# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1864_S284
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

284 Church and Contemporary History.

The Fairs. On these the "Evangelist" of July 30 remarks: "The fairs held for the soldiers have indeed, to all appearance, brought in a great deal of money, but the true, lasting sense of charity has been greatly weakened by them. The officers of the soldiers' aid societies themselves report the following about it: 'Our receipts during the past year amounted to $2,000,000; this year they will scarcely amount to $1,000,000, that is, they have diminished by exactly half. This is a result which was not expected when the "fairs" were begun, and if private support for our cause falls off still further, we must confess that it would have been much better for the soldiers had no fairs been held at all.' This is an open confession of the worthlessness of these 'fairs,' which can have only the harmful effect of dulling true charity—in which the left hand does not know what the right hand does—and of putting a sham in its place."

The General Synod, at its last convention in York, Pa., on May 5, by a special resolution recommended the American Tract Society "to the support of the church." A recommendation certainly worthy of such a Unionized body.

Father Weninger's book "Protestantism and Unbelief." The Roman bishops of this country, notably the new Archbishop of Baltimore and Bishop Timon of Buffalo, are seeking, not only through public recommendations but even through official decrees, to formally organize efforts to spread that book among all so-called Protestants as well. Wretched as the book is, it is nonetheless, given the ignorance of the populace, a dangerous weapon for making vigorous propaganda for the pope and his church.

The English Iowa Synod (belonging to the General Synod) met on July 1 in Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa. A lay delegate named Jac. Geiger, of the Tipton congregation, presented on this occasion the following resolutions: "Resolved, that it is the duty of our preachers to warn the people against political sins as much as against all other sins; that upon a proper fulfillment of their duties in this particular respect depends the continuance of the civil and religious liberties guaranteed by our national Constitution. Resolved, that the almost total abandonment of the study of Luther's Catechism on the part of the children of our church lamentably tends to undermine the principles of common decency and the continuance of our church, and that we therefore recommend to our preachers and our people that they everywhere press most earnestly for the prayerful study of this good book." Excellent! Whether the resolutions were adopted by the synod, the "Observer," from which we take this, does not say. — The same synod removed the Rev. J. G. Schäffer from his office on account of proven embezzlement, there being a complete lack of repentance.

Judgment on the Perniciousness of Our Seminaries. In the "Zeitschrift" of Rev. Pastor Brobst of August 6, a G. F. of St. Paul, Minn., writes, among other things, the following: "We see everywhere, out of the seminaries at Buffalo, St. Louis, Fort Wayne, Iowa, and Gettysburg, the young spirits entering the practical field of the church armed for battle; propagating the ideas of their respective training institutions, they regard each other as enemies to be fought, and do not rest until they have talked the German Protestant population into their special interests and their synodical quarrels. How can such mischief and such an evil be guarded against otherwise than by concentrating our preacher-seminaries? The scholarly training of our young theologians is neither deep nor broad enough to lead the individual to humility. The young theologian feels more drawn to the wranglings of the several synods than to the thorough conversion of his own sinful heart to God." In the same issue, the committee report for the projected theological seminary is communicated from the proceedings of the last synod of Pennsylvania, in which, among other things, the following resolutions are submitted: "1. Resolved, that the name of this institution shall be: The Theological Seminary of the