# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 11 27_S51
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

51

begun to turn the heart of my older children to me again. My beloved child Madras, wearied by the pressure and burden of the English-Reformed yoke, has turned its heart again to its mother and has already become mine once more.

Only one thing there is that troubles me in this lovely time of a gradual reviving under His wings. It is that still, and ever still, the Lord must preach me His Word from foreign white lips, must have His Sacraments administered me from foreign white hands, must have my churches and schools built with foreign money. This grieves me, that I am still so helpless in attempting to walk independently, and my congregations in part so poverty-stricken, that an active cooperation of their own for the support of church and school becomes very hard for them. Yet the Lord, who in grace has awakened me again out of the dust and death and has given me new life and lovely blessing, will look down graciously upon me in this also, that the thought of the old fathers concerning me, which through the guilt of the times remained unexecuted, may under the care and strong cooperation of our new highly beloved fathers become deed and truth, and that I as an independent Tamil Lutheran Church may sing my Hosanna to the Lord, when He shall come to seek the fruit of all the great labor and mercy which He has bestowed on Tranquebar. Help thou also me, beloved sister, and strengthen me by thy love, intercession, letter, greeting of peace, and call, as I also will not forget thee before the throne of grace."

So, thou dear Church of North America, so, all ye dear beloved brethren, so speaks to thee, to you, our Tamil Church, a church which has already lived through a considerable past, but whose present is only small. It now comprises seven congregations:

1. Tranquebar, the mother congregation with the Jerusalem Church; here at this moment the missionary Appelt is stationed. The missionary Cordes, who has been staying for a short time in Germany on account of his health, is expected back very soon and will then take over the congregation again. 2. Poreiar, with the Bethlehem Church built in 1746; here the missionary Schwarz is stationed. 3. and 4. Puthenur and Tirumeynjanam, two congregations which in the course of the last 1½ years have been gathered out of the heathen from Poreiar. They both stand under the care of the missionary Mylius. 5. Madras, that congregation which, originally gathered through Lutheran preaching, afterwards fell into the hands of the English, was variously offended and oppressed by them, and has at last turned again to its mother. Here the missionary Kremmer labors. 6. Mayaveram, a station formerly belonging to the English church missionary society, sold by it, bought with all its buildings by friends of our mission and presented to us. Here the missionary Ochs labors. 7. Puducottah, a mission field ceded to us by the North American missionaries in Madura, in the land of a still fairly independent little prince beyond Tanjore. This congregation stands under the care of Brother Wolff. Besides these missionaries thus in active service, there has recently come from Germany a new one into this field of labor, the missionary Glasell, who is now preparing for his future activity.

And what the chief care and chief activity is, which must be devoted to this field of the Lord here, is shown plainly and clearly in the following three points: To call the heathen, to care for those who have come and been received by Baptism, and to strive in every way toward this, that the church here might some day stand independent, to which end three capable native men are even now being prepared by us for ordination. For the whole burden of the expense for this mission here rests until now still upon the shoulders of our now so deeply rent German fatherland. Would that hands might be found which in this troubled time would help to bear it, while our care and endeavor here shall be to work toward it with earnestness and urgency, that the congregations more and more and at last fully awake to churchly self-activity. Help ye also, beloved brethren, us and the congregations here with prayer, intercession, letter, greeting, and call, and whatever else your love bids you to do, and take upon your heart, among other burdens, us also with our congregations.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you and us all!

The Conference of the Ev. Lutheran Mission and Church in the Tamil Country.
A. F. Wolff.
E. Appelt.
A. Mylius. The same in the name of the absent
Rl. Glasell,
C. F. Kremmer and
C. Ochs.
J. M. N. Schwarz.

NB. Together with my subsequent repeated hearty greeting of peace to all the brethren, especially to those brethren known to me personally, Dr. Sihler, Br. Hattstädt, Ernst, Burger, Trautmann, Detzer and Saupert, I beg you, beloved brethren, that you would forward your dear letters to us under the following address:

Rev'd M. Schwarz,
Tranquebar,
East Indies.

In hearty love in the Lord, your faithful and lowly brother and intercessor
J. M. N. Schwarz.

Examples of Christians who were assailed by doubt and freed from it, whether they would also persevere to the end.

When one, writes Thomas à Kempis, deeply troubled, often hovered between fear and hope, and once, consumed with anxious grief, cast himself down praying before the altar in a church, he thought thus within himself and said: "O, that I knew whether I shall yet persevere!" Immediately he heard in his inmost soul the divine answer: "And if thou knewest that, what wouldest thou then do? Do now what thou wouldest then do, and thou wilt be quite secure." Comforted and strengthened at that hour he yielded himself to the divine will, and his anxious doubting left him. Now he would no longer ask presumptuously, and inquire what might befall him in the future; but more zealously he endeavored to discover what is the good and perfect will of God pleasing to Him, to begin and to accomplish all that is good. (Four Books of the Imitation of Christ, I., 25.)

I remember, writes Luther further, that at Torgau a poor little woman came to me, and with bitter tears complained that she could not believe. When I then recited the articles of the faith one after another, and asked her about each article: Whether she also held that all this was true and had also happened thus, or not? she answered me and said: "I really do hold that it is all true; but I simply cannot believe it." That was a devilish deception. Therefore I said to her: If thou holdest all this to be true, thou needest not complain of thy unbelief; for where thou doubtest not that the Son of God died for thee, thou believest surely. For to believe is nothing else than to hold this for the certain, undoubted truth, namely, that the Son of God died for us. God says to thee: Behold, there thou hast My Son, hear Him, and receive Him; if thou doest this, thou art even now sure of thy faith and thy salvation. Yea, thou sayest, but I know not whether I can remain in the faith? Nay, then take nevertheless the present promise and foreordination *), and beware that thou inquire not curiously or too exactly into the secret counsels of God. If thou believest in the revealed God and receivest His Word, then the hidden God also will in time be revealed to thee. For "he that seeth Me," saith Christ, John 14, 9, "seeth the Father." But he who rejects the Son loses with the revealed God also the hidden God, who has revealed Himself. But if thou wilt cling with strong faith to the revealed God, so that thou art minded in thy heart, thou wilt

*) By "Versehung" the ancients properly understood God's eternal predestination.