# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1863_S220
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

220 Church and Contemporary History.

themselves far from evil; further, the passage Deuteronomy 21:18–21 was read aloud and expounded, and so, after the singing and the prayer, the assembly dispersed.

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Church and Contemporary History.

I. America.

A Church Comedy. Such a one was recently performed again by the well-known abolitionist preacher Beecher, in whom, as in most abolitionists, Christianity merges into abolitionism and other humanistic charlatanry. The "Evangelist" of May 23 writes about this: "Applause in a church during worship is the newest invention of our American church life. Henry Ward Beecher baptized a five-year-old child the Sunday before last. Before the baptism he carried it in his arms up into the pulpit, so that everyone could see it, for it was an extraordinarily beautiful child. In doing so he related that it was the child of fugitive Negro slaves and had been adopted by a member of the congregation. This scene called forth lively applause."

A confession of Christ, as our Lord and Savior, has hitherto adorned almost every proclamation of our President. The "Evangelist" therefore writes under the date of May 23: "That nothing is said of Christ in the President's latest fast-day proclamation has been offensive to many, since grace is found only in Christ. This omission of the name of our Redeemer has been excused on the ground that the President took the Jews into consideration. But the Governor of South Carolina had no such scruples when he recently proclaimed a day of fasting; rather, in his proclamation he addressed himself directly to the 'Christian inhabitants' of the state, and when several Jews raised objection, he replied that his government recognized Christianity as the state religion."

Testimony to the Truth from the Mouth of an Enemy. Pastor Gräß, a member of the Buffalo Synod, wrote under the date of February 16 a letter to Pastor Habel, who had fallen away from that Synod, admonishing him to repentance. This letter is found in the "Informatorium" for the month of May. It says there, among other things: "Oh, that you could believe that in the Church of God no senior, no ministerium, no synod — nor indeed any pastor or any congregation — is to hold dominion, but God's Word alone (Ps. 119:105; John 8:20) in the mouths of believers (even were it but a believing child), Ps. 8:3; Gal. 2:11–14." How often it happens that false spirits will not acknowledge a truth when it is directed against them, yet recognize it at once when it proves useful to them!

The American Bible Society, which held its 47th annual meeting in the month of May at New York, printed 1,198,881 books in the past year; its income from all sources amounted to $422,588. Among other things, the resolution was introduced that "our good old English Bible," as "a rich inheritance from our forefathers," should be held dear and handed down uncorrupted to posterity. A shameful resolution for our German theologians, who now show themselves so ready to give up the incomparably greater treasure which we Germans possess in our "good old German Luther Bible," since they evidently set their scholarly interest above the salvation of the Christian people.

A Candid Confession. The former editor of the Mennonite people's paper, named Stauffer, states in the issue of that paper of May 27