# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1863_S93
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary History. 93

"...a clearer insight into the plan of redemption etc. than John the Baptist, although he was the greatest of all the prophets; and is it even to be assumed that in biblical scholarship, since the middle of the 16th century, no progress has been made?" — Ah, no one who has heard the Baltimore oracle of the 19th century and believes it will ever assume that. Indeed, whoever until this day has still had any doubt that the so-called American-Lutheran theology is, in deed and in truth, a theology of progress has it here again, in black and white, from one of its luminaries, Dr. Benjamin Kurtz. If God does not take pity and turn her back, she will keep advancing on the path of humanism she has once entered, until she has nothing left of faith but what corresponds to the demands of the lofty science of an ever-advancing humanity climbing toward the summit of perfection — that is to say, in plain German: nothing at all anymore. C.

A Unionistic Sigh from the "Observer." In the same number of the paper named, in an essay headed "The Union of the Lutheran Church in America," etc., is found the following heartbreaking lament: "Ah, what a spectacle! Lutherans of the General Synod, of the Ohio Synod, of the Missouri Synod, of the Iowa Synod, of the Buffalo Synod, of the Union of the West, and of at least two Scandinavian synods — at least eight parties, since each one claims to be Lutheran, or better Lutheran, than the other! All claim to be children of the same great Luther, and yet they are constantly, most zealously, occupied in being at each other's throats! — that is, theologically and religiously. Should it be so?" That indeed should not be so. But it is not helped by calling out to them: "Unity makes strength," while meaning thereby that disunited unity which one aptly compares oneself to the "many colors that, united, form the beautiful rainbow." C.

"A New Periodical from a Lutheran Pastor of the West." Under this heading the same number of the Observer gives a notice and recommendation of a paper, which we share here to show our readers just how unscrupulously these pious people are accustomed to proceed in church matters. "The Burning Bush, or American Protestant and Family Visitor, is the title of a new periodical which has recently appeared under the auspices of the American Protestant Association at Chicago, Ill. It is a literary, theological, and religious journal, edited and published by Rev. D. F. Hutchinson, A. M., on the first Monday of every month, for $1 a year, invariably payable in advance. It is a small double-quarto sheet, handsomely printed and filled with interesting, valuable reading matter. We do not know the Association, its character, or its purposes, but Rev. Mr. Hutchinson is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, a learned and skillful man, and wields the pen of a finished writer. The Association is, as it turns out, a secret society, since it has lodges in many cities and towns of the United States." So then: although the Observer does not know the Association, its character, or its purposes, and indeed although it knows it to be a secret society, it not merely announces the paper but even recommends it — for after all it is handsomely printed and pleasant to read, and the editor is indeed a learned man and a skillful writer. But a little more or less poison matters nothing to these poison-mixers — I mean theological and religious ones.

II. Foreign News.

The Bible manuscript which Tischendorf brought to Europe two years ago from the monastery on Mount Sinai, and which was supposed to be one of the oldest, namely one dating from the fourth century — for which reason much was hoped from it toward establishing doubtful readings — is, according to the statement of the Greek C. Simonides in the English "Guardian," an entirely new forgery, namely a copy made by this very man himself.

Church Service and Politics. From the Saxon Church and School Gazette of January 1st we learn that at a recent Saxon pastoral conference the question was de-