# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1861_S125
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary Affairs. 125

with respect to the Jews, "reject them as fanatics and dreamers." It is always so: people fall upon the orthodox in carnal zeal at the very moment when they accuse them of such alleged zeal.

The Sense of the Confessions. After Dr. Stork had declared in the "Observer" that he accepts the churchly confessions as they are "understood by the General Synod," the "Lutheran" of Philadelphia of March 1 makes the apt remark: "The confessions must be interpreted according to the laws of language — they have a precisely determined historical sense — and if they are understood by the General Synod at all, it happens in this sense. If they are understood by it in another sense, then they are simply misunderstood by it."

A new synod was constituted on February 20 in German Valley, N. J., under the name "Ev. Luth. Synod of New Jersey," and Pastor J. C. Duy was elected its president.

The Methodist Conference of Ohio recently passed a resolution that a preacher who smokes, chews or snuffs tobacco cannot be a full member of the conference.

The Reformed K.-Z. of Chambersburg, Pa., contains in its number of March 15 an article that we should not have looked for in it. In it an English professor is cited as an authority, among other things for the following effusions: "Nature-images are used (in the Old Testament), and human feelings and conduct are spoken of, in such a way as if the people were wholly incapable of spiritual and abstract thought. Without doubt all this gives a conception of God that does not correspond to his essence, but it was the only way to make his essence intelligible to uncultivated minds. Now in our enlightened age precisely such descriptions are far more impressive to the mass of humanity than anything else; for their spirit is more enlightened and therefore finds no difficulty in discovering the pure truth about God's essence out of (?) the crude description. If, then, revelation condescends to human wickedness and ignorance even on so important a point as the divine character, we may expect it all the more in the phenomena of nature, which are not of that importance . . The firmament above us is represented as a solid, outstretched mass with an ocean spread beneath it — represented with openings or windows through which the rain flows down. In relation to the human body, Holy Scripture speaks of the intelligent functioning of the kidneys, or of the trouble in the bones. In short, the descriptions of matters of natural history were adapted to the erroneous conceptions that prevailed among the people in very early times. But it is very easy to interpret such descriptions in agreement with the present state of the physical sciences, or in other words, to bring the material views of the Deity held in those days into harmony with the spiritual views of today." (A compliment for which the Holy Spirit will doubtless duly thank the "enlightened," illuminated writer.) "No one can regard it as a reproach to the Old Testament that it gives a description of the divine essence far less spiritualized than the views held by the theologians of the 19th century." (Very kind and indulgent, to be sure!) Where was the editor of the Ref. K.-Z. when this godless stuff found its way into that paper? We cannot possibly believe that such crudely rationalistic chatter should not disgust him.

"Illinois University" in Springfield. Concerning it, the Kirchenbote writes: "From the last 'Olive Branch' we learn that the pecuniary straits of the Ill. State University have now reached such a height that the board of directors found itself compelled to put the following alternative to the residents of Springfield: either to pay $15,000 to cover the debt resting upon the institution, or else to let the buildings be sold and the institution moved to another place. They have been given until April 1 to consider. Two offers have already been made to the board by