# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 01 08_S79
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

79

sermon. I promised it, although I had prepared myself only for a short address which I had intended to give on the evening of the festival. I was greatly surprised when I saw the church. For the still young and small congregation I had pictured to myself a little church, but I found it very spacious, and especially the beautiful, high and broad windows drew my attention, and still more the well-draped pulpit, charmingly adorned with wreaths, and the altar. Very many people were present. The singing at the service was delightful, pure and clear-toned. After the chief sermon the glorious hymn "Wachet auf! ruft uns die Stimme," etc., was sung to Layritz's tune.

The chief sermon was preached by Pastor Schieferdecker. He preached on Exodus 20, 24, "Of the Blessing of the House of God; and indeed: 1. wherein this blessing consists, and then 2. on what it depends." In this he brought especially into the light that the blessing of the house of God is a blessing which can be found only where God has recorded His name. Because, now, in the house of God His name is remembered, since therein His Word, His works and wonders are preached, so also only there is His special blessing, and nowhere else is it to be found. He also pointed out that one may regard it as a gratifying sign that the first church in Centreville is a church of the pure Lutheran Confession; whereupon he expressed the hope that God has it well in mind to build His Lutheran Zion there, to set the Word of His truth upon a candlestick, and to make that house a house of blessing which shall extend to children and children's children. The afternoon sermon I preached on Psalm 84, 2 and 3, according to which I sought to set forth the glory of the house of God. This glorious day was concluded by the singers' choir singing yet many songs (in several parts), fitting the solemnity of the festival, in a tone of Christian cheerfulness. On the following day Pastor Johannes also arrived among us, who at the request of Pastor Schieferdecker and his congregation undertook to preach a sermon for the after-celebration in the afternoon. He preached it on the Gospel of Matth. 22 of the preceding day, very suitable for a church dedication, and set forth therein the invitation to the king's wedding, especially for the servants of God, most comfortingly and refreshingly.

May God, then, in this newly consecrated little church let His pure Word resound evermore, and grant that thereby many children may be born to Him, who shall abide by the right doctrine of our Lutheran Church and serve the LORD, their God, according to His will.

A Test of Faith.

I have had, Luther relates, a table-companion at Wittenberg, by name Matthias de Vay, a Hungarian, who also lived in my house at Wittenberg. When he came home to Hungary and became a preacher there, he fell into dispute with a papistical preacher. When now the papist had accused him before the monk George, brother of the Voivode, at that time governor and regent at Ofen, and in the hearing each had severely condemned the other, and the monk could not bring the parties to agreement, for each one wanted to be in the right, Monk George said: "Wait, I will soon find out which side is right or not"; and he went to work and set two barrels of powder in the market at Ofen and said: "Whoever will defend his doctrine, that it is right and the true Word of God, let him sit upon one of the barrels; then I will put fire under it, and whoever remains alive when the fire catches the powder, so that he is not burned, his doctrine is right." Then Matthias von Vay sprang quickly upon one of the barrels and sat down upon it, but the papist with his assistant would not get upon the other barrel. Then Monk George said: "Now I see that the faith and doctrine of Vay is right, and yours, the papists', religion is false"; he fined the papistical priest and his assistant 4000 Hungarian guilders, and they had to pay and maintain for him for a time 200 men-at-arms, but Matthiam de Vay he let preach the Gospel publicly. (Luthers Werke. Hall. Bd. XXII, 72. 73.) — Guericke writes in his Kirchengeschichte that this Matthias "Devay" is called the "Hungarian Luther," labored in Hungary since 1531, and died at last in 1549.

A Preacher Without Hearers.

In the last number of the Apologet we read the following story, which we might well call comical, if it did not at the same time contain a most sinful abuse of the Word of God:

"Lately we read of a Methodist preacher who preached without having a single hearer, and yet it had a good result. His appointment was on a Saturday afternoon in a schoolhouse; no one came into the house, only a few children were playing near by. But the preacher was not discouraged, sang, prayed and preached, while the children now and then stuck their heads in at the open door." (What may these have thought of the man, dear reader?) "When he was done, he told them he would preach there again in two weeks. And when he came the second time the schoolhouse was full." That does not surprise us; who would not be eager to see so remarkable a man! — To this story Dr. Nast gives the heading: "How a Preacher Can Get Hearers." Excellent counsel! This probably belongs among the very newest measures.

"Der Friedensbote."

Under this title there has lately appeared in our city the first number of a religious periodical, which from now on is to come out monthly as the organ of the "German-Evangelicals," that is, of the united or mixed "congregations of North America." The paper is published by the "Evang. Kirchenverein des Westens." According to the prospectus placed at its head, it is to "have the purpose of serving for edification. On the ground of this," it says further, "the Friedensbote can and will never engage in strife with other German papers, and as it will never make attacks, so it will, if they are directed against it, never repel them otherwise than with silence."

If one could see from the paper itself that the gentlemen editors had meant these declarations honestly, no one would surely have anything to object against it, and it would be truly cruel not to let such a harmless messenger of peace go quietly on his way. Unfortunately, however, the very first number which this alleged "Friedensbote" brings us shows that he is no literalist, and that therefore even his own words must not be understood as they sound. For this very first number — who would have expected it? — in the shape of a messenger-of-peace's pouch is nothing other than a quiver full of embittered and poisoned arrows, which, as everybody soon sees, are directed above all against us poor Lutherans, and indeed are shot at us not from open battle array, but secretly as out of a peaceful thicket. For when in it side-thrusts are made on every occasion at those members of Christendom who have their name from a man, and these are represented therein as proud enemies of Christ, who "prefer to bear party names taken from men rather than the name of Jesus," then it is hardly the Israelites, Mohammedans, Campbellites and others, but certainly we poor Lutherans who are meant. What, then, are we to take the declarations of the "Friedensbote," never to make attacks and never to return attacks, to be? We confess honestly, we regard the first declaration as dishonest and the other as cowardly. Though one may find this judgment hard: a genuine German Lutheran cannot dissemble and holds to the good old German proverb: Honesty lasts longest. If the "Friedensbote" wished to justify the name "Evangelical," it was by no means necessary that already at his first outing he should abandon the character outwardly displayed by him, blow the war trumpet, and glorify his name at the expense of others. That the name Evangelical is an excellent name is an undisputed matter; least of all will this be disputed by the Lutherans, who from the beginning have laid claim to this name