This continues from Part 9 (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. — The reawakening of true Lutheranism in America – that phrase fits this chapter.
Some quotes from Chapter 6: (146-179)
147: In America: "in none of the synods existing at that time was Lutheranism a spiritual power that would have shaped and determined church practice… the peace of the cemetery"
148: "But the trumpet voice, which sounded so clearly that many sincere hearts rejoiced but others were frightened, was the testimony of Der Lutheraner. Its motto to this day is: 'God's Word and Luther's doctrine pure shall to eternity endure.'"
150: On the opposing synods: "Their constitutions did not aim at a situation where the Lutheran faith was supposed to hold the congregation together…, where the synod itself was only an advisory body to the individual congregations, where the synod itself was formed by the representatives of the congregations, was dependent on them, and the synod officials in turn were dependent on the synod. For this reason, the synods were at times dictatorial and wanted to play the role of legislator at the synod, as if the synod had the congregations at its feet"
152: Question from Germany: "…how it is possible in our synod to arouse such a lively interest in a church doctrinal paper, while in Germany one wins many readers only for religious entertainment publications."
154: "The time had come and the hour had come that Lutheran Zion [not Forster’s “Zion”] should be built in this western part of the world in this 19th century."
155: "such hierarchical pastors see their synod as a kind of life insurance policy and job placement company"
156: "the present Synodical Constitution it says therefore: “The Synod is only an advisory body…"
160: "the American Lutheran Church [at that time] is dominated… even by enmity against the true Lutheran Church"
164: Walther's 1848 address: "So He makes them all equal to each other in His Church, and the dear Apostles demand no more submissiveness than under Jesus Christ, namely under His Word."
166: "the congregations as such are engaged in internal and external mission (not through individual associations), and there are also excellent congregational schools, whereby the dear youth are snatched away from the otherwise prevailing savagery"
168: American Lutheranism: "the educational system was in a bad state. There were no higher or lower schools that were run according to the scriptural principles of the Lutheran Church"
169: "In October of… [1849] Pastor C.F.W. Walther was elected professor of theology"
171: Prof. Walther: "May our Church in this place be a faithful nurturer of the arts and of learning, — but may these never become the idol on whom altars are built."
172: "Then cholera broke out, which cost sixty victims in the congregation alone; the last victim was Prof. A. Wolter"
174: Missouri Synod to have "nothing to do with the anti-scriptural syncretism [Kirchenmengerei] and false unionism of our days"
179: "…a thousand-fold harvest; no authority has protected the development with its arm, no state has offered the means, no coercion has extorted the money; voluntarily, the mites [as in the widow’s mite, Mark 12:42] of the rich and poor have been put into God's treasury chest, unconstrained love has joined one to another; — who could fail to recognize the blessing of God? … This is what the Lord has done!"
148: "But the trumpet voice, which sounded so clearly that many sincere hearts rejoiced but others were frightened, was the testimony of Der Lutheraner. Its motto to this day is: 'God's Word and Luther's doctrine pure shall to eternity endure.'"
150: On the opposing synods: "Their constitutions did not aim at a situation where the Lutheran faith was supposed to hold the congregation together…, where the synod itself was only an advisory body to the individual congregations, where the synod itself was formed by the representatives of the congregations, was dependent on them, and the synod officials in turn were dependent on the synod. For this reason, the synods were at times dictatorial and wanted to play the role of legislator at the synod, as if the synod had the congregations at its feet"
152: Question from Germany: "…how it is possible in our synod to arouse such a lively interest in a church doctrinal paper, while in Germany one wins many readers only for religious entertainment publications."
154: "The time had come and the hour had come that Lutheran Zion [not Forster’s “Zion”] should be built in this western part of the world in this 19th century."
155: "such hierarchical pastors see their synod as a kind of life insurance policy and job placement company"
156: "the present Synodical Constitution it says therefore: “The Synod is only an advisory body…"
160: "the American Lutheran Church [at that time] is dominated… even by enmity against the true Lutheran Church"
164: Walther's 1848 address: "So He makes them all equal to each other in His Church, and the dear Apostles demand no more submissiveness than under Jesus Christ, namely under His Word."
166: "the congregations as such are engaged in internal and external mission (not through individual associations), and there are also excellent congregational schools, whereby the dear youth are snatched away from the otherwise prevailing savagery"
168: American Lutheranism: "the educational system was in a bad state. There were no higher or lower schools that were run according to the scriptural principles of the Lutheran Church"
169: "In October of… [1849] Pastor C.F.W. Walther was elected professor of theology"
171: Prof. Walther: "May our Church in this place be a faithful nurturer of the arts and of learning, — but may these never become the idol on whom altars are built."
172: "Then cholera broke out, which cost sixty victims in the congregation alone; the last victim was Prof. A. Wolter"
174: Missouri Synod to have "nothing to do with the anti-scriptural syncretism [Kirchenmengerei] and false unionism of our days"
179: "…a thousand-fold harvest; no authority has protected the development with its arm, no state has offered the means, no coercion has extorted the money; voluntarily, the mites [as in the widow’s mite, Mark 12:42] of the rich and poor have been put into God's treasury chest, unconstrained love has joined one to another; — who could fail to recognize the blessing of God? … This is what the Lord has done!"
Images of some men appearing in Chapter 6: (146-179)
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| H. Fick ———— E. Brauer ———— R. Lange ——— A. Biewend —— J.C.W. Lindemann —— E. Krauss ——— St. Keyl |
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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.
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The History of the Missouri Synod, 1838-1884, Chapter 6
By Christian Hochstetter
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The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod Of Missouri, Ohio, And Other States constitutes itself and Raises its Banner in the name of God.
[Der Lutheraner (DL) begins its run (148);
Pastors read, hand out DL (DL) (149);
Walther’s “Foreword” to vol. 3 of DL: “Lutheran Zion”, (152); Constitution drawn up (154); Loehe praises, criticizes (154); Constitution details (156); Opening synod meeting (158);
2nd Convention (161); Pastor Brauer, Addison Teacher’s Seminary (165); Third synod convention, missions (1849) (166); Educational institutions, (168); Walther elected professor, St. Louis sem. building begins, (169); Ft. Wayne practical seminary (172); Addison Teachers’ Seminary (175)]
A look at the synod's educational institutions, charitable institutions, Negro, Jewish and Emigrant missions.
Any church is a fellowship of those who have one doctrine and religion with one another. In particular, the Lutheran Church, which holds the right unified faith and therefore constitutes the true visible church on earth, cannot possibly have two confessions or different conflicting doctrines
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in its midst. Just as our Lutheran fathers declared at the time of the Reformation that although it was difficult for them to part with so many lands and so many people, they had to fulfill this duty according to divine command. So it was to be the case for the Lutheran pastors who had come to America at the beginning of the 1840s to serve the immigrant fellow believers with the pure preaching of the Gospel. They recognized with pain that they had fallen into a church association in which they did not find what they were looking for, because in none of the synods existing at that time was Lutheranism a spiritual power that would have shaped and determined church practice. The synod negotiations were therefore mostly of a business nature, in the traditional manner. In practice, one and the same preacher often considered it expedient (useful in his own interest) to follow a double practice, depending on the so-called mixed congregations he had taken over. Lutheran pastors who were serious about the Word of God in word and deed could not help but separate themselves from those who taught from a divided heart, for what is divided in faith and confession is separate. But they were soon to learn that it is also said: Like-minded people will find one another, for what God wills, comes to pass! The truth should not only divide but also unite. — Even for those synods which had to be left by the Lutheran pastors mentioned above, their leaving was such a serious, actual testimony that the peace of the cemetery, which until then had ruled in the Ohio Synod, for example, was disturbed. There, too, they began to draw more and more on the confessional writings, they no longer wanted to let anyone with his or her views be granted undisturbed, and the division of Lutherans loyal to their Confessions, who immediately convened for their own synod, aroused a salutary shame in some who had remained behind. — After also those Lutheran preachers, who had been members of the Michigan Synod
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until then had left it, and the Bavarian Lutherans already were in communication with the Saxon preachers in Missouri, Pastor Loehe exclaims in his messages: “But to what a small number the Lutheran Church of North America is now melting together!” But this objection was not correct. When forty or fifty oaks stand in a large pine or spruce forest, they disappear from view more easily than when they stand frankly and freely outside the spruce forest: If the spruce forest became an oak forest by having forty oaks scattered about within it, that would be a gain. But since this is not the case, the majesty of the oaks is recognized much more when they stand together separately. To speak without a picture: our friends become stronger by departing from those with whom they cannot agree on the basis of the divine Word!
As once the Gideonites called all those to return who were despondent (Judges 7:3), and in the end formed only a small group of three hundred, because the others were not capable of fighting, so by God's will not only the Saxon Lutherans had to leave the corrupt state church and take up the walking staff, also the determined Lutherans within the old synods steeped in rationalist leaven had to leave and form a small group so that they could stand up for the truth with a clear voice as Christ's fighters. But the trumpet voice, which sounded so clearly that many sincere hearts rejoiced but others were frightened, was the testimony of Der Lutheraner. Its motto to this day is: “God's Word and Luther's doctrine pure shall to eternity endure”. The first occasion for the publication of this periodical was the following: Pastor F. Walther was struck by a serious illness in St. Louis in the middle of 1844. When it seemed that he would recover again, he asked God the Lord that when he would rise again He would also give him the strength and means to write and publish at least four issues of such a paper
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in which he could put the Lutheran Church in the true light. It grieved him during this illness that the Lutherans were particularly vilified by the Baptists and Methodists. — The publication Der Lutheraner appeared before the public for the first time on 1 September 1844. [NB: This background of Der Lutheraner beginning is quoted by F. Pieper on the paper’s 75th anniversary in Lehre und Wehre vol. 66 (1920), p. 38-39] In the first four issues Pastor Walther deals with the doctrine of the church. — In later years Pastor F. Wyneken still used to tell about the joy with which he, at that time still living in Fort Wayne, welcomed the appearance of the first issue of Der Lutheraner. In the same year, Pastor A. Ernst, while visiting Pastor Wyneken, found this church paper and wrote about it to Pastor Loehe: “From Pastor Walther (the editor) is without doubt to be expected something very excellent.” The first among the Saxon pastors to correspond with Pastor Loehe was Pastor Gruber, who wanted to obtain a pastor for the Franconians settled near Paitzdorf, Missouri, through his help. "I am one of the pastors," it says in this letter, "who once hung on the world-famous Stephan. But the faithful, merciful and gracious God was patient with us and purified us from all the erroneous principles adopted under Stephan through His Holy Word. He honored me anew to entrust me with the ministry of reconciliation. He needs us here in America, after having purified us well, to plant the banner of truth and especially to gather the lost sheep of the Lutheran Church. In this way, He has helped us so far that through our dear ministerial brother Walther in St. Louis we were able to publish a periodical Der Lutheraner for the service of all who seek and possess the truth.
After Pastors Sihler, Ernst, Selle and Saupert, among others, left the Ohio Synod, and Pastors A. Craemer, F. Lochner, Hattstedt and Trautmann left the Michigan Synod, they distributed Der Lutheraner also in their congregations, which also gave rise to the desire in these congregations to establish a closer relationship with the Saxon Lutherans in Missouri. Pastor Loehe
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had already asked the pastor Hattstedt to travel to St. Louis, but he was prevented from doing so by illness. “In the spring of 1846, however," Dr. Sihler reports, "our three, Pastor A. Ernst, Lochner and I, set off for St. Louis, where Pastor Walther had invited the Saxon brothers pastors, Pastors Loeber, Keyl, Gruber, Fürbringer and Schieferdecker, to a conference. Dr. Sihler further reports what an important impression Pastor Walther had made on them. When the draft of the basic outlines for a orthodox congregational association was discussed, Walther had animated and shaped the whole thing by laying down the pure Lutheran doctrine of the nature of the church, the public teaching office of the church, the church government and church order on each point. The previous and present synods were caught up in a certain semi-darkness in these matters. They had not become so at home in the Confessions in such a way that they knew what they were, what they should do and were to do. Their constitutions did not aim at a situation where the Lutheran faith was supposed to hold the congregation together and connect it with each other, where the synod itself was only an advisory body to the individual congregations, where the synod itself was formed by the representatives of the congregations, was dependent on them, and the synod officials in turn were dependent on the synod. For this reason, the synods were at times dictatorial and wanted to play the role of legislator at the synod, as if the synod had the congregations at its feet, as if it were possible to introduce monetary restrictions, confessional books and the like by a single resolution. It often happened that the pastors, as soon as they returned home from the Synod, recognized the difficulty in carrying out what had been decided — they found it expedient to let Mr. everyman (omnes) freely do what he would, that is, to follow the crowd.
The conference gathered in St. Louis, which drafted the first draft for the organization of the Missouri Synod, was well aware that it is no more appropriate for a Lutheran body
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to put a yoke on the necks of its disciples, i.e., by means of certain regulations to establish control or a kind of supreme church government than that famous convention at Jerusalem which, according to Acts 15 , assembled under the leadership of the apostles. Rather it is stated that, under what the purpose of the Synod is to be, the rights and duties of the congregations and pastors should be protected. It is precisely the fact that these previous synods wanted to operate and rule through an external authority that caused their reputation to decline all the more, because enlightened Christians do not want to have any other rule apart from and in addition to their Lord and Master, and despite all other unfamiliarity in spiritual matters, one can sense the kinship with the Roman hierarchy as soon as a synod, called Evangelical-Lutheran, wants to establish its own order or even intervene in the right of appointment of the congregation and rule in the manner of a state-church consistory. No true unity is achieved even by such a carnal rule. The Roman Church itself is an example of this. Although blind obedience to the Pope forms the external bond, so many parties are found in her as monastic orders and other associations which hinder each other. The hierarchical synods in North America experience the same thing. Where, instead of building on the one cornerstone of Christianity, the framework of the constitutions and synodical ordinances is taken as a basis, there rather the vain, secular party effort prevails than the deep inner unity of the Spirit, which is built on the common faith and doctrine. Instead of being concerned with the spiritual edification of the Kingdom of God, to which only truly believing souls belong, carnal ambition is still active and alive in many synods in this country today, each synod wanting to enlarge its own field, and just like the friars in the Papacy, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, and again the Jesuits, want to outdo each other in rank and envy each other, but they all want to be good Catholics,
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so most synods in America today still stand side by side, only agreeing that they all pretend to be good Lutherans. It is astonishing that in the midst of the sectarian confusion and the swarm of synods that still buzzes about the souls of men today, such a body could be formed which knows no other task than to call back the straying Lutherans to the old saving Gospel and to gather the banner of the never-aging Lutheran Confessions. — [Who would deny the “sectarian confusion and the swarm of synods” today?]
The new insight and clarity in the doctrinal articles necessary to form a truly Lutheran synod filled the above-mentioned pastors, who for the first time met the Saxon Lutherans personally, with great joy. “Even then,” Dr. Sihler reports, “a glimmer of hope fell into my heart, that from the testimony of these brothers, in particular Walther, even if it was like a mustard seed, a tree could grow, which would also extend to the East and under whose shade the neglected Lutheran Church would take on a healthy shape, as it has already partly happened through God's grace and blessing.” Also Der Lutheraner shows a brave courage of faith in the Foreword to its third year in September of the same year [1846- Pastor Baseley’s excellent translation!]. Pastor Walther exclaims there that although the trust in his own powers had not grown in him, this made him all the more joyful that the Lord Himself obviously promoted the cause which Der Lutheraner in part was serving. *) In the following he is pleased that
——————— [Effect of Der Lutheraner!]
*) Der Lutheraner has now reached a readership of 15,000 within the Missouri Synod in 1884, although seven smaller church publications serving local or individual district purposes have been established in the Missouri Synod area over the past ten years. Since the writer of these lines was asked during his last stay in Germany, how it is possible in our synod to arouse such a lively interest in a church doctrinal paper, while in Germany one wins many readers only for religious entertainment publications, so the following about Der Lutheraner may be quoted from the Evang.-Lutherische Blätter, which appeared in New Orleans: “Whoever stands in the true faith, and now
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the interest in the pure doctrine, which had been completely eradicated here in this country, had become alive again. “A great battle has broken out, which is becoming more general every day. Separations are taking place everywhere, but at the same time there is a determined desire among the orthodox believers for the most intimate union. We are obviously at the gates of the most important and, we hope to God, most salutary decision for our Church. — Those who are now fighting for the restoration of the Lutheran Church in its original form are, of course, still like a drop in the bucket in comparison with those who are fighting them. But no matter how few of them there are, no matter how much mockery and scorn is used to persecute their fellowship, no matter how much suspicion is cast on them by the people, and no matter how they are presented to the people against their own better knowledge and conscience as a new sect, — — — we take comfort! Let the spirit of lies still be so unbending: the Lord has set out to restore his Church; neither quantity, nor power, nor cunning, after lies and slander, will stop Him; He will carry out His work with almighty power. The truth will triumph and the enemies of the truth will be brought to shame. Amen!” Pastor Walther recognized so clearly
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knows that with him hundreds and hundreds of congregations confess the same faith, defend the same truth, bear the same sufferings and abuses for the sake of Christ, experience the same joys of the victory of the Gospel, should he not be inspired by the desire to receive news from this whole circle of his fellow Christians? Should he not want to read about the wars that the Church of God must wage on earth? Of the victories which it achieves with the sword of the Spirit in Christ's power and of the blessing which God pours down upon it? Should he not burn with the desire to be led ever deeper into pure doctrine? Shouldn't he want to help for the various needs of the Kingdom of God, preacher and teacher seminars, higher educational institutions, missions among scattered brethren, among Negroes, Jews, Gentiles, care of immigrants, feeding the sick, widows and orphans, distribution of Bibles, edification books, etc.? Der Lutheraner brings reports about all this. Everyone who follows our advice and reads Der Lutheraner will thank us for eternity."
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that the time of visitation had come, although he had seen such few pastors at the conference before him. The time had come and the hour had come that Lutheran Zion [not Forster’s “Zion”] should be built in this western part of the world in this 19th century. The servants of God wanted it to be built (Ps. 102:14-15). However because anyone who wants to build a tower must first sit down and carefully estimate the total cost, lest people should say: he started something and is not able to finish it (Luke 14), Pastors Sihler, A. Ernst and Fr. Lochner agreed with the Saxon brethren before their departure to meet again in Fort Wayne in the summer of that same year 1846, to which other like-minded pastors who had not been able to come to St. Louis were also invited. An even more numerous conference was held in Dr. Sihler's home in July of that year. From St. Louis and the surrounding area, Pastors Loeber, Walther, Kehl, and Brohm had arrived in Fort Wayne. The draft of a Lutheran synodical constitution was gone through anew and brought to a conclusion so far that it was published in Der Lutheraner (see No. 1, Volume III) and as a pamphlet for distribution among the congregations. Pastor Loehe, in Bavaria, also published this draft, with several comments, and was pleased to have his emissaries in touch with the Saxon pastors. There are only a few criticisms that he made, insofar as the requirements considered necessary to pass an examination or colloquium seem too difficult to him according to this synodical constitution (he considered investigation of the spiritual disposition is considered the most important thing for those who want to pass a colloquium). Moreover, it can be seen from his communications that Pastor Loehe also agreed at that time with the wise limitation that every synodical resolution can only then be binding for the individual congregation if the latter had voluntarily accepted and confirmed it by a formal congregational resolution. Since Pastor Löhe later on followed other principles when founding the opposition Iowa Synod
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whereby the synodical president and the synodical assembly were given an authoritative governance over the individual pastors and congregations, and since furthermore such hierarchical synods, where they are able to do so, also here in this country armor themselves with the help of the secular authorities, *) so here is the answer to the reproach that was raised by the opponents of the Missouri Synod: What use is a synod if it does not have the power to give orders? Pastor Grabau dared, in a public pulpit, to predict that the Missouri Synod would be smashed into a thousand pieces within ten years! Meanwhile, more than 25 years have passed since that prophecy, and the Missouri Synod has grown inwardly and outwardly, while the politics of the Romanizing Lutherans will often be disgraced, as the example of the followers of Grabau shows. It is precisely because such synods presume to exercise authority, to impose certain sums of money on the congregations as contributions to synodical funds, and because such hierarchical pastors see their synod as a kind of life insurance policy and job placement company, that some congregations are made suspicious of everyone and every synod. Therefore, even at the first synodical assemblies held by the Missouri Synod, few congregations were willing to join the synod as such. — It follows from God's Word that a synod must never be an ecclesiastical authority with coercive power. For if
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*) This is done when the particular synod persuades the individual congregations with all kinds of promises and contrary warnings to include in the purchase contract, which is legally drawn up, the condition that in the event of a split and also otherwise, only a congregation can retain possession and use of the church property in question which is under the jurisdiction of the specifically named particular synod. Those congregations which allowed themselves to be seduced into selling their Christian freedom in this way to domineering synods, by which they are often badly advised and provided with bad pastors, often had to lose all their church property, including the school buildings, if they wanted to regain their freedom.
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in Gal. 5:1 and 2 Cor. 8:7 even the Apostle says: “I speak not by commandment, but … to prove the sincerity of your love,” so much less a Synod, which is only human right, may have a commanding position. A so-called strong church government is not what the Missouri Lutherans are striving for; for a genuine Lutheran synod only wants to advise and serve the congregations and pastors who voluntarily join it, as far as they want to be advised and helped. But this service presupposes very important matters toward its goal, the preservation of the unity of the Spirit inwardly, which includes above all the preservation of pure doctrine, and the confession of faith for which the saints should also fight: An individual congregation will hardly think itself strong enough to fight such a battle, and however often it is without a pastor, it also needs special advice and support! This alone reveals the need for an association of congregations, a mutual handing out of spiritual goods, whereby the gifts God gives are of benefit to all and to ever wider circles. If there is only one Lord whom we serve and one faith which we confess, then a common zeal to spread the Word of God and to propagate it to children and children's children will also be active among the members of the faith; all who recognize each other as brethren will also exercise their spiritual priesthood through the voluntary standing and working together, for which the synodical fellowship helps. The apostolic congregations also held together intimately, and were maintained by the apostles who travelled back and forth in such fellowship and unity, which we now seek to achieve through the synodical institution as an appropriate means.
In Chapter 4, § 9 of the present Synodical Constitution it says therefore: “The Synod is only an advisory body with regard to the self-government of the individual congregations.” But just because the Missouri Synod protects and preserves the right and independence of every congregation, it would be fundamentally wrong to say that we must not join the Synod because there is no
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command from God for it; for the organization of such a bona fide synod is the best means of maintaining unity in the Spirit. Hereafter the reader will understand what is meant by the following summary enumeration of some of the most important paragraphs of the Missouri Synod constitution.
Chapter 1 contains the reasons for the formation of a synodical association. These are 1) the model of the Apostolic Church. Acts 15:1-31; 2) The will of the Lord that the various gifts may be used for the common good. 1 Cor. 12:4-31; 3) United expansion of the kingdom of God and enabling and promoting of special churchly purposes. (Seminary, Agenda, hymnal, Book of Concord, textbooks, Bible distribution, etc.); 4) Preservation and promotion of the unity of the pure confession, Eph. 4:3-6, 1 Cor. 1:10 and common defence against separatistic and sectarian disorder, Rom. 16:17; 5) Appreciation and protection of the rights and duties of pastors and congregations. 6) Achieving the greatest possible uniformity in church government.
It follows from the purpose which this synodical association set itself in the above chapter that the connection to the synod is again conditioned by a firm confession. The conditions for joining the Missouri Synod and continuing fellowship with it are, according to Chapter 2, the following: 1) the confession of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the written Word of God and the only rule and norm of faith and life. 2) Acceptance of all the symbolic books of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church. 3) Renunciation of all unionism and syncretism. 4) exclusive use of pure doctrine in church and school books. 5) exclusive use of the German language in synodical meetings.
Since the supervision of the purity and unity of doctrine within the synodical district belongs primarily to the business of the Synod, doctrinal questions are always the most important subjects of deliberation at synodical conventions. This became apparent
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even at the first conventions. It had been agreed at that Fort Wayne conference that the draft of the synodical constitution, which already contained the above paragraph, would be held over for one year so that pastors and congregations could examine it and thus consider their decision to join such a synod. Meanwhile, at the conclusion of that Fort Wayne conference, the Lutherans had departed in the joyful hope that they would soon come together in one ecclesial body which, with united forces, from the same foundation of the divine Word, with the same means of grace, and with the exclusion of any church politics, would build up the Lutheran Church ever more firmly and vigorously to the glory of God, and spread it ever more eagerly. The opening of the synod was scheduled for Jubilate Sunday [May 25] of the year 1847. Dr. Sihler briefly describes how difficult the journey to Chicago was for the delegates from Fort Wayne at that time, because impassable wet prairies prevented a straight path. In Chicago, where Pastor Selle was already a Lutheran congregation leader, the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other States was to be constituted, as the printed synodical report shows, and it turned out that twelve pastors with sixteen congregations as voting members signed the above constitution; eleven pastors were present in addition to those who were present in an advisory capacity, some sent in their approval in writing. One member of the preparatory conference, Pastor Burger, of Willshire, Ohio, had been called to the heavenly church a month earlier. — On Jubilate Sunday, April 25, the arriving pastors and delegates gathered in the German Lutheran Church along with many members of the congregation for confession and absolution. Afterwards Pastor Loeber preached about the Gospel of that day John 16:16-23. This was followed by the celebration of Holy Communion. In the afternoon Dr. Sihler preached on Acts 2:42. In the evening the brethren gathered in the home of Pastor Selle, where the appointment for the first synodical meeting of the following day was made.
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On Monday morning, April 26, 1847, the Synod was opened by Pastor A. Selle, who addressed the gathered brethren, explaining and setting forth to them the important purpose of this meeting. The first signing of the synodical Constitution was then made, first by those pastors and delegates who had participated in the drafting of the Constitution. Since some congregations, who were not yet sufficiently convinced of the usefulness of such a synodical association, had let their pastors travel to the synod without being accompanied by an authorized delegate, the beginning was poor, but Dr. Sihler writes that this was desired, "for we knew that the works of God always have such a beginning, following the example of the mustard seed and the Christ Child in the manger. But the gracious and merciful God gave such a rich and spiritual blessing without all our merit and worthiness that in the course of 38 years the mustard seed became a mighty tree. Even then, the office of a visitor, who was to visit the scattered Lutherans and serve them with God's Word for the time being, was discussed and established. After various questions had been answered and expert opinions given, the final election of officials was held at the end of this first synodical assembly. The result was that Pastor C. F. W. Walther was elected as President, Dr. W. Sihler as Vice President, Pastor F. W. Husmann as Secretary and F. W. Barthel as Treasurer. Since the synodical address with which the already appointed presidents are in the habit of opening the synodical conventions had to be missing at this first meeting, we are publishing instead the pronouncement which Pastor Walther added when he published the letter of renunciation sent to the Ohio Synod by Pastors Sihler, Becker, Ernst Winkler, Burger, A. Schmidt, A. Selle, W. Richmann and A. Saupert in [Vol. 2] No. 11 of Der Lutheraner of 1846. The withdrawal of the above pastors was, as Pastor Loehe remarks, judged by the Ohio Synod in the Lutheran Standard from a very high horse. But Walther, looking back
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on those proceedings and looking forward to what was accomplished in Chicago the following year, writes the following:
The negotiations of those pastors with the Ohio Synod show us that unfortunately! also in America no denomination has fallen into such a deep decline as the fellowship of those who call themselves "Lutheran". All the sects of this country are more zealous in preserving the false doctrines on which they are founded and which give them their peculiar character, than are the so-called Lutherans of this country, who are more careful to hold on to the holy and pure doctrine based on the clear Word of God, which was familiar to them by God's ineffable grace. Yes, we see that the American Lutheran Church is dominated not only by negligence and indifference, but even by enmity against the true Lutheran Church; it has retained nothing but the name; it has lost the old truth and the witnessing spirit.
But we also see that we have no cause to despair in the existence of the Lutheran Church in America. God again seizes the winnowing fork to sweep His threshing floor and sift His wheat. God has evidently decided that He will no longer stand by while the false saints secretly steal, and fish in murky waters. God has again begun to open eyes here and there that recognize with horror the apostasy of which the Lutherans are guilty. God awakens again here and there men who loudly call upon them to return to their abandoned first love. God be praised! After a long winter, “the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land”. (Song of Solomon 2:11-13) Up, up, therefore, dear brethren! Let us not quietly watch as false brethren join together ever more firmly to undermine and sweep aside the very foundation of our Church. These, because they deceitfully fence under our name, are more dangerous than our declared enemies; they are allies of our enemies and yet they are in the midst of our camps. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision” [Ps. 2:4], for "though the waters thereof roar and be troubled,
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though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early." [Ps. 46:3-5] But as impossible as it is to suppress Luther's doctrine, which is to oust God's Word from the world, so easily it is possible that if we did not have it (Tit. 1:9-11) and contend for it (Jude 3) we will lose the treasure (2 John 8:9) and will be rejected as unfaithful stewards. Therefore, let us who call ourselves not only hypocritically Lutheran, but also want to be and remain so in fact and truth, let us gather together again and gather around the banner of the old unchanging doctrine of our Church; let us implore the Lord to arise and create a help so that we may teach again with confidence; let us fight together against all falsifications with the sword of the Spirit [Eph. 6:17] and together bear the shame with which the Lord calls his servants. Nor should we hope that the Church will be restored to a flourishing state in these last dreadful times, but we must not give up hope that our witness and struggle will not be in vain, but will be a praise to the Lord and will convert many a soul from the error of its ways.”
The second and third synodical conventions.
On the Wednesday after the Feast of the Trinity, June 21, 1848, the pastors and delegates gathered for the second annual synod in the Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church in St. Louis. Under the chairmanship of President Pastor C.F.W. Walther, the individual sessions were opened with a hymn, reading of a chapter from the Pastoral Letters or from the Acts of the Apostles and with prayer. A good number of new members joined, so that the number of standing synodical members (including the advisory ones) rose to 50 pastors and 5 teachers. Already at the first synod gathered in Chicago
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several North German pastors were received, namely: J.W. Husmann, and C.J.H. Fick, who had arrived in St. Louis just before the opening and organization of the Missouri Synod, then was called to New Melle Mo. He was followed by more and more candidates from Hannover, namely: E. Brauer, A. Wolter, Roebbelen, Franke, and F. König; which is why, numerically speaking, the Saxons were only a small part of the synod from its very beginning.
Dr. Sihler wrote the following about this second synodical convention to Pastor Loehe: “What use would the growing number be if the unity in the Spirit did not grow at the same time and builders were no longer united with one another to build the holy Church? Only by God's grace did it happen that this unity in the Spirit, this merging and submerging of our little persons in the Triune God and His work of grace, in the building up of his Church, inspired and permeated us all. Frankness and humility were the prevailing tone in our deliberations, and even if different views on practical matters were initially expressed, mutual understanding and unanimous resolution always took place, and I am certain that none of the dear brethren returned from the Synod to their congregations without rich blessings on their hearts and minds and manifold encouragement.”
Among the most important decisions taken at this synod were the following: 1) The transfer of the college and theological seminary from Altenburg to St. Louis. From this scholarly institution emerged Pastors R. Lange and H. Wunder, the former a professor at the seminary in St. Louis for many years, the second long-time district president in Chicago, Ill. 2) After Pastor Loehe had complied with the wishes of the Synod and had handed over the seminary he had founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana, to the Missouri Synod on the condition that it would always serve the Lutheran Church, the German language would also be retained as the sole means of teaching,
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a constitution and plan of studies was also drafted for this institution, which was to achieve the training of candidates for the office of ministry more in a more practical and direct way. After only two years of existence, 14 students, eight as pastors and four as school teachers, two of whom had gone to Altenburg for academic training, were able to take office. The names of the above eight pastors are: J. Seidel, K. Kalb, J. Birkmann, O. Strafen, C. Fricke, A. Auer, P. Heid, M. Johannes.
The sessions of this synod in St. Louis were attended by numerous people; even the brave members of the St. Louis congregation took a lively interest and showed themselves full of zeal. “There was nothing to be seen of those spiteful Argus-eyes who only seek to interfere everywhere, but joy radiated from their eyes at every instructive hearing, at every salutary resolution. I must confess (Prof. A. Craemer writes), I had not thought of it that way, because I was afraid to find a somewhat Americanized congregation, but it is German and Lutheran and so was also the synod. As far as mission was concerned, the eye of the Mission Committee was on the Indians of Oregon, where there are thousands of Indians, etc.” It was of great importance that the members of the St. Louis congregation should also give the impression to all synodical members that they were a living congregation imbued with the Spirit of Christ, because at that time in Germany one began to fear that democratic principles would have interfered with the synodical constitution, which would have been to the detriment of the Church. From one side they began to shout out the newly organized synod as too independent (as if it arbitrarily perverted Christian freedom). the delegates sent by Pastor Loehe hurried all the more to reassure him with the good news from and about St. Louis. But most instructive in this respect is the synodical address with which Pastor Walther opened this second synodical convention. *) The
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*) The entire synodical address is printed in Dr. Walther's Lutheran Crumbs p. 517. [Lutherische Brosamen, Baseley translation, From Our Master's Table, p. 243; also in Moving Frontiers, p. 170-177]
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Lack of space allows only a few things to be mentioned. The question which is answered in this address is as follows: “Why should and can we do our work with joy, although we have no power other than the power of the Word?” As the first motive he mentions: because Christ has given his servants only this power and no other power, and even the holy Apostles did not appropriate any other, and therefore gave the servants of the Church a serious warning against the use of any other authority. Christ's kingdom and Church is a kingdom of truth, a spiritual heavenly kingdom, a kingdom of God, in which dwell all free citizens of the kingdom of Heaven, members of God's household, prophets, priests and kings. But who is now the one who has authority in this kingdom? It is Jesus Christ alone! He declares this Himself. He says, “I am a King.” “I am the Good Shepherd.” “One is your Master, Christ.” But the Apostle calls Him: “The head of the church above all things, which is His body” etc. But it is His Word by which Christ exercises authority in his Church. We see this in the last declaration with which He departed from His disciples, Matt. 28:18-20. This is “the right scepter” [Ps. 45:7] with which He rules His people, the “rod and staff” [Ps. 23:4] with which He feeds His army. The authority and command is denied to every other person by the saying: “One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.” [Matt. 23:8] So He makes them all equal to each other in His Church, and the dear Apostles demand no more submissiveness than under Jesus Christ, namely under His Word. They also warn all those who administer an office in the Church, above all, to rule faithfully and earnestly. 1 Peter 5:1-4 Therefore, in the Church, in which Christ reigns, there should not and cannot be any other authority to which all must submit than the authority of the Word. — Therefore, here in this country, where pastors have no other authority, we should be all the more filled with joy that we demand obedience only when Christ Himself speaks through us, namely when we preach his Word.
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Just there, where the pastor is given only the power of the Word, but also the full power, where the congregation of Christ hears the Word from the mouth of its preacher and accepts it as the Word of God, there the pastor is in the right relationship to his congregation, as a messenger of God the Most High; not as a servant of man, but as a servant of Christ. — Those who do not love the Word will indeed part from us; but those who love it, to them our fellowship will be a comforting refuge, and if they accept our resolutions, they will not bear them as a foreign burden, but as a benefit, and will represent and preserve them as their own. — “What the Word demands, let us not forgive any iota of it; — let happen to us as God wills, — here let us be unbending, as iron; if we do that, we can be unconcerned about the success of our work, it cannot then be in vain, for the Word does not return again empty, but accomplishes what the Lord had sent it for.”
At this second synodical convention, Pastor Wyneken of Baltimore from the Missouri Synod also joined, as did Pastor Hoyer of Philadelphia; since Pastor Brohm was also a member of the executive committee of a congregation in New York at that time, the newly formed synod already had points of contact in the East. Pastor E. Brauer, who immigrated from Hanover, Germany, learned how wonderfully God the Lord chooses a time and place for him when He sends His Word, when he stopped by Pastor Selle in Chicago. But he had traveled to Milwaukee to see Pastor Keyl. Since Selle had not yet returned on Sunday, Brauer had to hold the service in Chicago in place of the absent pastor. Finally Pastor Selle returned and approached the new helper in Addison (20 miles from Chicago), where many a preacher had preached in vain and had to leave without having accomplished anything. Although it was believed that Brauer would hardly be elected because the congregation was United [Reformed and Lutheran], it was good for the sake of the testimony if
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the people once again heard a preacher who held fast to the Confessions and did not engage in any mixture of truth and false doctrine. Therefore Brauer visited the congregation in Addison although his inclination was to go to the state of Missouri. In Addison, he met a different preacher who was called by the church from 400 miles away to deliver his test sermon the next Sunday. He was the son of a Hanoverian pastor, from the same village where most of the local people came from. Brauer wanted to turn back, despite the rain and storm, but could not have a horse at hand, so he had to spend the night with his competitor under the same roof and under the same blanket. On Sunday they both preached; the latter was a colourful mix-up, he started to interpret the Ten Commandments, but he could not do it. Brauer, who had preached in the morning according to the other's wishes, was immediately elected by the congregation. But he told the people freely that he was a servant of the Lutheran Church and could not serve a mixed congregation. They still wanted to keep him, but got into conflict when he presented them with a congregational constitution in which only the name “Lutheran” was mentioned. Brauer explained to them his and their point of view in more detail, from which fourteen Reformed families finally left and were compensated liberally by the Lutherans. So Brauer became a pastor in Addison and was happy to hear old and young speak Low German in this large settlement. Over the years, the neglected people had grown into a flourishing congregation, which now has the blessed Teacher’s Seminary under its roof. Pastor E. Brauer also joined the Missouri Synod in St. Louis, which already counted forty pastors at this second convention.
At the third synodical meeting, held in Fort Wayne in 1849, thirteen pastors joined again, along with three school teachers, and 16 congregations were taken in by the synod upon their written petition. The synod, it is said, had the good fortune to be spared from contentious communications at this third convention,
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other memorials required careful consideration. The mission stations Frankenmuth and Bethanien in Michigan were transferred to the Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States by the board of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Leipzig and by Pastor Loehe by a formal act of transfer, “in the expectation that this synod would do everything in its power to promote the missionary work.” Already at the first synod a missionary commission was appointed, to which the missionaries Auch and Meyer, who had left the Michigan Synod, also belonged. The Fort Wayne students Eirich Sr., Stubnatzy and Volkert were examined at the request of vacant congregations and recommended to them. The Synod was divided into conference districts, and finally a publishing company was established for the purpose of publishing churchly writings. The synodical address at the opening of this third assembly was delivered by Vice President Dr. Sihler. In it he recognized first of all with gratitude and joy that in the past year not only the number of workers who stood together in the Synod for the work of the Lord had grown to sixty, but that there had been no disturbance of the unity of the Spirit from any side, all were of the same mind, supported by the same faith, moved by the same love. In some congregations, sound church discipline, good order and customs are also evident; the pastors are once again regarded by their church members as their spiritual fathers, and the congregations as such are engaged in internal and external mission (not through individual associations), and there are also excellent congregational schools, whereby the dear youth are snatched away from the otherwise prevailing savagery. But there is also a reason to humble oneself under the hand of God and to suffer! Some congregations whose pastors belong to us still look at the Synod with suspicion, partly because of a tendency toward unionism, partly toward enthusiasm. Furthermore, the stubbornness and ignorance of individuals in the congregations is a problem, which is why many pastors find it difficult to develop a strong
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collaborative congregational life. Nevertheless, no one should run away from the school of the cross, and in looking up to the Lord, one should also look joyfully and confidently into the new synodical year. — Thus began the year 1850, with which a new important phase in the history of the young synod begins. Hitherto the Lord had helped us.
A look at the educational institutions.
A look at the educational institutions of the German Evangelical Lutheran Missouri Synod will be in order already here, since from the very beginning the Synod also in its synodical constitution made it its duty "to establish, maintain and supervise institutions for the training of future pastors and school teachers for the service of the Church (Chapter V, § 9).
The decline of American Lutheranism was also evident in the fact that the educational system was in a bad state. There were no higher or lower schools that were run according to the scriptural principles of the Lutheran Church. Also the training and final examination of the candidates for the office of ministry was often entrusted to one or several older pastors who themselves had little knowledge of the Lutheran doctrine. In the course of the years, as immigration increased, academically educated secondary school [gymnasiums] students and several theologians from Germany also arrived. The Basle and Gossner Missions used to send the weakest of their pupils to America (the more gifted were sent to Asia and Africa), which all together contributed to the fact that the synods, in which so many different elements were found, became a model map of the different schools of thought that can be found in the present. In the best case, a conglomerate (an external formation) was created, but by no means a uniform organism. In such synods there can be no talk of mutual, fraternal supervision and doctrinal discipline. There was therefore astonishment in other synods when the Missouri Synod made official visits of the president for the purpose of supervising the doctrine,
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administration of the office, and the life of pastors and school teachers. “We tell the brethren that this is not possible in America,” cried the Lutheran Observer. But the Missouri Synod wanted to lay the foundation even deeper for a firm doctrine and for the maintenance of pure doctrine, by planning educational institutions in which the future teachers for church and school, enlightened in heart and mind, and as called in one spirit and faith, became more and more of one heart and soul even before they entered public office. It was already reported in the third chapter of this book [p. 52] how early on it was decided to establish such an educational institution in Perry County, which was headed by Pastor H. Loeber after Pastor F. Walther was called away. Although Rector Gönner was assigned to assist him, Pastor Loeber felt that his declining physical strength would not be sufficient for much longer and agreed when the Missouri Synod, at its first session in 1847, asked the Perry County congregations whether they would be inclined to leave the Altenburg academic school [gymnasium] and theological seminary to the direction and care of the Synod. These congregations agreed to do so, but the congregation in Altenburg wanted the institution to remain in their midst. The St. Louis congregation promised that as soon as this institution was moved to St. Louis, they would give two acres of land, over $2000 for construction and substantial contributions to maintain the institution. Although the Altenburg congregation renewed their opposition to the transfer, they finally gave in when the Third Synod of Fort Wayne again decided that it would be better for the welfare of the Church if the institution were moved to St. Louis. Even before the transfer was completed, Pastor Loeber, who was faithful and warmly beloved at the institution, passed away on August 19, 1849, as noted above. [?, on p. 57, this was reported as August 13]
In October of the same year Pastor C.F.W. Walther was elected professor of theology. His congregation in St. Louis agreed to his acceptance of this call, with the
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condition that Prof. Walther would also officially participate in the government of the congregation as pastor and preach a sermon in both congregations every month.
The construction of the educational institution building in St. Louis on the land donated by the congregation was started in a sprightly manner. According to the adopted plan, it was to consist of a central building and two wings. Due to lack of funds, the southern wing was to be built first. The foundation stone was laid on November 8, 1849. It was a day of great joy. The sainted Pastor Buenger performed the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone after Prof. Walther had given an address in which he showed how the Church had always shown itself to be a faithful, sincere nurse and friend of art and science, and how it had always had to prove itself according to its nature and purpose. This address at the laying of the foundation stone is found in Dr. Walther's Lutheran Crumbs p. 322. [Lutherische Brosamen, Baseley translation, From Our Master's Table, p. 155,] Especially the Methodists, some of whom now disagree, claimed at that time that secular scholarship is not compatible with humility and world denial, as many monastic orders and the Anabaptists, Carlstadt and Thomas Münzer at the head, have done, Dr. Walther, on the other hand, argues that one should not believe that for the sake of such occurrences the Church can rightly be reproached as if she, the Church, was an enemy of all enlightenment, an enemy of art and science, as if she shied away from the light: History shows rather that wherever the Church, with the Gospel in her hand, let the banner of the cross flutter among the deep-sunken idolaters, not only did it follow the plough, spade and sickle, but also higher art and science became native there. The Church's own interest requires the same, because if the Church lost knowledge of the ancient language, history, antiquity, the calendar, etc., she would also lose the understanding of the sacred Scriptures on which she is founded. Therefore, the great reformer of the Church rightly wrote: “As dear as the Gospel is to us, so earnestly let us hold fast upon
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the languages.” — — — Furthermore, since the Church is not a despotic state, not a papacy, neither large nor small, science should not be the monopoly of a special class, a caste of priests. “Every Christian should carry the Urim and Thummim of Truth as a spiritual priest on his own chest. The layman should therefore conduct research in the Scriptures himself and believe with free conviction, without relying on human authority. Without human, priestly mediation, he should be certain of his relationship with God… yes, he should be able and become ever more capable of judging the doctrine of his teacher... ...only then can he follow the Word of his eternal Founder: ‘One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.’” [Matt. 23:8] — At the end of the memorable address Dr. Walther exclaims: “May our Church in this place be a faithful nurturer of the arts and of learning, — but may these never become the idol on whom altars are built, but only the means by which the Church is built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets in this Western world [Occident], gloriously adorned and bravely and victoriously defended, promoting true enlightenment and the welfare of the world, but above all spreading the glory of God and praising and glorifying his name until the end of time! Amen.”
The school moved to St. Louis in December of the same year. In 1849 the institution, which at that time could only move into one wing, was housed in the new building of that time. A few years later, Prof. Biewend was appointed to St. Louis as a teacher of philology. Thanks to his excellent knowledge of languages and natural sciences, he was of great service to the school until his unfortunately very early death. After Dr. Walther has been at the head of this institution for 34 years as president and as its first professor, the institution now has six theological professors and one steward. The number of students is currently 107. In a period of constant flourishing, the seminary was allowed to discharge 39 theologically educated candidates to public office in the summer of 1884, so that
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the total number of Concordians who have come out of this institution over the years is now almost 400.
In addition to this theoretical theological institution, the Missouri Synod owned the aforementioned educational institution at Fort Wayne, which was mostly founded by Pastor Loehe, and which was initiated and expanded by Dr. Sihler since he was called to Fort Wayne as Pastor Wyneken's successor. The goal of this institution was from the beginning to give the students primarily a church-practical education. Older young people who cannot attend a formal secondary school, but who are equipped with the necessary gifts of the Spirit, especially with a good memory, will be helped by training, if they are interested in the Word of God as a result of a serious conversion of heart, so that they can follow a call to the preaching ministry. In November 1846, Dr. Sihler received a capable co-worker at the seminary in Prof. A. Wolter, who had been described to him by Pastor Loehe as a capable servant of Christ. Wolter lived entirely for these God-fearing fellows, as Dr. Sihler called the students, and worked in great blessing at the seminary, for which at that time fourteen acres of land with a house, about a mile from the city, were purchased by the members of the congregation. Then cholera broke out, which cost sixty victims in the congregation alone; the last victim was Prof. A. Wolter, who had been caring, with two students, for an orphaned family that had lost both parents. The next day he drew up his will and the following day he died, 31 years old. Prof. A. Wolter had earned the love of all during the short period of his work. The students felt orphaned, the congregation mourned, and Dr. Sihler was the one who suffered most. He now continued the school with twenty students alone until in 1850 Pastor A. Craemer was appointed professor at this practical seminary. The same was received with joy and faithfully took care of the students in every way and in every need. In the congregation and in the whole Fort Wayne area he was also active and
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has remained unforgettable to this day. In 1860, it was considered a good idea to move this practical preaching seminary to St. Louis, and to turn the Ft. Wayne institution into an expanded great secondary school [gymnasium]. For the time being the seminary was transferred to St. Louis and with great pain Sihler and Prof. Craemer separated after eleven years of working together. The congregation also saw these older students, with whom the members had often been in blessed contact, reluctantly part ways with Ft. Wayne. The large collegiate building, which was newly built, now filled with young students who had to go through six classes until they completed the whole course. The current Fort Wayne Concordia Seminary currently has seven professors and 176 students. Nevertheless, the older members of the congregation complain that the first love that prevailed under Prof. Craemer is no longer returning! Although the old St. Louis collegiate building was gradually extended completely, it still lacked space when the students of the practical seminary had to live together with the theological students. Even then the cost of a large new building was being considered, but it was not until 1875, when a vacant collegiate building in Springfield, Illinois, was offered to the Synod at a low price and purchased by it, that the Synod decided to move the practical seminary to Springfield, and once again Prof. A. Craemer and his students had to take up the walking staff. If necessary, the students first go through a pro-seminary there, in which the necessary preliminary knowledge is acquired, after which they receive theological instruction from Professors A. Craemer and H. Wyneken. In addition to four professors, Pastor F. Lochner is also active in teaching, and the number of students in Springfield last year became so large that they had to pitch tents in the open field next to the college buildings. The current number of pupils in Springfield is 189. The growth of these educational institutions could seem alarming
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if the way of life of these pupils, who flock together there, were to resemble the fast life of the students who hang around the German universities. But this is not so. It also emerges from the serious address which Dr. Walther gave in November 1883 at the inauguration of the new, large seminary building in St. Louis, that the students of all the educational institutions of our Synod work in a different sense and spirit than the spirit of the world. They are not only taught by their faithful, loyal and zealous teachers, but their hearts are also cultivated and educated in Christian love! They are made to feel that they should grow not only in all the knowledge and ability necessary for their future calling, but also in upright godliness. As early as 1846, Dr. Sihler, in No. 5, Year III of Der Lutheraner [p. 29; Baseley translation], presented the purpose of the preacher’s seminary in the following terms: “We do not conceal it, but freely confess that it is our heartfelt prayer, desire and will to serve the Church under the grace and blessing of the Triune God,
1) who hold fast to the example of the saving doctrine and remain in what is known to them, as the orthodox Church, which now is called Lutheran, on the basis of the divine Word, believed, confessed and taught from the very beginning;
2) who therefore have nothing to do with the anti-scriptural syncretism [Kirchenmengerei] and false unionism of our days, etc.;
3) who have gained a sound and thorough knowledge and, God willing, also inner experience of this truth;
4) who is able to teach this truth to others, rightly dividing and also rightly combining Law and Gospel, and to resist schisms and fanatics;
5) who have a pure humility of heart and a sincere love for their Church, as those who have the mystery of faith in a clean conscience;
6) who are ready to suffer joyfully and willingly all kinds of crosses and tribulations from within and without, for the sake of the precious confession and the pure and only doctrine;
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7) who will take heed to themselves and to all the flock which the Lord and chief Shepherd may one day entrust them to feed them faithfully, both as a whole and individually;
8) who at last also diligently work to keep the unity of Spirit in the bond of peace [Eph. 4:3] also among themselves, remembering that they serve — — their God in the same most holy cause, namely in the edification of His holy Church as His co-laborers. —
Of the three educational institutions mentioned above, which belong to the entire Synod, the fourth is the Teachers’ Seminary.
This was at first located at Fort Wayne and was initially left there under the direction of Professors Fleischmann and A. Selle, after the practical preacher’s seminary had already been moved from Ft. Wayne to St. Louis. Meanwhile, the need and lack of such school teachers, who not only have knowledge and teaching skills, but also, driven by the love of Christ, have a heart for school children, was so great that a larger school teacher training seminary was considered necessary. The above-mentioned congregation in Addison, Illinois, near Chicago, donated plenty of land, paid a large part of the costs of the construction, and in 1865 the Teachers' Seminary was opened in Addison, Illinois. Since Prof. Fleischmann had accepted a call to a congregation, Pastor W. Lindemann, who had previously been in West Cleveland, was appointed director of the Addison Teachers' Seminary, in addition to Prof. A. Selle, who still works in Addison today. He had already been trained in a teachers’ training seminary in Hanover, and later he attended the preacher seminary in this country. As assistant pastor and later as pastor in Cleveland he showed such pedagogical gifts that everyone recognized him as the most suitable man for the directorship of that school. He not only had the formal teaching skills to share his knowledge with his students in a stimulating way and make it their living possession,
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he also showed himself as a strong manly character as director, by virtue of which he also energetically influenced the attitude of his pupils, as a faithful and determined Lutheran, who lived God's Word and the confession of his church in his heart. With a sharp eye and correct tact he practiced such discipline that not only aroused respect, but also heartfelt trust among the students. Dr. Sihler says of him: “Without having to pass through the dormitory and workplaces of the seminarians many times in restless haste and superfluous inspection eagerness, the director's footsteps were, as it were, heard throughout the entire institution, even though he did not move his feet but let them rest under his desk.” The blow and loss for the Synod was all the more severe when the Lord was pleased to call him quickly out of this life in January 1879. Only 52 years old, he had, humanly speaking, exhausted his powers, which is why Dr. Sihler applied the word to him: “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” [Ps. 69:9] — As much as this loss was mourned, one was allowed to experience that the Lord God did not let the orphaned school be laid low for too long. Lindemann's position was happily filled again and the gap was filled by the appointment of the present director E. Krauss, who, after attending three German universities and having previously served as a pastor in the Missouri Synod area of Wisconsin for several years, later served in the separated [or free] Lutheran Church at Baden [Germany], and from there again followed this call to the Addison institution. As the demands placed on the school teachers are also increasing in the areas of general knowledge, the English language, music, etc., the number of professors has also increased and now stands at seven. Director E. Krauss is also the editor of the Evangelisch-lutherisches Schulblatt, which W. Lindemann had published since 1865. After 65 new students joined in the current year, the total number of students in Addison is now 196. — It remains to mention the
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secondary schools [Progymnasien] founded in smaller circles within the synod by individual districts or by congregations in cities, in which preliminary work is done in preparation for the upper classes of the Ft. Wayne institution. Such schools are found in Milwaukee, New Orleans, Wittenberg, Wis., Concordia, Missouri, and New York City. In addition, there are a number of charitable institutions, a hospital, founded by the sainted Pastor J. F. Buenger, and an orphanage near St. Louis, as well as three other orphanages (in Addison, Ill., in Roxbury near Boston and in Wittenberg, Wis.), a deaf-mute institution in Royal Oak in Michigan, a boys’ high school and a high school for girls in St. Louis. — The above-mentioned R. Hoffmann mentions in this connection the Synod’s book publishing house founded in 1870 in St. Louis,also the Negro mission, which has its headquarters in Arkansas and in New Orleans, to which the recently started mission to the Jews in New York is added, in which Missionary Landsmann works with extraordinary success, also the Lutheran Hospital in the eastern part of New York City, which is maintained at great cost and has its own chaplain in the person of Pastor F. Richmann, and finally the emigrant mission *) cultivated by the Synod on behalf of the whole Synodical Conference, which is located in
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*) The addresses of emigrant missionaries who offer to advise German emigrants, mainly members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, are
in New York: Pastor S. Keyl, 10 Battery Place,
in Bremen: Wilhelm Vopel, Meadow Street 9,
in Hamburg: Balt. Lorenz Meyer, Correspondent, old Gröningerstrasse 13,
Herm. Tormählen, Missionary, hostel to the homeland, near St. Annen 14,
in Baltimore: W. Sallman, 177 East Pratt Street.
Since among the hundreds of thousands who each year seek a new home on the other side of the ocean there are also thousands who want to be Lutherans, but since the need that German Lutheran emigrants in America face is great, Pastor St. Keyl, urged by the love of Christ, decided as early as 1868 to minister to the German emigrants in the
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New-York and in Baltimore for the immigrating German, also in Hamburg and in Bremen one agent each.
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large port city, especially to help them to gain the necessary acquaintance with the American conditions, also to help them in a material way where it is necessary, and to advise them in such a way that they do not move to such places here in the country where they have to suffer spiritual atrophy and damage to the soul. Countless souls, often well disposed, who come from churches that want to be Lutheran, fall into the hands of the enemies and opponents of the Lutheran Church in America, who often already in German port cities exert all means to win them over for themselves.
After Pastor St. Keyl initially undertook this important work on his own, he was appointed in 1869 by the New York Conference of the seven Missourian pastors there. These, in conjunction with Baltimore and Pittsburgh, provided him with some salary. It was only when the work of our emigrant mission was underway that it was offered to and accepted by the general synod of Missouri, including St. Paul's. A brief overview of this Lutheran emigrant mission is given in the following:
From 1870 until the end of 1883, Pastor Keyl aided 27,000 people, administered $417,636 for immigrants, advanced $47,252 to new immigrants, of which $5,000 is still outstanding, most of which is probably considered lost. He also provided employment for 1,042 persons.
Handed out to immigrants 247,669 tracts, 13,000 Missouri Synod calendars and Youth calendars.
In the last three years Pastor Keyl not only put 518 people into work, he also spent $1481.81 as alms for hot meals, lodging, provisions for onward travel, etc. Most of the money that went out of his hands over the last three years, about $222,000, was sent to Pastor Keyl by friends and relatives from America for immigrants, for which he procured ship tickets in Bremen and Hamburg, also from Antwerp and Rotterdam, and also in New York, where he procured rail tickets on arrival. About $24,000 were advanced to immigrants for their continued journey from the Commission's coffers, of which all but $4000 came back. Efforts are now under way to purchase our own Emigrant House. Since the mission of the Missouri Synod has for years been incompatible with the mission of the General Council, which was conducted in a completely different spirit, and nevertheless constantly assumed greater proportions since it is working alone,
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— In view of all this R. Hoffman finally exclaims in his book: “All this is the work of scarcely forty years; the seed, which was once strewn with trembling and fear, has given a thousand-fold harvest; no authority has protected the development with its arm, no state has offered the means, no coercion has extorted the money; voluntarily, the mites [as in the widow’s mite, Mark 12:42] of the rich and poor have been put into God's treasury chest, unconstrained love has joined one to another; — who could fail to recognize the blessing of God? — Who could fail to see that prejudice has clouded the eye, that he will not gladly and joyfully admit: This is what the Lord has done!”
Addendum from page XV, “Corrections”: Also in Baltimore, Md., where many German immigrants also land, there is an emigrant mission, which has arisen through the care of the local pastors and congregations of the Missouri Synod.
The agent of this mission is Mr. Wilhelm Sallmann, who dedicates himself with great self-denial to the counselling and safe transportation of the immigrants there.
His address is: 117 East Pratt St. in Baltimore, Md.
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then such an Emigrant House would be of great benefit; meanwhile, the people who entrust themselves to our missionaries are accommodated in New York in proper, good emigrant lodgings. — It is highly advisable that emigrants who leave Germany should from the start put their travel affairs, especially the procurement of steamer tickets, in the hands of the emigrant missionary employed in Bremen or Hamburg. Whoever does this secures for himself from the beginning to the end of his journey the various services of our Lutheran emigrant mission. Before contacting another agent or paying a deposit, emigrants should seek the advice of the emigrant missionaries stationed in Bremen and Hamburg. Their addresses are noted above.
— In the next Part 11, Chapter 7.
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