# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 08 03_S137
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...telsau, Franconia, to Professor Dr. Delitzsch and Deacon Karsten in Rostock, Pastor Dr. Petri in Hanover, and Professor Dr. Harleß in Leipzig, to inform them of the distress of our church here regarding a learned theological institution for the training of Lutheran preachers, and to request that they make use of their influence, among those in the old fatherland who take an interest in the welfare of the Lutheran church here, to obtain support for the founding of such an institution. This letter is to point out that the Synod wishes to devote this support to the further assistance of the theological Collegium at Altenburg, Mo., should it be handed over to the Synod's direction and oversight by the congregations concerned.

3. Concerning Home and Foreign Missions.

a. Resolved: To send out Mr. C. Fricke, candidate for the holy preaching office, as a visitor to the pastorless Lutheran settlements in the West, with a set of instructions.

b. Resolved: An elected commission for the mission to the heathen shall, in the name of the Synod, enter into correspondence with the Central Mission Society in Nuremberg, and shall also request an official report from Pastor Löhe as to whether the mission society in question in Germany has resolved to place the Lutheran mission to the heathen in Michigan under the oversight of this Synod.

4. Concerning the Preachers and Congregations of the Synod.

a. Resolved: In the coming year, in the Synod's judgment, the following subjects are chiefly to be treated in word and writing: the Church; the means of grace; the relation of prayer to the same; justifying faith; Law and Gospel; Christian liberty; and in particular the struggle in doctrine and defense is to be waged against Methodism under all its various names, especially also against the so-called "Evangelical Association," which under this name seeks to steal into the congregations, as well as against all mingling of churches (unionism).

b. Upon the communication that Mr. Ludwig in New York intends to publish the Book of Concord, and that he has arranged for an unaltered reprint of Luther's Small Catechism,*) the Synod declared that it wishes to do everything in its power to further this publication of the Book of Concord projected by Mr. Ludwig, and that it hereby wishes to call the attention of all congregations of its district to that reprint of the Small Catechism.

*) The same may also be obtained in St. Louis through F. W. Barthel, the dozen for one dollar.

c. Resolved: Since we have learned that some congregations fear that by joining the Synod they would have to pay fixed annual monetary contributions, we hereby declare that 1. we intend to go only so far in the pursuit of churchly purposes requiring monetary means as such means are actually at our disposal; and 2. that we raise these monetary means only through voluntary collections.

d. All preachers of the Synod are to establish schools in their congregations and, if necessary, to conduct them themselves.

e. Consideration shall be given to the publication of a book of Scripture verses and a German reader.

f. The entire district of the Synod has been divided into the following six preachers' conference districts:

1st District: St. Louis, Mo.;
2nd do. Chicago, Ill.;
3rd do. Fort Wayne, Ind.;
4th do. Monroe, Mich.;
5th do. Fairfield, O.; —
6th do. New York, N. Y.

g. In consideration of the invitation extended to the Synod by the congregation of St. Louis, and in view of other weighty reasons, St. Louis was determined as the place, and the Wednesday after Trinity 1848 as the time, of the next Synodical session; and it was resolved that Pastor Löhe be invited to this next year's Synodical assembly.

Among the resolutions of the Synod also belongs the matter concerning the publication of the "Lutheraner," which has already been mentioned in recent numbers of the same; also belonging to these are the three instructions drawn up: 1. for the president of the Synod, concerning his visitation journeys — containing 13 paragraphs; 2. for the visitor recommended by the Synod, likewise of 13 paragraphs; 3. for the president, secretary, and treasurer of the Mission Commission — documents which, important as they are for the Synod, would take up too much space to communicate here in full.

In addition, the Synodical report contains several rulings on petitions submitted, among them an opinion drawn up concerning several accusations raised against Pastor Krause by former members of his congregation; further, an answer to certain scruples against the Synodical association presented to the Synod by Pastor Geyer; also a resolution of certain disputes pending between Pastor Bürger and several Lutherans in Buffalo, which were submitted to the Synod for judgment.

Finally, we announce the officers and standing committees elected for the next three-year Synodical term:

a. Officers of the Synod: C. F. W. Walther, President; Dr. W. Sihler, Vice-President; F. W. Husmann, Secretary; F. W. Barthel, Treasurer.

b. Members of the Examination Commission, besides the President: G. H. Löber and Dr. W. Sihler. Further, the following were elected:

c. for correspondence with foreign countries: G. H. Löber.

d. as chronicler: Ottomar Fürbringer.

e. for the Mission Commission: C. J. H. Fick, chairman; A. Crämer, secretary; F. W. Barthel, treasurer.

f. for the committee for the publication of the "Lutheraner": J. F. Bünger and F. W. Barthel.

May the LORD our God be gracious to us, and prosper the work of our hands; yes, the work of our hands, may He prosper it. Amen.

B.

A New Instance of Methodist Falsification, together with an incidental notice of the falsifications of Mr. d'Aubigné.

The falsification of historical or other documents is a crime that even the world regards as utterly shameful and disgraceful, and by which the guilty party, once publicly exposed, still loses his credit forever, even in these corrupt times of ours. We seem, then, to have struck the right spot, since in the 22nd and 23rd numbers of our paper we publicly censured a falsification of history of which the Methodist "Apologist" had made itself guilty. For Mr. Nast, too, must surely have realized what a weakness he exposed himself to by taking up those falsifications, and into what danger his fellowship thereby fell of losing even the last remnant of trust among the Germans; for although he had for some time maintained a stubborn silence toward us, or at most delivered only underhanded blows at us, he has now felt compelled to publish a long article in his "Apologist," in which he attempts to clear his Methodist colleague (or himself?) of the grave sin of historical falsification demonstrated against him in the Lutheraner.

But how does Mr. Nast fare in this? Not only does he betray his guilty conscience *) all too plainly by falling entirely out of the role of a Methodist saint and hurling the crudest abuse at us, but in the great agitation into which he may have been thrown, he even allows himself to be led into committing, once again, the very sin from which he wished to clear himself and his own people.

*) We mention here that Mr. Nast did not send us this very number of his Apologist, in which he not only attacks us but also challenges us to a defense. Whether his guilty conscience also had a part in this, we, following the love that turns everything to the best, will not believe.

In the "Apologist," namely, someone, in order to prove the false doctrine of the Lutherans concerning the holy Lord's Supper, had asserted that the early church did not teach the bodily presence of Christ in the holy Lord's Supper, and that Luther himself, therefore, was unable at Marburg to name a single church father who agreed with him on this doctrine. Against these plain falsifications of history we raised our voice and, as regards the first falsification, demonstrated the opposite with passages from the earliest post-apostolic church writers.