# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 02 23_S73
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...the effect of Pascal's Letters made itself felt above all in France, especially among the clergy. For all the most dreadful doctrines were substantiated with the clearest passages from the Jesuit moralists; at first people could not believe that the citations were accurate. The clergy of Rouen commissioned a committee to compare the citations. With the greatest conscientiousness the comparison was carried on for a full month; all of Pascal's citations were found to be verbally correct.

The editor, too, is in a position to furnish, word for word, the citations given above according to their sources; should the Wahrheitsfreund or the Katholische Kirchenzeitung therefore take it into their heads to deny their accuracy, we shall not fail to have the same printed word for word in our own paper.

Frankenmuth, on the Cass River, Michigan.

The third day of Christmas was a day of special grace and joy for our little mission congregation, for on that day, in our new log church in the woods, the firstfruits of our mission work — a heathen boy of eighteen years and his two younger sisters — were baptized, after due renunciation [of the devil] and profession of faith had been made. The boy received the name Abraham, the elder girl the name Magdalena, the younger the name Anna. They had spent a good part of the summer at home with their sick mother, and there they had to endure many a hard trial, being beset by the English Methodist missionaries, who shrank from no means, however gross the lies, to stir up prejudice against us among the Indians. But after their mother's death they came back to us and were all the more attentive at religious instruction, in which, to be sure, very meager resources stood at our disposal. But the Lord, who reserves the glory for Himself alone, blessed the little that we had and let it bear fruit. It cost us the most effort to convince the boy — who was a sober, honorable, industrious fellow — of his sinfulness. In him was clearly shown what Paul says to the Romans in the fifth chapter: where there is no law, sin is not reckoned. But when he heard from Scripture of the fall into sin, and how ever since all men, even through their sinful birth, are unclean and under the wrath of God, the Spirit of God soon convinced him that an evil tree can bear no good fruit, that his own conduct hitherto had likewise been nothing but sin, and he became conscious of his need of salvation. When, upon his asking what he had from Baptism, he received the answer that it works forgiveness of sin, life, and salvation, he asked, again and again, to be baptized. His sisters too, though more quiet and reticent, declared with tears that they wished to be baptized. The act was actually supposed to take place on the first day of Christmas, whose meaning had been made clear to them, but on account of the thaw the invited

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baptismal witnesses could not come, to the great disappointment of the boy, who then himself named nearby neighbors acquainted with the language. As we set out for the church for the baptism, the boy expressed his great joy that he was now to be washed clean of his sins. Fourteen days after the baptism, one of the girls died suddenly of a paralysis of the lungs following whooping cough. How the grieving brother rejoiced when he heard that she was now with the Lord Christ, who had received her in Baptism, in His eternal glory. — Church and churchyard are thus already consecrated to their purpose, and although, as said above, we are hemmed in by the fanatical Methodists, we nevertheless already have influence with two large tribes; indeed, from one of them the chief's own son is now in our school, an open, gifted boy. Lutheran Christians, you who read this and rejoice over it, pray with us to the Lord for the furtherance of His work, and open your hearts and hands to active support. Here the Church bears children out of strange tongues, not by the means of human contrivance, as the sects seek to make Christians, but through the sole means of grace, the Word and the Sacraments. But may the Lord, in His grace, grant that many more may yet be born to her, that the number may soon be fulfilled and He come and take us home into His eternal kingdom of joy and glory. Amen. A. C.

(Submitted.)
Vindication.

Mr. Editor!

We the undersigned feel obliged to defend and vindicate Mr. Ad. Conradi, pastor of our evangelical Lutheran Zion's Church at Hamilton, Butler Co., Ohio, against the shameful attack issued on the part of the church council of the (pseudo-) united evangelical St. John's congregation here, and under the influence of their pastor, Mr. Fischer, which appeared in the Volksblatt, year 11, no. 41, of this year; and we ask that this vindication be included as well: namely, we unanimously declare the accusation against our pastor to be hereby a shameless and malicious slander. We promise the public that, at the next opportunity, we shall lay before them, for their judgment, in various German as well as English newspapers, the whole history of the St. John's congregation with which this is concerned, so that every impartial reader may form a correct judgment of the religious and moral standing of both congregations, as well as of their pastors. — We testify, as was already done orally on January 24 of this year before the St. John's congregation in their church, so also here once more publicly, that the reports written by our pastor, and gathered by us and others at Hamilton, concerning the perverse nature and doings of the St. John's congregation, "are in the main not in contradiction with the truth," and that, upon publication of the detailed history, due regard by way of explanation shall be given for any indefinite expressions. — We further make known that, concerning the unblemished conduct of Mr. A. Conradi's life during his twenty-two years of ministry among us, as well as concerning his doctrine, which is the doctrine of Scripture and of our Church, we are better informed than what he has been accused of on the part of the St. John's congregation, and that we are, moreover, fully satisfied — on account of his creditable studies as teacher and preacher, as well as his technical training for his practice at the Rauhes Haus near Hamburg — with: 1, his honorable certificate of discharge from the preachers' seminary of the Rauhes Haus, issued by its board of curators, to which the foremost men of the city belong; 2, the excellent testimonial of his teachers and examiners as to his fitness for the calling of teacher and preacher in America; 3, the letter of accreditation of Mr. K. Sieveking, syndic of the free Hanseatic city of Hamburg, with the syndicate's seal of the city affixed; 4, the confirmation of Mr. John Cuthbert, United States consul for North America at Hamburg, with the consular seal of the United States affixed; and 5, the worthy testimonial of the board of the Evangelical Missionary Society for German Protestants in North America, signed by the pastors Münch of Berkersheim, P. L. Luja of Mittelbuchen, L. Schneider of Windecken, C. G. Ullrich of Rumpenheim, Ph. Beinhauer of Hanau near Frankfurt am Main, and J. Richter, president of the society, of Praunheim — who, being convinced of his fitness, recommended him by letters and official seal to the Reverend Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio, as well as to Hamilton; and finally, 6, the concluding attestation of the above truth by C. Gräbe of Praunheim in Hesse, United States consul, with the consular seal of the United States affixed.

This alone satisfies us far more than if a hundred such well-known St. John's congregations, with their pastors to date, were to bear testimony against our pastor, Mr. A. Conradi — testimonies which do not stand in agreement with sincerity and truth. Testimonials concerning the pastors of the St. John's congregation from Germany are indeed available — but, aside from that, we may perhaps be permitted the request: come forward yourselves for once with the confession of what you believe, with the humble admission of what you actually were in Germany, of what moves you to serve congregations in America as pastors? And you, St. John's congregation, does it not alarm you at all when you consider the meaning of your fine name?! What is the reason that you will not have a pastor who belongs to a church body, to a synod, and so forth? Perhaps you will find yourselves compelled to answer when your history, your ecclesiastical standing, appears in the public papers. — Unanimously, the church council, together with the congregation united in unity of faith and love, the evangelical