# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 05 31_S78
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

—have pipes, drums, lutes, and all kinds of string music, and shall dance too, and shoot with little crossbows. And he showed me there a fine meadow in the garden, laid out for dancing, hung about with nothing but golden pipes and drums and fine silver crossbows. But it was still early, so that the children had not yet eaten; therefore I could not wait for the dancing, and I said to the man: Ah, dear sir, I will go at once and write all this to my dear little son Hans, that he may pray diligently, and study well, and be pious, so that he too may come into this garden; but he has an aunt Lena, whom he must bring with him. Then the man said: So be it; go, and write to him accordingly.

Therefore, dear little son Hans, learn and pray with confidence, and tell Lippus and Jost also to learn and pray, so that you may all come into the garden together. Herewith I commend you to Almighty God, and greet Aunt Lena, and give her a kiss from me. In the year 1530.

Your loving father,
Martin Luther."

But however lovingly and kindly Luther dealt with this little Hans of his, especially in his tender childhood, just as earnestly did Luther afterward direct his upbringing, and let nothing wicked in him go unpunished. Among other things it is told that when Johannes was twelve years old and had done something wrong, Luther would have nothing to do with him for three whole days, even though he had already begged forgiveness in a humble letter, and although his mother, Dr. Jonas, and Dr. Cruciger had interceded for him; to these Luther answered that he would rather have a dead son than a disobedient one, for a bishop, according to St. Paul, must rule well over his own house and have obedient children, if he is to care for the congregation of God. He added: "God has raised us up, and for that reason we must give everyone a good example. Our children, if they turn out badly, go about as a scandal to others, and want, like wicked boys, to abuse our freedoms." (See Luther's Works, Halle edition, XXIV, 157.)

Luther very often kept a large table-company, which gave occasion for many useful and cheerful conversations and stories, as may be seen from the collected Table Talk. Luther's conduct toward his friends and guests within the circle of his family, and theirs toward him, was as far removed from all monkish sourness as it was from the wild and disorderly manner of the world; rather, in everything there showed itself the striving to follow St. Paul's admonition, Philippians 4:8: "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Hypocrites, of course, often take offense at the bluntness of that age, which is indeed reflected in particular in Luther's Table Talk.

78

Nor was the household cross lacking in Luther's family. Besides the affliction that every Christian has every day, there also came times of especially heavy sorrow. Luther's faithful wife once became deathly ill; but God heard Luther's prayer for her. Yet two of his beloved daughters he saw depart from this life amid many tears — Elisabeth in her first year, Magdalena in her fourteenth. For the latter he himself composed the following epitaph:

Here I sleep, little Lena, Dr. Luther's dear daughter,
Rest with all the saints in my little bed.
I who was born in sin
Would have had to be lost forever;
But now I live, and all is well with me,
Lord Christ, redeemed by Thy blood.

(To be continued.)

Reply to the Latest Defense of the Union.

Motto: "Let them preach boldly and freely whatever they can, and against whomever they wish; for, as I have said, there must be factions (1 Corinthians 11:19), and the Word of God must lie encamped in the field and do battle; that is why the evangelists are called hosts (Psalm 68:12), and Christ a captain of hosts in the prophets. If their spirit is right, it will not fear us, and will hold its ground well. If ours is right, it will not fear them, nor anyone else, either. Let the spirits clash and collide with one another. If some are led astray in the meantime — well, that is the ordinary course of war; where there is strife and battle, some must fall and be wounded; but whoever fights honestly will be crowned."

Luther, on the spirit of the Anabaptists.

A few days ago a pamphlet appeared here, printed by Weber & Olshausen, under the title: "A Word for the Good Cause of the Union. A Defense against the Attacks of the 'Lutheraner' upon the Evangelical Church, by E. L. Nollau, Evangelical Pastor in Gravois near St. Louis."* We are glad to be able to announce this little book, for we are firmly convinced that the good cause of the truth can only gain, whether one comes forward for it or against it, so long as it is done publicly. It has also long been our wish to have in hand, and to be able to place in others' hands, the spokesmen of the local Evangelical Church's own testimonies as to what they actually believe. Our wish has now been fulfilled; whoever wishes to convince himself with his own eyes of the spirit of the new Evangelical Church of the West now has the opportunity to do so.

* The pamphlet may be obtained from Franksen & Wesselhöft, St. Louis, Mo.

According to page 67, the pamphlet is written chiefly for the readers of the Lutheraner, and, as Mr. Nollau puts it, is intended "for nothing else than to call attention to the narrow-minded, unevangelical, and questionable tendency that is represented and disseminated in the 'Lutheraner.'" In view of this we must regard it as our duty to reply in our paper — either, if we have been shown to be in error, to retract publicly, or, if we are faced with false accusers, to justify ourselves. We fulfill this duty all the more gladly since it gives us occasion to express ourselves yet more clearly than we have done on important articles of Christian doctrine, to guard the pure doctrine still better against misunderstanding and distortion, and to put weapons into the hands of the truth-loving reader himself, for those cases in which error appears most deceptively in the guise of truth.

We are sorry that we cannot at once take up the main matter, namely the doctrine. But Mr. N. has not seen fit to fight on that field alone; he has also attacked us personally, and indeed in such a way that he was clearly aware he was striking at our most sensitive points, where he could and would be sure to wound us. Confidence in "the good cause of the Union" seems to have so completely deserted the author from the very outset that he could promise himself a victory for that "good cause" by no other means than first putting his opponents to shame before the eyes of the world by reminding them of their former transgressions.

Mr. N. indeed writes on p. 4: "Far be it from us to reproach those involved for the offense given at that time, or to wish to hurt them by it" — but what are we to say when Mr. N. now does exactly that? We think it would have been more honest of Mr. N. simply to say outright: You are our enemies, and as enemies we must treat you. Such candor would have inspired us with confidence in Mr. N.; but truly, it is no easy task — indeed an insoluble one — to believe Mr. Nollau's declarations of love and his assurances that he judges us with Christian forbearance, when in that very same breath he attacks us in just the way that (now, at least) only our most ruthless enemies still do. It grieves us to see Mr. N. fighting against us in league with such adversaries.

Mr. N. accuses us, among other things, of being "Lutherans who imagine themselves perfect in Pharisaic self-praise" (p. 28); of giving "malicious explanations" (ibid.); of preferring to let the Reformed go hungry rather than take them in as well (p. 2); of having a "broad conscience" (41); of practicing "dishonest procedure" (43); of being "intolerant, of treating the Evangelicals with hostility and branding them as heretics" (49); of "believing ourselves to be the true stock and core of the Lutheran Church in America" (70); of having written our criticism only "allegedly out of love for the truth" (64); of asserting that "we alone have the truth" (70); of causing some here and there to leave the Evangelical Church, solely because "it is much easier to insist on being in the true church, to boast of pure doctrine, and to brand those who think differently as heretics without love, than to convert oneself honestly and thoroughly" (65). Finally, Mr. N. points, with a meaningful exclamation mark, to the prophecy issued about five years ago by a certain