# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 12 22_S33
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

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

Published by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 2.

St. Louis, Mo., December 27, 1845.

No. 9.

Terms: The Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at a subscription price of one dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who must pay half of this in advance and bear the postage themselves. — In St. Louis, each individual issue is sold for 5 cents.

A Christian New Year's Meditation.
By Johann Gerhard.

On the Name of Jesus.

What is more lovely than the name of Jesus!

O dearest Lord Jesus, be also my Jesus; have mercy on me for the sake of Your holy name. My life condemns me, but Your name, Jesus, will heal me. For the sake of Your Savior's name, deal with me according to Your name, and since You are the true and great Savior, take up also the true and great sinner.

Have mercy on me, dearest Jesus, in the time of mercy, so that You do not one day condemn me in the time of judgment. The bosom of Your mercy will not become narrower if You receive me into it. You will not become less rich if You let the crumbs of Your goodness come to me.

You were born for my good, circumcised for my good; You became my Jesus. O how sweet, how delightful is this name! For what does Jesus mean other than Savior, Redeemer, the One who grants blessedness — and whom can that name fit better than those You have redeemed? What else do we have to ask and to desire beyond blessedness?

O Lord Jesus, take me too into the number of Your disciples, that I with them may praise Your holy and saving name.

Have I, then, by the loss of my innocence, also been able to rob You of Your mercy? Can You not, O my Merciful One, still make me blessed, even though I, a poor, wretched man, have lost myself and made myself guilty of condemnation? O Lord, do not forget Your mercy at the sight of my sins. Do not let my sins outweigh Your merit; do not forget Your goodness on account of my wicked nature. Remember not Your wrath against the guilty one, but Your mercy toward the wretched one.

Could You, who gave me the soul with which to long for You, withdraw Yourself from this my longing? Could You, having revealed to me my unworthiness and just condemnation, hide from me Your merit and the promise of eternal life?

My guilt will be judged before Your divine judgment seat; but I take comfort in this, that in the court of heaven the name Savior has been given to You; this name was brought down to us from heaven by the angel.

O merciful Jesus, to whom will You be Jesus, if You will not be so to the poor sinners who long for grace and salvation? Those who build on their own righteousness and holiness seek their salvation in themselves; but I flee to You, finding in myself nothing by which I might be worthy of eternal life. Make the condemned blessed, the unrighteous righteous, have mercy on the sinner, acquit the accused.

Lord, You are truth; Your name is holy and true; therefore let it also become true in me; be also my Jesus, my Savior. Be my Jesus in life, my Jesus in death, my Jesus at the Last Judgment, my Jesus in eternal life. Yes, You will be so, dearest Jesus, because You are unchangeable both in Your being and likewise in Your mercy. Your name, Lord Jesus, will not be changed on account of so poor and wretched a sinner as I am; no, surely You will also be my Redeemer. You will not cast away the one who comes to You; You will not refuse admission to the one to whom You have given the will to come.

Though the guilt of original sin may condemn me also — my conception, which took place in sin; the formation of my body, which occurred in sin and under the curse; my sinful birth — You are and remain nevertheless my Savior and my salvation.

Even if the sins of my youth, my whole life spent in sin and stained by sin, condemn me, You are and remain nevertheless my Jesus. Even if the death I have deserved on account of my manifold transgressions condemns me, You are nevertheless my Savior; yes, You remain my Jesus even if the sternest verdict of the Last Judgment condemns me.

In me is sin, rejection, condemnation; in Your name are righteousness, election, and blessedness. For in Your name I am baptized, in Your name I believe, in Your name I will die, in Your name I will rise again, in Your name I will stand before judgment. In Your name everything has been prepared for us and enclosed as in a treasury. Of these goods I lose only what I myself withhold from myself through unbelief.

O loving Jesus, by this, Your name, I beg You, let it be far from me that I should be condemned through my own fault, through my unbelief, since You desire to save me through Your precious merit and Your saving name.

(From the Lutheran Church Newspaper.)

What Are the Guiding Principles for the Formation of Orthodox Synods of the Lutheran Church in This Country?

A brotherly word offered for discussion and consideration to those of like mind and disposition.
(Continued.)

§ 2.

On the Formation of Lutheran Synods Here in General.

Since in this country church and state are completely separated, and unconditional freedom of belief is granted, the latter, as a legal institution, naturally concerns itself only with those relations of the various church communities and religious parties within its domain that require external legal protection. To these belong, for example, real property, church buildings together with their acts of incorporation, etc. But the civil authority here takes no official notice of the essence, confession, doctrine, and manner of any particular religious community. Just as little does it confirm such churches and religious parties or grant them free exercise of religion when their guiding principles are thoroughly opposed to the fundamental teachings of Holy Scripture and they are sects in the proper sense of the word — that is, offshoots cut off from the Christian church — such as, for example, the Unitarians and Socinians, who deny the Trinity of Persons in the one divine Being and the deity of Christ. And just as little does the state here, in regard to its relationship to the individual churches and religious communities, make any distinction between their legal standing and their being merely tolerated, as, for instance, in regard to the Jews. And since, then, here