# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1859_S379
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Ecclesiastical Contemporary Affairs. 379

...had denied the divine obligation of the Christian Sabbath or the Lord's day in the historical
sense." — Certainly a remarkable resolution! It is true that, as it seems, the assertion
is meant to be modified by the addition "in its practice," but neither Luther nor the church
named after him was so inconsistent as, in theory, to deny the Sabbath its divine institution
while, in practice, granting it to it after all. The apparent contradiction resolves itself,
rather, in this: that the freedom of conscience and the freedom of life are two different things;
faith governs the one, love the other; and while faith makes a man free, love makes him a servant.

The Ministerium of the State of New York, as the synod of that region calls
itself, met on September 2 and the following days. In the report that has since appeared
we find, among other things, the following report and resolution: "Innovations in worship
in churches. The Committee to which the protest was referred, which the members of the First
German Evangelical Lutheran congregation at Albany lodged against the innovations introduced
among them by their pastor, the Reverend C. Hennicke, begs leave to report:

1. That it regards the practices to which the aforementioned protest refers — the burning of
candles by day during the celebration of the Lord's Supper, the introduction of the crucifix, the
sign of the cross at the benediction, and the singing of Latin hymns — as in themselves
immaterial and unnecessary, and their use as of no consequence whatsoever.

2. That it considers their introduction into a church and congregation connected with this
Ministerium as imprudent, unserviceable, and altogether unbecoming.

3. That these practices, which have never come into use in our church in this land and are
almost entirely unknown, are also thoroughly repugnant to the views and feelings of Christians
in America, and are calculated to produce false impressions in our own congregations and
in neighboring religious communities regarding the character and institutions of our church,
and thereby to inflict serious and lasting injury upon it.

4. That, since the introduction of such practices plainly indicates a decided inclination toward
a well-known branch of the church, ministers who consider them essential and cannot do
without them ought to be directed to dissolve their connection with congregations belonging
to this Ministerium and opposed to such innovations, and be advised to unite themselves with
a body by which such practices are approved and maintained. Respectfully, H. J. Schmidt, Levi
Schell, C. M. Wossidlo. — Resolved, that the report be adopted." Adiaphora, then, are church-dividing
matters for the Ministerium of New York! —

The "Catholic" Church. According to a public notice in a local political paper, for the
benefit of the Catholic church in New Bremen (a suburb of St. Louis), the comedy "The Paris
Good-for-Nothing" was performed on the day of the Schiller celebration. By such means the
Papists build their churches.

The German Baptists in America have organized themselves into two conferences.
The western one, which met for the first time in September at Springfield, Illinois, comprises
16 congregations, of which 1 is in Ohio, 1 in Indiana, 1 in Kentucky, 4 in Illinois, 3 in Missouri,
2 in Iowa, and 4 in Wisconsin, with a total membership of 495. The congregations in the same
territory not attached to the conference number 15, with 679 members. The conference report
complains, in reference to almost all the congregations, of a lack of growth and of being troubled
by "false brethren," who often "cheat harmless souls." The oldest of the conference congregations
dates back to 1849. The congregation in St. Louis increased last year by nine baptisms, while
ten members had to be excluded.

II. Abroad.

Carl Ritter, the celebrated geographer, died in Berlin on September 23, at the
beginning of his eighty-first year.

The Jews and Switzerland. Our minister to Switzerland, Theo. S.
Fay, has presented Switzerland with a memorandum in which he seeks to demonstrate that...