# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1860_S299
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

299

Indirect Declaration by Löhe concerning His Position within
the Lutheran Church.

At the beginning of this year Löhe had an address "to his friends in Neuendettelsau" printed as a manuscript. From it we learn, first, that these his friends have already, since the years 1858 and 1859, united themselves during Lent "in special prayers for the need of the Church and of the whole world," and that these "exercises" (Exercitien, then!) instituted by them had become so dear and precious to them that they had resolved to repeat them in Lent of the year 1860. Löhe continues: "At our last gathering you asked that I propose to you a certain rule for this year's exercises of your devotion, and indicate those things which in my judgment ought this year especially to be taken up in prayer and laid before the Lord by us; and having beforehand discussed and agreed with you on these points, I now commit to paper rather your opinion than my own, so that you may take account of it in the devotion you have undertaken."

We now let follow, for the orientation of our readers concerning Löhe's present position, the treatment of 12 points, in respect of which he proposes a regulated exercise of prayer.

I.

"You know that we live in a time in which it goes as the Lord has said, Matthew 24:6-8: 'You shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.' In speaking of the rights of nations and nationalities, men kindle strife among them and take peace from the world. Under the tumult of thoughts that thereby arises, every nation and every man then seeks his own, and what is put forward, in appearance, as a furtherance of justice and peace, in truth serves to make injustice increase and love grow cold. So it becomes plain that the enemy has cast out his net, and that the peoples, passionately given over to their temporal interests, lose sight of what could serve their true peace. Therefore let us pray that all evil counsel and will may be broken and hindered; that what the god of this world and his servants intend and will may not come to pass; that peace may be strengthened and preserved for the nations, and that holy courage, good counsel, and righteous works may be given to those who, by God's will, have to lead them. But should it indeed lie in the counsel of the Lord to let the apostate nations plunge into their misery on the ways of their own choosing, then may the Lord grant, at our crying, that His Church, which shall not be overcome by the gates of hell, may nevertheless flourish amid the tumult of temporal interests, and carry on its work