# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1862_S27
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary History. 27

then a history of the printed Examen; finally, a defense of some of its main points against the Roman error. The basis used is the authentic Frankfurt edition; added to it are: 1) for a better overview, the division into loci, sections, and paragraphs as given in the edition of 1707, 2) for each individual locus, the corresponding passages of the symbolical books; both, to distinguish them from the original text, in brackets. The format is that of Bengel's Gnomon. The price for the whole, which appears in 4 substantial installments of 15-18 sheets each, is about 3 thalers 10 groschen. If the evangelical church is to be thoroughly converted to its confession, then the substance of the pure doctrine must again become dear and familiar to all Christians, and especially to teachers. May God let the present edition of Chemnitz's Examen contribute to that... The Examen offers the evangelical doctrine. Not as it is mirrored in the head of some half-rationalist professor, but as it grew up amid the mighty struggles of the sixteenth century: pure and living and firm... Martin Chemnitz is probably the greatest theologian since Luther, both in effectiveness and in theological power. Whoever has accomplished anything in the evangelical church, says Walch, has done it standing on the shoulders of Luther, Chemnitz, and Gerhard. He is a classic of pure doctrine: friendly and mild toward men, but of iron firmness against error. The Examen is by far his most significant work. Whoever does not know it has not grasped in its depth the contrast between the Evangelical Church and the Roman; but one would be greatly mistaken to believe that the power and significance of the book are exhausted in its polemics. Whoever has read this Examen need not let himself be blown about by every wind of half-rationalist or half-pantheist doctrine, for the Examen contains not only, positively, the substance of pure doctrine, but also teaches the method of developing it from Scripture. Its scriptural proofs are of such great clarity and simplicity that they carry one along irresistibly." So writes Hengstenberg, and thereupon, besides a most interesting biography of Chemnitz, offers a sample from the Examen, namely the section that treats of infant baptism. Blessed be Dr. Hengstenberg for this fine testimony of his, as well as Licentiate Preuss in Berlin for the faithful care with which he makes one of the greatest products of our church accessible to us again. May God grant that quite many eager buyers and readers be found, so that the blessing arising from it may be great.

Church and Contemporary History.

I. America.

On English-American Lutheranism the Reformed editor of the Evangelist passes this judgment in the number of November 16 of last year: "Hitherto the English Lutherans in America have really been Lutheran only in name, in