# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1857_S317
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 317 —

weakness and powerlessness he is so powerful that he puts to shame every
other word, power, and wisdom in the world." —

So far Luther. Let us too trust in the encouragement of this excellent
warrior of Christ, in the old, tested manner of warfare of "the Lord our
Ruler." If we will only be nothing more than infants and sucklings, and
will not let ourselves crave to become the equals of those who come
arrayed in the armor of learning instead of in that of simple "childlike
faith," then we shall surely stand firm. Let us, as such, only cling with
firm faith to the Lord our Ruler; he will surely strengthen and preserve us.

Above all, my honored brothers, everything depends only on this: that
we be found faithful in that which the Lord has laid upon us, his
servants, to do. Let us follow after that in all humility. The Lord will
then himself do and leave undone what pleases him; to be faithful, that is
our concern; what we shall accomplish is his affair.

Our task this time is, to be sure, far heavier than ever before. Our
struggle and testimony have until now been directed only against such
errors as have asserted themselves outside our Synod. We all stood
together in one accord, and even though here and there this or that was
reported of one individual or another, and although we have all, in and
through that struggle, been more firmly grounded in the truth and grown in
knowledge, yet the Lord, in his great mercy, has until now spared us the
affliction of seeing division in doctrine arise within the Synod itself.
This humiliation, however, has now also been laid upon us. God knows,
chiliasm has raised its head in some congregations of our synodical
circle, and, what makes the matter still worse, has begun its work of
delusion not merely among the hearers, but holds captive even some
brothers who hold office. The synod of the western district, called upon
to do so by one of the congregations concerned, has already found itself
compelled to render its judgment. May the Lord grant his gracious help to
the general Synod as well, that it may not shrink from opposing, with
decisiveness and according to the sole rule of God's Word, a doctrine that
will spread ruin all the more surely and widely the more apt it is — given
the earthly-mindedness and frivolous character of this whole age, as well
as the morbid appetite which, joined with a glutted weariness of the pure
milk of the Gospel, is found in many believers of this time as well — to
take possession of hearts and utterly consume the already slight
earnestness in godliness. May the Lord help us here especially, that we
may act in his fear! Oh, that it might please him, through the setting
right of the erring brothers, so to turn this matter that we might prove
our faithfulness without having to do so with a bleeding heart.

Another matter that lies before the Reverend Synod would in itself be
fit to fill us with great joy and thanksgiving toward the Lord of the
church, but through the devil's hatred and envy it has at the same time
become a cause of great distress. It concerns the establishment of a
confessionally faithful English congregation in Baltimore, gathered in
part from former members of the congregation of the Reverend Pastor Keyl,
which has called to be its pastor the Reverend Pastor Müller, who is known
to some among us as a confessionally faithful, serious, and godly man, and
dear and worthy to us as a brother. What a joy this would be to all of us,
and how it should vex the devil,