# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S74
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 74 —

the heart, for he has been driven out, and the old unrest, the old discord,
return. If Christians whom the devil has led astray to walk forbidden paths
in order to gain the treasures of the earth have thereby lost their peace, they
then seek it in something else — in a respected position (and in America one
can rise very far) or in money. The love of money turns Christians into
people whose whole thinking and scheming in the end runs only to money;
whose conversation deals with money, whose occupation is directed at
money, whose office and the carrying out of it are all done for money's
sake; in short, whose watchword is money, money! America is truly the
land of the love of money and of greed. Whoever is sated loses God, and
having lost him, seeks to make up the loss by striving to grow rich. There
is indeed a certain interplay between greed and satiety. If the devil has
caught someone in his net and holds him captive with the promise, "All this
I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me," satiety results from
it, for greed kills the zeal for spiritual goods. But far more often it happens
that satiety leads a person into greed. It is a truly poisoned air that blows
in this land, and it is a real wonder when even a few escape its influence. In
the old congregations most are already thoroughly infected — and not only
the merchants and tradesmen in the great cities, but the farmers as well.
Precisely in our old congregations, because satiety has set in, the longing is,
day and night, for more money, more land, more business. Woe to us if we
do not wake from this dream and consider that this current is sweeping us
out into the immeasurable sea of ruin. The influence of this spirit shows
itself here in this land already among the young, and everyone should be
alarmed who notices the danger in his own children. Thirty or forty years
ago, if someone spoke of 100 Gulden, that was already thought a large sum.
Before the war people were still content to speak of thousands, but now
even those sums no longer suffice. Now children already toss around
hundreds of thousands and millions in their talk. We live in a time when a
person is worth as much as the dollars he has. As long as one is still a
Christian, one flees to where one is safe, to the living spring; but once
satiety sets in, it is over.

Adjourned.

Third continuation of the discussion of the guiding propositions.*)

On III.2, it is stated under a. what the pastors must do first of all so
that the blessing not be spilled. Concerning the necessary
self-watchfulness named here first, the following was remarked: St. Paul
testifies expressly in his farewell address to the bishops [elders] at Ephesus:
"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock,"

*) Here the minutes of the standing secretary resume.