# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1862_S384
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

384 Church and Contemporary History.

should. After it had deliberated on Italy, America came up for its turn.
In the report on the relevant proceedings, found in the Allgemeine
Kirchenzeitung of September 17, it says: A quite similar area was
touched upon by the second motion to come up for deliberation, that of
the Langenberg Society for the Support of Protestant Germans in
North America, for a more organic connection of the Gustavus
Adolphus Society with the German congregations there.

The rapporteur, Dr. Schweder of Berlin, presented, as the conclusion
of a speech that unfortunately remained almost entirely unintelligible to
us, three theses: 1) the Gustavus Adolphus Society recognizes the
legitimate desire of the Germans in North America for an orderly
church system; 2) it holds it to be its duty to be helpful, with all love
and assistance, to fellow believers in the building of churches, etc.; but
3) as such, on the basis of its statutes, it can render help only insofar
as those fellow believers in America are in the diaspora and under the
pressure of other religious bodies.

Traveling preacher Meyering of Langenberg wishes, through the
reception of the German daughter church in the American diaspora, to
graft a new shoot onto the tree. The nineteenth century, he says, is that
of the spread of the Reformation churches. Traveling preachers in the
service of German synods are needed. So many candidates sit idle at
home; they should come over, for there is the school of practice. —

Ebert of Kassel feels the need for spiritual help in America. But one
must not fear to hear it, when one always gets letters from there
raving about the good life there, "am I supposed to send money out
there?" The language of the heart does not decide the matter. The
Society is bound by its statutes. It would, to be sure, be a fine future in
union with the evangelical fellow believers in America. But over there
are enough congregations that could long since have joined us; there
has been no lack of invitations. They do not need traveling preachers,
but churches, and for that they have the means. We can help only
those who do not have sufficient means in the fatherland. On the other
hand, the speaker pleads for the Germans in Chile. In particular, many
of his countrymen — Hessians from Kurhessen, many of whom would
rather have stayed at home — are there. In Santiago and Valparaíso the
beginnings of a church system have been made; support should be
given there. —

Dr. Grossmann proposes the amendment: "the Gustavus Adolphus
Society recognizes the endeavors of our American fellow believers, but
in view of the fact that it still has very many unfulfilled tasks in Europe
and is not yet exactly informed about all the individual needs, it
resolves, for the present, not yet to enter upon that field."

Prelate Dr. Zimmermann supports the previous speaker and wishes
for no resolution binding for all time, but rather the gathering of closer
information.

At the vote, Grossmann's motion is rejected, and Schweder's is
adopted by a large majority.

Hanover. Under date of September 28, a Christian brother writes,
among other things, the following: "Our catechism dispute may indeed
be called a fight for the jewel of pure doctrine, so far as that doctrine is
still preserved here in this land. It is, to a certain degree, a martyrdom,
a true burning of believing souls, to have to observe how the world,
without in the least wanting to renounce a claim on the church, sets
aside every testimony of the truth in the most mob-like manner, and
how its insolence and defiance only receive oil poured on them, just
where one thinks they ought to realize they have been overcome and
should let their fire go out. Sad, too, is the frequently evident
compliance and weakness of those who are called watchmen, to say
nothing of the divine swineherds who laugh up their sleeves. The so
very beloved and well-meaning Superintendent Hildebrand in
Göttingen, for example, declared — after he had previously defended
the new catechism to his stiff-necked congregation — that, however
unwillingly he did so, he would, for the sake of dear peace and because
his first commandment was: Fear God, honor the king, refrain from the
introduction of the dear book, which had again been rescinded by the
latter. But there is simply no practice at all of the word: My kingdom
is not of this world, and civil and heavenly things are constantly mixed
together. Yet there are individual faithful men who stand firm despite
all the raging. A young preacher has declared he would rather die than
be willing to give up Luther's Small Catechism. A Superintendent
Karsten answered his magistrate very decisively and said openly that,
even if the consistory yielded, it would be over here with the Lutheran
church. (Well, that too is certainly quite a mixed case.) Such men are
expected by the common people to lay down their office. The
prevailing spirit thus drives our Luther quite openly out of the
Lutheran church. It cannot possibly continue so. — The Union is now
sailing again with full sails. Schenkel stirs up hostility against
Lutheranism vigorously in his new work: The Ecclesiastical Question
and Its Protestant Solution, Elberfeld, '62. He is a worthy prophet of
this generation — the wild flame of an enthusiasm fed by lies, which,
like a conflagration out of hell, has seized the people, on whose behalf
God has done so much in vain!