# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1863_S381
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary Affairs. 381

Apologist of Nov. 2, "often mingled with stormy applause." Among the resolutions of
the Conference concerning the condition of the country is the eighth: "That we heartily
agree with the administration's policy regarding the carrying out of the Conscription
Act and the suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus and the arming of the Negroes."

Dedication of a Synagogue. On Oct. 7 a Baptist church in Dayton, Ohio,
converted into a Jewish synagogue, was dedicated; how the dedication ceremony was
concluded is reported by Dr. A. Wise, editor of the "Israelite" and the "Deborah," who
had also delivered the dedication sermon, in the following words: "The evening brought
a lovely ball and glad hearts. That too belongs to the whole. Everything was well
arranged and splendidly carried through. The little congregation had accomplished much,
and its officers see their activity and their zeal crowned with the best success. In the
house of God as well as at the ball, the most prominent personages of the city were
present and active, so that I rejoiced heartily over the good understanding between
Jewish and Christian citizens of Dayton."

The Synod of Pennsylvania has brought out a new edition of Luther's Small
Catechism. In reporting this, the Reformed "Evangelist" of Oct. 31 remarks, with a
satisfaction not to be held against it: "In it the words of the First Commandment and
of the Third (properly the Fourth), concerning the sanctification of Sunday, are not
given in the Lutheran manner, but in the words of the Bible, as is customary in the
Reformed Church." The "Evangelist" thus spares us a critique of the catechism. The
gentlemen editors will of course say: Is it then a crime to adopt the words as they
stand in the Bible? We answer: Is it then right to attach the name of Luther's
catechism to one altered in its text? or: Do the gentlemen mean, by such a pia fraus,
to rescue Luther from the reproach of the Reformed, that in his catechism he mutilated
and falsified God's Word?

II. Abroad.

The present Pope has sent Dr. Tischendorf in Leipzig a "flattering autograph
letter," dated Sept. 2 of this year, in which he congratulates him on the discovery of
the Sinaitic manuscript. In it, however, the Pope at the same time casts his hook after
the man eager to become famous, who had made him a gift of the printed edition of the
New Testament prepared by him from that manuscript, accompanying this gift with a
letter to His "Holiness." The Pope writes in closing: "Oh, that the fruits of so many
journeys, researches, labors, which you have undertaken unwearied and carried out
joyfully — chiefly, as you yourself say, for the advancement of Christian scholarship —
might not only benefit the whole believing Christendom, but might also direct for you
yourself so great a grace of God that we might at last embrace you, bound to us by the
bonds of perfect love, as a dearest son! This we beg for you, Illustris Vir, from God."

Hanover. From Germany a friendly pastor writes us under date of Sept. 19:
"Now things are already different. The Hanoverian pastors have awakened from their
territorial-church blessedness and security and have noticed that embraces of the
secular government can turn into nothing but jabs in the ribs once clever diplomacy
sees fit. I do not at all curse these troubles on that account. If the wine is to become
clear, the must must ferment; if it stays lying on the lees, it turns sour. — Through
all such jolts we come back again to our old fathers and notice that they, with their
firm, pure doctrine, were after all also the cleverest church politicians and
church-builders. That this is recognized in wider circles among us is already shown by
a glance at our newest literature. Though I would not rank Schöberlein's and Harnack's
"Theology of Luther" at the very top, I am thinking here especially of the cheap,
handsome new edition of Chemnitz's Examen, and now also the quite new [edition of]
Gerhard's Loci published by Schlawitz in Berlin. The latter is