LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1973, Page 75

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THE CONVENTION ESSAY 17

turbed consciences and wrestling with the uncertainties
of their personal salvation, they looked for spiritual
security by downgrading what they judged to be non-
spiritual desires. For help they turned to pietistic litera-
ture and hoped for emotional reactions.

Many Christians and Walther, in particular, experi-
enced deep depression almost like that of Luther in the
monastery. His friend Brohm urged him to consult
Martin Stephan (1777—1846), a comforting Gospel
preacher in Dresden. When Walther received Stephan’s
reply, he nervously opened it, praying fervently that
God might preserve him from false comfort. But in
a flash his anxiety was transformed into joy. Stephan
assured Walther, as he did countless others, that he,
too, no matter what he felt, was completely forgiven
through the blood of Christ. Like St. Paul on the road
to Damascus, and like Luther in his tower experience,
so Walther, too, found his Savior!

But the opposition both from the government au-
thorities and the church authorities continued. Pastors
were suspended from their office, and laymen were
barred from performing ministerial acts. Now, immi-
gration seemed to be the only possible way of relief.
Already in June 1838, 690 searchers for freedom from
ecclesiastical tyranny boarded a ship for Australia. Oth-
ers followed shortly. Simultaneously Martin Stephan
in Saxony and J. A. A. Grabau (1804—1879) in Prussia
made preparations independently to immigrate to Amer-
ica. Police harrassment continued, and both Stephan
and Grabau, for various causes, were arrested. Immi-
gration plans had to be hurried.

Under Stephan the Saxons organized an immigra-
tion society and, adopting a confession of faith, planned
a theocratic community comparable to that of Old
Testament Israel, and designated Stephan as the bishop
of their community and church. Almost 700 people set
sail, They arrived in New Orleans in the winter of
1839; later they resettled in St. Louis and Perry County,
Mo.

Grabau, with approximately 1,000 immigrants, sailed
from Hamburg in five vessels between June and August
1839, settling in Albany and Buffalo, N. Y., and Freistadt
and Milwaukee, Wis. A large segment of this immigra-
tion was subsequently fused into the Missouri Synod.

Another force which was later to become a major
factor in the organization of the Missouri Synod was
guided by Wilhelm Loehe (1808—1872). A parish pas-
tor in Bavaria, Loehe, instead of also emigrating, devel-
oped a magnificent center of support for the immigrant
Lutherans in America.

The man responsible for drawing Loehe’s attention
to America was F. C. D. Wyneken (1810—1876) of the
University of Gottingen and Halle, and later president
of the Missouri Synod. He had been a member of the
Pennsylvania Ministerium traversing a vast section of
the newly settled midwest on foot, on horseback, and
by boat. On one occasion he was caught in a swamp
at nightfall. Having lost his direction, he simply jumped
from one log to another, until he came to stand at the

frustration point of no return. As he surveyed his situ-
ation, he spied a heavy tree trunk within reach, jumped
on it, but knocked it over horizontally. What should he
do now? In the darkness he straddled a log, face down,
with arms and legs hanging down on both sides. Dead
tired from the rigors of the day, he actually fell asleep
in that position. (J. C. W. Lindemann, “Lebensbild . . .
F. C. D. Wyneken,” Amerikanischer Kalender 1877,
p. 20)

A throat ailment in 1841 forced Wyneken to seek
medical attention in Europe. He appealed for support
in gripping terms:

Enter into the large city; you will find thousands of peo-

ple who have made their home there. . . . Horror and

dismay fill me as I remember the shamelessness with
which vice strutted about in the streets of the seaport,
not hidden in the darkness of night, but in the broadest
daylight, and how there I found the grossest indecency
as well as the most abominable dens of vice owned by

Germans. Others ... do indeed live in outward decency,

yet without God, without church, without hope... !

{Wyneken, Die Noth der deutschen Lutheraner (Pitts-

burgh: Druckerei der Luth. Kirchenzeitung, 1844), pp.
4-5]

Then he asked rhetorically:

But who gives instruction to those who have been bap-

tized? How can the washing of regeneration continue its

action, grow and become powerful, when preaching and
instruction is missing? Who will confirm the children?

Who will administer Holy Communion? Perhaps their

parents of German extraction are themselves heathen,

unbaptized; just imagine that — German heathen! ...

Help, in the name of Jesus, help!” [Wyneken, Ibid.,

11—12]

The appeal was answered! Beginning in 1842 Loehe
sent a steady stream of missionaries or “emergency
men” to America, men who were short on theological
training but long on dedication and sacrifice. All were
pledged to the Lutheran Confessions. He also initiated
a colonization program in the Saginaw Valley of Michi-
gan, establishing four colonies: Frankenmuth in 1845;
Frankentrost in 1847; Frankenlust in 1848; and Frank-
enhilf in 1851, In addition to sending large numbers of
emergency men to the American churches, Loehe also
established a church extension fund for the colonies to
assist the underprivileged to start life anew. His only
request was that the loans be repaid and made available
for the support of others. His colonization plan did much
to keep the new immigrants within the church.

Saxon Vicissitudes

One of the myths which has persisted is that the
initiative to organize the Missouri Synod came from the
Saxon immigrants in Missouri. With the chaos and the
agonizing trials which they faced, they would never
have been in a position to take such initiative. The
colonists suffered untold hardships. The unaccustomed
physical labor and intermittent fever added weekly to
their growing graves.

Even worse, with the expulsion of their leader, Mar-
tin Stephan, the colonists were thrown into spiritual
chaos and virtual despair. Recurring questions were:
“Can there be a church without a bishop?” — “Is there
a church at all?” Differences between the clergy and