# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1879_S35 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) The Lutheran Pioneer. 35 and Luther wrote « humble letter to the pope as he had promised todo; for he still thought that the pope was only misinformed about the matter, and that he would be on his side and on the side of truth after having been better informed. But he soon found out that the pope is the Antichrist, the enemy of truth, the enemy of the Gospel. Luther would thus gladly have had peace, but his enemies soon drew him, against his will, into the battle again. Dr. John Eck, a fana- tical disciple of the pope, attacked Luther's doctrines, and so Luther had to defend the truth against Dr. Eck. In June, 1519, Luther held a disputation with him in the city of Leipzig. Dr. Eck affirmed that the pope is, by divine right, the head of the Church. Luther said that the Christian Church must have a head, but this head is Christ, not the pope. Ifthe pope were the head of the Church, the Church would, ‘at the death of the pope, be without a head until another is elected. Dr. Eck had hoped to triumph over Luther, but by Luther’s powerful arguments he was de- feated, and the victory was on Luther's side. Filled with rage, Eck now went to Rome to seek revenge. He induced the pope to issue a bull, that is, a letter in which Luther’s works were condemned, his writings were ordered to be burnt, and in which Luther was expelled from the church as a heretic, if he did not re- tract his doctrines within 60 days. Eck took the pope’s bull, or letter, to Germany in tri- umph. Luther, however, was in good cheer, although he was condemned by the pope. He wrote to a friend: ‘I have now much more courage, since I have become certain that the pope is plainly the Antichrist and Satan’s seat.” He wrote a tract ‘‘Against the bull of the Anti- christ’’, in which he says, “If the pope does not retract and condemn this bull and punish Dr. Eck and his comrades, no one shall doubt that the pope is the enemy of God, the perse- cutor of Christ, the disturber of the Church, and the real Antichrist. For until now such a condemnation of the Christian faith has never been heard as is uttered in this infernal, ac- cursed bull.’ Thus Luther was forcibly ejected and ex- pelled from the Romish church, because he had confessed the pure doctrine of God’s Word. He therefore wanted to show the world what he thought of such an excommunication. On the 10th of December, 1520, at 9 o’clock in the oid fire was kindled at one of the gates are the following horrible statements: ‘The pepe and his court are not obliged to submit to the laws of God. If the pope were so wicked as to lead innumerable souls to hell, no one would have a right to reprove him for it.” Such are the infernal doctrines of Antichrist! No wonder he condemned Luther for preaching the: pure Gospel! is, that they cannot be genuine. Ifall the hones that are said to be from the body of St. Paul were genuine, he must have had more than one body. If all the teeth that are worshiped as relics of a certain saint were genuine, that saint must have had several barrels full of teeth. Now, she could not have as many teeth as that in her mouth. Some of the saints must have had two heads, some four heads, some five heads, &c. ‘Those Romish people are a queer kind of people. The Outlook from the Editor’s Window. Our CoLLeces AND Semrartes.—The Col- leges and Seminaries of the Synodical Confe- rence opened for the new school-year in Septem- ber with a large number of scholars and students. —Concordia College at Fort Wayne opened in QueER PreorLte.—A learned friend of ours some time ago told us that a renowned bishop of the pope’s church once said to him that Luther’s Reformation was necessary on account October. In the place of Rev. O. Hanser, of the corruption of the Church, but Luther who has taken charge of the Lutheran Trinity ought to have staid m the Church and carried church in St. Louis, the Rev. F. Zucker, for- out his Reformation inside of the Church. és x Now, the man ought to know better. If you read our “Life of Luther’, you will see that Luther was put out of the Romish church, be- cause the pope wanted no Reformation; be- cause the pope hated the Gospel. Those Romish people are queer people. If a man wants to whitewash the dirty rooms of their house and make the house clean and neat, they put him out, and then they complain because he did not clean their house. Queer people, indeed! Thank God, the Romish church is not the Church; they could not expel Luther from God’s Church, but only from the pope’s church. ; merly missionary in India, has been chosen as Director and is already at his post. 285 schol- ars are attending this College.—The Synod of Wisconsin dedicated its new Seminary building on Sept. 8th. Prof. Graebner delivered an address on ‘The aim of a Theological Training.” Tar Work or Synops.—The 19 Lutheran Synods of the Synodical Conference held their meetings in the past months in the different parts of our country. Besides business matters they all discussed doctrines of God’s Word. Their reports contain sound Bible-doctrine. They have not only-the Lutheran name, but they are Lutheran. Our Next Nuser.—Look out for our next number! It will be the Christmas number and will have two pictures. Some of our readers wish to have pictures in the paper, others tell us that it would be a pity to have pictures in every number, because they then would not have so much reading matter. But at Christ- mas time, you know, people like to have some- thing extra. So our little ‘‘Pioneer” will bring two pictures. Our readers will surely be very glad to sce that our kind-hearted little Pioneer’? tells them beforehand what he will bring at Christmas. But we shall not Jet him tell you any more about the next number. No! We shut our window. Memruis, TENN.—Some idea of the deso- lation caused at Memphis by the yellow fever may be found from the fact that on a recent Sunday not a church bell was heard, and but one religious service was held in the city, in which only two ladies and a gentleman wor- shiped with the minister. Porson!—Bad books and bad papers are poison to the soul. No pen can describe the great harm that has already been done by such poisonous books and papers. We are glad to see that the newspaper dealers of Freeport, IIl., will no longer sell such bad papers as ‘‘Police News”, ‘Boys of New York’, ‘‘Under the Gaslight’? &e. Not only the writers of bad books and papers, but also those that sell them must give account to God for their doings. Parents, teach your children to avoid poison! Boys and girls, beware of poison! ————> oo Luther’s Catechism—a little Missionary, Some time after Luther had published his Catechism, in the year 1529, a poor laborer traveled from the city of Wittenberg, where Luther resided, into Northern Germany. He came to a little village where the people had not yet heard much about Luther and his work. It was winter, and the poor traveler suffered greatly with cold and hunger. He therefore went to the priest’s home and asked for some bread and for a night’s lodging. The priest was a kind man, he took him in, told him to sit down at the fire, and gave him sumething to eat and to drink. , The stranger said grace, and after having finished his meal, he took a little book out of his pocket and began to read of Wittenberg, and, in the presence of a large assembly of doctors, masters and students, Dr. Luther boldly stepped up the fire and cast the bull, or pope’s letter, which had been sent him, together with the pope’s Book of Laws, into the flames, saying: “Since thou hast troubled the Holy One of God, may the ever- lasting fire trouble and consume thee!’’ He then, in a tract, laid before the public his ren- sons for taking this step and showed, at the same time, what ungodly doctrines are laid down in the pope’s Book of Laws, among which Retics.—Do you know what relics are? Relics are parts of bodies of dead saints and martyrs. Relics are worshiped in the pope's church, and the priests say that relics can per- form great miracles. In the city of Hoboken they pretend to have a bone of the apostle Paul, by which a lame woman is said to have been healed lately. Now, the trouble about all such miracles is, that, whenever the matter is investigated, they prove to be but Romish lies. And the trouble about those Romish relics