# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 02 09_S65 # AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheraner. "God's Word and Luther's teaching shall pass away neither now nor ever." Edited by C. F. W. Walther. Volume 3. St. Louis, Mo., February 9, 1847. No. 12. Terms: The Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at a subscription price of one dollar for out-of-town subscribers, of whom half must be paid in advance and who must bear the postage. — In St. Louis, each single issue is sold for 5 cents. Woltersdorf's Address* to the sects who mock the evangelical-Lutheran Zion in its fall, and to all those who separate themselves from the Lutheran Church and turn to the sects. He is indeed still in his city,* though it has a thousand breaches; He, whose gracious presence has still spared us the honor, that amid all the misery to be found, we are the congregation of the Father and the Son. *Ps. 46:5-6. We know it well, we do not deny it, that our outward face, through Satan's great cunning and power, has, alas, already been brought so far, that we, wherever blind folly gains ground, resemble the heathen people all too closely. What is black we do not call light. What does it matter that some speak otherwise, who know neither God nor Luther, and yet call themselves Lutherans? The genuine members weep all the more; God knows! we lament over many all too much. The hurt of Joseph is clear to us; we see the abomination plainly. The household becomes a house of sin; the youth look wretched; and what makes the shame greatest of all is that scarcely here and there a watchman stays awake. What Luther's heart and mouth taught is now held to be perverse. What God's Word can prove is regarded as a new doctrine. O Lutheranism, you are not what you once were, when your tongue speaks so recklessly! When someone does good works, he has no need of Jesus' blood;*) he still considers himself pure above others; heaven must be his own. Another wallows about in the mire, and yet believes so†) in the gospel. *) That is, according to his own wretched notions. †) With a hypocritical faith. One is baptized and boasts of it too, yet one lives according to old habit, resisting the baptismal covenant. The old man rules and lives. Many think that if only they go to the altar, they must then stand in grace before God. *) We have deliberately chosen precisely this testimony of Woltersdorf against the sects, since this man still stands in some esteem among them. — D. H. How many a one confesses a hundred times, and speaks lies without number. He does not keep what he has promised, even though he struggles hard to be pious. He starts the game all over again from the beginning, since he neither will nor can amend himself. Thus one takes, truly to Jesus' scorn, the precious absolution, and comforts oneself*) — O Savior, in you — even into hell itself. One takes it, and does not ask who ought to have it; of such people the church is full. *) It is believed that Jesus exists so that one may go on sinning with an easy conscience. Whoever believes and holds fast to Jesus' words, him our blind world reviles. Whoever savors and does Luther's teaching, him it scolds as a brood of heretics. Whoever joins Jesus' little flock must not be Lutheran, and is held under suspicion. So deep does one lie in the mire of sin, and thinks there is no danger in it. One boasts of being free from error and of being God's true church: O shameless mouths, be silent! and know: that such a people is the church's disgrace. Lord Jesus, yes, so it looks! And should you withdraw yourself from us, as happened there to the people of the Jews, and left no seed remaining there, and let not even a little booth of gourd-vine stand: then we would look like Sodom.*) *) Isa. 1:8-9. But to you, Lord, and to your power be eternal thanks brought from us, that not all are dead and blind, and have fallen away from you. — For when Elijah thinks that he is alone, you tell him that there are seven thousand. 1 Kings 19:10-18. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! The Lord is quite certainly still here; his Word is still heard among us; the doctrine is not perverted here. Thus the Spirit works through Word and Sacrament, so that one recognizes the presence of the Son. We have Word and doctrine pure; each one can be assured that he believes nothing to his own harm, because he is not robbed of the right of examination. And that our confessional books*) are reviled, we despise, because the accusation carries no weight. *) Here are meant the symbolic books, or the confessional writings of the Lutheran Church, namely: the Apostles', Athanasian, and Nicene Creed, the Augsburg Confession, its Apology, Luther's Catechisms, the Smalcald Articles, and the Formula of Concord — which together are called the Book of Concord, and which the enthusiasts often scold as our "iron pope." [illegible] The Bible, God's holy Word, a bulwark against Satan's murder, lies open before everyone among us, so that even a child can look into it. It alone counts. A wise reader reads and discerns whether the teacher leads him on right paths. 2 Tim. 3:15. Acts 17:11. We teach and confess freely that nothing in earth or heaven can make a sinner blessed, except him who was slain upon the cross, who did the whole will of his Father, and shed his blood for our reconciliation. Acts 4:10-12. We baptize as the Lord taught. The Lord's Supper is not perverted. And when both are misused, that has never seemed good to us. We look upon it with true sorrow, and sigh that it cannot be changed. We are reproached for our weeds. But here we open our ear, and hear what the Lord said, when the servants themselves asked him: Do you want us to go and pull it out? "O no! you would pull up the wheat along with it." Matt. 13:28-30. You children, why do you go out, and disgrace your mother's house? You have been taught so purely by her. You were converted in her bosom. She grants you freedom, Word, and Sacrament; what is the reason that separates you from us? You want to go out from our Babel, and leave Zion standing empty. We are indeed pitifully afflicted, yet we are not called Babel. Regard us as a torn Zion, because God himself cannot yet cast us off. When one keeps the doctrine pure, there are some whom it does not please. But, dear friend, what does one harvest where one cannot sow wheat? And if the nights of error do us no harm, then Scripture is called our light in vain. Of blind heretic-making our confessional books are free. What some blind zealot does, the church does not call good at all. A heart that errs and fails somewhere out of weakness is not therefore counted among the heretics. If one keeps Christ's teaching pure and seeks to be one in faith, and speaks only in one manner, then the pure sense is preserved which Scripture teaches us with earnestness and emphasis, and which belongs to the building up of Zion's fortress. 1 Cor. 1:20. Phil. 3:16. 2 Tim. 1:13-14; 2:15-18. Titus 3:10. Eph. 4:14.