# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 07 23_S190
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

190

God's, for the sake of her pure Word and Sacrament.

This Church is for me first of all indeed an object of faith, because she lives a life hid with Christ in God, to which her manifest life on earth can never wholly be equal or correspond: but she appears in the dispensing of the means of grace; therefore, where she appears in pure Word and Sacrament, she may also be an object of our love; whoever loves Christ must love her also, for she is the mother of us all.

3. My Mission. Therefore, as I love the Evangelical Lutheran Church as the true manifestation of the Church of God, that is, prefer her, so I love and carry on the Evangelical Lutheran mission. As it is not a matter of indifference what faith thou hast, whether Roman, whether Anabaptist, whether Reformed, whether Unionist or of mixed faith, whether Evangelical Lutheran; as it is not a matter of indifference to which church thou belongest, whether the Roman, the Reformed or the Evangelical Lutheran: just so little is it a matter of indifference which mission I carry on. Must not hand, foot and tongue be like the heart, like the faith? As he believes, so speaks and acts the Evangelical Lutheran Christian, be he layman or pastor; and thereby he "disturbs" only the secret or open opponents of the Lutheran Church and of her full Confession.*)

*) Thereby he does not "disturb," as many charge the Lutherans, the work of God, but the work of men. Ed.

Why should we not love the consequences of the truths acknowledged by us? Mixing of churches has indeed already proved itself a sin to many: the spirit of mixture, of indecision and ambiguity, withdraws only step by step; it seeks, in the name of a love which goes along without the full truth, all the more to insist upon a mixing of Christian works. Whoever now shuts the opened eye is only too much inclined, on the fair field of Christian charity, in inner and outer mission, to deny the Confession which we, according to the Evangelical Lutheran Catechism (Chief Parts), nevertheless teach again. Against the union of works, as it is carried on by certain mission houses, sincerely Evang. Luth. brethren in the faith must testify in the most decided manner. If there burns on the altar of the heart or of the church the lamp of pure Word and Sacrament, then the work also must testify to it, else mouth and hand and foot are not in agreement with the altar, and one does not walk as a child of light, as the Apostle requires. Away with it! from this unevangelical and unlutheran mixing of missions and works. Away with it, from this league of works. Whoever prefers the Evang. Luth. Church must also will the Evang. Luth. mission as truth, and keep himself far removed from every fine or coarse seduction ruinous to the Church.

R.  F. H.

Against the Pride of the Servants of the Church.

The heights in the spiritual and in the bodily sense have often been dangerous to the Church and her servants. St. Paul speaks in the former respect a word of warning — oh, that it might find an echo in the heart of all preachers and proclaimers of Christ, especially those gifted —: "lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations" (2 Cor. 12, 7.). Ah, how many have since been led astray in this manner, have not taken the gifts according to the measure of faith (namely of that faith which the LORD has written with His blood), but according to the measure of their heart's conceit! They became in themselves proud, puffed up and empty, pretended to high revelations which they had not, and fell from obedience to the Word of JESUS and of the Church down into the filthy puddles of heresy and of all error and sinful living. Like clouds that go on high, but give no rain, they passed by unfruitful in spite of all gifts, often also sweeping the congregation along to destruction. How many a frightful example on this side or that has not our time, in a beginning new birth of Christian life, already to show! And if we descend from this to a lower region, where the world asserts itself without fear, yet still always takes on a spiritual coloring — how can it be mistaken that already from the end of the third century on, when the age of the martyrs had scarcely run out, the Church acquired many stains through the ambitious strife among the clergy over higher rank and dignities, over bishoprics, archbishoprics, patriarchates, etc., so that all the strength of the Christian spirit in the individual true prayers and fighters and witnesses was needed to stay the deep fall for a time? What is the deep sigh of Christendom for over a thousand years but this, that this ungodly self-exaltation set up its seat in Rome, in the very congregation which by its independence, its unshakable fidelity, its flourishing life of faith in the first times was with right so famous; that the usurped vicar of Christ climbed the dizzy height and from there, more than from a throne of the world, tyrannized over consciences! Of the examples in more recent times we may fairly be spared: everyone knows and laments how many who, as shepherds, ought to be humble followers of JESUS, behave as lords over the faith of the congregation instead of as fellow partakers in their joy in the common faith; everyone knows that that over which the Protestant Church sighs most loudly is the splintered popery within her, whereby many a little village schoolmaster fits himself into Luther's shoes, and many a city and country pastor makes himself a small model of the papal crown, at which he rails like a reed sparrow.

(From Rudelbach's Kirchenspiegel, p. 246.)

From a Correspondence.

Bad Homburg near Frankfurt a. M., the 19th of March 1850.

— — That a new life has awakened in many parts of Germany and the old love for the Lutheran Church has been revived will not be unknown to you, but also in our region, in Hesse, Nassau, Baden, where spiritual death has reigned so long and so terribly, there is a mighty stirring, especially in my Nassau neighborhood, where things looked probably the worst, the believers are increasing and with them at the same time the withdrawals from the Union state church, truly wonderfully! Pastor Brunn works with great blessing as a separated Lutheran pastor in this land, and if the LORD continues to be with the preaching of the Word as hitherto, the state church must collapse in a short time, because no truly believing Christian will any longer be found in it. It is similar with the other state churches which have carried through the Union, or are administered by a bureaucracy without confession and therefore hostile to the confession. Yet heavy tribulations and trials will still come upon us before the walls of Zion shall be built again, and do you also help us pray to our High Priest and King that He give us courage and strength to endure them! — —

Karl Meyer,
Pastoral vicar at the Lutheran city church at Homburg.

Why Art Thou Sad?

A pious and God-fearing man knew that one of his intimate friends was greatly troubled for lack of provisions. He therefore visited him, put on a sad air and said: I do not know what we shall finally do and where we shall get water for brewing and other necessities? How so? replied the troubled one, are you then anxious about water? Certainly, said the first, for I see that it is carried up not only in buckets from the Elbe, but is also hauled up in great casks, which four strong horses have to draw; where is all the water finally to come from? The other smiled and answered: I do not know what to think, that you have such strange thoughts; the Elbe has hitherto had water enough, not only for our city, but for so many other cities, market towns and villages, past which it flows; it will also have enough in the future.

Well, said the first, I grant you are right, I confess that I have made myself unnecessary worry; but whereby will you prove that your cares are better than mine? You care how you may further support yourself and your family honestly and get through, and because you notice a decline in your living, you think you have cause to be troubled and grieved on that account. But who has until now for so many years, yea, who has your parents and grandparents