# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 03 01_S128
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...few indeed are they who hold to the true middle way. Indeed, it is difficult even for pious Christians. — Luther, in his sermon on 1 John 4:16–21, On Love.

The Sinfulness of Doubting God's Grace.

God promises you, if you forsake the world, an eternal life, and you doubt and waver? This means knowing nothing of God at all; this means offending Christ, the Lord and Master of believers, through the sin of unbelief; this means denying faith within the Church itself, as within the dwelling-place of faith. — Cyprian, Sermon 4, On Mortality.

Voltaire's Hope in Death.

When the physician of the Duke of Orleans, named Tronchin, was sent to the old scoffer at religion, Voltaire, to attend him in his illness, Voltaire said to him: "Sir, I wish you to save my life: I will give you half of my fortune if you add six more months to my days. If not, then I go to the devil, and I shall take you with me."

Methodism.

Mr. Köneke makes various attacks upon me in the Apologete. I had defended my friend Francke against his unjust accusations — Francke, who had recently come with me from Germany to serve the Evangelical Lutheran Church here — and in doing so had told him the truth plainly and sharply. This has embittered him. He answers me with mockery and scorn, and thereby proves his bad conscience and his poor cause. Mockery and scorn I do not refute; I bear them gladly for Jesus' sake, because Mr. Köneke lies in doing so. I forgive him what he has slandered against me; what he has slandered against others who are better than he, may God forgive him, if he sincerely repents, which I wish for him from my heart.

The owners of that church into which the Methodists smuggled themselves are, for the most part, members of my congregation. Therefore they had a right to refuse the Methodists entry. Therefore it was godless that the Methodists broke in nonetheless. As I hear, the lock was brought back after two days in a broken condition by one of the Methodists.

The preachers of the Evangelical Lutheran Church do not forgive people's sins by their own authority, as Mr. Köneke slanders, but by the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave to the Church, and through it to the holy preaching office, the keys of heaven, that is, the power to loose and to bind, when He says, John 20:23: "Whosesoever sins you remit, they are remitted to them; and whosesoever sins you retain, they are retained."

I have said that the Methodists shamefully despise Baptism and the Lord's Supper as mere ceremonies. Mr. Köneke calls this slander. In doing so his bad conscience bears witness against himself against his own will. He would like to deny it, because he feels his wrongdoing; but he cannot, for the plainest evidence speaks against him. — Ceremonies are outward customs, gestures, and signs, to which a spiritual meaning is attached. So it is with kneeling. No heavenly goods are thereby imparted; it merely expresses, in a fitting manner, reverence toward God. But the holy sacraments are no mere ceremonies, for through them heavenly goods are imparted to us under visible signs: through holy Baptism, the Holy Spirit; through the Holy Supper, the true body and the true blood of the Lord. The Methodists, however, deny the heavenly goods and let only the visible signs stand, to which they attach merely a spiritual meaning. They thus make of the holy sacraments mere outward ceremonies — but that is to alter God's holy institutions with wicked willfulness, and hence to despise them shamefully.

It is a holy, inviolable principle of the orthodox Church that no one may take up a churchly office unless he has been properly called. For Holy Scripture says, Hebrews 5:4: "No man takes this honor to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron." Now we know, however, from Acts 6, 7, and 8, that Stephen and Philip also proclaimed the Word of God. From this it follows incontrovertibly that, at their calling by the apostolic congregation, the preaching office as well, besides the care of alms, was committed to them. Thus the apostolic congregation had the precious liberty to choose and call the servants of the Church for itself, in the widest sense. Now if the apostles, in one instance, gave the congregation the right to exercise this liberty, then, by the consistency of their own conduct, they will not have denied it to the congregation in other cases either. And if the apostolic congregation had the right to call church servants who were charged in the first place with caring for people's bodily needs, how much more so where the exclusive care of souls was at stake? The same is proven by many other passages of Holy Scripture and by the whole apostolic practice. Only Mr. Köneke is capable of denying this.

The Methodist itinerant plan is, of course, praised by Mr. Köneke, because through it the sneak-about trade is brought into a kind of system. It has, however, been consistently rejected by the orthodox Church. Mr. Köneke slanders the Evangelical Lutheran Church by saying that its preachers, for the sake of gain, seek out other congregations that pay more, and thereby crowd one another out, and so forth. It is godless to lay the sins of individual hypocritical Lutherans-in-name-only upon the whole Evangelical Lutheran Church, especially since she has, up to now, always condemned such shameful conduct in the most decided manner.

I have briefly dismissed my opponent; the emptiness of his evasions is too obvious to waste many words on. May God change his mind; may he cease to lead souls astray. I advise him in a friendly way to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in peace. But if he will not accept good advice, then he shall be served as he deserves.

Hermann Fick.

Church News.

On March 12 of this year, the Sunday Invocavit, Mr. Candidate Franz Julius Biltz, upon the petition he had submitted to the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other states, received his churchly ordination through the Reverend Pastors Löber and Gruber of Perry County, Mo., in the midst of the German Evangelical Lutheran congregation at Apple Creek, Cape Girardeau County, Mo., which had properly called him to be their pastor. The dear young brother in the ministry had, from his youth up until his entrance into the holy ministry, received his training for it at the philological-theological seminary at Altenburg in Perry County, Mo. May our dear Lord Jesus Christ, the invisible Head of His Church, adorn this His servant, whom He has called into His vineyard, with much blessing as well as with His gifts, to the honor of His holy name and the salvation of many souls purchased through Him. Amen.

From a letter of the Reverend Pastor A. Hoyer we learn that on February 27 of this year, in Harford County, Md., at a place about 24 miles from Baltimore, a small Lutheran congregation was formed, founding itself on all the public confessions of our holy Church. The aforementioned Pastor Hoyer stands at the head of the congregation. He, examined and ordained by the Consistory at Hanover, came to America last year to serve our Church here, has, since September of last year, assisted Pastor Wyneken in Baltimore in his labor-filled office, and is presently working at four main stations in various parts of Maryland. May the word of the Lord, "You are the salt of the earth," prove most gloriously true in our zealous, dear brother in the ministry.

"Above all, take up the shield of faith, with which you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." (Ephesians 6:16.)

The blessed Johann Brenz, the famous Württemberg Lutheran theologian, relates in the preface to the fifth part of his works a remarkable story about one of his godsons, a former pious burgomaster in Schwäbisch Hall, from which one can see how the devil is accustomed to attack souls, but also how he is overcome. That burgomaster lay gravely ill, and behold, one day a man, in the guise of a scribe, comes into his room, carrying paper, ink, and pen in his hand, sits down at a table, and says to the sick man: "Christoph, relate one after another the sins you have ever committed. For I am sent by God to record them and bring them before God's judgment seat." The sick man soon perceived that he had the devil to deal with; he therefore raised himself up in bed and said: "Yes — but first of all one must put a heading above it. Write, then: 'The seed of the woman shall crush the head of the hellish serpent.' Under this heading now write down all the sins of my whole life, which I will dictate to you." When the devil in human form heard this, he vanished on the spot. Brenz rightly adds: "I have wished to relate this story, to show how necessary it is that we always be girded and armed with the sword of the Holy Spirit, so as to be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one."

Received.

$52.00 for the Synodical Mission Fund from the congregation at Altenburg. $82.00 for the Indian Mission from Mr. Pastor Kranz in Mercer Co., Pa.

Paid.

The 3rd volume: Mr. Nicol. Frahs.

The 4th volume: Messrs. Nicol. Frahs, Heinrich Hevekette, Mich. Helferich, Mart. Kolbenstädter, P. Kranz, P. Schladermundt, Jakob and Chr. Wingert.

The 2nd half of the 4th volume: Mr. Lorenz Frahs.

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