# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 10 30_S39
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39

larger congregations up to ten) represents the congregation only in respect of property matters, has the free disposal of any sum under 100 thalers, and has to submit proposals to the consistory regarding larger expenditures. There may not be very much of consequence to object to against the matter itself; in the short time of its existence a beneficial effect has already here and there been shown, for example where, through the negligence of secular church commissioners, capital had been insecurely lent out and where these have had to pay considerable sums in compensation on the motion of the church council. In any case, however, the manner is reprehensible in which the law in question was brought about by government and estates, without consistory or synod, for which reason not even communion in the Sacrament is required for eligibility and the right to vote! — The elected elders, in whose college the pastor is born president, are installed on a Sunday after the sermon and must give the clergyman, before the altar, promise and handshake of a conscientious conduct of office.

The commission appointed for the drafting of our Hanoverian church constitution, of which I believe I have written to you once before, has just completed its work. It was recently reinforced, for example, by Prof. Ehrenfeuchter, professor of church law, Hermann, Superintendent Saxer from the Bremen district, and so forth. The results are not yet before us; yet it is asserted that it has worked in an altogether church-friendly spirit and has yielded only so much as the times unavoidably require. We shall hardly get around the lay presbyterate in any case. Presbyteries and synods, however, are to restrict the holy preaching office and the power of the consistory as little as possible. — The commission also did not enter into the government's idea of proposing an equal constitution for Lutherans and Reformed.

If we now look about in other German state churches, we cannot sufficiently praise the grace of God which has preserved us from the misery of so-called ecclesiastical constituent assemblies, from unbelieving majority resolutions, and so forth. Thus in Oldenburg, by such an assembly, of which two thirds were laymen and only one third clergymen, complete lack of confession has been proclaimed. In the Austrian Lutheran Church the pastor is not even as such president of the very numerous lay presbytery. In Neuenburg (Neufchatel) in Switzerland the clergy are chosen only for five or six years, and if after the lapse of this time a fourth of the congregation demands a new election, they must submit to it. — In Mecklenburg a separation of a congregation has arisen from the fact that the consistory let a candidate who was friendly to the "Friends of Light" and called by the congregation fail the examination. He was ordained by laymen and serves the congregation, which will not let go its claim to the Lutheran church property. All steps of the church government against it have been wrecked on the resistance of the estates.

In southern Germany there are pastors who preach and catechize on the "Fundamental Rights of the German People." — Joh. Ronge, who dwells in the Palatinate, has abolished baptism and put in its place the solemn presentation of a bouquet of flowers; he swears the confirmed youth to the German imperial constitution. His stay in the Frankfurt National Assembly, to whose extreme Left he belonged, seems almost to have robbed him of his understanding. Somewhere young ladies have already been elected to presbyteries, and so forth.

That may suffice as proof of how sad the conditions of the German church are in general, but also of how comparatively favorable they still are in our dear Hanoverian fatherland, so abundantly blessed and so undeservedly graced. — From many pulpits powerful and courageous testimonies resound against the doings of this time, and yet they call forth no loud contradiction. Only L., superintendent at H., has had to endure hostilities as a consequence of his last Ascension Day sermon. Two societies who believed themselves directly offended by him forbade him the pulpit, under threat of disturbance of the divine service. The otherwise so excellent and courageous man has unfortunately let himself be moved by this to depart without a farewell sermon.

Church News.

The dear readers have already made the acquaintance of our dear missionary Baierlein, certainly to their joy,*) and have sorrowed with him over the oppressive isolation from all further church fellowship in which he finds himself together with his dear household congregation and his hopeful Christian Indian youth, in consequence of which the little flock has hitherto only very rarely been able to receive the strengthening of the holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and has been able to procure this rare enjoyment only at a considerable expenditure of time and money. In consideration now that God the Holy Ghost honors even single families of the believers with the high name of "church, congregation" (Rom. 16:5, 1 Cor. 16:19), and that moreover a whole company of Indian Christians, though still minors, yet baptized, belongs to the household congregation of the dear missionary, the Synod of Missouri etc. has not hesitated, upon request, to give order that the holy ordination be granted to the said Mr. Baierlein for the performance of all ecclesiastical official acts within his little flock. This has accordingly also been done on the 6th of last month at Bethany, the mission station in question in Michigan, by Pastor Crämer with the assistance of Pastor Gräbner. May the faithful Savior, who has given the precious promise that where two or three are gathered together in His name He is in the midst of them, that their binding and loosing on earth shall be valid in heaven, and that He will let come to pass for them whatever it is that they agree to ask (cf. Matt. 18:15-20), richly fulfil this promise also at Bethany. This is our prayer to Him, in which all living members of His spiritual Body, that is, all living children of the Church who read this, will unite with us.

*) See: "Lutheraner" V. p. 187.

"I am the LORD, and there is none else." Is. 45:18.

When once in the year 1609 Elector Johann Georg I, near Crottendorf in Saxony, was overtaken at a hunt by a heavy thunderstorm, and a flash of lightning struck a fir tree close beside him, he cried out, deeply moved: "God alone is Lord!"

Notice.

On behalf of a majority of the members of the Publishing College, the undersigned hereby informs the members of the Publishing Society that they have resolved to postpone for the time being the printing of Luther's letter to the Bohemians, and first to see to the publication of the tract on sending children to school.

I seize this opportunity at the same time to lay the cause of the Publishing Society once more most urgently on the hearts of the dear brethren in the ministry and of all members of our Synod, and to ask them to take it up more zealously than hitherto. The undertaking can, under God's assistance, become of immeasurable significance for the Church of Christ, and we should therefore like to ask the dear brethren to make at least the attempt, in their various spheres of labor, to awaken interest in the cause. Will the brethren make this attempt very soon? We greatly desire to accomplish the publication of the tract on sending children to school before the holy Christmas feast; will the dear brethren make the carrying out of this wish possible for us by the sending in of very many subscribers before the said time?

Schaumburg, Ill., the 13th of October 1849.

F. A. Hoffmann,

Secretary of the Publishing College.

(Sent in by Pastor Fick.)

To Our Dead, Who Died in the Lord.

You have now finished the race
And fought a good fight.
Now your sorrow is turned
And your pains are stilled.
You stand now before God's throne,
Clothed in white garments;
And on your head the crown of victory,
You behold the Father in blessedness.

But we lament you with tears,
And weep after you, you dear ones;
As we long for you from the heart,
And our grief grows fresh each day.
How beautifully were you adorned
With faith and love in word and deed! —
Ah, that you were so early taken from us
By God's wonderful counsel.