# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 12 08_S46
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

[continued from Seite 45] cross is made, and that one bows at the mention of the name of Jesus, etc. The Reformed, on the other hand, have insisted that it is indispensable to the right celebration of the Holy Supper to use ordinary bread, to break it, and to give the bread and cup into the hand of the communicants, etc. But precisely because people wanted, on the one hand, to make this a matter of sin for the Lutheran Church — as superstitious, papist, and idolatrous — and, on the other hand, to force it upon her as necessary, precisely for that reason the Lutheran Church has not yielded to her adversaries on this point for a single hour, but has retained it in defiance of these makers of false scruples, so that the important article of Christian liberty might not be obscured, and so that she might not lose it. But has it now perhaps become otherwise? Do people not still, even now, make the most innocent ceremonies of the Lutheran Church into remnants of the papacy, of which one ought finally to be cleansed once and for all? Do not even the false brethren within our own church now press for this, because they see clearly that the garment of the old Lutheran worship does not suit their fanatical, Methodist-style mongering of the Spirit? — Apart, then, from the fact that we ought already, for the sake of the false spirituality and pride now prevailing — with which people exalt themselves over the simplicity of our fathers — to guard this all the more carefully and jealously, we would also plainly and shamefully deny our Christian liberty if we yielded to our adversaries and to the false brethren in their insistence upon those things. What sort of doctrine, what sort of notions of Christian liberty would we thereby introduce into, and help to confirm in, the hearts of many thousands of Christians! It is clear; it is our duty, now too and here too, to bear witness by our deeds that a true Christian ought not to let men make sin for him, or impose commandments upon him, where God makes no sin and imposes no commandment. Nor may anyone say: I stand in circumstances in which, for my part, I have no such occasion. We answer: if you wish to be a servant of the Lutheran Church, and if your congregation truly wishes to be a part of it, then you must not be content, together with your congregation, to do only what would be right and salutary for the narrow circle of your congregation if it stood by itself; rather, you are obligated, as a member of the whole, to act in the consciousness of your connection with the whole Church. If you are vividly aware of your claim to membership in the Lutheran Church, then in your conduct the thought must be ever before you: What concerns the Church concerns me too; her struggles are my struggles; what the Church does, I do with her; what I do, the Church does with me; if the Church is led into temptation, I too am tempted; if anyone opposes the Church with regard to one of her possessions, he opposes me as well on that account; whatever would deny the Church, by that I too would be denied. "If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it."

46

1 Corinthians 12:26. Whoever, indeed, does not stand in the living awareness of being a member of the great whole of the Church will not understand this. —

It would, moreover, be a different situation altogether if the Lutheran Church of America had remained pure in doctrine, and only her ceremonies had, in the course of time, fallen away for the sake of changed circumstances; then it would be folly to press in any way for the reintroduction of the fallen ceremonies. But let us consider how here most Lutherans first abandoned Lutheran doctrine and adopted the Reformed and Methodist doctrine, and then also introduced the ceremonies of the latter in place of the old Lutheran ones; let us consider how the old doctrine vanished hand in hand with the old customs, while the new doctrine has penetrated into our church in step with the new customs; let us consider, finally, how in most congregations that call themselves Lutheran here, nothing but the name has been retained, while the union has already in fact been introduced, in that the preachers (to name only this) have received Reformed persons — even when these wish to remain Reformed — into their congregations as members, partly out of concern for their livelihood, partly out of complete religious indifference: must we not, above all, now and here, recognize it as the most sacred duty of a faithful servant of the Lutheran Church, and of a congregation bearing this name, that it visibly distinguish itself in deed, also through its outward worship, from the congregations that have become apostate, and publicly and decisively renounce them? Must we not hold it our most sacred duty, as faithful sons of our church, to avoid carefully even the slightest appearance of belonging to the great party of those, or of approving, or at least not abhorring with our whole heart, the character and conduct of those who here have become unfaithful to the Lutheran Church — indeed have already become members of another church — and yet hypocritically wish to bear the Lutheran name? Must we not hold it our most sacred duty to take earnest care that we do not, either in word or deed, make ourselves partakers of the godless mingling of churches and religions that is becoming ever more dominant here among the Lutherans-in-name-only? In sum: if it has ever, in any land, been necessary for a Lutheran congregation, which does not wish to bear its name in appearance and mockery, to remain true to the confessional ceremonies of our church and to guard against adopting Reformed and similar ceremonies — is it not necessary now, in this time of more than Babylonian confusion, and precisely here in America, in this land of sects and indifferentism?

(To be continued.)

Jesuitism

When the Reformed preacher Drabitius of Lednice, an eighty-three-year-old man, was to be executed as a heretic, the Jesuits declared to him that they would spare his life if he recanted. Drabitius did so, and was nevertheless led to his death. When he then, as the execution was about to proceed, reminded the Jesuits of their promise, he received the answer: they had meant this of eternal life!

Old Mathesius's Exhortation to His Hearers to Stand Firm in Luther's Teaching.

So I exhort you today, dear friends, that you hold constantly and steadfastly to this man's teaching, testimony, and truthful prophecy and exposition of Scripture, and that you persevere, together with your households, to your life's end; and besides this, give thanks to God, who sent us this chosen instrument for the last age, and preserved him, against all the gates of hell, for twenty-nine years in these lands and in his regular calling; and that you do not let yourselves be turned away and led astray from his confession by the rogues and tricksters who nowadays would gladly stifle and destroy this man's reputation, office, and confession. God has, through this man and his fellow helpers, caused the blessed doctrine to be blessed, spread abroad, and refined pure and superfine at Wittenberg, as through fire; guard yourselves against those who would add new alloy to the silver and stamp false images upon it. For there are many quicker, sharper, and more pointed minds, and the world is greedy and meddlesome; therefore I warn you, my parishioners, as a member of the schools and a citizen of the churches at Wittenberg, and as the grateful pupil of this Doctor and of his most beloved friend, Master Philip, and as your regular old pastor: do not let yourselves be swayed and weighed by every wind, and be led away from the Word of the Lord Christ, and do not let his faithful servants among you, in this church and school, be made suspect to you. There are, in this wicked world, many chatterers, many pamphleteers, many schemers, who present and pass themselves off, in angelic brightness, with flattery and double-talk. Remain steadfast in what you have learned, and do not let the word of the prophets and apostles, as God has had it expounded at Wittenberg, be twisted out of your hands, or torn and wrested from your hearts; seldom does a better guardian and teacher come afterward.

The Power of the Mass.

The minister Cardinal Richelieu once asked his confessor how many masses would be needed to draw a soul out of purgatory. And when the latter could not answer him, the former said: "I know it very well: one needs just as many for that as one needs snowballs to heat a baker's oven with."

Paid.

Year 2: Messrs. Ellinger, Faude, Leonhardt.
Second half of Year 2: Mr. Chr. Horn.
First half of Year 3: Messrs. Chr. Horn, Leonhardt, H. Steutrwald.
Year 3: Pastor Brohm (10 copies), Pastor Burger, Ellinger, Evers, C. Jungk, F. Träger, Pastor Trautmann, H. Wollter, Pastor Isensee, J. Mayers.

Printed by Weber and Olshausen.