# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1858_S158
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

158    Church and Contemporary Notes.

direction that his heart has, by force of his love for the truth. So it was with the centurion Cornelius, of whom the Book of Acts tells us. The main thing is to be of the truth. Jesus Christ says: "If any man will do His will who sent me, he shall know whether my teaching be of God, or whether I speak of myself." Are we of the truth? are we ready to confess it, cost what it may, as soon as it has been made known to us? do we wish to know and do God's will? That is the question we must put to ourselves if we would escape condemnation. And because a time of grace has been granted us, let us therefore give heed to the testimony of the Gospel, and, looking up to God, examine whether it be of God or of men.

One sees with horror from this how even missionaries of our time deny the name of Jesus, placing salvation not in Him, but in a disposition and quality of the heart. May God have mercy on the poor heathen and Jews, if they have no better messengers of peace!

Where is fanaticism and passionateness to be found? In response to an anonymous attack in Gelzer's Protestant Monthly Papers, in which the "party of the middle" in Saxony was highly praised and the "confessional" party was accused of fanaticism, Dr. Kahnis writes, among other things, the following in the Saxon Church and School Gazette of December 3 of last year:

"I am not the first to make the observation that the greatest animosity is found in the middle direction. I should like to know whether, among the academic theologians of the present day, anyone in this respect could even be compared with the spokesmen of Melanchthonian Protestantism, Ebrard, Schenkel, Heppe, who have now brought matters to the point that no one answers them any more. And what passion the Unionist direction displayed at the recent Kirchentag in Stuttgart. Among the theologians of the middle, perhaps none exercised such far-reaching influence as the late Neander, in any case the most learned of this circle. And the mild Neander was the most irritable partisan toward the theologians of speculative coloring and toward the Lutherans. — Even Scheibel, in his History of the Union, took philosophy's side against Neander. The assurance, then, that partisanship is at home in the theology of the middle does not correspond to reality. However one may judge Harless: that he unites confessional firmness with great practical gentleness must be granted him even by his bitterest enemy."

Luther's Portrait. The following announcement is contained in the "Kreisamtsblatt for Upper Bavaria" of March 10:

"In the name of His Majesty the King of Bavaria. The engraver Paul Barfuß of Munich, who has received permission to copy, engrave in copper, and reproduce by printing the original painting by the painter Lucas Cranach in the possession of the royal Protestant Upper Consistory, depicting the likeness of Dr. Martin Luther, has submitted the request that this sheet, prepared by him, be recommended to those Protestant church and school administrations intending to procure a likeness of Dr. Martin Luther. The price of a copy of this engraving has been fixed at 1 florin 12 kreuzer for schools and clergy, and it is made available through all art and book dealers of the country. Since the likeness of Dr. Martin Luther is frequently procured for Protestant schools, and particularly for Protestant churches and sacristies, and since it is desirable that this procurement everywhere be confined to genuine works of art, inasmuch as the above-designated engraving can be declared to be such a work of art, and the fixed price appears very moderate, therefore, pursuant to the highest resolution of the royal Ministry of State of the Interior for Church and School Affairs of the 6th of this month, the concerned Protestant church administrations and local school inspectorates are hereby made attentive, with the addendum, that the procurement,