# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 07 11_S92
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

day, not only did many fellow believers from St. Louis come to take part in the celebration, but the church musicians and the choristers of the Lutheran congregation in St. Louis had also kindly accepted an invitation to enhance this festival by their participation. The members of the congregation, as well as the guests, gathered at ten o'clock in the morning at the farm where worship services had last been held, in order to proceed from there, with singing and the sound of trombones, to the nearby little church. The procession was arranged in the following manner. In front walked the building overseer and the builder, whose task it was to open the church; after them followed the children of the congregation, two by two, the church musicians and the singing choir, the undersigned pastor of the congregation with a Bible, the elders — of whom one carried the pewter communion vessels and the other the baptismal font — and after these a great number of men and women. After a brief address the procession set itself in motion and struck up, accompanied by the wind instruments, the well-known hymn: "Sing Praise and Thanks to the Highest Good," etc. At the fourth verse we drew near to the little church, where others were still waiting. It is a finely crafted log building, 28 feet long and 24 feet high, with a tower and four tall windows. The interior is adorned by the pulpit and the altar. Before the altar there is a raised step. The pulpit stands above the altar, is tastefully worked, and forms one whole together with the altar. The pulpit stairway cannot be seen, since a symmetrical addition has been built on both sides of the pulpit, which also serves as a sacristy. Opposite the pulpit is a gallery. The little church holds about 150 people, and thus has ample room for the 18 families who at present make up the congregation. On the day of dedication there was worship both morning and afternoon. In the morning, worship began with the hymn: "To God Alone on High Be Glory," etc. Thereupon a prayer was spoken by the preacher at the altar, and the 84th Psalm was read aloud. Before the sermon the choir, with musical accompaniment, sang a cantata. The sermon, on Numbers 28:10–17, had as its subject: "Our Little Church, a House of God and a Gate of Heaven." After the sermon a general confession was held, preceded by the answering, according to Isaiah 57:15, of the question: "In what heart does God dwell in grace?" Several Christian brothers, who had arrived from Germany only a few days before, took part in the Communion with visible emotion. With the Lord's blessing the congregation was dismissed at one o'clock. In the afternoon at three o'clock all gathered again in the little church to hear the Word of God. The Reverend Pastor Walther, who, after having preached in St. Louis in the morning, had come on as well to our church dedication, delivered the sermon on the 100th Psalm and set forth the duty of all men to serve God outwardly and publicly as well. Before the sermon the hymn "Ah, Abide with Us, Lord Jesus Christ," etc. had been sung, and the Gospel appointed for church dedications, Luke 19:1–10, had been read aloud; after the sermon a baptism was performed according to a purely Lutheran liturgical form, and finally, with the hymn "Now Thank We All Our God," etc., the solemn and blessed services were closed, which will hopefully long grant many, especially the members of the congregation, a pleasant memory. May the invisible Head of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ, be praised for all the blessing with which he crowned this day. May he continue to rule over this congregation and its pastor with his grace, establish and preserve them in the truth, and help adorn the pure confession of his Word also with a pure walk of life. To entreat him earnestly for this together with us, we hereby ask all our fellow believers, known and unknown to us.

Friedrich Bünger.

Through Faith Alone the Sinner Is Justified and Saved.

Testimonies that this truth has also been recognized and preserved, here and there, even in the thickest papal darkness.

1. In an old account of the founding of the monastery at Lucca under Abbot Arnoldus II, from the year 1478, one reads the following: "In this monastery there was a monk named Engelbert Arnoldi, who prayed daily in his cell as follows: 'O wretched man that I am, what have I done, or what shall I do, since I am a man and a great sinner, and have sinned against you alone? Yet I believe that you, my Lord, O Jesus Christ, are alone my righteousness and redemption; and as Abraham believed God, and this faith alone was reckoned to him for righteousness, so I too believe that faith in Christ alone — not the works of the Law or of the flesh, nor my order or my own holiness — is sufficient for my salvation. Good Lord, have mercy upon me according to your great mercy. O gracious Jesus, be gracious unto me; I commend my spirit into your hands; you have redeemed me, Lord, you faithful God and my only Redeemer, who lives and reigns forever.'" That account then relates that this monk, eager for salvation, was most zealously persecuted for the sake of this his faith, and that when he finally died in Hamburg as a physician, people were scarcely willing to grant him even an honest burial.*)

2. Anselm, who died in 1109 as Bishop of Canterbury, drew up a set of instructions for preachers on how a dying person should be questioned and what should be devoutly said to him. This instruction ran as follows:

I ask you, brother: are you glad that you will die in the faith of Christ? Yes.

Do you acknowledge that you have not lived as well as you ought to have? Yes.

Is it your intention to lead a new life, should you have time to live longer? Yes.

Are you glad that you will die holding to the true religion? Yes.

Do you believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for you? Yes.

Do you believe that you cannot be saved in any other way than through the death of Jesus Christ? Yes.

Do you also thank him for this? Yes.

Well then, so long as the soul is still within you, place your whole trust upon this death; set your confidence on nothing else; surrender yourself wholly and entirely to this death, and sink yourself into it; cover yourself all over with this death, and wrap yourself up in this death. And should God wish to summon you into judgment, then say: Lord, I set the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between myself and your judgment; on no other terms will I plead with you. Should the Lord say to you: You are a sinner, then say: I set the death of Jesus Christ between myself and my sins. Should he say to you: You have deserved damnation, then say: Lord, I place the death of Jesus Christ between you and my evil deserving, and I offer you his death in place of the merit which I ought to have had, but which I lack.

Thereupon say three times: Lord, into your hands I commend my spirit, etc. — He who says this before death, from the heart, dies assuredly, and shall not see death forever.

*) See: G. G. Leibnitii, Scriptores rerum Brunsvicensium illustrantes, vol. III, p. 696.

Is, then, the evangelical doctrine that righteousness and salvation come through faith alone a new one, first brought forward by Luther, which no one held before him?

Paid: Volume 2. — Pastor Schulz. — Pastor Gruber. — Pastor Meißner.

Luther's House Postil, the first American edition, handsomely produced, may be had bound for $2.00, in paper covers for $1.50, from:

Mr. Ludwig and W. Radde in New York;
C. L. Rademacher in Philadelphia, Pa.;
the Reverend Dr. Wyneken in Baltimore;
C. Spielmann, Columbus, O.;
Pastor Walther in St. Louis, Mo.;
Dr. Sihler in Fort Wayne, Ind.;
P. Boyer in Buffalo, N.Y.;
P. J. George & Co. in Detroit, Mich.;
P. J. George & Co. in Milwaukee, Wisc.

The Kirchenzeitung in Pittsburgh and the Lutheran Standard in Columbus, O., are requested to reprint the above.

Printed by Weber and Olshausen.