# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 05 29_S155
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

anything toward its upkeep; and beyond that, they turn their children away from it as well, so that such an office might soon go to ruin and Christ's blood and passion be in vain — and yet they go their way secure, with no conscience, no repentance or sorrow for such hellish and more-than-hellish ingratitude, and have many unspeakable sins and vices, no fear or dread of God's wrath, no desire or love toward the dear Savior for His bitter, heavy passion, but wish, with such dreadful abominations, still to be called Evangelical and Christian."

Now, you dear fathers in our Lutheran Church, who by God's grace have God-fearing and gifted sons but nevertheless hesitate to give them up to the service of the Church because so much reproach and poverty are bound up with it — are you not now perhaps of a different mind, after having read what this man of God has spoken to you? Is your intent not now rather this, that your sons should "become great before the LORD," rather than that they should attain riches and honor before the world? For the fashion of this world passes away, but that "being great before the LORD," whereby your sons should be kings and priests especially before God and should live and reign with Christ — that endures forever. You can therefore do nothing nobler for God's honor and for your neighbor's use and benefit than to give back to the Giver His gifts — to the triune God, who has created, redeemed, and sanctified you together with your children — by placing your sons into the holiest and most glorious service, as a gift and offering and a sweet-smelling savor before the LORD. And if some of you, back in our old fatherland, once had to place all your sons in the army for a time, in order, where necessary, to wage an earthly prince's wars — should you not, then, here with joy and love place at least one of your sons into the army of the LORD Christ, in order, closely gathered together with other faithful warriors around the banner of your church's pure confession, to wage the wars of the Lord of all lords, and, through the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, to lay low in victory the most terrible and mighty enemies, namely sin, world, flesh, death, devil, and hell?

So then, dear fathers, those glorious promises which the LORD has made to His new servants ought rightly to entice you to give your sons willingly to the service of the Church, so that, if they remain faithful, those promises may one day also be fulfilled in them. But on the other hand, the earnestness of God should also alarm you if, despite all exhortation and entreaty — indeed, perhaps despite the very concern and desire of your own sons — you, out of covetousness, worldly care, carnal softness, and the like, withhold them from the service of the Church or school. For to what end and purpose, do you suppose, has God placed such gifts, as well as the desire and inclination toward the holy preaching office, into your sons' hearts? Was it so that you should hold them back from applying these abilities and powers according to the Giver's counsel and will, and instead guide them — indeed, perhaps even urge them by teaching and example — to serve the great god Mammon, and through him the devil, rather than the triune God, the rightful owner of us all? Is this intention of yours not the most shameful sacrilege and murder of souls at once, and is it not enough that through such dreadful unbelief you yourselves go down to hell? Must you not also drag your own flesh and blood down with you — unless God's grace wondrously intervenes — and thereby make the eternal torment and fire of hell twice as hot and terrible for yourselves?

O woe to you so-called Christians, who go beyond even the abominations of the heathen; for whereas the heathen bodily sacrificed their children to Moloch and made them pass through the fire, under the delusion that they might thereby appease the wrath of God, whose burning they felt as sinners in their conscience, you sacrifice the souls of your children to the devil with love and delight, and willfully plunge yourselves together with them into the very jaws of the hellish wolf.

But you fathers, too, who are not so simply anti-Lutheran, that is, Mammon-minded, but who nevertheless live on sluggishly and negligently, without caring on your part also for the best interest of the Church — do you not know that your sons, well-equipped by God in heart and mind, are also talents which the LORD has entrusted to you, so that with diligence and zeal you might trade with them and gain other talents thereby? Not, of course, in that carnal manner mentioned above, like the sons of the servants of Mammon, who are meant only to help their fathers fill their purses, but in a spiritual manner — namely, that your sons, once you have ventured the cost upon them and placed them into the service of the Church, may afterward, as instruments of the Holy Spirit, rescue many souls from the power of Satan and convert them to the LORD Christ?

When you now neglect this and bury your talents — what, do you suppose, will God the LORD do with you when your hour of death strikes and the day of reckoning comes, when you too must give an answer to the just and strict Judge concerning the use of these talents? Will you not then stand plainly exposed in the shame of your nakedness? Will you not then be struck dumb with terror, and will not the sentence also be carried out upon you: "Cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth"? (Matt. 25:30.)

But you anxious fathers as well, who are so needlessly concerned about the bodily welfare of your sons in case they should one day become poor bush-parsons — you ought rightly to be ashamed of your unbelief; for do you not know, or do you not believe from your heart, that He still lives, and that all power in heaven and on earth has been given to Him who once said to His disciples, when He walked on earth in lowliness and the form of a servant: "Did you ever lack anything?" — and they had to answer, in accordance with the truth: "No, Lord, never anything." Indeed, do you not know that the Father in heaven makes His sun rise and sends rain even upon the evil and the unjust, that He is kind even toward the ungrateful and the wicked? How then should He forsake and neglect those who, through true faith in the LORD Christ, are His dear children, to whom He has given His own and beloved Son as their own, who are temples of the Holy Spirit, indeed, in whom the triune God Himself dwells and walks, and to whom, besides, He has entrusted the holy office of inviting, exhorting, and beseeching men in His stead to come to Christ: "Be reconciled to God"? Sooner, indeed, would the ravens have to bring flesh anew, or manna rain down from heaven, or this or that handful of meal remain uneaten, than that your sons, if they are faithful servants of the LORD, should suffer want. But as for whatever goes beyond the relief of want, beyond the satisfaction of food and necessity — no believing Christian, and least of all a preacher, should be concerned about that at all. For no one lives by having many possessions; the rich, too, can only feed and clothe themselves, and, if they are carnally minded, have nothing further over the poorer than that they have much care, unrest, and trouble, come more heavily through the narrow gate, and more easily go down to hell. Therefore we poor bush-pastors in the West would rather praise and thank God that we live so nearly from hand to mouth, and are deemed worthy also in our outward appearance to be like the LORD Christ and to follow Him with joy and love, who had no place to lay His head. Indeed, we wish to thank God from our hearts that, in our modest lot, we are spared so many temptations and snares of Satan, in which perhaps many a wealthy pastor in the East is entangled — one who, through increasing worldliness, takes terrible harm to his soul and hovers in such great danger of being eternally lost together with the greater part of his parishioners, whose service of Mammon he strengthens and confirms by his own example. —

So, then, I have earnestly exhorted you, whether covetous, negligent, or anxious fathers, who have believing and gifted sons, to give them up willingly and gladly to the service of the Church. Follow the example of Hannah, who gave back even her only Samuel to the LORD for His service in the temple; walk in the footsteps of David, who consecrated to the LORD the gold and silver he had taken as spoil. Offer thanks to God in this way as well — He who gave up His only Son for you also, and by whose grace it is that you are redeemed not with perishable silver or gold, but through the precious blood of Christ.

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