# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1858_S305
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Light and Shadow, etc.     305

Light and Shadow
in the Ecclesiastical Conditions of Saxony, Particularly of Lusatia.

A Lusatian describes, as follows, in the Saxon Church and School Gazette of June 17 of this year, the ecclesiastical conditions of his province:

How do things stand now? In the schools, the textbooks of Dinter, Diesterweg, Tischer, etc., have been exchanged for those of Spener, Nissen, and others, and the rationalist trumpery has been rooted out by order of the high authorities. What one used to laugh at then and mock as abominable folly is now, at the public examinations, treated as incontrovertible truth; and the very teacher who, but a few years ago, sought through spiteful side-thrusts to render suspect and ridiculous certain articles of faith — for example, original sin, damnation, Christ's descent into hell, the resurrection of the flesh, and so forth — now discusses these doctrines with his children in unctuous fashion and with real or apparent earnestness. In the church, no less, the great change is to be perceived. Whereas we formerly walked for hours to hear a Christianly edifying sermon, one can now hear a biblically grounded sermon from almost every candidate and in every church. In the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord is no longer presented as a friend of nature; in the story of the Canaanite woman, one no longer stresses, as before, the power of a mother's love, and so forth; instead everyone visibly takes pains to place the positive truths of our Christian doctrinal edifice as much as possible in the foreground. Sermons of repentance and of faith are no longer among the rarities of our day; no preacher, either, is any longer publicly derided and mocked on that account — on the contrary, those who rightly teach the way of God in sincerity of heart have even come into honor, and many a congregation spares no sacrifice to obtain such a pastor. From the side of the higher and highest authorities, too, men after God's own heart are favored; their efforts are furthered as much as possible, they are supported in their undertakings with regard to church discipline and order, and they are also protected against hostile attacks. Whereas formerly we dared not speak among ourselves of the church's missionary duty, given the prevailing view that the savages lived in a happy state of nature — and some carried their humanitarianism so far that they seemed to regret not being able to live in such a paradise themselves — and one heard from no pulpit even a single hinting syllable regarding the conversion of non-Christians: today, among us, regular mission hours are fixed, and annual mission festivals are held with special ceremonies and are in part extraordinarily well attended.

You see, then, my dear friend, how conditions have changed and many people have turned for the better, and your heart will praise and bless the Lord for the grace and mercy he has shown us. Yes, praise the Lord, but pray to him also, for with all this there still remains, and will remain, much to be desired. The proverb: It is not

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