# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1844 09 01_S1
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Lutheran.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall never pass away."

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 1.

St. Louis, Mo., September 1, 1844.

No. 1.

Terms: The Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, for the subscription price of One Dollar twenty-five Cents for out-of-town subscribers, who must pay half of this in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis, each single number is sold for 6¼ Cents.

Preliminary remarks on the cause, purpose, and content of the paper.

The German population of the West of America is evidently growing larger with every day. With it, the number of those who profess the faith that Luther once preached to the Germans is likewise growing here. Yet the members of no other church body stand here as orphaned as those of the Evangelical Lutheran church. However many there may be here who still call themselves Lutherans, they nevertheless live so scattered, and are for the most part so entirely destitute of all means, that in many places they are scarcely able to enter into a congregational association and engage a preacher of their confession to serve them. The German Lutherans are therefore here under no small temptation to abandon the faith of their fathers; either to ask nothing at all after church, worship, and the like, or to seek the satisfaction of their religious needs in other communities existing here. Our dear brethren in the faith in this part of our new fatherland therefore indeed need encouragement to remain faithful to their belief; they need warning against the dangers of falling away, so many of which threaten them here; they need weapons to defend themselves against those who dispute that the faith which they learned from youth up out of their catechism is the right one; they need the comfort that the church to which they confess has not yet disappeared, and that they therefore have by no means cause to seek refuge with any other community.

This need, certainly felt by many, together with the conviction that it is our duty to give an account to our fellow citizens here of what is believed and taught in our church, and according to what principles we accordingly act — this has moved the undersigned, in conjunction with several of his brethren in office and in the faith in Missouri and Illinois, to publish a paper under the above title. It is meant, namely, to serve the following purposes: 1. to make known the doctrine, the treasures, and the history of the Lutheran church; 2. to furnish the proof that this church does not stand in the ranks of the Christian sects, and is not a new church but the old, true Church of Jesus Christ on earth, and that it has therefore by no means died out — indeed, cannot die out — according to Christ's promise: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Our paper shall further serve, 3. to show how a person, as a true Lutheran, may rightly believe, live in a Christian manner, suffer patiently, and die in blessedness; and finally, 4. to expose and refute the false, seductive teachings currently in vogue, and to warn against them, and in particular to unmask those who falsely call themselves Lutheran, who spread heresy, unbelief, and fanaticism under this name, and who thereby arouse the worst prejudices against our church among the members of other parties.

Perhaps not a few, upon reading this, will either deny us the ability to reach the goal we have set for ourselves, or will fear that our paper will breathe a spirit of intolerance, and thus sustain and nourish hatred among those of differing beliefs. To the first concern we have only this to answer: we ourselves recognize, certainly more keenly than anyone, how much we lack to fulfill the calling of editor of a Christian newspaper in its full scope; but we know that in divine matters it is not great learning and eloquence that make one useful to one's brethren, but rather a right, living knowledge of the truth that brings salvation, and a simple testimony to it. Moreover, it is our intention, in this paper, to let the most gifted teachers of our church, especially Luther himself, speak for themselves, and we believe that these gifts alone, offered together with the paper, will make it so substantial that the reader may accept our own contribution at least as a modest addition. As for the second concern, it will certainly soon be removed, once readers have examined only a few issues with attention and without prejudice. We ourselves were for a considerable time held captive by various errors, and God had patience with us and, with great long-suffering, guided us onto the path of truth; mindful of this, we too will therefore show patience toward our erring neighbors, and, by God's grace, refrain from all sinful judging and condemning. We will attack not so much the erring person as, rather, his error. Nor will we conduct ourselves as those who wish to be the only pure Lutherans and to possess the truth alone, but will only bear witness that God has done great things for us as well, and has brought us to a living knowledge of the only truth that brings salvation.

St. Louis, Mo., in August 1844.

C. F. W. Walther,
Pastor of the German Evangelical-Lutheran congregation of the unaltered Augsburg Confession here.

Testimonies of Luther:
What the chief article of Christian doctrine is.

In his glorious exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians, he writes: "In my heart there reigns alone, and alone shall reign, this one article, namely, faith in my dear Lord Christ, which is the sole beginning, middle, and end of all my spiritual and divine thoughts, which I may have forever, day and night. And although I have made very many words about it, I nevertheless feel that of the height, depth, and breadth of this immeasurable, incomprehensible, and infinite wisdom I have scarcely, and indeed but meagerly, attained even a small, feeble beginning, and have been able to bring to light hardly a few little pieces and crumbs out of this most precious treasure-mine. — This article is the one firm rock and the eternal, abiding foundation of all our salvation and blessedness: namely, that we are redeemed from sin, death, and the devil, and brought to eternal life, not by ourselves, still less by our own works and doing (which indeed are far smaller and less than we ourselves), but by help from another — namely, that we are redeemed through the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ."

Furthermore, Luther writes in his preface to Brentius's exposition of the prophet Amos: "Such a gift of God, which is present especially in you above others, I hold particularly dear: that you so faithfully

1