# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Dezember 1856_S383
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

383
Miscellaneous Church News.

the original idea has been the seed of the sectarian nature that later developed; the "Brüderblatt's" understanding of it is merely an idealizing of the error.

Prussia. The following case has recently occupied the courts at Stettin. A "Lutheran" preacher had, from the pulpit, punished several members of his congregation, naming their names, because they had been present at the dedication of a Jewish synagogue; by their presence, he said, they had crucified the Savior a second time and thereby brought upon themselves the divine displeasure. The court found the preacher guilty and sentenced him to a fine of 50 thalers, or four weeks' imprisonment, and payment of costs.

Baden. In the "Ev. Kirchenzeitung" of July of last year, the unionist professor Stern of Karlsruhe expresses the conviction "that a state will one day come to prevail on earth in which righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit will generally be found wherever the Gospel is taught." Professor Hengstenberg makes the apt remark on this: "Whoever from the heart awaits a new earth in which righteousness dwells is under a very particular obligation to renounce, already now, thoroughly, everything of a mixed nature."

An Open Confession. In an article on "Children's Mission Festivals" found in the "Ev. Kirchenzeitung" of July of last year, the writer takes up the question, raised here and there in earnest (!), of whether the liturgy stands above the sermon, and then bears the following testimony: "It is astonishing how heartily poor, how little truthful the preaching is, how much superficial talk even by believing clergymen passes current as preaching. If this is what is meant when one speaks disparagingly of preaching, let it be said outright. But one ought not to protest against this for the sake of the liturgy, but for the sake of the salvation of souls and of the thriving of the church in general, which must again and again be built up and continually sustained by the testimony and the act of preaching. Otherwise the Greek-Catholic Church, which has scarcely any preaching at all but only liturgy, would have to be the strongest member of the body of the Lord. — How poorly things still stand with our preaching can be seen very plainly at mission festivals. Everywhere there is a dearth of preachers; a few are fetched from everywhere, and they — despite their reputation — sometimes do a poor enough job of it even so. But if a children's mission festival is to be celebrated, then the dearth becomes truly great; no one wants to do it, because no one really can." — We here in America certainly have no cause to congratulate ourselves when we hear this German confession. Alas! here too "superficial talk," unwashed and unsalted, meant to pass for Law- or Gospel-preaching, hollow bombastic phrase-making with the obligatory prize-fighter pantomimes and ear- and heart-rending disagreeable shouting, is the order of the day.

Union. Thus wrote C. F. Göschel in last year's June issue of Hengstenberg's Ev. K. Z.: "The grounds for the Union have remained the same, indeed have become even more complete, but they too have had to undergo revision, and — have fared badly under it, both theoretically and practically. Even from the division of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, from their history, from the proclamation of a future reunion, levers for the Union have been drawn, but these have turned into their opposite, precisely because the Union, just as much as that reunion, is not to be forced, not to be artificially contrived, but — is to be awaited, when it shall be the right time. Those two kingdoms were, quite properly, of one tribe of one people, of one family, far more so than the two Evangelical churches. To both kingdoms gifts of grace had been entrusted, to both prophets had been granted; here and there