# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1861_S124
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

124 Church and Contemporary Affairs.

ing Christ and the benefits of his atoning sacrifice to believers. I believe that is what St. Paul means when he says: "'The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For it is one bread, and so we being many are one body; for we are all partakers of that one bread.'" 1 Corinthians 10:16, 17. I know there are some in our church who regard the words of institution as wholly figurative; but while I am willing to grant that there are 'signs' in the sacrament, I hold at the same time, entirely in accordance with the teaching of Scripture, that these visible signs are channels of an invisible communication, by which Christ unites himself with his people through his glorified (?!) presence and makes them partakers of his covenant blessings in the New Testament through his blood." — Everyone sees that the good man, who perhaps means it entirely well, is presenting nothing less than the biblical Lutheran doctrine of the Holy Supper, but rather the Calvinistic one; that he interprets it into our Symbols and thereby wishes to reconcile his "layman" with them. No wonder, then, that he has the layman answer him thus: "According to your explanation, this article (the 10th of the Augsburg Confession) does not seem to be open to all sorts of objections, as I had supposed when my attention was first drawn to it. If your explanation is correct, then I can subscribe to it as an article of faith."

The "Lutheran Observer." The present publisher of this paper had made the proposal to give a third of its net profit to the General Synod if the latter would grant its imprimatur to his paper, that is, choose it as its organ. To this the publisher is reminded in the Missionary that an owner of the Observer himself declared a few years ago on another occasion that such a "recommendation is worth thousands of dollars," and that therefore the only one who would gain by that offer is the publisher himself. Indeed, the editor of the Missionary declares that he means to prove "that all the profit of the paper is already the rightful property of the church and ought to be in its treasury!" — These are bitter pills for a paper that has always claimed to be really the only organ for those who insist upon truly living godliness and who set out to bring about revivals everywhere, in contrast to the barren formalism of the "Old Lutherans."

California. From the Luth. Obs. of March 1 we learn that shortly after the founding of a German Lutheran congregation in San Francisco by our dear brother Bühler, an English congregation was also organized there by a preacher of the General Synod, who announces this event in a most solemn manner, namely in the following words: "The Ev. Luth. Church of the Pacific Ocean (church of the Pacific) sends greeting to the Lutheran Church of the Atlantic Ocean (church of the Atlantic) — in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Be it known and understood in all our churches that the Ev. Luth. Church has an organized existence in San Francisco, which organization came into being on the 13th of this month at 12 o'clock noon, when 31 members gave one another the hand of fellowship and three elders and three deacons were elected and installed. May we not expect the sympathies, prayers and support of our brethren in Christ? We bear a heavy burden and may well need help."

Pastor Schieferdecker begins in the Iowa Kirchenblatt for the month of March an article in which he makes a run at proving from Scripture the expectation of a general conversion of the Jews. In doing so he censures the fact that Luther and his disciples "interpreted the prophecies concerning Antichrist as referring to the papacy." So he no longer regards even the latter as a biblical interpretation. We are heartily sorry for the good man. With sadness we look back on the blessed hours in which we associated with him as one heart and one soul. As may be seen from the article, Pastor Sch. is anxious that we shall now fall upon him. There he is mistaken. These expectations of his we have indeed declared to be erroneous, but never a heresy. It is therefore wrong of him to speak of "certain over-Lutheran carnal zealots" who, of those who share his hope-