"True Lutheranism Never Dies"

"THE VITALITY OF LUTHERANISM

"Lutheranism is a hardy plant. It thrives in all climates and under all circumstances and is hard to exterminate. It is of God-planting and cannot be plucked up. We give the following as one of many instances. About forty years ago the Rev. S., a most pious and excellent young Lutheran minister, was called to the pastorate of the Lutheran church at M. He was full of life and fire. His preaching took effect upon the hearts of the people. An extensive revival followed. Many souls were awakened, and there was a very great excitement. Poor Bro. S. was himself made of very excitable material, and contrary to the convictions of his better judgment, he was also carried away in the maelstrom of physical excitement. His members became fanatical, and, under the pressure of excitement, ran every thing into the ground. Some few of the older, and more grave and intelligent members of the church, resisted this new style of Lutheranism, and contended for the good old ways of their fathers. The church split, the great body of the members going with the new party, leaving the few firm old Lutherans in a hopeless minority. The new party, as they supposed, with the wealth, the members, and all the piety on their side, would no doubt carry away the palm. They built a new church; they were not going to remain in the old rat hole—no not they! . . . But alas! [everything] went down, down, down until their congregation was scattered to the four winds! The last we heard of those reformed Lutherans, was that they had become Millerites [a sect which believed the Second Coming of Christ would be in 1843], and were among those who had their ascension robes ready to go up to glory! The church is long since among the things that were. Like Moses, it is dead, and buried, but no man knoweth unto this day where it is buried. Mr. S. has long since seen the errors of his youthful zeal without knowledge, and has been and is still laboring faithfully, and with acceptance and success, in the old Lutheran vineyard that hath not been destroyed by the wild boar of the forest.

"And now for the old rat hole. Few cases have occurred where Lutheranism had a better opportunity to give the world an exhibition of its vitality. Here it was an old dilapidated building, surrounded by a fanatical atmosphere, with nearly all its young material driven off—only a few old people left—the prospects were indeed dark and gloomy. But their motto was:

'Gottes Wort, und Luther's Lehr,

Vergehen nun und nimmerniehr.'

"They raised the old Lutheran standard, and the friends of Bible religion clustered around it. It is now a large flourishing and efficient congregation. What hath not God wrought?

"True Lutheranism never dies; it is immortal. Two hundred years ago it was planted on the frozen shores of Iceland, and it is still there in a flourishing condition. It was planted nearly a century ago on the burning plains of India, and is still there, bearing like the palm tree, its precious fruit. Where it once gets a foot hold it remains.—R. W.."

Quoted from John G. Morris, Fifty Years in the Lutheran Ministry (Baltimore: 1878),pages 558-560.