# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 10 02_S24
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

24

Luther on Reason.

On earth, among all perils, there is no more perilous thing than a high-flown, subtle reason, especially when it falls upon spiritual things, which concern the soul and God. For it is more possible to teach an ass to read than to blind their reason and lead it to the right, since it must yet be blinded and come to naught.

Daily Testament of a Christian.

(Sent in by Pastor Löber from Hartmann's Handbuch für Seelsorge.)

In the name of the holy, highly praised, inseparable Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, the one, eternal, true God, Amen. Almighty, merciful God, heavenly Father, since it is certain that I must die, but uncertain when it shall happen, and death may surprise me every moment and take me away: therefore it is needful that, while I can still speak and consider, I set down before Thee my testament and my last unalterable will. I thank Thee therefore, first, from the ground of my heart, that Thou hast created me after Thine image, made me a rational man, born me in the Christian Church, brought me to holy Baptism, and permitted me to attain unto the saving knowledge of Thy Son JEsus Christ. In the same knowledge I confess to Thee that I was indeed conceived in sin, have lived in sin, and so have deserved not only temporal but also eternal death. But I comfort myself with a strong faith in the bloody suffering and painful dying of Thy Son JEsus Christ, who for us condemned men became Himself a man, that He might atone for us, pay and make satisfaction, as I have learned through the power of the Holy Ghost from the preaching of the divine Word. In such faith and trust I am certain that Thou canst not nor wilt ever forsake and cast me off, but that Thou wilt let me in due time fall asleep gently and blessedly, rest in the grave, and on the last day come forth unto eternal life. This is my short confession of faith, in which I will, by Thy grace, abide as long as I shall have a living soul in me. Should I also perchance (which Thou, O faithful God, wouldst graciously prevent) speak otherwise through weakness or other accidents, I beseech Thee humbly, that Thou wouldst count it as unspoken and undone. Ah my God, deny me not this. Secondly, I commend to Thee my body and my soul (which are indeed as much mine as Thine) and implore Thy bottomless mercy, that Thou wouldst, so long as I have yet to wander in this pilgrimage, graciously keep and so govern them, that they may serve Thee to Thy honor and my neighbor, according to Thy Word, to his good. But when the last little hour comes, let the soul take a quiet departure from the body and return again to Thee, who hast given it, but let the body rest in the grave until Thy longed-for summons, that it may then be reunited with the soul and I be received as an eternal citizen of heaven. Thirdly, I give to the world and all that is in it, in good time, its farewell and a good night, with heartfelt sighing, that Thou wouldst not let me be assailed by anything therein, or turned aside and led astray from this my last will. Fourthly, I deliver into Thy faithful, fatherly hands all that I leave behind, relatives and friends, to whom Thou wouldst richly repay all good, as also all my public and secret enemies, whom I willingly forgive all evil which they have thought and done against me, and beseech besides that Thou wouldst convert them through Thy Holy Ghost, both friends and enemies, to live in Christian virtues, and some day let them depart hence rationally and blessedly. Lastly I commend to Thee Thy dear Church, which is so sorely oppressed, into Thy strong and invincible protection; all Christian magistrates into Thy unsearchable, fatherly government; all sorrowful, needy, forsaken widows and orphans and other such helpless persons into Thy infinite compassion. Give myself up, then, wholly and entirely to Thee, now and eternally, to be Thine own. Here am I, my Lord and my God, and await Thy gracious, fatherly and blessed will. Amen. In the name of the holy, highly praised, inseparable Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, the one, eternal, true God. Amen. —

"Give us this day our daily bread." Luke 11:3.

In the times of the Thirty Years' War, when especially in the unhappy Palatinate all villages and fields were burned and laid waste, the famine in Mannheim and the surrounding region reached so high a degree that in this city, as often as a corpse was buried, a guard had to be set at the grave, lest the dead body be dug up and devoured by the starving. The Reformed pastor Andreä of Weinheim on the Bergstraße left his dwelling-place at that time, and betook himself to Worms, where on entering this city he beheld the following horrible scene: on a dead horse lying in the street sat a woman, who raw and greedily swallowed the pieces of flesh cut from the hind part of the horse; on the middle of the horse sat some ravens, which gorged themselves on the carrion, and at the head of it some dogs gnawed, to still their hunger. The Malter of grain then cost 18 Reichsthaler, a sum in those times beyond all means.

Apparent Death.

About 70 years ago the daughter of the then owner of the knightly estate at Dörflas, a Captain v. Völlenbach, died of smallpox, at the age of 6½ years. She lay three full days on the board, and was then buried in the family vault belonging to the manor at Chispendorf. Some years afterward the later owner of this village dies, and when the walled-up vault is opened for his burial, which had not been done since that time, one finds the coffin of that child overturned and pushed to the air-hole, the skeleton of the child, however, not far from it, huddled together in a corner. Probably, since the lid of the coffin still lay in the place where the coffin had been deposited, the unhappy girl pushed the overturned coffin to the air-hole, to step upon it, and sooner to be heard through this hole with her pleading for rescue.

Is It Permitted to Mourn the Dead?

Thou objectest: Christ says indeed to the widow: Weep not! Therefore He forbids mourning. I answer: Christ comforts the mourner with these words, and forbids the woman to grieve, not because the son was dead, but because he was to become alive again. After Christ's own example it is permitted us also to follow our dead to the grave with tears, for He Himself wept at the death of Lazarus and mourned with the widow. Whoever is not touched and moved by the distress of others, above all of his own, deserves not the name of a man. Yet in this we must distinguish ourselves from the other mourners, that we moderate our grief, as Paul demands of the Thessalonians, that we sorrow not as others which have no hope. He forbids not mourning at the death of those who are dear to us; for although we hope that it is well with them after this life, yet the bitterness that lies in the separation of the soul from the body must move us, but because we have that hope, therefore the grief in us shall be more moderate than in the others. And this is the true strength, not that man be not moved by occasions of mourning, but that he govern himself, so that he be not overwhelmed by grief, according to the corruption of his nature, and do wrong. Phil. Melanchthon.

The Two Hands of Faith.

Brentius writes:

Faith has, if I may so say for the explanation of the matter, two hands: the one, which it stretches upward and with which it grasps Christ together with all His benefits, and in so far we say that we are justified through faith; the other, which it stretches downward, to accomplish works of love and of other virtues, and in so far we indeed testify to the truth of our faith, but are not thereby justified. (Apol. Conf. Wirtemb. p. 319.)

Hamann's Saying on the Papacy.

The papacy consists in despotism, infallibility, suppression of the divine Word and of Holy Scripture, work-righteousness, and a whole Pandora's box, and must be sought not extra, but intra muros Iliacos.
(Briefw. p. 159.)

Letter-box.

The publication of the "Biene" ceased temporarily some months ago, and, so far as is known here, has not yet been resumed. — The printing of the 3rd Synodal Report of the Synod of Missouri, etc., is not yet finished. — Spruchbücher have not yet arrived here. — Both single numbers and complete copies of Jahrg. 5 can still be furnished, if desired.

Received
for the Mission in Michigan:
$3.80 from the congregation at Altenburg, Perry Co., Mo.
$2.70 from members of the congregation in St. Louis.
$2.00 from Mr. David A—s.

Paid.

For the 4th Jahrg. Mr. Georg Steinemann.

For the 5th Jahrg. The Messrs. P. Baumgart, H. Bardonner, P. Cronenwett, Andr. Drescher, Carl Frenzel, P. Gerhard, Ernst Hitzmann, P. Hattstädt (2 copies), P. Hordorf, Hilpert, P. Lange, Launhardt, Roth, Georg Steinemann, Joh. Seibel, Friedr. Straub, Conrad Stünkel, Volkmann.

For the 2nd half of the 5th Jahrg. The Messrs. Kaufmann jun., Joh. Fr. Rösner, Jakob Seibel.

For the 1st half of the 6th Jahrg. The Messrs. Kaufmann jun., Joh. Fr. Rösner.

For the 6th Jahrg. The Messrs. P. Biltz, Joh. Bundenthal, P. Cronenwett, P. Döpken, Georg Eubert, Heinr. Frewert, Jakob Fruth, Georg Frei, Adam Geiger, P. Joh. Fr. Isensee, P. Lange, Launhardt, Möhlenkamp, Phil. Reinhardt, Gottlob Schmidt, Fr. Schöttelndreyer, Chr. Spreen, Wilh. Schmidt, Schuppan.

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