# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 10 02_S23
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

23

liked, to do. That is precisely the element of the Old Lutherans, in which they take pleasure, and the only mark of distinction between us and them; which, however, before God, the All-loving, must be an abomination, and to every good man a loathing."

The dear reader sees from this well enough what sort of gentlemen those preachers are who wish by all means to be Lutheran and yet serve mixed congregations, and what kind of spirit prevails in a Conference and Synod which is formed of such preachers. First one solemnly renounces the false church and seeks thereby to throw sand in the eyes of the orthodox; but when the orthodox also demand decided cleansing from all that is false before they will enter into any church fellowship, then one throws oneself again, with the old, "never-rusting" love, into the brotherly arms of the leaders of the false church, and denies to the orthodox, naturally out of great love, all love, and declares their nature abominable and detestable before God and all "good men." It would seem to us that Mr. F. W. could not better have justified our declaration, that the Indianapolis Synod has still "not proved itself orthodox in doctrine and practice," than by this his behavior; although we have not even thereby lost the conviction that there are individual most honorable, brave men in the Indianapolis Synod with whom we feel ourselves fraternally united, who have already borne witness against the religious mixture still continuing in the Synod.

But that Herr F. W. may know that he has taken the field not so much against us as rather against the whole orthodox Lutheran Church, let him hear what Luther writes, whom he will hopefully hold for a genuine Lutheran. Luther writes namely thus in his warning writing to those at Frankfurt: "In sum, when I come to this point, it is dreadful to me to hear that in one and the same church, or at one and the same altar, both parties" (Lutherans and Reformed) "should take and receive one and the same sacrament, and one party should believe that it receives mere bread and wine, the other party, however, believe that it receives the true body and blood of Christ. And I often doubt whether it is to be believed that a preacher or pastor could be so hardened and wicked as to keep silence on this and let both parties go on thus, each in its own delusion, that they receive one and the same sacrament, each according to its own belief, etc. But if there be one who must have a heart that is harder than any stone, steel or diamond, he must surely be an apostle of wrath." These words apply especially to such preachers as confess the Lutheran faith and yet give the Holy Supper to the Reformed in their congregation. But there are also such "dear" people, like Herr Weyl, who reject the Lutheran faith concerning the Holy Supper and who nevertheless in great tolerance are ready at any moment to give the Holy Supper to such, who believe for their own person that the true body and the true blood of JEsus Christ is in the Holy Supper and is there orally eaten and drunk. Such look down with great self-complacency upon the "abominable and detestable" intolerant "Old Lutherans." But Luther gives such "dear Messengers" also their portion, and brings to the light of day what "love" such liberal dispensers of the Supper actually show to their Lutheran communicants, continuing in the writing cited thus: "Turks and Jews are much better, who deny our Sacrament and openly confess it, for thereby we remain undeceived by them and fall into no idolatry. But these fellows must be the right high arch-devils, who give me mere bread and wine, and let me hold it for the body and blood of Christ, and so miserably deceive. That would be too hot and too hard; God will smash in before long. Therefore, whoever has such preachers or expects such of them, let him be warned against them as against the devil in the flesh himself." (Opp. XVII, 2446.)

"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Matt. 16:26.

T***, a rich financier in Paris, had had an iron door made at a remote cellar, in which he heaped up his immense treasures. He descended into it every day, in order to behold the idol Mammon there at his pleasure. His wife remained ignorant of this subterranean abode of her husband, since he pretended that he went out daily for an hour's walk alone. The locksmith, who had devised a special artful lock for it, gave him at the very beginning the following warning: "Take good heed of this spring, I beg you; it is fearful. If it snaps shut behind you, you will inevitably fall into the trap which you wish to lay for others." — Some years passed by, and the insatiable miser saw his treasure, which he diligently visited, grow every week greater still. He rolled with voluptuousness upon the full money-bags, found the greatest pleasure in counting them and arranging them in order in the dark cellar, in which he paid his idol a kind of forced service to the full.

One day, when he, as usual, in his rapture was tasting the pleasures of filthy avarice, and was quite bewitched by his hideous idol, he forgot to make the unlucky spring fast, according to the direction given him. It sprang off, and — there he was shut in with his treasure and with despair. He called, he screamed, as one may easily imagine; but this place was a kind of subterranean tomb, inaccessible to the living, from which one could not hear the calling or even the roaring of one struggling with death in despair. Probably he wrestled there, surrounded by his riches, tortured by the torments of every privation, wringing his hands — and died at last in anguished fury in the midst of his heaped-up money-bags, which he would now surely gladly have given all for a draught of water or a morsel of bread. He died in a slow torture of death. — Meanwhile he had been missed, and sought in vain in all places, because no man knew this hiding-place. Some days afterward the locksmith heard of this disappearance. He surmised the dreadful occurrence, went and pointed out the secret place, and they immediately broke open the cellar door with iron bars. What a dreadful sight! They found T*** with chafed-raw hands lying on his money-bags, starved to death!

Godly Contemplation of Nature.

Ye lofty mountains, ye teach me
That my eyes lift themselves
To the mountain, whence help comes to me,
And my God takes me to heart.

On this shall wholly alone
Rest this confidence of mine,
And stand fast like a mountain:
For He forsakes not His own.

Ye also, ye deep rough valleys,
Warn me against every fall into sin,
Whereby one into deep hell
Can be cast down swiftly.

Ye waters surge, that I also
May let water flow bitterly
From my eyes by day and night,
And consider my misdeed.

Ye fountains point me to the Spring
For my fainting soul,
To Christ's wounds and His Word,
To refresh me therefrom evermore.

Ye fair fruits upon the field
Set yourselves before my eyes,
That I should give God thanks therefor,
And become full of the fruit of faith.

Ye trees in the wood, ye tell me
That, if God punished as is due,
Ye would be all too few
For rods for my sin.

Ye strong rocks and great stones
Bid me be given up
To the Rock of salvation, and in His strength
To perform the work of my hands.

O Mountain of heaven! take me once
To Thee into Thy hall of joy,
O Rock of salvation! preserve me
In Thy faith steadfastly.
Joh. Mich. Dilherr (d. 1669).

The Importance of the Holy Supper.

Luther writes in one place: "If one did not know for certain and were not sure that the Sacrament is a great, mighty thing in the Christian Church, one could or should recognize it by this, that the devil so greatly assails the Sacrament and has assailed it through so many enthusiasts, factions and sects; for the devil assails indeed the greatest parts of Christian doctrine the most."