# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 08 03_S100
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

how necessary decisiveness and firmness in doctrine and practice are for the welfare of our precious church of the pure confession, for the flourishing work of Lutheran synods.

Ann Arbor, Washtenaw Co., Michigan.
On June 25, 1846, being the commemoration day of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession.
W. Hattstädt, Pastor at Monroe, Mich.
A. Crämer, Pastor of the Lutheran Mission Congregation, Frankenmuth, Saginaw Co., Mich.
Fr. Lochner, Pastor at Toledo, Ohio.
J. Trautmann, Pastor at Danbury, Ohio.

Methodism.

Mr. Nast replies to our article on holy absolution as follows:

"Among people who, instead of letting their reason be enlightened by God's Word through the Holy Spirit, refuse to use it at all — such as the so-called Old Lutherans — every argument is in vain. Their pope is the dead letter, and their faith a blind human delusion, no conviction wrought by the Holy Spirit. We can do nothing but pray that God may open their eyes, that they may be converted from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to the living God." (See Apologete, No. 388.)

To this we have only to declare that, by God's grace, we shall never cease to acknowledge the "letter" of the Word of God indeed as our pope, under whose straight scepter (Psalm 45:7) one can live better than under the crooked staff of a Methodist pope such as Mr. Nast, who, in good Roman fashion, terribly judges and condemns an entire ecclesiastical communion, denies faith — and therefore grace and salvation — to all its members, and declares that they are covered with hellish darkness and given over to the devil, indeed that they no longer even use their reason and have thus sunk entirely to the level of beasts. Moreover, it does not surprise us that the Methodists, in such a practice, in desperate circumstances take refuge in the principle of Mohammed, that it is a sin to enter into a religious dispute, and that it is rather at times better to answer not with proofs but with saber-strokes.

(Submitted.)
Mr. Editor!

In No. 20 of your paper we find Mr. F. Wyneken, preacher of the second German Lutheran congregation here, setting himself up as censor and judge over our church laws, congregation, and preacher, in that he portrays our church constitution, from his own particular standpoint, as un-Lutheran and heretical, declares our congregation — which adopted it — to be struck with blindness and calls it "stupid Germans," and does the greatest injustice to our preacher, Pastor Weyl, by laying upon him entirely the sin of drafting our constitution, although it was in fact composed under Pastor Heger, and has received, since Pastor Weyl's arrival here, only a few insignificant additions — and these not from him, but from the church council and the congregation. Mr. Wyneken ought to have known this, since Pastor Heger's name appears several times in the incorporation act, and thus this gentleman, not Mr. Weyl, would have committed the fraud against us that F. Wyneken supposes. So much to the readers of the "Lutheraner" as a contribution toward the defense of innocence and the exposure of the vice of slander.

Jacob Caffenberger, President.
Wilh. Horßmeier, Secretary.
Ph. Fornoff,
Johannes Werner,
Christian Hase,
Conrad Henkel,
John Hammann,
Friedrich Arnold.

It is indeed touching to see from this letter how far the love of loyal subjects for their spiritual superiors can go. It is well known that it is the preacher's duty to instruct his congregation how its congregational order is to be arranged according to God's Word, and to watch that nothing contrary to God's Word enters into it or remains in it. But if something false is found in the order of a congregation, one is accustomed to lay the blame not so much on the hearers as rather on their teacher (who, after all, ought to understand the matter); and if, further, there is something in the order that assigns the preacher a false position, granting him, say, a lordship over the consciences and faith of his hearers, and the like, then one does not on that account attack the poor congregation, but rather the preacher — whom one regards, if he has accepted the order, as its principal author and representative, whether or not he actually put pen to it. One reasons thus: either the preacher spoke against the false congregational order, or he did not. If he spoke against it, and showed that it made the preacher, contrary to God's Word, a lord over the congregation, and the congregation nevertheless did not do away with the falsehood*), and the preacher finally acquiesced in it after all, then the preacher is a wretched slave of men. If he did not speak against it, then, according to God's Word, he is a dumb dog; so he must have secretly laughed up his sleeve to see how the congregation freely sold him its freedom of conscience.

*) It is, admittedly, scarcely conceivable that a congregation, despite the protest raised against it by its preacher, should by all means insist on making him a lord over its conscience.

Be that as it may, the congregation of Mr. Weyl has nevertheless, in unparalleled attachment to him, taken the whole disgrace upon itself and represented Mr. Weyl as innocence itself. The more eloquent a proof this is of the good nature of this congregation, the more abominable it is when such good nature is abused in order to keep a congregation in a state of tutelage, to subject it, even in matters touching the salvation of souls, to the conscience of its preacher, and thus to rule over it in the most shameful manner.

Finally, we ask the senders of the above to read Pastor Wyneken's article once more; they will then find that Pastor Wyneken does not, as they say, declare their congregation to be "stupid Germans," but rather rebukes the fact that many so-called Lutheran preachers, thinking so contemptuously of our dear countrymen, try to pass off an X as a U to them.
The Editor.

(Submitted.)

The Synod of the West

will, God willing, hold its next assembly in the German Evangelical Lutheran St. Paul's Church at Indianapolis, Indiana, on the first Thursday in September of this year, at 9 o'clock in the morning. A punctual appearance of the brothers belonging to this synod is expected, as there is important business to transact.

On their arrival at Indianapolis, the brothers are kindly asked to inquire for Mr. Carl Jungermann or Georg Schmidt, where they will find the local preacher.

J. G. Kunz, Secretary.

This "Synod of the West" here announcing itself is a part of the old synod of the same name, which has dissolved and divided into three different synods. May the love for the pure, unadulterated doctrine of our precious Evangelical Lutheran Church — as Pastor Kunz has already expressed it to the readers of the Lutheraner (see No. 20) — rule in all the members of the new synod and guide them in their deliberations and resolutions! This is the wish
of the Editor.

The Words of a Christian General.

When, at the time of the Thirty Years' War, Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, came to Saxony and was received there by the people — as the long-awaited deliverer from their greatest distress — with indescribable jubilation and the highest marks of honor, this Christian hero expressed himself on the matter to his court chaplain Fabricius as follows: "Our affairs stand on a good footing; only I fear that God will punish me on account of the folly of the people. Does it not have the appearance that these people are making a very idol of me? How easily could God, who calls himself jealous and will yield his honor to no one, let them, as well as myself, feel that I am nothing but a weak, mortal man? Great God, thou art my witness how greatly all this displeases me! I commit myself to thy providence. I hope thou wilt never permit the good work now begun, the liberation of thy true servants, to remain unfinished." (See Walch's History of the Evangelical Lutheran Religion, p. 727.)

Paid.
Year 1: Pastor Hattstädt.
Year 2: Pastor Knape, Pastor Winkler, Pastor Schmidt, Pastor Burger (5 copies), Schröde, Höckendorf.
Received from Pastor Brohm: 92, 95 (2 copies).

Printed by Weber and Olshausen.