# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1862_S32
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

32 Church and Contemporary History.

has been said our readers will recognize that we are by no means satisfied with the transfer of the Fort Wayne seminary. But we can do nothing at present, and will probably be able to do just as little should the matter take the course we fear." — To this we permit ourselves only the remark that, should our Synod ever, contrary to the terms of the transfer, fail to preserve the character of the practical seminary, this would have the feared consequences just the same, even if it were not locally united with the Concordia Seminary. We are, however, convinced that, so long as our Synod remains faithful to the Lutheran Church, to its doctrine and spirit, there is not the slightest danger that it will ever be tempted to alter the practical seminary in its peculiar character.

Papal blessing by telegraph. On May 14 of last year a Catholic society in Berlin sent the reigning Pope a congratulation on his birthday by telegraph; the next day he likewise sent the society, by telegraph, the "apostolic blessing" in return, signed: Cardinal Antonelli.

Sweden. Concerning the church of that country, a Swede named Welinder reported the following, among other things, at the conference of clergy and laity from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark held at Christiania in July of last year: "The sects are on the decline. The abolition of the parish ban was granted by the government. But this freedom, which so many had clamored for, was made use of by fewer than had been expected. Still, it has brought the advantage of largely preventing separatist impulses. — A law on dissenter freedom has been passed. It contains, however, great restrictions, so that no proper dissenter congregation has yet been able to arise in Sweden... But we must also point out the shadow sides of the Swedish church. This ought to drive us to humility and intercession. At the universities a philosophy has developed that stands in sharp opposition to Christianity. Unbelief is also making room for itself in literature; a certain Kramer holds ethics to be the highest thing, follows the Tübingen school, and has even sought to defend polygamy."

The lame messenger in Austria. Church-minded people in Austria do not universally join in the rejoicing now being raised over the ecclesiastical freedom granted in Austria. A correspondent of the General Church Gazette writes, dated October of last year: "It almost has the appearance that only isolated concessions have been made to the church, while the opponents of everything churchly have been given the whole field. There all confessions stand on an equal footing, even the non-Christian ones; there we are handed the cuckoo's egg of civil marriage, the school is separated from the church — evils which are thrown into the bargain along with far more precious goods. The whole thing appears almost like a transaction between Christ and Belial, and if the law goes through as it stands, believers and church-minded people will have to learn to move in new paths, and apostasy from the church will become a raging thing in this thoughtless age. And even though the same law may also apply to the Evangelicals, we are, for instance, still not made secure against the proselytizing of the Ultramontanes with regard to mixed marriages. — Meanwhile we are making use of that freedom which has fallen to us through the patent of April 8. New congregations are forming everywhere. It is especially lively in Bohemia. In Silesia it is especially the congregation of Kleinbresl which will presumably soon be delivered from the indolent tyranny of its former pastor. — When on October 14 Dr. Lipsius of Leipzig and Dr. Vogel of Jena publicly entered the Evangelical Theological Faculty of Vienna, the dean of that faculty, Dr. Schimko, delivered an address to this effect: reason alone determines the sense of Scripture; one can no longer bind oneself to the symbolical books; through the results of the most recent research, and especially through the advance of the natural sciences, one has moved far beyond the standpoint of the Reformers." Where such men sit at the helm, complete freedom is indeed a very ambiguous good.

Death. On June 24 of last year, missionary Wendtlandt died at Emlalazi in Zululand after a long decline from consumption. He had, as is known, formerly stood in the service of the Leipzig Mission Society in East India, but later entered the service of the Hermannsburg mission. Before his missionary activity he had been a rector in Uelzen, Hanover.

Prof. v. Zezschwitz of Leipzig has asked to be released from his offices, in order to recover from a deep-seated affliction in rural and spiritual retirement at Neuendettelsau in Bavaria, occupying himself only with literary work.