# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1844 10 13_S16
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

he is not yet a Christian, but rather seeks still to bring it about that he become a Christian; that he may boast with Paul, Phil. 3:12, 15, 16: "I am not, but I seek to be"; "not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded." For a Christian is in the process of becoming, not in a state of having become. For it is said to him: "Ask, seek, knock"; it does not say: you already have it, you have already found it, you have already entered in; but rather: "Ask, seek," etc. Whoever, therefore, thinks himself a Christian is not a Christian; that is, whoever imagines that he has already become a Christian, when he ought only to be becoming one, is nothing. For we stretch out toward heaven, but we are not yet in heaven. And just as the one who imagines that he is already in heaven will never come into heaven, so the one who stretches out toward heaven and seeks to enter it is already in heaven — for God reckons him as one already in heaven. In sum: one must continually go forward and grow, and not stand still, nor snore in false security. "Our old man," as Paul says, "must decay, and the inward man be renewed day by day." 2 Cor. 4:16.

Woe to him who is already wholly renewed — that is, who imagines that he is already renewed. Such a one has without doubt not yet even begun to be renewed, and has never yet tasted what it is to be a Christian. For whoever has begun to be a Christian does not consider himself to be a Christian, but earnestly desires to become one; and the more he grows and increases, the more he seeks to become one, and the less he considers himself to already be one. So altogether wonderful are the workings of the kingdom of Christ. "Let him that thinketh he standeth," says Paul, "take heed lest he fall." 1 Cor. 10:12. And again: "For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." Gal. 6:3. (Luther, in his exposition of the parable of the seeking of the goodly pearl, on Matt. 13:45–46.)

The Cowardly Heart of an Unbeliever.

When Nikolaus Lange, in the year 1693, was living in Vienna in the capacity of a legation preacher, and therefore dined there daily at the table of his ambassador (the Swedish ambassador), one of the dinner guests present each day made it his particular business, in defiance of the pious Lange, to hold the most audacious speeches about God and his Word, and especially to carry on his mockery of hell and the devil. But what happened? At this time, this great hero was lodging, together with his valet — an old, God-fearing man — in a garden house, in front of which stood an old, decayed oak that had long threatened to fall. On a stormy

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night, this oak finally came crashing down and, with a terrible crash, smashed to a thousand pieces every window in that Goliath's bedroom. He awoke in terror at the moment the commotion began, and, springing from his bed, cried out to his valet as loudly as he could in his mortal fear: "Johann! Johann! Pray! Pray! The devil is coming for me!" The valet appears and finds his master trembling in his whole body. The former now fetches a light and shows the latter the natural cause of the dreadful uproar, whereupon the master calms down again and goes back to bed.

The Christian-minded valet, however, could not refrain from reporting this incident to Lange the very next morning; he thought by this to give the pastor a necessary hint, according to which the latter might perhaps arrange his admonition. Noon came, and the gentleman again appeared at the ambassador's table, but began his offensive speeches anew with the greatest lack of restraint. Lange thereupon brought the conversation around to the majesty, omnipresence, and justice of God, and reminded [the company] how holy God is, in that he often punishes the despisers of his majesty, as it were, contemptuously, so that, according to Holy Scripture, the sound of a driven leaf can put them to flight (Lev. 26:36). Finally he added that many a swaggering braggart and blusterer can talk a great deal against God; but that afterward it may well happen that God, at the mere breaking of a dry tree, gives him so cowardly a heart that he thinks the devil is coming for him, and runs, though no one is chasing him. (Lev. 26:36.) At these words the man turned pale, and from that time on became quite quiet. But no one at the time knew what that speech had been aimed at.

Christian Courage.

When the former superintendent at Brandenburg, Nikolaus Lange, was still serving as house-preacher to the Count von Horn on his estates near Demmin in Pomerania, he had to hold the daily hours of prayer in the count's house, which he also carefully used, among other things, to instruct the ignorant household servants in Christianity as much as possible. In these endeavors the zealous man was visibly blessed by God. Only to a single insolent and lustful person were the prayer hours the greatest burden, and yet, for fear of incurring the count's displeasure, he dared not miss them. Now, just as Lange watched closely over all the members of the household, so that they might not willfully sin against God, so too he soon noticed the wicked ways of the aforementioned person. He therefore spoke, at every opportunity that arose, against sins against the sixth commandment. Because this constantly convicted the man in his conscience, he once asked the preacher, after the prayer hour, in the presence of the others, with a grim expression, whom he meant by always speaking of fornication. To which the preacher responded by directing him to examine his own conscience.

The next day, as Lange was riding to Stettin with some members of the count's family, sitting with his back to the horses in the carriage, he saw the man whom he had called to repentance the day before come riding after them at full gallop; and since he could see very well into the distance, he already noticed the rider's grim gestures, and suspected at once that the man had something evil in mind. He therefore had the carriage stopped, jumped down, and, without letting the slightest fear or embarrassment show, addressed the embittered man thus: "You child of wrath, halt! How has the spirit of murder led you here? Behold, here I stand in the name of Jesus — do what you cannot help but do! Yet I defy you even to draw a single pistol!" At this display of courage, the man, foaming on his horse, fell into such confusion that, although he kept reaching for his pistol, he could not draw it out, because he was too taken aback. Lange then went up to him, seized the horse by the bridle with one hand, and with the other took hold of the rider's right hand, saying: "You wretched man, get down from your horse; let us go together in among the grain." The tiger now became like a lamb, and got down. Lange then tied the horse to the carriage, asked his companions to wait a little while, and went with the man into the grain field. There they both sat down, and Lange spoke movingly to the poor man, showing him not only how great his sins were against God's holy commandment, but also pointing him to the great grace and kindness of the Savior of all sinners, whom he was despising, choosing instead to pursue a pleasure that would bring eternal displeasure upon him. And behold, the hard heart melted; the sinner began to weep bitterly, and confessed that those rebukes had until now been unbearable to him. Nevertheless, he said, they had been the truth; he had sinned greatly, and now repented of it from his heart. He then showed two pistols, which he had hidden in his coat in addition to the two in the holster, and 500 reichsthalers in money, because he had resolved to shoot his pastor and then ride out into the wide world. But he now praised God, who had prevented him from this and had come to meet him instead. He promised henceforth to turn away from his sinful ways. They both then knelt down, and Lange prayed fervently to God. After this they went back again, and the man, after many expressions of affection, rode home, changed his former way of life, and from then on became devoted to Lange with all his heart.

The "Lutheraner" can always be obtained at the residence of the distributor, Mr. Gräber, (South Fifth Street, opposite the oil mill), further at Mr. Quast's (Olive Street, between Second and Third, below the theater), and from the publisher.

Printed by Weber and Olshausen.