# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1864_S140
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

140 The League of the Sister Churches.

Despite such work outward and inward, our author continues, you have as yet no cause to change your church. That would be too soon. That would be unwise. Stay where you are, and help, by your example, your children, servants, and maids, to likewise do their precious work inwardly and outwardly. In this way more fruit is produced for the time being. Take a lesson from me. I too remain, and am nonetheless a good Roman. At present no proper gain would come of the exchange. Instead of a thaler you would receive only thirty silver groschen. See, you must come in masses; that is what pleases the eldest sister; that is what lifts her up; then she will look upon you beaming with joy, and embrace you. That is then a real gain. To gain a few more individual little souls added to an already great crowd does not make a great ruler any greater. Think rather of what makes both her and you greater. "To be sure, thirty silver groschen might, in their form, be more convenient and better suited to individual needs than a single thaler; but in the matter itself, nothing is gained or lost. So let everyone, for the time being, remain in the calling wherein he is called." And so you Lutherans, too, remain for the time being Lutherans under your Lutheran consistories, deans, and superintendents; and you Missouri Lutherans remain with your Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other states. Meanwhile, however, do not forget the precious work that still lies before you. Especially not the inward work. Lay aside, at last, your conceit regarding Luther's teaching! Who was Luther? Luther was a man. And who was his mother? The Catholic church was his mother. And he spat in her face. Do you want to imitate that? It is time that this should cease. Reverence, reverence, reverence toward the elder sister, who is at the same time the mother — that is the deepening inward that is absolutely necessary beforehand, before — — Well, what then, dear sir? — He does not quite dare to say it outright, is still a little shy and timid, because he knows that the work outward and inward has not yet properly taken place. Yet he says it after all. It is too sweet a thing to rave about the beautiful, great goal. And out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks — even among clever enthusiasts. He cannot help himself. He says it after all. "The time will surely come," he prophesies, "when the Lord reunites all his servants once more into a single household." Then, then, you sisters to the right, you sisters to the left, you sisters in front, you sisters behind, then it will be time — indeed high time — that you no longer merely act friendly toward one another in letters, greeting and kissing; but then you will move together into one house, under one master of the house; then you will cook at one stove, eat at one table, eat from one dish, pray the same Ave Marias morning and evening. And when one sister calls upon St. Nepomuk, the other will not look at her askance because of it. On the contrary, the more the saints in heaven are worshipped, the more the saints on earth will multiply.

But who, then, will be the father of the house for all these many sisters? — That he does not say. He says only this much more (most enigmatically): "The time of distress, in which the whole church, in doctrine (!), constitution, and worship, into the—