# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1856_S32
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

32 Miscellaneous church news.

a branch of it — we have, however, still particular enemies in those persons who make it their business to charge our church, secretly and openly, with doing little or nothing to spread religiously scientific education among the young. — Dear brethren, our English brethren, who are becoming more and more acquainted with our needs, see that we need men on the walls of Zion who, penetrated by a deeply religious feeling, are yet also more scientifically trained and can blow the trumpet of the Gospel with success, so as to meet more forcefully the ever-increasing attacks of the enemies of religion. To achieve this, our English brethren reached out their hand to us in the founding of the English-German Seminary at Quincy, whose charter states in its second section: "'The purpose of this corporation shall be, the promotion of participation in sound instruction in general and in English and German literature in particular, in order to prepare the youth of our land, of both the male and female sex, for the various occupations and offices of human society, so that they may discharge the duties of life honorably and usefully.'" The building alone will cost $25,000 before it is entirely finished. The costs are covered up to about $6000 short. If nothing else should move us, the gratitude which we owe to God and to our English brethren ought to drive us to make up the greater part of this $6000. But it is more than gratitude that makes our support necessary. It is the necessity of the education of our sons and daughters. And even if we have no children, it remains our Christian duty to care for the rising generation by spreading scientifically grounded religious training. Were every member of our German congregations in the West to give the small sum of fifty cents, a considerable sum would be brought together. We therefore ask our fellow ministers to collect contributions for this purpose in their congregations." — Who would not rejoice to gather from this that our local German Methodists are finally beginning to become more sober-minded! But what will those among their preachers say to this who have hitherto spoken so contemptuously of "trained" preachers and boasted of having been taught solely in the school of the Holy Spirit and prepared to be preachers of the Gospel without it? We hope they are beginning to be ashamed of speeches so often heard from them.

Methodist statistics. The entire membership of the English and German Methodists in the year 1855 consisted of 692,255 in full connection and 107,176 probationary members. In fourteen conferences there was a decrease of 4,442, but on the whole an increase of 16,073. The number of local preachers is 6610. The amount for missions is $197,973, which comes to an average of 25¼ cents per member, which is less than the average of the year before last. Three conferences, however, had not yet sent in their report.

The "Missionary" of Pittsburgh, edited by Rev. W. A. Passavant, has undergone a significant change at the beginning of this year. The small monthly sheet it used to be has become a large one, now appearing every week, with a corresponding expansion of the field of its activity. The Reverend editor himself writes the following about it: "While it (the paper) sets itself the goal of being a periodical for the individual, the family, the church, and the age, the spirit that is to govern it shall be the spirit of mission and of mercy" (with regard to the cause of the poor, the sick, the widows and orphans) "It will not shrink from confessing, expounding, and defending the faith of the church; yet, out of a deep conviction that the church must be not only evangelical but also evangelistic, it will labor equally for her purity and for her active piety. In a time of conflict and division we shall endeavor, with divine assistance, to edit the 'Missionary' according to the wisdom that is from above, which 'is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.'" — We do not doubt that all our readers will, with us, wish the Reverend editor God's grace and blessing to this end.