# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 04 02_S124
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

124

crown him eternally. Here he must sing with the 109th Psalm, v. 28: Let them curse, but bless thou. Only that we take heed, and despise not the authority, but humbly set forth our innocence; where that avails not, we are quit and excused before God. For if we are bound, according to the command of Christ, Matth. 5, 25., to agree with our adversary, how much more ought we to comply with the authority of the Christian Church, though it come upon us with right or wrong, through worthy or unworthy rulers. Even as a pious child, though it be punished by its mother undeservedly, is not harmed by the unjust rod, yea, through such patience of his it becomes much dearer and more acceptable to the mother; how much more shall we become dear before God, if we suffer undeserved punishment from our spiritual mother, the Church, through evil rulers. For she remains mother, so long as Christ remains, and changes not into a stepmother on account of evil rulers.*) (Sermon on the Power of the Ban, of the year 1518. XIX., 1117. 18.)

*) Luther speaks here, of course, of an unjust ban imposed by a congregation of right belief; for if the false church does so in defense of its false doctrine, then she may no longer be acknowledged as mother.

An Example of a Ban Threatened by Luther.

25. A citizen at W. had bought a house for thirty gulden, and when he had had it a long time in possession and use, and had built nothing special into it, save that he had four rooms daubed with loam and whitewashed, he then wished to sell it again for 400 gulden; he reckoned up those four rooms and made the calculation that, if they were rented, one might take twenty gulden from them. Then Dr. Martinus said: Will the fool reckon a rotten beam and a daubed mud wall equal to landed estates? If he will deal so, I will put him under the ban and excommunicate him, that he abstain and keep away from the sacraments and from Christendom. And let him not think that he belongs in heaven. It would be more than enough if he sold it for a hundred and fifty gulden. We must set up excommunication again. (Tischreden Lutheri. XXII., 955.)

The Invisible Ban.

26. But just as this outward and visible excommunication and ban concerns only those, and is to be used only against those, who live in open sins and are convicted and convinced of the same, so there is yet another secret and invisible ban, which is not of men, nor done by men, that one could see it, but is God's own and is done by Him alone. For God judges not only according to works, as we men do, but looks upon the heart and judges the hypocrites, whom the Church can neither judge nor punish, according to the common saying: De occultis non judicat ecclesia: the Church judges not what is secret and hidden. But not all are so greatly besmirched with open offences that one could rightly charge and accuse them publicly of any ill-treatment or misdeed. For although there are many misers, fornicators, adulterers, etc., yet they go so cautiously about it, and do it so secretly, that one cannot well bring it home to them nor prove it, as is proper. Therefore they are with us in the Church, among the Christian congregation, hear preaching and God's Word, use also with the other upright Christians the sacraments, and are yet de facto (in deed) banned by God, because they live in sins against their conscience and amend not, according to the saying of St. Paul, 1 Cor. 6, 9. 10.: "Fornicators, drunkards and adulterers, etc., shall not inherit the kingdom of God." But God's judgment will not forever and ever tarry, nor be far from them, that it should not overtake them. Men indeed they deceive, but God they cannot deceive. Gal. 6, 7. The same shall indeed, at the last day, send forth His angels to gather all offences and cast them into the furnace of fire. Matth. 13, 41. Whoever, then, would be rid and free of this secret ban, let him beware of sins and do repentance, that is, amend his life from the heart, live ever in the fear of God, pray diligently and believe that his sins are remitted and forgiven him for Christ's sake of grace. This is the only way by which one can escape this secret ban of God. But if you go on in sins, and will rejoice in this as a privilege and liberty, take comfort and shelter in it, that you may sin with others the more securely and freely, you will do nothing else than deceive yourself, and provoke and bring upon yourself a harder and sterner judgment. For although the outward ban, as regards the end and the effect or operation, is equal to the secret and hidden ban (for God holds to it in heaven and confirms it), yet the outward and public ban ought to be so much the dearer to us, because it is as a medicine, whereby we are called to repentance. But the secret and hidden ban, because for a while, and (as men say) for a respite of the gallows, it is not felt, strengthens and increases security. (XXII., 967—69.)

(Communicated.)

To My Pennsylvania Cousin.

Dear Christian!

For some time past the "Jugendfreund" has been sent to me, a paper which is published by S. K. Brobst in Allentown, Pennsylvania. You write me that the same is held in Pennsylvania to be something quite excellent and is also very highly praised by the learned men there. That may well be. As I see, it even overflows continually with its own praise. Thus in Volume 3, No. 6, it lets an Evangelical Lutheran preacher say of it: "You are in age still a child, but already strong as a man, you tell everyone the truth so boldly to his face. Yea, I cannot often, when I read you, refrain from shaking my head for joy and smiling, and must often involuntarily say: 'it is nevertheless good!' for you hold forth to me, and I hope also to all who read you, often such excellent sermons, and say it after the old German courage of witness without the new fashion so unreservedly, and in so popular a language, that almost every child can understand you," etc. In Vol. 1, No. 8, Mr. Brobst himself also explains why he in particular is qualified to furnish so precious a paper: "Here in Allentown we breathe pure air, enjoy healthy fruit, eat good meat and bread, drink fresh water, read often in the Bible and go diligently to church; therefore it seems to us that the newspaper writers and newspaper printers in Allentown could furnish just as good a paper as in the large cities." The Allentown fruit will soon become famous. He who formerly wished to become a capable newspaper writer needed longer studies, in order to acquire the necessary knowledge. That, according to Mr. Brobst, is now no longer necessary. He need only procure a few bushels of healthy Allentown baking pears, and he can already write a good paper.

You honest soul think that the "Jugendfreund" must be a Christian paper, as you could already conclude from the title, for upon it stands a little picture, a book with the inscription: "Holy Bible," and beneath it the words of our Savior: "Feed my lambs." But you know, dear Christian, that all is not gold that glitters, and with bacon one catches mice. The "Jugendfreund" uses this pious signboard and the beautiful words of the LORD to allure and deceive simple people. If you ask me for my judgment on the "Jugendfreund," I confess to you that the "Jugendfreund" may be what it will, but a Christian paper it is not. That I can, alas, prove to you only too plainly. Were the "Jugendfreund" only pure in moral respects, I would gladly have patience with its other numerous defects, such as its faults of language. Vol. 3, No. 7, it says: Sie war immer so gut zu mir, instead of: gegen mich; further: Unter den Indianern hat es auch Odd Fellows, instead of: gibt es. At times quite un-German things also occur, for example, it says in Vol. 3, No. 6, in a hymn:

Da Joseph sein' Brüder ansah
In Hungersnoth stehen allhier;
Sein Herz mit Erbarmen war da:
Er fühlte, er weinte für sie, u. s. w.

Since Mr. Brobst evidently wishes to belong to the educated, he ought to take pains in his "Jugendfreund" to use the purest German language and to abstain carefully from all merely Pennsylvania expressions, as well as from all Anglicisms. —

Surely you will grant a poet all freedom in expression, but this is yet not to be understood as though a poet had the right to