For years and from the most diverse sides, from individuals and from entire conferences, the wish and the request has been expressed again and again that the letters of our blessed Dr. Walther be published in print. To mention only one word, in the year of Walther's jubilee (1911) an older member of our synod, who has an authoritative judgment in such questions and who was personally close to Walther, wrote to the editor: “In my opinion, a selection from his incomparably beautiful letters, which also bring to view the purely human aspects of his God-blessed personality, would be even more valuable.” The editor considers this judgment fully justified and is convinced that no one will read these letters without deep inner movement and manifold benefit. If letters give us the most accurate insight into a man's heart and teach us to understand him correctly, then in these letters we encounter the most diverse sides of Walther's personality, and we recognize anew his great importance for the Lutheran Church of the 19th century in general and for our Synod in particular. We see his burning zeal for pure doctrine and the spread of the kingdom of God; we hear how he knows how to comfort the fainthearted and the despondent and how he conscientiously advises those in need of counsel; we gain an idea of the intimate relationship that existed between the fathers of our synod in those first difficult times; we take a look at Walther's beautiful family life. That the letters also offer a valuable contribution to the history of our synod and its struggles, that they provide the right information about some events, will soon be recognized by anyone who has looked around in this area. [See balance in » Read more « section below]
About the origin of the collection it should be mentioned that already years ago the younger son-in-law of Walther, President J. H. Niemann, had made many copies of Walther's letters with great effort. He had made this collection of 339 letters available to Dr. A. L. Gräbner for use in the intended second volume of the History of the Lutheran Church in America. After Gräbner's death, on Niemann's instructions, the editor took custody of it, and after Niemann's death it was finally transferred to the archives of our institution. In addition, the editor has for years collected other letters of Walther in the original and registered as much as possible those already in print. Thus a collection of more than 500 letters is available. The letters reported in Günther's Lebensbild Walther have not been taken into account here and reprinted, since it can be assumed that this biography is in the hands of all those to whom these letters reach; on the other hand, the letters which at that time Pastor Fr. Brunn published in his Mitteilungen aus der ev.-luth. Mission und Kirche unter den Deutschen Nordamerikas and Pastor Chr. Hochstetter in the "Lutherischen Volksblatt" have been utilized, since these journals are accessible to only a few.
About the work of the editor it should be noted that the letters are reproduced diplomatically accurate; only the orthography is the one in use today, and the date,
which Walther placed sometimes at the beginning, sometimes at the end of his letters, is placed uniformly and clearly at the beginning. Some letters have not been completely preserved or have not been completely communicated in the mentioned journals, and the originals were not accessible; this has then always been marked. In a number of letters, there are quite confidential communications that are not suitable for the public, or judgments about persons and circumstances of which the same applies. These have been omitted; however, this has also been indicated in each case by points of omission. On the other hand, some of Walther's judgments, which the subsequent period has not justified, sometimes even sharp words about opponents have been left in, since in our opinion an editor of such historical documents should not suppress something without compelling reason. The editor has added the names and addresses of the recipients of the letters in the headings; he has also made a whole series of notes to help those who are unfamiliar with the initial history of the synod or Walther's circle of relatives to understand it. Especially there it is difficult to find the right measure and to avoid too little or too much. A general knowledge of Walther's life and the history of our synod, its institutions and its leading personalities is a prerequisite for reading these letters. An index of the letters according to their recipients, which at the same time indicates the main content of each letter, will hopefully also facilitate reference. Originally, the editor intended to separate the letters to friends and synod associates from those addressed to members of Walther's own family; however, it soon became apparent that the latter often contained interesting ecclesiastical messages as well, so that from
this point of view, too, the purely chronological arrangement was recommended. This first volume offers 112 letters.
Material to publish a second and third volume [Ed. - third volume never published] of similar scope to the present one is still available. Their appearance depends in part on the reception that this volume receives. The editor can only say that a large number of letters of great historical value and personal interest are still in the collection. He will always be grateful for hints and advice, especially for the sending of letters that have not yet become available to him.
May this collection of letters also serve to keep fresh the memory of the great theologian and pious man to whom the Church owes so much!
L. Fuerbringer.
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo.,
New Year's Eve, 1914.
The first volume of the letters of our blessed Dr. Walther has found such a friendly reception within and also outside of our synod that the second volume with 130 letters can already appear after a year. The editor has followed the same approach in this volume as he did in the preface to the first volume. These letters, too, offer valuable contributions to the history of our Synod and also contain many other useful and beautiful things, so that every reader will find something for himself in them.
Since the publication of the first volume, even more material has become available to the editor, partly through research and partly through the kind sending of letters. He owes the letters to the President of the Iowa Synod [Grossmann] to Prof. Geo. J. Fritschel, who made copies of them for him from the archives of the Iowa Synod. He asks again now to send him letters that are still unknown to him, and will always be grateful for them. He has not been able to decide to exclude smaller and seemingly less significant letters, and will continue to present in the coming volumes [these never came] everything that has become known to him, in the expectation that readers will not regret it if many of Walther's letters are presented to them. Especially younger Pastors of our synod who were not Walther's students have assured him that they read the letters with great benefit, interest and blessing. He repeats the assurance that a large number of historically highly valuable and personally very interesting letters are still waiting to be printed. And each letter is a stroke on the overall picture of Walther.
May the second volume also find as many attentive readers as the first and keep fresh the memory of the great theologian and childlike pious man to whom the Church owes so much.
L. Fuerbringer.
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo.,
New Year's Eve 1915.
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