“God did bless America… He sent C. F. W. Walther!”
443: Walther at cornerstone laying: "Our foundation-stone means Christ, … and His Holy Word… the Concordia of 1580, …the foundation of our institution, called 'Concordia' after this confession"
447: 1883 dedication: "I can testify that 44 years ago our little log cabin also appeared to us as a palace"
450: "In this house,… the main teacher shall be Christ, our one Master himself, and after the holy apostles and prophets shall be none other than Dr. Martin Luther, the Reformer of the Church, who was raised and sealed by God."
453: "To want to transplant the old Lutheran Church, which submits to every letter of the Word of God, to this new land of untamed lust for freedom, seemed indeed to be a quite hopeless…"
Images of men and buildings appearing in Chapter 13b: (437-458)
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| Schmidt — Allwardt — Walther; Concordia Sem.: 1844 1850 1858-1882 1883 |
After the break below the customary fine text version, then the concluding Chapter 13c, in Part 19. (There may be an intervening Excursus inserted.)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Full text of Chapter 13b (fine print) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The History of the Missouri Synod, 1838-1884, Chapter 13b
By Christian Hochstetter (p. 437-458)
= = = = = = = = =
[Missouri’s seminaries (437)] — The laying of the foundation stone (439) and consecration of the new seminary in St. Louis. (Dedication of new Seminary, 1883 (446) The 19th Synodical convention (1884)
[↑] However, the call for help from many congregations became all the more urgent. Although 33 students graduated from the St. Louis Concordia Seminary at
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the end of the 1880-1881 academic year, and a number of practical candidates were added each year, not half of the congregations that sought pastors were satisfied. This fact, too, contributed to the decision to undertake the new construction of a theological seminary, which had been discussed earlier. The old building erected 30 years ago in St. Louis had become dilapidated, and after careful examination of all the reasons, the lay delegates in particular insisted on the necessity of a new building, which was to be erected on the same site in St. Louis after demolition of the old seminary building. It was to have a building lot size of 250 x 340 feet, measure 225 feet long x 95 feet deep, have three stories high, contain over 60 rooms and dormitories, be equipped with an assembly hall, contain a library and reading room and 8 classrooms. According to this plan, which was approved by the Synod, the chosen construction committee went to work. Dr. Walther was commissioned to make an appeal to the congregations to support the cause of the seminary building and to have it published in the Der Lutheraner.
Now, when looking at the magnificent building, everyone should remember that this great work was undertaken when the Missourian pastors and congregations were still in the midst of the severe doctrinal struggle and could not yet say what far-reaching disturbances it would cause throughout the Synod’s area. Just at that time Stellhorn's tracts and the diatribes of a certain Lauritzen, who joined the Iowans, were sent unsolicited and by the dozen to the pastors and the school teachers, through whom one hoped to be able to agitate. Even in the manner of a theater advertisement they were laid before the door of our church members. Within the Wisconsin Synod, a pastor in Oshkosh, who kept only a minority of his former parishioners on the side of the Synod, was quickly driven out of his parsonage through the agitation of a school teacher, and Messrs. F.A. Schmidt and Allwardt came specifically for the occasion, although the
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president of the Wisconsin Synod had protested against their presence, lent their hand to this eviction, and Prof. F. A. Schmidt preached to this fanatical crowd after the rightful pastor had been driven out. There was a rebellion there like there was at Ephesus, Acts 19: the one cried out: We do not want a election of grace; the other: We do not want a kingdom of grace! *) — At such a time, no small amount of faith was needed to begin the costly new building, the cost of which was to be met entirely by voluntary donors from the congregations of the Missouri Synod. The Lord God gave courage and strength, the funds came in, and although the cost was originally estimated at only $100,000 and the building required $140,000 when the building was completed, due to various circumstances, yet even this large sum was already paid up except for $21,000 when the following Delegate Synod gathered in St. Louis at the beginning of May 1884. The enemies were not allowed to succeed in even tearing the synod apart, which is why this seminary building stands also a testimony to the heartfelt unity that unites all parts of this great synod body. [↑] On October 1, 1882, the solemn laying of the foundation stone took place, and on September 9, 1883, shortly before Luther's 400th anniversary, the solemn inauguration of the Concordia Seminary Building took place. So the promise had been fulfilled anew for the Missouri Synod: Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee! Is. 49:17. The address which Dr. Walther gave at the laying of the foundation stone reads as follows:
[↑] Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth! Amen.
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*) As soon as this atrocity was accomplished, Stellhorn hired an Ohio preacher who now serves this bunch in Oshkosh, Wisc. The 50 voting members, loyal to their Pastor Dowidat and to the Wisconsin Synod, immediately built a new church and school rooms, and their congregations are enjoying renewed growth.
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Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord!
Honored guests!
[from Der Lutheraner, vol. 38, No. 22, p.. 169 ff]
Almost 33 years ago, on November 8, 1849, the foundation stone was laid for a building that would house a twofold nursery for future servants of the Lutheran Church in its narrow spaces. That building, seven months later, on June 11, 1850, happily completed with God's help and solemnly consecrated to the Lord, extended from time to time and serving His holy purpose for 32 years, has already disappeared from the face of the earth a few months ago. It was not consumed by flames of fire, nor has it been washed away by floods of water, nor have storm winds blown over it and brought it to the ground. It was we ourselves who broke it down to make room for a new, larger building on the old sanctuary. Unawakened longings for high things have moved us to do so. No, God Himself has called out to us through His blessing, just as Israel once did through the prophet Isaiah: “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out.” (Is. 54:2) The old building could no longer hold the ever richer blessing of God that was streaming towards us. If we did not want to say to God in inexcusable satiety, “Stop, Father, with your blessing,” or if we did not want to spill the blessing of our God that had flowed to us in filthy ingratitude, we had to procure a larger vessel to contain this blessing.
So we have gathered here today to publicly and solemnly lay the corner-stone into the foundation wall which will support the planned massive new building.
The act which we are about to perform is probably a very inconspicuous act. Three hammer blows in the name of the triune God, and the thing is done. But, my friends, this act is merely symbolic. Not the act itself, but what it means and what it is meant to remind us of, is therefore the important thing
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that has gathered us around these walls today. Nor is it the simple stone that we wish to place in this foundation, which alone is to support the bold, heavenly building that is intended to support and protect it from collapse; the solemn laying of this stone is therefore only intended to make us aware of the invisible foundation of the spiritual building that the new structure is destined to serve.
And so it is, whereby I may now be allowed to linger for a few moments. —
My friends, God does not need for His works any other reason than Himself. What God builds, He builds alone on Himself, on His completely free will and on His unchanging eternal counsel. God's power and wisdom, God's goodness and grace, God's justice and truth are the eternally unbreakable pillars on which heaven and earth and everything that is in them rests alone. The pagan poets of the ancient pagan world, who were considered to be enthusiastic about God, may have childishly fabled about a giant Atlas, who was condemned by the gods to bear the immense burden of the vault of heaven; but what does the book of divine revelation say about this? In it, God Himself presents Job with the question: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone?” (Job. 38:4-6) and Job had to confess: God “He hangs the earth upon nothing”, while the Book of All Books testifies in another place of the eternal Son of God: “He upholds the universe by the word of his power.” (Heb. 1:3) In short, God alone is the foundation that supports every work of which God alone is the builder.
It is different with all works of human hands. On the other hand, everything comes down to, beside the master craftsman, the foundation on which the building rests. May a man-made building be so high that its top, like the tower of Babel, reaches up to the sky; may it be so wide that, like Egypt's pyramids, it covers the area of an entire city; the material of it may be so precious that, like Solomon's
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temple, it shines from inside and outside with gold, marble and precious stones; may it have been decorated by the greatest masters of building, painting and sculpture with their most beautiful works of art, so that it is, like once that temple of Diana at Ephesus, an object of admiration of all times; may finally a building by human hands be so strong that it seems to be able to defy all powers of destruction forever, like once Nebuchadnezzar's royal castle: if, above all, the foundation is not unshakable, above which the building rises, if, for example, the ground is quickly giving way to drifting sand or loose rubble, then no amount of height, no amount of width, no amount of preciousness of its material, no amount of jewellery will help, no matter how astonishing the massive strength of its masonry and rafters and its columns and buttresses — the first storm wind that blows over such a building shakes it to its depths, shakes it to pieces, lifts it from its foundations, and in a few moments transforms it into a desolate heap of rubble.
This same understanding also applies to every invisible, spiritual building of humans. If the reason for it is the ever-changing, yes, the ever-evolving and self-devouring wisdom of this world, or if the reason for it is a human coercive force that stands today and falls away tomorrow, or if the reason for it is the fleeting fog and dreams of human speculation and imagination, or if the reason for it is the human authority that is always subject to error, then such a spiritual edifice built on a perishable foundation is itself a work of perishability.
So then, my friends, you may justly ask: What is the foundation for the invisible spiritual edifice, of which the visible new building now to be erected is to become only the temporary scaffolding, only the enclosing shell? You ask justly: What, then, is the meaning of the stone which we want to insert today into this foundation wall as its capstone?
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I answer to this: Our foundation stone means the one of which God already says in the prophecies of the prophet Isaiah: “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.” (Isaiah 28:16) Our foundation-stone is He who once prophesied of Himself: “Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matt. 16:18) Our foundation-stone is He who once prophesied of Himself: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” (Matt. 24:35) Our foundation stone means the one of which the apostle of the Gentile nations writes to the Christians in Corinth: “No one can lay any other foundation except the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Our foundation-stone means the one of which the same Apostle speaks when he calls the Christians to Ephesus: "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.” In short, our foundation-stone means Christ, the eternal Son of God and Saviour of all sinners, and His Holy Word which alone saves.
Yes, my friends, Christ and His Word alone, that is the rock-solid foundation on which the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States has stood unchallenged for more than 35 years now and still stands by God's grace. This is the synod which is erecting this new building through the free and rich gifts of love of many thousands of pious Christians who belong to it: this and no other should and will therefore also by God's grace be the foundation of the spiritual edifice on which work is to be done under the protective roof of this visible new building. “Christ and His Word Alone” — that is the unshakable foundation of the Concordia of 1580, that pure and glorious confession of our entire orthodox Evangelical Lutheran Church: this and no other shall and will therefore, also by God's grace, be the foundation of our institution, called “Concordia” after this confession. “Christ and His
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Word Alone" was the diamond-like foundation of the great work of the Lutheran Church Reformation: this and no other shall and will therefore, also by God's grace, be the foundation of the faithful daughter of the Reformation, the foundation of this our theological seminary.
In the new Concordia, too, reason, as a gift of God, will not be despised, but will rather be held in high esteem and praised as a glorious light in the matters of this earthly life: But at the same time it will be testified that the fallen man's reason is blinded in spiritual and heavenly matters, that it knows nothing of the true God and of the way to this true God, yes, that the saving truth is only a foolishness and a stumbling block to it, and that it must therefore neither be a teacher and judge in matters of the divine counsel regarding salvation, nor brood over them and make deductions about them, but must give itself up in this foreign territory and remain silent. In the new Concordia, too, teachers and students will certainly humbly sit down at the feet of those sainted great teachers of the church who have unearthed invaluable treasures of divine wisdom and knowledge from the golden mine of the Holy Scriptures with unparalleled diligence and incorruptible faithfulness, and who have left them to us in their immortal writings. In the new Concordia, too, love and fidelity to the true visible Church of God on earth, to our dear Lutheran Zion, will at last be planted in the hearts of young theologians, but it will not be concealed from them that no doctrine is for truth because the Church teaches it, but rather that the Church must be recognized as the true Church only because she teaches the truth; that it is not the Church that sustains the Word, but the Word that sustains the Church.
Behold, my friends, not one false, borrowed banner
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shall and will ever flutter above our new Concordia, which bears the inscription: “Christ and His Word Alone”, but on its deepest foundation, which bears everything, the watchword of our church should and will clearly and truly shine: “God's Word and Luther's Doctrine Pure Shall to Eternity Endure.” The mouth of the teacher must immediately, stricken by God, be silenced forever, whichever in our new Concordia dares to open itself against Christ's free grace and against His only true Word, and the hand of the teacher must immediately, overtaken by God's judgment, wither forever, which ever starts to take hold of the pen against Christ and His Word.
May the magnificently planned new building on rock-firm ground rise higher and higher from day to day, rising majestically and heavenly, be happily completed and, after a year's time, open its hospitable doors to us for a joyful entry and stand there until the distant future, a shining monument to the free grace of our God and the sacrificial love of many thousands of devout Christians even in these last times. But may the spiritual edifice, invisible to human eyes, which is cultivated in the wide, bright halls of this new building, grow, flourish, blossom, and spread its branches further and further, and bear a thousand-fold fruit for eternal life, a tree planted by God Himself along the streams of His grace and truth. Yes, may hosts upon hosts then go forth from here, who as faithful and blessed workers in the heavenly harvest and as brave and victorious fighters in the wars of the Lord fill the land everywhere with the Word of Christ, right up to its outermost borders, and may they thus bring to countless immortal ones created for eternal life and redeemed by Christ with a great price, the eternal sunlight of divine truth against the darkness of this world, the eternal inexhaustible fountain of divine grace against all men's sinfulness, the heavenly balm of divine consolation against misery and death, and thus bring them healing, heaven and eternal salvation from generation to generation, until
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the last day of the world; and all to the praise, honor, and glory of God, and of the Lamb that sits upon the throne of glory, from eternity to eternity. Amen.
[↑] As the day of the dedication of the new building arrived, it was clearly visible that Sept. 9, 1883 was a day of joy not only for the congregations in St. Louis, but for the entire Synod. An eye and ear witness reports the following in Der Lutheran of Sept. 15, 1883: “People had hurried to the festival place with joyful expectation, but nobody had guessed that a gathering of 20,000 people would gather. Who would not have been able to feel their hearts in an uplifted festive mood at the sight of this crowd of fellow believers! Whose mouth would have remained without rejoicing and cheering? Almost every state, yes, every major city of our country had sent its representatives to the festival square. From the upper Mississippi, from Minnesota and the Gulf of Mexico, from California and across the Atlantic Ocean, from Germany, festival visitors had come. All the railroads that flowed into St. Louis brought in special trains hundreds, even thousands of festival goers, for example from Chicago, Milwaukee, Fort Wayne, Pittsburgh. Probably about 160 pastors, 133 of them, who had studied in the old Concordia seminary in the newest as well as in the oldest time, had gathered for the celebration. Various synods had sent their representatives, e.g. the Norwegian Synod: President Koren, Pastor Preus, Pastor Ottesen, Professor Stub from Madison; the Wisconsin synod: President Bading and Professor Gräbner; the Minnesota Synod: President Albrecht and Pastor Tirmenstein. The officials of the Missouri Synod were also largely present. — Those who observed the meeting a little more closely soon had to realize that here only one joy came to the fore, namely: With these many baptized ones I am intimately connected… known or unknown — one was aware that one was connected with one another in the Lord and rejoiced together in the same.
At 10:30 a.m. the celebration was marked by the singing of
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Psalm 150 by the students, and then opened with the hymn “Praise the Almighty, my Soul, Adore Him” [German: “Lobe den Herrn o meine Seele”], which was sung to the accompaniment of the trumpets and into which the whole assembly joined. After the end of this song, Dr. Walther entered the stage, which was set up in the open air, and gave an address with his usual strength and freshness, which was listened to by the many thousands with the greatest excitement and attention until the end. The same reads as follows:
In the name of the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit
Amen. [The following address was originally partially translated in Suelflow’s Servant of the Word book p. 95-101]
Honored guests!
In particular beloved fellow believers and confessors in the Lord!
What is it that has gathered us today from near and far in thousands and thousands around this new building? What is it that we have already sent up here a thousand voices of praise, thanksgiving and joyful songs out loud to God? — Is it the size and stateliness of this new building? Truly no! It is probably as mighty a building as it is dainty, praising its masters. Like an adorned royal bride it rises above all its neighbors. But who among us has not seen larger, more elaborate and more ornate buildings? Who among us, therefore, would have been so foolish as to travel hundreds, even thousands of miles and hurry across the world's oceans just to feast his eyes on such a building? — How is it? Is the reason for our present joy, then, that we Lutherans believe we have built this great and beautiful edifice and made a name for ourselves before the world? That is far from it! For woe betide us then! Then this building would only be a standing witness to our arrogance and thus not a monument to our honour but to our shame.
We cannot and will not deny that our hearts are beating with joy today, when we consider that the institution, which
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once opened 44 years ago in a poor little log cabin in the middle of the forest, is now moving into a palace in the middle of this cosmopolitan city. But as a still living eye- and ear-witness I can testify that 44 years ago our little log cabin also appeared to us as a palace, into which we therefore moved then with no less joy than we do today into this magnificent building. Our poverty was so great 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. Therefore, no, no, my brethren, it is not the greatness and stateliness of this new building, nor the vain honor of being its builders, that is the true, real reason for our joy today, but something quite different.
Now, Lutherans, convinced that I will only lend words to the thoughts of your hearts, I beg you, let me show you that the true, real reason for our joy of celebration today is none other than this threefold one: the final purpose for which this new building is to serve alone; the circumstances which alone have caused and made necessary it; and finally the love which alone has built and adorned it.
That schools, be they elementary or higher, are institutions of the highest importance for state and church, needs no proof. Enemy and friend alike willingly concede this to us. The good and the bad of a people depends on their schools. They are the foundation on which a people builds itself. In them lie the roots of a people's fortune or its misfortune, its existence or its decay and destruction. — But that the schools in which religion is the main subject of instruction are still of special importance is just as undeniable. Schools of religion are either the poisonous laboratories where the poison is prepared which already kills the young souls of the future citizens; or they are the heavenly gardens on earth where already the young plants are watered with dew from heaven for the awakening
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of a new divine life both here and there. — The most important educational institutions are, however, without doubt those colleges where young people are not only taught religion, but where they themselves are prepared to become teachers of it. For either such schools are, as Luther calls them, high gates of hell if God's Word does not reign in them, or are high gates of heaven if God's Word does reigns in them. And to give shelter to such a high school, that, and nothing else, is the high and glorious final purpose of this new building as well.
This house should not serve both earthly and heavenly things. This steeple, rising to the sky with its church bell, should not only adorn this house, but above all it should show its character and, hour after hour, day and night, shout to those inside and outside: “Sursum corda!” Here is a house of holy studies! Here is a house of prayer! Here is a house of God!
In this house, not man's word and man's wit and wisdom, but God's Word, and nothing but God's Word and the whole Word of God, and what serves to unlock and use it, shall be studied with untiring diligence, day after day, from the first light of dawn until the sinking night. Therefore this house is not at all so magnificently decorated for the sake of its inhabitants, but for the sake of the Word of God, which is to have a dwelling therein.
In this house, however, the Book of all books is not to be rationalistically explained and interpreted from reason, not papistically from the writings of the Fathers, not enthusiastically from alleged new revelations, but apostolically Christian from itself alone, that is, Bible from Bible, Scripture from Scripture, the Old Testament from the New, the New from the Old, the individual from the whole and the whole from the individual.
In this house, not new doctrines are to be researched, but only the old and yet eternally young doctrine of Him
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who says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
This house is not to be a place where the private opinions and private views of any person, however pious, are expressed, but only where the doctrine of the one holy universal Christian Church of all times and places is to be urged and brought to bear.
This house is not intended to represent the special doctrines of any sect, but only the doctrines drawn from God's clear words of the orthodox Evangelical Lutheran Church of Unaltered Augsburg Confession, this first-born daughter of the Reformation, this true visible Church of God on earth, are to be presented as divine truth.
In this house, the doctrine of the Reformation is not to be reformed again, but rather to be guarded and preserved as our Church publicly confessed it before the whole world with great joy of faith and unparalleled heroism three and a half hundred years ago, sealed with the blood of many thousands of her sons and daughters, and laid down for all time in her confessional writings, as an inalienable, inviolable treasure to be guarded and preserved with incorruptible loyalty.
In this house, therefore, the main teacher shall be Christ, our one Master himself, and after the holy apostles and prophets shall be none other than Dr. Martin Luther, the Reformer of the Church, who was raised and sealed by God and who, according to divine prophecy, flew as the angel with the eternal gospel through the middle of the heaven of the Church.
In this house never shall light and darkness, truth and error, live peacefully side by side, but the King of Truth alone shall reign, who said: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. [John 8:31-32] I came not to send peace, but a sword [Matt. 10:34].”
In this house, only Christians who are living believers
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are to be received and equipped as heralds of the gospel of Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world, who confess with the holy twelve apostles: “I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. [1 Cor 2:2] Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. [Rom. 3:28] For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. [Eph 2:8-9] Fear God and give glory to him. [Rev 14:7]”
In this house, not only shall the minds of those received therein be filled with the teachings of divine revelation, but these teachings shall above all be impressed into their hearts, so that they may one day, having come out of the school of the Holy Spirit Himself, bear witness in truth: “For of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. [Luke 6:45] We also believe, and therefore speak. [2 Cor. 4:13]”
In this house, those who are received in it should not only be given the opportunity, far from the noise of the world, to lie in hallowed surroundings for their holy studies, but through the grace of God they should also be brought to the point where they willingly renounce the goods and the honors of the world and consecrate their lives, their powers, their souls to the service of Christ and to the saving of the world until their death, and therefore also to when the time comes, with a thousand joys, to exchange this magnificent building for the poorest sod hut of our American West.
This house is to become an arsenal of God, in which God-fearing young men are to be outfitted with the spiritual armor of Christ's soldiers, so that they may be able not only to plant and water, but also to fight victoriously with the sword of the Spirit against all the strongholds of the Prince of Darkness, even if he appeared in the likeness of an angel of light against the Word of the Most High.
This house is to contain a spiritual fountain, from which the water of eternal life is led over mountains and
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valleys and everywhere the spiritual deserts are transformed into green meadows of lively believers' congregations.
In short, this house should be dedicated solely to the glory of God and the salvation of redeemed sinners.
How is that? Isn't that a great, glorious end in itself? And isn't the same, for all believing Christians and especially for us Lutherans, reason enough that our hearts beat faster with joy, since we now see this new building completed with God's help without any accidents and so well succeeded before us? Is that not reason enough that we raise our voices today and shout out loud and joyful to one another: “The Lord has done great things for us, so let us rejoice”? Yes, that we shout to all our fellow believers, confessors and comrades in arms, wherever they may be in the world, “Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord!”? [Psalm 150:6] — Yes, truly, my brethren! —
But the real reason for our joy of celebration today is not only the high and glorious final purpose of this new building; we are all the more delighted by the circumstances brought about by God, which alone prompted this greater new building and finally made it a matter of unavoidable necessity.
When our synod, the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States, first gathered in the blessed city of Chicago 36 years ago, it was a small, unnoticed group of only twelve poor congregations. The church, which in this country still called itself Evangelical Lutheran, was in the deepest decay. The teaching of our church was an unknown territory to them. The few pastors who still knew something about it and wanted to hold on to it were considered to be limited minds, which one hoped would soon be extinct. The confessional writings were hardly known by name and were considered to be outdated documents of earlier, unexplained times. Instead of Luther's doctrines, this church, which called itself after Luther, was dominated by the doctrines of Zwingli and obvious
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rationalism, strangely bound up with fanatical [schwärmerischen = as Methodists, Pentecostals] methods of conversion. Hardly any pastors had a regular call according to God's Word; almost all were rather hired for one or more years. Immortal souls were handed over on trial to unprepared, immature men, while Christian parish schools were abolished and Lutheran youth were handed over in good pagan fashion to the non-religious state for education. In short, the so-called Lutheran Church of our country was dead at that time, a mockery of all sects that, like hungry night birds, divided into their corpse.
When now our synod appeared with the then unheard-of slogan “God’s Word and Luther's doctrine pure shall to eternity endure” it was not only the anti-Christian papacy, not only the syncretistic, unionistic Evangelical fellowship, not only the fanatical sects, but above all the local so-called Lutheran Church, which fought our synod as a new Old Lutheran sect leading to Rome with the greatest bitterness and, as a foreign plant and un-American invader, confidently prophesied its inglorious demise in the near future.
But our prospects were also really bleak. To want to transplant the old Lutheran Church, which submits to every letter of the Word of God, to this new land of untamed lust for freedom, seemed indeed to be a quite hopeless, more than foolish undertaking. But far from allowing itself to be distracted by this, our Synod did not ask: What must we do to become great and numerous? but only: What must we do to be found faithful before the Lord of the Church? Success, she knew, was not in her hands, and so she committed this to God.
And what happened? — The ill-intended plans of our enemies did not succeed. When the congregations saw that the pastors of our Synod did not proclaim any new doctrine, but preached nothing but what they, the congregations, had learned from their dear Small Catechism of Luther;
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when the congregations saw that the pastors of our Synod brought them the highest thing that a preacher can bring them, namely, certainty of God's grace and of their salvation; when the congregations saw that the pastors of our Synod did not want to dominate them like a papal bull, but on the contrary, sought to bring them to the knowledge of their glorious Christian freedom and their sacred congregation rights; when the congregations saw that the pastors of our Synod did not seek their temporal but only their immortal souls; when the congregations saw that the pastors of our Synod preferred to suffer hunger and sorrow, disgrace, persecution and expulsion, rather than give way in one letter to “God's Word and Luther's doctrine”: — behold, one congregation after another entered our synodical union. The mustard seed took root, sprouted up joyfully and gradually became like a mighty tree, under whose broad shady branches the birds of heaven dwell. The old Lutheranism, at first despised, even ridiculed because of its initial diminutive size, gradually became a power under the hot battles in America, so that finally everyone who wanted to be considered truly Lutheran had to be comfortable to profess the doctrines of our Synod. The old book treasures of our Church, especially her confessional writings and the writings of Luther, were pulled out of their dust, carried from house to house and eagerly read and studied by our people. Like a prairie fire, not only did truly Lutheran faith and Lutheran life and character spread again unstoppably over the country, but God also gave us a unity of faith and a joy of faith with an intimate brotherly love, so that sometimes the days of Luther seemed to have returned among us. Wherever a small Lutheran church grew up like a fruit tree, even in lonely prairie, a Lutheran schoolhouse soon sprouted as a young plant. The old pure songs full of faith and love, as our fathers sang them, resounded here again with their old sweet melodies. In short, the true
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Lutheran Church, whose funeral dirges had already been sung in all the world, came to life again here, rose from its grave and planted the victory flag of the pure Gospel in more than a thousand places of our great Union of States. For years now, the Macedonian cry of “Come over and help us” has been heard on all sides. An ever more powerful stream of Lutheran immigrants, including those of our German language, is pouring over our country and settling here, so that almost week after week new congregations are springing up, many of which desire teachers in church and school from us. And not only within our new fatherland, but also from the land of our fathers, yes, from the farthest countries of the world, the cry for help has been reaching us for years, deeply moving our hearts. Everywhere, doors open to us at the entrance with the joyful message of the free grace of God in Christ for all sinners. Even though hundreds of workers have already been sent out from our institutions for the great harvest, the number of requests for such workers has not diminished over time, but rather increased, so that at last we have been unable to fulfill most of these requests with sad hearts. And so it came to pass that even the insufficient number of students could not find a place in our building. A larger new building became a matter of unavoidable necessity.
So I ask you then, beloved brethren in the Lord, is not all this a cause for great joy for us today? Or does a farmer perhaps get angry and start complaining when his harvest, which he has safely brought in, is so great that he finds himself compelled to dismantle his barns, which have gotten too small, and to build greater? No, he rather rejoices in it and raises his hands with fervent thanks to God, the kindly giver. Behold, we also have no cause to be angry and lament that we have been compelled by God's abundant blessing to perform such a great and costly construction; we also have
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but rather the cause for us to rejoice in this from our hearts and to lift up our hands to God today with humble thanksgiving. Up to now, every new request for admission to our Institution has filled us with a new concern rather than with joy; but from today, opening the wide open spaces of this new Concordia of ours, we can joyfully cry out to every godly newcomer: Welcome! “Come in, blessed one of the Lord!” — Isn't that joy? —
But, my brothers, there is one more thing that fills us today with great joy: it is love alone that has built and decorated this new building.
No noble millionaire has performed this magnificent building and offered it as a gift to our poor church. No prince has forced us to make involuntary sacrifices for this work by means of a school tax he has imposed with legal authority. No non-Lutheran has been approached by us and expected to contribute even a single penny, contrary to his conscience, to the construction of this shelter for a nursery of our church. No one has been wrested and squeezed out of his gift by unevangelical appeals to his conscience. No one has been deceived by the false pretence that he will acquire abundant indulgences through abundant gifts and, as it is said, build a step into heaven. No one has been flattered by the excitement of his sense of honor and low, hypocritical flattery. We Lutherans abhor the principle that the end justifies the means. Therefore, according to the apostolic principle: “God loves a cheerful giver”, [2 Cor. 9:7] nothing has happened among us but our love has been kindly stimulated. Only the crying need of countless children of our church has been painted before our eyes in vivid colors, who in this land of immigration wander like sheep without a shepherd in spiritual deserts, and without the preaching of the consoling Gospel would finally have to languish spiritually. But above all, we have been reproached by the love of Christ, the
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Good Shepherd, who seeks the lost, who shed his blood for all men, who wants to make all men saved, and who wants all men saved, including the lonely children of our Church, to be called to Him, and that we, whom He has so abundantly provided with the Bread of Life, are His called instruments. “O my brethren, let us help our brothers,” we called out to one another. And, behold! thereupon a thousand upon a thousand hearts and hands opened without delay and with joy in our dear congregations. The inhabitants of the land have competed with the inhabitants of the cities, the poor with the rich, the women with the men, young women with the young, and even orphans and widows with one another, to help that this building may be built and adorned in the most glorious way.
So then, my brothers and sisters in the Lord (God knows, not to flatter you, but to the glory of Him whose Word, grace and Spirit has worked all this in you), I make bold to say, to speak freely and openly here: This house, with the Lord's help, has built up your love flowing from faith and decorated it so beautifully. O wonderful, precious house! For what would be the same without this love of its builders, even if it were made of pure gold, silver and precious stones? It would be a house from which God turned His face away, and into which He would not enter. But the great gifts of love of the earthly richly blessed among us and the small, precious mites of our poor, widows and orphans transform every piece of wood of this building before God's eyes into pure, shining gold, every stone of its walls into pure, sparkling diamonds. Sooner or later this building may fall down, like all human work: as a monument of love of believing Lutheran Christians, this house will stand before God's eyes forever, yes, forever.
But, my brethren, blessing and prosperity of all works of love also comes from the Lord alone. So let us beg Him again
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today, as we once begged Him 44 years ago, when that unadorned little forest cabin finally stood before us:
“Enter in! Enter in!
Dedicate this house, O Jesus!” —
Oh yes, Lord, not for the sake of our dull, unclean, imperfect love, but for the sake of your burning, pure, eternal, perfect love, we ask you to accept this house, which we hereby hand over to you. It shall not be our house, but yours, yes your house. Take it under your gracious and almighty care. Move into it today and make your home in it, and be and remain the right landlord in it. Bless the teachers and students. Bless therein the heavenly and the earthly bread. Let this house also be the source of ever greater blessings in town and country, in cabin and palace, for time and eternity. Bless our dear Synod and all its congregations whose love has built this house. Bless the dear brethren who have borne the great burden of caring for the execution of this work in never-tiring love for us all. Bless the master builders who planned and directed this construction and the builders who worked on it. Bless this land and its government, under whose earthly protection this house now stands. Bless this city that has welcomed it willingly and kindly into its bosom. Finally, bless our celebration today to strengthen our faith, to ignite our love and to revive our hope.
Thanks, praise, glory and honour be to your great name, here in time and hereafter from eternity to eternity. Amen! Amen!
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