# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1859_S131
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Excerpted Communications from This Year's Preface, etc. 131

It was not long before it rose up decisively against the "little flock" that had gathered under the Good Shepherd. This resolve grew especially from the year 1840 onward, when the confession "as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" was laid down still more definitely from the throne, from year to year, so that that sad spectacle repeated itself which Scripture describes in the words: "the people came and surrounded the house" — the Church — "young and old, the whole people from every quarter." The year '48 brought a conclusion. Upon the word "they are all like an oven heated by the baker" there followed a cooling-off. Whoever did not look more deeply could easily be deceived about the true state of affairs, particularly by the momentary success of the extraordinary church visitations. But in the background the old nature always remained, and now the waves of the unbelieving spirit of the age are suddenly running high again. From every side one hears the cry that Prussia must, in religious matters, take up again where it broke off half a century ago; then it will regain the position worthy of it at the head of Germany. The questionable "episode" in which Prussia has begun to pay off a part of the great debt it has contracted against Germany is to vanish without a trace. "Enlightenment," which on the Christian view is the prince of this world, is to come again into honor. "We do not want this one to rule over us" — that is the keynote of the present movement; it sounds toward us everywhere from its organs, presenting itself here in shameless nakedness, there in hypocritical disguise. People rejoice that in the matter of marriage an occasion presents itself for officially renouncing obedience to Him, and that is the chief attraction this affair holds for the great mass. People rejoice that in the absorptive Union they have gained an official cloak for the spirit of indifferentism, and seek under its pretext to remove everything that has grown on any other soil than that of the natural man — whom to set entirely free from God is everywhere the ultimate aim, pursued by some with more, by others with less awareness.

In the face of such a turn, all our like-minded readers will feel with us the need, in the reflections that open the new volume, to immerse ourselves above all in the Word of God. This alone forms the source of our comfort when the visible is unconditionally against us; from it alone can we learn to be firm and clear in the midst of the storm. The Word alone can set our feet upon the high rock from which we can look down on the bustle of men who appear tiny and small. — . . . . .

"And he built a tower therein": that is at the same time a word that must weigh heavily on the heart and conscience of the bearers of the office in our time. If they do not fulfill their duty as watchmen on the tower, if they do not tell this evil and adulterous generation the truth with unsparing, sacrificial frankness, if the word applies to them: "All