# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 01 11_S78
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

having traveled through the state of Missouri and observed the ecclesiastical conditions here, described these conditions in a little book which, under the title "The Night of the West," was published for the benefit of the Evangelical Society for the Protestant Germans in North America at Langenberg, Elberfeld, and Barmen, and which appeared at Barmen with Alfred Sartorius in August of last year. It comprises 84 pages in octavo and costs 5 silver groschen. In this booklet Mr. Rauschenbusch describes, as the title already indicates, chiefly the spiritual darkness which still lies spread over our West. Mr. R. names three classes of people by whom, according to his experience, the night of the West — dark enough in itself — is nevertheless made still darker, namely: first, the Rationalists here, among whom chiefly Mr. Picker, preacher of the Evangelical-Protestant congregation in St. Louis, Mr. Münch, preacher of the Giessen Emigration Society which has settled in Warren County, Mo., and the editors of the (mis-)"Light-Friend" in Hermann, Mo. To the second class of the local obscurantists Mr. R. reckons the Jesuits, and to the third the Methodists. In the second part of the little work Mr. R. adds something further "concerning the faint gleam of morning that here and there is beginning to shine into the night of the West," and here the author names above all the United-Evangelicals, to whom he himself belongs. In this part of the work, mention is also made of the so-called Old Lutherans here. What Mr. R. says about the latter we intend shortly to lay before our readers, and respectively to illuminate and correct. Especially interesting and instructive is what is said, in the description of conditions here, about the Methodists. Since the Methodists very often try to persuade people that it is only the "stiff, hyper-orthodox, dead Old Lutherans, sticklers for the letter," who dare to attack Methodism and thus the work and Kingdom of God, we think it may be good to give wider circulation here also to the testimony of a man concerning the nature and doings of the Methodists — a man to whom even the Methodists cannot deny that he is not exactly stiff in doctrine, but is very zealous for conversion and living Christianity. Mr. Rauschenbusch writes, however, in his booklet, from page 22 to 40, as follows:

"Of far greater influence than Rationalists and Jesuits are, here in this country, the Methodists. Perhaps some may wonder that I classify these together with those as ones who make the spiritual darkness here still darker. But I will assemble a number of facts, on the basis of which I can leave it to everyone to decide for himself whether there is not reason for such a characterization. Since the year 1837 the Episcopal Methodist Church of North America has begun its "missions among the Germans," concerning which it customarily gives, in its annual mission report, after a preliminary description of its missions among the Negroes in Liberia and the Indians in Oregon, a detailed account. It currently maintains about 60 German missionaries. A seminary to train these missionaries does not exist. Not for a quarter of a year, not for a month, do they receive instruction. A so-called general education is for the most part lacking to them, since most of them were craftsmen or country folk in Germany. Indeed, some do not even possess the ordinary elementary knowledge, could not read before they became Methodists, and even if they have since learned this, they are nevertheless unskilled in writing. — All this might perhaps still pass, under certain circumstances, if these people at least possessed the first and most indispensable requirement of a Christian preacher, namely a thorough knowledge of the Bible that has passed into their very flesh and blood. But by far the greater majority lack this too. Where indeed should they get it? When someone in the Methodist church is awakened, and it is noticed that he can express himself, he is at once drawn forward to appear as an exhorter and afterward to preach. The frequent class meetings and prayer meetings then claim so much of his time and energy that no leisure remains to him for quiet study of Scripture. This study is in general little valued among the Methodists, or at least not practiced. However much time they devote to prayer meetings, they never gather for common contemplation and discussion of the Word of God. One might say: they find no time and quiet to let God speak to them through His Word, because they speak all too much to Him. But can such praying, in which the hearing of the voice of the Lord is left out, still be regarded as a speaking with Him? In their sermons, too, little exposition of Scripture is to be found. As a rule, a short text is chosen, the same sermon is preached again in another place, and thereby the rich content of the Word of God is for the most part left unused. What in Germany, unfortunately, often falls into the background — the application of the preached Word to the hearers, the exhortation to them to follow the Word — that prevails all too much among the Methodists. Indeed, their church order even expressly prescribes to the young preachers that they should often deliver an exhortation without basing it on any word of Scripture. — As a result of this the matter stands so that I can confidently make the following assertion: if one were to take the ablest confirmands of a faithful preacher in Germany who diligently devotes himself to the instruction of the youth, and set them on one side; and then set the 60 German Methodist preachers on the other side, and begin an examination of both parties in biblical history, then those confirmands would know how to answer a host of questions which a large part of the Methodist preachers would not be able to answer. Now whoever knows the human heart somewhat, knows that in nine cases out of ten, someone who takes on an office without possessing the gifts and knowledge required for it seeks to make up for what he lacks by presumption. But if we ask the Word of God what it says about the appointment of preachers who, themselves only recently awakened, without deeper grounding in the Word, are at once to convert others, then it says there: "A bishop (or preacher) must not be a novice, lest he be puffed up and fall into the condemnation of the devil." How much this fear of the Apostle applies to, and proves true of, the Methodist preachers, everyone knows who has observed their doings even a little. The following precept of the Apostle: "Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil," is likewise little regarded in the appointment of Methodist preachers.

"Trained, or rather untrained, in the manner just described, the Methodist preachers set out for their stations. Sure of a salary of 100 dollars, and if they are married, of 200 dollars (in addition, for each younger child 16 dollars, for each older one 24 dollars), they go to the Germans and say to them: "We do not seek, like other preachers, your money; we preach to you without any payment, for it is your soul's salvation we are concerned with. We are Methodist preachers, but we are not aiming at your becoming Methodists, but simply at your being converted." All these fine words, which they constantly carry on their lips, are just so many lies. As soon as someone has become a Methodist, he must pay up properly in all sorts of ways — not, indeed, directly to the preacher, but to the general church treasury in weekly contributions (in addition, quarterly, to the presiding elder, etc., etc.); but what difference does that make as far as the one paying is concerned! An even greater lie is it when they say that they do not aim at making people into Methodists. I know of several cases where someone was converted, partly on the occasion of their preaching, without, however, becoming a Methodist. But they continually look upon such persons with great misgiving and shaking of the head, thinking that things do not stand rightly with them, that they cannot overcome the fear of man, etc. If, on the other hand, someone joins the Methodist church without being converted, they consider him safe, and think that conversion will surely follow. For their superstition regarding the power of the "rich means of grace of their church" — such as are: sermons, prayer meetings, class meetings, quarterly meetings, love feasts, camp meetings, and I know not what other meetings besides — is so great that they firmly maintain that anyone who takes part in all this must either be converted and remain so, or leave the Methodist church again with a stricken conscience. But this is not the case. A great number, year after year,