# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1857_S327
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Gymnasium at Weimar. 327

12. The preachers of the Gospel are therefore to baptize all those children who are brought to them with the request that they be baptized.

13. The children shall not bear the misdeed of the father, and the covenant which God makes with man in holy baptism stands firm on God's side even when men do not believe.

14. The preachers of the Gospel are therefore also to baptize the children of baptized persons who are brought to them, even if these are godless, unbelieving, heterodox, heretics, or excommunicated.

15. The children of such parents also are holy and have a claim upon baptism, of whom only one part is believing or baptized.

16. The mother has just as much as the father the right as well as the duty to care for the salvation of her child and one day to give account for her child's soul, and therefore also the right and the duty to desire holy baptism for her child.

17. The preachers of the Gospel are therefore also to baptize such children as the believing or baptized part of the parents brings to baptism, even if the other part is opposed.

18. God's name shall not be taken in vain.

19. It is therefore not right when a preacher baptizes a child whose parents do not intend to bring it up in the Christian faith, or do not intend to have it brought up so.

20. No one shall intrude into another's office.

21. The preachers of the Gospel are therefore not to baptize the children of such parents as do indeed bring them to baptism, but who do not belong to the flock entrusted to them.

(From the "Freimund.")

The Gymnasium at Weimar.

With good reason the eyes of all who desire the true welfare of the people are now directed more than formerly to our learned schools, or gymnasia. For in them the future leaders of the people in state and church are formed, in those important years between 14 and 20, when a person as a rule takes his direction either upward or downward. These years are for the most part still more decisive than the university years. — Now these schools in Germany have unquestionably, since the time of the Reformation, done a very great deal so far as learning proper is concerned, and it is to them that our nation owes for the greatest part its reputation for scientific depth and thoroughness. That we do not want to forget on their behalf! —

But how does it stand with formation for the kingdom of God, with the understanding of what the Church desires in our people and in each individual? Here too these schools have for a century neglected much and much