# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 05 04_S100
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

the papists in Bohemia reached a high degree, the Archbishop of Prague, among others, had long tried in vain, on his landed estates, to move his Lutheran subjects to convert to the Roman church through persuasion, imprisonment, extortion of money, prohibitions of marriage, and other violent means; at last he attempted it by forbidding the peasants their cattle pasture. This, alas, worked! For when the lowing of the cattle, for want of fodder, grew very loud on the farms, the poor people finally resolved to yield to the Archbishop's demands. Yet a common saying now arose among them: "Our cows, pigs, and oxen are more learned than the Jesuits and priests, for the latter have preached at us for many years already without thereby being able to make us Catholic, whereas the former — our cows, pigs, and oxen — accomplished this in four weeks." (See: Schröter's History of the Lutheran Exiles, p. 117.)

Holy Scripture.

—

Let us regard the whole of Scripture as a tree full of fruit, and in each fruit a seed enclosed, in which likewise the tree itself and its fruits lie. This is the tree of life, whose leaves the nations divide, and whose fruits are to nourish the blessed.

J. G. Hamann.

"He that heareth you heareth me."
Luke 10:16.

When the pious King Christian III of Denmark made his confession for the first time to his father confessor, Master Andreas Martinus, and the latter, at the absolution, addressed him as "Most Illustrious, Most Mighty King, Most Gracious King and Lord!" the pious monarch lovingly interrupted him: "Master Martinus, what are you doing? Shall I teach you how you are to absolve people of their sins in confession? — I do not kneel here as a King of Denmark, but as a poor sinner who wishes, through the precious merit of his Lord and Savior, to be free of his sins. Therefore you must not deal with me as a subject deals with his sovereign, but as a servant of Christ, in whose place you sit here, dealing with a little sheep of his flock — as a father confessor with his child. Here I am not called Most Gracious Lord, but simply Christian!" — When some expressed their surprise at such conduct of the King toward his father confessor, the pious lord gave them this fine answer: "I owe this honor to God, and gladly give it to him. For I lie here not as a king, but as a sinner, and let myself be absolved not by a man, but by God."

To this the Lutheran theologian Dr. Val. Andreae adds the following words: Would that those who boast of being "Evangelical" might learn that we have been freed not from the fear of God, nor from the adornment of public worship, nor from care for the poor, nor from fasting (and abstinence) of the flesh, nor from the devout posture of the body, nor from the chastity of marriage, nor from the exercises of virtue, but only from "papal tyranny" — and that whoever does otherwise has indeed laid aside the bonds of "Antichrist," but has put on the fetters of "Satan." (Dr. Joh. Val. Andreae, in Mythologia Christiana, Manipulus, p. 13f.)

The True Church Does Not Yield, Capitulate, or Bargain.

Luther writes: "Because they offer to yield, and demand the like of us, they show that God's Word and human doctrine mean the same to them. Now, to yield or alter God's Word does not lie even with God himself, for he cannot deny or alter himself (2 Tim. 2:13), and his Word remains forever (Isa. 40:8). But whoever is to alter or relax it must have a higher power than God himself has; for even he would not have altered the Law of Moses, had he not first promised through his own Word to alter it. No one presumes to do this except the Antichrist, as Daniel 11:36 and St. Paul (2 Thess. 2:4) say — he who exalts himself above God, namely the papacy. Now what is one to do with such people... who imagine that God's Word is a reed that the wind blows this way and that (Matt. 11:7), over which they have power? Or rather (as they suppose), that it is a counting-token that must be valid according to their damnable presumption, so that they may place or move it (like a game piece) upon the lines as they please? ... The holy Christian Church is neither a reed nor a counting-token. No, she does not waver, and does not yield... but she is, as St. Paul says (2 Tim. 3:15), "a pillar and foundation of the truth." She stands firm, he says, is a foundation or firm ground — and not a false or lying ground, but a ground of truth; she does not lie or deceive, does not deal in falsehoods. But whatever wavers or doubts cannot be truth. And of what use or need would a church of God in the world be, if she wished to waver and be uncertain in her words, or to set forth something new every day, now giving this, now taking that?"

A Dubious Basis for the Invocation of the Saints.

A man had once tried for a long time, through the intercession of others, to gain a hearing with his king, but all the means he had employed to achieve his purpose had been in vain. This same man once asked his bishop why one did not turn directly to God in prayer, but was accustomed instead to invoke the saints. The bishop explained: did he not know how things went among great lords? There too a distinguished patron must always put in a good word for the petitioners. The man answered, alarmed: Heaven help us — does it go on in heaven with God just as it does at court among poor men! I have experienced it myself.

Withdrawal from the Union Church, and Hope for Lutheranism in Prussia.

In an assembly of three hundred Protestant clergymen, held in Berlin on the ninth and tenth of February of this year, it was resolved to petition His Majesty the King, with a simultaneous declaration of withdrawal from the Union Church, most submissively, to abolish the Union again and to restore the Lutheran church as it existed before the Union. (Oder-Zeitung.)

The Most Indispensable Book.

Where no Bible is in the house,
There all looks bleak and sorrowful,
There the evil enemy gladly enters in!
There the dear God does not wish to dwell!

Therefore, child of man, ah, child of man!
That the Evil One may gain no ground,
Spend your brightest silver coin
And buy a Bible for your house!

Open it with the earliest morning!
Set all your longing and thought upon it.
Begin in it your ABC school
And spell it out, and then read on,

And read yourself ever further in,
Pitch there your little chamber.

And read yourself ever further out,
Make of it a true stronghold for yourself,
And plant quietly, high atop it,
The very loveliest sayings!

Let them flutter brightly, wave boldly,
Show them as your banner!
Press it to your heart as your shield
And hold to it in joy and in pain.

O you, my dear child of man!
If you have none yet, then buy one quickly,
Even if it costs your very last penny;
Ah, hurry, fly, and open it.

Read it with prayer, and close it
Only with the lid of your coffin!
Let the course of reading and of living
Begin together, and end together.

Paid:
Volume 3: Pastor Schulze, Fried. Walz.

New Address.
Rev. J. C. Schulze,
Richmond, Wayne Co., Ind.

Printed by Arthur Olshausen.

...people, then it is truly all over with us