# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1863_S33
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Lehre und Wehre.

Jahrgang IX.    February 1863.    No. 2.

Foreword.

(Continuation and Conclusion.)

When in what follows we express ourselves on the slavery question now being agitated, we declare once again from the outset that we are not here concerned with an emancipation of the slaves such as is sought by the authorities themselves on political grounds and by legal means; for this is not only a matter that does not belong to the domain of theology, but here, simply as Christians, God's word also holds good for us: "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers." What concerns us here is the question whether slavery, and specifically the relation of the master to his slave in itself, is already sin by its very nature; or whether sin attaches to this relation only in concreto, as an accident, the way it attaches to all relations among men who are by nature thoroughly corrupted — as, for example, between the poor and the rich, between buyer and seller; whether, then, slavery as such is a sin to be fought and abolished under all circumstances, or whether Christians as Christians should in every case only work to see that the sinfulness bound up with it be put away, and that the master conduct himself toward his slave, and the slave toward his master, according to God's will and command, according to the laws of righteousness, fairness, and love.*)

*) We know very well what odium we bring upon ourselves by discussing this subject according to God's word; we know very well what a fearsome weapon we place in the hands of those who fight slavery as a sin against us: but God's word and honor stand higher to us than all else. What God has revealed in his word, that we mean to confess, as long as God's mercy grants us this poor life, whether the world and those bewitched by it rage or laugh over it, bless us or curse us for it. We will not swim with the current, but stand on God's side and his word's, for we know that God's word and truth will yet prevail in the end, and all who have fought against this word will at last see that they have fought against God, but in vain. We see very well that the wild waters of the new spirit cannot be dammed; irresistibly they will continue and complete their course, washing away everything that stands; but we, at least, do not wish to plunge into them and perish there, but rather to raise our weak voice as a testimony against them, however slight; waiting with longing for the One Day at whose dawning it will be shown that indeed "the foolishness of God is wiser than men," for that day of JEsus Christ, whose appearing will, without doubt, at last grant an answer to the now nearly two-thousand-year-old sighing of Christendom. Amen!