# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 02 19_S102
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

102

kept them. Since they, instead of watching over their souls and over their congregations, instead of praying for themselves and for the holy Church (“Watch and pray!” said the LORD), preferred to dispute, the devil deceived them with the jugglery of earthly wisdom,—into great temptation they fell, and in the temptation they themselves fell away from the faith. In England free-thinking arose,—and our Germans, who never keep what they have, but snatch at the forbidden fruits of other nations, took up free-thinking there too, as an angel of light. They did not notice that they were being stripped of all the truth of God; only when they were naked and bare and saw their poverty did they begin, with Eve, to be ashamed. From France many preached, at their head a dissolute prattler by the name of Voltaire (read: Woltär), the wicked manners which we have since come to know in the French. Since our Germans, alas, gladly imitate and ape what is done before them, they have, alas, adopted from the French the wicked, wicked chatter which corrupts good morals—and at their head stood a German king, whom men, for the sake of his wisdom in government and his deeds in war, have called great, yea, even “the Only One.” The wretched Voltaire, it seems, in his dying felt the anguish of the enemies of God and would gladly have accepted comfort from the religion which he had mocked and undermined all his life,——“the Only One” would gladly have given his best battle at his grave, if he could have restored the faith in his land as it had been in his father's time; but—but—the seed was sown and had sprung up luxuriantly with terrors, the dikes were broken, the waters of unbelief overflowed the land, as well as the cities,—and the corruption became general, as the earth was corrupted from the summits of the high mountains down into the deep valleys by the Flood. Pious men, such as there still were some, were not heard at all in the roar of the inundation—and there were few who might escape through the water in the ark of the holy Church.

How far unbelief and its insolence have gone since then, we will lay before our readers once in a few examples! It went as far as, God be praised, it is now no longer believed. —At first unbelief was chiefly among the learned, from whom it spread to all the higher classes; longest it stayed away from villages and hamlets. The burghers and farmers, however, are drinking at present still of the dregs of unbelief; the evil, like the good, stays longest with them. But the dawn will also break, the longer the more, and the LORD, as among the other classes, so also among them, among the burghers and farmers, will have a greater people! For God is a God of all men and has mercy on all His works.

6.

Thou wilt grant me now that the Enlightenment and Rationalism did not overcome the truth in the last century by their age. Thou wilt rather perceive with me every day the more that the truth overcomes the lie. It must be so. For the truth is of the eternal God, but the lie is of the father, the devil, who is not from eternity, but is from a beginning,—and as little as Satan overcomes God, so little can the lie obtain the final victory over the truth. But one thing is strange to thee, how the lie could find such a following—among the pastors and among the others. That can easily be explained by whoever knows God's Word and his own heart a little.

Man is by birth of corrupt heart, has desire and inclination and violence toward evil, but on the other hand has no desire and no strength for good. When now the liar from the beginning draws near and shows him folly in the guise of wisdom, wickedness in the guise of virtue, the poor human heart feels a drawing toward the offers of the wicked one and consents to evil as though it were good. So it went in the last century with the Enlightenment also, especially since God gave over an hour and power to darkness, as a punishment of the wretched world, which long before had rendered Him neither praise nor thanks for His revelations. The way that leads to destruction is always broad and full; in such dark times of judgment, however, it is crowded upon it as if it led to eternal life. The pastors, however, are also men, and judgment came upon them first, since their teachers at the universities, the learned professors, were the first whom Satan blinded. Blind leaders led the blind pupils, bred blind pastors, and these then were, as of old and now also again more and more, God's servants, so at that time the most effective instruments of Satan to seduce men. The whole shepherdless flock—foremost the blind shepherds, that is, the seducers of the congregations, wandered together without light and right, without pillar of fire and of cloud, they looked only to their own way, which they had devised and chosen.

Dear reader! Our time is a time of majority of votes. By majority of votes the things of the earth are resolved and determined, and because the leaders of the multitude hold mankind in its great majority to be inspired, infallible in hitting upon and choosing the best; so they think, if only everything is done by majority of votes, one is also always in progress toward the better. Dare thou to be wiser than that! Ask not how many speak, but who speaks, and still more, what is spoken. Ask everywhere for the best voices—and in matters of religion, there depart wholly from the principle of following the majority, there hearken to God's voice, which is manifest in His Word. God's voice outweighs all voices, and he who follows it fares best, and he has himself the weightiest voice. Mayest thou find it! Thou hast two ears to hear the various pastors, from whose preaching thy faith or unbelief might be born; but thou hast also two eyes to test by the Scripture what thou hast heard. Also God and His Spirit are near to all who seek Him, and those who seek Him early shall find Him soon. He is nearest to those who gladly hear and learn God's Word—and test everything by the Word of God and hold fast that which is best.

May He be near thee, dear reader, and help thee to make the right distinction among the pastors!

He Lacks Not for Means.

If thou art a Christian, be also cheerful and of good courage in all things. For thou knowest then that God means it right faithfully and fatherly with thee, and will surely gladly help thee and give what is good for thee. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” And this also thou shouldst know, that He not only will gladly help thee and give thee all good, but that He is also able to do it most gloriously. Doth He not do whatsoever He will, in heaven, on earth, in the sea and in all deep places (Ps. 135, 5. 6.)! Must not all powers be subject to Him and all creatures serve Him, because He hath created all things, and for His will's sake they are and were created (Rev. 4, 11.)! And so they must also be at thy service, as soon as God will; and the highest as well as the lowest creatures God uses as instruments through which He does good to His children. The angels, these mighty ones (Ps. 103, 20.), let themselves be sent forth as ministering spirits for the service of those who shall be heirs of salvation (Heb. 1, 14.). Did not the angels of the LORD come to Sodom to rescue Lot? (Gen. 19, 1. ff.) Did not the prophet's servant, when his eyes were opened, see the whole mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha, and so perceive that there were many more for him than against him? (2 Kings 6, 16. ff.) Must not Peter exclaim: Now I know of a surety that the LORD hath sent His angel and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews! (Acts 12, 11.) But not only of old did the angel of the LORD encamp round about them that fear Him, and deliver them (Ps. 34, 8.); also at the present day the God-fearing may take comfort in the protection of the holy angels. A village magistrate once went home alone of an evening from the county town after an errand of business. Near a field of grain a great fear suddenly fell upon him. But as a man who well knew whither he was to turn with all his cares and concerns, he began to pray fervently and continued also with supplication, until he was at home, where the fear again