# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1863_S313
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Contemporary Church History. 313

bread and wine be, and so on. When this original sin has taken place and this apple has been eaten, one must then adorn oneself with such fig leaves: How can water wash the souls? How can bread and wine be Christ's body and blood? Do you not see that he sits in heaven? How can an evil man be prince or lord?" etc. (See preface to Menius's tract: Of the Spirit of the Anabaptists. Luther's Works, Erlangen ed., 63, 382 f.)

The Position of the German Religious Papers on Politics. The "Evangelist" writes: "The following is a brief survey of the political views of our German ecclesiastical exchange papers: The Methodist newspapers stand, as is already sufficiently well known to readers, on the ground of the Republican party, as does likewise the Mennonites' Christian People's Paper. — Among the United papers, the Hausfreund in Chicago, the organ of the United Synod of the Northwest, is a vehement opponent of the Democratic party, and the rationalist, Protestant papers of the day are not behind it in one-sidedness. Where the "Friedensbote" of the Evangelical Church Union stands is shown by the following sentence from its latest number, in which it speaks thus of the rioters in New York: „„They do not appear, for all their wild conduct, to have fallen very far in the esteem of the local state authorities, for Gov. Seymour addressed them as his friends during the worst of the disorder. The great men there seem indeed to remember gratefully through whom chiefly they have become what they are.““ The "Union" of the United Synod of North America had some time ago a few strongly Republican articles, and when this gave offense, fell entirely silent. The Catholic church paper of Father Oertel in New York presents to us in its "Plauderstübchen" a weekly dialogue between two editors, one of whom speaks as a Democrat and the other as a Republican. The Lutheran church papers of every shade observe the strictest silence about civil affairs. — The same is done, so far as is known to us, by both German Baptist papers. The Moravian, the organ of the Moravian Brethren, wishes that in the conduct of the war only the suppression of the rebellion be kept in view, and that nothing be done toward the abolition of Negro slavery."

Conservative Lutheranism. In the last number of the "Ev. Quarterly Review," Prof. Sternberg, of the "Lutheran" Seminary at Hartwick, N. Y., has, by the admission of the "Luth. Observer," developed and sought to justify in an article the doctrine of the Holy Supper which is "represented by the Reformed Church of England, Belgium, and Germany, as well as of Switzerland, namely, that by the receiving of the body and blood of Christ is meant the receiving of the power and efficacy of the same." The "Observer" of Aug. 28 not only expresses its admiration of the courage which Prof. Sternberg displays in this open denial of a Lutheran doctrine, but itself also confesses to this denial and declares that the doctrine of the Holy Supper expressed by the person named is "held fast by nearly all conservative Lutherans of this country."

New York. The Evangelist writes:

"In New York more churches have been closed this summer during the hot months than ever before. Several preachers offered themselves to preach in the absence of the pastors, but none of these offers was accepted. So the absence of preachers in need of rest is not the sole cause why so many churches are being closed, but also the absence of any desire for preaching at all."

Iowa Synod. As this synod reports concerning ours in Germany, here is yet another example. In Pastor Löhe's Mittheilungen of June of this year, Prof. S. Fritschel writes under the date of Jan. 24 of this year: "The old idea of keeping out of the way of other synods can no longer be maintained; indeed no one any longer thinks of demanding that of us. We should in fact find no more room for it at all, for Missouri has parceled out all the states, with the exception of the southeastern ones, and now already Canada as well, among its synodical provinces, and, with the old claims (the assertion of the well-known territorial system cujus regio, ejus religio, that is, wherever I have set my foot