# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 01 08_S75
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

75

At times the number of those who remained has been very small, but the great Friend of children has always known how to increase it, and at both places about thirty have been incorporated into His Church by holy Baptism. Our joy over this is great; but it is a trembling joy, so long as the parents or other relatives are heathen estranged from God, whom Satan works upon in the shape of the devil and in the shape of an angel of light, and holds back from the Word and way of life. To this comes much else that oppresses us and stands in the way of the prosperity of our school, and of which I name only the one, that we are as yet not even in a position to speak directly and childlike to the childlike hearts of the little ones, since the bond of our tongue is still bound for the difficult Indian language, and without a suitable teacher and without helps will also probably remain unloosed for some time yet. What difficulty grows out of this one circumstance could hardly be described in many words. Meanwhile, in spite of all difficulties, it is yet a joy to see the red faces of our little ones so happy and so contented, and to hear them recite with considerable fluency Dr. M. Luther's Small Catechism with its explanations and sing his hymns. Their conduct is on the whole good; that heathen ways nevertheless sometimes show themselves is certain, and cannot be expected otherwise.

As for the old Indians, we have here about the same experiences. The Word of God is indeed not dead and idle, but it is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. Before it the thoughts of the heart must be made manifest and the ground of the soul laid bare. Under its influence the natural blindness of the heart, the night of sin, must give way, that the King of glory, our LORD JESUS, may Himself enter in and make His dwelling therein, and with Him all heaven, new life and eternal blessedness; or else the heart must harden and become obdurate, the night of sin become sevenfold blacker, and the king of darkness himself enter in, and with him all hell and eternal damnation. As the same sun melts wax and butter but hardens the mud of the street, so the Sun of life softens and melts the ice-crust of every natural heart which only does not wilfully shut itself against the influence of its rays. But whoever counts himself unworthy of salvation is hardened by his own fault. Alas, the latter seems to take place in many of the old ones. When, for example, a little over two years ago I visited for the first time the Indian band at the Swan River, and told the chief that I had come to show him the way of life, he said: that is right, such people I like to see, but those who only keep jumping and howling shall stay far from me. But when I left untouched his favorite theme, the mocking of the Methodists, and went straight at his heart, he changed his tone and declared outright that he wished to go where his fathers are; were they in hell, he would go in there too. In this disposition he has remained and has since repeatedly declared that he does not want to go to heaven and be saved at all, and does not want to hear anything of the LORD JESUS, the Redeemer and Savior, etc. Yet he has always treated us as friends, who sought him out first and cared for him, but the Methodists as enemies and intruders. Last spring I visited him again, and there I found that two days before he had become a Methodist. Now, however, not from conviction at all; for he himself declared to me at once that he was nothing other than what he had been before. And to leave me no doubt whatever, he broke out immediately again into his customary mockery of the Methodists and said: "You see, no wings have grown on me yet, with which I could fly up into heaven, as the Methodists are always doing. But they would not leave me in peace one hour, so that I at last grew weary and let myself be baptized, so that in my old days I might at least have rest from them." Thus is fulfilled in him what is written in 2 Thess. 2, 11, that God sends to them who receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, and be judged with all who believe not the truth.

Here at Pine River I found already a number of Methodists. These at first made all sorts of attempts and exerted themselves greatly in lying and slandering against the German mission, in order, if possible, not to let the preaching of the Word spring up at all. But when they could not prevent this after all, and their darkness was so rebuked by the light that even the heathen had to recognize it, they left our Bethany and settled at another river. Not, however, to leave us in peace, but the better to fish in troubled waters. For there they carry on their doings not only unseen and unpunished, but they go on lying and slandering all the more boldly, and seek by all sorts of arts of persuasion to bring the poor heathen away from here and into their neighborhood. Their slanders are often really amusing. And when they have exploited the present, they reach into the future and say: "Yes, the Germans are very good at first, that is true; but only wait, when they once have influence, they will make you pay for it. But we always remain as we are," and the like. — Alas! they remain, to be sure, always liars and seducers, as they are. — But you know, dear reader, there is no lie so gross, and no slander so palpable, that it should not find belief. Therefore the impression here is different with different persons. Some have let themselves be persuaded and have already gone over to them; others do not believe them, but yet think it well to guard themselves against us, and not to give themselves up to our influence by hearing the preaching of the divine Word; still others, among them the chief, harden and make themselves obdurate openly in their heathenism.

As to our little Christian congregation here finally, the Keeper of Israel, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, has hitherto known how to preserve it faithfully. You know it is a young little congregation, dear reader, and therefore doubly accessible to the enticements of the world and of seduction. But the LORD knows how to preserve His own also in temptation, be they small or great, if only they give themselves up to His Spirit and let themselves be led by Him. So some have been hard pressed by the Methodists, but have only learned the more to abhor their ways. Otherwise, to be sure, not much further can be said of them, than that they love the Word of God, and also daily, early and late, in their huts confess the name of God and call upon Him.

But the LORD has not only preserved His little congregation here, but also increased it. Not, to be sure, with large numbers that strike the eye, but by one soul, which has cost Him also His heart's blood on the stem of the cross, and which, as we have reason to believe, has now really become a possession of the LORD Christ and believes in Him not only with the mouth but with the heart. It is the daughter of the chief, who already in January of last year wished to be baptized together with her little child, but was turned away because she was not instructed. This instruction has now taken place, and she has repeatedly confessed that she heartily repents of her sins, believes from the heart in the LORD JESUS as her Redeemer and Savior, and bears a longing desire for holy Baptism, in order therein to be washed clean of her sins and to become a possession of God. So she was received on the 9th of September of last year into the covenant of grace of God and into His holy Church militant. May the LORD, however, keep her with the strong arms of His grace by Himself, and one day receive her and us into His Church triumphant. Amen.

So it stands at present in our field, and these are the fruits which the preaching of the Word of God has borne. None brilliant, striking to the eye, to be sure, but yet such as testify that our labor has not been in vain in the LORD. What the future will bring is unknown to us and does not stand in our hand. Our comfort, however, is this, that we are answerable for the faithful and pure proclamation of the Word of God, but not for its fruits. For with our power surely nothing is done; we can neither destroy Satan's work in the poor blind heathen, nor in the loathsomely proud Methodists, and nowhere build temples of the Holy Ghost. But He can do it, our God, and He has promised to accomplish it through His Word and His Spirit, His promise