# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1860_S256
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

256 Church and Contemporary Affairs.

standing in agreement with the relevant provisions of the Decision, for the ordination of natives, met with the general approval of those assembled. On account of the present shortage of workers, under which our mission and the strength of our missionaries are threatened to suffer, it was resolved that the Board should issue an appeal to the candidates for the ministry to place themselves at the service of the mission. God bless this word! The hearty and joyful agreement expressed in this resolution also showed itself in the remaining deliberations, so that they could be concluded after a few hours.

As usual, the evening brought together an exceedingly large number of friends of the mission from the city in the hall of the Hôtel de Prusse, which was packed full, for a heartfelt and stirring assembly conducted, with his well-known mastery, by Pastor Ahlfeld, which was enlivened by a series of interesting communications on ecclesiastical conditions in North America, Sweden, Mecklenburg, and so forth.

On the question still pending with the Prussian brethren concerning altar fellowship, since the negotiations between the Mission Board and the Supreme Church Council at Breslau have been brought to a preliminary conclusion, and the decision now rests chiefly in the hands of the Prussian General Synod, no debate took place in the general assembly; private conversations were, however, carried on, of which we hope that they will open the way, through further personal exchange, to dispel the mistrust in Prussia and to bring about an understanding despite the difference that remains on that question, so as to avoid a rupture and to preserve for our mission its great significance in remaining the general — alas, the only — outward bond of the Lutheran Church on this earth. But to him who has hitherto so graciously and wonderfully blessed it, despite the sins and errors of men, let it also in future be commended! —

(Saxon Church and School Gazette.)

The Prussian marriage-law bill, which had been adopted once again by the House of Deputies on March 27th, has come before the House of Lords for the second time and been debated there. The Minister of Culture, von Bethmann-Hollweg, spoke in favor of facultative (permissive) civil marriage, but found little support, since it was rejected by 87 votes to 21. The emergency civil marriage was likewise rejected, by 61 votes to 48. — Thus the sorry business has, for the time being, come to an end; for the Prussian Diet is now closed. (Pilger from Saxony.)

The "Freimund" reports further as follows: a new decree of the Supreme Church Council on the marriage question not only upholds the authority hitherto claimed by the Protestant church authorities to refuse remarriage to persons judicially divorced, where the divorce took place on legal grounds other than adultery and malicious desertion, but also obliges the clergy to examine independently the judicially established fact of the adultery or malicious desertion, and, if this examination does not confirm the judicially established state of affairs according to spiritual judgment, to refuse the remarriage.

As a result of the change of mind which the Grand-Ducal Baden government has recently shown regarding the concordat, the Archbishop of Freiburg has declared to the Grand Duke that the concordat is a church law and therefore obliges Catholics to comply with it, but that it is also a treaty of state, on account of which the rights granted therein to the church could not be withdrawn. On account of an archiepiscopal circular letter issued in the same sense to the Baden clergy, the state ministry has found itself compelled to remind the church authority of his position as a subject. — The first chamber of the Diet, too, decided on May 15th in favor of abolishing the concordat and taking the path of legislation. — (Pilger from Saxony.)

The Emperor of Austria has regulated the spiritual affairs of the Evangelicals (of both confessions) serving in his army by ordering that, for the principal garrison towns, two chaplains each be appointed, one Lutheran and one Reformed. At the same time, premises for their worship services and the sacred vessels are to be provided for them, the use of which, however, will be common to both confessions. — (Pilger from Saxony.)

Death Notice. On the day before the holy Feast of the Ascension, the 16th of May of this year, the pastor and dean Eduard Bachmann of Münchberg in Upper Franconia made his final journey after his Jesus, whom he had faithfully confessed, loved, and praised as long as it was day. He had just prayed the morning blessing with his household and had gone about his day's work when, quite unexpectedly and swiftly, he entered into the joy of his Lord. "How is it with me!" — these three little words and a couple of sighs — that was all that was heard between his life and his death. He died in his 56th year. (Freimund.)

Correction.

Page 222, line 5 from the top, read: Scotland for England.