# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1844 11 30_S28
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

They have won the crown,
Truly as God's own pious children,
For his Word have they died,
His martyrs have they become.

The old enemy had them seized,
Long terrified them with threats;
God's Word they were told to deny,
With cunning too he sought to stun them.
Many sophists from Louvain,
Lost in their own learning,
He gathered for this game;
The Spirit made them fools,
They could gain nothing.

They sang sweetly, they sang sourly,
Tried many a cunning trick,
The boys stood firm like a wall,
Despising the sophists;
This greatly vexed the old enemy,
That he, so great, was overcome
By such young lads,
He grew furious at once,
And resolved to burn them.

They stripped from them the monk's habit,
Took from them also their ordination;
The boys were ready for this,
They said joyfully: Amen!
They thanked their Father, God,
That they should now be free
Of the devil's masquerade and mockery,
Wherein, through false pretenses,
He so thoroughly deceives the world.

Then God so ordained it, through his grace,
That they became true priests,
Had to offer themselves up to him
And enter into the order of Christ,
To be wholly dead to the world,
To lay aside hypocrisy,
To come to heaven free and pure,
To sweep away monkery,
And leave behind here all human trumpery.

They wrote out for them a little document,
Which they were told to read themselves;
They marked in it every article
Of what their faith had been;
The greatest error among these was:
"One must trust in God alone,
Man ever lies and deceives,
In him one should trust nothing" —
For this they had to be burned.

Two great fires they kindled,
And brought the boys thither;
It struck everyone with great wonder,
That they scorned such pain,
With joy they gave themselves up to it,
With praise of God and singing;
The sophists' courage grew small
At these strange new happenings,
That God let himself be so perceived.

The disgrace now they regret,
They would gladly make it look better,
They dare not boast of the deed,
They almost hide the matter away:
Shame gnaws at their hearts,
And they lament it to their companions,
Yet the Spirit cannot keep silent here,
Abel's blood, once shed,
Must still accuse Cain.

[illegible]

28

The ashes will not cease,
They scatter dust in every land;
No stream, no hole, no pit, no grave can help here,
They put the enemy to shame:
Those whom he in life, through murder,
Forced into silence,
He must, now dead, in every place
Let sing most joyfully
With every voice and tongue.

Still they do not cease their lying,
To dress up the great murder;
They put forth a false tale —
Their conscience presses upon them —
God's saints even after death
Are slandered by them;
They say that, in their final agony,
The boys, while still on earth,
Had turned back and recanted.

Let them go on lying still,
It profits them nothing;
We should rather thank God for this,
His Word has come again:
Summer stands hard at the door,
Winter has passed away,
The tender little flowers spring forth;
He who has begun this work
Will surely bring it to completion.
Amen.

MIXING OF RELIGIONS.

Whoever holds his doctrine, faith, and confession to be true, right, and certain cannot stand in the same stall with others who hold or are devoted to false doctrine, nor forever speak fair words to the devil and [illegible]. A teacher who remains silent regarding errors, and nevertheless wishes to be considered a true teacher, is worse than an open fanatic, and does greater harm with his hypocrisy than a heretic, and is not to be trusted. He is a wolf and a fox, a hireling and a belly-servant, etc., and is ready to despise and abandon doctrine, the Word, faith, sacrament, churches, and schools; he either lies secretly under one blanket with the enemies, or is a doubter and a weathervane, wanting to see which way things will turn, whether Christ or the devil will prevail; or else he is altogether uncertain even within himself, and unworthy to be called even a pupil, let alone a teacher, and wishes to anger no one, neither to speak Christ's word nor to trouble the devil and the world. (Luther's Works, XVII, 1477.)

WITH THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IT IS "MATTHEW, AT THE LAST."

Since the Evangelical Lutheran Church, as the little ship of Christ upon the stormy sea, has often been in great dangers from within and without, its enemies too have often gladly foretold its sure and imminent downfall. It is remarkable how, in the year 1626, that is, during the Thirty Years' War, when a great storm hung over the Lutheran Church, a Catholic prior at Langenheim, Simon Schreiner, in his Apology, described the precarious state of the Lutheran Church. He said, namely, that with the Lutheran faith it was "Matthew, at the last." These are truly thoughts like Caiaphas's — prophesying and not understanding it themselves! For what more could one wish, what greater or more blessed thing could one ask of God for the Lutheran Church, than that at all times and in all places it should be with her "Matthew, at the last" — indeed, at the very last! For what, indeed, stands at the last of Matthew? It is the words of comfort of Jesus: "Behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." — B.

A TRIED AND TESTED WAY TO BRING FANATICS BACK TO THEIR SENSES.

In the summer of the year 1692, when the preacher N. Lange happened to be staying in Berlin, there appeared in that city a man who came dressed in a long robe and carrying a long staff, and who claimed to be the second prophet Elijah. This man spent his days at the local St. Nicholas churchyard, under the linden tree in front of the door of a parsonage. He would accost the preachers, scolding them as builders of Babel and hypocrites who would not break through and would not bite the fox, and so forth. One morning Lange took this strange man with him into his room, shut the door behind them, and addressed the supposed second Elijah with serious words: how entirely contrary to God's order it was for him to eat his bread in such self-willed idleness. He would not let him leave the room until he promised to go down into the courtyard with him and saw wood, which at last he did. So they began at eight o'clock and worked until eleven. This work indeed seemed strange to the supposed Elijah, and he often said with a groan: The prophet Elijah must saw wood! O tempora! O mores! (O the times! O the manners!) But Lange replied: Away, away, my friend, this is no time to groan! Just keep working! The first Elijah was no idler and sluggard — why then should the second one be? After they had worked until eleven o'clock, Lange said: Now, my friend, we have worked together; now let God grant us also that we eat a bite of bread together. He then took him with him to the table, and spoke at length about disorderly living and about the deceitfulness of the flesh. After the meal was finished, he let the man in the long robe go, with the remark that if he should present himself again tomorrow, as was his custom, under the linden tree before the church, he would, God willing, call him to himself again to continue the blessed work. But our Elijah did not like this, and instead made himself scarce that very same day.

The "Lutheraner" can always be obtained at the residence of the distributor, Mr. Gräber (South Fifth Street, opposite the oil mill), further at Mr. Quast's (Olive Street, between Second and Third, below the theater), and at the publisher's.

Printed by Weber and Olshausen.