# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1861_S350
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

350 Church Contemporary News.

"and officers there. But the true cause of our misfortune was our terrible
"sin against the law of God. The plan of the battle was drawn up for a
"Sunday, and the battle itself was fought on that day. Had it been
"postponed to Monday, in all likelihood we would not have been driven
"back. The rest of the Sabbath would have saved our army. In
"truth, the men fought with a bravery beyond compare, and this, besides,
"against the most terrible odds. But human nature could not stand against
"the eternal laws which God has impressed upon the work of his hands.
"Exhausted by the battle of the preceding Thursday, by the heat, and by
"the excitement of continual skirmishing, nature needed rest, and the
"spirit needed the moral influences which the Sabbath and the Word bring
"with them. But war begun without religion 'knows no Sabbath,' and the
"Lord's Day must be broken whenever it suits the 'civilians'! The outcome
"has covered us with shame and humiliation before the world. May this
"lead to sincere repentance and to a reformation for all time to come."

So much for the document in question. As for Dr. Passavant, we cannot,
in conclusion, refrain from adding the following remark: however
gratifying it may nonetheless be that the worthy Herr Doctor now appears
himself to regret having advocated, in the above, a doctrine of the
Sabbath contrary to Scripture and to the Symbols, we must, for his own
sake, deeply regret that he has sought to extricate himself from the
affair in the unfortunate manner set forth. This has served him about as
well as all such attempts usually do. He has, unhappily, himself really
fallen into the very sin which he rolled onto the innocent. A. C.

II. Abroad.

Baden. The Jewish Orientalist Weil has been appointed full professor
at the University of Heidelberg. A natural fruit of the beloved Union.

Messina, August 4. The question of whether, as a consequence of the
great political events, significant religious changes are also being
prepared in Italy — whether, in particular, a Protestant movement is
about to spread — has, as is well known, received very different answers.
Cavour has stressed that the Italians are, in the strictest sense, a
Catholic-minded people, and that they will remain so, despite the present
turmoil with the Vicar of Christ on earth. Garibaldi and his army
chaplain Gavazzi, by contrast, assure the English that the Italians'
attachment to the See of Peter has vanished, and that in their hearts
most are already Protestants. Cavour will prove right against Garibaldi
in this question, as in many others, and one can explain Gavazzi's claims
only by supposing that he wishes to keep alive and exploit the religious
passions of the English for the general benefit of his fatherland. For
Gavazzi must know what Garibaldi perhaps does not — that there is a vast
difference between the so-called Protestant sentiments of his fellow
citizens and the fundamental convictions of historic Protestantism. If,
indeed, one calls everything Protestant that contradicts the doctrinal
tenets of the Roman Catholic Church, then there are many Protestants in
Italy. But the concept of Protestantism has not yet been stretched that
far, and one will therefore only be able to say that there are, in Italy,
many non-Catholics, particularly among the educated classes, but very few
who are Protestant-minded. For by not believing in the miracles of the
saints, mocking the veneration of saints, and railing against auricular
confession and clerical celibacy, and so forth, one is still no
Protestant. — These reflections forced themselves upon me as I leafed
through the Rapport de la commission d'évangélisation au Synode de
l'Église Vaudoise for the past year, in order to pass on to you some
information from it. Only since Piedmont entered upon the constitutional
path have the Waldensians been permitted to hold public worship. The
government has granted them full freedom of worship, and they have known
how to make use of this freedom. They already have churches, in Pinerolo,
in Turin, Alessandria, Casale, Voghera, Courmayeur in the upper
Dora Baltea valley, in Genoa, Favale, and Nizza, and