# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1859_S233
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Lehre und Wehre.
Volume V.    August 1859.    No. 8.

(Submitted by Pastor Röbbelen.)
The Twentieth Chapter of the Revelation of St. John*).

If someone has forgotten his walking-stick, he must turn back. Although I had therefore already taken my leave, I venture once more to come before the eyes of the dear readers of the "Lutheraner." What I wish to make up for may well be just as necessary to me on my further journey as the instrument with which one wards off dogs is to a pilgrim. For although the short gloss on the twentieth chapter of Revelation, with which I concluded, might well suffice to procure me safe passage wherever Luther's name is held in honor, still, in these days, one cannot travel far without also passing through such villages, in whose fields our authority counts at best still for a field-warden who forbids the Zwinglians the roads. Indeed, who knows how long he will even keep this modest office? Are not sayings such as, "Do this, and you shall live!" or, "Make friends for yourselves with the unrighteous mammon, so that, when you are in need, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings!" for an age that judges by its impressions, in the end just as telling an argument for sending our old invalid to the hospital, as is "the laying on of hands of the elders"? The "pope" of those who believe in the Symbols may go and hide himself in the Castel Sant'Angelo. There he is no doubt safe enough; but that does not help me, who am obliged to go my own way. I fear for my heels, though it may often be more barking than biting that I meet. People in love soon take offense. One need only brush lightly across the fresh colors of their fancies. Who, then, can blame me now, when so many are lost in the dream

*) This exposition of the 20th chapter of the Revelation of St. John was submitted for the "Lutheraner" nearly three years ago already. We set it aside, however, because we feared that it would exceed the comprehension of a large number of this paper's readers. We are glad to be able to communicate this exposition now through "Lehre und Wehre." We are firmly convinced that it is the correct one, the only correct and possible one, and we hope that all readers who are imbued with Luther's teaching will arrive at the same conviction. That our dear, highly gifted Röbbelen serves up the golden apples of truth in silver bowls besides needs no mention. Whoever sits down at the table at which Röbbelen serves his courses soon notices that he is being entertained in princely fashion.                          The Editors.