# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1858_S285
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary History.                    285

strictly formulated co-confession with the whole Book of Concord a
comedy, a hypocrisy displeasing to God. Away, then, with all illusions!
Let us rebuild the fallen walls of our American Zion from the ground up!
The most questionable objection, by the way, is this: that a true Lutheran
could not take part in a conference that has only the Augustana as the
basis of union, when it is raised by such people as, for all their supposedly
so tender confessional conscience, nonetheless bring themselves to belong
to the General Synod without earnest protest — a body that does not even
accept the Augustana without reservation!

Church and Contemporary History.

I. America.

     How the Romanists Do Mission Work. — The "Wahrheitsfreund" writes
the following about the mission conducted by Pastor Weninger in Easton, Pa.: "The
mission aroused not only the most eager participation of the numerous German
congregation there, but also, and indeed to a high degree, that of the American
Protestant population. — The splendor of the Corpus Christi procession, held during
the mission amid cannon-fire and musical accompaniment, drew the attention and
curiosity of these Americans quite remarkably, so that more than two thousand of
them gathered for the planting of the mission cross, attending this ceremony with
great interest. Pastor Weninger addressed them in the English language, and even
the Protestant English-language newspapers spoke of the address and of the whole
ceremony with great respect. Several of other faiths united themselves with the
holy Church in the course of the mission."

     Notable politics! First they lure the curious together in droves with
cannon-fire and music, then they befuddle their senses with the pomp of their
cult, which enchants with demonic effect, and finally they let a skillful Jesuit
father storm in upon the befuddled with sophistical fallacies, by which hell is
so easily made so hot for them that they consider themselves fortunate to be
able to escape it in the bosom of the "sole-saving" Church. Oh, the blind leading
the blind! —

     German Baptists. — There are now, according to the "Sendbote," 50 German
Baptist congregations in this country with somewhat over 2000 members and 40
preachers. All these congregations have been founded since 1839. —

     The Synod of Wisconsin. — This synod, founded by Pastor Johann
Mühlhausen, its present president, presently numbers 16 preachers among its
members. At this year's convention on May 29 at Milwaukee it passed, among
others, the following resolution: "We confess with heart and mouth the
unaltered Augsburg Confession, and intend to teach and act in our congregations
with the same resoluteness that this Confession itself teaches." This synod
further resolved to send out a traveling preacher into the part of the state
where as yet there are no churches or schools, although it is, as is well known,
only too fond of cutting there where others have planted, and of applying a
healing plaster where others have cut. It has its preachers trained in
Gettysburg, which may also shed some light on the "resoluteness" with which the
synod teaches the Augustana.

     Swedes and Norwegians in America. — The more recent immigration from
Norway began in 1825, from Sweden in 1841. At present the Norwegians in America
are reckoned at 150,000, the Swedes at 25,000. The Norwegians are most numerous
in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota; the Swedes live mostly in Illinois, have