# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 10 16_S28
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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within a year, with God's help, perhaps some others, as well prepared for the holy office, will be able to leave the institution. But what is this compared with the great masses of German Lutherans with which the states of the West are filled! What is that compared with a field of labor which becomes ever more extended with every year, and requires whole troops of evangelists.

Hitherto the institution has been located in Altenburg, Perry Co., Mo., a little-known German settlement. The instruction in it was given in recent years by the pastor of the congregation there, the now blessedly deceased Pastor Löber, a teacher in the ancient languages, and an assistant teacher. As already stated, the institution has remained small. At present there are altogether nine pupils in it, of whom four are still young boys who are beginning to learn the languages. Would it not be sad indeed if this, the only nursery in the distant West for the training of the preachers of our confession, should continue to have so wretched an existence? Would it not be desirable that attention be directed more to this institution, and that even with sacrifice what is needful be provided to raise it up? Without doubt all upright Lutherans will agree in this wish. What could now contribute to such an elevation?

The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States, after the institution itself, and the direction and oversight of it, were committed to it, has, considering that a suitable place, at which such a school might more easily become known to the people and more readily obtain pupils, would contribute much to its elevation, resolved to remove the preachers' seminary, hitherto existing in Altenburg without a building of its own there, to St. Louis, the central and chief point of the West. And because, naturally, without the appointment of special teachers who are capable and can devote their time and strength solely to instruction, an elevation is not conceivable, the said Synod has likewise resolved to appoint, besides the teacher in the ancient languages, also a special professor of theology and, if possible, still more teachers, in particular also one for the English language and the practical sciences. These resolutions will certainly be found expedient by all who consider the matter carefully, and receive from all approval for their speediest execution. But it is precisely upon the execution that it depends; for this there is need not only of praying hearts, but also of liberal hands. For a proper sum of money is required, first to be able to erect the necessary buildings, and then to found a fund from which, if not the full salary of the teachers, yet a large part of it can be defrayed. Since most of the young men who here in this country devote themselves to the holy ministry are poor, it is mostly quite enough if for years, without earning anything else, they provide for their own support. Payment for the instruction, and thus a support of the teachers from that quarter, is little or not at all to be reckoned upon. A few hundred dollars also do not suffice to carry this into execution. Thousands are required, if suitable dwellings for teachers and pupils are to be built, and landed property acquired, from the income of which the teachers can be supported, at least in part. But how shall this money be raised? Will it indeed be possible to obtain a few thousands for such a purpose in the Lutheran church of America?

The Lutheran congregation in St. Louis itself has given two valuable acres of land near the city, in one of the healthiest districts, for building lots; has assigned to the seminary the net receipts of its burying-ground fund, and the surplus from the sale of the hymnbook published by it, and has granted and raised among its members over 2000 dollars toward the building. But nevertheless it would be a matter of impossibility, and much that is necessary would have to be left undone, if this congregation, with the few other, much poorer congregations which have promised their support, were to bear alone the whole burden of maintenance. It is, after all, not the concern of one congregation or another, but of the whole church. The teachers who are to receive their training here are destined to preach the Word of God not only in St. Louis and within the bounds of the Synod of Missouri, but in all places where the LORD of the harvest shall place them, especially in our West, so poor in preachers.

Of a real want of means within the whole Lutheran church of America for such an undertaking there can evidently be no question: Should the Lutheran church of America not be able to raise with ease a sum of 10,000 dollars and more? Here evidently it can be only a matter of willingness to make such an effort. And in order to awaken this in the hearts through God's help, we feel constrained to point to the following:

Thousands of Lutherans come every year from our old fatherland hither, and settle for the most part in the West. But how many are there among the emigrating companies who bring with them also preachers, and, what is the main thing, believing preachers, zealous for the pure Word of God? That is a rarity. In many places where the newcomers settle here, there are either no preachers at all, or at least none that are German and Lutheran. What happens? Those who confessed with us one Church, they sink first, through the total want of the preaching of the divine Word, into indifference, thereupon often become despisers of God and His Word, and at last mock at everything holy. The poor children are not brought to Christ, are not baptized, not instructed in the wholesome doctrine. Out of our German fellow believers there are made — it is dreadful to say — open heathen! — Ah, what a misery! Rich in earthly things, and in spiritual and heavenly things so utterly poor! This misery will soon meet every attentive traveler through America. The Americans themselves, who do not belong to our church, are moved by compassion to send preachers to the German members of our church. In particular the Methodists labor, also the Presbyterians and Episcopalians, among the Germans. For lack of preachers of their own faith, they receive the German Methodist missionaries and other preachers who come to them, depart from their church, and thus lose, with their children, the dearest legacy which they inherited from their fathers, the confession of the pure and full truth. Their precious Catechism is exchanged; their hymns full of faith become unknown to them; they pass often from one sect into another.

Far be it from us to express ourselves bitterly concerning the intentions of the missionary English denominations. They act according to their conscience, and bring great, admirable sacrifices. But we mention it here to remind the German Lutherans of their neglected duty. O, beloved fellow believers! say, who shall take care of the Lutherans, that they may remain Lutherans? Who shall work for the existence and flourishing of the Lutheran church? Who else but we Lutherans? May we bury the pound entrusted to us, as Lutherans, by the LORD? And may we bury it because we are unwilling to give a few dollars? It would be, verily, a most sad sign, either that we do not know our faith in its purity, or that we love money more than God's honor and God's Word and the salvation of souls, if we were unwilling to contribute anything to help raise up an institution in which upright and capable preachers of the Gospel are to be trained! If, to be sure, higher sciences and languages were not pursued in the institution, it would indeed not require so great costs. Fewer teachers and fewer forces would be required; also the pupils, if they were otherwise pious and gifted young men, could be dismissed again in a shorter time. But precisely this the Lutheran church has always held fast, that the church needs also schools of the learned for the training of its preachers, because it is a matter of experience that in such communions pure doctrine has soon perished in which it was not thought necessary that higher sciences and languages be learned by preachers. The experienced and highly enlightened servant of God, the blessed Dr. Martin Luther, pleads, pointing among other things to the Waldenses, very earnestly for the maintenance of higher schools. In the writing "To the Burgo-