# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1860_S120
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

120 On the Questions of the Day.

a defamation of the neighbor, not a gloating over his fall, not a
mockery, still less should it be his ruin, but rather the betterment
of his life and the avoidance of eternal damnation. Thus, in the first
place, zeal is indeed required, but also mercy and compassion on the
part of the one who corrects, and he himself should become more
cautious through the neighbor's danger. Therefore Paul wills that we
set the brother right again with a gentle spirit, so that we too are
not tempted, Gal. 6:1. That is what that old man did who, when he had
heard that one of the brethren had sinned, wept bitterly and said:
that one today, I tomorrow. So Bernard relates in his second Easter
sermon. In this passage that holy monk requires three things of him
who would correct his brother: the soul, the tongue, and the hand. In
the soul let there be compassion of heart, zeal for what is right,
prudence of spirit. In the tongue let there be found modesty in
rebuking, abundance in admonishing, emphasis in persuading; in the
hand let there be restraint of the flesh, mercy toward the brother,
patience in godliness.

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On the Questions of the Day.

Under this heading Hengstenberg writes, in the December number of the
Evangelical Kirchenzeitung, in a review of the work of the
mission-inspector Dr. Fr. Fabri, "The Origin of Heathenism and the
Task of the Heathen Mission" (Barmen, 1859), among other things, the
following: The author adds yet another instance to the one drawn from
the principle of individuality for the task of the heathen mission (—
not the conversion of peoples, only individual conversion! —). Were
it, in this present age,*) aimed at "a rebirth of the heathen world as
a great whole, at a rebirth of the nations," "then the chosen people,
since God does not repent of his election and calling, would indeed
have to stand at the head of the nations as a model of renewed and
sanctified nationality." (P. 67.) "Israel is the priestly mediator of
salvation for the remaining nations." (P. 66.) First Israel must have
entered into its "fullness," then there is hope for an age of glory. —
Now that is a well-known assertion, which seems ever more to want to
become dominant, but an assertion that would first have to prove
itself otherwise, in order to be able to pass for a sound and settled
one. Especially here too, in the pamphlet before us. The argumentation
is really far too hasty and peremptory. The appeal to Rom. 11:29 is
manifestly not conclusive. For although it is certainly true that
"God's gifts and calling are not to be repented of," yet in the whole
passage there is no mention at all of a calling of Israel to be a
"model," but only of one

*) "This present age" here means the present time, as opposed to the
new age which is to begin with the Millennium. — The Editor pro tempore.