# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1862_S288
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

288 Church News of the Day.

realization he welcomed in the ruptures among us, while precisely the further course of our history can convince him how precarious a thing "peaceful" standing side by side is. Just as little can I place great weight on the favorable judgment of the Buffalo men (Gradau and Hochstetter in the Informatorium) concerning the position of Crome, Eckert, and myself: for I cannot overlook the fact that it is precisely the Buffalo men who wrongly ascribe to the pastorate and to the synod a commanding authority, one that enslaves the conscience, in matters indifferent. Would that the opponents too, instead of merely amassing as many testimonies as possible against us in their church paper in order to impress the uncritical crowd, would first look more closely at the ground and worth of those judgments! But this I do praise, with a thankful heart, as a great joy and refreshment from the Lord, that several of the most recognized representatives of sound Lutheran orthodoxy, even though, standing outside, they can sometimes not bring themselves to join the practical struggle, have nevertheless openly confessed the principles for which we are fighting, and have expressly rejected, along with us, the opposing ones. Foremost among them Münkel, who has quite recently, through his excellent essay "Pointers on the Doctrine of Church Government," evidently shown how little his above-mentioned trump card against Diedrichs' person means any abandonment of his previous judgment on our points of contention. Essentially at one with him are the dogmatician Philippi and the teacher of church law Mejer in Rostock; and the more openly I emphasized in the previous number the point on which I differ from Harnack, the more freely I can now also cite him here as bearing witness for us on the main point. I do not know whose testimony could strengthen and comfort me more. And if we look simply at the point of the divinely instituted office of church government, the unanimity of the testimony in our favor, and the astonishment at our opponents' assertion, is one embracing very wide circles.

Pastor Ehlers himself reports the following in his Zeitblatt of July 1: "On Thursday, June 19, Church Councillor Pistorius of Breslau presented himself at ten o'clock in the morning at the residence of Pastor Ehlers in Liegnitz, without having previously announced his coming. After a short conversation, Pastor Ehlers renounced his allegiance to the Supreme Church Council [Oberkirchencollegium] in Breslau, whereupon Church Councillor Pistorius, in his capacity as a superintendent, suspended him. Of course there could be no question of Pastor Ehlers recognizing this suspension, and when Church Councillor Pistorius, in the afternoon, demanded by letter the church registers, seal, and records from him, he handed nothing over to him."

Zöller and Haag. Concerning these two well-known members of the Prussian Lutheran ministerium, we read in Rathsen's Kirchenzeitung for the month of July: "Dr. Wangemann (who fights with such sharp weapons for the divine right of church government) reports in his Pomeranian monthly paper that Superintendent Zöller has also already received a warning from the O. K. K. [Supreme Church Council]. When the same man spoke in Breslau in 1860, above all in favor of 'strengthening the O. K. K.,' he was immediately made a superintendent. Everyone has already bitterly regretted that. Zöller at the time knew neither the persons nor the circumstances sufficiently. At the conference in Berlin in 1861 he came out against the doctrines of Huschke and Pistorius, and just now he has published an excellently clear tract under the title: 'Be sober and watch — or, what do our confessional writings teach concerning church, church government, and church order? Presented to his congregations for instruction and warning against false doctrine, by Alb. Zöller, Superintendent and pastor of the Lutheran church in Wollin.' To be had from the author. This tract has 48 pages, is lucid, and is to be recommended to everyone." — Pastor Haag in Stolp (Hither Pomerania) shortly before Pentecost gave notice of his withdrawal from the Breslau Synod to the O. K. K., laid down his office there, and, having been called to Baden, has already departed thither.

Naturalism in Saxony. The Saxon Kirchen- und Schulblatt writes under the date of July 10: Today (St. John's Day) the bookshop of Otto Voigt sent two little pamphlets into people's houses under the following title: "System and History of Naturalism, by Eduard Löwenthal (sounds authentically neo-Israelite), Dr. phil.; Third, enlarged edition." Its content is faithfully and conveniently summed up by the motto ("from the author's own tragedy, Arnold of Brescia") in the verses:

"The time draws near when, through the might of knowledge,
"The gods shall fall, the altars shall totter;
"Where Nature alone, as the image of the holy,
"As revelation, reason alone shall count.
"— The Church shall crash down in the storm of thought!"