# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1862_S64
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

64 Church and Contemporary Notes.

power to the service of the mission. And it is a need of ours to declare this here most decidedly and publicly. The more he has had to experience ingratitude from many quarters in his previous work, the more he may at least be assured on our part that we will never forget what he has done for the mission. If we nevertheless accepted his release, and desisted from any further attempt to move him to change his resolve, this happened only because we had to recognize that the grounds for his withdrawal lie in the objective circumstances mentioned above, which are independent of personal wishes and influences — while at the same time hoping that, with this step, the connection between him and us will not be entirely dissolved, but that he will continue to devote his interest and his powers to the mission and will allow us, as occasion arises, to call upon his help and services. So may the blessing of God accompany our friend on all his ways! But may we remain bound to him further by the fellowship of the one faith and the one love for the cause of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ! — After Dr. Graul's withdrawal from the Board, we naturally had to see to it that it be filled again as soon as possible through the election of new members. Thank God, this has already succeeded in the most desirable way! Mr. Professor Dr. Keil (formerly of Dorpat) and Mr. Merchant Moritz Bredt of this city have been willing, at our request, to enter the Board. We are convinced that this election, and its acceptance, will be greeted from all sides with the most joyful approval. May the Lord, however, whom we serve and without whom we can do nothing, speak His Amen to it; and as He has hitherto been so visibly with us with His grace and His blessing, so may He also let His holy work go forward joyfully through our hands, to the honor of His name. The Board of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission at Leipzig. Dr. v. Harless, Hardeland, Dr. Luthardt."

Dr. K. Stier has, as is well known, made it one of the chief tasks of his life to offer the German people an improved Lutheran translation of the Bible. He writes in his tract "Correction of the German Bible" (Bielefeld, Velhagen, 1861, 120 pp., 6 groschen), p. 21: Engelhardt had advised him to submit his work, before printing, to individual competent Bible scholars; and he answers thereupon: "By God's grace I am proud enough to say that I know of no Bible scholar among my contemporaries to whom I feel so entirely subordinate as to yield to him, or whose judgment on such a matter I should wish to seek." But Luther, it seems, is to "yield so entirely" to Mr. Dr. Stier. Dr. Münkel remarks on this: "If Stier is the great light that rules the day, he need not be surprised if the little lights withdraw and leave him alone at his work in the firmament of the church."

Nathusius. The following we read in the Pilger aus Sachsen: On the occasion of the Prussian coronation festivities, the estate owner Philipp Engelhard Nathusius of Neinstedt — the well-known publisher of the Halle "Volksblatt für Stadt und Land" — has, together with his brothers August (of Meyendorf), Wilhelm (of Königsborn), and Heinrich (of Alt-Haldensleben), been raised to the nobility.

Mennonites in Prussia. The following we read in the A. Kirchenz. of November 16 of last year: A bill concerning the Mennonites is, we hear, to be laid before the Diet soon after its opening. It abolishes the Mennonites' exemption from military service; and since the government cannot doubt that many of these loyal, industrious, and well-to-do subjects will as a result resolve to emigrate, provision has been made in the draft that the withdrawal of the exemption from military service take effect only after some years, so as not to place in sudden distress those families whose sons are close to fulfilling their military obligation.

The Bible and Science. The Allg. K. Z. is written to under date of November 7 from London: Concerning the "Essays and Reviews," the Earl of Shaftesbury recently gave a lecture before the Bromwich branch of the "British and Foreign Bible Society," in which he said, among other things: "There is no doubt that the immense spread of Holy Scripture over the whole earth, its translation into so many languages and dialects, has aroused the fury of unbelievers. They have asked themselves how this spread of the Bible might be checked, and they have well perceived that this could no longer be done in the old way; to deny outright the authenticity of Holy Scripture would not suit the present generation, and so they set on foot a grand conspiracy, which bears no small resemblance to that of Guy Fawkes, and resolved to blow the whole system of the Christian religion into the air and bury it in one great conflagration. To accomplish this the better, they took science into their service, and thus called forth the unnatural civil war between science and revelation. If science shall have wrought in the hearts of one millionth part of mankind but one millionth part of the good that the Bible works in England alone every hour, then, and only then, may science venture even to enter into competition, with mere ornaments, against the revealed Word of God."