# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1861_S254
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

254 Church and Contemporary Affairs.

...God's Word return, and once we have arrived there, we must also come together. Let us all come "to the law and to the testimony."

The Episcopate. At the opening of the General Synod in Karlsruhe on June 5, the Grand Duke began his address as follows: "By virtue of my office as territorial sovereign head and bishop of our church, I have summoned you here for deliberation on a renewed church constitution." — "We are well aware that Luther himself once called the Elector of Saxony, namely in a letter to the visitors, 'our sole emergency bishop, since otherwise no bishop will help us' (Luther's Works, Erlangen ed., LV, 233)." But what would Luther say if he saw that the figure of speech he used is now so exploited that secular rulers are made into 'bishops by virtue of their office'! We recall here Guericke's remark, that likewise Constantine the Great's statement, that he was only ἐπίσκοπος τῶν ἔξω τῆς ἐκκλησίας [a bishop of the external affairs of the church], while the bishops were ἐπίσκοποι τῶν ἔσω τῆς ἐκκλησίας [bishops of the internal affairs of the church], was originally said in jest and was by no means meant to found a theory of church law — least of all one that would grant the emperor anything more than a right of protectorship. To be sure, a prince, if he wishes to be a Christian, has the duty to employ his princely influence too for the benefit of the church, but just as little as the rich man, who fulfills the duty of using his money for the kingdom of God, thereby becomes a person who by virtue of his office has something to say in the church, just so little could the prince — although, as otherwise a layman under certain circumstances can become an emergency pastor, so too a prince under certain circumstances could become an 'emergency bishop.'"

Austria. Here at last the equal standing of the so-called Protestants with the so-called Catholics has been declared by a law of April 8.

Hanover. Accordingly it is written to the "Freimund": "The Upper Consistory is complete. One colleague tells another, and then no one can say for certain whether we should rejoice or grieve."

Unionist Tolerance in Waldeck. Word has just reached us of the distressing news that Pastor Rocholl of Sachsenberg in Waldeck — a faithful, richly gifted pastor who has also become known in wider circles through his "Sonntagsbote" as well as through other solid writings — that this faithful witness of the Lutheran church has been removed from office by the unionist church government of Waldeck. Rocholl is a thoroughly intelligent, kindly, and lovable personality; he has at all times shown his church superiors heartfelt deference — it made no difference, nothing helped, he had to go, he had to be deposed, because he would not and, as an obedient and faithful servant of the Church of the Augsburg Confession, could not give up the Lutheran Lord's Supper, being a Lutheran pastor at a Lutheran congregation where he had already been employed for 10 years and had lived and worked in blessing, unchallenged in his faith. But with the dawn of the "new era" the unionist church government in Waldeck has taken courage, and now proceeds with union pledges against candidates for the pastoral office, and with decrees of dismissal against already installed Lutheran pastors. (Hessisches Kirchenblatt.)

Chiliasm. In the Erlangen journal, in this year's June issue, there appears a passage from a synodical address in which the speaker reports that, on reading a work of Auberlen's, he had heard at a pastors' conference that people credit the doctrine of the millennium itself with "the power and the capacity to bring about, well-nigh, the salvation of the present age and the awakening of the people to life in God, and treat it as a cardinal point of the saving doctrine." The speaker, however, judges: "This is a symptom of that very over-excitement which shows itself in the present day in every sphere of life and does no small harm to sound simplicity of faith. The plain, blessed doctrine of justification has been tasted already, and is no longer piquant enough by far. Theological and ecclesiastical jadedness demands things that occasion an unusual thrill. Out of this there has arisen