# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 03 01_S125
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

(Submitted.)

Something refreshing for all Lutheran Christians, especially for the Hanoverians from their European homeland.

In the middle of the Lüneburg Heath in the Kingdom of Hanover lies a small Lutheran village parish, whose spiritual care is entrusted to a very faithful shepherd, the young Pastor H., as assistant preacher to his father. Concerning the blessing with which the Lord crowns the work of His servant, the following account by a young man who visited the congregation gives some report. I traveled, so he writes, on the first day of Christmas at five o'clock in the morning by train from Uelzen, and after a one-hour journey still had two and a half hours to walk to Hermannsburg. There, one and a half hours from Hermannsburg, I fell in with churchgoers from that congregation. In the naive manner of these heath-children, a serving-girl questioned me quite thoroughly, and once she had gotten her bearings about me in every respect, she told the others the result of her inquiries. Then one after another came up, greeted me in a friendly way, and looked me full in the face so heartily, as if to say: it is good of you that you come to us. They told me a great deal then about their dear father in Christ, how he sacrifices himself so entirely for them, how his heart is nothing but love for them, how indeed he preaches to them powerfully through his word, and even more powerfully through his conduct and his humility. On the evening before, that is, on Christmas Eve, one of them related, they had also had a beautiful celebration. A great fir tree had stood in the middle of the choir of the church for the children of the poor, and the beloved young people had gathered around it, and had, among other things, sung in three-part harmony: "O du fröhliche, o du selige, gnadenbringende Weihnachtszeit!" On the fir tree, besides many other things, there also hung large foreign nuts, namely coconuts; and these had come about in the following way. About a year ago, Pastor H. wrote to Otaheite (an island in the vast South Sea) to the missionary Thomson who remained stationed there: if he should need money, he should write, and Pastor H. would send it to him. He wrote back that they did not presently need money, but rather heartfelt intercession. The children on Otaheite, to whom the missionary related the contents of the letter, quickly climbed the tall palm trees, gathered coconuts, and asked Thomson to send these along as gifts for the children of the Hermannsburg congregation. The nuts had indeed arrived safely shortly before Christmas; Pastor H. had then hung them on the fir tree and told the story of them, and I could tell from the words of the plain farm-lad who told it to me what an impression this story had made. Of the congregation I could relate a great many lovely traits, but here only one, which took place shortly before Christmas. A young, unmarried day-laborer came to Pastor H. and said that something weighed heavily on his heart. On further inquiry he said that, indeed, he had too much money, and told H., who was amazed at such a complaint, that he had often heard from him the Bible word: it is more blessed to give than to receive, and had said "yes" to it in his heart as well; but he had recently learned that this word had nevertheless remained without effect on his heart. For as he was leaving the last mission hour, he had gotten hold of a thaler while reaching into his pocket; and it had struck him that this was too much, and so he had put only a few groschen into the mission box. On his way home his conscience reminded him how he still clung too much to money. "Therefore," he continued, "I must now give away all the money I have; here, Pastor, take it." With that he laid forty thalers on the table. Pastor H. urged him rather to put it into a savings bank, so that he would have it when he wanted to start something someday. That, he said, his relatives had already told him too, but his conscience would not permit him to keep the money. Well then, said Pastor H., if he had recognized this as God's voice speaking to his heart, he should take it back again and use it according to his own judgment for the Lord. So, in complete quietness, during Christmas week, he distributed his money among the poor of the village, and Pastor H. remarked that on his face one could read plainly the verse: It is more blessed to give than to receive. — Now, one more testimony, from an official of that district, a worldly man. He remarked with astonishment that whereas formerly, when he drew up a will, he had everywhere found fear of death, now he everywhere found a great inward readiness to die.

From another part of the letter we take the following as well:

In almost every house of the parish there is at least one awakened soul, and through Pastor H.'s untiring activity the evening and morning blessing, as our fathers knew it, with prayer, Bible reading, and singing, has been reintroduced. In every village belonging to the parish, in rotating order among the houses, instead of the formerly customary visits to the tavern, there is now a quiet, orderly gathering on Sunday and festival evenings, at which a sermon is read aloud. The services are distinguished, besides the sermon, by beauty and dignity in the singing and in the liturgy. On Sundays, as days of joy, the pastor prays standing with the whole congregation; on days of repentance and at weekday services, the pastor and the whole congregation pray kneeling; likewise on festival days and at the evening services held before every festival day in the church, which is lit with chandeliers. Delightful and moving are the catechizations with the children, among whose ranks stand also a great many farmhands and maidservants. All baptisms take place in the church, and the baptismal sponsors themselves speak the three articles of the Creed. On Sunday, after the afternoon service ends, the people gather in great crowds at the pastor's dwelling. There one can see faces content in God. When all business — such as receiving mission money, selling books — is finished, Pastor H. lights his pipe, sits down in his chair, with everyone, great and small, gathered around him, and he speaks with the people or tells them, in Low German, whatever the occasion offers and serves for edification. On the Feast of the Reformation he related a passage from Luther's life; for he holds Luther in high regard, and that morning had also preached about him as about the angel of Revelation who flies through heaven with the everlasting Gospel.

So much for the report of the letter; I add nothing, but hold the certain hope that the dear readers of the Lutheraner will heartily approve the heading I have given it.

A. Wolter.

Is there an essential difference between the preaching of the Gospel and a private absolution?

As we understand, some have taken the essay drawn from Harleß's journal on the power of the keys, etc., to mean that it was intended to introduce the teaching that the general preaching of the Gospel is not an absolution, or that a private absolution gives something else or something more than the mere preaching does. Although we ourselves have not interpreted the essay in this way, we nevertheless consider ourselves obligated, for the preservation of purity of doctrine, expressly to answer the above question in the negative.*) That this question has always been decidedly answered in the negative by the orthodox teachers of our church may be witnessed by the venerable and dear Brenz, the well-known great Württemberg theologian and friend of Luther. He writes as follows in his Latin sermons on the Gospel of John:

The Lord said to His apostles: "As the Father has sent Me, so send I you." What the sense and meaning of these words is can be recognized from what Christ said to the apostles at another time: "He who hears you hears Me," and again: "He who receives you receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me." By this Christ means to say as much as this: the Father has sent Me from heaven to earth,

*) One must not think that this thereby endorses the Reformed and Methodist doctrine that a person can only proclaim the forgiveness of sins but not impart it. On the contrary, it is hereby confirmed that the preaching of the Gospel is no empty, powerless sound, no mere announcement alongside which the Holy Spirit works and leads to forgiveness, but that the preached Word is living and powerful and has a forgiveness-imparting power, whether it be spoken to many or to a single person (privately).