# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 05 28_S157
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

157

under the Pope in the Welsh lands, where not only the elevation, or a part of the Mass, differs from the other churches, but the whole Mass is unlike, especially in that it has not the little canon, and in all things keeps a manner of its own in the Mass, so that in the year 1510, when I passed through there, I could not hold Mass in any place, and the priests told us: Nos sumus Ambrosiani, non poteritis hic celebrare.*) And what need of many words? There is no church on earth in which there is so much diversity and variety in the divine service, and in the church, as in the Roman Church. This is shown not only by experience, but also by the books of the canon law, which would be far fewer if more uniformity had remained in the Roman Church. But it has profited the Pope that much or everything should proceed unequally, if only they were alike in this, that they held him to be the head of all Christendom.

*) We belong to the Ambrosians; you cannot hold Mass here.

Hence the saying that went among them: Si fueris Romae, romano viuito more, that is, when you are at Rome, live after the Roman fashion. So I may also say here: When you come to a place where the elevation is still observed, you shall not be offended, nor condemn them; but let it please you, since it is done without sin and without danger to the conscience: perhaps they cannot yet change it. Yet it is nevertheless finer and better that all churches should agree in this matter. And since the elevation is not commanded and is unnecessary, being without God's command and having come from human devotion, it is more fitting that one should agree with the churches that have no elevation than, on the other hand, with those that have it. For St. Paul faithfully teaches us everywhere that we should be diligent to teach and to live alike and in concord, and should guard against disunion or inequality where we can, Rom. 12:16: Be of the same mind one toward another; 1 Cor. 1:10: Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you.

But where this cannot be, let the 14th chapter of Romans, verse 1 and following, prevail: Perplex not the consciences. One believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. May our dear Lord Jesus Christ help us all, with God the Father and the Holy Ghost, praised for ever, Amen. Anno 1544.

Extract from the Minutes of the Quarterly Conference of the Conference District of Fort Wayne, held on the 9th and 10th of January 1850 at Fort Wayne.

Present were:

1. Pastor Dr. Sihler, 2. Professor Biewend, 3. Pastor Claus, 4. Pastor Jäbker, 5. Pastor Streckfuß, 6. Pastor Schuster, 7. Pastor Heid, 8. Pastor Stürken, 9. Pastor Bernreuther, 10. Pastor Fritze, 11. Pastor Nützel, 12. Pastor Stecher, later also Pastor Husmann.

The Conference first directed its attention to the sad fact that during this synodical year, in several congregations, some belonging to the Synod and some served by advisory members of it, malicious resistance to churchly discipline and order had come forth so decidedly that in some places they had thrust the holy ministry itself from them. In other congregations there had been divisions; in still others, as was learned, there was already ferment, and in yet others a like commotion was impending. In none of these congregations had the pastor forced anything upon his parishioners by violence; in none had he failed in patient teaching and admonishing with regard to the points concerned. These were: partly the obstinate resistance to the churchly discipline prescribed by God in His Word in general (especially when the people had formerly had a hireling from the etc. etc. Synod, who for so and so much money yearly had preached to them so and so often, baptized their children, confirmed them, and administered the holy Supper to them without closer inquiry, and so forth), partly the opposition to individual parts of a sound and confessional order, such as, for example, the announcement of individuals for confession before the reception of the holy Supper, the turning away of Reformed or Union people from the holy Supper, in so far as, after sufficient instruction in the pure doctrine of the Lutheran Church, they refused to disapprove their former doctrine as false and to go out of their church fellowship and enter the Lutheran Church; further, against the rejection of all temporary hiring and bargaining for the assumption of the holy ministry; against the sending of their children to the congregational school, and others besides.

As the chief causes of these sad facts the following appeared to the Conference:

1. the dreadful decay of church discipline in Germany and the exceedingly great wildness in which so many people, settled here only a short time, have left their fatherland;

2. the fleshly delusion of freedom connected with it, in that these same people, here in the "free land," where the worldly government does not concern itself at all with church affairs, seek to carry through their senseless and stubborn mind against all better instruction and will suffer no wholesome churchly order;

3. the fleshly Americanizing in the older settlements. Here, namely, the people on the whole want no pastors of souls and fathers in Christ, but only preachers, baptizers, dispensers of the sacrament, confirmers, marriers and funeral orators, whom they have "hired" yearly for so and so much. And in this shameful view of the holy ministry and of the call to it, the German Lutheran Americans who have immigrated here into the West from Pennsylvania or Ohio especially distinguish themselves;

4. the delusion and juggling-trick, so widely spread in Germany and America, of the present Union between Lutherans and Reformed, contrary to Scripture and church, namely the notion that this Union is something good, together with the local circumstances, where for the most part Lutherans and Reformed live mingled together, makes it, especially in smaller settlements, very understandable that it is extremely distasteful to fleshly minded Lutherans to do without the help of the Reformed, for example, in the building of the church and in the maintenance of the preacher.

To this is added that mixed marriages exist, and that they also continue to intermarry with one another;

5. the influence of individual blockheads, proud in their stupidity and clever in their stupidity, perhaps also well-to-do and respected, chatterers in the congregations, who by their loose prattle and their specious reasons carry along with them the simple and the ignorant.

In view of these circumstances it now appeared to the Conference important to lay before the Synod, as a subject of its deliberations at the next synodical assembly, whether it is still sufficient, on assuming the holy ministry in this and that settlement, to guard oneself confessionally in a general way, or whether, according to the circumstances now arisen, it is not preferable to set the calling and especially the smaller congregations definite conditions from the outset, under which alone a call from them could be accepted.

Naturally, sufficient instruction concerning their necessity would have to precede.

These conditions would chiefly be the following:

1. that the congregation confess along with it the confession of the Lutheran Church at least in the Augsburg Confession and in Luther's Small Catechism;

2. that accordingly the preacher serve only a purely Lutheran congregation and no mixed one, as such;

3. that members of the Reformed or Union church could receive the holy Supper from him only if, after previous instruction, they acknowledge the doctrine of the Lutheran Church, in particular also concerning the holy Supper, as alone agreeable to Scripture, disapprove their former church fellowship as contrary to Scripture, and finally grant the logical result of both, namely, that they by the