# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1858_S233
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the Transfer of Preachers. 233

...the patrons, with thanksgiving toward God — but now not hold him back any longer against the regular vocation that has come to him elsewhere, inasmuch as this counts as a great part of thankfulness for God's gifts: to use them, with thanksgiving and rightly, for as long as God grants them to us; but when he calls for them back, to let them go again to our dear God with patience. So too the hand of the Lord is still not shortened; that same faithful God who gave them this man is just as rich today, and can give the like — indeed even a better one — provided only that one does not set mistrust upon him, but rather lets his providence take its regular course in matters of vocation and the staffing of his churches.

And how would one act toward him if God the Lord should call for their pastor through temporal death? One would nevertheless have to trust his goodness, that he would again send another capable person. But now it is one Lord and one God who summons faithful preachers, whether through death into the kingdom of heaven, or through a regular vocation to another place."

15. But this question, too, must be resolved: What must the pastor do if he cannot obtain his release from the congregation? Here we again agree with the decision of the Jena theological faculty, l. c., p. 439: "If the pastor is convinced in his conscience that, I, this new vocation is a lawful, divine call; II, that in it he may hope to accomplish considerably greater benefit for the church of God; III, and can better employ the talent entrusted to him; IV, and finds also that, after prior prayer and having sought the counsel of other sensible and conscientious persons, his heart is drawn toward the new vocation — then he may easily come to the conclusion that, I, out of due obedience toward God, the Lord of the harvest; II, for the preservation of a quiet, peaceable conscience; III, to guard against future heavy thoughts and temptation; IV, to avoid unjust slander, as though he had set aside the divine call for the sake of an increase in salary; V, to uphold theological liberty, so that he does not make himself into a hired servant and thereby block his own way to every future advancement — he has good warrant, power, and right to follow this regular vocation and to press for his release, and indeed, as matters stand, is bound to do so. He must therefore, in the end, base his decision on the apostolic saying, Acts 5:9: We must obey God rather than men. Yet we entirely expect that the patrons, in view of the motives and circumstances cited above, will rather release him with good grace, so that he may in future have cause to pray all the more diligently for his authorities, and to praise such favorable affection all the more gratefully; nor do we doubt that the pastor will apply every possible diligence and take up every suitable means to obtain such a favorable release from the patrons.

Against this it is objected: it will be difficult for the pastor to answer for—