# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 03 09_S77
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

"...came, through hard struggle, to this conviction: that I believe the body of the Lord is truly present in the holy Supper." — For the future as well, our people gave themselves over to the fair hope of peace, cherishing the best confidence in the sincerity and honesty of the Reformed. "I do not say," Luther declared on this point in a sermon* after his return, "that there is brotherly unity, but rather a kindly, friendly concord, in that they seek from us in friendship what they lack, and we in turn serve them. Where you now diligently entreat, it will also become brotherly." Melanchthon held the same view: "It is also to be hoped that, if skillful ways were taken to deal with them, they would let the matter drop." And as love believes all things and hopes all things, so the dear Luther felt himself compelled not merely to pray for the erring friends, but also judged them in the mildest and most forbearing way. "Although they saw," he writes, "that their arguments proved nothing, they still would not yield — namely, on this one point concerning the presence of the body of Christ. And I hold that this comes more from fear and shame than from malice... In short! the poor fellows do not seem to me evil in themselves, but rather to have fallen into this opinion through error and by chance, from which they would gladly be free again, if only they could. May God, who has begun the work, have further mercy on them, and bring them back again! Amen." At the same time, however, he most solemnly assured the Landgrave why he had not accepted the doctrine of the Reformed: "Ah, Lord God! it is no jest, nor disgrace, to teach something new; truly, there must here be no conceit, nor private fancy, nor uncertain sayings; there must be clear, powerful texts present, which they have not yet produced. Truly! I have suffered such great trouble and danger over my doctrine; I would not gladly have done, and still do, such bitter labor in vain; therefore I would truly resist them neither out of hatred nor out of pride, but would long ago have accepted their doctrine — God knows, my Lord — if only they could show grounds for it. But upon that on which they stand, I cannot set my conscience."

(To be continued.)

*) In the sermon referred to, Luther's judgment reads more fully as follows: "They (the Reformed) have desired brotherhood from us, but we have refused it to them and could not grant it. For if we were to accept them as brothers and sisters, we would have to consent to their doctrine. Although this refusal was not gladly seen, and it was suggested that we ought to show love toward them, so that God might yet bring them back again; for we too ought to love our enemies, Matthew 5:44. Now, whoever wishes to interpret this ill may do so; and whoever can accomplish more, let him do so. They remain in their opinion — may God enlighten them; although they patch and adorn themselves, and have conceded that they do not deny that the true body and blood of Christ is present; which sounds as though they held with us. They confess that those who go to the Supper all truly partake of the body and blood of Christ; but spiritually, in that they have Christ in their hearts. A bodily partaking they will not allow; that we have left to their own conscience. For we have God's Word and the text before us, which they do not have. Therefore the matter stands in good hope."

77

(Submitted.)

John Wesley, converted through Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans.

In No. 26 of the Baltimore "Lutheran Observer" there is found an interesting account, that John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist fellowship, first encountered among German Lutherans living examples of truly believing Christians, and that he indeed traced his own conversion back to the time when he once heard something of Luther's read aloud.

In the year 1735 Wesley traveled with Salzburg exiles on a ship to America. Along the way a great storm arose. All were afraid. Only the Salzburgers remained calm. Wesley had noticed this. After the storm had subsided, he asked them how it was possible to remain calm amid such fearful circumstances. They explained that, because they knew they had peace with God, they were entirely resigned to whatever fate their Lord had appointed for them. Wesley was utterly astonished at this explanation and said that he had never yet experienced such certainty of faith. A Methodist writer, Dr. Jackson in England, relates the following about this event in his book Centenary of Methodism: "In these strangers (namely, the Salzburgers) the English Methodists saw Christianity in a nobler, more attractive, and more comforting light than ever before. These godly exiles bore every hardship and insult with the greatest gentleness; they were always ready to render the lowliest services to their fellow travelers, and in storms and hurricanes, while others wished to die of fear, they calmly sang hymns of praise to God and altogether displayed a joyful trust in God and a complete resignation, at a time when they were in danger every moment of being swallowed by the immense depths of the sea." And Wesley himself says of this in his diary (Works, Vol. III, p. 55): "It is now two years and nearly four months since I left my native land, to teach the Indians in Georgia the essence of Christianity; yet what have I myself learned in that time? Nothing other than this (which of all things was least suspected by anyone): that I, who went to America to convert others, was myself not yet converted!"

Thus the testimony and conduct of those exiles, in whom the Lutheran doctrine of justification had come into its power, was not without a deep impression upon Wesley and his friends, and had in particular exposed to him his own lack; yet he was first to hear, in person, the reformer of the Church sent by God, Dr. Luther, in his surviving writings, in order to experience the power of justifying faith in his own heart. The "Lutheran Observer" reports further, namely: "It is well known that Wesley was converted only after his return from Georgia to England, when, at a meeting which the Moravian Brethren held in Aldersgate Street in London, he heard read aloud 'Luther's preface to Paul's Epistle to the Romans.'" In that preface Luther magnificently shows what Paul means by the words law, sin, grace, faith, righteousness, flesh, and the like.

*) How often might this still happen even now to many a Methodist and other missionary, who so readily allow themselves to be regarded as apostles and heroes of the faith! — D. H.

Would that this fact might, among the present-day German Methodists who have turned their backs on the Lutheran church and everywhere decry her as a barren mother unable to bring forth children of God, draw more attention to Luther's doctrine and lead them to recognize that the truth which they find in their own fellowship has come precisely from the Lutheran church! But would also that the Lutherans, where they still hold Luther's doctrine, might bring forth such fruits of faith as those Salzburgers, so that they too might be a salt and a light of the world!

B.

Does the Old Lutheranism Lead to Rome?
(Continued.)

A second practice of the old Lutheran church which, in the judgment of Mr. Weyl, is supposed to lead to Rome, is "the setting up of a crucifix in the church."

To this objection we must first note that the Lutheran church has indeed always differed from the Reformed churches also in this, that it has tolerated images, altars, crucifixes, etc. in its places of worship, whereas the Reformed church, since Carlstadt's image-breaking, has for the most part rejected these — although even the Reformed have never become fully agreed on this point. Thus, for example, the Reformed theologian Beza says without reserve: "That he heartily abhors the image of the Crucified One." (Coll. Mompel. p. 418.) On the other hand, the equally strict Calvinist Peter Martyr writes: "According to his human nature Christ may be painted." (Comment. I Reg. 7.)

What rightly believing Lutherans think of the use of images in churches we can best learn from Luther's own statements on the subject. Luther expresses himself on this matter as follows. In his fourth sermon, which he preached in Wittenberg in the year 1522, after his return from the Wartburg, against Carlstadt's fanaticism and image-breaking, he says: "We must therefore conclude, and let it rest there, that images are in themselves neither good nor bad; rather, let it be free whether one has them or not, only that no faith or delusion attach to it, as though by our setting up of images we did God any service or pleased him." Further, Luther writes in his treatise "Against the Heavenly Prophets, Concerning Images and the Sacrament," from the year 1524 and 1525: