# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1859_S126
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

126 Church and Contemporary Chronicle.

...ten's [dismissal], who had presented himself of his own accord, to
his own harm. The strangeness of this self-annihilating resolution of
the Kirchentag has already been illuminated from many sides, and it is
a question whether Stahl and Hengstenberg, together with their party,
will thereby be brought any closer to the Kirchentag. The resolution is
of such far-reaching significance that, in its consequences, it might
well be suited to place the Kirchentag on an entirely different footing
and to throw it in together with the Evangelical Alliance, whose
principles unmistakably inspired the resolution. Toward fraternizing
with the Alliance, a considerable party within the Kirchentag has
already taken steps earlier. If the conservative party continues merely
to look on as a bystander, we shall live to see the Kirchentag
imperceptibly transform itself into an Evangelical Alliance — which
might perhaps help it to new life.

Church and Contemporary Chronicle.

I. America.

General Synod. In the Lutheran Observer of February 25th we find a
description of the impression which the editor of the Religious
Telescope of Dayton, Ohio, received upon visiting the Lutheran (?)
Professor Dr. Sprecher at Wittenberg College in Springfield, Ohio.
Among other things it says there: "The students who go forth from his
classes will not have their heads stuffed full with baptismal-
regeneration nonsense and similar half-popish absurdities: he is a
Bible Lutheran."

German Methodism. Mr. Nast in Cincinnati gives the following statistics
for German Methodists: New York Conference 2,046, Rock River 2,857,
Upper Iowa 1,452, Cincinnati 2,780, North Ohio 2,133, Southeast Indiana
3,208, Illinois 2,336, South Illinois 2,019, California 60, Germany
1,089, total 19,980. In all the conference districts together there
are 281 churches and 111 parishes.

The public schools of this country are increasingly coming into
conflict, especially with the local Roman Catholics. Thus the Boston
Courier of March 15th reports that in that city nearly a hundred
children of Roman Catholic parents have been expelled from the public
schools because they refused to use the prescribed translation of the
Bible and the form of the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments — one
of them, a boy of 13, even after the application of corporal
punishment. Scolding the Roman Catholics does not help here. It is
becoming only ever clearer that the public schools of the state cannot
replace the parochial schools, and that the former, if they are to be
an institution for everyone, must leave out everything religious —
that is, must leave this to the care of parents and guardians. A
distribution of the income of the public school fund to the so-called
denominational schools according to the number of pupils each has
(which the Roman Catholics no doubt aim at with their disturbances of
the public schools) would, however tempting it may appear to some
Lutheran schools, be the most dangerous expedient of all.

Union. Since January 1st, a new paper has, if not enriched, at least
added to the daily church literature: "Die Union. Organ of the German
(United Evangelical) Protestant Synod of America. Edited by E.
Siebenpfeifer." Neither its tendency nor its first article is able to
inspire in us any respect for the paper.

Chiliasm. How consistent chiliasm, with its interpretation of prophecy,
overturns the entire foundation of the Christian faith is unanswerably
demonstrated, among other things, by the chiliastic periodical
"Zeichen der Zeit" [Signs of the Times], published in Buffalo. In order
to be able to present what has already been fulfilled as still future,
this paper ventures even to ascribe to Christ Himself that He erred in
the correct understanding of the prophetic word. Thus it says, for
example, in the March number of the paper mentioned, of this year: "It
is at all times the nature of faith to see and believe the future, the
far distant, as near, Heb. 11:1; and insofar Jesus too, and His
apostles, had to believe it in that way, because they were believers,
Heb. 12:2. Doubtless Jesus believed from the beginning that the coming
of His glorious kingdom was nearer than it actually was ... Before His
judge, as a prisoner, He said: Henceforth ye shall see the Son of man
sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of
heaven. He believed, then, that His enemies then living would see Him
come visibly, before He would receive the further revelations from
the Father — the book with the seven seals — and would see what yet
had to run its course in between. Rev. 1:1, ch. 5–19." One sees from
this how extremes touch one another — so too chiliasm and vulgar
rationalism.