# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1856_S286
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

286 Miscellaneous Church News.

"A proclamation of the union on the part of the summus episcopus, by whom this would indeed have to be done, has not taken place; our territorial church is therefore, with the exception of the Court congregation in Weimar and the congregation of St. Nicolai in Eisenach, legally an Evangelical Lutheran one. From the fact that the members of those congregations carried out a union in 1818, it by no means follows that the territorial church is united... Matters have now improved with us in this respect too, that confessional clergy are at least left in undisturbed activity. A new life is now stirring everywhere in the Church; everywhere people are beginning to recognize what a treasure the Church possesses in its confessional writings."

A Judgment on the Reverend Professor Dr. Schaeffer's Inaugural Address.

On April 16 of this year, Dr. Schaeffer entered upon his office as professor of the German language and literature at Pennsylvania College, and as German professor of theology at the preachers' seminary at Gettysburg, Pa., and on this occasion delivered an address, which has appeared in print. The excellence of this address can hardly be brought into a better light than through the judgment which Dr. Benjamin Kurtz — the well-known advocate of the General Synod and of its united, rationalistic and Methodistic doctrine and practice — passes upon it in his "Lutheran Observer" of August 1. In it, namely, the latter writes: "It (the inaugural address) has already lain on our table for some time, but the strong symbolism that permeates it has made it so distasteful to us that we have refrained from reviewing it, and we would now almost rather prefer to pass over it in silence... We cannot, however, forbear to add that it is now about thirty-two years since we, at a conference in Virginia, made the first proposal for the establishment of a theological seminary; ... that some thirty-odd years ago we undertook the most dangerous and most arduous journey of any we ever made, one that lasted two years, in order to collect funds and books for the institution, advancing our travel costs out of our own pocket and bringing home with us thousands of dollars and thousands of books; that we have ever since constantly labored, written, spoken, and contributed money year after year toward the support of the seminary and the college; and now we have the bitter vexation of perceiving that in this school of the prophets theological views are to be instilled which, in that day, were never thought of by its founders and patrons, and toward the propagation of which we could never with honor have given a single dollar of our money, or have made any exertion whatsoever, whether of mind or of body! Alas, alas! how the times have changed! and how deeply it humbles us to see that the untiring labors and monetary contributions of more than a quarter century are being thrown away on a purpose so wholly different from that which they were meant to serve!" It is indeed touching to listen to this lament, which the unfortunate man strikes up upon perceiving that the many bright dollars contributed by himself, or so laboriously collected, are, instead of serving the cause of nineteenth-century enlightenment, to serve the advancement of Lutheran doctrine and the Lutheran Church. The inconsolable man might take comfort in the fact that his rationalist brethren in Germany have already avenged themselves more than enough upon the Lutherans for this, by spending millions of thalers on the spread of enlightenment — money which had once been given by our believing and pious fathers for the preservation of pure evangelical Lutheranism.

Worms. The Frankfurter Zeitung reports that a new subscription list has been opened in the city of Worms for the building of a Gothic chapel in honor of Luther and his protest at the Diet of Worms. The contribution which each individual has to pay has been set at three kreuzers (two cents).

The Old Dresden Hymnal. The following is written to the "Pilger aus Sachsen" (see No. 22 of this year): "A new, revised, and corrected reprint of the old Dresden hymnal has been ordered by the Royal Consistories of the provinces of Brandenburg, Saxony, and Silesia, in which it has been introduced in a number of congregations. To this reprint will be appended, as a supplement, a number of church hymns which are not found in the old editions but are widely used in the Evangelical Church. Likewise, the old prayers originally appended to the hymnal will be included in the reprint. The matter has already progressed so far that the editing of the hymnal is complete, and printing can shortly proceed. It is likely that this new edition, which is to be described on the title page as one approved by the ecclesiastical authorities, will be produced by the local (Sorau) bookbinder and senator Pittius. He has already declared himself willing to have the new edition printed on fine white paper, in very legible type, and to set a very moderate price."

United Sermon on Toleration. On the part of the United Church of Prussia, the Mecklenburg church has been admonished to become somewhat more tolerant toward the Baptist sect that is making inroads into it. From Mecklenburg it is now reported, as the "Lutheran Village Church