# Der Lutheraner_Frankfurt am Main_September 1950_S68
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Page 68                                    September 1950                                    Number 9

world and would preach to it in season and out of season, and my text
should be: "What would it profit a man if he gained the whole
world and yet suffered the loss of his soul?"

What do we say to these words? What is true in them is that we must learn much, much
more: "To let the main thing be the main thing," that is, to work out
our own salvation and that of our fellow men with fear
and trembling, that is, with complete, full earnestness!
That would give an upsurge of prayer and
faith, of sanctified conduct, of persuasive
love and courageous witness. Of course, all this not in anxiety
and torment, but as a service of obedience and
joy rendered by one who can say: "Mercy
has been shown to me!" Poor, yet making many rich!
And indeed, then it must not be as in that well-meant line
of hymn: "Let others quietly wander the broad, bright,
full streets," but rather we should
give them holy unrest: "Hasten and save
your soul." "Come, let us return
to the Lord."

But then earthly life need not for that reason be devalued.
If it is a gift from God's hand, an entrusted good,
then we may accept it. Earthly joys
— God's kindly gift. Earthly work
— commanded by God, the great employer.
Of course, what Jesus' word means must remain in first place:
Seek first, and not second, third, or
hundredth — the kingdom of God and
his righteousness.

Truly: even God's enemies can serve us well
as peculiar witnesses of God and as
awakeners by God's grace. Greve

Pastor Konrad Wagner — a character portrait
1857—1949

On June 30 it had been a year since God
the Lord called his faithful servant, Pastor (ret.)
Konrad Wagner, in his 92nd year of life, to the eternal
homeland. The departed will remain unforgotten by all who
knew him, especially the congregations of Elberfeld,
Gemünden, Zürich-Lörrach, Frankfurt am Main. His Christian
character was shaped by the devout parental home in Marienwerder in West
Prussia. Descended from a family of dyers, the 12th
child of his parents, he grew up in a cheerful circle of siblings, but
also came to know hardship and worry during the war years of the
sixties and seventies of the past century,
especially when cholera brought
4 of his brothers to the brink of death.
A serious illness of his dear mother led him
to the resolve to study theology.
He pursued his education at the
University of Erlangen, where he also served as a one-year
volunteer. He always had something soldierly-manly about
him; in his nature severity was paired with
tenderness, deep earnestness with a delightful humor,
strictness toward himself with a loving empathy
for people, a masculine manner with great love
for children and all who needed his counsel and helping
deeds. As a private tutor in Bodenbach in
Bohemia, he cared with great faithfulness for the sick son
in the house of a manufacturer, until the boy's
death, and accompanied the now solitary father on
various journeys. There he saw the natural beauty
of the Tyrol, came to know Vienna and Venice, and looked
down from the height of the Wartburg to Luther's
"beloved city" and across to the Thuringian
mountains.

After the experience-rich years of study and travel,
and after passing his examinations in Breslau before the
church councilors Nagel and Huschke, he took
the first steps into the holy office as assistant preacher
to the Elberfeld superintendent Feldner.

Here he came to know the man who, in the revolutionary
year 1848, published the writing: "How can we
evangelize Germany?" — who in 1858 left the
Union Church along with a large part of his congregation
and, with a priestly heart, faithfully attended to the holy service
in the midst of his congregation and the widely scattered
Rhenish-Westphalian diocese.
How this faithful confessor was concerned
with fostering the spiritual growth of the souls
entrusted to him! Fellowship with this his "spiritual
father," who also ordained him into the holy office of preaching,
made an indelible impression on the young beginner
in the holy office. Here the foundation was
laid for his manner of preaching, springing from penitent
self-knowledge, of the sole salvation in
Christ, the Savior of sinners, for a pastoral care that
is first of all care for one's own soul and then also
mercifully takes up the soul's distress of "brothers and
sisters in Christ," for a responsible
conduct of office mindful of the accounting on
the last day. Thus there came to fruition what
the parental home and faithful teachers from his
student years had planted in him as seeds. When
God the Lord then led him into the pastorate in Gemünden
and, 13 years later, into the diaspora work among the
Lutherans scattered in Switzerland, and at the age of 60
still into the blessed 17-year service in
the congregations of the Frankfurt parish, one could
sense in him that Lutheran Christianity was to him
no mere learned matter, but a concern of God grown
together with his whole being. Christ,
the Crucified and Risen One, he wanted to preach
— Him alone.

He wanted to serve souls

— to lead them into divine truth and
make them fully certain of their salvation in Christ.
Eduard Kellner's word: "Only he who comes to Wittenberg
by way of Sinai and Golgotha is a true
Lutheran; whoever has not become a new creature in Christ
is lost despite his Lutheranism,"
stood written in his heart. When he preached
or, in the circle of his fellow ministers at conferences,
often introduced Scripture, one noticed something
of the authority given to him.
He himself considered himself God's "most unworthy servant."
Even in advanced age one heard him again and again
lament his failures in office, and yet many will
still thank him in eternity for having been
to them a true pastor, a guide to Christ,
to salvation. Whoever did not know him more closely
might sometimes have been alarmed by the zeal
that animated him. Indeed, he maintained strict
discipline in his congregations and could speak sharply
to the individual's conscience. But as soon as he saw that
someone submitted to the testimony of conscience, he was as if
transformed and could speak so lovingly with the
penitent, as a mother comforts her weeping child.
Through the straightforwardness and openness of his
nature, through his strength of character averse to every phrase,
he became a friend and brother to all who are of the truth.
At the same time he was

a joyful Christian.

His mother's singing in the parental home, of which he
often told, had captivated him. He was
gifted with a sure ear and a good voice
and, through the singing of sacred hymns and
noble folk songs, as was especially cultivated in the
Christian student fraternity "Wingolf," and
through playing the violin, he brought joy to many and
also comforted himself in times of sadness. He was also
a storyteller by the grace of God, as young and old
can testify, and thanks to his good memory
could recite whole songs and ballads by heart. How gladly
he would say or sing, to the melody
"Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten," in
remembrance of his youth, the "Song of a godly
dyer," which a traveling journeyman had once
brought along, and in which this fine
trade was interpreted spiritually. It says there, among other things: "Now
in conclusion I will choose my body's color;
my friend is white and red, to him I will
commend myself. Let his blood wash me clean of my
sins, so that I may be righteous here and
blessed there also."

As was his life, so was his death.

On the evening of June 30, 1949, the weary pilgrim,
now in his 92nd year of life, around whom it had become
very solitary, but who even in advanced age
had retained his mental freshness, raised himself
in bed and spoke clearly and distinctly the words
of the Communion liturgy: "Our Lord Jesus Christ, in
the night in which he was betrayed" ..., then "Christ, thou
Lamb of God," prayed the holy Our Father, and blessed
his daughter, who alone of his three children was with him
at the time. Then death came, and he fell quietly asleep. On
the morning of July 4 we gave him our last
escort. Superintendent Martin, whose independent
congregation in Marburg he had joined, conducted the
graveside liturgy. According to his wish, after
the hymn "Wenn mein Stündlein vorhanden ist," the
parable of the prodigal son was read. He had asked
that no graveside address be given. There he gave us his
last sermon. The choir sang, from his favorite hymn
"Geh aus mein Herz und suche Freud," which he had so often
and gladly sung together with the children, the
two verses: "Welch hohe Lust, welch heller Schein" and
"O wär ich da, o stünd ich schon, o großer Gott vor
Deinem Thron." They were like a symbol of
his Christian faith. His coffin was covered with fresh
fir greenery from the German forest, which he had so
loved. His grave lies on the steep slope of the
Marburg mountain cemetery, high above the town and
the valley of the Lahn. There he awaits the resurrection.
What moved the hearts, a fellow minister finally summed up
in the one word: "He was to us like a tree,
planted by the streams of water, that
brings forth its fruit in its season, and
its leaves do not wither." J. Fritze

The Tears of Christians

The examples of the patriarchs should always lie before our
eyes, so that we may learn that our
works too, which are done in faith, likewise
our tribulation, when we suffer it in faith, are all
pleasing and acceptable to God and like a
continual offering. This is a great comfort to believers.
The life of the godly seems to be a useless life and
to have no fruit or glory at all. But
this is an excellent honor and glory, that we
know that God also counts our tears, and every
little drop that falls from our eyes,
and that it is all recorded before God's eyes and
gathered, as it were, into a golden vessel.

Luther, II, 772.

For Our Time

Where one sins and feels the punishment and
yet does not want to recognize that the punishment
comes from God's just judgment, but
only wants to be impatient and angry on account
of the good that one has lost: that
is not called repentance, but is called
raging against God and being angry with him. As we
also do now in this time: when we
are punished with the Turkish war, with pestilence, with
inflation, or otherwise plagued in other
ways by the devil, we all
complain about the great misery and misfortune. But
you hear no one say: We have
sinned, we have done evil, Lord God,
have mercy on us, remember your
mercy, which endures from eternity. We do not
turn to God, who punishes us; as
the prophet Isaiah also laments about this in
chapter 9, verse 13: "The people do not turn
to him who strikes them, and do not ask
after the Lord of Hosts." Luther