# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 12 27_S70
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

70

for my own sake, to make the necessary reply to it.

At the very outset I would point out to Mr. Suhr that I am no so-called "Protestant," but an Evangelical Lutheran preacher, and that I also serve no congregation that calls itself Protestant. For both I and my congregation confess ourselves without any reservation to the Lutheran Book of Concord of 1580, which the so-called Protestant preachers and congregations of these parts do not do, wherefore we would wish to guard ourselves against this designation.

1. When Mr. Suhr says in his article, literally: "It grieved him all the more to see the firebrand of discord thrown into the Brownstown congregation, as only a few years ago it had succeeded the early-departed Bötticher, by the most toilsome and disinterested exertions, in gathering together again the members who had been scattered at that time by priestly intrigues," etc., the reply to this is that only at the time when Mr. Bötticher came into the congregation here as preacher did its members become scattered and an actual division take place, so that several families, driven to it by their conscience, withdrew from the congregation and built themselves a church of their own. And only since I have administered the holy ministry here have not only almost all of those who had then withdrawn, but also several other families who had never belonged to the congregation, joined themselves to it.

That Mr. Bötticher is supposed to have administered his office in this congregation "disinterestedly," Mr. Suhr can set before the eyes as bare truth only of those who know nothing of the whole matter, or have been wrongly informed. When Mr. Bötticher came to the congregation here as preacher and, as was customary, had himself hired for a year like a servant, he was entirely satisfied with the wage of 200 dollars a year. As the first year drew to its end, he was asked by the congregation whether he would stay on again. To which he replied that he could not say with certainty, for he was inclined to go to Germany. But when some months had passed, he declared to the congregation that he would indeed stay, but only if the congregation would give him 250 dollars wages instead of 200, which sum was also granted him by several members of the congregation. To this I would remark by the way that a preacher with his family finds a plentiful living in this congregation with a yearly salary of 200 dollars. Since, however, no small part of the members of the congregation was wholly dissatisfied with this unreasonable demand, it came about that the wage was raised, instead of by 50, only by about 38 dollars, with which Mr. Bötticher, because he had to, declared himself quite magnanimously content, and left the congregation, which would gladly have kept him longer, in a very neat fashion.

2. Mr. Suhr says further in his article thus: "The congregation about Brownstown has until now, as all true Protestant congregations do and must do, made known its pleasure or displeasure with its preacher annually by a vote. When Mr. Sauer applied for the vacant place, he knew of this arrangement, but at that time believed his priestly dignity not endangered by the congregation's voting; now, however, since he has grown warm in the nest, the yearly voting will all at once no longer agree with his black dignity," etc. When Mr. Suhr says that I, when I came into the congregation and applied for the vacant place, was satisfied with the annual voting and hiring, and believed my priestly dignity, as he is pleased to express himself, not endangered by the congregation's voting, I reply to this that this is a gross untruth or, to put it in good German, a lie. For on the very day of the election, before it took place, I declared in the church before the assembled congregation: "that, in case the election should fall upon me, I would accept it only if they would call me regularly, according to the Word of God and the practice of the ancient Church, and would strike out the article of their church constitution according to which they hire their preachers for One Year only." And so it came about that after hours of discussion, in which I frequently sought to show why I could not let myself be hired or engaged like a servant or cattle-herdsman, the majority of the congregation regularly called me on the very day of the election, and some weeks later I received a written call, signed in the name of the congregation by the church council. Also, during the time of my being here I have not neglected, wherever an opportunity offered, to give the members of my congregation the necessary instruction concerning the regular call to the holy ministry, and at the same time to show how this article of their church constitution, according to which they wished to hire their preachers every year, was wholly contrary to the doctrine of the divine Word concerning the call to the holy ministry, and therefore could not be tolerated in a Lutheran church constitution. Since, however, several essential articles of a purely Lutheran church constitution were wholly lacking in the former one, inasmuch as, for example, not a word is said of the confession of the congregation as a Lutheran one, or, according to another paragraph of the same, the congregation may also be served with Word and Sacrament by a Reformed pastor, I therefore, seeing that the congregation is and also wishes to be exclusively Lutheran, after years of patient forbearance (during which I did not lack sorrowful experiences from the side of those who would gladly have treated me as an obedient servant), finally set about drawing up a purely Lutheran church constitution, conformable to the Word of God. I then laid the same before the congregation for deliberation and discussion, remarking indeed that I could continue to administer the holy office in the congregation with a good conscience only if it would acknowledge and sign such a purely Lutheran congregational constitution, and that I could in no wise regard as members of my congregation those who would not do so. After all the articles of the new church constitution had been read and discussed several times, it was adopted and signed by 59 of the 74 voting members of the congregation present; whereat, to be sure, the adherents of the old church constitution grew very excited and sought to prove to me by the words of Tit. 1, 1. that I was a servant of men.

3. When Mr. Suhr further says literally: "If we declare the endeavors of Mr. Sauer to nestle himself into his congregation for his lifetime to be selfish and Pharisaical, his threats and measures seem to us," etc. "He is not satisfied," it says further below, "with declaring those who will not dance to his pipe under ban and outlawry and refusing them the administration of the holy Sacraments, but he also casts his devilish grudge and hatred upon these children and will not suffer them in the school connected with the church," etc., — we reply to this that it never entered our mind to move anyone, by threats or any other measure, to sign our church constitution. And if we Lutheran preachers declare to those who will not acknowledge the regular call to the holy ministry, and after ample instruction and teaching nevertheless hardheartedly insist that we must put ourselves up for election every year and let ourselves be hired, that we will neither recognize them as members of our congregation nor administer the holy Supper to them, this will appear to no honest Lutheran as cruel and inhuman. For what true Christian would expect of us that we should act against God's Word and our conscience, and by administering the holy Supper to such as will neither submit to a Christian order nor bow under the Word of God, make ourselves partakers of other men's sins?

As to the accusation concerning the children, it is indeed true that we have left the children of our opponents without instruction in the school. At first, to be sure, we never thought of turning the children out of the school connected with the church on account of the obstinacy of their parents; but since the latter, although they will neither acknowledge us as their pastor, nor have us as one who does not let himself be hired every year, nevertheless insisted in all seriousness that they could rightly make claims upon our services in every respect and that we must teach their children, it came about that we, with the agreement of the congregation (whose express will it was from the very beginning that the children of those who the new Kir-