# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 06 21_S182
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

"...is useless, that we dispute for and against out of Holy Scripture. What is cursed will surely also remain cursed. I do not believe that I shall attain to salvation, unless it should happen that I might see extraordinary signs and wonders; otherwise not in the least!" To this I answered that this was a grievous sin and a tempting of God, and I proved it to him by the answer which befell the rich man in hell; but he remained of his opinion. Whereupon I answered briefly: "The Lord rebuke you, Satan, you shameless spirit! If the air did not have its motion, nothing could grow out of the earth and no ship could be brought across the sea. If the earth were to bear no fruit, then men and cattle and everything that lives would have to perish. That water should not quench fire, and that fire in the end should not burn, was experienced as an example in the days of the prophet Daniel, in the three men in the fiery furnace: and that very same God still lives, and his wonder-working hand is not shortened, but is just as powerful as it was in the beginning, when he created heaven and earth and everything that lives and moves within them — this I believe steadfastly and without doubt!" Almighty God gave me such an unshakable faith and confidence that, had a great fire been present, I would have leapt into it in the name of Jesus Christ. Now since a fire had already been kindled in my room, called "on the trial," I ran to the stove to take out a handful of glowing coals. In running, I struck my foot against a large iron ring, which rose up and rolled about like a plate; this I picked up and thrust into the glowing coals, took out a handful of glowing coals, and showed it to this doubting man. At this he stared and uttered the following words: "Jesus Christ, do you do so much for a single soul?" I answered him: "Yes indeed, the faithful Savior does so! Therefore he left heaven 1666 years ago, came down to us poor sinners on earth, took upon himself true human nature, endured this temporal misery for thirty-three years, and finally suffered the most shameful death on the trunk of the cross. All this did not happen for pastime's sake, but it happened in order to still the righteous wrath of God thereby, to blot out the sins of all men, and to rescue all men from the jaws of the hellish murderer. Now it stands in Holy Scripture: Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved. Now mark these words: Whoever does not believe shall be damned. Let these thunder-words strike the hellish spirit of lies out of your hearts, and you can unfailingly attain to eternal salvation!" Thereupon the poor man became entirely quiet and stood in the deepest amazement; but at last he began again to shake his head. I was greatly astonished at the cunning of the hellish wolf and his shameless, whorish voice, and asked him therefore whether he still had any doubt of God's grace and mercy; to which I could get almost no answer from him, except that he sighed very deeply. During this time the iron ring became glowing hot. Then I ran a second time to the fire, took the glowing ring out unafraid in the name of Jesus, and felt not the slightest heat from it. Then the young wife of that same house came, as did the daughter, both God-fearing people, also the manservant of the house, as well as a merchant's son named Hans Müllenhauer, and a nurse who had attended the young wife in childbed. All these saw it with their own eyes, and will also bear witness to it, when testimony shall be needed; and to my knowledge none of them has died except Hans Müllenhauer, whose soul may God rejoice. The following night I rose from my resting place at midnight, took my prayer book, and prayed. Afterward the forty-sixth Psalm of David came to my mind in the Bible. I read through this spirit-rich Psalm with tears of joy, went walking about, and sang softly to myself that same Psalm which the blessed Luther made: "A mighty fortress is our God." And when I came to these words: "though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us," and so forth to the end — then the innermost door was so violently torn open and slammed shut again that the house shook. Now I was quite alone, was frightened at first, stepped up to that same door and found it open, though I had before firmly shut it, and had always had to open it with a strong lock. But there were two doors before the chamber, of which the first was well locked. I repeated that same Psalm once more with steadfast mind. Then the enraged murderer made it worse than the first time. I laughed at this and stepped, the third time, right into the doorway, took the candle in one hand, the holy Bible in the other, and thus defied the proud prince of darkness. There was no one present who stirred any longer. In defiance of these night-owls I put out the candle and said: "Come now here, you prince of darkness, in the shape of lion, dragon, bear, and serpent; I will trample hell-hound and dragon underfoot upon your body. Now, you my dearest Jesus, yours is the honor, yours is the strength, yours is the glory, here in time and there in eternity! Amen."

So far Frese. In confirmation of the truth of this altogether wondrous occurrence, Dr. Chr. Kortholt adds the following to Frese's above report: "As soon as this remarkable occurrence came to my knowledge, I could not rest until I had myself spoken with the man whose words have hitherto been cited, and with the persons still living who had witnessed such a spectacle, had inspected with my own eyes the place and spot where these wondrous things took place, and had inquired most exactly for the sake of other such circumstances; I thus came into acquaintance with the aforementioned Jürgen Frese, conversed with him for several days, and had everything that happened told to me from his own mouth. He also brought to me the people who had been present, who not only confirmed with their testimony what is contained in the above-set relation, but moreover also knew how to relate some other quite notable particulars that had occurred at that time; and he led me to the place where it all took place. Whereupon I further conferred concerning this matter with some of the most eminent of your reverend ministry, as well as other respectable, sensible, and trustworthy persons at Hamburg, and heard from them in detail why the aforementioned report was not to be doubted at all; namely from the Reverend M. Hermann von Peteum, for many years a servant of the divine Word and now pastor of the principal church of St. Petri there, to whom Jürgen Frese, soon after this occurrence, when the crowding of the people had become too great as the rumor of it broke out, sent the iron ring, wrapped in red taffeta and sealed with his signet, together with an enclosed written account of the whole course of events, out of the then custody (prison); with whose permission I likewise took that same ring with me to Kiel, which Jürgen Frese afterward gave to me as a gift, and which I keep in my possession as a lasting remembrance of so glorious and remarkable an occurrence."

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Conversations between Two Lutherans about Methodism.

Second Conversation.
The Doctrine and Manner of the Methodists.
(Continuation and Conclusion.)

Philip. What the Methodists are accustomed to reproach us with regarding baptism, namely the carnal reliance upon it — which we too disapprove of and reject — can happen to them at the mourners' bench, which, one hopes, even the less afflicted of these childishly-childlike people of feeling, called Methodists, would also disapprove of, if only they knew how to distinguish somewhat more sharply between appearance and substance, sign and thing, by a surer standard than that of feeling. Yet between holy baptism and the mourners' bench there always remains an immense difference: first, that the one is a divine ordinance and an essential means of grace, while the other is a human invention and a non-essential instrument of compulsion; second, that the spiritual reliance of an assailed believer upon holy baptism is right, but that the same trust of that same assailed person in the mourners' bench, together with his whole conversion, would be wrong; for the latter is human cleverness and patchwork, whereas holy baptism is God's work and ordinance, and on God's part always perfect and complete.

Martin. There you are quite right. Those two...