# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 03 19_S118
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118

(Communicated.)
The Indianapolis Synod.

Indianapolis, February 1, 1850.

A few days ago I happened to receive the Proceedings of the Synod of Indianapolis, and read in the annual report of the President of the Synod: 1) that he had refused me "for reasons" an honorable dismissal from the Synod, and 2) that the Conference (Pastors Isensee and Hartmann) had investigated whether the committee which reported on my letter had reported rightly or not. It is further stated that everything was taken down in the minutes and confirmed by the signatures of the officers, etc. The committee reporting on this subject finds, through the above-mentioned minutes, the correct and faithful reporting of the first-named committee confirmed; namely, that I, until five weeks before the session of the Synod of Indianapolis in 1848, served a mixed congregation, which I did not give up according to my conviction, but which dismissed me because it no longer needed my services. Naturally the committee is recognized and declared to be justified, and with that Kunz is condemned. How could it be otherwise, since at least one committee member who accused me in 1848 is again this time (1849) a member of the committee which had to report upon the minutes, which agree with its own report!

After I had read the Proceedings, I went to Mr. Isensee and told him that he had refused me my dismissal upon my application for it, for the simple reason: "the above-mentioned matter is still pending for investigation and decision"; and I asked him what other motives he had otherwise had and had kept silent about. He replied that this was the chief reason, and gave no others besides. But in that he writes that he refused me the dismissal "for reasons," he wraps the simple matter in such obscurity that no man who reads it can know how many and how weighty "reasons" moved the President to refuse me the dismissal. And so I see myself obliged to dispel the obscurity by the light of truth. As to the second point, I was able to show him, as concerns the correctness of the oft-mentioned report of the committee, that its report, as also the minutes taken by him, which attest and confirm its correctness, contain untruth. For in the first place Mr. Secretary, Pastor Hunger, writes: "that the committee in its report suppressed the main content of my letter"; consequently the reporting cannot be "correct and faithful," as the proceedings of last year of the said Synod say. In the second place, I learned from Mr. Isensee that the committee referred to the few families who live near Cicero Town and whom I visited a few times. If I am not mistaken, there were four families who formally separated from the congregation and requested me to serve them with the Word and Sacrament. Two of the families belong to the Lutheran and two to the Reformed Church. I laid before them a draft of a Lutheran congregational constitution for acceptance and signature, which they did not do at once, upon which, however, I did not precisely press, since these are matters of conscience which should be conscientiously weighed, that one may not do or leave undone this or that to please a man, but act from conviction of the truth. In the meantime the time came that some children and adults, who had learned at least the five chief parts of Luther's Small Catechism with the explanation, were confirmed, to whom, however, for easily understood reasons (the people live thirty miles from here) only meager instruction could be given, and on this occasion I also gave the holy Sacrament to the two Reformed families. I ought indeed not to have done this until they had recognized and expressly rejected the errors of the Reformed Church and had confessed the pure, whole truth. In this I recognize and confess that I erred, in that on uncertain hope I did what I should have done only after attained certainty.

In my view, however, such people are not yet to be regarded as a congregation, and still less as a mixed congregation, for they had not yet constituted themselves as such, and had not yet rejected a proposal to organize themselves into a purely Lutheran congregation, but had in part made such utterances as gave hope of better things.

But even supposing that they could be regarded as a congregation, as a mixed congregation, the report of the committee, and consequently the minutes taken by the President, which confirm the truth of the former, nevertheless contained untruth; for these people did not dismiss me, as the reporters say, but after the congregation on the Cicero had called a preacher, I said to the people: by my coming further we would not give the appearance as though we put distrust in the man, but I would remain behind, and they might attend the divine service, pay contributions, etc., yet without at once joining the congregation again as members. And so I remained behind.

Thus I would have set forth the matter simply, and leave it wholly to you whether and how much you think good to publish.*)

etc. etc.

J. G. Kunz.

*) We have communicated the letter in full.
The Editor.

Luther on Drunkenness.

(See Exposition of the Prophet Joel [Chapter 1, 5-7.] Works. Halle ed., Old Testament, Vol. VI, pp. 2183-89.)

If one will follow the judgment of the world, what it thinks of it, it is regarded as a poor, trifling thing that one takes a little too much drink, gets a drunkenness upon him, and becomes drunk. And if you yourself were to be judge, you would certainly, according to your own opinion, say thus: that a miser, a usurer, and one who cheats other people, takes advantage of them and defrauds them, sins more and does more wrong than he who gladly carouses and, as they now say, has a tipsiness and gets merry. For drunkenness is held altogether for a private and trifling sin, if it is held for sin at all. For although it otherwise brings its own filth and penalty with it, yet, because these concern only the private person of each, they are esteemed trifling and slight. Therefore it is not only held to be no disgrace, but almost everyone busies himself with it, as a fairly permitted gladness and diversion, whereby care and anxiety, toil and labor are forgotten. Thus the world judges and decides.

But if we will consider and regard it aright, we must confess and say that drunkenness and gluttony is one of the very greatest sins, as one that draws and brings along with it many other countless sins. As indeed the heathen also saw and recognized not only the disgrace but also the great harm which this vice brings. Therefore many fine, honorable sayings are found in their books, in which sobriety and temperance are highly praised and extolled, but drunkenness and revelry are condemned as the most harmful pestilence and plague. For since the wild, unreasoning beasts drink no more than as much as they can and their nature requires, and would sooner let themselves be beaten to death than drink more than they desire; is it not then a shame that a man, who has been so richly endowed by God above others with reason and understanding, so that often one who governs a whole land, principality, etc. by his skill and understanding, should not be able to keep measure in this, and, as it were, bring himself to his death?

To go publicly naked and bare before honorable people, to wallow in the mire, to leap over tables and benches, is not human but bestial; yet no less do they act against nature who burden themselves with excessive drinking and swilling. For thereby they lose that which is given to man alone above all other creatures, namely reason and understanding, and become altogether wild and unreasoning beasts. For all the thoughts, words, gestures and works of drunkards are wild and disorderly. When they are angered, their wrath is not like that of a man, but like that of a cruel beast, which cannot be pacified or stilled. But if they are merry (for as people have manifold natures and dispositions, so wine stirs up and produces in the heart also manifold thoughts and ways), help, God, what strange juggling tricks they perform! how foul, swinish, wild and unchaste they are! they dare without