# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1862_S382
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

382 Church and Contemporary History.

and a stronger bearing, especially now that it is also being sent into the
school of conflict and will learn to make better use of the weapons God
has given than it has done hitherto, since many had been resting
comfortably under the shelter of the regime's authority.

The Catechism itself is a work of faith, and as such a gift of God.
Let one examine it; it has its shortcomings, and these are a reminder
that human beings made it. Nevertheless it must be a most significant
sign to every thoughtful person that the world has fallen into such a
rage over it and has cried out, gnashing its teeth: "Away with this! It is
not fitting that it should live." Were it of the world, the world would
love its own. Yet it was not composed with worldly cleverness or
political considerations. It mediates and halves nothing anywhere; it
gives the whole honor to the truth and simply follows the guidance of
the Word of God, which reveals itself everywhere, even in its language.
It is an extraordinary phenomenon that such a catechism could, in our
day, not only be composed, but also be approved by all the church
authorities and powers of the land, and be received with joy by a great
number of the teaching estate, not to mention others. That is a work of
God, and God has stamped his seal upon it, in that he has placed the
catechism and its friends under the cross and impressed on them the
mark of Christ. It is mocked, spat upon, in the true sense of the word
trampled underfoot; it is condemned to death and hanged on a tree.
That is indeed a sun-clear proof that a work of God has taken place in
the land of Hanover, and that the matter cannot be over with the
catechism's condemnation to death, even if its enemies station
watch-committees and synods before its grave and cry out: Now that it
lies there, let it not rise again.

So far Dr. Münkel. Relying on the King's most recent ordinance, the
magistrate of the city of Hanover and of Stade has forbidden the use of
the new catechism in the schools under its authority, as the Allgemeine
Kirchenzeitung of September 10 reports. The theological faculty of
Göttingen has conferred the doctoral diploma on the author of the new
catechism, Superintendent Lührs of Peine.

Haag, formerly a pastor in Baden, later at Stolp in a congregation
belonging to the Prussian-Lutheran church, has this year returned to
Baden and there, namely at Bretten, has transformed the local branch
congregation of Pastor Eichhorn into an independent so-called "Free
Lutheran Congregation," receiving into it also members of other
Lutheran congregations, among others members excommunicated by
Pastor Frommel and his congregation at Ihringen. Separated from
Breslau, he is, as we learn from Räthjen's Kirchenzeitung, also not
acknowledged by Diedrich as one of his own.

Street Preaching in England. We read in the Allgemeine
Kirchenzeitung: From Bedford it was reported in early July: A certain
theological excitement has prevailed here for some weeks, stirred up by
a number of Protestant street preachers who publicly curse the
inhabitants as a godless and idolatrous people, cry "Woe upon Bedford"
like Jonah over Nineveh, but above all attack the English established
church. The head of these preachers, a Mr. Jonas of London, caused
great scandal last Sunday. At 9 o'clock in the evening, as the crowds
were pouring out of churches and chapels, he publicly burned the
Anglican prayer book, passionately repeating, as he did so, the wish
that he could likewise execute the Talmud, the Koran, the Mass-book,
and similar other books. The populace was divided in its views and
expressed its disagreement with its fists. In the end the Anglicans
prevailed, fell upon the prophet Jonas, testified their contempt for him
in various physical ways, and were about to baptize him in the river
Ouse when a detachment of police arrived just in time and brought him
to the police station for his own rescue.

Blasphemous Scraps. Under this heading Dr. Münkel writes the
following in his Neues Zeitblatt of September 19: "The Kölnische
Zeitung reports the following in its issue of September 6: 'In the
Protestant hymnbook provisionally imposed by the Right Reverend
Consistory in Hanover, the following remarkable passage occurs: