# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 11 16_S41
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall pass away now and nevermore."

Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States.

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 4.

St. Louis, Mo., November 16, 1847.

No. 6.

Conditions: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at an annual subscription price of one dollar for subscribers living elsewhere, who must pay in advance and bear the cost of postage. In St. Louis, each single number is sold for 5 cents. Only letters containing contributions for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, however — containing business matters such as orders, cancellations, remittances, etc. — are to be sent here under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

Sermon,
delivered on the Feast of the Reformation, October 31, 1847, in the Trinity Church of the German Evangelical Lutheran congregation of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession at St. Louis, Mo.*

S. N. Z.

Praise and honor and worship and thanks be to You, eternal, living God. You have had mercy on the human race that had fallen into sin and was lost; You sent Your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ into the world and ordained Him to be the Savior and Redeemer of all sinners. You have also built on earth a strong fortress, into which all sinners may flee and where they shall surely find Your Son and His grace, and sure protection against sin, death, and hell — namely, Your holy Christian Church. With her You have also established an everlasting covenant: "For the mountains shall indeed depart, and the hills fall away; but My grace shall not depart from her, and the covenant of My peace shall not fall away." You have built her upon the rock of the Word, so that "the gates of hell shall not overpower her." Yes, You have promised her: "Though the world should perish, and the mountains sink into the midst of the sea; though the sea should rage and roar, and through its raging the mountains should fall in — nevertheless the city of God shall remain full of gladness

* We have been unanimously and urgently requested by our congregation to include in Der Lutheraner two recently delivered sermons which have proven especially moving and important to it. Now, certainly no one feels more keenly than the author himself how imperfect these sermons are, having been composed, under the press of many official duties, only in great haste; yet in the hope that God, as He has visibly blessed our humble labor among the hearers, will also bless it among the readers, we have ventured, in God's name, to yield to the request made of us, and therefore first lay before the Christian reader our most recently delivered Reformation sermon, to be followed in a later number by a second, in which, on the Gospel for the 20th Sunday after Trinity, we presented "The Christian in Appearance Only."
The Editors.

with her fountains, for there are the holy dwellings of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; therefore she shall surely remain. God helps her early."

And these Your great promises and Your holy covenant You have also, according to Your unfathomable love and eternal faithfulness, fulfilled truly and gloriously. You did indeed once permit the enemies of Your truth to storm the fortress of Your Church for 1500 years, to wrap it in clouds of countless errors, and to cover it with the rubble of false worship; indeed, You allowed the Antichrist to build himself a throne within Your Church, and to defile Your holy temple with his idolatries. Then it seemed as though You had forgotten Your Zion; then it seemed as though the enemies of Your Church had triumphed, and as though she now lay fallen forever. But behold! Once, this very day 330 years ago, You suddenly appeared again with Your help; then You awakened Your faithful servant Luther, through whose service You scattered the dark clouds of error, cleared away the rubble of idolatrous worship, and let Your eternal Church again shine forth in the full splendor of Your pure Gospel.

O Lord God, how shall we thank You, that You have also had mercy on us and made us, too, partakers of the blessings whose fullness You once poured out upon our fathers 300 years ago? How shall we repay You, that in this time of unbelief and apostasy You brought us, unworthy as we are, into the fellowship of Your rightly believing Church, so that we could appear here today to tell of the great things You have done for us? Alas, Lord, we have nothing but our poor, sinful heart. This we now give to You, and beg You to make it Your own dwelling; shape it by Your Spirit as it pleases You; make it faithful and steadfast in the truth it has come to know. Yes, Lord, as You have brought us into Your holy Church, so keep us with her now also, despite all the reproach that lies upon her, until our end. But bring us at last into the heavenly Jerusalem, into the church of the elect. There we will thank You forever and ever. Amen! Amen!

Beloved fellow believers in Christ Jesus!

Today, as you all know, we celebrate the annual festival of the Lutheran Reformation of the Church. This festival does not belong among the ordinary festivals of the Christian church year. On our usual feast days, namely, we commemorate the works of redemption of the whole human race accomplished directly by Christ 1800 years ago — His gracious birth, His atoning suffering and death, and His glorious resurrection and ascension. On today's day, however, we celebrate the memory of a work which God began only 330 years ago through Dr. M. Luther, and carried out through him in the following years. What we therefore festively commemorate today took place when the Christian Church had already existed for 1500 years.

In order rightly to understand what the Reformation of the Church, founded 300 years ago, actually involved, we must first briefly survey the fortunes of the Church from the beginning down to the appearance of Luther.

You know that shortly before Christ ascended into heaven, He gave His disciples the command to go into all the world, to preach the Gospel to all peoples, and to receive through holy baptism into His Church all who would believe it, for which He promised them the help of the Holy Spirit, who was to be poured out upon them. Christ kept this His promise, and the disciples fulfilled His command. Thus within a few years a church of many thousands of believing souls was gathered by them in Asia, Europe, and Africa, in which the pure Gospel and a great zeal for godliness prevailed. The condition of this first apostolic Church was so glorious that she shone like a holy city of God in all lands. In this glorious condition the Christian Church remained also through the first three centuries. In this time