# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 09 29_S23
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

the types of the heavenly things" (namely the tabernacle and its vessels) "be purified with such things" (animal blood); "but the heavenly things themselves" (the things of the New Testament) "must have better sacrifices than these" (namely, the Son of God's own blood). Hebrews 9:23. What now follows from this, most naturally? Nothing other than this:

Just as the sacrifice of the Passover lamb in the Old Testament was a mere type of the sacrifice of the true Passover lamb, namely a type of the crucifixion of Christ, so also the partaking of the Passover meal in the Old Testament was a mere type of the partaking of the true Passover meal, namely of the Holy Lord's Supper. But just as the fulfillment of the type contained in the sacrifice of the Passover lamb did not consist in Christ again being sacrificed merely figuratively, so the fulfillment of the type contained in the partaking of the Passover lamb likewise does not consist in the body and blood of Christ again being partaken of merely figuratively! Rather, just as surely as the fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrifice consisted in this, that now in the New Testament the real body of Christ was sacrificed and the real blood of Christ was shed, just as surely does the fulfillment of the Old Testament Passover meal consist in this, that now in the New Testament the real body of Christ is eaten and his real blood is drunk. It is clear: in that Mr. Nast admits, "The Passover meal was the shadow, the Lord's Supper the substance," he refutes himself; for surely Mr. Nast will not declare the flesh and blood of the lamb to be the shadow, and the bread and wine in the Holy Lord's Supper to be the substance?! Mr. Nast, to be sure, further below again departs from his first assertion and then makes the Lord's Supper of the New Testament once more entirely equal to the Passover meal of the Old Testament, by asserting that in the New Testament only the outward signs have changed, namely that "the bread is the body of Christ in the same sense in which the Passover lamb previously was"; but in doing so he grossly violates the clear scriptural doctrine, previously acknowledged by himself and demonstrated by us above with a few words, concerning the distinction between the Old and New Testaments, makes Christ the founder of a new ceremonial worship, and Christianity into a new Judaism full of shadows and images without the body and without the substance of the things themselves.*) Indeed, in this way he grants the Old Testament a great advantage over the New, for the representation of the body and blood of Christ would then have been more real in the Old than in the New. Apart, moreover, from the fact that this utterly contradicts the divine revelation concerning the different dispensations of God before and after Christ, it is also against all reason; for if the bread and wine in the meal of the New Covenant were to merely represent and recall Christ's body given for us and his blood shed for us, and nothing more, then Christ would have abolished the fitting image and instituted an unfitting one; for who does not see that the slaughtering and eating of a lamb and the shedding of its blood recalls Christ's sacrificial death far more clearly than the partaking of a small piece of bread and a few drops of wine? Far from the comparison of the Holy Lord's Supper with the Passover meal being able to keep us from taking Christ's words, "This is my body," etc., literally and properly, this comparison rather confirms us all the more in doing so. All the more firmly do we believe that the remembrance of Christ is to be kindled not, as in the Old Testament, through outward signs and symbolic actions, but through the actual partaking of his body and blood.
(To be continued.)

*) Mr. Nast, to be sure, gives his presentation the appearance of granting the New Testament as well the substance of the things themselves, but by a (we hope unwitting) confusion of the objects, in that he substitutes the reality of the New Testament Passover lamb for the New Testament Passover meal. Let the attentive reader examine Mr. Nast's essay accordingly, and he will find what we say.

(Submitted.)
To our dear friends and fellow believers.

We cannot refrain, dear brothers, from sharing with you the following news:

Our beloved pastor in Christ Jesus who has served us hitherto, the Reverend Pastor Keyl, has accepted the call of the Evangelical Lutheran congregations at Milwaukee and Freistadt, and preached his last sermons among us on the sixteenth Sunday after Trinity. This took place before a large assembly, since many also came from the neighboring congregations who wished to hear the Word of God once more from his mouth, so that our little church house was too small to hold the crowd. The morning sermon, on the raising of the young man at Nain, went, in our situation—since we were already deeply moved by the departure of our pastor—all the more deeply to our hearts; but it was also very comforting to us, because from it we learned how our Lord Christ still says to us in all distress: "Weep not." Thereafter the Holy Lord's Supper was administered, and after the service a congregational meeting was held, at which, deeply moved, he took leave of each one. In the afternoon sermon he continued the exposition of the first book of Moses, which he had been expounding in the weekday services. In this sermon—on the thirty-fifth chapter—he spoke, among other things, of how with the holy patriarch Jacob one cross after another had come, but also comfort from the divine Word had alternated with it. In closing he gave us yet several important admonitions, that we should faithfully keep the abundantly received Word of God, and explained that he had not held a formal farewell sermon for the reason that he believed sorrow would so overcome him and us that weeping would be a disturbing hindrance to teaching and listening. We think it will be dear to our beloved friends to hear the conclusion of the farewell sermon. It was this:

"Above all I praise God's overflowing mercy for all the fruit of my preaching office, with which he has blessed me and you this whole time, and I pray him that he would graciously forgive me and you all that we have sinned against him, and let it be covered forever with the blood of his dear Son Jesus Christ; but especially I call upon him that he would so bless the seed of his Word, which I have hitherto sown among you and which my dear successor will continue to sow among you,*) that each of you may grow ever richer in the saving knowledge of the pure doctrine, ever firmer and more joyful in the faith that brings salvation, ever more filled with the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and ever more fruitful in love and all good works. Now apply all diligence to hear and learn the Word of God, receive it at all times in faith as God's Word, keep it in a fine, good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience. And that you may be able to do this, earnestly call upon God for the grace to rightly know his holy Word, to believe it from the heart, to obey it faithfully, and to persevere firmly therein. Conduct yourselves toward your future preacher and pastor in all things such that he may labor among you with joy, and since I hand you over to his pastoral care with full confidence, do you also now come to meet him with love and trust, that he may feed you in all things as a faithful shepherd, with doctrine and wisdom.

Fulfill my joy, that you be of one mind, have the same love, be of one accord, and that you continue to live with your dear neighboring congregation as before, in such unity and love.

Oh, how I shall rejoice if, even absent from you, I hear that you are heartily obedient to these my admonitions, for I have no greater joy than this, that I hear that you walk in the truth. Do not grieve too much over my departure; consider that the God who called me to you now calls me again from you; therefore submit yourselves to his holy will in the firm faith that in this too, as always, his will is good and gracious. Consider also that you will surely, out of love, grant to my new congregations the good that you have so long enjoyed; their want will thereby be relieved, and let that be your joy; but you yourselves shall also in future lack no gift, and let that be your comfort. Finally, accompany me and mine with your prayers, and wishes for peace and blessing, that God may go with us on the way, as he once went with Jacob, and that we too, like Jacob, may thereby praise and glorify him, and that I may pursue the Word of the Lord among my new congregations with new zeal and new blessing. And now, my dearly beloved, I close with the words of Paul in his farewell sermon, Acts 20:33: I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all

*) He preached to us nine years in Germany and nine years here in America.