into the cause of the LORD — this pietistic-methodistic impurity was altogether foreign to him; his heart, mind and spirit were altogether taken up in the LORD and His holy cause, and even the finer selfishness and self-love had been swallowed up therein; in the widest sense his left hand knew not what his right hand did.

3. A rare self-denying and serving love, not only in his nearest official relations, but also toward me and all people who had need of him. And from this love it came about, also in this last sorrowful time, that he was with the students among the volunteers of the congregation, in order to nurse cholera patients of the congregation who had no relatives or no good friends and faithful neighbors, or where both spouses fell gravely ill at once, etc. And in this way he also laid down his life for the brethren, in the living testimony of deed to holy Christian love.

4. An uncommon zeal for the discharge of his teaching office; for although he demanded no fixed salary, which, however, was given him, he did far more than his proper professional duty required, pursued with individual pupils especially Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and on the other side again helped individual weaker ones along, as their need just required, and was the house-father and foster-father of all. On his standing desk he had pasted a slip, on which stood:

"Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD slackly!" Jer. 48, 10.

"Why? Because God's dear Son, His only child, my LORD JESUS, has won and purchased me with heavy, bitter labor through His precious blood."

5. A special friendliness and amiability in intercourse, which, though in a certain connection with his natural temperament, was yet essentially sanctified by the grace of God and animated by the love of Christ. In preaching he was exceedingly plain, forcible and edifying, in teaching very intelligible and comprehensible, so that even the average minds could follow him easily.

As he lived by God's grace to the LORD and in the LORD, so he also died in the same, finely and blessedly. In the night, namely, from the 30th to the 31st of August he was seized by the cholera; and although he at once applied some remedies he had at hand, and as quickly as possible the help of a capable physician was obtained, to whose assistance his colleague soon afterward appeared, yet the united efforts of both were altogether fruitless to stay the hastening life.

Early in the morning between 5 and 6 o'clock, as soon as I received the news, I hurried out on horseback, but found already on entering the door, to my heartfelt sorrow, upon his face the ominous expression which to the experienced announces the speedy departure of the beloved. He received me with the little verse:

"A Physician is given us,
He Himself is the Life;
Christ, for us dead,
Has won for us salvation."