# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1860_S253
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary Affairs. 253

II. Abroad.

The Annual Festival of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission at Leipzig.
Whitsun week gathered, for the annual festival and the general assembly of our Evangelical Lutheran Mission, a great number of friends of the mission from near and far, this year too, at Leipzig. Many Lutheran churches were represented by deputies: the Prussian church by Superintendent Wermelskirch, Brunswick by Cathedral Preacher Thiele, Mecklenburg-Schwerin by Provost Salfeld, Mecklenburg-Strelitz by Rector Becker, Lauenburg by Pastor Hagen, Ratzeburg by Pastor Kämpffer, Waldeck by Pastor Rocholl, Kurhesse by Consistorial Councillor Hoffmann of Cassel, Grand-Ducal Hesse by Pastor Vinkmann, Hanover by Candidate Steinmetz, Russia by Professor Harnack, Hamburg by Merchant Reils, Thuringia by General Superintendent Leo of Rudolstadt, Altenburg by Seminary Director Runkwitz, Greiz by Pastor v. d. Trenk (owing to a transfer that had become necessary), Bavaria by Pastors Reuter, Rüdel, and Dietzel, the Francke Foundations by Director Kramer, Saxony by Pastors Ahlfeld, Siedel, and v. d. Trenk. — Consistorial Councillor Langbein and Chamberlain v. Friesen were unfortunately prevented from attending.

Already on Tuesday, May 29th, many friends greeted one another in the mission house and elsewhere. Worship in St. Nicholas's Church began at nine o'clock on Wednesday morning, with a large turnout of the congregation, with the hymn "Come, Holy Spirit, Lord God," liturgy, and the reading of Psalm 96, after which, following the singing of the hymn "May God Show Us His Grace," Pastor Rocholl of Sachsenberg in Waldeck preached, on John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you," a sermon — drawn from the depths of biblical teaching and history, and gripping in its wealth of thought and insight — on the peace of Jesus Christ, in which, following the words of the text step by step, he first set forth what kind of peace this was: the peace won on the cross, resting in Jesus's wounds, in his hands of blessing; second, that this peace actually exists and is offered in the means of grace; third, that it is granted to us not merely above us, nor merely beneath us, but within us, and is to be carried outward from us, from the church, as the tones of a bell ring out into the distance; fourth, that it is his peace, not the peace of the world, not our own peace, but his peace, which strengthens us for the march and steels us for the battle. So then let us go to meet the victory in faith, not looking for signs and wonders, but in the strength of the means of grace and in the name of Jesus, our Captain in war.

If in this sermon the mission itself had perhaps come off somewhat too briefly, then, to make up for it, after the singing of the verse "With our own strength nothing is done," there followed the report of our new Director, Hardeland, who, taking as his point of departure the closing word of the fiftieth Psalm — "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me, and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God" — after an edifying address to the congregation, went on to communicate the most noteworthy matters from the history of our mission in the past year. Among these belongs first the distressing matter: the departure of several missionaries over the caste question. Wolff had already withdrawn some time ago; Ochs followed him, and, well supported by the English, remains in the vicinity of our mission field, watching to see whether he can found a rival mission; Wendlandt has gone over to the Harms mission, for which he had already been making preparations for some time before he parted from ours; Meischel, on the advice earlier given him by the Board, has turned to Australia and has there entered church service. But at home, too, several Lauenburg brethren, ten in number, have separated from the society and, it seems, are seeking to organize a work of their own. It is to be hoped that they will not succeed in the future in drawing others away from the common work as well.

To be sure, Moraht — who certainly means it honestly, but who, possessed as if by a fixed idea with the thought that caste is identical with heathenism, is at present inaccessible to instruction on the point — has, in a treatise of his own on this question, upon which he then let a second one by Ochs on caste follow, sought to win public opinion to his side, and in this he has perhaps also succeeded here and there, since caste is something to us so