# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 03 07_S112
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

…ways of being present anywhere. In a certain sense Christ is indeed no longer on earth, but in another sense, namely in an inexpressible way, he continually fills heaven and earth.

Therefore our church sings:

Though you have ascended
Visibly from this earth,
And now for this present time remain
Invisible to us here,
Until your judgment there begins
And we all shall stand before you
And behold you joyfully:

Yet you remain, according to your word,
Always with us and your congregation,
And are not confined to one place
With your flesh and bone:
Your word stands firm as a wall,
Which no one can pervert,
However clever he may think himself.*)

(To be continued.)

Church Dedication.

Last Sunday, Sexagesima, and the following day — that is, on the 27th and 28th of February of this year — the local German Evangelical Lutheran congregation of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession had the joy of being able to dedicate its newly built second church in the northern part of the city. The church has received the name Immanuel Church. Present and active on this occasion, besides the congregation's two pastors, Bünger and Walther, were Pastors Fürbringer, Fick, Schieferdecker, Lochner, and Müller. — Praise be to him to whom alone all honor is due! Amen.

*) See: Hymnal for Ev. Luth. Congregations of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, St. Louis, No. 197.

Church News from the West.

1. On Septuagesima Sunday of the current year, the Reverend Pastor Lehmann entered upon his office in Hanover, near Cape Girardeau, and will in future also serve a second congregation ten miles from there. His address is: Rev. A. Lehmann, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

2. On the sixth Sunday after Epiphany, Mr. Paulus Heid, formerly a student at the Lutheran Seminary at Fort Wayne, after having received a regular call from two Evangelical Lutheran congregations near Wapakonetta, Allen Co., Ohio, was ordained before them to the holy office of preaching according to apostolic custom by Dr. Sihler, with the assistance of Pastor Streckfuß.

Church News from Hanover and Prussia.
(From a private correspondence.)

I can perhaps best characterize for you the present state of affairs by telling you the latest piece of church history that has occurred among us; it is a picture of what is happening everywhere.

In the good city of Celle a pastoral position under municipal patronage was vacant. The magistrate applied to the famous Uhlich, in order to have a candidate recommended to him by the man of the hour. He recommends a certain Greiling, a bright fellow, a gifted wrangler and pettifogger, a most ordinary rationalist through and through. The man appeared with uncommon impudence, and — the rabble flocked to him like water. Against this, the "Pietists," as the believers are called here, likewise formed themselves into a group, and increased in number and defended themselves. Greiling soon had the entire clergy against him and stood quite alone, but he raged on regardless, caring nothing for Bible, catechism, or consistory. The situation in Celle became precarious; conflicts could arise, and it was discovered that Greiling had written in the symbolical books that he would revere them ea qua par est reverentia ac pietate (with such reverence and piety as is fitting). Thereupon the consistory resolved to change the whole manner of subscription, so that now a book is laid before the candidate or the man being transferred, in which, at the top of every page, is printed the formula of obligation as it has been in force among us from the beginning, under which the man then simply sets his name — and this before his swearing of the oath, and under the direction of the officiating ecclesiastical councilor, now Abbot Rupstein. An excellent measure, for the church thereby safeguards her legal domain, which is of great importance in the face of the world. At the same time, the consistory thereby makes known on what ground it intends to stand. We had and still have our joy in this, which was considerably heightened when, this past spring (1847), Spitta — the well-known hymn-writer, much slandered on account of his time at Hameln, a faithful Lutheran pastor — became superintendent in Wittingen, an appointment that would have been an absolute impossibility as recently as five years ago.

But the enemies understood these signs too; they saw that the consistory was beginning to rest upon its natural center of gravity, and they judged that they must at least make a noise about it. The Hamburger Korrespondent accordingly sprayed out much venom; among other things it also announced the impending (though to this day unpublished) appearance of a pamphlet in which the "orthodoxy" of various consistorial councilors (Meyer, Rupstein, and Lücke were meant) was to be measured against the standard of the symbolical books. So much was also falsely reported about the legal aspect of the change in question that the consistory issued a circular, in which it informed and reassured the subordinate clergy about the step that had been taken.

— In the meantime another vacancy had arisen in Celle, and once again a man named Diestelmann had been drawn from the Prussian source, who possessed very glowing testimonials from Sydow and Jonas, and thus belonged to the faction of the Eighty-Three, the Schleiermacherians. He preached and was elected by the magistrate. Thereupon a number of "Pietists" protested against him before the consistory as against a false teacher. The consistory notified the Celle magistrate of this, remarking that the presented candidate would in any case have to subscribe to the symbolical books. The man thereupon deliberated for several weeks, but then came and made a very poor showing in the examination, and delivered a very mediocre sermon in an even more mediocre manner. It is to be presumed that he will be the last one obtained by this route, for he will probably soon fall by the wayside. Amid these controversies, however, the theologians in Celle have gained considerably; they have all, one might say, been driven instinctively to the right side, and they will grow.

In this story you have a mirror image of the situation in Germany.

Wislicenus has publicly declared his pantheism, which does not allow him and his followers to pray. His church has some seventy members, but in the newspapers he is already dead. On the other hand, all the resolute threaten to withdraw if an ordination pledge, drawn up by the (Berlin) General Synod, should be adopted, in which several clauses of the Apostles' Creed — namely, "conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, descended into hell, resurrection of the flesh" — are deliberately omitted, as either not belonging to the "chief and fundamental doctrines" of the Gospel, or as misleading in their wording. For this ordination pledge was supposed to contain everything, and to be set before the candidate for ordination, whose violation or denial would be grounds for judicial proceedings against him; it would in effect have become a new confession, and under present circumstances the omission of the above clauses could only appear to be a denial of the truth and a concession to unbelief and half-belief. So indeed it was understood, and it was combated most vehemently in newspapers, pamphlets, and petitions to the King. To all appearances it will remain unexecuted. But one is then no further along, since in the Prussian Evangelical Church, as the authentic synodal records prove, every legal basis has been destroyed. In the church government, therefore, they know neither in nor out. Many clergy of Lutheran conviction have sent back the Union declaration and the liturgical Agenda; they are being left to do as they please. The King has also already been petitioned for the restitution of the Lutheran Church to its rightful legal standing, but has as yet given no answer. So much is certain: that a crisis is at the door, and presumably a significant Lutheran separation will take place. Unless, that is, the first General Diet, now assembled in Berlin, should press for an American-style church freedom, which, however, I would consider in Germany to be the beginning of a fearful revolution.

Table Prayer.

An old master potter once found himself at a wedding in the company of many merry young people; but before he sat down at the table, he quietly said his prayer. Afterward one of the guests said to him mockingly: "Isn't it true that at your house everyone prays?" — "Everyone? That I couldn't say!" — "What, not everyone?" — "No — down in the stable I have two pigs, and they never pray when they want to eat." At that the young man fell silent, and spoke not another word to the old Christian.

New Post Office.

From April 1, 1848, the undersigned requests that all his letters, newspapers, etc., be addressed to Marion, Marion Co., Ohio.

The undersigned also informs his neighboring Lutheran ministers that, should they wish to obtain individual copies of the new Lutheran hymnal published by the Lutheran congregation in St. Louis, they need not order it all the way from St. Louis or New York, since he intends to procure a small stock himself, so as to make it possible for this hymnal to be had nearby in an easy manner. A. Ernst.

Changed Address:

Rev'd J. Isensee, East Germantown P.O., Wayne Co., Ind.

The address for Mr. Anton Oesterle — Westfield P.O., Mulberry Co., Ohio — is incorrect.

Received.

$2.00 for the mission to the heathen on the Cass River in Michigan, from the Lutheran Zion congregation in Willshint Township, Ohio.
$1.22 for the Lutheran Seminary in Altenburg, from the Lutheran congregation near Waterloo, Ill.

Paid.

For the 4th volume: Messrs. Gerh. Heinr. Brockschmidt, Andr. Drescher, Christian Faßler, Pastor Joh. Isensee, Gottlob Kling, Friedr. Kull, Christian Spannagel, Friedr. Siockhare, Georg Weidner, Georg Wendling.

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