# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1860_S154
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

154 Church and Contemporary Notices.

war the papal clergy has fallen silent, and we now breathe somewhat more freely, and everything justifies us in the hope that things will go better for us Evangelicals in Austria. The evangelical church in Hungary has received its ecclesiastical constitution from the government; unfortunately, however, subversive voices are being heard in Hungary against this admittedly very liberal constitution, voices which could be detrimental to the cause of the evangelical church of Hungary. We are now very anxious to see how our government will proceed in this regard in the other provinces, and what favors will be granted to us. The concordat concluded with the Pope, which is universally hated here, may present many difficulties in this matter; we hope that our present ministry will also deal justly with us. In the local Catholic churches, prayers for the Pope have just been ordered. The Catholic populace shakes its head at this and occasionally makes quite sensible remarks about it. In general, one observes here in this country that the Catholic populace takes very little interest in the Pope. The Catholics here may conveniently be divided into three classes. To the first class belongs the so-called intelligent world, to which imperial and private officials, burghers, merchants, and manufacturers belong, who boast of not having been to confession for many years, who make nothing but a mockery of the doctrines and institutions of the Roman church, and who, so as not to make an exception, and because the government insists on it, attend church from time to time; and because these people have never in their lives seen a Bible, the crassest unbelief prevails among them. They let everything go along as it will, and concern themselves not at all with religious matters. They praise the evangelical church, in which, as they say, absurdities such as are found in the Roman church are not to be met with. And because the government demands that church be attended, they have thereby become hypocrites. The number of such-minded people is uncommonly large and powerful among us. The Roman clergy know this, but leave these people in peace, probably so as not to bring about a general falling-away. These people diligently study the failings and vices of their own clergy, and precisely for that reason they are also feared by the clergy. — To the second class belongs the common people, stunted in body and soul, actually in the hand of the Roman clergy, full of superstition and ignorance, and a blind tool of blind leaders. — To the third class belong those who carry a longing for the truth, but who, on account of the political power of the Catholic church, sigh in secret and do not dare to open their mouths. Such people are also to be met with in the two classes described above; they are devoted to our evangelical church, yet do not venture, for fear of being persecuted, to withdraw from the papal church. Were passing over to the evangelical church here not attended with disadvantage in civil life, they would go over in droves; this was seen in the year 1848, when even the Catholic populace demanded, above all else, religious freedom and equal rights for all confessions. In general, one observes everywhere here that Catholicism in Austria stands on very weak feet, and that, were the government to withdraw its support from it, it would wholly collapse. In particular, the sober-minded Catholic Bohemians still cannot to this day forget their Huss. We are full of expectation as to how our high government will order our ecclesiastical affairs, and we hope that a decision in this regard may soon follow. May the Lord incline the heart of His Majesty our Emperor toward us, so that he may grant us, who are after all his faithful subjects, some relief in religious matters!" —

The Methodists in Germany. The Bremen Mission Institute of the Episcopal Methodist Church, which was dedicated on the 13th and 14th of November 1858, contains, according to its first annual report, eight pupils. The missionaries proceeding from this institute are sent out not to the heathen, but rather for this purpose: to break into the Christian congregations of Germany, in order, by building on another's foundation, to bring about in Germany too an "outpouring of the Spirit."

The Prussian Lutherans and the Leipzig Mission. "Con