# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1911 06 27_S202
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

202

"...must happen through the young people, who grow up in the knowledge of God, spread God's Word, and teach others. No one, no one believes what a harmful, devilish scheme this is, yet it proceeds so quietly that no one notices, and the harm is done before anyone can take counsel, resist, or help. People fear the Turks and wars and floods, for there one understands what harm and benefit mean. But what the devil has in mind here, no one sees, no one fears; it creeps in quietly, though it would be only fair that where one would give a florin to fight the Turks, even if they stood at our very gates, a hundred florins should be given here, even if only one boy could thereby be raised to become a true Christian man — for that is worth more and does more good than all the people on earth. Therefore I ask you all, my dear lords and friends, for God's sake and for the sake of the poor youth, do not regard this matter as lightly as many do who fail to see what the prince of this world intends. For it is a serious and great matter, in which Christ and all the world have much at stake, that we help and counsel the young. In doing so, we help and counsel ourselves and everyone. And remember that such quiet, secret, treacherous attacks of the devil must be resisted with great Christian earnestness. Dear lords, if one must spend so much every year on cannons, roads, bridges, dams, and countless other things like these, so that a city may have temporal peace and comfort, why should one not spend just as much on the needy poor youth, so that one or two capable men could be kept as schoolmasters?" (St. Louis Edition X, 461f.)

You see, dear brothers and sisters, from these words of our father Luther, that with regard to our Christian schools we must constantly rub the sleep from our eyes and stay alert, lest the devil do us great harm. Let us therefore, we who spend so much every year on food, drink, clothes, shoes, house, home, adornment, and comfort and other countless things, be willing and ready to fill our Synodical building fund, so that pastors and teachers can be trained.

Let none of us say: The demands placed upon us are too many! There is no end to the knocking for the Synodical funds! This time they will have to manage without me! — Certainly, God could manage without all of us. He could, for example, send out the holy angels as preachers and teachers. Then we would need no seminaries to maintain and no professors to employ; for the angels have no need to study, but are all by nature able theologians, full of the blessed knowledge of God. Then we would also need no collections for missions. The holy angels need no clothing, no provisions for the journey, no travel money. In short, the building up of the kingdom of God would then cost us not one cent. — Nor may you object that the angels do not understand the proclamation of the Gospel. What fine preachers they are they have proven at Christmas, at Easter, and on other occasions. And that they gladly watch over and care for children and serve them is attested by the Savior himself. Why then does God call us Christians to help build up his kingdom, even though we so often help him so grudgingly and clumsily? Ah, that is his unmerited love and kindness. He wants to give us the opportunity that we, who here on earth in our earthly calling deal only with worthless and passing things, may now also do works that do not perish but produce eternal benefit. Wonderful! We poor sinful people are to help build for the Son of God at his eternal kingdom, which he will hand over to the Father in perfected beauty on the Last Day, when everything else comes to an end. While God's kingdom will indeed come and be built without our gifts, we nevertheless want to ask our heavenly Father that we may be allowed to help, and we want to spur and draw one another on to it. Our presidents and visitors will see to it that the needs of our Synodical household are properly presented within their districts. Our pastors will make their hearers cheerful and willing to work in the vineyard of the Lord. Our schoolteachers will show their children how they too can already serve their Savior. You congregations, discuss this important matter in your meetings; you fathers and mothers, discuss it with your own at the family table! If we all show such living interest in the building up of the kingdom of God in our midst and pull together on the net, each according to his means, then it will indeed be a small thing to carry out the resolutions of the last Synod. We have many wealthy people in our Synod, in the country and in the cities. From these God expects rich gifts; for so Paul writes to the pastor Timothy: "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." We also have many poor people in our Synod; let them not think that their small contributions are superfluous. In the widow's mite that she put into God's treasury, our Savior took bright delight. And it is precisely the many small gifts that poor Christians, poor in earthly goods, have out of love for their Savior placed in our Synodical treasury that have accomplished great things in the spread and preservation of the Lutheran Church in America. "It is not hard for the Lord to help by much or by little."

Herewith I will close my letter and ask you all earnestly to deliberate on this matter among yourselves as soon as possible and then give answer as to what you think of our Synodical resolutions. You know that the Synod has no authority to command you anything, nor does it wish to command anything. It states expressly in our constitution: "With regard to the self-government of the individual congregations, the Synod is only an advisory body. A Synodical resolution can become binding only when the individual congregation has freely adopted and itself confirmed it by a formal congregational resolution."

May Jesus Christ, our most praised Savior, further bless in grace the upbringing and instruction of our youth, that it may grow up in his fear to the praise of his name! In particular, may he bless the orthodox seminaries for the equipping of faithful workers in his vineyard!

He greets you in the name of the delegate synod,
Your humble fellow brother

Hamburg, Minn., June 7, 1911.	F. Pfotenhauer.