# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1864_S63
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church News of the Day. 63

II. Abroad.

Prayer for the Diet. On this, the Sächsische Kirchen- und Schulblatt of November 19 of last year writes the following, which may also be worth taking to heart here: “I do not believe I am mistaken in supposing that it is aversion to the doctrine of constitutionalism that makes the prayer for the diet distasteful to this or that person. But however far our constitution may be from the ideal that someone perhaps cherishes, or however close it may come to it, that is beside the point here. It stands firm that we are bound to it not merely by our special official and subject's oath, but already by our general Christian duty, and it would therefore ill become us if we were to disregard the diet, which rests on the constitution, and withhold from it the spiritual tribute and the proper honor that the church renders it by including it in its intercessory prayer. We speak of a general Christian duty according to Romans 13; for from the time when our lawful territorial rulers ceded a part of their right to the estates, the diet undoubtedly counts among the powers and ordinances of the land (ἐξουσίαις ὑπερεχούσαις — the higher powers), to which we must be subject and for which we must pray according to 1 Timothy 2.”

The Prussian Church Controversy. Regarding the present stance of the separated party toward those who still remain under the Breslau Oberkirchencollegium, Ehlers, in an open letter in his own periodical of November 15 of last year, expresses himself among other things as follows: “You must accordingly put up with it if we accept members from your congregations who have scruples about remaining under the O.-K.-K., especially when the pastors concerned refuse them the sacrament for that very reason — because they will not remain under the O.-K.-K. — and not, say, for other reasons. If this is held against us, we cannot help it. That we have endeavored to draw members away from other congregations and to alienate them from their pastors, no one will be able to charge us with; for we have not done it; but if we are called, we must follow the call, when the one calling attests that he calls out of distress of conscience and we have no reason to doubt this.

“‘But I hear you say, dear friend: in that way the congregations will indeed be torn apart. So I ask you in turn: what are we to do to prevent this? If the O.-K.-K. granted us sacramental fellowship, the tearing-apart would be hindered; but the report on the Berlin Conference in the K.-Bl. offers no prospect of that, and it is not in our power to compel the O.-K.-K. to grant us sacramental fellowship, and we can do no more than express the wish that it might become possible for our opponents to do what they have not done hitherto. For our part, we will continue to prove our readiness to maintain fellowship with the pastors and congregations remaining under the O.-K.-K., as before, by readily granting it to those among them who wish to remain in sacramental fellowship with us.

“‘But those pastors who believe they must, for conscience's sake, refuse us sacramental fellowship — we ask them to keep their hearts free of bitterness if the position they take toward us has the consequence that members of their congregations turn to us and ask us to serve them — just as, for our part, we do not wish to let ourselves be embittered if they continue to refuse us church fellowship.

“‘More than this, dear friend, I do not know how to do. If you believe you can demand more of me, then do so; I will weigh everything you write to me before the Lord, and that in true earnest.

“‘And here I am reminded of a thought that has occupied me before, in a similar state of affairs, and again now in recent times. There is much talk of a war that threatens us, and one need not be a statesman to see that the danger is great. Now war is indeed a punishment and judgment of God, and when God's judgments threaten, we think of our sins. And so I think: should not God, who guides and governs all things and holds in His hand the one scepter with which He