# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1858_S71
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

71

(Submitted.)

On the Divisions in the Lutheran Congregations Here.

The Lutheran Church of North America has, before her mother church in Germany, one precious and far-reaching advantage, namely her independence, her freedom from the unnatural, harmful union with the state. Her development is hindered neither by oppression and persecution, nor by the equally dangerous favor of worldly power. Complete freedom of faith and conscience is her priceless jewel here. Here the church is allowed to be what she wishes to be, and what she is meant to be according to the will of her King: a kingdom not of this world, a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom unto itself, a kingdom that has its own King and rests solely upon that King's power, might, and wisdom, and is preserved solely through his help and protection. The Bride of Jesus Christ is neither so poor and powerless that the state must sustain her out of pity by its own means and she must bear the crutches of its police protection; nor has she so forgotten her high dignity and honor that, judging the commands of her heavenly Bridegroom insufficient and inexpedient, she would let herself be governed by some foreign intruder in her own household.

It is true that this precious gift of freedom must first be grasped, first recognized, experienced, and practiced by the congregations as well as by the pastors, before it is rightly valued and loved. An immature child under guardianship lives more calmly and free of care than a self-reliant, free man; even the latter must first become truly conscious of his own worth and be practiced in the right use of his freedom, lest he often painfully long back for the years of his immaturity, and even fall into the perverse notion that bondage and immaturity are, at bottom, preferable to freedom and independence. Something similar befalls many a church member and pastor here, for especially in new congregations there is often a great deal of strife, unrest, insecurity, inexperience, awkwardness, distress, and sighing. In Germany the royal or grand-ducal consistories and other church authorities had taken the congregations under their guardian hand; these, according to their own judgment and pleasure, gave the congregations pastors and teachers and took them away again; these, following their ever-changing theological standpoints, gave the congregations hymnals and catechisms and took them away again; these, by their royal etc. plenary power, set the measure of how far church discipline was to be exercised by the congregations, or rather by the pastors alone, or not at all; in most cases, however, it seemed to their wisdom most expedient and quickest to the goal to leave the discipline in the congregations to the sure handling of the royal officials and police officers. To be sure, the supreme, the heavenly King, says of his