# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 09 29_S17
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...who devours the sheep and lambs, or strips off their wool, and drives them into the fire of hell.

Conrad Porta* says the following on this point in his splendid Pastorale Lutheri: "Those who easily let themselves be stirred up by the hope of gaining greater honor and higher pay, and who, without scruple or due reflection, turn their entrusted little sheep and parishioners out to pasture and often depart suddenly and unexpectedly, must gird themselves high indeed if they wish to escape the company which St. Paul describes in such harsh words in Philippians 3:19 — 'that their belly is their god, that their glory is their shame, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ' (1 Timothy 6:5) — and it will not be far wrong to call them brothers of those who make of godliness and the holy preaching office a trade and a craft. A little benefice, says Luther in the margin, by which one may seek honor and property, and not serve God alone. But this is by no means to be understood or taken to mean that it is altogether wrong to move from one's first post or calling to another place; rather, it is spoken only of those who, in a frivolous, dissolute, and thoughtless manner — out of ambition, love of money, or sheer idle whim, simply because the one does not wish to remain in the village and the other in the town, or perhaps to please Doctor Simon (Acts 8:18–20) — trade one parish or post for another."

But if someone, by God's special ordering, without seeking or desiring it — indeed, over and against all his own thoughts and expectations — is duly called by another church (and a Christian magistracy) to a place, and he in response sets forth his reasons as best he knows how, and these are refuted and set aside, and a pastor is, with good conscience and by consent, requested and released by his former parishioners, then the one who is thus called both should and may regard and hold this as a true divine vocation, and follow in God's name wherever the Lord of the harvest sends him (Matthew 9); and, alongside earnest and diligent prayer, he should exert every possible diligence for the Chief Shepherd, commend to Him the blessing and the increase, and pay no heed to whatever idle gossips and slanderers may spread or put about concerning him. 1 Corinthians 3:18.

* This man was born in 1541 at Osterwick, became a professor at Rostock, and died in 1581 as pastor in Eisleben.

Mr. Editor!

The article in No. 25 of your esteemed paper, entitled "The Synod of Michigan and Its Heathen Mission," requires a supplement, and since it is doubtless your concern to lay the full truth before your readers, you will grant these lines a small place in your paper. Pastor Hattstädt did not come to be a participating member of the Synod through a call to the Lutheran congregation at Monroe, as stated in the article in question, but through his own free choice. Mr. Hattstädt was ordained by the officers of the Michigan Synod, but neither they nor the congregation at Monroe made it obligatory for him to join the former as a member. As to how far Hattstädt was qualified to judge the Synod's grasp of Lutheran doctrine, we leave that to the judgment of those who enjoy closer acquaintance with him. It is indeed true, as stated in the mentioned article, that large sums of money were sent by Franconian Lutherans to support the mission among the Indians; however — a fact one probably overlooked mentioning — not one cent of this money was applied to the Sebewaing mission, where the missionary Dumser, described as un-Lutheran, was stationed; rather, every cent of the money received was repaid to Messrs. Crämer and Hattstädt upon their withdrawal. So much regarding the large sums of money. That Mr. Dumser refused to be bound to the Symbolical Books, on account of the consequences that certain parties drew from them, is indeed true; but it is equally a fact that, as soon as these consequences were set aside, he declared himself ready to subscribe to the Lutheran Book of Concord, and that this subscription was carried out by the president of the synod in the presence of the members who had withdrawn. Mr. Dumser now serves two Lutheran congregations in Illinois, and the mission at Sebewaing is being carried on, "from a purely ecclesiastical standpoint," by the missionary Auch, who at his ordination subscribed without reservation to the Lutheran Book of Concord.

A member of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Michigan.

Subscription for Dr. Martin Luther's Church Postil, an unaltered reprint after the Walch edition of 1737.

When announcing the House Postil, we promised that, should the undertaking meet with a favorable reception, we would also proceed to publish Dr. Luther's Church Postil.

Now the gracious God has attended the work of our hands with visible blessing, and throughout the whole of the United States, from the East to the farthest West, has made the hearts of many willing to support our undertaking. Besides the friendly welcomes given it in the church papers — the Lutherische Kirchenzeitung and the Lutheraner — a great many letters have reached us from every quarter, expressing the liveliest joy at the undertaking and urging us earnestly to proceed also with the printing of the Church Postil.

Encouraged and heartened by this, we take the present opportunity to announce to our German brethren in the faith that we are ready to begin the printing of the Church Postil without delay, as soon as 1,000 genuine subscribers are secured. The work shall appear in two large octavo volumes, of the same format and with the same type and altogether the same appearance as the House Postil, both volumes (each of 600–700 pages) to cost $6.00 bound or $5.50 in paper covers. To make the acquisition easier, we intend to issue it in two half-yearly installments.

In printing it we shall adhere exactly to the Walch edition of the Church Postil of 1737, which is the most complete of all editions; we also intend, if space at all permits, to add two exceedingly valuable supplements, namely the two incomparable sermons of Dr. Luther on the Epistle for the First Sunday after Trinity (1 John 4:16–21), on love, and on the Epistle for the Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity (Ephesians 6:10–17), on the armor of Christians — both of which do not appear in the ordinary postils and are to be reprinted unaltered from the Altenburg edition of Luther's writings. Thus our edition would not merely equal the most complete one, but would itself be even richer than the most complete.

The conscientiousness and disinterestedness with which we carried out the publication of the House Postil, as it now lies before every eye, will, we hope, secure for us also the full confidence of the esteemed subscribers to this undertaking.

We most kindly request preachers and other friends of the undertaking to gather subscribers. Collectors will receive one free copy for every 10 copies for which they vouch with payment. The shipment of the copies will be at the collectors' expense; they may recover the cost of transportation from the subscribers, which will come to very little for each one.

It will not be held against us if we again, as before, set the condition for subscribers and collectors that, when the work nears completion, payment for it be sent to us in cash; in return, we will, if it is required, furnish reliable security for punctual delivery up to the amount of the cost of 1,000 copies. We shall from time to time report on the progress of the undertaking in the Lutheraner.*

It will scarcely be necessary to add another word in recommendation of the Church Postil. It contains not only the most inspired of Dr. Luther's sermons on all the Gospel lessons for Sundays, festivals, and apostles' days — at least one, often two, sometimes three sermons on each Gospel — but also the exposition of all the Epistles of the church year, an advantage that makes the Church Postil indispensable even to those who already possess the House Postil.

* In a letter of August 22, Mr. Ludwig requests us to make known that subscriber lists should be sent in only when they bear ten or more genuine subscribers, together with the name and address of the responsible agent. Lists with fewer than ten should be handed over to responsible ministers who know them and are willing to take up the matter, or to the nearest listed agent. — Der Lutheraner.