# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1857_S335
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

How in Reuss-Greiz Earnest Is Being Made with the Abolition of Mixed etc. 335

the Holy Supper at the Lutheran altar. Under such circumstances it came hard to the confession-faithful Lutherans in Greiz to protest by word and deed against the sin they recognized. But the Lord gradually granted "holy courage, wholesome counsels, and righteous works." The church ministerium in Greiz some time ago publicly issued the following announcement:

"Those members of the local church congregation who have come here from territorial churches of the evangelical Reformed confession and who have not already declared their heartfelt and formal adherence to the local evangelical Lutheran territorial church and its confession are hereby informed that, with the most gracious approval and support of the most serene sovereign house, a clergyman of the Reformed confession will be present here next Monday and Tuesday, who on Tuesday morning, in the upper hall of the princely garden palace most graciously granted for the purpose, will hold the celebration of the Holy Supper according to the rite of the evangelical Reformed Church, and on the preceding Monday the preparatory devotion for it; and further, that his coming here for such purpose will, God willing, also take place from time to time in the future. The said persons are most kindly invited to attach themselves to this celebration, since in view of the confessional consciousness that has of late come forward more vigorously among the congregations, the participation of members of the Reformed confession in the communion celebration of the local evangelical Lutheran congregation will henceforth not be practicable."

Herewith the Lutheran church ministerium in Greiz has certainly, as every truth-loving person must concede, spoken and acted in a rightly loving manner, and moreover quite peaceably and kindly. Nevertheless a hue and cry was raised about it in all sorts of newspapers, which in this time of ours, so unspeakably confused in churchly matters, is not at all to be wondered at. The great crowd of those who call themselves Christians does not nowadays know the love of which St. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13: "It does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but it rejoices in the truth." But because sincerity is pleasing to the Lord, the Lord also grants grace and blessing when with a sincere heart the honor is given to the truth by word and deed. Indeed, as one hears, the reigning princess of Greiz, together with several ladies of the court, has not only come to the sure conviction that the practice of mixed communion fellowship is sin and that the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper is the only one in accord with Scripture, but has also gone over to the Lutheran Church. And those confession-faithful Lutherans who had to go elsewhere to the Lord's table so long as mixed communion fellowship existed in Greiz will now again be able to receive the venerable Sacrament at their own altar.

Should not, then, in other Lutheran territorial churches also, as for example in Bavaria, the sin of mixed communion fellowship be just as easily