# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 05 30_S160
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

and wondered what such a famous churchman was doing so often in front of the mirror. As she was once watching him with laughter, he unexpectedly turned his mirror around and, with a sorrowful face, held out to her the mournful figure of her crucified Savior. At this unexpected sight the woman was so transformed that she asked the monk for this mirror, saying that she had resolved henceforth to use no other, and to hold up this image to her lustful flesh as often as it would tempt her to something evil.

Private correspondence from Elberfeld, April 4, 1848.

… Conditions here are developing frightfully, so that the Christians here believe the end is at hand, and are beginning to wonder whether America is the promised refuge, or Jerusalem… The whole church and school system has collapsed… You will ask: what will the proletariat (the poor) do? Destroy in blind rage; and a judgment of terrible severity is rising up against the merchant class, at whose feet Europe lay enslaved, so that people now recognize: it is not good to make so many people dependent on the will of one rich man—it is a serfdom worse than that of the monasteries and knights in the Middle Ages, who respected the human being more than this proud, cold moneyed class does. The hungry, unemployed workers are already destroying the factories in Solingen, here, and Iserlohn in broad daylight, in closed columns, down to the foundations; in Westphalia and southern Germany they are burning down the castles… Now people are beginning, too late, to think about how the poor can and should be helped. Result: the political revolution is over, the social, communist one is beginning, and because Christianity here among us has not been communistic in the noble sense, Communism will hold a terrible judgment. So it will not surprise you that crowds are preparing to emigrate, and if they could sell all their goods (but no one wants to buy anything now), many would leave now, especially Christians. Conditions are so feverish and so full of foreboding danger that we who still care anything about Christianity may very soon have to cross over at any price… Many Christians are thinking of founding colonies there, and so on.

(The Free German Catholic.)

An Example of Papist Veneration of Mary.

In Mecklenburg, where the Reformation had already taken its first root in the year 1523 under Duke Heinrich, a church visitation was finally held in the year 1534, and a record was made of it, from which Dr. Engelcken (in the preface to Schomer's Collegium Antipontificium) reports the following: At Muchau near Grabow there was found a popish preacher named Heinrich Wackerbecke, who to this day, instead of the Word of God, propounds seductive devilish doctrine. Among other things, he preached on the Feast of the Visitation of Mary: "There was a wicked, evil, murderous man, who all his life had committed every shame and sin. When he now wished to die, he desired the sacrament, which the parish priest refused him, since he was unwilling to do penance. Yet he begged that, for the sake of the holy Virgin, the sacrament be placed upon his breast. So he died and came to heaven. At that time Jesus happened to be walking with Mary, and would not look at the sinner. Then Mary says: Ah, dear Son, have mercy on this man and let him into heaven. Jesus answers: He has not served me nor believed in me, therefore he shall not be saved either; nor can he be, for I alone am the door to heaven. Mary continues pleading, but Jesus does not listen. So at last Mary says: Now, dear Son, although you alone are the door to heaven, I am surely also a window; if you will not let him in through the door, then let him come in through the window. With these words she draws the sinner through the window into heaven, because he had called upon her even in his dying, and so he is saved. You see, dear brothers, the preacher finally concluded, that not only Christ but also all the other saints besides, and especially the holy Virgin, can help us into heaven."

Be Cautious in Confessing Your Sins.

"Furthermore, O soul, you must be very cautious in such confession. Many beginners in Christianity think, when the fear of sin oppresses them, that they must reveal everything to everyone, and through this thoughtless procedure they often cause more offense and harm than benefit. No, O soul: if you have secretly wronged your neighbor, for instance by theft, you must first carefully consider whether the wronged person could bear such a confession without thereby falling into an irreconcilable hatred against you. So too you must not reveal your other secret sins to just anyone; rather you must carefully see to it whether the person to whom you wish to confess your secret sins—whether an ordinary Christian or a minister of the church—is faithful, discreet, and capable of giving you instruction, counsel, and comfort in your hidden concern of soul, of having patience with your weaknesses and infirmities, and of not dealing with you harshly; otherwise you might bring upon yourself the greatest harm, or else remain comfortless and miserable. In general, note the following about this. If you had wronged someone who was weak, you would only need to confess what that person already knows to have been said or done by you against him; but the rest, what else went on in your heart against him without his knowledge, you would need to confess and ask forgiveness for from God alone. But if you are dealing with wicked people, you must be far more cautious and careful still, because they might misuse your confession, partly to your harm, partly to increase their own sins, partly to the offense of others. Therefore in such a case, if by withholding your confession they would only grow more hardened and worse, you must indeed confess to them that and to what extent you have wronged them, yet without unnecessarily putting weapons into their hands against you, so that they could not more easily incur further guilt at your expense. In short, your confession must flow from love and must aim at the welfare of the wronged neighbor as well as your own and that of others. But if, through untimely and unrestrained confession, you were to give your neighbor occasion for further sins, you would become guilty of those further sins as well, and instead of the intended benefit you would cause harm to yourself and to him, and indeed perhaps to others too. Be warned of this!" (Joh. Porst's Theologia viatorum practica, or The Divine Guidance of Souls, vol. II, book 22, § 13.)

The Key of Binding and Loosing.

"The key of binding carries out the work of the Law, and is useful and good for the sinner in that it serves him, reveals to him his sin, admonishes him to the fear of God, terrifies him and moves him to repentance, and not to ruin. The key of loosing carries out the work of the Gospel, entices to grace and mercy, comforts, and promises life and salvation through the forgiveness of sin. And in sum, they are executors, administrators and agents of the Gospel, which meanwhile simply preaches these two things: repentance and forgiveness of sin. Luke 24:47." (Luther's writing on the Keys, from the year 1530.)

NB. We take this saying of Luther's to show that those words, too, in Harleß's journal admit of an orthodox (rightly-believing) interpretation: "The authority to forgive sin is not one and the same as the authority to preach the Gospel. It is one thing to teach through whom and how one may obtain forgiveness of sins; another thing to impart this forgiveness." ("Lutheraner," vol. IV, p. 84, column 3.)

Shoes from the Baker.

The preacher Dr. Lysius, a Christian distinguished for steadfastness of faith and zeal in prayer, was once in such want that he had to go about in torn shoes; and in order to conceal this from his wife, he polished them himself and always kept them in his study. Then a baker sent him a pair of new shoes. His wife was not a little surprised that bread did not come from the baker, but shoes. But the man of faithful prayer answered: "Our heavenly Father well knew that there was still bread in the cupboard, but not a single sound shoe on my feet." With this he showed his wife his feet, and she marveled at this proof of the fatherly love of God.

To the wicked person Holy Scripture seems wicked, to the fool foolish, to the unclean unclean, to the vain superfluous; but to the wise it is full of wisdom and truth.

Bonaventure.

The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States holds its next sessions in St. Louis, Mo., beginning the second Wednesday after Pentecost, June 21 to July 1. Arriving brethren are asked to inquire after the local pastor's residence at Mr. L. Pechmann's, dealer in German glass and porcelain ware, No. 22 Main Street, near the Old Market.

Received

50 cents from Mr. Gottfried Rausch for the Mission Treasury.
$8.00 from Rev. P. A. Hordorf and his congregation in Dayton, Ohio, for the congregation in Palmyra, Missouri. $1.82 from the St. Jacobi congregation at Wittenberg, Franklin Co., Ohio. $2.57 from the St. Johannis congregation there.
61 cents from an unnamed donor.
$5.00 for the seminary at Altenburg, Perry Co., Missouri.

Paid.

For the 3rd volume: Rev. P. Hordorf.
For the 4th volume: Messrs. P. Albrecht, Conr. Bittenbaum, Jr., Chrn. Graß, P. Hordorf, P. Hengist, J. Hermann, Wilh. Hilskötter, F. Jaquet, P. Lautenschlager, Heinr. Wesley.
For No. 20 of the 4th volume through No. 19 of the 5th volume: Messrs. John Boll, Geo. Gohn, H. Gerke.

Printed by Arthur Olshausen, publisher of the Anzeiger des Westens.