# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1900_S30
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

30 Proceedings of the eighteenth convention

[authorities] demand taxes for the maintenance of the state schools, then we must pay them, and pay them willingly, because the authorities demand it. But we have therefore no right to want to have the enjoyment of what the authorities offer in the state schools for it. As Christians we have a higher duty toward our children, and in fulfilling this duty we ought not to talk about sacrifices, but simply do what we are obliged to do.

On this, now, some testimonies from Luther. He writes to the councilmen of all the cities of Germany the following: "Since God has so richly blessed us and given us such people in plenty, who can teach and bring up the young folk well, truly, it is necessary that we not throw God's grace to the winds and not let him knock in vain. He stands at the door; blessed are we if we open to him. He greets us, blessed is he who answers him. If we let it slip that he passes by, who will fetch him back? Let us look at our former misery and the darkness in which we have been. I reckon that Germany has never yet heard so much of God's Word as now; one sees nothing of it in history. If we let it pass thus without thanks and honor, it is to be feared we shall suffer still more terrible darkness and plague. Dear Germans, buy, while (as long as) the market is at the door; gather in, while it shines and the weather is fine; use God's grace and Word while it is here. For you should know that God's Word and grace is a passing rain shower, which does not come back where it once has been. It has been among the Jews, but gone is gone, they have nothing now. Paul brought it to Greece; gone is also gone, now they have the Turk. Rome and the Latin land have also had it; gone is gone, now they have the Pope. And you Germans must not think that you will have it forever; for ingratitude and contempt will not let it stay. Therefore seize and hold fast, whoever can seize and hold; lazy hands must have a bad year," that is, a poor harvest, "to have." (St. Louis Edition, X, 463 f.)

This admonition of Luther fits us word for word; we need only put, instead of the word "Germans," the words "Lutherans of the Synodical Conference [*Synodalconferenz*]." And let it not be overlooked that Luther gives this so urgent admonition and warning primarily not with regard to the ministry in general, but with regard to the Christian school. There, in the Christian school, is the market at the door, there it is a matter of buying and gathering, as long as it is time.

In his writing "To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation" Luther writes: "Ought not every Christian person, by his ninth or tenth year, know the whole holy Gospel, in which his name and life stand? Why, a spinner and seamstress teaches her daughter the same craft in her young years. . . . O how unequally we fare with the poor young crowd that is entrusted to us to
[Margin: a hand-drawn ink bracket "(" to the left of "In seiner Schrift"; the word "In" is covered by an ink blot; not printed.]