# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 07 26_S94
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

college with a fixed salary. The other congregations in Perry County for the most part joined in this call, and granted the aforementioned Rector Gönner, who arrived here in Altenburg in September 1843, besides lodging, further fixed contributions in produce, labor, and wood. The congregation at Altenburg had also already before this taken on, jointly with me, the boarding and care of two pupils; four of these are natives of this place, two from St. Louis live with Rector Gönner.

The number of our pupils is at present eight, of whom three older ones (from 16 to 20 years) make up the first class, and five younger ones (from 11 to 14 years) the second class, the latter again being divided into two sections in some subjects.

According to a school plan jointly drawn up by us, the teachers of the institution, our present lessons, in which we have divided the work among ourselves, are briefly as follows:

Rector Gönner, who has principal charge of the study of languages, with particular regard to theology, reads with the first class the Holy Scripture in the two original languages; in Greek he further reads especially Xenophon and Plutarch, and in Latin, after Julius Caesar, now chiefly Cicero, in the course of which the Greek and Latin poets, especially Homer and Virgil, are also not neglected. In addition, he also gives instruction in the English language. —

Pastor Keyl, after having in the previous year completed with the first class a course in church history according to Rechenberg's Latin compendium, together with an exposition of the original text of the Epistle to the Romans and the First Epistle of St. Peter, now lectures to the same class on symbolic theology according to Rechenberg's Theologia Symbolica, and gives guidance in making written excerpts from Luther's principal writings. —

The undersigned at present continues with the first class the lectures on Christian doctrine according to Leonhard Hutter's Compendium Locorum Theologicorum, and the practical exposition of the Psalms and the Harmony of the Four Gospels, in which the second class also takes part. In addition, he gives guidance in German compositions, which he then corrects, and gives instruction in catechetics, in an introduction to psychology and logic, in French, and in mathematics. —

With the second class, Rector Gönner conducts, in Latin, Greek, and English, the preparatory lessons for the studies of the first class. The undersigned, besides the Bible hours already mentioned, reviews the Lutheran Catechism with the second class, drills them in German compositions, in narration and recitation, gives instruction in geography, history, arithmetic, and geometry, and has them draw from copy sheets.

94

Schoolteacher Winter gives both classes instruction in singing and on the piano. We can say of all our pupils together that in their conduct they willingly let themselves be guided by discipline and admonition from God's Word, and also that all of them, though in varying degrees, possess an aptitude for study and have up to now applied so much diligence that the labor spent on them has by no means been in vain. But we also know how much remains to be done with them, and how, in particular, the older ones must now soon be led ever closer, through practical exercises, to their future calling.

In this connection, if it were otherwise fitting and the space of these pages allowed it, we would gladly speak further on various pedagogical matters, in which good counsel would be welcome to us. For it is indeed no easy thing for us to find a first course of study suited to American conditions, by which we might, so far as our weak powers reach and our other official duties allow, gladly bring our young people to the right middle course between as thorough a scholarly education as possible and a practical competence for life, for service to the congregation — in both church and school.

Whoever can lighten for us, by counsel and by deed, these and other cares of ours as teachers, which often weigh heavily upon us amid all sorts of other burdens of our calling; whoever knows how to judge what might yet be advised to us in order to prepare the pupils entrusted to us even better and more suitably for their future, important calling — provided, however, that such advice is also suited to our powers and circumstances and is genuinely practicable amid all sorts of difficult conditions — let such a one, if the honor of Christ and the flourishing of these nurseries of the church lie upon his heart, take the matter earnestly to heart for consideration and participation.

But all who know and confess that the name of God can only be hallowed, and a godly and pious life be lived, where "the Word of God is taught purely and clearly"; all who ask God from the heart that his kingdom may come, through the true faith which is to be wrought by the preaching of the gospel through the Holy Spirit, to us and to those now living with us as well as to those born after us — all who know, confess, and help earnestly to pray for this with us, let them also diligently remember, in their Our Father, this nursery of ours for the training of future teachers and preachers: that God would graciously prosper the work of our hands, grant us teachers wisdom, strength, faithfulness, and patience, and let the young plants flourish and bloom to his praise! —

Trusting confidently in this intercession from all honest fellow believers of our faith, we have also rejoiced that not only has the congregation of Pastor Walther in St. Louis already several times supplied our school's needs and shown itself generous also toward encouraging the diligence of our pupils, but that the congregation of Pastor Brohm in New York has, as we hear, likewise remitted for the benefit of our college a considerable contribution collected from among its members. — May God bless these congregations for this, and awaken ever more, in other congregations of our confession as well, a Christian zeal and proper diligence, that "saints may be equipped for the work of ministry, and the body of Christ be built up." Eph. 4, 12. In this connection we could indeed mention still more that would be very desirable for the support of the teachers and pupils at our institution; we could also well call to mind the encouraging example of our pious forefathers, who once, in our old fatherland, made so many endowments for the founding and maintenance of churches and schools, established numerous stipends for poor students, and in many other ways gave evidence of their zeal for the cause of Christ and his Church; but for this time, in closing, we wish only to draw attention to one further point, which the late Luther, in several places in his writings, but quite especially in the sermon of the year 1530, "An Exhortation that Children Be Kept at School," impresses so urgently and forcefully upon the hearts of his dear Germans. In this sermon he shows, namely, the high duty and obligation of Christian parents, when God has given them boys capable of study, gladly and willingly to devote them also to the service of God and his Church, so that they be trained and raised up to become teachers and preachers, or lawyers and physicians and the like. We would gladly copy out this entire sermon for our American countrymen and fellow believers, and recommend it to everyone who can obtain and read it. But the main substance of it may be found by anyone in the words of Luther's preface to his Small Catechism, which read as follows: "In particular, let the authorities and parents also insist there that they govern well and bring up children for school, showing them how they are obligated to do this, and what an accursed sin they commit where they fail to do it. For thereby they overthrow and lay waste both the kingdom of God and of the world, as the worst enemies both of God and of mankind. And be sure to point out plainly what horrible harm they do where they fail to help raise up children to become pastors, preachers, clerks, and the like, so that God will terribly punish them for it; for there is here a dire need to preach," and so forth. — The famous Professor Schubert of Munich tells of his late father, who was town preacher at Hohenstein in Saxony, how he came to study through the above words of Luther. Professor Schubert's grandparents, namely, had an only son, who was supposed one day to assist them in their ribbon trade. But the boy always loved to be among his books, and read and learned