# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1860_S320
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

320 Church-Historical Miscellany.

connected with this ministerium; nor was it our intention thereby to say anything that
should disparage those customs, insofar as they exist within the church of our fathers."

The Missouri Synod is said, according to the Lutheran Herald, to have "urgently
desired" the missionary Schwensen, who had formerly resided with Harms. In the
interest of truth let it be noted that this is not so; rather, Pastor Harms offered
Schwensen to the Missouri Synod unsolicited.

The Berleburg Bible. We are sorry to find, once again, a recommendation of this
Bible in the "Lutheran Herald," a Bible against which every Lutheran ought earnestly to
be warned.

The Ohio Synod. In a report of the united conference of the eastern district of
the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio, published by the "Lutheran Church Gazette" of
Sept. 10, it says, among other things: "Luther and the Symbols solemnly protest against
an evaporated, fictitious church that is nowhere to be found. From this it is clear that
when they speak of those who are properly the church, they mean the multitude of the
truly pious, who gather around the pure Word and Sacrament."

II. Abroad.

The Doctrine of Baptism. As we learn from Dr. Hengstenberg's Evangelical
Church Gazette of July 14, at the conference of the territorial-church Evangelical
Lutheran Society in the Province of Silesia, held on the 13th and 14th of June of this
year, Pastor Wendel of Schlottau gave a lecture on the question of whether Holy Baptism
is to be regarded as the sole means of regeneration. The report states: "At first it almost
appeared as though this question would be answered in the negative, and an opposition
was thereby provoked, one that moved particularly on exegetical ground. The discussions
continued the next morning, however, concluded with the result of a general affirmation
of the question posed." — It is sad when those who wish to be Lutheran within the Union
seek to demonstrate their Lutheranism through such a transgression of the pure doctrine
of the sacraments. Cf. 1 Peter 1:23; James 1:18; 1 Corinthians 4:15; Galatians 3:2;
Romans 10:17, 1:16; Acts 10:44. We learn from the General Church Gazette that, while
the catechisms recommended by the authority for the Province of Silesia attach
regeneration to illumination and sanctification in the third article, some — chiefly
teachers of the seminarians as well — demand that it find its place first and only in the
fourth chief part (on Baptism).

Breslau. From the Evangelical Church Gazette we take the news that Dr. Edward,
a missionary to the Jews and a preacher of the Free Church of Scotland, a zealous
member of the Evangelical Alliance, has for a year past been sole director of the branch
society, existing at Breslau, of the Evangelical Society for Germany at Elberfeld, and is
thereby at the same time local inspector of the city missionaries stationed here by that
society (for home missions!). Having thus been invited into the house by the church itself,
this guest is now using his favorable position for proselytizing, and has already recruited
40 to 50 followers, with whom he intends to found a congregation of his own under the
name "Free Evangelical Congregation."

Löhe. We read the following in the Darmstadt General Church Gazette of Aug. 8
of this year: "According to oral reports, Pastor Löhe has been suspended for an indefinite
time at Neuendettelsau. The Upper Consistory found itself compelled, after long
back-and-forth negotiation, to take this step so long postponed, since the leader of the
Old Lutherans would not, for reasons of conscience, submit to discipline. Among other
things he introduced a liturgy of his own into his congregation. So as not to let matters
come to a breach, Löhe had earlier already declared that he would resign his pastoral
office if he were allowed a free hand in the deaconess institution and the mission school
at Neuendettelsau, both founded and directed by him. Recently Löhe decidedly refused to
marry a couple because the man was divorced, although the banns had already been
published twice in the church. Upon the couple's complaint, Löhe was supposed to
release the certificate of publication so that another clergyman could perform the
marriage; but Pastor Löhe refused this as well. Since, according to regulation, every
solemnization of a marriage must be preceded by the threefold publication of banns in
the home parish, and a marriage cannot take place without proof thereof, the couple
found themselves compelled to bring a complaint against Löhe. Löhe appealed to the fact
that the congregation, too, was opposed to the marriage of the divorced man. Following
Löhe's example, several other clergymen have also wanted to refuse to solemnize
marriages of divorced persons."

We likewise read, in the Pilger aus Sachsen of Aug. 18: "We hear that Pastor
Löhe has been suspended for an indefinite time because he refuses to marry a man who
had been divorced contrary to God's Word." It is to be hoped that later papers will shed
light on the true nature of the case, so that we too may judge on whose side the right
lies, whether Löhe's or the Upper Consistory's.

Errata in the previous number:
p. 261, line 22, for "accordingly" read "nevertheless."