# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 10 13_S16
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Rationalism, the truths "grounded in rational human nature" concerning the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and blessedness — which comes not from faith but from works. (pp. 7, 10ff., 14 below, and 16.) "To him these are the loftiest thoughts of comfort and hope." But who in all the world may presume to determine for himself what is essential in worship and in religion? What, indeed, is the standard by which one might sort out this essential core, when everyone can shape a form of worship according to his own good pleasure? Is not natural religion, too, a breakable chain of truths, into whose last link revealed religion of necessity fits, as we have shown above? Is blessedness certain for sinful man on the basis of imperfect, defiled works? Indeed, did not even the Rationalist first kindle his own weak, dim light concerning God and eternity at the bright sun of revelation, which scattered the thick fog of heathenism among his forefathers? So deep is the corruption of man that he cannot even discover natural theology, the natural truths of reason, in their purity. — What, are those truths supposed to constitute the essential content of the teaching of Jesus Christ? Are they supposed to be thoughts of comfort and hope? Then Jesus the Christ would be no Savior to us, no Redeemer, no one who saves us from our sinful misery. To seal truths of natural religion required no shedding of blood and no bitter agony of death of the Holy One; every man finds them in his own breast. To what purpose, then, the terribly toilsome struggle of life and the cruel torment of so innocent and God-pleasing a man? What, are they supposed to be thoughts of comfort and hope? Are they not rather the very things that remind the sinner of eternal retribution? Are they not the things that drive the tender conscience to despair under the burden of the demanding law? No — by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified before God, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. We are, thanks and praise be eternally to God, justified without merit, by his grace, through the redemption that has come about through Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a mercy seat through faith in his blood, in order to demonstrate the righteousness that avails before him, in that he forgives the sin that until now had remained under divine forbearance. (Romans 3:20, 24ff.) But if we, who seek to be justified through Christ, should ourselves also be found sinners (that is, those who commit sin, 1 John 3:8), then Christ would be a minister of sin. God forbid! (Galatians 2:17.) If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31.) He is the God who works wonders; he has made known his power among the peoples. (Psalm 77:15.) And this teaching — this teaching full of light, life, comfort, power, salvation, and blessedness — is proclaimed to us in the divinely attested writings of the prophets and apostles as the Gospel sent from heaven through the Holy Spirit, the foundation that stands unmoved even should earth and heaven pass away. Therefore, surely, "either no religion is true" — as a famous teacher of the Reformed church expresses it — "(which is absurd and utterly destroys God's wisdom and goodness), or the Christian religion alone is true," since it alone is the religion that gives what the eternal destiny of man requires. — (Some further development of matters belonging here is found in the writing of the late Dr. Ernst Salomon Cyprian, "A Rational Warning against the Error of Indifference toward Divine Worship or Religion," which I heartily recommend to my fellow believers in general as worth reading and extremely useful.)
(To be continued.)

The Papists' High Esteem for the So-Called Holy Mass.

F. Wilhelm, Baron von Rosenhan, Knight of the Holy Cross, reports in his "Christian Confession of Faith," which he made in Leipzig in 1688, that while he was still a Papist, he was assailed during his travels through Lutheran lands by strong doubts about the correctness of papal teaching; but these doubts were greatly heightened when he was obliged to spend some time in Vienna. Among other things, he relates the following: Once, as I was engaged in a game with a princess of noble rank, a lady-in-waiting entered the chamber during the game with a sick Bolognese lapdog, and she handed the princess thirteen ducats with instructions to carry them to the Capuchin monastery, so that Mass might be said there for the recovery of the beloved lapdog. At this I was thoroughly alarmed at heart, and thought: what sort of people must these be, who for a sick dog are willing to sacrifice the most holy body of the dearest Savior for the sake of money! From that hour I resolved at least no longer to hold to the Papists, and to confess as much. (See: Unschuldige Nachrichten von alten und neuen theologischen Sachen, Urkunden, etc., from the year 1714, p. 752.)

Paid:

Volume 1, Rev. P. Trautmann.

Volume 2, Messrs. Dr. Sihler and Biermann.

The first half of Volume 2, Messrs. Brandt, Fricke, Jäbker, and Hilsgetter.

Received from P. Brohm for the second half of Volume 1: $8.30.

For the seminary at Altenburg, received from the Lutheran congregation in New York through P. Brohm: $19.00.

General Statistical Overview of the Synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States.

The first thirteen of the following district synods are affiliated with the General Synod.

Ministers. Congregations. Communicants.

1. Synod of Maryland, numbered in Oct. 1844: 30 ministers, 62 congregations, 6664 communicants.
2. Synod of West Pennsylvania, Sept. 1844: 43, 128, 14,053.
3. Synod of South Carolina, Nov. 1844: 30, 40, 2784.
4. Synod of Hartwick, June 1844: 15, 25, 3000.
5. Synod of New York, Sept. 1844: 35, 36, 6000.
6. Synod of Virginia, May 1845: 20, 40, 2415.
7. Synod of the West, Oct. 1844: 27, 60, 3657.
8. English Synod of Ohio, Sept. 1844: 46, 140, 6504.
9. Allegheny Synod, Sept. 1844: 16, 69, 6811.
10. Synod of Western Virginia, May 1844: 7, 17, 1044.
11. Synod of East Pennsylvania, Oct. 1844: 23, 52, 5207.
12. Synod of North Carolina, May 1844: 11, 21, 2093.
13. Synod of Miami, Ohio, April 1845: 17, 36, 1923.
14. Pennsylvania Synod, May 1844: 68, 224, 32,274.

United Synods of Ohio:

15. Eastern District Synod of Ohio, Oct. 1844: 22 (est.), 80 (est.), 8000.
16. Western [District Synod of Ohio], do., do.: 40, 130, 13,000.
17. English [District Synod of Ohio], do., do.: [figures illegible], 5000.
18. Franconian Synod, N.Y., June 1845: 27, 40, 3000.
19. Synod of Michigan, 1844: 4, 7, 500.
20. Synod of Pittsburgh, 1845: 15, 45, 2500.
21. Synod of Tennessee, 1845: 20, 90, 7200.
22. Synod of Indiana, Oct. 1843: 13 (est.), 30 (est.), 2000.

Total: 538 ministers, 1307 congregations, 135,629 communicants.

Besides these, several Lutheran ministers who emigrated from Prussia have in the present year united to form a new synod and have held their first meeting in Wisconsin.