A new English Lutheran family paper.
We have just received the first issue of such a paper, which bears the title: The Lutheran Witness. It is intended to serve the interests of the General Synod of Missouri and its friends, and is edited by Rev. C. A. Frank, of Zanesville, Ohio, under the auspices of the Cleveland District Conference. We can hardly describe how joyfully we have been surprised by the appearance of this paper. Some time ago the rumor had reached our ears that such an English paper was in prospect; but since we heard nothing further of the project, we feared that it would be abandoned because of the difficulties involved, since the number of English Lutheran congregations in our district is so small. To our great joy, however, we have been undeceived by the reception of the first issue. The only family Lutheran paper in the English language which claimed to represent the pure old Lutheran doctrine was hitherto the [Lutheran] Standard of Columbus [Ohio Synod]. In the hope that this paper would gradually become at least somewhat of an organ for the dissemination of sound Lutheran doctrine and correct Lutheran practice, we were also content with the same, and in hopeful love covered up the poverty of this paper. However, where truth is perverted, the tolerance of love ceases. For some time now, the unfortunate Standard has made it its business to pervert the divine truth and to blaspheme the confessors of the same in the most fraudulent manner. Whether this happens in blindness, in which God has given the writers of the Standard out of righteous judgment, or in pure ignorance, we do not want to and cannot decide. Enough, the Standard has however become an unholy instrument for the destruction of the true Lutheran organization, under hypocritical carrying of the banner of the same. To be sure, the paper and its subsidiary moons are quite harmless meteors in the church heavens. For although they enjoy the sympathy of many, even outside the Ohio Synod, only the Ohio Synod itself marvels at the wisdom it supposes to hear from its Standard and its satellites: but to be really instructed by Ohio's leaders, of that outside Ohio nothing is yet to be noticed. The Standard is only good enough for our enemies outside Ohio to do the dirty work of throwing excrement at Missouri. Rightly, therefore, our Witness writes in its editorial program: “Of course, those who wish genuine Lutheranism to be spread can no longer leave the preservation of their treasures in the hands of Ohioans, but must be their own watchmen to guard their sacred jewels.”
Our dear Frank, of all people, is also evidently the right man to carry forward the banner of the Reformation. He was himself a professor at Columbus; he therefore knows better than anyone else the secret history of that anti-Lutheran castle from which the Lutheran banner flutters in the air. He has also shown how much his love can endure; for it was he who still hoped for Columbus when everyone on the side of truth had already given up the same. But if our Frank has therefore shown something of Melanchthon's mildness, all who know him know that behind this mildness there is a Lutheran steel nature which, after all, does not forgive the truth one iota, whether it concerns friend or foe.
The first number before us is excellent. *) It is true that in it a pleasant rain usually falls on readers who are looking for edification, but in the distance lightning is already flashing from dark clouds, which are not exactly edifying for the enemies of truth, but promising for this organ to all friends of truth.
Then, dear brethren who understand English, hurry and order the beautiful paper; you will truly get back more than you spend for it. To let the paper greet us Lutherans in vain would indeed be a great shame for us. The subscription price for the whole year, about the same as the Standard, except that the Witness is published only twice a month, is $1.00. Address to The Lutheran Witness, 16 Harvey St., Zanesville, Ohio W. [Walther].
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*) It is a pity that there are so many printing errors in this first number.
- Walther was not above using colorful language against his opponents who threw “excrement [Kot] at Missouri.”
- Walther admitted that in regards to the opposing Ohio Synod's publication, he “in hopeful love covered up the poverty of this paper” for awhile. Walther, like Luther, did not look down on weak brethren. Only when those who used their weakness to promote error did Walther, as Luther, call out their error publicly and defend (“Wehre”) against their error.
- He considered that the Witness editor C. A. Frank had “shown something of Melanchthon's mildness.” In other words, compared to Walther's Der Lutheraner, The Lutheran Witness was not as sharp in its polemics in distinguishing the Lutheran doctrine against the errorists.
I. America.
The second issue of the new English Lutheran family newspaper The Lutheran Witness, whose appearance we announced in the last issue of the Lutheraner, has just come out. In it the editor, Pastor Frank, writes: “Gifts, subscriptions and letters which we have received allow us to make the announcement that our Witness has been favorably received and that its publication will be continued." While we never doubted for a moment that the paper would not only endure, but would in time acquire a large readership, since it owes its origin neither to the thrill of writing nor to the desire for profit, but merely to the duty of attending to the blasphemed truth, we hope that our dear readers will receive with pleasure the news that the continuance of the Witness is already assured. Now may all who understand a paper written in the English language avail themselves of the opportunity afforded them by the Witness to hear a “witness” for Lutheran truth and against the miserable distortions of it now to be found even in such English papers as have hypocritically written the name “Lutheran” on their foreheads [Ohio Synod’s Lutheran Standard]. W. [Walther]
A quarter century ago, in a March 19, 1996 post to the old Wittenberg listserv, David Mahsman, then executive editor of The Lutheran Witness, gave this history:
ReplyDeleteIn a post about two essays by C.F.W. Walther being available via the Project Wittenberg Gopher, Bob wrote that they "are originally from DER LUTHERANER, the predecessor to THE LUTHERAN WITNESS." Sorry, but I can't help but offer an historical correction.
It's a common misconception that THE LUTHERAN WITNESS was originally published in German and called DER LUTHERANER. Not so. THE LUTHERAN WITNESS has _always_ been an English-language magazine. DER LUTHERANER, which did not cease publication until the 1970s, was _always_ a separate, German-language magazine.
THE LUTHERAN WITNESS began publication in 1882 with financial support from the Cleveland District Conference of the Missouri Synod. It's initial purpose was to be an English-language response to the Ohio Synod's magazine, the Lutheran Standard, in the predestinarian controversy. Eventually, the English Synod, organized in 1888, took the magazine as its official periodical.
When the English Synod joined the Missouri Synod in 1911, it offered THE LUTHERAN WITNESS to the Missouri Synod. The offer was accepted, and THE LUTHERAN WITNESS became an official periodical of the LCMS, _alongside_ DER LUTHERANER. The were separate magazines and generally did not duplicate the content of the other. For a period, however, (I don't have the dates at my fingertips) both were edited by Theodore Graebner. I can tell you, though, that from 1914 to 1949, Graebner co-edited THE LUTHERAN WITNESS with Martin Sommer, who was president of the English Synod when it became the English District of the Missouri Synod in 1911.
David Mahsman
Executive Editor
THE LUTHERAN WITNESS
"Carl Vehse":
DeleteThank you for sending this. I apologize for the delay in getting your comment posted, and have inserted a headline at top to alert first time readers. — I remember Mahsman as editor when I was still reading the Witness and consider him in the mold of his predecessor Theodore Graebner, who denied Walther's Lutheran doctrine of the Church just before he died.
(Since Google quit giving me immediate alerts when comments come in for moderation, you may want to alert me to these type of informative blog comments by direct email using my "franzpieper.com" address above. I would have posted this comment immediately as helpful.)