# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 11 16_S47
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

it would have been quite proper if the District Synod had already resolved in advance to require those to be ordained to subscribe to the Book of Concord; yet we do not wish to let this thought spoil our joy. We hope for it, and pray to our dear Lord Jesus Christ, the invisible Head of his holy Church, that the General Synod of Ohio may come to realize how important and indispensable, for preserving the purity and unity of the church, is the measure of granting no candidate ecclesiastical sanction for his ministry in our church who has not first solemnly declared that the faith which our church has confessed at all times is also his faith, which he will faithfully confess and defend unto death and according to which he will conduct his office in all things.

For the rest, we have good confidence that, since the synod has taken such steps as those mentioned above, it will also soon become convinced of the unchurchly character of the practice it still follows — of employing Reformed or United (mixed) congregations and granting candidate licenses — and will abolish both as abuses that have crept in. May the Lord grant this! Amen.

From a private letter to the editor.

Saxony, September 28. — "Do not believe that there are many battles and victories for Lutheranism here. A real struggle has not yet broken out, however much it might be wished for. Hostility, to be sure, is not lacking, and who knows what the near future will bring! Saxony is to receive a new church order; God grant that it does not bring disorder — for what is brought to light in the consistory at Dresden is not always the best; indeed, there has long been no Lutheran consistory anymore. — In Leipzig a new spirit has awakened since Harleß took up his post there, and even though only a small band of students has followed his word, or rather the Word of the Lord, one cannot thank the Lord enough for it, for you yourselves know what a dreadfully rationalistic atmosphere has prevailed here in Leipzig for years. To be sure, Harleß has again been withdrawn somewhat from the university, for he has been called as head pastor to St. Nicolai in Leipzig, in which capacity he has been laboring with great blessing since the middle of this year; yet we still hear from him a sermon every fortnight, which not only draws thousands of the worldly people of Leipzig into the church (for the Lord is with him), but which also, through the press, resounds throughout the whole land of Saxony. Although, as a genuine Lutheran, he dares to take upon himself the reproach of the "Formula of Concord," that is, the reproach of Christ, people are already saying, strangely enough, that after the death of von Ammon, the chief court preacher and president of the upper consistory in Dresden, he will succeed him in that post."

is preparing. All friends of our church are called upon to support this work with all their strength, since it will surely be of incalculably important and blessed consequence for our American-Lutheran church. The subscription price is $1.25.

(Submitted.)

Church News from Missouri.

Let it serve as news to our distant friends that we recently had, for the first time here, the joy of seeing a graduate of the college and theological seminary at Altenburg, Perry Co., Mo., enter the Lord's vineyard. Mr. Wilhelm Müller, who had studied there from the founding of that institution — December 9, 1839 — until his examination on October 7 of this year, has been called by the Lutheran congregation in St. Louis Co. (which had until now been served jointly by Pastor Bünger) to be pastor and schoolteacher, and was ordained before the congregation on the 23rd Sunday after Trinity. On behalf of the president of the Lutheran Synod of Missouri, etc., Pastors Fick and Bünger officiated at the ordination; the former preached on the Sunday Gospel concerning the true worship which the Lord demands in the words: "Render unto God the things that are God's"; the latter delivered the ordination sermon on John 21:15–17, in which he set forth the question and the command of the Lord Jesus to the called preacher: first, Jesus' question, "Do you love me?" and second, Jesus' command, "Feed my sheep!" Several fellow believers were present, both from Pastor Fick's congregation and from that in St. Louis. — It was a day of lovely fellowship in the Lord. May God's grace and blessing continue to rest upon the institution at Altenburg; may many a ripe fruit yet grow for the church from this nursery, and may the dear students there be equipped as faithful laborers for Christ's great harvest. May Christ also graciously grant that the ministry of the first of those sent out may be a truly blessed one in his congregation. This is our prayer to God. Amen.

(Submitted.)
The Apologist.

It is well known how importunate the Methodists are in trying to foist their Apologist even upon Lutherans, and thereby to spread their Methodist poison of souls. In this way the aforementioned paper recently came into my hands as well. It had to fail of its purpose with me, since the heart of every enlightened Christian must bleed when he reads, from people who wish to be Christians, indeed the very best of Christians, slanders such as the Apologist contains. It said in my heart: if you keep silent, the stones must cry out! In Apologist No. 39 I found an article by a certain C. H. D., who wishes to prove that the mourner's bench "was introduced by God himself as early as the Fall of Adam." He drags in, by main force, a few examples that are supposed to justify his claim; but these prove exactly the opposite, namely, that repentance is bound to no place and no time — whereas the Methodists, violently pulling or pushing people by the sleeves to their "prayer altar," cry out: Now, now is the time! — as happened just recently at the Langry camp meeting.

The first example which C. H. D. cites is David, namely his confession in Psalm 40 and Psalm 51. What relation this has to the mourner's bench, everyone may judge for himself. Psalm 51 is, as is well known, David's penitential prayer, and what occasioned it we read in 2 Samuel 12:1 ff. Who, then, can find Methodist practice in verse 13? Confession and absolution are indeed to be found there — but where is the mourner's bench?

Further biblical examples are said to be: the sinful woman (Luke 7:36 ff.), even the thief on the cross, the publican in the temple; but "the very longest mourner's bench" is supposed to have been "set up at that Pentecost feast, where 3,000 souls stood or lay at it!!" Let everyone who has not become drunk with the Methodist enthusiast spirit judge for himself. Where is there a trace that people were assigned a place at which they had to howl and cry out for mercy? Oh, how the precious Word of God must be misused to sanction the greatest follies of the human heart! That the closet, which that gentleman utterly refuses to recognize, is also a fitting place, I see well enough from Psalm 6, where David says: "I am weary with my groaning; all the night I make my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears." I read too of other places, but that, as with the Methodists, one special place should be required — that I find nowhere.

When Pastor Wyneken wrote that the Methodists push the holy Sacraments into the background and put the mourner's bench in front, the sky was ready to fall; how the Methodists then, to cover up the exposed shame, portrayed their celebration of the Lord's Supper so gloriously — even the tears shed there were supposed to prove how highly they esteemed that Sacrament — and what do they do now? Let every Christian soul hear and be astonished! In the cited number it says: "In the course of time that old measure, by the use of which the sinner alone can be saved, ceased; new measures were introduced by mankind, easier, more comfortable, and more agreeable to the flesh than the old ones. These new measures, which were supposed to take the place of repentance and conversion, were: confession, the reading of Mass, pilgrimages, penances, baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the like; repentance, conversion, and faith in Jesus was no longer the way that leads to heaven." — After this, is it any wonder that the German Methodists admit that their members do not have their children baptized, since their teachers, without scruple, place baptism and the Lord's Supper in the same class as the reading of Mass, pilgrimages, and other godless human ordinances! Who would ever have believed that the Methodists would expose themselves so? For even though it is known that they hold the holy Sacraments in no regard, they have nevertheless, up to now, whenever they were called to account for it, never wanted to admit as much in so many words. Now, how will Mr. Nast, as a theologian, answer before God for taking such slanderous speech against Christ's institutions into his paper, which is called the Defender of Christianity? If the holy Sacraments are supposed to have been "introduced by mankind," then let it be proven that our Lord Jesus Christ was not true God but a mere man, and let it be revealed what one carries in one's heart, namely: rationalism. Oh, how a person falls from one error into another when he departs from God's Word and follows his own heart! Lutherans, let us be on our guard! F. W. Wier, Lutheran pastor.

Lawrenceville, October 5, 1847.