# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 01 25_S88
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

a stranger, would that indeed be valid?" — No! — "Well then, your soul does not belong to you at all, but to the Lord Jesus; how then can you give away what does not belong to you? Go, ask the Lord Jesus that He take back to Himself what belongs to Him; but the sin you have committed, throw back to Satan, for it belongs to him." — The maidservant obeyed, and was set at peace.

Concerning Herr Dr. Nast.

After Herr Nast, as our readers know, recently conducted himself toward us as unworthily as possible, and thereby became, in the eyes of all discerning readers of the Apologist and the Lutheraner, wholly bankrupt in his moral and literary reputation, he has now resorted to one last, desperate measure, to save from his bankruptcy what can still be saved. He has, namely, had an article against us inserted in the local "Deutsche Tribüne," a political paper, in which he accuses us of "palpable and knowing untruth and shameless lying" and calls us "a double deceiver." It is remarkable how Herr Nast sets about proving these dreadful accusations. For in his own tidy little article he first relates himself why we accused him of dishonorable conduct — namely, because, contrary to his promise, he had at first flatly refused to admit anything at all of our published article on the Holy Supper, and only later, under compulsion (that is, solely for shame's sake before men), consented to do so — and thereupon Herr Nast writes, brazenly, in that very same article: "Pastor Walther, then, wishes to make his readers believe that we had refused to admit into our paper any reply whatsoever on his part." It appears, accordingly, that Herr Nast holds even the readers of the Tribüne to be so stupid that they would take every one of his assertions for true without proof, and would not even notice how his own prior account of the facts refutes his later accusation and exposes it as a slander of the most unchristian kind. From this one sees just how far a man may finally come, once he allows the devil to bring him, even once, to act against his conscience! Then the poor man, growing ever blinder, plunges unstoppably from sin to sin, until he lies in the mire of open vice. A warning example!

Surely no one can be more sorry than we ourselves that we have finally had to speak in this way; but for the honor of God, and because of the offense that could arise from a silent acceptance of Herr Nast's evil doings, we have had to call darkness darkness, and sin sin, without being able to ask whether soft-hearted people, or those who themselves make light of loyalty and truthfulness, consider our conduct unloving.

We now append here also the reply which we had inserted in the "Deutsche Tribüne," the day after, in answer to Herr Nast's article.

Something Concerning the Communication of Herr Dr. Nast.

In yesterday's issue of this paper, the editor of the Methodist newspaper, Herr Dr. Nast, seeks to throw dust in the eyes of the German Protestant public, especially in and around St. Louis, concerning a duel — into which he himself had first, with much bluster, challenged us, and which turned out most unhappily for him — and to save his good name, at least among those who read neither our "Lutheraner" nor his "Apologist."

The undersigned may surely assume that every attentive reader can already clearly see, from what Herr Nast has been pleased to communicate, that the latter must be defending a bad cause. But since, if we were to remain entirely silent, we would have to fear the application of the proverb to ourselves, "Silence means consent," we take the liberty of drawing the public's attention, for good measure, to at least the following.

Herr Dr. Nast bases the legitimacy of his earlier, word-breaking refusal to admit even a little of our article into the Apologist on the fact that he had, after all, declared himself willing to make room in his paper for it, if we should draft a different article. Every person of sound understanding sees, however, that Herr Nast, with this declaration, only wished to make fools of us, while cleverly extricating himself from the noose. For Herr Nast could well imagine that we would not, at his demand, quickly draft another article and thereby make ourselves ridiculous before our own readers.

However Herr Nast may twist and turn, the fact remains: his first, unconditional refusal to admit even a single letter of our article — after we, in good trust in Herr Nast's given word and German honesty, had taken up his article in our paper wholly and unaltered — is and remains an infamous "dishonorable act."

C. F. W. Walther,
Editor of the "Lutheraner."
St. Louis, January 15, 1848.

*

"I Have Been at the Sermon."

The well-known Naumburg preacher J. M. Schamelius, among other useful books, also published a little book in which he collected and reviewed certain sayings that have become proverbial — sayings which are either easily misunderstood and can lead to sin, or which already have their root in manifestly sinful habits and mistaken notions. On page 138 Schamelius also mentions the expression contained in our heading, and censures it — certainly not without reason. Even now, and precisely here, we think, it may not be superfluous to rebuke this expression; for if there has ever been a time and a country in which the whole of public worship was reduced to almost nothing but the hearing of a sermon, while, on the other hand, people were put off by any lengthening of the service through congregational and responsive singing, through prayers, intercessions, the minister's versicles at the altar, solemn administration of the sacrament, and the like — it is certainly so now and here. That, alongside the sermon as the most important part of the service, these other things are also thoroughly essential and highly important parts of it, is for the most part not recognized. Matters have come to such a pass that the variety of the liturgy in the Lutheran Church is regarded as a papal leftover. Schamelius cites, in this connection, a relevant testimony of old Großgebauer from his "Voice of the Watchman," which we wish to share. It reads as follows:

"That preaching is the service of God, no one doubts. Hence I have seen, in great cities, how people, at the stroke of the bell around the time the preacher mounts the pulpit, come storming into the church, and then, when the sermon is over, storm out again. And instead of saying, with the ancient Christians, that they have praised God in the brotherly assembly, prayed earnestly for the impenitent, received the penitent, admonished one another through psalms, and heard the Word of God — they use a new synecdoche, unknown to the apostolic Christians: that they have been at the sermon. But is preaching and hearing a sermon alone the service of God? No. See Acts 2:42ff. There you have the sermon; the works of brotherly love, such as rebuke, zeal, mercy, and reception; the administration of the Holy Supper; prayer and intercession; the singing of praise and thanksgiving: therein consists the service of God."

*
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An Example from the History of the Papal Prohibition of the Bible.

Foxe relates, with reference to the Bible in France, the following incident, which occurred toward the end of the sixteenth century:

When the Bishop of Aix was in Avignon with several priests, he went walking one day through the streets with some courtiers. Seeing a man offering indecent pictures for sale, they bought several and presented them to some women. Nearby was a bookseller who had a great quantity of Bibles in the French language for sale. The bishop went up to him and said: "How dare you be so shameless as to sell French wares in this city?" The bookseller replied, with a kind of mockery: "My lord, do you not believe that Bibles are just as good as those pictures you bought for the women?" Enraged at this mockery, the bishop cried: "I will forfeit my place in paradise if this scoundrel is not a Waldensian. Away with him — away with him — away with him to prison." These exclamations caused the bookseller to be dreadfully mistreated by the mob.

As a result, he was burned with two Bibles about his neck, one hanging in front, the other behind.

Received.
$2.00 for the mission on the Cass River from P. S. through Herr P. Grätz. $2.00 for the widow of P. Burger from P. S. through Herr P. Grätz.

Paid.
Second half of vol. 3: Mr. Wilh. Hofmann.
First half of vol. 4: Mr. Wilh. Hofmann.
Vol. 4: Messrs. Bücher, Peter Schmelz, J. J. Schulze, Succopp.

Printed by Arthur Olshausen, publisher of the Anzeiger des Westens.

The following day he was brought before the judge, who, at the bishop's instigation, condemned him to death by fire.