# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1860_S157
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church News of the Times. 157

German writings, which have appeared complete in 65 volumes, has been done." — Should not the debt of thanks we owe to God for the precious gift of Luther's writings spur us on to help promote the publication of the concluding volumes?

Prize Question. The members of the Teylerian Theological Society have proposed the following question for a prize competition: "Can the absolute sinlessness of Jesus be maintained also against the historical and philosophical objections that have in our day been raised against it?" "Can one hold fast to belief in this sinlessness even if one assumes that the personality of Jesus arose out of a natural development of mankind?" "What weight does the result of this inquiry still carry for our time?" "The Society wishes that, in answering this question, the objections raised against the absolute sinlessness of Jesus, among others by F. Pecaut (Le Christ et la Conscience, Paris 1859), be taken into consideration." One may use Dutch, Latin, French, English, or German (only in Latin script) in answering. The answers must also be submitted in full, written in a hand other than the author's own, together with a sealed slip bearing the name, furnished with a motto, addressed to: Fundatiehuis van wijlen den Heer P. Teyler van der Hulst, te Haarlem. (A. K. Z.)

Knowledge of Scripture Among Papal Princes of the Church. The A. K. Z. reports: "Iglesias y Barcones, Patriarch of the Indies and Grand Almoner of Spain, on the occasion of the war against Morocco, issued a pastoral letter in which he cites a verse from Horace as a passage of Holy Scripture. Here are his words addressed to the soldiers: 'If you fall in battle, then remember, dying, these words of the Holy Spirit: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. (It is sweet and honorable to die for one's fatherland.)'" — If the Pope does not one day canonize this patriarch, that would furnish new proof that he can err.

"The papacy is mere enthusiasm" — to this saying of the Smalcald Articles the proclamation of Archbishop Debelay of Avignon supplies a fresh confirmation. It describes the moment of the papal proclamation of the newly invented dogma in the following words: "Even now it is to us as though we saw the exalted head of the Church sitting upon the throne of St. Peter, as upon his noble countenance he reflects the majesty and the goodness of our Lord, whose vicar he is on earth. — Fifty thousand of the faithful surround him, and a solemn stillness reigns as though the temple were a wilderness. We all, bishops, priests, and laity, hung upon his lips; every eye seemed to say to him: Speak, thou art the infallible oracle of truth; speak, thy word shall become the rule of our faith. And the Pope, seized by deep emotion, gave us tears instead of words. — But suddenly the Spirit of God seizes him, his voice rings out, it still echoes in the innermost part of our soul, and Mary is recognized, declared, proclaimed as immaculate in her conception. Heaven and earth, the angels and mankind, were full of wonder."

From the Rhenish Palatinate. The resistance of the congregations to the introduction of the new hymnal is not yet broken. The state of the Palatinate is described thus by one pen at the beginning of January: "In the schools, compulsion; in the congregations, resistance; in the public papers, column-long consistorial-counselor discussions; everywhere a weakening of trust, a withdrawing from divine service, and estrangement from the clergyman." (Kirchenbote.)

In Löhe's Kirchliche Mittheilungen a fictitious sermon is offered which occurs in a printed narrative and serves the purpose of making the Methodists ridiculous, under the heading: "A Methodist Sermon, Delivered to a Number of Believing Lutherans," from a "missionary" out of Iowa, offered with the intent "that our dear friends may once get a really vivid glimpse into the preaching manner of the Methodists." The editors introduce the communication with these words: "It has cost reflection and courage to incorporate into this serious paper the communication from J. H. And yet many could not resist advising that it be done. Let it be ventured. If the reader must once laugh over North America (!), he may perhaps laugh through tears."