# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 11 13_S44
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

44

petitions, in which we are to call upon God also for this, that He would send His Word also to the heathen. In them, indeed, we pray first of all that the name of God may be hallowed also among us, that the kingdom of God may come also to us, and that the will of God may be done also among us; for only when God preserves us Himself in true faith and in the pure Word and Sacrament are we fit to do our part also for the spreading of the kingdom of God among the heathen. Since now the holy Lord's Prayer is a prayer in which everything is comprehended that a Christian heart has to beseech of God, we have also to include the heathen in the first three petitions, as in so many intercessions. To prayer for the heathen the Word of God further obligates us in the passages: "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men," 1 Tim. 2:1. Further: "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest."

Then we have also to pray diligently for our missionaries, that God would preserve to them in their hard calling the right joyfulness. The Apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians 6:18-20: "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." The Apostle, who was filled with the Holy Ghost in so distinguished a measure, whose labor was so wonderfully blessed that he converted thousands to God and from Jerusalem as far as Spain filled everything with the Gospel of Christ, nevertheless turns to the intercession of the believers for a "joyful opening of his mouth," for a "joyful doing" in his calling, in firm confidence in the hearing which the LORD has promised to the intercession of believers: "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven," Matt. 18:19.

The dear reader knows under what discouraging circumstances our missionaries labor. For years they may preach without seeing the desired fruits. Enthusiasts, seducers, deceivers, the bad example of the whites, the long habit of heathen superstition and of sin: everything seems to unite to hinder and to destroy the work of the missionaries. Besides, the old evil foe will not be idle either, but will plague their souls with his fiery darts, to take from them their joyfulness and their good courage, and to fill them instead with melancholy and despondency. For heathenism is indeed one of the oldest fortifications of Satan on earth, for which reason he meets with the greatest fury the warriors of Christ who seek to destroy these fortifications with God's Word and to bring the nations to Christ. Therefore we must, according to the command of God, pray continually, earnestly and fervently for the conversion of the heathen, because we know that the devil resists it most obstinately.

And we ought to do this so much the more zealously, we ought to support our missionaries in their calling so much the more faithfully with our intercession, with our gifts, and with all the proofs of an inventive love, since according to the words of the LORD: "Go ye and teach all nations," it would really be the duty of us all to go out ourselves to the heathen and to proclaim the Gospel to them. God has already bound us by another calling; on the other hand He has chosen individuals from our midst that they should proclaim His glorious Gospel to the heathen in our stead. These we have to further in their work in every way, as those who do the work which we really ought to do; we have to regard them as our mouth, as our hand, whereby we impart the Word of life to the heathen. For we are all, through holy Baptism, implanted into the body of which Christ is the head; we are members one of another and ought therefore to care for one another, and to give one another a helping hand, "according to the effectual working in the measure of every part," and all this in love. Eph. 4:16.

May the LORD kindle us by the fire of His divine love, that we may not do His work slackly, and that we may guard ourselves against the coldness of this world and against the lukewarmness of this last, troubled time.

Hermann Fick.

(Submitted.)

Home Mission.

Let it serve the dear readers of the Lutheraner as joyful tidings that on the 17th of this month the holy Office of the Ministry was set up in Saginaw City, Mich.

I especially feel impelled to communicate this glad news to all dear brethren and congregations of the Lutheran Church of this country, since the LORD has called me, since my arrival in America (October 1847), to undertake until now the mission service for Saginaw and vicinity. For almost two years I had the dear office of tending the young, newly sprouted plant of faith among the at first few Lutheran families there by the proclamation of the Gospel, and of protecting it from destructive influences; I had to seek and to gather what was scattered; I had to ask that the few faithful Lutheran souls might join themselves together into a firm congregation and call a pastor.

Thank God, my weak service has not been in vain! The holy Office of the Ministry is set up, the mission service is no longer needed; a Lutheran pastor, in the person of Mr. Clöter, has been called by the congregation.

Who among you, dear readers, would not rejoice with me and be glad? Who would not praise God, who has destroyed the work of the devil? The evil foe would gladly have triumphed in Saginaw also, but the gracious God did not permit it to him; He has given His Church the victory here also. So let us then pray to Him, the Father of all mercies, that He who has helped hitherto would help also in the future and take the young congregation into His keeping. May it grow in many thousand times thousand, and may its seed possess the gate of its enemies! May the LORD here also, as in all places where His Word is preached pure and clear, lure hither those Lutherans who still stand afar off and have not yet taken heart and confidence to join themselves to the congregations of the pure confession; may He take from them all groundless fear of the so-called "Old Lutherans," for with God's help nothing else shall and will be proclaimed in Saginaw, as in all our congregations, than the pure Word of God according to the pure exposition and presentation of the Confessions of our dear Lutheran Church; the venerable Sacraments shall be faithfully administered in them according to the institution of the LORD. But where this is done, there is the Church of the LORD.

To be sure, the young congregation at Saginaw will faithfully adhere to the confessional ceremonies of the Lutheran Church, but only in order thereby to bear witness against the enemies of the Lutheran Church and against false brethren; but it declares expressly that it makes the communion of faith dependent upon no ceremony in itself.

And now, dear brethren, near and far, help me to pray for the growth of the young congregation, that it may grow stronger, inwardly and outwardly, more and more; help also with all manner of helping hand, so that especially a little church and a parsonage may soon arise in Saginaw. I know that in this time many petitions of need press upon your hearts; but be mindful of this, that the more you show your faith by helping and serving love, the more you lend to the LORD.

A small capital of $70 has indeed already been collected in and outside of the Lutheran congregation at Saginaw, to which especially the Evangelical Lutheran congregation of Fort Wayne, Ind., contributed $10, and that at Addison, Ill., $8, while the friends in Germany sent over $40; but with this only a small beginning has been made, and the strength of the congregation is still weak. Therefore I venture confidently to commit the request for the help of you all to Him who turns the hearts like watercourses.

Frankenlust, October 22, 1849.

Ferdinand Sievers,
Lutheran Pastor.