# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1911 06 27_S201
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

God's Word and Luther's teaching shall never pass away.

And I saw an angel fly in the midst of heaven, having an everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice: Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. Rev. 14:6-7.

Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States.

Edited by the faculty of the theological seminary in St. Louis.

67th Year.

St. Louis, Mo., June 27, 1911.

No. 13.

To the Congregations of the Missouri Synod.

Dear brothers and sisters!

Acts 15 tells us that the first synod held in Christendom made sure that its proceedings were made known in all the congregations. Not only were the delegates charged with reporting everything orally after returning home, but the first synod also drew up minutes and sent them to the congregations. We too have recently held our great Synod in St. Louis again. All of you together, dear brothers and sisters, were represented there through your delegates, and the Synod has also taken care — as did the synod at Jerusalem — that you be accurately informed of everything that was discussed. You are to be informed both orally and in writing. All the deputies have been charged with visiting the individual congregations of their district and telling them about the Synod. In addition, you are to be given full information through our periodicals and the Synod report. The Synod has further appointed the undersigned to write you a letter and to inform you what we have resolved regarding our Synodical Building Fund, and to ask you, if our resolutions seem good to you, to help see that they are carried out.

You all know the purpose our Synodical Building Fund serves. From it flow the funds for the construction, expansion, and upkeep of our schools of the prophets, in which our future preachers and teachers are trained. At present we have 14 colleges, with 1,796 students and pupils attending them, taught by 76 professors and 15 assistant teachers. You have already read in "Der Lutheraner" of May 30 that the demands on this fund for the next three years amount to $200,000, in such a way that half of this sum is to be used for the new teachers' seminary to be built in Chicago. Over the relocation of our oldest teachers' seminary from Addison to Chicago a long and lively debate arose at the Synod, which dragged on over several days. One party held the view that the institution should remain in Addison and be thoroughly improved, while the other party argued for moving the institution to Chicago. But once the relocation had been decided, even if only by a small majority, the proposals made regarding the construction in Chicago were adopted with great unanimity and little debate. The discussion of this matter showed that, however differently people felt about the outward arrangement and form of our teachers' seminaries, all the synod delegates were nevertheless filled with a sense of the high importance and the splendid benefit of the Christian parish school. However many speeches were given in long succession, every one without exception was borne and kindled by zeal for our parish school system. May God in his goodness preserve and ever increase this spirit among us, so that the parish schools planted by our fathers may continue to stand despite all the mounting difficulties, and that we may tirelessly plant new gardens, so that the tender youth, boys and girls alike, may grow up among us well tended with the catechism and Scripture, as in a beautiful paradise the like of which does not otherwise exist in the world, and that we may have the honor of being gardeners and caretakers in it.

It became especially clear at the recent gathering in St. Louis that our Synod is becoming more and more bilingual, and that in the future we should proclaim the gospel more diligently in the English tongue. Let us not forget in this that, if we are to fulfill this task properly and be a blessing to our country, we must have Christian schoolteachers who instruct our children in God's Word. Dr. Luther shows this powerfully in his writing "To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany, That They Establish and Maintain Christian Schools." He writes: "If the devil gets hold of the young people, he grows up among them and remains theirs; who will take anything from him then? He then keeps the world well enough in peace. For where he is to suffer any