# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 04 04_S64
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

God's mercy, he wallowed in every kind of shame and vice, and at last even became the head of a band of highway robbers, among whom he soon distinguished himself as much by power and authority as by cruelty and tyranny. Some time afterward the Apostle John visited that place again and, after completing his other business, demanded of the bishop the pledge that he had entrusted to his hands. The bishop was astonished, as though he did not understand what John meant. "I mean," answered the apostle with holy earnestness, "the young man whom I entrusted to you, and I wish now to know how it stands with my brother's soul." Then the old man grew sorrowful and said with tears: "Alas! He is dead." "And what death did he die?" asked the holy apostle again. "Alas! He is dead to God, and thus a spiritual corpse," answered the bishop; "for he has, alas, become a godless villain; instead of going to the house of God, he has gone up into the mountains with his companions and practices robbery and murder." When the holy apostle heard this, he tore his garments and lamented the soul of his brother, whom the bishop had watched over so poorly; he had a horse and a guide brought to him at once and rode hastily toward the mountains. Arriving there, he was seized by the robbers' outposts; but he demanded to be led to their captain. The captain stood armed at some distance, and the moment he recognized the holy John and saw him coming straight toward him, shame and consternation seized the wild robber, so that he fled hastily to get out of his sight. The apostle, although very old and feeble, pursued him as fast as he could; but since the old man's feet could not overtake the swift young man, he called out to him with moving words: "O my son, why do you flee from your old, defenseless father? Have mercy on me and do not be afraid; there is still hope of your salvation. I will pray Christ for you; indeed, if it were necessary, I would gladly be ready even to suffer death for you and lay down my life, if only I might thereby save yours. Ah, only stand still, and believe me, for I have been sent to you by Christ." Then the young man stood still and, casting his eyes to the ground full of shame, threw down his weapons, trembled and shook, and dissolved in tears. With a broken heart he embraced the aged apostle and wept so bitterly on his neck that it was as though he wished to baptize him with his tears. The holy John assured him that he had grace with Christ, and after fasting and praying with him, and refreshing his contrite spirit with many comforting words, he brought him back with him and restored him to the church. — While in this example we recognize the apostle's faithful love and gentle mercy toward the fallen, in another example, by contrast, his stern severity toward pernicious false teachers shines forth,

64

as Polycarp, the disciple of John, related with his own mouth to Irenaeus (Irenaeus, Against Heresies III, 3). John once wished to go with some of his friends into a public bath at Ephesus, and when he heard from the attendant standing outside that Cerinthus was in the bath, he was greatly alarmed and, out of abhorrence for this false teacher, refused to go in. He turned back at once and said to his companions: "Ah, dear brothers, let us hasten quickly away from this place, lest the bathhouse in which so abominable a heretic, so great an enemy of the truth, as Cerinthus, is present, should collapse over our heads." — Had this not been the holy John himself, the apostle of love, but rather a Luther or some other champion of Jesus Christ, our gentlemen of the Evangelical persuasion and others like them, who seek only peace even at the cost of truth, would cry out with vexation and displeasure: Oh, how unworthy is such conduct toward those of a different opinion, how unworthy of a servant of Christ! What intolerance! What lovelessness! But one sees from this example how true love hates error and lies. Compare 1 Corinthians 13:6. — Sch.

A Popish Fasting Tragedy.

When, in Transylvania, in the time of King John (1527), a Lutheran-minded preacher had declared the eating of meat during Lent to be a permissible thing, he was, on that account, flogged with rods in prison by the executioner from morning until evening, and afterward hung about with hares, geese, and live chickens, and thus led through the streets and pitifully torn apart by dogs that were set upon him. — (See Walch's History of the Evangelical-Lutheran Religion, p. 569.) Thus do the papists punish the transgression of their hypocritical human commandments wherever they have the power to do so.

Doctrine and Life.

(See: Luther's exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians 5:10.)

We hold, at this time, that all are banned and damned who say that the article concerning the sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is uncertain, or who do violence to the words of Christ in the Lord's Supper. For, in short, we wish to hold all the articles of Christian doctrine, be they great or small (though none is small or trivial to us), wholly pure and certain, and to yield not one jot of them. And this must indeed be so. For doctrine is our sole light, which illumines and guides us and shows us the way to heaven; if we allow it to be weakened and enfeebled in even one point, it is certain that it becomes wholly powerless; if we fail here, love will avail us nothing. We can indeed be saved without the love and unity of the sacramentarians, but this cannot happen without pure doctrine and faith. Therefore we gladly wish to have love and unity with those who hold and believe with us, in a Christian and kindly manner, in all the articles of Christian doctrine; indeed, as far as it lies in us, we wish to keep peace even with our enemies, and to pray for those who unwittingly slander and persecute our doctrine — but not for those who knowingly, against their own conscience, attack one or more articles of Christian doctrine.

One must diligently distinguish doctrine from life. Doctrine is heaven, life is earth. In life there is sin, error, discord, sheer toil and labor; there love should overlook and pass over, should be patient, there the forgiveness of sins should rule and govern — so far, however, that one does not wish thereby to defend such sin and error. But with doctrine it is a very different matter; for it is holy, pure, unmixed, heavenly, divine. Toward one who wishes to alter or falsify it, neither love nor mercy is to be shown; for that reason it also needs no forgiveness of sins.

Therefore it is not at all fitting to want to compare doctrine and life with one another; for in a single letter, indeed in a single jot of Scripture, more and greater weight lies than in heaven and earth. Therefore we cannot endure that anyone should wish to shift it even in the very smallest degree. But as for the failings and faults of life, there we may well be indulgent and overlook them. For we too are poor men who stumble and sin daily; indeed, all the dear saints confess with great earnestness in the Lord's Prayer that they are sinners and believe in the forgiveness of sin. But our doctrine is, by God's grace, pure; so there is no article of our faith for which we do not have a good, firm basis in Holy Scripture; these the devil would gladly like to defile and pervert for us. Therefore he attacks us so maliciously with this argument, laying the blame on us through the sects, that we do not keep peace but are quarrelsome and tear apart the unity and love within the church or Christendom.

A Christian Must Also Learn to Bear Ingratitude.

"Whoever wants to be a Christian must learn to consider that, with all his benefactions, faithfulness, and service, he will not everywhere earn thanks, but must also suffer ingratitude. Yet he should carefully guard against letting this move him to serve and help others no more. For it is a Christian virtue and a true fruit of faith when, after you have done your best and are struck in the hands for it in return, you have patience and say: No, with that you shall not make me angry or discourage me; I will bear it, and nevertheless help where I can. Do you want to be ungrateful? I know one above us in heaven who will thank me in your place; that shall be dearer to me than if you thanked me. That is what it means to conduct oneself as a Christian and, as Solomon calls it in Proverbs 25:21-22, to 'heap burning coals on the ungrateful man's head.' — It grieves the world and vexes it greatly when a kindness is not repaid. But you, think and accustom yourself to this: if you have done someone good today and he runs off from you tomorrow through ingratitude, do not let it trouble you, for he will find out well enough how he is to enjoy such ingratitude. Go on and say: If it is lost on this one, quickly bring another here and do well by him too. If he also will not do good in return, then bring on the third, and so on continually." — Luther's House Postil, on the Gospel for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity.

Paid: Second half of Volume 1: Rev. P. Husmann. Volume 2: the Reverends P. Becker, P. Best, P. Husmann, Baum, J. Renecke, Jokel, Ellinger.