# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1856_S274
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

274 On the Grace of Baptism.

is permitted after the wife's death. — We answer most simply: besides the prohibition against taking the brother's wife, which in fact already includes within it the prohibition against taking the sister of a deceased wife, God wished to add the specific prohibition against taking the sister of a still-living wife for three reasons: 1, on account of Jacob's example, who had two sisters as wives at the same time, so that no one might misuse this on account of the patriarch's holiness; 2, on account of the unrestrained desire of the Jews to put away their wives, on which account Rabbi Solomon understands this passage thus: so that, while the one sister is still living and has been put away, the other might not also be taken; 3, on account of the special law that they should take the widow of a brother who died childless, Deut. 25:5, so that no one might take this as a general and loosely-worded rule, whereas it was in fact given by God himself only as a limited provision for a specific case. —

On the Grace of Baptism.

Last year, on June 13 and 14, a meeting of the Rhenish pastors and assistant preachers of the Prussian-Lutheran church took place at Cologne. Present were the pastors: Eichhorn, Ludwig, Braun, Hein, Semm, Ebert, and Crome. (Absent were the pastors Joh. Fronmüller, Eichler, and Wermelskirch.) Concerning the results of this pastoral conference, a report was sent to the Upper Church Collegium in Breslau, which is communicated in Ehlers' "Kirchenblatt" of May 15. From it we take the following, as a testimony to the sound faith that has so many representatives in the Prussian-Lutheran church:

"The theological discussion confined itself, and indeed for both days, to the subject first proposed for it — the essence of baptismal grace. It had fallen to the reporter to open the discussion on this. I believed I ought to do this in such a way that, after emphasizing the importance of the subject and the necessity, especially at this time, of a clear knowledge of the correct church doctrine concerning it, I would first bring forward for consideration the chief scriptural passages on baptism, namely: the baptism of the Lord, Matt. 3; the Lord's teaching on baptism, John 3; the baptismal command, Matt. 28; the baptismal promise, Mark 16; the apostolic baptismal preachings and administrations, Acts 2, 8, 10, 19; the properly apostolic doctrinal passages on baptism, Rom. 6, Titus 3:2, John 5; the references to the Old Testament types, 1 Pet. 3, 1 Cor. 10, Col. 2; the incidental mentions of baptism, Gal. 3, Eph. 5, Col. 2:12ff.; the briefer allusions to it, 1 Cor. 6:11, Heb. 10:22f., 2 Cor. 1:21-22, and others. From these I sought to derive the sum of the scriptural doctrine, in relation