Hist7: Chpt 3: Ministry defended, Democratism overcome – spiritual priesthood, not ungodly lay rule

      This continues from Part 6 (Table of Contents in Part 3), a series presenting an English translation of Pastor Christian Hochstetter's 1885 496-page book entitled (abbreviated) The History of the Missouri Synod, 1838-1884. — This chapter covers the settling of the Lutheran emigration after Walther restored the Lutheran doctrine of the Church, but in this installment, he had to defend the Ministry from a different attack. The reader would benefit, as I did, from a re-reading of Franz Pieper's segment on Walther's Doctrine of the Office of the Public Ministry, from the series "Dr. C.F.W. Walther as Theologian" here, or in the printed book. I also benefited from a study of the error of "Donatism" which is in its essence the same as "Democratism". — 

Some quotes from Chapter 3: all emphases, except underlining, are mine:

● 52: "The desire to take their children away from the unbelieving school teachers,… they wanted to snatch… the souls of their children and descendants away from godless philosophy."

● 53: Walther on the 1st log cabin seminary: "Our poverty was so great at that time that even such a small log cabin stood before our eyes like a miracle, for which we could only thank God with tears of joy. … a hierarchical central government over the church, which the lawyers among the former followers of Stephan had cherished, was thoroughly dashed!"

● 54: "Even parents who did not belong to the "Saxon congregation", as it was now called, had to purchase Luther's Small Catechism for their children"

● 55: "young America, whose arrogant, unbridled spirit is not dampened even by the makeshift Sunday school."

● 57: "In 1849 the pernicious epidemic of cholera claimed many victims in Perry County."

● 61: "In 1850 he [Walther] was elected professor of Concordia Seminary..… some had gone from hierarchical Stephanism to the opposite extreme, namely Donatism and Democratism, who declared that Pastor Walther's adherence to the divine rights and powers of the holy ministry was a continuation of the Stephanist system and who tried to persuade the congregation to remove him as a second Stephan."

● 62: Walther to Dr. Vehse: “I have freed you from the fetters of the hierarchy, and therefore I am the less inclined to expect of you, that you will again put your pastors in fetters!”

● 68: "Walther also warns against such a degeneration of the Gospel, which makes it mostly an instruction and teaching;… many more people are lost today because the Gospel is not preached to them without restraint than because they hear the Law too seldom."

● 72: Walther's "desire for the freedom to be allowed to serve God the Lord according to His Word became ever greater. And this justified desire, not a rapturous attachment to Stephan, led Ferdinand Walther to decide to set off for America with the other brethren in the faith in October 1838.… [Walther] refused to swear that blasphemous oath of allegiance to Bishop Stephan."

● 76: "Evangelicals and Methodists, like the high priests in Jerusalem…"

● 77: "We consider false teachers who bear the Lutheran name as little for our fellow believers as we do for the worst blasphemer of the Lutheran name"

● 79: "We are not only going back two centuries, but even more so 3-1/2 centuries, to the time of the Reformation."

● 80: "As Dr. Walther teaches in a Reformation sermon, the Lutheran Church is both: the true Bible Church and the Church of grace, Christianity itself the religion of grace"

● 81: "Neither he [Walther] nor his co-workers were concerned with pleasing North American democracy."

● 84: On Luther and Walther: "The harshness he uses against the enemies of pure doctrine in the Scriptures was not of a quarrelsome and malicious mind, but of a great seriousness and zeal for the truth."

● 85: "Walther is as orthodox as Johann Gerhard, but also as fervent as a Pietist, as correct in form, as a university or court preacher, and yet as popular as Luther himself."

● 89: "Walther is a faithful son of the German Reformation; having emerged from the Saxon Lutheran Church, he separates in Lutheranism the genuine continuation and resurrection of pure apostolic original Christianity."

● 90: Walther "recognizes in theology not a science, for which the innovators consider it to be, but a spiritual skill (habitus)."

Images of some men appearing in Chapter 3:

       Th. Brohm      —      Loeber     —     G.H. Schubert     —     Dr. Vehse    —   O.H. Walther    —   Franz Delitzsch

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The following is an English translation of C. Hochstetter's Geschichte… by BackToLuther utilizing the DeepL Translator with minor assistance from Dr. Fred Kramer's translation.  All hyperlinks, highlighting and red text in square brackets [] are mine. All internal hyperlinks are active in this embedded window, external links should be opened in a new tab or window.

In the next Part 8, Chapter 4. —

      A comparison of the two errors that Walther fought against, Stephan's hierarchy and the Donatism/Democratism of Dr. Vehse and others, shows a more conciliatory stance over against Dr. Vehse than with Bishop Stephan. Walther was truly a champion for the rights of the congregation and would never allow these to be jeopardized.  He would never fight against "Democratism" by Romanizing. He fought it by using Luther, the Confessions, and Lutheran Orthodoxy. — Although the threat of Donatism and Democratism was very real in this installment, it becomes apparent in Hochstetter's History that the more frequent and pernicious error that Walther had to fight against, throughout his lifetime, was… Romanizing hierarchical tendencies – Stephan first, and later with Grabau and Loehe. — After the break below, a small print, in-line (not embedded), version of Chapter 3 is given, not for the general reader but for search engine searchability. — In the next Part 8, Chapter 4. —

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Full text of Chapter 3 (fine print)  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The History of the Missouri Synod, 1838-1884, Chapter 3

By Christian Hochstetter

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The activity of the congregation for higher and lower schools. (51) — The last works and end of Pastor H. Loeber (55) and Hermann [O. H.] Walther. (59) — Pastor Ferd. Walther's beginning ministry in St. Louis. (61) [Dr. Vehse’s challenge against Walther. (61) — Overview of Walther's life and work. (64) — In Germany: Walther writes to Stephan, (68) —  defends against rationalist consistory. (69) — desire for freedom of America, not dependency on Stephan. (71) — The Lutheranism that Walther represents. (73) — Walther’s polemics. (81)] 

As soon as the time of the first sifting was over for the congregations in St. Louis and Perry County, it became apparent what rich gains the newly gained knowledge and experience brought to these Christians. Although they still lived miserably for a time in the flesh and poverty often peered into the windows of the cabins, they did not indulge in spiritual sloth, but used the time of peace to build church and school all the more eagerly. Many hearts were now founded on God's Word and had become all the more certain of their grace, so their hands were also extended for service in the Kingdom of God. The pastors lived in and with their congregations and the congregation members were acutely aware that as spiritual priests it was up to them to build the house of God. Whoever wants to participate in the walls of Zion must not be casual in the work of the Lord! Those poor settlers set a beautiful example of this. Already in the summer of 1839 a parsonage was built in Altenburg, in the upper room of which the service was held. Soon after, a faithful teacher was won for the congregation's school in the person of F. Winter, a Lutheran who had emigrated from Prussia.

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The desire to take their children away from the unbelieving school teachers, who were becoming more and more prevalent at that time, had drawn many of these settlers to America; they wanted to snatch not only themselves but also the souls of their children and descendants away from godless philosophy and, at least in America, put a dam against the unbelieving spirit of the times.  For this purpose it was also necessary to establish a higher educational institution, which, as a school of prophets sanctified by the pure Word of God, was also to guarantee the preservation and propagation of the pure doctrine for the future as far as possible. Although the large number of ministers and candidates for the office of preacher who had immigrated to Perry County had a supply of teachers for quite some time, the three candidates who were staying in Perry County at that time, Th. Brohm, O. Fürbringer and Joh. Buenger, recognized it for their duty to lay the foundation for a theological school in connection with the pastors who lived close to them. With great joy the pastors Loeber, Keyl and Ferd. Walther went into this plan. Since the whole settlement was only in the making and larger premises were lacking, the first need was to build a cabin for the planned school. Even before the floor had been laid in the ordinary private apartments, while many were still struggling to meet their daily needs, it was nevertheless agreed to build a log cabin in which a number of pupils could also find shelter. The main work, Dr. Walther reports, was done by the dear candidates themselves. Buenger, in particular, led the others when it came to cutting down trees, sawing blocks, splitting fence rails, removing tree stumps, finally preparing the ground and putting the material together. Buenger dug the now still existing colleague well all by himself. Since at last such materials were needed that the forest did not provide itself, the St. Louis congregation stepped in with financial support, just as considerable financial contributions from St. Louis for the upkeep of the school came in later. When the log cabin stood there

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and was inaugurated, there was a joy whose intimacy can only be fully imagined by the person who once shared it. — When on September 9, 1883, the same school moved into the magnificent new building in St. Louis, which is 334 feet long and 100 feet deep and rises like a royal bride above all its neighbors, Dr. Walther, on the day of the inauguration, already in the introduction to his address commemorated this poor little log cabin, in which 44 years earlier this school in Perry County had been opened. At that time, he testified to the 20,000 people who had gathered for the dedication of this new (third) building, "At that time, our little log cabin seemed to us to be a palace into which we moved with no less joy than into this magnificent building. Our poverty was so great at that time that even such a small log cabin stood before our eyes like a miracle, for which we could only thank God with tears of joy." — With seven boys the lessons in that college were begun *) and so the foundation was laid for the subsequent Concordia College and Seminary in St. Louis, where the institution was transferred in 1850, after it had been handed over to the Missouri Synod.

The desire to do great deeds, with the help of the common treasury, to draw more and more Lutherans over from Germany and to extend from Perry County a hierarchical central government over the church, which the lawyers among the former followers of Stephan had cherished, was thoroughly dashed! [Marbach] But quietly they did their duty to plant the regained Gospel in the hearts of the children. The lambs of Christ had to be grazed, so it was a matter of course that where no teacher could be employed, the minister, together with the pastoral  office, took over the teaching office and administered it to the best of his ability. In St. Louis the Candidate L. Geyer (now pastor in Texas)

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*) Among these boys were the current President Biltz, Pastor Müller in Chester, Ill. and Pastor Loeber Sr. in Milwaukee, Wis.

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conducted the school. And from July 1841 on, the candidate J. F. Buenger took over the St. Louis congregation’s school, who, after Geyer had followed another call, was assigned to the St. Louis pastor as assistant. At that time the St. Louis congregation had neither church nor school buildings. The pastor lived in a house on Poplar Street and the school was located below. As in Altenburg, the school room was also the teacher's living room. Since Buenger was very diligent, the school in St. Louis was very popular. Many parents who did not belong to the Lutheran congregation sent their children to the school, because they recognized that they were not only well taught, but also accustomed to fine discipline. Even the German radicals had already established a so-called Free Man's school (Freimannerschule) in St. Louis. A student who had lost his way, of which many were wandering about in America, boasted that he was a lawyer from Leipzig, but when he took over the school of the German radicals and wanted to teach the children a scientific education, it turned out that he could not even give them the most basic knowledge. For two years he was paid $600 a year for his service, and soon after that the school ceased altogether, and the majority of the children went to Buenger's Lutheran school. Buenger, a candidate-teacher, initially received a monthly salary of $15, later $25. It took a practical genius, as Buenger was, to make a room, which was calculated for hardly 50 students besides the teacher's bed and household goods, usable for more than 80 children. And only with the help of a book of ABCs, which was printed in St. Louis on 12 sheets with a short appendix, to replace the complete lack of suitable school books. It was understood that even parents who did not belong to the "Saxon congregation", as it was now called, had to purchase Luther's Small Catechism for their children, since these children had to take part in religious education just as well as the others. Already at that time, in addition to Biblical History, Catechism, 

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Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, something was also taught in the English language by Buenger. It was already apparent at that time that these parochial schools could compete with the local state schools, the so-called district or free schools, in English and other public service skills. Since the local public state schools rest on a quite humanistic basis, and bring a false spirit into the school children, while the religious instruction in these ordinary schools is almost forbidden, and even did not take place at all by the state, they must reveal more and more their anti-Christian influence for the ruin of the local people (according to the words: "he who does not gather with me, scatters"). Even non-Lutheran denominations are beginning to look with horror at young America, whose arrogant, unbridled spirit is not dampened even by the makeshift Sunday school. Immense sums of money are spent on higher and lower state schools in the cities, and yet only a superficial training is achieved where religious upbringing is lacking. The teachers who now, in place of the rationalistic deism that was already on the decline in the Puritan era, often pay homage to crude Darwinism and atheism, are satisfied with the proud ornamental angels and vain puppets that emerge from these state schools. On the other hand, the Lutheran parish school in St. Louis soon proved to be a nursery of the church and a mission through which the hearts of parents were often turned to the children. There is no question that the Missouri Synod, whose principles are often shouted as too harsh and grumpy by the world, is not only spreading through its schools but is also acting as a salutary salt to counteract the general decay among the people. Of the greatest importance was therefore also the founding of the Addison Seminary for School Teachers, which will be reported on in the fourth chapter of this book.

A report on the Lutheran school at Altenburg, Perry County can be found in No. 24, Volume I of Lutheraner from

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the pen of the sainted pastor G. H. Loeber. As great as the difficulties had been with the whole cultivation of the congregations and with the construction of this educational institution, God's blessing rested on the undertaking, whereby not only the children were saved from un-Christian school lessons, but also the studying youth were to be prepared for their future profession in a more Christian way than is unfortunately the case at most of the learned schools in Germany, following the example of the older Lutheran churches. Loeber’s report says that after the candidates, who in conjunction with Pastor Ferd. Walther had laid the first hand on the company, mostly followed other calls into the preaching ministry, candidate Brohm mainly continued the work, and in fellowship with him (namely Loeber), with God's help, tended the mustard seed of the small college. When Th. Brohm was also called to the Lutheran ministry in New York, Loeber continued the teaching for the most part on his own, only Pastor Keyl took over some more lessons. — Although Pastor Ferd. Walther had already been working in St. Louis for four years, he still took care of the upkeep of the Altenburg institution. Since it could be seen that Pastor Loeber was exhausting his strength there, the St. Louis congregation appointed from their midst the candidate of theology J. J. Gönner as a special teacher and rector. Also the care of most of the college students was taken over by the congregations. Pastor Loeber earnestly requested in another connection that all who know and confess that the name of God can be hallowed and that people can live pious and godly lives only “where the Word of God is taught clear and pure”, all who pray that the kingdom of God may come, as it does to us, also to those who will be born after us in the true faith which must be worked by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel, that all who together with us know and confess this “would when they pray the Lord's Prayer diligently remember also our school for the training of future teachers and 

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pastors, that God would in His grace further the labors of our hands, that He would grant to us teachers wisdom, strength, faithfulness and patience, and permit the young plants to grow and flourish to His praise.” — May God bless the congregations in St. Louis and New York (the congregation of Pastor Brohm) for their charity, but he also awakens in others ever more Christian zeal and holy care “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,” Ephesians 4:12. Loeber then reminds us of Luther's Sermon of 1530: Admonition that children should be kept in school, in which he shows the high duty and obligation of Christian parents, if God has given them capable boys, to give them joyfully and gladly also for the service of God and His Church. Finally, he concludes with the words of Luther's preface to the Small Catechism, that if parents are guilty of going against this, they would prove to be the worst enemies of God and man. [My mother was NOT guilty of this!] Through these words, the father of the famous Prof. Gotthilf Heinrich Schubert [pic], who, as he reports, was initially destined to be a ribbon dealer, was once brought to theological study in a strange way, since the pious mother had heard the hint of God from these words of Luther.

Since present writing must refrain in the following from referring to the individual congregations in Perry County, we would like to dedicate a word here to the memory of the sainted G. H. Loeber, whose death was mourned not only by his congregation but also by the entire Synod, which had been constituted two years before Pastor Loeber's death. With great sacrifice he had served the congregation in Altenburg for ten years, when in 1849 the pernicious epidemic of cholera claimed many victims in Perry County as well. The frequent visits to the sick and other work wore down his strength. On August 1, he also laid down on his sickbed, and on the 13th [But see p. 169, August 19] of the same month, Pastor G. H. Loeber [sic: G. H. Loeber] blessedly passed away in his Lord. A nervous fever was his last illness. His memory is still alive in many hearts to this day in 

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the settlement. Richly instructive in his teaching, he had a special gift for promoting the inner peace of the Church. For days on end he was able to devote his energies to reconciling quarrelling parties and his joy was great when he succeeded. He was a spiritual father in his congregation. So Dr. Vehse, who already knew him in Germany, let himself be heard by him: “All those who knew Pastor Loeber in Germany will agree with me that he was one of the most excellent personalities. In Altenburg, his homeland, he was revered throughout; any blasphemy had to be silenced when one saw his official and family life. All hearts, not only those of our congregation, were drawn towards him in America. The expression of his face and his figure, similar to that of Apostle John in Duerer's paintings, the dignity of his posture, the unpretentiousness of his whole being, had to take over. I remember his sermons with the most grateful inner emotions; I will never forget the one on the words:”"Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?” on the second Easter day in St. Louis.  [end of Vehse quote?] — Even today we are told how he answered those who visited him in the hospital and asked about his condition: “I have forgiveness for my sins” His last word in parting was: “Lord Jesus, you have my soul.” Born in the year 1797 in Kahla, Saxony-Altenburg, where his father, whom he lost early, was superintendent, he kept a spark of faith in the educational institutions, as well as at the University of Jena, despite the prevailing unbelief, which was kindled in him early on. In 1824 he confessed his Lord Christ before the consistory and followed the call to the preaching office in Eichenberg and Pibra. Involved in the struggle with the rationalist church superiors of his fatherland, he joined Stephan when he undertook the emigration. Since Pastor H. Loeber belonged to a highly respected family, and was himself held in high esteem, people in wide circles were surprised by this step. His relatives, including a brother who 

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owned a manor, were horrified when they heard of the privations that Pastor Loeber had to endure in the early days in Altenburg, Missouri. Like all children of God, he too had to enter the Kingdom of God through much tribulation. At the age of 52 years 7 months and 14 days he had completed his run. Not in the hereditary grave of his fathers, but in the American Altenburg on the Mississippi, his body was buried to earth on August 21 by his mourners. He rests in the middle of the local cemetery under a shady oak tree. The gravestone placed on his headstone bears the inscription: “Here rests in God Gotthold Heinrich Loeber, faithful pastor of Altenburg,” — “They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” Dan. 12:3 — Pastor Gruber, who survived him at that time, wrote of his friend Loeber after his death in Der Lutheraner, Vol. VI, No. 19 and 20; but Pastor Walther, who was then already President of the Synod, recalls the following words in the Synodical Address of 1850 [p. 116]: "In our Loeber our Synod has lost its crown, its Father in Christ, its living example of an experienced and righteous servant of the Church in doctrine and life, in shepherding and in battling, in friendly love and awe-inspiring seriousness, its most fervent intercessor, in short a man who made himself a wall for them and stood against the breach."

Already eight years before, death had torn a gap in the circle of Saxon preachers. The elderly pastor Walther, who still on Christmas 1840 had given three precious sermons on the topic: "Heaven on Earth", lay down in bed sick and on January 21, 1841, he fell asleep in his Lord Jesus. O. Herm. Walther already had the testimony in Germany that he was a faithful and eager servant of the Lord. He was seen there so unwilling to part with his family that his prince offered him the money to go and for his return, before he left for America, if only he would return soon. He

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could also bear the wicked with patience and lead the church with wisdom. After Stephan's unmasking, O. H. Walther was most responsible for spreading the news of the thorough renunciation of Stephanism and the penitential confession of his previous followers in Germany as well.*) Stephan had captured the noble mind of Hermann Walther by the fact that he, who was fond of being remembered, gladly accepted the pastoral counseling that Stephan practiced on him in his humility, and while he thought that the adulation he heard in other circles could only bring harm to his soul, he was, on the other hand, inwardly encouraged by Stephan. This was what he had until then opposed the scrupulous doubts of his younger brother, when the latter feared that Stephan would use the faithful devotion of the unsuspecting Hermann Walther as a shield to counter the suspicions of the sharper-eyed. After Stephan's unmasking, O. H. Walther was seized by such a deep remorse that he had trusted that man so much and for such a long time, that this sadness undoubtedly fed on his physical life. He lived to be no more than 31 years and 4 months old and was not only mourned by a widow and a son, but also buried with genuine tears by his congregation in St. Louis. Among many harsh challenges, which he overcame with God's Word and fervent prayer, he was, next to God, the first planter of this church, which over the years under Pastor Ferd. Walther's leadership has branched out into four districts and now into many more churches all over St. Louis.

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*) The sincere confession that the Saxon pastors made also before their fellow believers in Germany was not without a friendly response. Particularly comforting was a word that Prof. Franz Delitzsch in the Pilgrim from Saxony called upon those dear men, "Let them again take up harps that had hung on the willows for so long and confidently sing their hymns of praise." Dr. Rudelbach was also pleased about an essay sent to him by Pastor G. H. Loeber, which appeared in R. and G.'s Zeitschrift für lutherische Theologie at that time.

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On Jubilate Sunday 1841 Pastor Ferd. Walther took up his office as successor of his brother in St. Louis after receiving his regular call. He administered the same for the first time as a pastor, but in 1850 he was elected professor of Concordia Seminary, which had been moved from Altenburg to St. Louis. He was dismissed by the congregation on the condition that he would continue to serve the congregation as a pastor by preaching and participating in the congregation’s government together with pastors of the individual districts.

A very extensive activity had begun with this for this dear man, of whom, for example, R. Hoffmann writes: "He is the creator and to this day the spiritual leader of the Synod; he who knows him knows the synod; he knew how to instill in it his thoughts, his direction, his goals." But these were not his own, but God's.

Initially, his office in St. Louis was made very difficult for him by the fact that he was followed by persons, some of whom were found by him, who had gone from hierarchical Stephanism to the opposite extreme, namely Donatism and Democratism, who declared that Pastor Walther's adherence to the divine rights and powers of the holy ministry was a continuation of the Stephanist system and who tried to persuade the congregation to remove him as a second Stephan. The consequence was that a number of the members of the congregation became very disturbed in their conscience and finally compelled Pastor Walther to read a document drawn up by Dr. Vehse publicly, in which the emigrated pastors were accused of continuing the old Stephanist hierarchical priesthood [Priesterherrschaft]. Walther read the document out, under the condition that after the end of the reading he would be allowed to read a rejoinder in which he would prove from Scripture, the Confessions, Luther, and other pure theologians that he insisted only on those rights of the preaching ministry which God's Word gave it, and that nothing would move him to recognize, in the place of the spiritual priesthood, 

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an ungodly lay rule. [i.e. Donatism/Democratism] He testified to them that they would be ashamed of themselves if they had a minister who, in order to keep their favor, would surrender to them the rights that God grants to the holy office of the ministry [Predigtamte]; precisely then they would have to despise and reject him as a miserable servant of men. Against the misinterpretations of Vehse's writings, Walther countered with a hundred testimonies of orthodox theologians, and, in response to the accusation of a renewed Stephanism, proclaimed: “I have freed you from the fetters of the hierarchy, and therefore I am the less inclined to expect of you, that you will again put your pastors in fetters!”

The result was that the congregation was vividly convinced of the correctness of the position which its pastor had previously asserted in his office. The congregation was completely reassured and, by God's grace, saved from the danger of falling into Anabaptist contempt for the preaching ministry after hierarchical fetters were cast off. The disturbers of the peace [Ruhestörer] realized that it was impossible for them to separate congregation and pastor from each other and had to be content with arguing with Pastor Walther every Sunday evening. This ended with one part of the church being won over and the other moving away. Several of the latter returned later and joined the congregation, but the leader, called Sproede, continued his agitation in the wildest fanaticism. One day, however, when he returned to his house from a visit with a member of the congregation, whom he had tried to incite against Pastor Walther with all the means of his fanatical eloquence, he said to his wife: "I don't know how I feel," sat down at a table, put his head on his arm and was lifeless the next moment. — This Spröde had also published an essay in the Anzeiger des Westens, among other things, in which he accused the congregation of being not truly Lutheran, but a sect tyrannized by a domineering priest. The congregation responded to 

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these attacks in the same paper with the following, among others: "Whoever wants to convince himself whether we are now really striving sincerely to fulfil the high goals that the Evangelical Lutheran Church has set for us, come and see and hear (for we ourselves are not entitled to any witness about this), our church, our school, our congregational meetings and our houses are open to everyone. We do not sneak around in corners, but act openly before the whole world. Whoever wants to see for himself whether there is still priesthood in our country, read the statutes of our community rules, and it will be easy for him to see whether we are a free, independent Christian congregation or not!" — — “Some of those who were protesting against our cause advised us that everything should stop, that the preachers should abandon their profession, that the congregation should dissolve their association, and then sit down at the feet of their reformers, or rather destroyers. But we have had too bitter an experience of the perishable nature of such a Stephanist religious zeal to have been deceived by the new garment in which it wanted to wrap itself.” — “How little those who do not grant us the name of an Evangelical Lutheran congregation themselves know and have grasped the teachings of this church, of this the quoted protestation furnishes the clearest proof, since it insists that an oath which has been sworn to a deceiver in ignorance must be kept, and the cry is raised in it, the significance of which has long ago been revealed by Holy Scripture (Mark 13:21. Behold, here is Christ, behold there He is!).” —

The congregation of St. Louis learned from these battles that the challenge teaches us to remember the Word. Trusting in God's care, they also put their hands to work and began building a church. On the 2nd Sunday of Advent 1842, this church could be handed over to the service of the Triune God. It was the first church of the Trinity built for about $4500 cost, on a lot that cost $1000. In the document laid down in the foundation stone, the congregation thus addresses

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the descendants: Know this, O reader! whoever you may be, that we recognize no other God for the true God but the Triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, as He revealed Himself to us in His Word. Know this, O reader! For this alone we have laid the foundation of our Church, that in it the pure Word of God is proclaimed to us and our descendants according to the interpretation of the Apostolic Church, and according to it to the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and that the sacred sacraments, according to the institution of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, are administered by the called ministers of the Church.”

In 1865, the second Trinity Church of the Southern District of the same parish could be built at a cost of $115,000, at a time when the entire parish in St. Louis was already maintaining 12 parish schools.

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 Since the esteemed publisher of this book has expressed the explicit wish to give an overview of Dr. Walther's life and work at the appropriate place, the following is an attempt, which can only be a poor one, however, because the writer of these lines lives 800 English miles away from St. Louis.

Although there is no national bishop in the American Lutheran Church, and no so-called higher church government has been established, the Lord, exalted to the right hand of God, nevertheless also in the free church, places shepherds and teachers, indeed, he also gives such gifts that serve the edification of the body of Christ in ever richer measure and in ever wider circles. A still living matron, who immigrated here in 1839 with Pastor Grabau's congregation, relates that the Prussian Separates, who at that time, while their preachers were in prison, often crossed the Saxon border from Thuringia and had their children baptized in Sachsen-Altenburg by Pastor H. Loeber and other Lutheran pastors, 

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had already become aware of the young Pastor Ferdinand Walther. Pastor H. Loeber, who pointed out those friends and fellow believers from Walther, had well recognized that God the Lord had prepared him to be an important tool in his church under the many temptations through which Walther had already been led at that time.

Karl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther was born on October 25, 1811 in Langenchursdorf in the Saxon valley of the river Mulde. Born into a pious pastor's family, he enrolled in the  University of Leipzig as a theological student in 1829. As in the whole of Saxony, it was very sad at that time also at this "high school". In Saxony, too, the university was the source of the poisonous current that poured over the land in manifold enlightenment and correspondence; most students took what the unbelieving, rationalist professors presented as the great wisdom of the day at face value and presented the same fodder to their congregations afterwards, as soon as they were employed as preachers. That which the then Chief Court Preacher von Ammon, for example, called a "further education of Christianity to a world religion", as the title of one of his books reads, was in reality a "perversion of Christianity into a worldly religion", as Hermann Walther said of it. After the older brother had already been awakened to faith before, Ferdinand joined the circle of students through the mediation of Herman, who had come to believe in the grace of God in Christ, the Saviour of sinners, through the testimony of believing so-called laymen and an old candidate named Kühn, who was a serious Christian and was giving private instruction in Leipzig. On certain days of each week, this group of people gathered for common prayer, for reading the Scriptures together, for edification and for mutual exchange about the one thing that is needful. In addition to Ferd. Walther the following, who later also immigrated with Stephan and since have entered their eternal home, included Theod. Brohm, and Joh. Friedr. Buenger, with whom Ferd. Walther was always intimately acquainted,

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along with the still living O. Fürbringer, who left Leipzig two years earlier. Although in part hated, in part pitied by the world, from which they withdrew completely, they were nevertheless joyful in their God and Savior, and the faith which had been kindled in these young men by means of the precious Bible was naturally none other than the Lutheran faith. In the beginning there was no talk about the doctrinal differences between the different churches, but as they grew in knowledge, after some time the question arose: What faith are you? Are you Lutheran? or Reformed? or United? Admittedly, the consequence of this was a sifting; but most of them soon recognized that no other than the Lutheran faith had long since been sealed in them by the Holy Spirit as the true one, the only one which stands firm in every trouble and trial, even before they had come to know which church it was that held this faith. Therefore, only a few left the group. But while Candidate Kuehn himself, after long and heavy fears and struggles under the most terrible horrors of the Law, had only come to the certainty of the forgiveness of his sins and his state of grace, he wanted to lead the awakened group just as he had been led, and tried to convince his friends that their whole Christianity could not rest on a firm foundation until they too had experienced a high degree of repentance and true horrors of hell. The result was a fairly general change from a cheerful evangelical Christianity to a more legal and somber one. Most of them now got into a self-actualization by which they wanted to produce the demanded action in themselves Especially this was the case with the students Joh. Buenger and Ferd. Walther, indeed, the latter got into such distress that he was on the verge of despair after years of futile struggles. In the short biography of the once venerable Pastor Joh. Fr. Buenger, from which the above is taken, he reports: “Whoever is led to Christ without any detours, usually has no idea what great grace God has bestowed on him,

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to prove that he was not driven by his own efforts. These young men tormented themselves day and night, and although they read the Bible and religious edification books, they still thought that the promises of grace of the Scriptures were not yet their business, because they had not yet fulfilled the necessary conditions; but the less a book enticed them to believe, and the more legally it urged them to kill the old man completely before the lifting of the covenant, the better the book was for them. Even such writings, Dr. Walther reports, we usually read only as far as the pain and the exercises of repentance were described, and then the comfort for the repentant came, and we usually closed the book, for we thought that this was not yet for us. — In addition, Ferd. Walther's body became so sick and miserable that people feared that consumption would soon become a goal in his life. He was so anxious for his soul's salvation that he was afraid to eat his fill of food for his body, and refused the invitations of Christian friends so that he would not give the flesh room! — He had to learn that he could not free himself from the bonds of the Law. There was not such a great synergism among the Christians of that time that they would have sought the reason for salvation in themselves or in a particular strength of faith, but the devotional books from Halle (of Francke and others) in particular left no room for the flesh.), in particular, left the impression that man could not and should not believe, and therefore could not be sure of his state of grace as a child of God until he had gone through a certain continuous penitential struggle and experienced something of what the Lord Christ endured in Gethsemane. Since faith always seizes grace without merit of its own, it cannot depend on the fulfilment of any human condition. Therefore, whoever wants to prepare himself for faith through his own work must either fall into self-righteousness or despair. That is why Dr. Walther recently, at the General Pastoral-

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Conference in Chicago in October 1881, appealed to his present opponents that a Christian overcomes all temptations and becomes certain of his salvation only when he knows that it is not in his hands, from which, as the Formula of Concord teaches, it is easily lost, but that his salvation is based, apart from him, in the merciful election of God. Walther also warns against such a degeneration of the Gospel, which makes it mostly an instruction and teaching; indeed, he has repeatedly stated that it is certain that many more people are lost today because the Gospel is not preached to them without restraint than because they hear the Law too seldom.

Now the reader asks, how was Ferd. Walther rescued from this labyrinth of doubt? So he himself answers in a note on p. 29 of Buenger’s biography with the following: “The writer of these lines has had the same experience as Buenger. Only when no one knew how to advise him in his severe spiritual temptations, when, on the contrary, the believing pastors, who had been reputed to be men of great Christian experience, to whom he turned in his search for help,  all directed him to Stephan, only then did he turn to Stephan in writing, asking him for advice from God's Word. He did this without any particular trust in Stephan's person and without any particular hope of finding what he was looking for in him. Because of the state of his soul, his sermon did not seem sharp enough to him at the time, not urgent enough for deep repentance and penance. When the writer finally received the answer, he therefore did not open the letter until he had fervently called upon God to preserve him so that he would not take false comfort, if such were to be contained in the received answer. But when he read it, it was no different than if he had suddenly been transferred from hell to heaven. The tears of fear and distress that he had wept for so long were now transformed into tears of true heavenly joy. He could not resist: he had to go to Jesus. Stephan showed him that

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the repentance from the Law which he sought had long since been experienced; that he lacks nothing but faith; nothing but that he now surrenders himself to the heavenly Good Samaritan as the one who fell among the murderers. He had been mistaken in thinking that he had to carry the beast of burden of the Good Samaritan himself in order to reach the inn of grace, whereas the will of the Good Samaritan was to lift him onto his beast of burden and have him carried into the inn. Thus the peace of God returned to him. There he had a living experience of what private absolution is for a sinner who is frightened from the heart. Although Stephan had not given him formal absolution in his letter, he had applied the Gospel to him personally, which is the very essence of private absolution." — Dr. Walther has remained to this day fully grateful for the letter that Stephan addressed to him, but, as already noted, he was saved from the deification with which others attached to Stephan. When about half a year later the time approached in which Walther was to leave the university, the blessed Consistorial Councillor and Superintendent Dr. Rudelbach called him to propose him as tutor of his godly count. At this point Rudelbach demanded that Walther should break off all fellowship with Stephan. After Walther had told him what had led him to Stephan and how much he had to thank him, Rudelbach replied: "You should not leave Stephan, but in God's name remain in fellowship with him; but beware, beware of all human idolatry!" This warning, Walther wrote, he had accepted with deep gratitude and followed it, as much as God's grace had opened his eyes.

Although the above-mentioned candidates did not lack good credentials upon completion of their academic careers, they had no prospect of being promoted to the office by the rationalist consistory; they were therefore dependent on patronage positions, as were candidates of faith in general,

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which were given by pious counts and nobles. Ferd. Walther was also called to such a place as pastor in Bräunsdorf near Penig. There he found support in his pious church patron, the cabinet minister Count Detlef von Einsiedel, but also an enemy in the godless school teacher of his parish village. It is already reported in the first chapter of this writing that this teacher wanted to prevent the introduction of a Christian school textbook, and that he also swung the ignorant local school board to his side. Although these rationalists did not succeed in introducing the anti-Christian book School Friend, as it was called, Pastor F. Walther was also involved in costly lawsuits through the machinations of his opponents, as this also happened to Pastor M. Bürger and others. He also writes that there was no end to the complaints and lawsuits with which one was prosecuted before the infidel superintendents. Already when Pastor Walther was ordained, the acting Superintendent blasphemed Elijah and David in his speeches to him, and said that Walther should preach such a cheerful Christianity as Christ preached at the marriage at Cana! Since he had heard Walther's trial sermon, the Superintendent warned him against a Christianity that despised the joys of this life, that he (Walther) should not forget that he was not in the desert but in a flourishing church, etc. Since the Superintendent misused the text of the Gospel John 1:19 here to call out to the young pastor: “Who are you? Are you a prophet, or do you even want to be Christ?” At the meal he told the Superintendent that he was playing the role of the priests and Levites sent by the Jews, who were addressing John the Baptist with this question. Even more often it happened afterwards that the Superintendent had to put down his eyes in shame when he was healed by Pastor Walther through the Holy Scripture. Walther reminded his superior that the Superintendent had obliged the pastors to use the Lutheran symbols, and in response to the Superintendent's objection that the commitment 

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was only based on the spirit of symbols, Walther responded, that nothing of the kind had been said when he was pledged to the confessions, but that Lutheran ministers were specifically required to be faithful to the confessions in both the language and the content (in rebus et phrasibus) of their teaching. Meanwhile also the church textbooks, hymnbooks and agendas were no longer in conformance with the Confessions of the Lutheran Church. The Saxon state church was indeed much more permeated by unbelief and the union between believers and unbelievers was almost more oppressive than in Prussia, where the union between the Reformed and Lutherans had been introduced. It was known that also in Prussia, where emigration was permitted again since 1837, many Lutherans were preparing to emigrate to America, partly also to Australia *), and although one wanted to assert against the Saxon emigration that at that time the oath of confession was not yet weakened in Saxony so that apparently the Lutheran Church still rightly existed, it was clear to Walther and other preachers that they were forced in their regional church to pull on a yoke with unbelievers and to conduct their ministry together with the wolves, who tear the flock apart, contrary to the clear command of Christ Matt. 7:15. Walther therefore writes further: "It had to be a burden of conscience for Lutheran-believing pastors of the Saxon Regional Church that they, contrary to God's clear word, would be able to carry out their office not only for church, sacramental and fraternal fellowship with false doctrines, yes, they were forced with the most obvious heretics, but they even had to acknowledge them for their chief shepherds, to inaugurate themselves into office by them, yes, they even had to allow them to blaspheme the divine truth before their own congregations, the congregations of the preachers, and to spue out their teaching of the devil before them." Under this heavy burden of conscience 

 — – – – – – –-

*) Compare: Ey: Reports on the Emigration of the Prussian Lutherans to South Australia. Dresden, Heinrich J. Naumann. [Mitteilungen über die Auswanderung der preußischen Lutheraner nach Süd-Australien]

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the desire for the freedom to be allowed to serve God the Lord according to His Word became ever greater. And this justified desire, not a rapturous attachment to Stephan, led Ferdinand Walther to decide to set off for America with the other brethren in the faith in October 1838. The following serves as proof of this: After Pastor Walther had submitted his resignation to the Saxon Consistory to emigrate to America, he was personally asked by the then Church Council Meissner: "If Stephan before he emigrates will be picked up by the police, which is likely now, how will you emigrate in that case as well?" Walther immediately replied: "It goes without saying that I will emigrate, Stephan may or may not travel with me." Church Councillor Meissner finally said: "Since I recognize that emigration is a matter of deepest conviction for you, I will ensure that you will at least receive an honorable discharge from your previous office". The latter was also granted. — During the journey, Walther was asked by fellow passengers whether, if all the ships of the emigrants sank, the church would also sink? Pastor Walther replied: “No, we are not the Church, but part of it,” but he also predicted that if one had reached America under God's protection, one should not expect good days there either, but rather prepare for the worst. — 

The fact that he refused to swear that blasphemous oath of allegiance to Bishop Stephan is already noted above. So the St. Louis free spirits and other opponents quite wrongly reproached him with this reproach, which was renewed again when Walther in 1844 began to write the church newspaper Der Lutheraner (The Lutheran), which three years later was raised to the public organ of the Missouri Synod and is now [in 1884] in its 40th year. When at that time F. Walther's public effectiveness was still in its beginning, a liberalistic newspaper hurled the reproach at these Saxons that these Old-Lutherans were a party driven out of Germany,  

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no better than the Jesuits. Meanwhile, while no one today thinks of driving the Missouri Synod, which has grown to 900 preachers and many more congregations, out of our country. But there is no shortage of opponents today and even well-meaning friends in Germany, in spite of the fact that they (as one reads in the writing of R. Hoffmann) are unable to deny the Missouri Synod their admiration, nevertheless find much to criticize. So concerning the Lutheranism that Dr. Walther represents and the aim he has in mind, the following is to be noted here, mostly from the essays of Dr. Walther which were published already in 1845 in the first volume of Der Lutheraner:

1) Even today, especially among the "Evangelicals", as they call themselves, the obsession prevails that a strict orthodoxy is not compatible with the spiritual life, a strict Lutheran is also dead Orthodoxy, i.e. a mere believer in authority, who took his Lutheran symbols as the existing church law, completely refrained from a living penetration of the Lutheran faith — for only fraudulently are the symbols signed by the Lutheran clergymen, so that the Lutheran Confession would be recognized by the state — that the orthodox Lutherans are only interested in the legal recognition of this constitution, not in the state of the congregations, the visible fellowship of those who have accepted a Lutheran church order as their constitution, that they consider this particular churchly faction to be the true visible and invisible church of Jesus Christ, consisting of them only, which is to save us, and in which we must believe! — that it is wholly inconsistent to assume that there are children of God outside this church, which the Old Lutherans proclaim to be the one and only saving church of Jesus Christ, for the Old Lutherans are such people who place the Church above Christianity, yes, who make the Church their God, or rather their idol! But where such a Donatist error appeared, as if the Lutheran Church was a visible institution, limited to the so-called Lutherans, as if the 

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communion of saints was enclosed within the boundaries of a human name, a country or a time, Dr. Walther claimed from the beginning of his work: "Everyone who submits to the whole written Word of God without false pretence and who carries the true faith in our Lord Jesus Christ in his heart and confesses it before the world, we extend our hands to him, we respect him as our fellow believers, for a member of our church, for a Lutheran, under whichever sect he may be hidden and imprisoned. (Lutheraner No. 2, p. 1.) We do not consider the separated church party, which has been appearing in history for 300 years, to be the church, or the whole church, to which we alone profess our faith, and without which no salvation can be found! Precisely because when we call ourselves Lutherans (a name that was originally used to insult us) we profess not a new but a united old Christian Church, which always has the same doctrine, namely the truth to which all the children of God of all times and zones belong, it is not an inconsistency but only logical that even those true Christians who are outwardly connected with a sect belong to our Church, that those with us and we with them find members in the spiritual body of the true Church; while only those who are born again belong to the body of Christ (if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his, Rom. 8:9), then those who are in spiritual death cannot belong to the true Church. Nor was it ever taught in the Missouri Synod that one must believe in the Church. But when it is claimed that one must not leave the Church, this is an invitation not to leave, nor to deny, Christ himself, the truth, the teaching of the universal Christian Church. Since the Church is not an external institution, it is not saving as such. Only where one wants to bind, in a Donatist way, Christianity and the truth which is in Christ to a visible party or synod or association (now called Evangelical or separated Lutheran),

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one can fall into such sectarian arrogance as Dr. Walther has consistently fought against during his many years of service. Of course, he claims that one can be saved only in the true Church, that is, that we can be saved only through the true faith in Christ, the same faith that one has only in the true Church. That is why Dr. Walther often refers to the precaution of our fathers contained in the Preface to the Formula of Concord, as if their condemnations were to apply to those who err out of simplicity and do not blaspheme the truth of the divine Word, much less to whole churches, but only to false and seductive teachings and the same stubborn teachers and blasphemers. That is why Dr. Walther also rejected this Romanist narrow-mindedness of Pastor Grabau and his followers, which would indeed make the Lutheran Church a sect, since it is precisely that church which also as a visible particular church has never separated itself from the universal Christian church.

2) Although it is not possible to limit the totality of the truly faithful to any particular Church, not even to the visible and symbolic Church called Lutheran, as if it were necessary to become Lutheran in order to enter the fellowship of saints, nevertheless the Lutheran Church retains the privilege of being the Church of the pure Word and the true sacrament. The name "Lutheran" is thus a distinguishing name by which we distinguish ourselves from all false believers and want to confess to the orthodox universal church, whose doctrine it is, that was preached by Luther and laid down and confessed in the Lutheran symbols. Dr. Walther and those who agree with him are therefore not among those who seek humility in saying, "I think I have the truth, but others who believe differently than I do have it! The Formula of Concord also clearly indicates to the most indifferent, in the above-mentioned precaution, whom and what must be rejected; whoever is stubborn in false doctrine and blasphemes the truth does not belong to the

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universal Christian church, whether he appeals to sweet or sour feelings! That is why Luther reproached Zwingli, among others, for arguing against an article that was unanimously confessed by all Christians in the doctrine of Holy Communion. Without taking all the Lutheran symbols or certain ceremonies as the trade-mark of our church, we nevertheless claim that no other doctrine of Christ, and that no other doctrine saves people, than the teaching and the faith which is carried in the heart and known with the mouth by the true Lutherans. With this we want to say nothing else but: We stand by the universal Christian church, whose doctrine the visible Evangelical Lutheran church holds. "If the Evangelicals and Methodists, like the high priests in Jerusalem, may tear their clothes in such statements because of the blasphemy they think they find in this, that does not matter the least. In doing so they only reveal that they cannot, of course, in good conscience say that they have the only right doctrine and the only right faith. If you masters prove that the doctrine which the true Lutherans have confessed in their public confessions is contrary to the Word of God and is not the voice of Christ and his Church, you have won! While the truth is always only one, those who do so wrongly console themselves with delusion, as if there were many true churches that contradict each other.

3) Since the opponents up to this day consider the Missourian Lutherans as equal to such a synodical party which works only for the propagation of their church order and name, as if the previous and more distant propagation of the synod as a visible constitution were our purpose and goal, the following sentence is important from the same article of Der Lutheraner, in which Dr. Walther continues: "We do not argue for a peculiarly constituted party that calls itself Lutheran! Our aim is not that all Christians should adopt a so-called Lutheran church order and Lutheran ceremonies, gather together for a Lutheran synod, call themselves Lutheran, and

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commit ourselves to the Lutheran symbols, whether from the heart or just deceptively, no, we are not fighting for an external building with a Lutheran figurehead. The object of our struggle is nothing other than the true faith, the pure truth, the unadulterated Gospel, the pure foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, since Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, that is, the jewel that has been familiar to the true Church of all times, that she has preserved for us through the centuries, often with the shedding of rivers of blood, and that is now also familiar to us. Where a Lutheran constitution is legally recognized, where the name "Lutheran" is supposed to stamp everything, but where the pure, sole-saving doctrine is not preached and not accepted, there we recognize just as little an Evangelical-Lutheran, i.e. a true church, where everything is based on “Evangelical, Reformed, Methodist”, etc. We consider false teachers who bear the Lutheran name as little for our fellow believers as we do for the worst blasphemer of the Lutheran name, while we feel intimately connected with all the children of God in a spirit of brotherly faith, no matter in what setting they may be imprisoned." — 

It has been repeatedly stated that the Missouri side would gladly drop or dissolve the entire organization of the present Missouri Synod if a more salutary agreement could be reached on the basis of Holy Scripture and under the banner of Lutheran symbols (than those containing the true understanding of Holy Scripture). When, at the Delegate Synod held in St. Louis in 1878, it was a question of establishing synods of states, into which the whole Synodical Conference, which was then widespread, was to be divided, Dr. Walther, as president of the Missouri Synod, publicly exclaimed: “The devil invented the name Missourian!” No doubt Dr. Walther did not only want to show that he willingly offered his hand to exchange the present (Missouri) synodical order with another, more comfortable one, but also to defend himself against the appearance as if we wanted

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to separate us with this name from other orthodox believers and found a faction, like the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 1:12, founded factions. Now if anyone would like to ask why you do not refuse to bear the name Lutheran, Dr. Walther answers that we also with this name do not want to separate ourselves from other orthodox believers, we also do not want to base our faith on Luther (as shown above), we finally do not want to profess a new doctrine, as if we as Lutherans constituted a new church, that is, a sect. Rather, when we call ourselves Lutherans, we are not expressing anything other than that we are Christians who consider the teaching to be the right one, which has been brought to light again in this last time from the Word of God through the ministry of Luther. We call anyone who confesses this doctrine with his mouth a Lutheran; but we consider a true Lutheran only if he believes it with his heart through the action of the Holy Spirit and has the mystery of faith in a clean conscience.

4) Dr. Walther writes already in the first issue of the first volume of Der Lutheraner that he has set himself the goal in publishing this paper (Der Lutheraner) to prove that Luther is not the head of a sect, that therefore also the Lutherans who believe, teach and confess with Luther and the Lutheran symbols do not adhere to any new doctrine, namely one that only Luther would have brought up 300 years ago, because Luther only broke away from the fellowship of those who apostatized from the old faith, misused the name of Catholic to bind the consciences to their human statutes. Luther did not preach new teachings, but the ancient teachings of the eternal gospel. — With it also already the reproach is answered, which R. Hoffmann among others together with many of the United church raises, as if the Missourian theologians could not and did not want more than to move back the doctrine of two centuries, as if there were probably many treasures in the dogmatic writings of the old teachers, but it was wrong to make such a "repristination" (rewarming) of the old-

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Lutheran dogma, as if these teachers did not also have their weaknesses (as R. Hoffmann writes). But it has been shown once again in recent years that we are not only going back two centuries, but even more so 3-1/2 centuries, to the time of the Reformation. We prefer to go back to our symbols and to Luther's writings, because it is He who drew the pure Gospel from the rubble of the papal statutes of man by going back to the Holy Scripture. For this Dr. Walther gives many testimonies of Luther, who among other things advised the Lutherans, who in 1528 were to answer for their faith before Duke George, to say that they wanted to remain with the holy Gospel. “Thus Luther himself has no desire to be Lutheran except insofar as he teaches the Holy Scripture.” — The one who, in the above, pursues the gracious conduct of Dr. Walther's life a little and considers the seriousness with which he, even as a student, struggled, not only in general, but especially for himself, to become certain of God's forgiveness and grace and thereby also of his own salvation, will no longer hold the erroneous opinion that Dr. Walther would allow himself to be satisfied with an authoritarian faith, or that we associate our faith with the Roman concept of a mere belief in history, which is expressly rejected in the Apology as a mere sham belief. True faith is born only under the horrors of a conscience shaken by the Law, as the Apology states. But while a frightened heart and conscience must ask: “Can I and may I believe that God forgives me my sins, and on what should my faith in this grace of God be based, since I feel, taste and see nothing but sin in me and in myself”, then we are far from rejecting the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit or showing less respect for it, but we teach, and experience it in our hearts, that the Spirit bears witness to our spirit that we are God's children. We also teach that the Lord Christ must destroy the work of Satan in us and dwell in us by faith. But we 

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base this faith on the outward testimony of the Holy Spirit, who works, strengthens and sustains faith in the heart through the Word and the holy sacraments. Only there where man is pointed away from everything that is his own, only to the Word, can the poor sinner be assured of his justification before God through the acceptance of the Word by the grace of God in Christ, but there where, as happens with Methodists, Evangelicals, and many newer groups, souls are rather warned and taught about it, they are not allowed to believe the outward testimony (of absolution and means of grace in general), not only are the means of grace decreed by God held in low esteem, but also the pure doctrine of justification, which after all is the true sun, cannot get off the ground, so rather pure human effort will soon try its hand in that human fountain, but yet gives the soul no rest. If even the English John Bunyan (who did not call himself a Lutheran) confesses that he did not heal his wounds of conscience before he read Luther's commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, through which only the way to salvation was opened for him, we should not blame the founders of the Missouri Synod for having read Luther, without doubt, at an early age, the best of all teachers, because whoever reads Luther is reminded by his own feelings and emotions of the assurance of grace given in the Word of God! No other teacher distinguishes so sharply the feeling that is found in nature from the grace that faith alone seizes from the Gospels; no other teacher shows so clearly the way by which the sinner is comforted by the Lord Christ alone, and through the grace that befalls him is to become certain and happy. — If Luther had led his own word in the least, he would not have been the Reformer through whom God provided the help that one was allowed to teach with confidence (Ps. 12:6). Therefore, as Dr. Walther teaches in a Reformation sermon, the Lutheran Church is both: the true Bible Church and the Church of grace, Christianity itself the religion of grace; Whoever does not

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recognize it for that, will miss the true goal. Just as Luther from the beginning not only for himself, but for all those who were reached by his testimony, always had this goal in mind and, for example, on Acts 19:16 writes: "If you are to become saved, you must be so certain of the Word of grace for yourself that if all men spoke differently, yes, all angels said no, you could still stand alone and say, I still know that this Word is right,”, in the same way Dr. Walther's public ministry was directed from the beginning toward the same goal — the salvation of souls. For this reason, because every Christian must live his faith, and for this reason must be sure and certain of the doctrine of the Word of God, which is the one seed of rebirth, and must be certain and safe, therefore Dr. Walther has always safeguarded the right of Christians to judge doctrine which brought spiritual freedom for the Christian man, without which no foresight against false doctrine would be possible, back to light from God's Word and Luther's Reformation writings, and impressed upon Christians the saying that is written in Walther's American Lutheran Gospel Sermons [Amerikanisch-Lutherische Evangelienpostille] under his image: Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, etc. (1 Peter 2:9) Neither he nor his co-workers were concerned with pleasing North American democracy, but the Word of Exodus 23:2 – "Thou shalt not follow a multitude" – is expressly emphasized; it was not his intention to form a "great body commanding respect" that should have worked by its authority. When in 1872 six Evangelical Lutheran synods came together to form a single body (the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference), Dr. Walther delivered the opening sermon among the representatives of these synods (who until a few years ago had fought each other in many ways) on the text 1 Timothy 4:16 and showed that above all the salvation of souls should be made the ultimate goal of the common work in the Kingdom of Christ (see: From Our Master's Table, p. 265, Lutherische Brosamen, p. 569). Under this theme he warned above all that not every one of these church bodies

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should not aim to enlarge itself, and to measure God’s blessing according to the number of members, influence and eminence which it could gain. All ungodly means must be kept away from work in the kingdom of God, and the poisonous worm of selfishness must never gnaw at the tree of the union of brethren! — Since to this day there is no lack of critics, especially the accusation is made that if the Missourians are really concerned with taking care of souls and leading them to Christ, one should stop arguing about the doctrine, that it would only hinder the kingdom of God. Dr. Walther answers this in the second part of his sermon with the words of the apostle: “Take heed to the doctrine!”

Although the fundamental teachings, on which the salvation of souls is directly dependent, are emphasized, not only this or that teaching, but the whole Word of God is revealed for the salvation of men. Therefore the great apostle to the Gentiles declared himself to be pure of all blood only because he had withheld nothing useful from them, but had declared to them the whole counsel of God. "It already follows from Matt. 4:4, that in every Word of God life, namely temporal and eternal life, lies as if enclosed in the seed, — —  what are we human beings, then, that we despise God's riches in grace, and are allowed to give away even one of His saving words? But while not only every doctrine of the Word of God is a heavenly seed of rebirth to eternal life, but also every human doctrine in matters of salvation is a hellish seed of Satan's birth to eternal death, it also follows from this, that it is not only the glory of God and of His Word that demands that it be faithfully confessed, but also that the care for immortal souls obliges every faithful Lutheran preacher to add to his doctrine also the defence, and to protest against all human doctrine! —

One has ever and always blamed the Missourians, thus also from the outset the editor of Der Lutheraner, Dr. Walther, for carnal and unjust polemics. Most extensively

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he responds to this reproach in No. 12 of Volume 27 of Der Lutheraner of February 15, 1871, After he had remarked beforehand that he did not demand of anyone that he consider precisely the polemics which he (Dr. Walther) considers necessary to polemicize, and reminded, after the excessive accusations of his “United” opponent, of that father who, while he forbade his son to swear, himself combined many curses with his rebuke. Dr. Walther invokes the prophets, the Lord Christ and the apostles themselves, who sometimes (e.g. 2 Cor. chap. 10-12) used cutting irony, even holy mockery, to unmask their opponents. Afterwards he confesses: “We well know that we are neither prophets nor apostles, but the love of God and of our neighbor demands that we raise our voices against it where gross offences in doctrine and life arise.” Dr. Walther asks us to consider the terrible decline of the local Lutheran Church when the Lutheraner began to appear in 1844. Even those who called themselves Lutheran, and even wanted to represent Lutheranism in their public papers, had lost the awareness and knowledge of pure doctrine. Preachers and congregations were filled with the spirit of union, and the name of the Lutheran Church had come into disrepute rather than prestige because of its flirtation with sects of all kinds. That is why Dr. Walther was not allowed to speak with empty words, least of all to those opponents who are not concerned with the knowledge of the truth but with doing completely different things. If this sharp polemic had not been carried on, if the holy appearance they wrapped themselves in had not been taken away from such opponents, many a person who finally left them because he saw that those who loved the truth were leaving them, would to this day not have left them, but would mock the testimony of the teacher who did not dare to speak up boldly. — The truthfulness which calls the evils by their right name and takes the Word of God seriously is so rare in our slack time that even well-meaning judges are unable to judge 

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this polemic, which flows from love, which pulls one's neighbor away from the abyss where he sleeps, and which must therefore cry out loud! (Is 58:1). Since Dr. Walther also proves himself in this as a son of the outlawed Luther, who, despite his powerful appearance in Worms, later testified that he should have taken even better hold of Behemoth (the papacy), and whose polemics were so highly regarded even by Erasmus that when someone thought that Luther was stepping out too violently, he answered that God had also given a sharp physician to the world in this last time, in which great and serious epidemics had taken the upper hand, and that God had awakened this tool for this purpose; Whoever despises him for the sake of his rebukes, may he be made right with God! So we must remember here that Dr. Walther not only exclaims of himself that we would rather build in peace than to have to hold arms with the other hand in addition to the hand that does the work, Neh. 4:17, but indeed, that he once confessed that his soul often lies in dust before God for the sake of the battles he has to fight; let it befall him as it befell Joseph, who also used harsh words against his brothers for the first time, but afterwards withdrew into his chamber, cried out and now washed his tearful eyes and finally entered the circle of his brothers again. The same testimony that Melanchthon once gave at Luther's funeral, after 28 years of experience, must be repeated here today by all of those who have known Dr. Walther for many years: "that in all his addresses he proves himself to be gracious, friendly and pleasant and not at all impudent, stormy, stubborn or quarrelsome, and yet full of seriousness and bravery in his words and gestures. Therefore it is obvious that the harshness he uses against the enemies of pure doctrine in the Scriptures was not of a quarrelsome and malicious mind, but of a great seriousness and zeal for the truth." Since Der Lutheraner and Lehre und Wehre served partly a different purpose than the sermons which Dr. Walther preaches in his congregation in St. Louis, some see with astonishment that

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in these doctrinal sermons, which do not leave anyone's heart empty and which especially strengthen the state of grace of Christians, there is little explicit polemics, *) as Dr. Walther also warns against untimely polemics in his Pastoral Theology, which has also appeared in print. But he preaches the Law with the seriousness of conscience, and again he preaches the Gospel without reservation, so that even the most grieving sinner may find comfort and peace. — In this, too, Dr. Walther's effectiveness is shown to be an edifying and reformatory one. There are many who would rather expose infirmities than know how to apply the right medicine for the defects, but Dr. Walther, through his word and testimony, has already done so much in the vast North America by the grace of God that other synods have begun to be ashamed of their syncretism of religion-mongering and have listened to the voice of the Missouri Synod. Already ten years ago [1874] Dr. Krauth, the now sainted President of the General Council, exclaimed in a synod address: "Coming generations will still reverently call the names Walther and Wyneken." While other theologians, who had already attended some secondary and lower schools, were almost helpless in the face of the local sectarian turmoil, and most of them believed that the peculiarity of the Lutheran Church was that it did not have its own doctrines and customs, i.e. given to 

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* In his homiletic characterizations of Dr. Walther's sermons, Dr. A. Brömel gives the following verdict: “Walther is as orthodox as Johann Gerhard, but also as fervent as a Pietist, as correct in form, as a university or court preacher, and yet as popular as Luther himself. If the Lutheran Church wants to bring its doctrine back to the people, it will have to be as faithful and certain in its teaching and as appealing and contemporary in form as Walther is. Walther is a model preacher in the Lutheran Church. How different it would be in Germany for the Lutheran Church if many such sermons were delivered. Dr. Walther works in such a way in these doctrinal sermons that each sermon forms a whole, whereby finally the whole counsel of God is presented in all directions and used for the edification of the listeners.”

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indifferentism and to dead unconcern in matters of faith. Walther began to bring before friend and foe the apostolic, catholic character of the Lutheran Church into the light and to edify hearts in the right united faith, which suffers no union with false believers. While some sought support in all sorts of model constitutions, according to which synods and congregations were to be tailored, Dr. Walther showed that in the spiritual priesthood of all Christians who want to thank their God for His good deeds and proclaim His name, the foundation was given on which a truly evangelical church government must be initiated. Under his organizational hand, a healthy synodical and congregational life was first formed in this century, whereby both the pride of the parish priest, which insists on official authority, and the carnal lay conceit are averted, but the Word of God, to which all preachers and congregation members willingly submit, retains dominion. Just as Luther once reminded the so-called lay Christians of their spiritual priesthood, and again brought this to honor over against the Roman mass priests, so Dr. Walther sought out again the rights and duties of spiritual priests, to whom everything belongs that Christ acquired with his blood and endowed through his Word, and through this he demonstrated the certainty of the divine means of grace, the guarantee for their lawful administration in public ministry, and finally also the firm assurance of the grace of God given in the Word. Already when he fortified the fearful and despondent hearts in Perry County through this in faith and there immediately the congregations which were already threatening to dissolve completely blossomed anew, he had recognized that for this purpose the Church of the Reformation, as the Church of the pure Word, must come to renewed strength. Later Walther wrote the book: The Proper Form of an Evangelical Lutheran Local Congregation Independent of the State, [German original: Die rechte Gestalt einer vom Staat unabhängigen evangelisch-lutherischen Ortsgemeinde] in which Walther gives the necessary guidance for the organization and 

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activities of a Lutheran congregational life, with Scriptural evidence and testimonies from Luther and other faithful teachers. In Germany, one side has complained that Dr. Walther is so averse to scientific progress, as R. Hoffmann, for example, believes that in Germany today we have overcome many a weakness of the old, and that we should also initiate something new. But one should rather be surprised that Dr. Walther, precisely because he went back to Luther's position according to the Scriptures, not only met with intuitive certainty (insightful spirit) and certainty in all the doctrinal disputes that arose, but that he also, through his testimony, silenced the stormy waves that had set the party spirits in motion. "Missourian theology is actually Walther's theology, but the Synod professed it in all respects," writes R. Hoffmann, and since it is said that nowadays one scholar stands on the shoulders of another, one might be tempted to ask, where is there in the present day a master to whom Dr. Walther in turn owes much? In this century one finds only one well-known theologian with whom Dr. Walther, while he was still in Germany, was in contact, Dr. Rudelbach, who looked at Stephan with a shaking of his head, had, as we have been told by credible sources, recognized in Walther at that time already the man who would stand at the head of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church. In Rudelbach's writings, too, there are hints that the spiritual priesthood, which after all constituted the innermost circle of the Church, was being pressed by today's state church. Rudelbach regrets that today's consistories, instead of preserving Christian freedom and forming a representation of the laity, as they were supposed to do according to Luther's intention, have helped the Lutheran Church to a shameful servitude. — Also with Spener one finds complaints about the pressure which the state church exerts on the Christians with a living faith, since they are also spiritual priests. But while in

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Germany, namely on the part of the Pietists of Halle and others in the above-mentioned way, the right of the spiritual priesthood was set against the official authority of the pastors, Dr. Walther on the other hand proves that according to Scripture the public preaching office is rooted in the spiritual priesthood of Christians. He also shows to spiritual priests the barriers that prevent it from breaking the divine order of the preaching office, and even shows them that it has fulfill its duty above all things by establishing the public preaching office. — Already in the Smalcald Articles, the right of the congregation, which is "more than its servants" and is to elect them, is based on the spiritual priesthood which the congregation originally and directly possesses. Furthermore, Dr. Walther refers to the many passages in Luther's works, in which this Christ as the Bridegroom, the congregation as Christ's Bride who has the keys to the rooms and goods of the house directly and essentially from Christ himself, and the preacher as the steward appointed by the congregation in the divine order, are represented in countless passages. It is precisely that which Luther, in his heroic preaching proclaims as his testimony, that Dr. Walther compiled in systematic theology, confirmed by Scriptural evidence and clearly presented before the eyes of everyone. It is evident how full of blessing this labor has proved itself to this day, that the teaching of the old reformer was resurrected from the grave in this country, where the enemies of the Lutheran Church wanted to keep him closed. Just as Walther gained his theological skill and security from his youth on under sharp struggles, and recognized the truth in Luther's teaching by the grace of God, so he also points his students to the pure and clear Lutheran teaching as the precious heritage which our church has carried off from the fight with the papacy. Luther is regarded by him as the most powerful interpreter of Scripture, who has remained unchangingly faithful to the once recognized truth, and, depending on the nature of those with whom he spoke, emphasized now one side, now another more or less. Especially important

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is that Dr. Walther never intended to found his own school in the newer sense of the word. The man who first broke the fetters of the Stephanist hierarchy, and who was then called upon to tear apart the even finer web of Graubau's Romanism, who at all times championed the freedom of the Christian man from all human statutes, is also enemy of all spiritless hero-worship [geistlosen Nachbeterei] among his students, and does not want anyone to swear on his (Dr. Walther's) words as on the words of the Master (in verba magistri jurare). Rather, he always kept in mind that also within the Missouri Synod the word of Matt. 23:8 applies: “one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.” The members of the Synod must confess: "Dr. Walther worked among us in such a way that if he brought new innovations, he would immediately lose all influence on us; the only reason why people followed him was because they saw that he wanted to be nothing but a disciple of Luther." — One sometimes hears in Germany that the Missourians are independent. It is true that we know of no other dependence in matters of faith and doctrine than that, as Luther's Large Catechism says of the communion of saints, that we are all under the same Head Christ, we do not associate our doctrine with any one person, but we want to be all the more faithful to the Word of God, through whose enlightenment preachers and church members come more and more to the true freedom of the children of God. This is the independentism that inspired the Lutheran Reformation.

Despite the above-mentioned dismissal of Missourian theology, R. Hoffmann must draw the following picture of Dr. Walther on page 24 of his writing: ”Walther is a faithful son of the German Reformation; having emerged from the Saxon Lutheran Church, he separates in Lutheranism the genuine continuation and resurrection of pure apostolic original Christianity. Called from the beginning to lead his fellow believers in America, he has maintained his outstanding position with honor, and with iron diligence has developed an astonishing wealth of thorough 

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erudition. He has complete command of his Augustine and Luther and has such a profound knowledge of Old Lutheran dogmatists as hardly any theologian of our time. Equipped with the gifts of sharp dialectic, skilful presentation and a great eloquence sustained by the warmth of conviction, it was easy for him to subdue the spirits." To all this we add the following. If Dr. Walther had ever wanted to bring forth any new innovation, or to make any so-called progress in the sense and spirit of today's German scholars, the last word of R. Hoffmann would be very dangerous. Walther, however, remained in all points of doctrine on the old foundation of the apostles and prophets, and he also recognizes in theology not a science, for which the innovators consider it to be, but a spiritual skill (habitus). The rock on which the Church is built and will be built to the end is the unchanging truth; to this truth belongs every doctrine of faith revealed in Scripture, which is why Dr. Walther also insists that the entire council of God must be known and asserted by the Church. It is the enemies of the truth who change their position, and therefore the teaching of the Scriptures must be symbolically applied now from to one side, now from to the other. However, in the long period of 44 years in which Dr. Walther's public activity has been present in many journals, books and sermons, one always finds the same foundation for faith and doctrine presented and asserted, whereas today's mediating theologians who want to unite Christ and Belial change their so-called standpoint within a few years without timidity, and mislead the minds of those who follow them to doubt the truth. The writer of these lines therefore already noted this in Lehre und Wehre, February 1882 [p. 79: “... Geister nicht sich, sondern dem Wort Gottes unterthan macht;…”]: “Walther does not make the spirits subject to himself but to the Word of God, but he knows how to teach it so forcefully and clearly that the truth must prove its irresistible power, and doubt gives way to it,

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what seems to some to be difficult, light, and the uncertain finally becomes certain! Just as he experienced it in himself, so Walther always aims in the classroom and in the church that hearts may become firm, which according to Scripture is a precious thing, a gift for which we cannot thank God enough!”

In the next Part 8, Chapter 4. —