# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 05 29_S153
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall now and nevermore pass away."

Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States.

Year 5.

No. 20.

...are to be sent here, under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at the annual subscription price of one dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who must pay it in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis, each individual number is sold for 5 cents.
Only letters containing communications for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, however, which concern business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc.,

(Submitted by Dr. Sihler.)

A Heartfelt Exhortation to Lutheran Fathers Not to Withhold God-fearing and Gifted Young Men and Boys from the Service of the Church and School.

It is, unfortunately, an established as well as distressing fact that, especially here in the West, far too few young people who have the disposition and gifts for the eventual assumption of the holy preaching or teaching office present themselves at the relevant seminaries and seek admission and instruction there.

Here at our seminary in Fort Wayne, for example, since the time of its founding, in October 1846, only one native-born Lutheran German-American has enrolled up to now; the other 26, some of whom have already entered the service of the church and some of whom are still with us, are all, with one exception, sent over to us from Germany by dear brethren in the faith; only this one is the son of a farmer who immigrated 12 years ago and has since already died.

If we now ask why it is that, for example, in Ohio, Indiana, and other states here in the West, more young men are not to be found (whose fathers have perhaps already immigrated here ten or more years ago, or who were even born here and have remained German) who offer themselves for the service of the church and have themselves trained for it, we can give several answers to this.

One answer, for example, runs thus: here in our still thinly populated and sparsely cultivated regions there is still far too much room and opportunity to farm the land or to set up mills, tanneries, stores, and so forth, by which, without excessive effort and with tolerable skill and luck, a tidy little sum can be acquired in not too long a time, with which one can then expand one's business still further and "make more money" and become a man who is "worth" a great deal. What tender father, then, who serves the great god Mammon with all his heart — to whom almost all of America, indeed "the whole world renders divine worship" — what tender father should not direct all his diligence toward having all his sons become "well off" as early as possible, and also become worshippers and adorers of this same god?

Another answer is this: the dear preaching office in this country yields far too little honor and reward; after all — this father or that says to himself and to others — after all, every day-laborer has more income than such a poor bush-parson, and for all his labor and poverty he must, besides, put up with all manner of coarseness and slander from many an unteachable and stubborn head, and gets ill-will for thanks as his reward. If he refuses to hang his coat according to the wind and refuses to be a hireling and a man-pleaser, then he is fed abundantly with the bread of tears and given gall to drink, and is, like Moses, "a man very sorely afflicted above all men on earth." Such a sorrowful and toilsome life, however, I would gladly spare my son.

Added to this — such a father continues — is that the so-called Old Lutheran pastors bear a double burden on their necks; for if, as is right, they insist that their churchly conduct conform to the church's confession, if after prior thorough instruction they insist, for example, on a proper call, on proper registration for the holy Lord's Supper, if they refuse, for example, to administer it to Reformed persons as such, if they exercise church discipline according to Scripture, and so forth, then they have friend and foe alike upon their necks and are decried as the narrowest-minded, most obstinate, and most loveless of people, however patient and humble, however self-denying and self-sacrificing they may be, however diligently they care for church and school, however faithfully they mean well by young and old. —

Now, my dear father, you who perhaps have a God-fearing and gifted son and therefore speak with yourself or others about the holy preaching office — what you say there is indeed true, but you have spoken only carnally, and not according to the heart of God and out of the Spirit and Word of God. For behold! the kingdom of our Lord Christ — and indeed not merely the triumphant Church in heaven but also the militant Church on earth — is not of this world, although the latter is of course in this world; and there the true servants of the LORD Christ neither shall nor will have much honor and reward from this world; it is fully and abundantly sufficient for them that they have honor with God, who calls them his "fellow workers" and "helpers" in the blessed work of converting poor sinners to the Savior, of making the cursed blessed, of making the banished and rejected fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, of making the condemned slaves of the devil the blessed children of God and joint heirs of Christ. This honor from and before God bows them deep into the dust — that they, who by nature are themselves also vile, stinking sinners, who of and by themselves can do nothing but sin — that they, after being themselves converted by grace through the service of the holy preaching office to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls — that they should now themselves be ambassadors in Christ's stead, the mouth and hand of God to mankind, angels of the LORD of Hosts, stewards over the mysteries of God, successors of the prophets, of the Lord Christ, and of the holy apostles. There they also count it pure honor before God when they are deemed worthy to suffer reproach from the world for Christ's sake, and fear rather to receive praise and reward from it than hatred and contempt; for the world lies in wickedness and loves only what is its own. But just as the faithful servants of Christ seek their honor with and before God alone, and not with the false, faithless world, so too they seek no reward from it, but from the pious and faithful God alone, who has promised them so glorious a twofold reward of grace. This reward is, first, on earth, every soul thoroughly and rightly converted from the power of Satan to the Lord through their service and office, and afterward in heaven a special glory, as it is written: "The teachers, however, shall shine like the brightness of the