# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 01 25_S44
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

through our complacency, laziness, and drowsiness, the precious deposit of pure doctrine should be lost here, which our faithful, godly forefathers won through so many hard struggles, and so often at the cost of goods and blood, and have bequeathed to us.

We are well aware that here the Evangelicals are almost as destitute of all outward means as the Lutherans; but may we overlook how much it benefits a church's spread when, like the Evangelical church, it yields in a supple and man-pleasing way precisely on those doctrines that are offensive to man, to his reason, and to his heart? Let us consider this, dear brothers, so that we will not look on with indifference and carelessness as such a church begins to build itself up here, having ground smooth the sharp stones of offense.

The first thing that at all times supports a united church and secures for it a rapid advance is the natural disposition of every human being. For every human being, according to his natural inclination, esteems divine truth lightly; all strict precision in doctrine, all rigorous adherence to the Word of God, all resolute rejection of human wisdom and its additions, all contending especially for a single article of faith, is hateful to every human being, by nature, from birth. Do right, and believe what you will — this principle we all carry in our hearts when we come into the world. This inborn indifference of fallen man toward the truth accordingly serves a united church, as it has now been established, splendidly well. Even if an unbeliever praises nothing else about it, he still praises its accommodating spirit and says: that, after all, is reasonable.

To this is added the fact that plainly that last time has now come of which Holy Scripture foretold, that men would then "not receive the love of the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:10). It is undeniable that we live in a time in which either the crudest unbelief prevails, or in which at most a certain outward holiness of life is insisted upon, while faithful adherence to the written Word of God is regarded as a dead, miserable letter-Christianity. Whoever nowadays accepts and confesses only a few important Christian truths passes for a believer; but whoever is not satisfied with that, whoever demands complete submission of man to God's Holy Word, and will not haggle over it, will not let anything be bargained away, and will not betray or surrender a single letter (Matthew 5:18) of the Word of God entrusted to him, but fights for it with all faithfulness — he passes for a loveless wrangler over words and brings upon himself the hatred and persecution of both the so-called believers and the unbelievers. In such a time, to be sure, a union is "timely," one in which the disputed doctrines are left alone and each person is allowed to believe as seems good to him. In such a time it is therefore also no wonder if people go over to the new Evangelical church in droves, since it makes the narrow gate so wide that even those can stroll cheerfully through it who are not yet willing to bow their heads before the cross of Christ, which is an offense to the self-righteous Jew and foolishness to the self-clever Gentile.

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This same kind of ecclesiastical union has already been attempted many times over the past three hundred years, but every attempt met with only very slight success — until the nineteenth century dawned. — Why? — Because until then there had still always been many faithful servants of God who did not regard themselves as lords over the Word of God, able to manage and dispose of it as they pleased, but as servants of the Word (Luke 1:2), who had no authority to give up or relax even the smallest thing about it, not even one jot (Matthew 5:18). So thought a Luther; indeed he, this incorruptible witness of the truth, is of course often accused of stubbornness because he stood so unbendingly firm in the doctrine of the Holy Supper; but well for him! — he was not to receive his reward for this here; God has reserved for himself alone the crowning of this faithful champion of his Word. Let him speak for himself as to what moved him not to yield; he writes in 1524: "I confess this, that if Dr. Carlstadt or anyone else had been able to convince me five years ago that in the Sacrament there is nothing but bread and wine, he would have done me a great service. I suffered such hard temptation over it, and wrestled and struggled with myself, that I would gladly have gotten out of it, because I clearly saw that by doing so I could have dealt popery the greatest blow. .. Indeed, if it could still happen today that someone should prove with solid grounds that there is only plain bread and wine there, one would not need to attack me so fiercely over it. I am, alas, only too inclined toward that, so far as I sense an Adam in myself. .. But I am captive, I cannot get out: the text is too powerful there, and will not let itself be torn from its meaning by mere words." (XV, 2448.)

Furthermore, Luther writes to Bucer, who at that time held Reformed views: "You may believe me that I wish to calm and quiet this discord, even if I had to stake my life on it three times over. For I have seen how necessary your fellowship is to us, and what distress this (namely, the division) has brought and still brings upon the Gospel, so that I am certain that all the gates of hell, the whole papacy, the whole Turk, the whole world, all the flesh, and whatever else is evil anywhere, could not have harmed the Gospel as much as they have, if we had been united. .. You will therefore ascribe it not to my harshness, but — if you wish to act honestly otherwise — to my true conscience and the necessity of my faith, that I refuse this concord. .. May the Lord Jesus enlighten us and make us perfectly one! This I pray for, for this I grieve, for this I sigh." (XVII, 2396.) — And such was the disposition of all the godly and steadfast confessors of the pure Gospel, who were the ornament of our church and to whom even our adversaries must bear witness that they served not themselves but Christ, and left behind for Christendom, through their writings, imperishable treasures of doctrine and edification, such as a Chemnitz, a Brenz, a Johann Gerhard, and others.

But the time of our faithful forefathers is past; all the watchmen on the battlements of our Lutheran Zion, from whom no danger threatening the flock escaped notice, have now closed their eyes; the mouths of those who could be silenced by nothing, when it was necessary to speak so that the pure doctrine of the Gospel might be preserved, are now stilled; they have all long since rested from their labor in their graves. It is therefore no wonder that those to whom pure doctrine is no untouchable sanctuary can now step forward confidently and pursue their work undisturbed, arbitrarily releasing people now from this doctrine, now from that. The old heroes of the faith are indeed dead; these newcomers no longer need fear the godly zeal with which the old heroes warned the people entrusted to them against all false doctrine and mingling of religions. Unhindered, young and inexperienced men can now also raise themselves above their enlightened forefathers and fashion a new, finer, broader church after the thoughts of their own hearts; with a pitying smile they look down on the few Lutherans who, in their view, are still so narrow, so one-sided, so prejudiced as to still wish to wear the old fetters. They feel themselves strong — for the indifference and the corruption of the whole generation now living stands in league with them.

(To be continued.)

"Hear Him!"

Thus writes Luther in his last sermon preached in Wittenberg:

"I have had more than thirty factious spirits before me who wanted to teach me; but I refuted all their doings with this saying, Matthew 17:5: 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him!' And by this saying I have, through God's grace, sustained myself until now; otherwise I would have had to adopt thirty different faiths. The heretics seek every kind of trick everywhere, that we should yield to them, give way, concede; but with God's help we will not do it. So they say: You are proud fellows. I am glad to hear all sorts of abusive words, but I will not yield a finger's breadth from the mouth of him who says: Hear this one! (XII, 1533.)"

"Der Lutheraner" is always available at the residence of the distributor, Mr. Gräber (South Fifth Street, opposite the oil mill), further at Mr. Quast's (Olive Street, between Second and Third, below the theater), and at the publisher's.

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