# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1858_S125
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

A Few Words on Philipp Melanchthon. 125

not overpower it. In this sense you step forth, my dear gentlemen, as the embodied witnesses of the spirit that lived and reigned among us. This spirit is the one that unites us all in the bond, common to us, of the spiritual priesthood. But let us not speak idle words about this priesthood; rather let us turn it into flesh and blood, and make an earnest thing of it, so that as living stones we may build upon the kingdom of the Lord. And what the nature of the priesthood is, you all know. Priestly service is sacrificial service. And if we ask what we are obliged to sacrifice, the answer is: ourselves, with body and soul, to the honor of the Lord and to the self-denying service of His kingdom. The heathen, in a legend, knew how to glorify the spirit of this self-denial, telling of that man who, when the abyss opened, closed it by hurling himself into it, man and horse together. This too may be an image of what you, as witnesses of Christ, have to do when it is required. Therefore let my last word to you be: In, with man and horse! and the abyss will close. — With these words I close the general synod of the year 1857, and may the Lord, the faithful Savior, give His blessing to our work and lead us all out into His eternal, heavenly kingdom! Amen."

The farewell address which, in the name of the synod, Consistorial Councillor and Dean Fabri of Würzburg directed to the Royal Commissioner and to the Chairman, was a warm, deeply felt expression of the thanks and trust with which the synod was filled toward the Chairman as toward the whole church government. At the closing service Dean Maier of Steben preached on Luke 12:32, laying the text on the hearers' hearts in a lively manner as "an encouraging call to His own in a time of earnestness." Thus the general synod of the Consistorial District of Bayreuth closed on the 17th of November.

Among all the faithful members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bavaria, however, there is joy that the Lord has been confessed at our synods so joyfully and powerfully and unanimously, and that honor has been given to His name. We rejoice, too, for our church government and its president, who, for no other reason than their faithful testimony of Christ, have drawn upon themselves the reproaches of unbelief and of half-education. What Elijah once prayed on Carmel — "Let it be known this day in Israel that Thou, Lord, art God, and I am Thy servant" — was surely the substance of many intercessions for our church government at the convening of the synods. And the Lord has heard such prayer, and has done for us above what we asked or understood; He has, at our synods and through them, made known that He is God and that our church government is faithful in His service. And for this our heart rejoices and is glad in our God.

A Few Words on Philipp Melanchthon.

The renowned theologian Polykarp Leyser judges thus: before I now wish to speak of this, of how honorably I think of Philip's writings, I know that I do not satisfy some, who, judging me by themselves, think that I only ven-