# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1860_S192
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

192 Church and Contemporary Notices.

In the former are the younger children, presently 32. The other branch of the institution, at Zelienople, is an agricultural school intended for the older boys, which stands under the direction of Pastor G. Bassler. The head teacher there is G. C. Holls, who, as his report unmistakably shows, seeks with a truly fatherly heart to lead his pupils to the Lord Christ and to form them into useful men. These now number 57. By nationality, the pupils of both branches of the institution are Americans, Germans, Swedes, and Norwegians. The languages which all must learn, and which are used in daily intercourse, at family devotions, and in instruction, are English and German. The chief aim is the raising of the orphans in the faith of the Augsburg Confession and of Luther's Small Catechism. Who, after all this, could fail to confess that the work of Passavant and his fellow laborers is a blessing and an ornament to our church? It is an edification and a comfort to hear of such a work, one that is in truth a genuine fruit of the love that flows from faith. Yet — go and do likewise! For the Lord has said: "Whoever receives one of these little ones in my name receives me!" — S.

Statistics of the Methodists. — According to the reports at the Methodist assembly recently held at Buffalo, the greatest number of members of this body is found in America, namely 1,995,634, including 13,209 traveling preachers. The number of German Methodists in this country amounts to 16,223, with 239 preachers. In Europe there are 736,352 Methodists, in Asia only a few hundred, in Africa about 17,000, in Australia 33,000. In all, the Methodist body numbers 2,742,195 communicants, and if one reckons about 3 other members of this sect for each of these, there would be about 11 million Methodists on the earth. — S.

An Impudent Slander of the Lutherans on the Part of the Reformed. — The Reformed Church paper of Chambersburg gives its readers the following communication from Ebrard's Practical Theology: "A true Gnesio-Lutheran may well go to the Lord's Table with a fornicator and adulterer, but not with one who is Union or Reformed. A church discipline that would exclude the former he would abhor just as much as a 'Calvinistic' one, while a confederation that would admit the latter he would allow."

II. Abroad.

Sweden has of late become known far and wide for the very strict religious compulsion prevailing there. It is true that the late King Oscar, who died last year, sought to ease this, but he did not succeed; for the nobility and the clergy, in the Diet composed of four estates, where they have two votes, voted down all such proposals. Recently, as the "Kirkl. Maanedstidende" reports, baptism was performed by force on three children in Norrland (that is, the northernmost part of the country). One of the parents offered resistance but was overpowered. The other went to the church and got into a war of words with the minister, which occasioned a disturbance. This incident has caused a stir both within and outside the country. L. L.

On the bitter fruits of the rotten tree of modern theology, a correspondent of the Evangelical Church Gazette expresses himself thus under the heading "Baden": "Let no one suppose that only the old vulgar rationalism has worked so harmfully upon spiritual and church life. It seems to us, rather, that the newfangled mediating theology between the old and the new Adam is even more perilous to the soul, because its deceit is subtler. Modern positivism, which knows how to weld reason and revelation together, seduces and blinds the heart quite easily, holds it back from a decided struggle against corrupted, blind nature, from a wrestling, eager for salvation, toward the light of grace. Let one but once meet with young theologians of this new school, and one will be astonished how smooth as butter the matters of faith flow from their lips, and how arrogantly their speech proceeds withal; one will be alarmed at a new generation that knows little or nothing of humble, heartfelt earnestness, of true repentance and conversion, that knows no terrores conscientiae over sin, death, and the devil, but wishes, with a light heart and a light foot, glibly and garrulously, to slip through the narrow gate into the kingdom of the blessed. That is a religion for the world, a Christianity of the phrase, a modernized piety, in which the old Adam and the ancient evil Foe prompt, softly or aloud."