# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1856_S2
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

2                    Preface to Volume 1856.

However dominant these principles have now become in our day, and however commonly, whether more openly or less, they are now expressed, we cannot pay homage to them. We believe, out of divine conviction, that there is a truth here below, and that this truth is contained in God's Word, that is, in the Scriptures of the Apostles and Prophets given by inspiration of God. We also believe that these holy Scriptures have the purpose of imparting to men sitting in darkness and the shadow of death the light of this one full truth, and that these Scriptures are therefore so plain that a man can recognize and draw from them this one full truth. And we are also convinced that there have always been men who were in possession of this treasure, and that in particular our fathers, three hundred years ago, were deemed worthy by God of this unspeakable grace, and laid down this precious treasure in the confessions of the so-called Evangelical Lutheran Church. We are reminded here of the beautiful words of Professor Philippi in his preface to his "Commentary on Paul's Epistle to the Romans": "If it is true that all systems of human wisdom lie like broken keys before the gate of truth, it is nevertheless just as true that the churchly analogia fidei, drawn from the Word which is the truth itself, is the right key — long lost, but now recovered again — which, even though tarnished by rust, will nevertheless unlock the old, well-known lock more easily than all the more elegant new keys fashioned after a false model." (p. VII.) So we, too, cannot express what we have thus found of truth as our own inconsequential "opinion," but must speak of it as of the one, old, eternal, unchangeable truth; must commend and defend it as our most precious possession, on which our own salvation and that of all men depends; and must reject and condemn all opinions of men standing opposed to it as dangerous, harmful, ruinous error. If, by adherence to such principles, our journal closes the door upon itself — so be it! We have no interest in editing a widely-read paper. Our sole interest is to bear witness to what we have recognized as truth; to give back what we have received; to speak because we believe. If this paper cannot serve to win or keep friends for the old truth, then let it fall silent again in God's name; there are already more than enough papers building Babel.

One would, however, altogether misunderstand us if, from the foregoing statements, one were to conclude that at this present entrance into a new year — whether with regard to our journal, or with regard to the cause of our church in general — we looked forward to the future discouraged. We may assure the contrary of ourselves. As for our present monthly, its circle of readers is indeed not yet so large that it could already live without the support it has hitherto enjoyed from its elder