# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1911 06 27_S210
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

210

namely, in the year 1842, when the great splendor of the city of Hamburg was visited by the severe judgment of the great fire, which laid perhaps a third of the city in ashes, the tall tower of St. Peter's stood there burning by itself in the sea of fire, still standing for a long time as a landmark. Finally the carillon mounted on it began to play so loudly that it could be heard everywhere on the site of the fire, playing: "Alone to God on high be praise," and when the verse was finished, the tower collapsed together with the carillon.

Scriver says in his "Seelenſchatz": "I have at times observed that even during severe storms and pitch-dark night, the nightingale has been heard singing sweetly in its thorn hedges. So too have I heard godly Christians who, during such storms, joined joyfully with their loved ones in singing: 'Alone to God on high be praise.' I rejoiced over this and said to myself with tears of joy: 'Well said, dear little birds, well said, you Christian souls! Let us enjoy peace, let our God thunder and lighten, that he may terrify the secure world and make known his great power and glory; but that does not concern his children, to whom he has promised grace and peace in Christ Jesus.'"

(A friend of the synod.)

Christians give for God's kingdom out of love.

When, 28 years ago, in the year 1883, our splendid seminary building in St. Louis was dedicated, the late Dr. Walther said in his festival sermon, among other things: "No high-minded millionaire built this magnificent structure and offered it as a gift to our poor church. No prince compelled us by force of law, through a school tax imposed by him, to bring involuntary offerings for this work. No non-Lutheran was approached by us or expected, against his conscience, to contribute even a single cent toward the erection of this shelter, this nursery of our church. From no one was his gift extorted or squeezed out through unevangelical burdening of his conscience. From no one was a gift deceitfully coaxed by the lying pretense that through generous gifts he could earn rich forgiveness of sins and, as the saying goes, build himself a step into heaven. From no one was a gift wheedled by stirring up his sense of honor through base, flattering speeches. We Lutherans abhor the principle that the end justifies the means. In accordance with the apostolic principle, 'God loves a cheerful giver,' nothing has happened among us except that our love was kindly stirred. In vivid colors we were shown only the crying need of countless children of our church, who wander in this land of immigration like sheep without a shepherd in spiritual deserts and, without the preaching of the comforting gospel, would in the end perish spiritually. Above all we were reminded of the love of Christ, the good shepherd, who seeks the lost, who shed his blood for all people, who wants all people to be saved, and who wants to call to himself all people, including the scattered children of our church, and that we especially, whom he has so richly provided with the bread of life, are meant to be his called instruments in this. 'O brothers, let us help our brothers!' so we called to one another. And behold, thereupon thousands upon thousands of hearts and hands opened in our congregations without delay and with joy. The dwellers of the countryside vied with the dwellers of the cities, the poor with the rich, the women with the men, the maidens with the young men, and even the widows and orphans, to help, that this building might be erected and adorned in the most splendid way."

May God now too, as we set out to collect for the new buildings authorized by our last Synod, make the hearts of our dear Christians glad and willing, that they may give generously, so that the work may be completed.

Better poor and pious than rich and godless.

This was the very failing of Sodom, as it still is today, that everyone looks out only for himself and gathers to himself, rightly or wrongly, letting another fare as he may. God has granted that people build and plant; but that a person gathers to himself everything he can and lets his neighbor suffer want, taking no notice of any other person's need — that is the common complaint and guilt of all. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah lay in a rich, fertile land and a veritable land of plenty, where abundance was indeed so great that Moses says it was like a garden of God, so beautiful with trees and all noble fruits, grain, wine, and oil, as if God himself had built it and prepared a garden for it. Therefore the people who were in the city took good courage, supposing they had a gracious God, and cast off all fear. Such false security led them into such abominable sin. By this God showed what riches and abundance work for good among people. Everyone strives to have enough and abundance and to live well, but Scripture teaches that nothing more dangerous can befall us. Therefore it would have been better if everything had been scarcer and dearer, and not so great an abundance had been present; then they would probably have remained godly. But because they had abundance in everything and lived in excess, as Christ says, they were punished accordingly. If we would be Christians, our ultimate concern should not be marrying, being given in marriage, buying, selling, planting, and building, as Christ says the ungodly will especially be doing right up to the Last Day (even though we too must attend to these things out of bodily necessity), but rather our ultimate concern should be something better and higher, namely the blessed inheritance in heaven, which does not perish.

(Luther.)

A notable piece of advice.

The well-known, now deceased Pastor Löhe once gave his pupils this advice: "Get yourselves a little purse, a small box, or whatever it may be, and put into it every time, on Sunday, or as often as you receive money, a coin, according to the instruction of the apostle Paul: 'On the first day of the week let each of you lay something aside and save, as he may prosper, so that collections need not be made when I come,' 1 Cor. 16:2. This money is no longer your own but God's money, and you will see how much more gladly and easily one gives out of this 'God's purse' than out of one's own pocket. You will also always have something ready for every good purpose. For such a little purse will never be entirely empty." I have, so one of his pupils relates, followed this advice, and it has become for me not only a source of joy but of tangible blessing.

Another well-known Christian writer, Professor Hilty, says in his book "For Sleepless Nights": "If one wishes always to live in adequate financial circumstances, one must begin by setting aside a fixed, even if quite small, percentage of one's income for charitable purposes. Anyone can do this, and it is a delusion to believe that one becomes poorer by it. The opposite is the case!