Xmas-Ruhland-1: Unsung pastor from Old Missouri Synod – Theodore Ruhland (Part 4 of 5)

Theodore Ruhland   —   G. Stöckhardt
Both chosen by Walther

 

   This continues from Part 3 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series presenting translations of two Christmas sermons by outstanding Lutheran pastors from the past. — This segment presents 

2) Pastor Theodore Ruhland (1836-1879).  Although his name is typically associated with a tragic death, an accident while on a visit back to America,  he should rather be remembered because C. F. W. Walther commended him twice, at two different times, for two difficult pastoral positions:  

• 1866: to the contentious church near Grabau in the Buffalo NY area
• 1871: to the separated Free Church in Germany.  

Walther judged Ruhland to be highly capable for these positions where it was known that he would face stiff opposition, especially from the State Church in Germany.  Walther, in an 1871 letter to the separated Free Lutherans in Germany (Walther, Briefe, vol. 2, p. 229-231, full text here), in response to a request for a pastor for them, stated of Ruhland (p. 230): 

“He is a man… of no small education and great dexterity, of excellent insight, of proven Christian character, of unusual energy, of rare preaching gifts, and of rich ministerial experience. As for the latter, he has already had to serve the most diverse congregations and has accomplished in the most difficult relationships what few would have accomplished.”

And the Free Church confirmed his value to them by placing Ruhland into the role as its President for the few short, but fruitful, years of 1876-1879.  The following is the full English translation of this pivotal letter of Walther for the future of the Free Church in Germany:

After Ruhland's accidental death, C.F.W. Walther wrote the following short essay in Der Lutheraner to announce it and give the particulars of the accident, and to provide comfort for his readers.  Some memorable quotes:

1. 89: "always longed for his 'dear America', for his 'dear Missouri Synod.'"
2. 89: Funeral sermon on Isaiah 57:1-2 – "the righteous is taken away from the evil to come."
3. 90: Ruhland's letter from Germany to Walther, 1872: “If I consider our presence in all its smallness and weakness, then still no thing seems to my reason more foolish and hopeless than this. But since, in spite of this, it has a foundation and a foothold in God's Eternal Word, it must surely be God's holy cause itself, — the glory of God wrapped in rags. That will be and must remain my consolation.” [What a fitting analogy of Christmas itself!]

In the last Part 5, we publish an English translation of the Christmas sermon by the pastor that Walther judged to have ‘rare preaching gifts’.