# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1862_S18
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

18 The Lutheran and Missionary.

be, its necessity is not taught here. Indeed, on a correct interpretation of this passage, it is not even necessary that we should understand two different things by water and Spirit. Water is a symbol of cleansing, and in this passage it symbolizes the washing, cleansing, and purifying that is worked by the influence of the Holy Spirit. We have a similar mode of expression in Matt. 3:11: 'He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.' The Holy Spirit and the fire here mean not two things but one, namely, the Holy Spirit under the image of fire, which penetrates every part and purifies and cleanses the whole. So in our passage, water and the Holy Spirit mean the Holy Spirit under the image of water. To be born of water and the Spirit is thus to say: to be born of the Holy Spirit, who, represented under the symbol of water, washes, refreshes, and cleanses the soul." — "In the same manner a writer undertakes to prove that the sin of our first parents is laid as a charge upon all their descendants. How does he do this? He cites a passage, or a number of passages, to prove that all men are sinners. Does this establish the point? Far from it, for all men may be sinners through inheritance or propagation, through actual guilt, and in other ways, without its being true that God lays upon them all the guilt of the first sinner." — May God in his grace preserve us from such an unbiased, correct interpretation of proof texts! —

(Submitted by Pastor Brauer.)

The "Lutheran and Missionary"

are united into a single paper. The usefulness of this union is obvious. And when one considers that this journal is breaking new ground in territory formerly dominated almost entirely by the Observer, and that it is working against the darkness that emanated from that paper, then everyone who loves the truth and the Lutheran Church cannot help but rejoice at such progress toward something better. — The general editor, in an article in which he sets forth his position, "Where do we stand," also expresses his longing for the union of Christians, and first and foremost of Lutherans among themselves. We agree with this wholeheartedly — what is more lovely, more blessed, more Christian, than unity and brotherly fellowship! Does not our faithful Savior pray, John 17: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me"? Does he not say: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another"? Does not Paul likewise admonish: "Be diligent to keep the unity of the Spir-