# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 06 15_S118
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

it is a matter of conscience with them to have unlearned preachers; but that they are so brazen as, despite their acknowledged ignorance, to claim that the earliest ecclesiastical writers were patrons of their godless fanaticism and of their rejection of the clear words of Christ — that is unforgivable.

Those words contain two historical falsifications. First, it is untrue that the early churches taught only the spiritual, but not the bodily, presence of Christ in the Holy Supper. We must here, to our own shame, confess that when, by God's grace, we were awakened seventeen years ago as a student of theology at Leipzig, we too at first, out of the pride of reason, wanted to persuade ourselves that Christ's words, "This is my body," etc., could not possibly be taken as they stand. Christ must surely have meant to express something other than what these simple words actually say. For a good year we resisted subjecting our reason here to the word of him who does not lie. But we often thought to ourselves: should it turn out that the early church already understood Christ's words as they stand, then it would surely be dangerous to depart from that — indeed, beyond doubt that the literal sense is the correct one. What happened? God, who has patience with weakness, arranged that during this time the letters of the Apostolic Fathers came into our hands. We read them with great interest, and it was precisely they that became, in God's hand, the means of healing us from our "Reformed" unbelief. Later, however, it became clear to us how wickedly we had acted; for is it not wicked to refuse to believe God's clear word until men bear witness to it? Would it not also have been possible that the writers of the earliest Christian era might likewise have let themselves be led away from God's word?

Perhaps it will not be unwelcome to some to read a few testimonies of the earliest ecclesiastical writers concerning the bodily presence of Christ in the Holy Supper. We have gathered testimonies from all the centuries, which we may perhaps communicate in full at some later time. For now we let only a few from the earliest period follow.

The testimony which served us so splendidly, when we still let ourselves be weighed and swayed by the wind of human opinions, we found in the letter of Ignatius. He was bishop of Antioch in Syria. He himself says, in his letter to the congregation at Smyrna, that he "had seen the Lord himself in the flesh after his resurrection." Chrysostom relates of him that he kept intimate company with the apostles, especially with John. His motto was: "My love is crucified." When the Emperor Trajan once came to Antioch, and Ignatius freely confessed the Crucified One before him, the emperor condemned him to be taken to Rome and there, for the entertainment of the Roman people, thrown to the lions and torn apart by them. Ignatius was immediately put in chains and led away to Rome, where in the year 115 he endured a martyr's death with great joy. On his last journey to Rome, Ignatius wrote several letters, which we still possess. In them the dear martyr warns the congregation against the seduction of the already numerous false teachers of that time, and exhorts them to steadfastness.

Among other things, he warns the congregation at Smyrna, in his letters to it, against the heretical Docetists, who taught that Christ had only an apparent body, and who therefore naturally despised the Holy Supper. This, then, also gave Ignatius occasion to speak out concerning the Holy Supper. He writes as follows in the letter cited (ch. 7): "They" (the heretical Docetists) "abstain from participation in the Holy Supper and from prayer" (at its observance), "because they do not confess that the Holy Supper is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, who suffered for our sins, and whom the Father, in his goodness, raised up. Those, then, who contradict this divine gift, perish in the midst of their strife; it would be more profitable for them to practice love, so that they too might rise again. Therefore it is fitting to abstain from such people, and to make mention of them neither in public nor in private conversation, but rather to give heed to the prophets, and especially to the Gospel," etc.

The same Ignatius writes in his letter to the Philadelphians (ch. 4): "Be diligent to use one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup in the union of his blood." Do the gentlemen Methodists desire yet more testimonies that in the first centuries of the Christian era the orthodox Christians believed and confessed no other doctrine of the Holy Supper than the Lutheran one? A few more shall follow in the next number.
(To be concluded.)

Amas de Bourg.

It is well known that the Roman See has, not without success, at one time attempted to make the kings of the earth its vassals, and these its vassals its executioners, and that in the latter it succeeded best of all with the kings of France and Spain. It is certainly good, in our own time, when the "tender mother" no longer burns her erring children but calls and lures them with tender and gentle words, to keep continually reminding them of the blood-debts of the Roman church, for which she still to this day has done no penance. Let the following story serve as such a reminder.

At a Lit de Justice (a solemn royal session) held on June 15, 1559, by Henry II, King of France, the councillor of parliament Amas de Bourg had boldly and freely defended the cause of the terribly persecuted Protestants. The king, most fiercely enraged at this, had him and four other councillors of like mind arrested. Together with his fellow sufferers he availed himself of every legal means of defense; yet he concealed his convictions so little that in a public confession of faith he declared without fear that he was an enemy of the papacy, which is founded only on human ordinances, and acknowledged Holy Scripture alone as the source of truth and the rule of life. At such a confession it was said, of course: what further need have we of witnesses? He is guilty of death. So he was then condemned: he was to be hanged, and his dead body afterward burned.

Upon receiving his sentence he delivered a speech to his judges that moved everyone and stirred many to tears. — "I thank," he said, "God, that he counts me worthy of the grace to die for him, and I pity and forgive you, because you have let yourselves be deceived by lies through the mind-confusing messenger of hell, the deadly enemy of truth. What? Should fear seize and shake us? Should we not rather be bold, indeed unconquerable, since we know that only men are against us, while God is for us? Our Father in heaven, you help us and give us light to know the truth, and strength to confess it. Open, O Lord, open also the eyes of your adversaries, that they may see that to please them is to displease you, and to obey them is to resist you. Do you weep? Weep not over us; weep over yourselves, since you hear the voice of the chastising Spirit without following it. — We, the condemned, rejoice in this judgment and exult in the flames that you kindle. Whatever snares may be laid for us, whatever harm may be done to us, nothing can separate us from our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. We know it: we are appointed for the slaughter-block, like the Lamb of God. But let them kill us, let them crush us! Those who have died in the Lord will rise again and live. Should I then quail? I am a Christian, yes, I am a Christian; dying, I will loudly proclaim the glory of my Lord Jesus. Come then, executioner, seize me and lead me to death."

He walked steadfastly to meet it. He turned once more to the people, and the words he spoke on the scaffold resounded far and had great effect; then he bared his head, and as he was drawn up on high, he cried out: "O my God, do not forsake me, that I may not forsake you." He died at thirty-eight years of age, mourned by many, known throughout all Paris — indeed throughout all France — as one of the noblest of men.

A Preacher's Zeal in Prayer.

It is told of Bugenhagen, Luther's confessor, that in earlier years it often happened to him that, praying before God ahead of the sermon, he forgot the very hour of the sermon, and that on one such occasion he mounted the pulpit with these words: "Do not be surprised, dear friends; I have been detained by God, with whom I fell into a long conversation about the church, the university, the city (Wittenberg), and all of Christendom."

Paid.
Half of the 3rd volume: Mr. H. Johanning.
1.
2nd and 3rd [halves]: the gentlemen Brink, F. Eller[illegible],
Kollmeier, J. M. Krauss. [illegible]
3rd volume: Rev. J. M. Krauss.
4th [half]: H. Kollmeier.
1st half of the 4th volume: Mr. J. M. Krauss.
Received from Pastor Wege, $14.00.

Received for the Lutheran mission to the heathen on the Cass River, Mich., from the Lutheran congregation in Bucyrus, Crawford Co., Ohio, through the Rev. J. Krauss, $82.00.

Printed by Arthur Olshausen.