# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1863_S247
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Kirchlich-Zeitgeschichtliches [Church and Contemporary History]. 247

...service, etc." — But how now, if the Lord grows "angry" at such excuses? Luke 14:16-21. — Remarkable here is that the aforesaid Assembly, on the other hand, declared itself in favor, by only a majority, that all baptized children are to be regarded as members of the church and subject to its discipline and oversight. This much at least is certain, that God's Word reckons baptized children to the church. Ephesians 5:25-26.

"The Concordia Synod," which was formed by the pastors L. F. E. Krause at Winona, Minnesota, as "Senior of the Ministerium," by D. J. Warns at Bethalto, Illinois, F. W. Wier at Washington, Minnesota, and C. F. Jungk at New Oregon, Iowa, has sent its printed "brotherly greeting" also to Diedrich in Germany. The reply to this reads, in Räthjen's newspaper of May, as follows: "Where out of 42 Lutheran synods the 43rd arises as Concordia, there we feel somewhat uneasy before the Concordia — that is, before the Concord."

The German Methodists in the United States are perhaps the most apt pupils of the Yankees, who themselves speculate even with religion, among the immigrants here. A proof of this is furnished by the Methodist Apologist. It carries the following standing advertisement: "The best paper for advertisements among the Germans in the United States. The Christian Apologist is the only weekly religious journal in the German language which has a list of 14,000 regular subscribers, and that in almost every state of the Union. It is kept by hundreds of preachers of all denominations, by many societies, and especially by good businessmen and farmers, and is accordingly the best paper for advertisements among the Germans in the United States."

The New School Presbyterians. In a report on their General Assembly, which met on May 21 in Philadelphia, it says among other things: "On politics it was resolved that the war should be prosecuted with earnestness."

Hireling Preachers. In a lecture which a former Lutheran (?) preacher in Dayton, Ohio, delivered last year in Berlin, and which the "Kirchenbote" of June 19 communicates, it says: "The clergyman is unfortunately elected in many German congregations for one year, or, as the Pennsylvanians bluntly put it, hired out. It has now been determined, as is the custom in most English cities, that the clergyman should be elected without limit of time. The clergyman, however, and the congregation shall each have the right, every day, to dissolve the relationship upon three months' notice. This free relationship I hold, under American conditions, to be the most favorable. It happens far more often that the clergyman, rather than the congregation, gives notice." A strange verdict! Whoever perceives that the hiring of preachers for a year is a disgrace to the preaching office, indeed a denial of its very divine character, ought in fairness also to perceive that the mutual freedom, attached to the calling, of giving notice on any day, is even more so. If, as the speaker says, this freedom is used as a rule by the preacher rather than by the congregation, that is a sad testimony to the Christian understanding and faithfulness of the preachers here.

The American Peace Society recently held, as we learn from the Boston "Advocate of Peace" for May and June, its 34th annual meeting. It has set itself the goal of working to bring it about that war, as something sinful and contrary to the Gospel, be abolished, and that all disputes arising between nations be settled by means of peaceful negotiations. One would accordingly suppose that the Society must also favor a peaceful settlement in the present American crisis. But such is not the case. That, says the Society, is "something quite different!" A government must be free, in order to preserve itself, to make use of war as well, and thus to enforce the observance of the laws. The gentlemen fail to consider that the very same holds true of every — namely, just — war. They ought therefore to realize that their principle has already, at the very first trial by fire which it must withstand in the present war, proven itself