# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 02 05_S93
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

93

Gebh. Now be assured that your words today have not been in vain. I acknowledge myself that it cannot go on so any longer. I have conferred far too long with flesh and blood, but it shall happen no more. Henceforth I will be a member of the congregation and will help more actively to further and build up the kingdom of Christ. I have been very glad that we have spoken out to each other in this way.

Gotth. Praised be God, who has turned your heart and let you recognize the right way. Let us henceforth diligently cultivate the fellowship in Christ, until we shall behold Him with joy in the fellowship of all the elect and the blessed!

So the two parted from one another cordially and as brothers, and Gebhard remained true to his resolution and became an upright and zealous member of the congregation.

(Submitted.)

Proposals of Statutes for a Society for the Widows and Orphans of Preachers and Schoolteachers.

The undersigned take the liberty hereby of communicating these proposals to the dear brethren of our Synod. Surely something of this kind will be welcomed by all with sympathy. The love and mercy which we owe to show, especially to the widows and orphans, for the most part left in poverty, of faithful Lutheran preachers and schoolteachers, and the care which we owe our own kindred, so far as it may be and does not run contrary to the faith, guided us in the drawing up of these proposals. We found this plan to be the most suitable, because it is very simple and easy to carry out, avoids the handling of funds and usury, and yet offers the greatest possible security. We communicate it with the request that the matter be taken into careful consideration, in order that at our next meeting in St. Louis it may be further deliberated upon, additions and improvements made, and the matter set in motion.

§ 1. The Society consists, to be sure, of such persons as are members of the Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States, but stands in no connection with the Synod as such.

§ 2. At its meetings, which shall take place every year at the time and place at which the Synod is held, the Society elects an executive committee, consisting of two members, which is elected for three years.

§ 3. Every single widow without children receives from the collective members of the Society annually 40 dollars;
a widow with 1 child under 14 years, $50;
a widow with 2 children, $60;
a widow with 3 children, $70;
a widow with 4 or more children, $100;
every single orphan without parents, $25.

Remark. It is presupposed here that all members of our Synod join the Society.

§ 4. In order to avoid the handling of funds, and so that the widows and orphans may not receive the support all at once, the assessment shall be sent in quarterly for them, postage paid, to the executive committee.

Remark. To be sure, the inconvenience arises here that a small sum cannot so well be sent in by mail; but this inconvenience can certainly for the most part be easily removed by members living near one another sending in their assessments jointly.

§ 5. When a member of the Society dies, the widow and orphans he leaves behind enjoy the support, the former until her possible remarriage, or if that does not occur, until her death, the latter until the 14th year. If a widow remarries, the support ceases also for the orphans.

§ 6. The executive committee is each time to announce in the "Lutheraner" when and for whom an assessment becomes necessary, and how much each member has to pay.

§ 7. The same is to see to it that each member pays his assessment at the proper time, and to remind the tardy of their duty.

§ 8. A member who is negligent in the payment of the assessment shall, after he has been repeatedly and in vain admonished by the executive committee, and after previous investigation and renewed fruitless admonition, be excluded from the Society by the Society.

§ 9. When members separate from the Synod, or are excluded from the Synod, or are deservedly deposed from their office, they forfeit their claims upon the Society.

§ 10. As soon as the moneys are gathered together, the executive committee is to send them to the preacher living nearest to the widow or the orphans, who is to pay them out against a receipt to those concerned, which receipt he is also to co-sign and send to the executive committee.

§ 11. The executive committee is to see to it that the money for the orphans is properly administered, for which it is answerable to the Society.

§ 12. The members of the Society are obliged to take charge of the orphans left behind by deceased members of our Society, so that they may not fall into dangerous hands. The committee has the duty of watching over this. Although orphans are provided for, they nevertheless retain their claims to the support named.

§ 13. The executive committee is to render account annually, and in general to give an accounting of its administration.

§ 14. The same is to keep a book in which the members of the Society are recorded, the contributions received must be receipted, and the cases of death that have occurred, the beginning and end of the assessment, etc., are to be entered with all necessary remarks.

§ 15. At the annual meeting the bookkeeping shall be handed over for examination to a committee chosen by the Society.

§ 16. Any expenses are to be refunded to the executive committee by the Society at the close of the term of service.

§ 17. Extraordinary cases the Society is to take under deliberation at its meetings.

§ 18. Each member attests his entry into the Society by subscribing to the statutes.

E. M. Bürger.
A. Ernst.

Luther on the Union with the Papacy and Other Sects.

There are certain jurists who pretend that a means might be found whereby the Pope's decree might be made to rhyme with the Gospel. Yes, try it; let him come in with one such, and you will soon see where you will end up. But they think thus: "Ah, even if one comes to terms with the Pope, still no one shall take the doctrine from us." Yes, I reckon that I too am a Doctor of Holy Scripture, and yet I must pray daily that God preserve me and stand at my right hand. Of these things such jurists have little knowledge, indeed no taste, and if you do not pray and cry to God, He has taken from you the faith and the doctrine of the divine Word. So avoid and flee now those who seek the middle way, and remember me when I am once dead and such mediators arise, that nothing good will come of it. For it will not be mediated; it says thus: "Thou shalt have no other gods"; likewise: "Thou shalt flee idolatry and make thee no idol (image for worship)." Therefore those are not in the right who seek a middle way. From the doctrine no one shall bring me; otherwise I will gladly suffer that the Pope and the bishops remain and take their interest and rents. I ask nothing about that, but that he should bring a canon (church law) into my heart, which I should hold to be right, to that I will not yield a hair's breadth. If anyone said to you: "We have struck a middle course between Christ and the devil; each shall give up something," this middle way I cannot give up, for Christ will not yield a hair's breadth. So the bed too is too narrow; Christ and the devil cannot lie in it together. Just such a thing is it also with the concord or unity of the divine Word and the ordinances of men. It is impossible that they should agree with one another, except that the coarse asses have such sweet dreams and thoughts of such great matters. For they accomplish nothing at all with the Pope thereby, for he will be in the right and Christ shall be in the wrong. There is no agreement between God and Belial, between God's Word and human ordinance, there is also no unity of light with darkness. Therefore reject all mediators as apostates, deniers, and renegade Christians; for they are such people as obscure the doctrine of Christ and seek