# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 11 24_S39
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...Elijah as well; just so, throughout all of Christendom, he had likewise raised up many splendid, distinguished teachers, disciples of this great prophet, through whose wholesome service and diligence he would preserve his Word and his Church, if only they would diligently call upon the Lord of the harvest for pure doctrine and for the sending forth of his laborers." — The Elector replied to him at once: "He had received his letter and had graciously noted his Christian exhortation. Even though Luther's death had occurred, he nevertheless had comforting confidence in God Almighty, that he would grant his grace so that the pure, upright doctrine and foundation of his divine Word would be graciously preserved and increased. He bore heartfelt sympathy for Myconius's infirmity, but hoped that God would still preserve him in life for a long time, so that he might continue to serve the church and its Word so diligently in his office. But if it were God's will to take him from this vale of tears, he would in his place appoint a devout Christian man as pastor and superintendent, and would also look after the school at Gotha and the other schools round about." A note was also enclosed with this, on which was written, word for word: "We are also graciously inclined, should it indeed happen according to God's will that you must depart from this vale of tears, to take your wife and children under gracious protection. This, too, we did not wish to withhold from you, in gracious intent."

So the Lord again refreshed his servant, who loved him so dearly, once more through the love of such true members of the body of the Lord — of whom the pious Elector, too, was one. And his wish was soon granted; before two months had passed, he had followed Luther.

His end, however, was edifying, like his life, and the comfort of faith which he had won after a hard struggle — and which, in the days of his illness, turned his sickbed into a bed of victory — did not leave him even in his last hours. On April 7, 1546, he had his friend, the rector Süßbach, called to him quickly, and the latter noticed at once that his final hour was at hand. He therefore kept the deacon Heinrich Thilo, Myconius's fellow helper in the Gospel and his confessor, back with him, and also sent for another close friend of his, a respected citizen, Johann Portunus. Besides these, only the dying man's family was present. At his own request he first received absolution from the minister of the divine Word, and then turned at once to God in prayer: "Father in heaven, into thy hands I commend my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, Lord, thou faithful God!" — and he repeated this sigh twice more afterward.

After he had received absolution, he began — this was at twelve o'clock noon — to take his leave, making confession of his faith, interspersed with many important passages of Holy Scripture concerning the forgiveness of sins through the mercy of the heavenly Father, concerning the victory over death through the resurrection of Christ, and concerning the hope of eternal glory with the Father in heaven through his departure from this wretched life, of which he was heartily weary.

39

These conversations lasted from noon until three o'clock in the afternoon. At times he rested, but soon resumed these discourses. Between three and four o'clock his voice began to fail him. Meanwhile several friends had come to join them. They all saw the venerable man, like a Simeon (whose song of praise he twice pronounced so clearly, stressing every syllable more slowly than usual), giving thanks to God for his redemption. And so he fell asleep at the age of 55 years and 3 months, and even in his death preached to those standing by that Christ is the resurrection and the life.

On the following day he was carried to his grave amid many tears. The often-mentioned rector Pancratius Süßbach delivered the Latin funeral oration for him at the school; Dr. Justus Menius, superintendent at Eisenach, preached the funeral sermon.

May the Lord never let his Church on earth lack such faithful servants as Myconius was one of. Surely his name, too, will remain a blessing among our readers from now on. Meurer.

Does Old Lutheranism Lead to Rome?

(Continued.)

In the previous issue we demonstrated, from the confessional writings of the Lutheran Church, how definitely and decidedly she teaches that the ceremonies which have been neither commanded nor forbidden by God, but introduced by men, are pieces of Christian liberty; that therefore no conscience should be bound by them, as though it were in itself a sin to use them or not to use them, and as though a church could not be a true church without such ceremonies.*)

*) May the dear readers of the "Lutheraner" not become impatient that we treat this subject so extensively. We remark that precisely concerning this point, uncertainty prevails even among those who are devoted to the Lutheran Church and truth, and that for this reason many stand here opposed to one another who ought to join hands in common labor for the same goal. We would therefore gladly contribute something toward learning to understand one another, and — that peace might come. We therefore urgently ask every reader, for the sake of the importance of the matter, not to disdain what we present here, but to subject it to the sharpest scrutiny.

Some will now, as already mentioned, think that we have hereby plainly condemned, out of their own mouths, those who are nowadays called Old Lutherans, and proven that the latter accordingly cannot be true Lutherans. Some will now say to us: Do not you Old Lutherans quite plainly depart from Article 7 of the Augsburg Confession? Namely, from the principle that "for the true unity of the Christian church it is not necessary that ceremonies, instituted by men, be observed uniformly everywhere"? Do you not seek everywhere to introduce, or to maintain, in the congregations here, the old-Lutheran form of worship with all its traditional ceremonies? Indeed, do you not even condemn it as a betrayal committed against the Lutheran Church and truth, when some Lutheran preachers, in administering the Holy Supper, use common bread instead of wafers except in cases of necessity, or when they break the bread as the Reformed do, or place the bread and cup into the hands of the communicants, or distribute the blessed elements with a new formula, and the like? Do you not thereby quite plainly make into sin, partly the omission and partly the use, of certain things which the old Lutheran Church, in her public confessions, has declared to be free matters of indifference (adiaphora)? Do you not thereby, like the Papists, raise human ordinances to the level of divine commandments? Do you not by this falsify the pure Lutheran doctrine of Christian liberty?

This reproach, which has indeed already been made against us from various quarters, is no small matter. Woe to us if it were well founded! For the error of which we are hereby accused is one that overturns the very foundation, one under which the pure doctrine of justification could never stand. But let us hear the matter out — and it will soon become clear on which side the error is to be found here, whether on the side of the accused, or of the accusers.

We must above all declare: those truly understand the doctrine of Christian liberty poorly who think that, according to this doctrine, the use or rejection of ceremonies neither commanded nor forbidden by God is always entirely a matter of indifference and left to arbitrary choice, simply because such ceremonies are in themselves matters of indifference. Reason alone tells us that things which are in themselves most innocent can become highly sinful under certain circumstances. Even the heathen Seneca recognized this, who writes (Book IV, Controversiae 25): "Quaedam, quae licent, tempore et loco mutato, non licent" — that is, in English: "Some things which are permitted are not permitted under changed circumstances of time and place." Cases can therefore indeed arise in which ceremonies that are in themselves matters of indifference cease to be matters of indifference — cases in which one can grievously sin either by adopting or by rejecting them; this is the teaching of the Word of God, and therefore also the teaching of our Evangelical Lutheran Church. It is indeed true that in his conscience the Christian must always maintain his freedom, without the slightest restriction, in all things neither commanded nor forbidden by God; over his conscience the Christian must never let any man — even were it the whole holy Christian Church — rule by human commandments; thus, for example, when the Apostle had exhorted the Corinthians not to eat of meat offered to idols, so that they might "spare the conscience," he adds: "Yet I do not speak of conscience..."