# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1852_S200
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 200 —

Synodical Address.

    In the name of the most blessed Trinity, God the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

    Reverend brothers in office and in the faith, beloved in Christ!

    At every new synodical convention which the Lord in His mercy grants
us, our hearts must again rise with heightened thanks toward Him for the
wonders of His love, grace, and faithfulness, which He shows us even in
this recent time of sorrow. For it seems to me nothing less than a wonder
that where, only a few years ago, scarcely here and there a German
Lutheran preacher wandered mournfully through the vast woods and
prairies to visit the scattered members of his church and sparingly serve
them with the bread of life, today a synod can assemble that counts among
its pastors, professors, and teachers more than a hundred laborers in the
Lord's vineyard — a synod which more and more congregations join as time
goes on, rejoicing with them that here too the light of pure doctrine has
again been set upon its lampstand and shines with its quickening rays into
the hearts of those who are of the truth; a synod which is granted not only
to cultivate in its midst two educational institutions, led by faithful and
capable brothers, which entitle us to the fairest hopes for the church's
future as well, but which is also able, though with modest strength, to
carry the name of the Lord among the heathen Indians.
    We must indeed confess: the Lord has truly done great things for us!
Yes, even in the past year He has done great things for us!
    We do mourn, it is true, the loss of a dear laborer, zealous for the
Lord's name, in the passing of our beloved brother Reissner, whom the
Lord, after a short but tribulation-filled labor, called to rest and, out of
the strife, to His eternal peace; but several new laborers have stepped
into the gap left by his departure, and through the enlargement of our two
institutions, which has become necessary, the Lord gives us the joyful
assurance that He will, precisely also within our own congregations,
increasingly awaken young hearts who will, in their time, willingly present
themselves for His service, for His battles and victories on the field of
combat.
    I count it no small grace that in this time of division, amid the many
distresses and afflictions with which we ourselves indeed have abundantly
to contend here, and which so easily narrow the heart, the synod was
nonetheless granted courage and joy to bear practical witness — through
the sending of two delegates from the dear mother church in the beloved
old fatherland — to how much it takes to heart entering, alongside the one
spiritual fellowship in which we stand through our common faith and
common confession, also into a closer outward bond. How the dear
brothers in Germany have met this expressed wish — indeed, how they
have answered it not with words alone but with active proofs of love and
practical aid, how in particular that dear man of God to whose zeal our
synod already owes so much, the Reverend Pastor Löhe, and those bound
with him for the building up of the Lutheran Church in America, have
shown their love and care for their brothers in the faith in this western
land, notably also through the founding