# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1861_S209
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Some Matters Concerning the Division within the Leipzig Mission. 209

venerable Consistory there and by the esteemed Superintendent of the
territorial church, but also by the majority of its pastors the doings of
that party are disapproved, I nevertheless believed until now that I had no
special occasion for a corrective word about it. But since of late these
doings have in part run into such courses that all who love the truth and are
not entirely blinded by partisanship can only dissociate themselves from them
in the most definite way, it must naturally also be a concern of the dear
Lauenburg brethren that their position toward our mission should no longer be
confused with the party position taken by a few in their midst. The request
addressed to me from there, that by an occasional remark in the
Missionsblatt I should guard against such further confusion, I know no better
way to fulfill than by communicating the following passage from a letter of
the present Lauenburg mission committee, for which we at the same time extend
our hand to the dear friends with hearty thanks."

"'The material help,' it says there, 'which we shall be able to grant you can
indeed hardly be expected, for the present, to be considerable for you, since
the dissensions which have prevailed among us in recent years have not
remained without evil influence upon the mission activity of some among our
congregations; but we hope that with the Lord's help our territorial church
will soon recover from these wounds inflicted upon it, and we ask you,
beloved brethren, to cooperate for their healing on your part also. To that
end, may you in future, in any renewed mention of the sad division which has
broken out in the missionizing Lutheran Church and which within it became
manifest first and most of all in the Lutheran Church of the Duchy of
Lauenburg, refrain from such designations as, e.g., "the Lauenburgers," "the
Lauenburg friends of Missionary Ochs," and the like, which could mislead
those less acquainted with the actual state of the case into the false
assumption that the Lauenburg friends of the mission in their entirety had
approved the views and the conduct of the opponents of the Leipzig Mission
Society. For even among the Lauenburgers only one part stood from the
beginning in opposition, and another part decidedly on the side of Leipzig.
Above all, however, we ask you to support us also by your prayers, that the
Lord may soon make all servants and members of our territorial church willing
to further, in fellowship with you and with the whole Lutheran Church, the
proclamation of His divine Word among the heathen.'

"Yes, for that let us pray, dear brethren, and in prayer daily lay the whole
matter into the hands of our faithful God, who will surely carry it through
to victory. It doubtless had to come at some time to what it has now come to,
so that the unhealthy element which has so manifoldly fastened itself
precisely upon the mission might once become manifest. But the emergence of
the injury is, if not yet the beginning, at any rate the way to its healing.
Therefore let us all only hold still for the merciful Physician, even though
he use his sharpest knives against the proud flesh. He has indeed a sure hand
which we may trust, and He uses His knives not to

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