# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 03 07_S53
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall never pass away, now nor ever."

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 2.

St. Louis, Mo., March 7, 1846.

No. 14.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at a subscription price of one dollar for out-of-town subscribers, half of which they must pay in advance, postage to be borne by them. — In St. Louis, each single issue is sold for 5 cents.

(Submitted by Pastor Keyl.)

Tercentenary Observance of Luther's Death.
(Continued.)

Luther's Last Letters, Sayings, Etc.

Of Luther's last letters, which he wrote from Halle and Eisleben, two addressed to his dear wife in Wittenberg deserve mention. The one of January 25 tells her of his arrival in Halle and, at the same time, of the delay in continuing his journey on account of the flooded Saale. He closes with the words: "No more for now, but pray for us and be devout. I hold that, had you been here, you would have advised us to do just as we did, so that for once we would have followed your advice. Herewith commended to God, Amen." (L. W. XXI, 517.) The other letter is dated Eisleben, February 10 (thus eight days before his end). In it he writes to her that the fire nearly consumed him right at his chamber door, and that a great, heavy stone from the wall nearly crushed him, had the holy angels not kept watch; he warns her against her excessive worries, on account of which she could not sleep at night, and says: "I fear that if you do not stop worrying, the earth may finally swallow us up and all the elements pursue us. Is this how you teach the Catechism and the faith? Pray, and let God worry; it is written: Cast your burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain you. Psalm 55, and many other places besides. We are, thank God, fresh and healthy, and these matters do not trouble our spirits." His last words in this final letter to his dear wife run thus: "We would gladly be rid of this and journey home, if it be God's will, Amen, Amen, Amen." (L. W. XXI, 1564 f.)

Luther also wrote two remarkable Latin letters to his faithful friend, the princely bishop George of Merseburg. In the first, dated February 4, he speaks of the opening of the Council of Trent, which had begun on December 13, 1545, and predicts that its progress would be slow and its outcome bad, for the Roman decoy-birds were merely deceiving the poor people, as the customs, manner, nature, and deep-rooted worthlessness prevailing in this Babel would bring about. With Moses, when the Ark of the Covenant was lifted up to set forth, he cries out: "Lord, rise up, and let your enemies be scattered." Numbers 10:35. (Schütz's unpublished letters, vol. I, 378.)

How briefly and aptly did Luther, with the above words, describe the entire course of that council, which lasted twenty-eight years and was concluded with a terrible curse upon all heretics — among whom, of course, the Lutherans are included. Its decrees stand in the Roman Catholic Church as its public confessional writings. In the second letter, of February 14, he informs this Lutheran bishop that he is returning to him, accompanied by notes, the treatise on church discipline which he had received from him, remarking: "At the very least one must guard against the offenses into which the hot-headed, unruly populace falls, as though it might live without any laws whatsoever, lest at last what happened, according to Moses' account, before the Flood should happen again — namely, that men took wives whomever they wished, even their own sisters, mothers, and wives whom they had stolen from other men's husbands; and I hear," he adds, "that similar instances are occurring in secret. God forbid that they should come to prevail openly." (Schütz I, 380.)

Luther wrote the very last letter on February 14 (thus only four days before his end) to Philip Melanchthon in Wittenberg. In it he reports receiving the electoral letter directing him to return there in haste, remarking that this order was very welcome to him, since he was already more than sick of the settlement negotiations. He asks his friend to send without delay whatever was needed to keep his fontanel open, which his wife would know where to find, even should the messenger meet him already on his way back; for the wound was almost entirely healed, and how dangerous that was he knew from his own experience. After relating a bit of news, he closes with the words: "The rest, God willing, soon by word of mouth, for I must tear myself away from writing. Fare well in the Lord." (Schütz I, 381.)

Luther was often asked by people high and low to write his name with his own hand in some book as a keepsake. He always granted such requests with great readiness, and usually added to his name a beautiful, powerful saying from Scripture along with a brief, forceful exposition of it. Here only the last two sayings which he inscribed in this manner shall be recorded. For his friend Nic. Oemler he wrote into his Bible the passage John 14:24, "The word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me," and added the following words to it: "Who believes this? It is true, I hear the word; but if I could believe that it is God himself who says it to me and speaks with me — dear friend, tell me, where would I stand, torn between great humility and great pride? Humility, that I should be terrified that with such a little worm — indeed, as Abraham says, with dust and ashes — the Majesty in heaven himself should speak. Pride, that such exalted Majesty does not disdain to look upon poor filth and stench such as I am, indeed even to speak with me, and to speak so sweetly and comfortingly. O cursed be you, unbelief, above all creatures! Amen." (L. W. IX, 1436.) He added the following as well: "To my good old friend, Nicholas Oemler, who carried me as a little one and a child in and out of school upon his arms, more than once, when neither of us knew that one brother-in-law was carrying the other." (L. W. XXIV, Preface, p. 63.) The last saying which Luther wrote in a book was the one he inscribed, in the newly purchased House Postil, for J. Gaßmann, steward of the Counts of Hohenstein, who visited Luther in Eisleben. It was the saying of John 8:51: "Truly, truly, I say unto you, if a man keeps my word, he shall never see death." Luther held this saying especially dear, and therefore wrote it several times in others' books as a keepsake. To the closing words, "shall never see death," he added, as though in a presentiment of his approaching death and joining in Simeon's swan-song, the following comforting explanation: "How unbelievable this is said to be, and how it runs against public and daily experience — and yet it is the truth. When a man earnestly contemplates God's Word in his heart, believes it, and falls asleep over it, he sinks and passes away before he perceives or becomes aware of death, and is surely carried away blessed in the Word which he has thus believed and contemplated. Martin Luther, Doctor, 1546,