Signs of the Times.
[by C. F. W. Walther, quoting the Spectator newspaper]
“You will allow me, Mr. Editor, to inform my German fellow citizens through the Spectator what the views of these Red Republicans actually are, and then they may decide for themselves whether the papers that represent them are organs of the Germans in America.
.jpg "June & February 1848 socialist battles (in France)")
A manifesto of the German Democrats was published in Geneva, in which it says:
“The June battle is the birthday of the Reds, our Republic. The February struggle has world-historical significance only because it made the June Revolution possible. ... From now on it is a matter of a struggle for the destruction of our own or the opposing party; only after the complete subversion and destruction of all present social conditions can we realize the principles of our party ... Religion, which must be driven out of education, must disappear from the minds of men ... The revolution destroys religion altogether by making the hope of heaven superfluous through the freedom and welfare of all on earth. We therefore take account of religious struggles and endeavors, the formation of free communities, etc., only in so far as religious freedom is understood to mean freedom from all religion. We do not want the freedom of faith, but the necessity of unbelief. In this, as in every other respect, we seek to break completely with the entire past. We do not want to graft new rice onto the rotten "We do not want to graft new rice onto the rotten stem; we do not want reform in any respect, but revolution everywhere.”
.jpg "Karl Heinzen (Wikipedia)")
[Karl] Heinzen, currently editor of a German newspaper in New York, is said to have written the above manifesto. He insists on blood, on a sea of blood, calls humanity madness and sees "fulminating silver" [explosives] as one of the most powerful means for the good of mankind. Heinzen proposes to blow up entire cities with 100,000 people through underground chambers of fulminating silver, and also to bring "a million barbarians" underground.
Neff says in his “Beiträgen zur Bauernpolitik” [Contributions to Peasant Politics]:
“We must kill the dogs, persecute the enemies of noble humanity, curtail the greater fortunes by increasing income and inheritance taxes up to 50%, cast bullets under a terrible oath and make registers of those who must die for the prosperity of the social republic; burn the princely, dog-like, humble prayer books, and adopt the religion of bravery and the pride of freedom. The ancients sacrificed men to their idol god; we must sacrifice men to the god of freedom. Only when the blood of a thousand human sacrifices has risen to heaven will freedom and love return to earth.”
.jpg "Robert Blum (Wikipedia)")
The bookseller Hof, of Manheim, exclaimed at [Robert] Blum's funeral in Zurich in 1849:
“The great guiding thought of the Baden revolution was: There is no God! God is in man to create a paradise on earth. Dortu, Heilig and Trützschler [?] died with the conviction: We are going to nothing, but we have fought for freedom. — Blood! Revenge! A greater stream of blood must flow from the clear hearts of reaction than the Rhine.”
However, one should not believe that these are merely the views of individual men, and that the people of Germany reject them with disgust. Germany, the fatherland of the Reformation, has long been alienated from the Christian faith among its higher classes, and in recent times it has become increasingly apparent that the consequences of rationalism have led to complete and blatant atheism and are now festering among the masses of the people. The depth of religious decay may be illustrated by a scene taken from life in a German hostel in Geneva: "It is the Saturday before Easter. The night is swarmed through without discipline; it cannot be said in front of men. In the morning, as they say, the hostel service is held; a journeyman is made a preacher, the others gather as confessors, boastfully confess their dissolute lives, and give their confessional pennies. This is used to buy brandy. Now how the act of Holy Communion is celebrated in the church. Just as the act of Holy Communion is administered in the house of God with the blessing of the sacrament with the simple and great words of institution of the Savior <page 85> and in His name, so it is done in the inn with fearful jeering, and is repeated until the brandy is finished.
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