# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 01 05_S57
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...not upon our praying and watching, and certainly not upon our running and striving; but that same means which made souls acquainted with Jesus preserves them also in His name, namely, unconditional faith in God's Word and promise. Let a person fall into temptations, into confusions, into whatever feelings they may be: one must always hold fast to the strict distinction between God and man, between God's Word and feeling, God's faithfulness and man's belief — and thus press back again, in this way, toward that unconditional, feeling-less faith — the old way of Thomas: not to see, and yet to believe; one should praise and extol the Keeper of Israel, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, who knows all troubled souls and their sorrow, and has therefore revealed to them such glorious, heart-stirring words of His unshakable covenant of peace, so that they, surrounded on every side by dogs and wild beasts, might have above them, untouchable, a lamp for their feet: His promises, which rise like suns but, together with salvation beneath their wings, never set. In this way one gives to souls a point outside the world, from which this world is lifted off its hinges, and their suffering is turned into pure thoughts of peace; thus one makes hearts still and firm, which endure patiently in the war of life! Whoever exercises himself in this blind (yet also, how bright!) trust in the Word learns to understand the fight of faith; he throws his arms not merely around the Word, but, in the Word, around the Lord Himself, who is called a Rock, and thus gradually takes on the very nature of the Rock, which yields from its roots and foundations to please no misfortune. One should show troubled souls, everywhere and in every case, that all lack vanishes and all sin is forgiven, as soon as one turns again with unconditional trust to the Word of the Cross; indeed, that all their misery, together with all their sins, comes only from this: that one keeps departing again and again from that pure, feeling-less faith and trust in God's promises. To this end one should seek out, for the various sicknesses of the spiritual life, a few clear, plain sayings of Scripture, and apply them in prayer, in all simplicity, for the comfort of anguished souls. Splendid speeches of human wisdom, or even God's truth wrapped in human garments, do not help here: God's words to God's meaning — these, spoken and taught to the heart, along with how one is to practice them (for without practice it does not proceed in true glory!) — accomplish far more than all the world's proofs. A troubled heart often scarcely hears even then, and must be roused by the pastor's angel-like bearing to turn the weak eye of faith away from the dust and toward God's Word; it scarcely understands even God's speech, framed to the understanding of little children, let alone laborious human syllogisms and demonstrations of the certainty of eternal salvation. "I believe it all quite simply," says the comforted heart of one dying in the Lord, and rightly casts human comfort aside.

One should not fear that it is wrong to stake mankind's salvation upon a few, single sayings: for it is indeed futile to bid people drink up all of God's comfort and all of God's Word — the learned can do that no better than unlearned laymen. Nor should one fear that the spirit of temptation will teach the poor people to appeal to other, contrary sayings; rather, one should, in accordance with the Apostle's command, rightly divide the word of truth, so that it may become plain that every saying is wholly true and a heaven full of blessedness. One should remain confidently with a few sayings, and repeat them; one should assure often, and with faithful diligence, that these sayings are God's words of eternal certainty, but all men are liars. One should concede nothing to Scripture's disadvantage, and beside it grant no man the right, even when he speaks correctly, so that the people may turn away from men, who are unreliable and do not remain, and grow accustomed to turning to their God alone, and to drawing all comfort from His Word. If someone is assailed by doubts, one should not bring rational proofs to refute the doubt; for the one under attack does not recognize that doubts arise not from reason but from unreason and folly: he believes himself to be quite reasonable precisely when he doubts. One should hold up before the doubter a word of God, and stand firm that it is exalted above all doubt: such confidence of faith on a pastor's part strikes doubt down, and awakens trust where it has fallen asleep; a free contempt for reason, defying God's Word — a contempt directed against the reason that rebels against God — drives it from the field. If someone is in deep repentance, one should pronounce the Lord's absolution with divine authority, and preach that absolution is greater and mightier than all the sins of the world. If someone grows fearful in the face of death, one should strike up a prayer of thanksgiving to Him in whose holy Scripture, in every third word, eternal life is spoken of, and extol to the dying the great certainty of the divine promise, against which even death, with all its horror, is a shameful liar. If someone is assailed by Satan's cunning and power: we know what sword we have to place in his hands. If someone wishes to justify and vindicate himself: show him God's judgment upon all men in His Word, and how God's judgment annihilates the delusion of all men. If someone wishes to sin, show him in God's sayings God's love and warning, wrath and curse — what more can one do?

Thus Christ fought His enemies — the serpent and the serpent's seed — and overcame them every time, until: "It is finished!" Thus Luther, in God's name, struck down the glory of the Pope and all his lies. Thus can every man win the victory for himself. Let one confess in word and life, always, in every case, to God's Word: that is the best, sharpest, calmest, most conscientious Protestantism. For without the foundation of the divine Word, faith hovers in the air and in fog, and is dream and delusion.

This way brings peace: it seems easy; but nothing is harder than to walk it — and to teach others to walk it. Look at the sermons of most preachers: what are they? Fine words, well-ordered sentences, splendid tirades, expenditure, agony, and smoke of words; but the method of faith, of grounding souls upon God's Word, they do not understand. Among our preachers and pastors there are a hundred mystics and preachers of works, before there is one who, in self-denying love for God's Word, desires to say nothing with all he says except what God says, before there is one who counts it his greatest honor to let God's Word triumph over himself and his own gifts, instead of striding with his own gifts over God's Word and text, and seeking to become a knight upon them. Had more preachers found their peace in God's Word, there would be fewer learned chatterers in the pulpits, and among them more contented hearts, who would know with certainty in whom they believe, who could calmly maintain, in distress and death: "My friend is mine, and I am his!"

Consider it, dearest souls; — and if it is wrong, then speak better, for it is worth the trouble to speak of the way to peace!

Peace be with you! Amen.

Church News from the West.

We cannot forbear to inform our brethren in the East, by this means, that the Lutheran Zion here in the far West has recently received a new increase of four capable workers. Two of them have found their field of labor in Illinois, and two in Missouri. The first is the former pastor at Toledo (Ohio), Mr. F. Lochner. He had been compelled by his congregation (which he had accepted only on the condition that it wished to be a Lutheran one) to move his pilgrim staff further on, because the great majority had wanted to force him also to admit into the congregation such Reformed persons as were not members of the Lutheran Church and were unwilling to confess themselves to this Church and its doctrine alone. To such a demand for a false union and mingling of churches, Pastor Lochner — who is devoted to the Lutheran Church with his whole heart — could of course not submit; he therefore followed a call to come here, and has now accepted the call of two German Lutheran congregations in Illinois, one near Collinsville (12 miles from here) and the other at Edwardsville, and has already entered upon his office in them.

The second among the new arrivals is the former candidate of the preaching office, Mr.