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| Zorn, O. Willkomm, F. Zucker after leaving Leipzig Mission |
“You have not been ashamed… also of us. — The confession of our church is the unadulterated Word of God. — The name retained is only the stamp of hypocrisy. — But whoever recognizes this must, if he does not want to be lost… go out from it. — Those who have recognized these depths and yet remain… will one day not stand before God with their unbelief. — When the wolves are put together with the sheep, the latter do not tame the former, but the wolves tear them apart. — So staying in such unionist fellowships becomes the cause that the false and unbelievers corrupt the believers and gradually eat up the church skin and hair. — Or if you cannot remain in East India, come to America.”
St. Louis, February 11, 1876.
Dear, dear brother in the Lord!
God's grace and comfort above all!
Your “Declaration” and that of the brothers associated with you has reached me and has already been published in our Der Lutheraner of the 1st of this month [February 1 issue]. You have given us an unspeakable joy through this public declaration. Without suspecting that so soon a testimony would reach my hands that we have in you faithful companions in faith and confession, I had reported to the readers in the previous number of January 15 [p. 15] that a glorious work of God was in the offing among you in East India, a sincere return to the church of the Reformation. If this news had already drawn the eyes of all righteous Lutherans here to East India, I now hear that even more are now praising God abundantly for the abundant grace through many thanksgivings. Your “Declaration” has mightily strengthened many believers in these frightening times. O give thanks that you have not been ashamed not only of the truth, but also of us, the least and most despised confessors of it. God reward you for this in time and eternity! Without a doubt, many prayers for you in America are now rising up to God daily. A few days after the arrival of your “Declaration” I also received your dear letter informing us of your present position and situation. I cannot tell you how great our joy became. The more we had experienced rejection of our testimony for the old doctrine of Luther and its consequences almost everywhere, and it seemed to us as if no one wanted to take the disgrace from us or to bear with us that we were a new sect, the more we saw a dawn shining in your communications. We had to say a cheerful yes and amen to everything you wrote about the ground on which you stand and about the steps you have already taken. Since you hinted that you could easily be embarrassed with regard to food and clothing as a result of a suspension already threatened to you, we immediately (on January 21) sent a cable dispatch to you asking whether you were in need of money, with the remark that we had already paid the price of a return dispatch to be sent by you to us (page 35). We were told at the telegraph office that we would soon receive an answer. So I waited for the same, especially because you yourself had expressed the fear that our answer would “hardly” reach you, since you would probably have to vacate your post very soon. Perhaps it was foolish, however, that I did not answer immediately, even at the risk that my letter might not reach you. So I do not want to wait any longer. You cannot know with any certainty how we stand here with regard to the steps you have taken, since we have not yet exchanged a word about the concrete ecclesiastical conditions in our homeland and about your involvement in them.
Since God has brought you to the conviction that the confession of our church is the unadulterated Word of God and the voice of the whole holy Christian church of all times on the whole globe, could not and should not, according to our conviction, act in any other way than you have acted. It is true that the Leipzig Mission is an institute of such ecclesiastical fellowships which have not yet given up the name Lutheran, have not yet completely abolished the confessions and lay claim to the character of Lutheran churches. But what is the use of not officially declaring oneself united, while the very worst union permeates the whole ecclesiastical organism like a leaven? An ecclesiastical fellowship which trains and equips its preachers with men who teach almost no article of the faith purely and who reject even primary fundamental articles, sometimes in reverse and sometimes outright; an ecclesiastical fellowship which, while not abolishing the confession, puts the obligation to it on screws, in order to give the enemies of the truth the possibility of remaining in its midst and to keep them back, at least for a time, from an ecclesiastical revolution which is now only too easy to carry through; an ecclesiastical fellowship which tolerates all kinds of unbelievers and false believers in its pulpits and has its own children poisoned and murdered with obviously fundamental false teaching: such a fellowship may call itself what it will, it is United [Prussian Union]; the name retained is only the stamp of hypocrisy which it thereby expresses. (Page 36) But whoever recognizes this must, if he does not want to be lost and become a partaker of the punitive judgments of the apostate church, go out from it. As far as we are from throwing out the baby with the bathwater and claiming that even those in the State Churches who “have not recognized the depths of Satan” are lost, it is clear to us that the apostate church is not the only one who is lost. It is clear to us that those who have recognized these depths and yet remain, whether out of concern that otherwise everything will fall to pieces, or out of timidity before the cross, which always follows the confession of the deed, will one day not stand before God with their unbelief, which puts the church on the basis of human wisdom, and with their denial, which wants to follow Christ but not deny itself. The blindness is horrifying and already a sign of God's judgment on the proven unfaithfulness, that one does not see how waiting does not stop the fall of the church, but rather makes it more and more frightening. As when the wolves are put together with the sheep, the latter do not tame the former, but the wolves tear them apart, as the Lord says, so staying in such unionist fellowships becomes the cause that the false and unbelievers corrupt the believers and gradually eat up the church skin and hair. Woe to those who look on calmly, be it out of church politics, struck with blindness, be it out of love for the world! It is true, as our confession testifies [Power and Primacy of the Pope, § 42, after the German]: “It is hard to want to separate from so many countries and people and to lead a particular doctrine. But here is God's command, that everyone should beware and not be united (socii) with those who lead unrighteous doctrine or intend to maintain it with rage.” Those who stay persuade themselves that they must do so in order to preserve the Gospel and its goods for the poor people, but in their blindness they do not see that by staying they are not preserving the Gospel for the people, but taking it away, and that the only way of salvation is to flee the holy vessels from Babylon. One credits oneself and consoles oneself with the fact that there are no longer so many rationalists in the pulpits of the State Churches, and that the number of believing pastors has grown considerably and the knowledge has become clearer. But O! miserable consolation! The more God has done to open eyes, the more resolute obedience He now demands, having “overlooked the time of ignorance.” (page 37)
So then, dear brothers, stand firm! Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might! Do not give way, for His soul will not be pleased with those who give way. Though we are few in number, and though our adversaries may say, “My name is Legion, for we are many,” [Mark 5:9] yet the Lord is with us, against whom millions are but a drop in the bucket. “Just fresh in, it won't be that deep!” [hymn by M. Konegehl] God cannot become a liar. He cannot abandon in His glory those who, even if all the world abandons them, do not want to give away one iota of His pure Word. Even if we remain small, we remain a salt and a light; but the salt and light need not be so much as that which it is to salt and to illuminate.
Should you not succeed with your conditions, our opinion is this: either you remain in East India, if you can continue your mission there, and we offer ourselves as your providers with the means for this poor life, namely we Missourians, with whom all synods belonging to the Synodical Conference, of which our Missouri Synod is a part, will unite in any case; or if you cannot remain in East India, come to America. Here is work and bread for you all, though only a modest part. Ten per parish will open their doors to receive you with wife and child for the waiting period. It would not be a burden for us to receive you, but a high honor of which we do not even consider ourselves worthy, namely the honor of receiving confessors and with them the Lord Jesus Himself. What you need beforehand, just report to us as God's treasurers, and as much as God gives us, we will happily share with you.
My colleagues, Professors Schaller, Günther and Schmidt, as well as the local pastors Brohm, Bünger, Brauer, Link, Sapper, Töwe and Lenk greet you with brotherly love.
It commands you all to the divine guidance for the temporal and eternal salvation of all of you and for the consolation of the Church in these last sorrowful times.
Your brother and companion in tribulation
and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ
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| C. F. W. Walther |
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