# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1887_S17
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Fifth Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1887. 17

laid the foundation for our fellowship. In building it up he did more
than others. He was our leader in the work and in the struggle. If one
may apply the word of Elisha at Elijah's departure, and the word of
Joash at Elisha's departure, to a servant of God of comparable
enlightenment and calling, then we too must cry after him: "My
father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!" He was,
in deed and in truth, the spiritual father of who knows how many
souls. And just as the power of an earthly kingdom is embodied in
chariots and horsemen, so in him the power of our Synod was, as it
were, embodied. How indispensable he seemed to us! How much we
lack, now that we lack him! How greatly we shall still miss him! How
could we ever forget him!

Yet — God wills to take him from us. Let us humble ourselves, then,
under his mighty hand. He is the Lord; let him do what pleases him.
Let us give God the glory! Before him no man is indispensable. God is
our refuge forever and ever. He alone remains as he is. But this God is
none other than our God, indeed, for the sake of his beloved Son, our
Father. And his mercy has no end. Though Elisha may have felt
forsaken, God did not forsake his Israel. Though he may call his
servants home one after another, he himself remains. So he will not
forget us either. And can he not, even today, raise up children from
the stones and prepare a power from the mouths of infants against his
enemies? Is not his strength made mighty in the weak? Will he not
hold them fast to the end? How should he let the work lie unfinished
that he himself began among us and through us?

Let us mourn, then, my brothers — but not as those who have no hope.
Let us not lay our hands faintheartedly in our lap. No, let us lift up
our eyes to the hills, from whence our help comes; let us straighten our
weary knees and our drooping arms; let us confidently take up the
trowel again, and, where it must be, the sword. But cautiously, in the
fear of God.

Up to now it has indeed been a settled matter among us that we should
build on no other foundation than the one that has been laid; by no
other means than the word that leads to Christ and keeps one in
Christ; and according to no other plan than the one once given to the
saints at the formation and reformation of the Church. In this we must
now remain wholly firm and unshakeable. Now more than ever it is
needful to ask for wisdom, that we may stand firmly together in one
mind and one judgment. For only if we build as we have the apostolic
age for our model, only if each of us first builds up himself and then,
according to gift, calling, and opportunity, builds up his neighbor —
that is, founds on the eternal rock of salvation, and strengthens