# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1864_S151
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church-Contemporary Affairs. 151

the pulpits should fill with men who had had the opportunity to acquire the
knowledge which the preaching office presupposes. No, some cry, we do not
want such studied preachers! But what, then, do such people actually want?
I still recall the hour when, in my room, a preacher of the Gospel, a
faithful and pious servant of God, said to me with tears in his eyes and
with a moved and bowed soul: Oh, in what times do we live! Many do not
esteem the likes of him, they do not want studied preachers — what, then,
do they want? In the end such fault-finders do not themselves know, and for
their sake God's work suffers bitter distress."

"The Lutheran Standard" reports in its number of March 15 that Mr. Worley
has laid down the editorship and has transferred it to Pastor Loy, and that
it has also been accepted by the latter. This is very welcome news, for the
paper under Mr. Worley's editorship was nothing but a hodgepodge of all
sorts of patchwork from the sectarian papers; the editorial articles moved
almost regularly only around the money question; in short, the paper was a
veritable disgrace to the local newspaper literature that calls itself
Lutheran. We do not doubt that Pastor Loy will produce a considerably
better paper. The paper is henceforth to be obtained from Delaware, Ohio.

A New Church. Among the manifold bitter fruits which the political
party-fanaticism that has flared up within the church has produced belongs
also the establishment of a new church. At least it is already well under
way in Ohio. The new church is to serve as a gathering place for all those
who, on account of their political opinions, have come into conflict with
their previous church communions. Since, accordingly, the new church opens
its arms to all who are politically proscribed or malcontent in any church
or sect here, there can naturally be no talk, with it, of a common
confession as the basis of the unity of faith. It says that its rule for
doctrine and practice shall be the Bible alone. The movement has already
created an organ for itself as well, which appears under the title
Christian Witness under the editorship of a Methodist preacher named J. F.
Given, in Columbus, O. Given the fire of political party-fanaticism still
blazing in the churches, this strange union-church may well be able to
count on proselytes for a time, but with the dying out of that fire the
edifice thereby called into being will probably also soon collapse again,
unless other elements developing out of it keep the new communion in a
certain degree of life.

Church and State. Even the Methodist "Apologete" writes in its number of
April 4, after having discussed the conflicts of church and state in
Germany, as follows: "In many respects these phenomena are instructive, for
they acquaint us with the religious experience of other nations, which is
especially important for us at a time when the wish for a change in the
present relations between church and state, in the United States too, as
well as for a clear declaration concerning religion in the federal
constitution, is making itself known. .. So much, however, we may learn
from the religious movements in Europe: that all the religious communions
of this country should most carefully guard against giving into the hands
of the federal government, as well as of the individual states, any right
that would permit them to influence the inner life of the congregations."
One sees that the "Apologete" has soon been sobered. Scarcely had it
rejoiced that, against the letter and spirit of the Constitution sworn to
by government and people, a Methodist bishop was officially authorized by a
high official to act as patron of the church for many congregations, than
it already counsels against amending the Constitution so that anything
further of the kind could be done in the name of the state. So it will go
yet with respect to many other things. The approval of many transgressions
of the law out of party considerations will avenge itself terribly and
turn into the loudest condemnation. God grant that this may not happen only
when it is too late.

Synod of Pennsylvania. After Pastor Brobst, in his Lutheran journal of
April 2, had communicated a section from the last report of the general
synod of