# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1844 11 18_S24
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

[illegible]

humbly upon God for the guidance of his Holy Spirit, and he will soon find the fellowship which surely has Jesus Christ, with all the treasures of his grace, in its midst, because it abides by his Word and his unadulterated Sacraments.

It is remembered to the everlasting, blessed honor of the Bereans that, even while Paul was preaching to them, they "searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so" (Acts 17:11); they are a splendid model, by which all must guide themselves who wish to find the true Church and not be deceived by a false one; they sought agreement with Scripture, and when they found it, they confidently joined themselves to the new Christian congregation.

To be sure, the natural man would rather have such marks of the Church as he can, so to speak, grasp with his hands even in his sleep, and we do not deny that the marks of the true Church which the Lutheraner sets forth are not exactly convenient for the fleshly, sluggish mind of a spiritually dead and blind person. It is true that it costs struggle and effort to find the pearl of truth; but, dear reader, it is truly worth your seeking it and digging for it day and night, for it brings you peace of soul and certainty of your eternal salvation. You must not be surprised, therefore, that it is precisely the Lutheran Church which now has the most unfaithful sons, and that this very Church is now the smallest, most despised, and most decayed. Consider: she wishes to be recognized by the truth; but we live in the midnight hour of the world, when love for the truth has almost entirely died out; when people do not even ask after it, as though it were the cheapest of goods, much less seriously search for it; even to those who still profess to believe the Bible, pure doctrine is a phantom of the brain, and the holding fast and prizing of even a single article of faith is regarded as a thing no longer suited to the times, a reprehensible Lutheran stubbornness. See, this is what things have come to, in an age of which the Lord says: "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"

But the more, beloved Lutheran Christian, that people fall away from the truth now on your right hand and on your left, the more firmly should you stand. Consider that this is also why so many once failed to recognize Christ — because he revealed himself to the world through nothing outward or splendid; just as the world once looked in him for an earthly king, so now too it looks in his Church for a visible, glittering kingdom, and therefore it cannot now recognize the Church either, which, like her Head once was, is disfigured by the cross. Oh, therefore, do not let your goal be shifted. Hold only to this: the true Church is recognized by the pure Word and Sacrament; hold fast this sword, and you will never be tempted to forsake your Church; you will remain dwelling in her even when she grows smaller and smaller — a Bethlehem stable, a little cottage in the

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vineyard, a lodge for the night in a garden of cucumbers (Isaiah 1:8). It is enough that God is within her; therefore she will surely remain. All the splendid temples that human thoughts have erected will fall, but she will not be overcome even by the gates of hell. Hallelujah!

(Submitted.)
Zechariah 3:2.

Whoever still has a drop of Christian blood in him must be horrified and turn pale at the unheard-of blasphemies contained in the recent numbers of the Antipfaff against God, Christ, the Bible, the Sacraments, and everything that is holy. They do not come from a human being, but from Satan, who has made a poor human tool so subservient to himself that it must foam out and display Satan's senseless rage and fury. While a Christian heart feels pity and compassion for this poor, seduced, and blinded tool, it is all the more horrified at the astonishing shamelessness of the devil who speaks through him. While a Christian heart is zealous for the honor of God, it nevertheless mocks and laughs at Satan, who, however unruly, grim, and furious he may make himself appear, can nonetheless accomplish nothing against Christ and his Word; for: "upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matthew 16:18.

But let us hear, then, Satan, what you foam out in your immoderate wrath! You defame and blaspheme the great instrument of God, Dr. Martin Luther. Now, you have already tried that thoroughly enough in times past through the tongues of the papists, but have you ever accomplished anything by it? Have you been able to suppress Luther's doctrine, which is God's eternal truth? Luther's name stands far too high in all evangelical hearts for you to tear it out by your slanders; and every enlightened Christian knows only too well where your great wrath against Dr. Luther comes from, for he has done no small damage to your kingdom. But all your raging and raving will not help you; you will have to let it happen that Luther's doctrine remains until the end of the world, and that still many, many souls will be torn from the dominion of darkness by Luther's doctrine and brought to the blessed knowledge of Christ.

But it is not enough for you to blaspheme the blessed instrument of the Reformation, the apostle of the latter days, Dr. Martin Luther; you would also like to degrade the saints of God, David, Solomon, and others, in the eyes of frivolous souls, into common slaves of sin, so that you might bring disgrace upon the Word of God itself, which has set up for these holy people an imperishable monument of honor. But with this trick you can deceive only frivolous souls, for people who still have honor and conscience see very well that when God's Word relates the sins of such people, it does not praise their sins, but pronounces the curse upon them, and relates such sins only so that people may take an example and see themselves reflected in it; for even the holiest of people can fall to the deepest depths, and yet even the most deeply fallen can rise again. But see, Satan, how great your shamelessness is, that you dare to accuse of their sins the poor mortal men for whose ruin you alone are to blame! You may well accuse those who willfully thrust Christ, their salvation, away from themselves; but what right have you over those whom Christ has pardoned and cleansed with his blood? Indeed, you certainly begrudge mortal men the salvation and redemption that they have in Christ, because you yourself, without any grace, are damned to the abyss of hell. You are a spirit of uncleanness, and that is why you take pleasure in exposing such sins of the saints again and again, as filthily as possible, to offend chaste ears and to seduce innocent hearts.

Furthermore, you can never refrain from befouling with your slaver the faithful, upright servants of God, the preachers of the saving Gospel, who are the light and salt of the earth; but your own priests, who have learned from you to blaspheme the holy name of God, the almighty Ruler, and to seduce many frivolous souls, you know well how to adorn and to extol as clever, sensible people. But you will succeed at this only with those who do not consider themselves worthy of eternal life and wish to be damned along with you.

But above all you reveal yourself as the blasphemous spirit of hell and the sworn enemy of God by this, that you mock the most holy Sacraments of Jesus Christ, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, with an insolence that a human heart cannot contemplate without horror and the deepest indignation. O spirit of hell, what are you about? Woe to you, that you have found a tool into whose mouth you can put such dreadful scorn; and woe to the poor tool that lets itself be used by you for this. It would be better for that person if he had never been born. And whereas Christ once said to his disciples: Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see, Luke 10:23, so here one must say: Woe to the ears that hear such devilish blasphemy against God, and woe to the eyes that read such reviling of the almighty God, and woe to the hearts that are struck by such poisoned, murderous arrows of Satan!

But rage and rave on then, senseless spirit of hell; you will get no further than God allows you. God gives your powerless fury free rein only so that his honor may be made all the greater and more glorious through you. The righteous will see it and rejoice; indeed, he will see with his own eyes and behold how it is repaid to the ungodly. Psalm 91:8. Do you also know, poor spirit of hell, what judgment is prepared for you? You know it very well, and that is precisely why your wrath is so great — because you know that you have but little time. Revelation 12:12.

But your wrath harms least of all those whom you would most like to harm; they despise your wrath and sing joyfully with their beloved champion of the faith, Dr. Martin Luther:

And though the world with devils filled
should threaten to devour us,
we will not fear, we will not yield,
for we shall surely prevail.

The prince of this world,
however grim he may look,
can do us no harm;
for he stands already judged:
one little word can fell him.

One from the camp of Christ.

Printed by Weber and Olshausen.