Excerpt from Geschichte der deutschen evang.-luth. St. Pauls-Gemeinde zu Fort Wayne, Ind. vom Jahre 1837 bis 1887; translated by BackToLuther using DeepL Translator.
________________________
History
of the German
Evangelical Lutheran
St. Paul's Congregation
at
Fort Wayne, Ind,
from the Year 1837 to 1887.
On the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Congregation
honored by
H. G. Sauer.
St. Louis, Mo.
Printing house of the Luth. Concordia Publishing House.
1887.
Dedicated to
Their Children
by the
St. Paul's Congregation.
Foreword.
In recording the following history of St. Paul's parish, since I have only been at the parish since 1875, I have partly recounted oral reports of individual co-founders of the parish who are still alive, and partly I have drawn from the "Lebensbild des Hochwürdigen F. C. Wyneken" (Portrait of the Reverend F. C. Wyneken) drawn by the same director, J. C. W. Lindemann, and the "Lebenslauf Dr. W. Sihler" (Curriculum Vitae of Dr. W. Sihler), as well as from the minutes of the parish.
With joy I have undertaken this work assigned to me by the parish, not only to make a small contribution to its jubilee celebrations as a "helper of its joy" in my small part, but above all to help the children of St. Paul's parish through the "life picture" of the parish. Paul's congregation, through the picture presented in this history of the faith, zeal, fidelity and sacrifice of the fathers for the building and preservation of the Lutheran Church, to encourage them to follow in the footsteps (page VI) of the same and to emulate their faith, so that by God's grace a truly Evangelical Lutheran congregation may be preserved among our descendants, and they themselves, our children, may follow their fathers to the great congregation of all the blessed and elect.
"Stand ye in the ways, and look, and enquire of the former ways what is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." Jer. 6:16.
Fort Wayne, Ind, Sept. 25, 1887.
H. G. Sauer.
History
of the
Lutheran St. Paul's Congregation
at
Fort Wayne, Indiana.
I.
First beginnings and establishment of the congregation by
Pastors Hoover and Wyneken.
It was on Saturday, October 14, 1837, that a number of Germans, some of them recent immigrants, assembled in a room of the courthouse at Fort Wayne and, after a confessional service, adopted the "Formula for the Discipline of the Evangelical Lutheran Church" (as the General Synod is called the Discipline of the Evangelical Lutheran Church" (this is the name of the "Gemeinde-Ordnung sowie Synodal-Ordnung" adopted by the General Synod in 1827 in the first minutes written in English) the first Evangelical Lutheran congregation at Fort (page 8) Wayne, at the same time the first in the whole state of Indiana. There were 23 family fathers and their confirmed family members, a total of 65 persons, who were enrolled in the church register as members of the newly founded congregation and enjoyed Holy Communion on the following day. The pastor of the congregation was Mr. Jesse Hoover, member of the Pennsylvania Lutheran Synod; the first officers were Adam Wesel and Heinrich Trier, elders, and Henry Rudisill and Konrad Rill, overseers.
This little band of Germans, consisting of Lutherans and Reformed, certainly did not then suspect what an important step they were taking by founding a Lutheran congregation; they wished at first only to provide for themselves and their children by raising up the preaching ministry. But, as the following history of the congregation proves, this founding of the first German Lutheran congregation at Fort Wayne was the beginning of a visitation of God's grace, which was to be of unspeakable and incalculable blessing not only to the Lutherans of this city and state, but to the entire Lutheran Church of this country. The 50-year history of St. Paul's Lutheran congregation at Fort Wayne, from its earliest beginnings, therefore, presents itself as a factual and quite evident proof of God's marvelous government in His Church.
The man who did most for the establishment of a Lutheran congregation in this city (page 9) and whose name the members of St. Paul's congregation, indeed, all Lutherans of this city, should keep in grateful memory was Henry Rudisill. The same, born in Pennsylvania, already a member of the Lutheran Church there, had moved to Fort Wayne with his wife, a great-granddaughter of the well-known Lutheran pastor Henkel, as early as 1829. At that time Fort Wayne had about 150 residents, mostly French and Indians. Rudisills were the first Germans and also the first Lutherans to settle there. How poor it was in this area at that time, how sparsely populated and almost completely cut off from trade and traffic with the outside world, is shown among other things by the fact that Rudisills had already lived in Fort Wayne for 9 months before they could buy the first pound of butter. There was no poultry, so no eggs either. A cow was worth 7 dollars, but there were none to buy; Fran Rudisill's father had to bring the first cows to the young people from Ohio. — By 1836, the population had grown to about 500. Rudisill could have joined one of the existing American sectarian churches; he had been invited to do so several times. But Rudisill was a Lutheran and wanted to remain a Lutheran. Therefore, when several other Germans gradually settled in the Fort Wayne area, he repeatedly approached the Emigrant Commission and at the same time the Missionary Society in the East, asking them to direct newly immigrated Lutherans (page 10) to the Fort Wayne area. He did this with the expressed intention of bringing about the establishment of a Lutheran congregation in this place. Through his letters Rudisill indeed directed a strong stream of German immigrants to this place, so that already in 1836 he was able to send a request for a Lutheran pastor to a Lutheran journalist in the East. But Rudisill was not only concerned about the spiritual well-being of the new immigrants, but he also took care of their physical well-being. He provided them with work, food and advice. If one did not know what to do, one went to Rudisill. With him everyone always found an open heart and an open hand.
Pastor Hoover, then in Woodstock, Virginia, read this request for a preacher, corresponded with Mr. Rudisill and the result was that he came to Fort Wayne in July of the same year and preached his first sermon to a considerable audience. He stayed only 10 days, but the mission post seemed to him so promising that he promised to return as soon as possible and administer the office of Lutheran pastor there. Already in the fall of that year he returned and on January 15, 1837, Holy Communion was celebrated for the first time, in which, according to the parish register, 63 persons participated. It was not until October 14, 1837, however, that the organization of a congregation was initiated. (Page 11) In the meantime he had traveled throughout northern Indiana to seek out the Germans who were scattered from time to time and to bring them the bread of life as well. He came to Adams County, to the small settlement of German Lutherans now known as Friedheim, and was called by them.
So Pastor Hoover served alternately the two small congregations in Fort Wayne and Adams County. At that time, there were no comfortable roads, and he had to make the long journeys through the bush mostly on foot. A large salary was not available at that time; a regular salary was not available at all. The pastor took what the people brought him. Money was seldom seen; there was almost only bartering. It happened that there was no flour to be found in the whole town; the same had to be brought on ox wagons from Piqua, Ohio. In such times one had to be content with grain flour. A co-founder of the community, who is still alive, tells that in his poverty at that time he pounded the grain into flour on a block of wood and then baked it, holding it on a board against the fire, since for a long time he had no oven, but only an open fireplace. At that time the land was still available at 1-1/2 dollars per acre. But the same had to be clarified first. Then, however, work was done again for a longer time on the canal, which was under construction at that time (page 12) and connected Fort Wayne with Toledo, so that the settler could get his hands on some money. For this hard work, however, only 15 dollars per month were paid, and this in script, in paper money, which often did not have its full value. With such poor conditions of his members, Pastor Hoover could not live in splendid circumstances. So great was the poverty of the people that the young woman pastor, in order to provide for the household, took boarders into the house. But nevertheless Hoover waited with great joyfulness, untiring zeal and rare self-denial of his laborious office. As long as he was in the city, he gave daily lessons to the children of his congregation. If he went on one of his missionary journeys, which extended northward into Michigan, his brother, David Hoover, held school for him. This, then, is a characteristic of St. Paul's congregation, which it has in common with all the congregations belonging to the subsequently established Missouri Synod, that Christian school instruction for the children has been provided in it from the time of its formation.
Pastor Hoover, although a Pennsylvanian-German who could probably speak English more fluently than German, preached exclusively in German the first year; the second year he began to preach in English at times. The service was very simple. Nothing was known then of the beautiful old Lutheran liturgical service as the congregation now has it. The pastor (page 13) preached without choir robes; since there were not enough hymnals, the songs were recited stanza by stanza and only then sung; neither [candle] lights nor hosts [wafers?] were used at communion. [?] Pastor Hoover's sermon, however, is praised by the first members of our St. Paul's congregation, who are still alive, as very edifying and attractive, as the sermon of a man who could be heard to say, "I believe, therefore I speak."
Sadly, just two years or so after his first visit to Fort Wayne, on May 23, 1838, at the age of 28, Rev. Hoover died as a result of heart disease, probably contracted from his grueling missionary travels.
But already in the fall of the same year the man came to Fort Wayne, under whom not only the Lutheran congregation there prospered most splendidly and strengthened inwardly and outwardly, who not only became "a saving messenger of God to many in Fort Wayne and the surrounding area, so that today still hundreds of fathers and mothers in Allen-, Adams-, Noble-, DeKalb, Whitley and Marshall counties remember him with thanksgiving to God," but who became a blessing to the whole Lutheran Church here, namely the Rev. Frederick Wyneken, most famously known as a pioneer missionary among the German Lutherans in the west of this country, and afterward highly respected as the long-time president of the Missouri Synod.
Having recently arrived in America to serve his spiritually neglected brethren in love, (page 14) he was commissioned by the Missionary Committee of the Synod of Pennsylvania to seek out the German Protestants scattered in the State of Indiana and to gather congregations among them. Since the elder of the congregation at Fort Wayne, Adam Wesel, had reported the death of their pastor in the "Lutherische Kirchenzeitung" and asked for the sending of another pastor, Wyneken immediately went to that city, visited the members there, preached to them and baptized their children. Immediately the congregation asked him to stay with them. And when the Missionary Committee of the Pennsylvania Synod released him from their service at his request and allowed him to serve the congregations in and around Fort Wayne as a called pastor, he accepted this calling; but he did not refrain from making the most extended missionary journeys from here, not only through Indiana, but also to Ohio, and even northward up to Michigan, journeys which often took 4-6 weeks. Of the tremendous toils, hardships and adversities which this heroic man of God gladly endured on his journeys, there is no need to speak here. (A still living member of the congregation from that time tells that Wyneken, returning from such journeys on bad roads and often in bad weather, cheerfully singing a song or whistling, so that one could hear him from far away, many a time stopped at his house, which lived about 5 miles from the city, and spent the night). But a description of the sad (page 15) ecclesiastical conditions among the Germans of that time from Wyneken's own pen may be included here, since it sheds light at the same time on the unspeakable spiritual misery from which Fort Wayne was torn, and on the rich blessing that was poured out by God on the congregations in Fort Wayne and the surrounding area through Wyneken's faithful service. The account is found in his booklet, The Plight of German Lutherans in North America. He reports: "After I had once ridden around in continuous rain and storm, in order to visit a settlement in the far West, which I had heard about, I finally met a man with a rifle over his arm at noon; it was a German. I made known to him my profession as a missionary of the Pennsylvanian Synod, and that I was willing to preach in the neighborhood. The man was pleased to hear a German Lutheran preacher after seven years; he was also pleased with regard to his children, who were not baptized. But when I asked him to humble the neighbors living in the forest, it turned out to be too wet in the bush for the hunter, who had just come from the bush. When I penetrated him, he had no time, although the next hut was hardly half an hour from the way; he directed me to a Hanse on the way. The mother with six or seven children, small and large, came here to the door; the same joy, the same request, the same answer; but there, a hundred steps further, her husband was chopping wood. I rode there, he hardly looked up from his work and had just as little time, and I, because (page 16) I could not even find someone who could only get me on my way, had to pass by a settlement that had not had a sermon, no sacraments among them for seven years! A hamburger, whom I soon found busy in front of his house, calmly went into the Halls with a 'So', as he was listening why I had come; he left me standing outside in the rain. In a town on the Wabash Canal, I had to get the men out of the liquor stores myself on Sunday afternoons, which I succeeded in doing only after much back-and-forth talking, although most of them, as long as they had been in America, had not heard a German sermon and understood no English."
"I have often had to baptize twelve or more children of various ages, often as many as 10 to 12 years old, at one time." - "In one settlement, where, as the world says, I only came by chance, I certainly had the joy of being allowed to baptize a mother of 40, after her husband had brought his two children, because she begged for it imploringly and with tears." - "I also baptized a young girl of 18 years in the same settlement, who was a believer in the Lord, but did not yet know the importance of baptism, nor had she found the opportunity for it."
"In the county I served, I had two organized congregations" (in Fort Wayne and Adams County), "which pretty much took up my time; yet I could not refrain from preaching to other settlements in the weekdays in response to the many calls. (pg. 17) I could not accept them as congregations, partly because a pagan ignorance prevailed among them, which first had to be overcome, and partly because I was not able to take over the special pastoral care of them due to lack of time. One of these settlements consisted of a couple of parents who were confirmed, but the wife could read only a little, the husband not at all; furthermore of three or four daughters married to strangers, a son of twenty years, at least twelve younger children and grandchildren of 16 years and under. None of the children and grandchildren could read. Although I preached there at least every three weeks and talked with them after the sermon about the way of salvation, I could not find the time to teach them, and so I had to watch a whole German settlement with its descendants fall into paganism before my eyes without being able to help. In another settlement there lived at least 16 Pennsylvanian-German families, who were still baptized in Pennsylvania, but now visibly fell into paganism with their children and children's children for lack of instruction. Likewise three other settlements, where the parents were already partly no longer baptized, others not confirmed, and although the parents begged me with tears that I would come to prepare their children, even the married ones, for Holy Communion, I had to refuse them with tears as well, and could only promise them to visit them then and (page 18) when, and point them to the prayer for help from Germany."
Such was the sad state of affairs in the Fort Wayne area 50 years ago. Such almost pagan darkness prevailed where God would set the bright light of the gospel high upon the lampstand. So desolate and overgrown was the field from which the Lord Himself wanted to make a garden of God through the pure preaching of His Gospel. Therefore, when we now look back after 50 years to the unspeakable spiritual hardship of that time, we must, in the full enjoyment of the beatific gospel that has shone and continues to shine in undiminished splendor in this congregation of ours for half a century, break out into the words of the Psalmist: "Rejoice in the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with joy, come before his face with gladness. Know that the LORD is God. He has made us, and not we ourselves, his people, and sheep of his pasture."
But even more! The fact that God led Wyneken to Fort Wayne as Hoover's successor must be highly praised and lauded as a special act of God's grace. If instead of Wyneken again a man from Pennsylvania had entered Hoover's work, then, as far as people can see, not only would Germanism have been lost within these 50 years - after all, the minutes about the formation of this congregation, as well as the entries of baptisms, confirmations, marriages and funerals (page 19) in the church book were in English by Hoover's hand! - but then (humanly speaking) pure Lutheranism would not have come to Fort Wayne. Sihler would not have come to Fort Wayne, the practical seminary for preachers, later an institution of the Missouri Synod, would not have been transferred to Fort Wayne - in short, all the blessings which, according to God's gracious good pleasure, have also gone out from Fort Wayne over the Lutheran Church of this country would have been lost to it. In the history of the Lutheran Church in America, therefore, St. Paul's Lutheran congregation at Fort Wayne will stand for all time as an especially glorious monument to God's grace.
When Wyneken came to Fort Wayne, it still looked very poor in every respect. There was a Lutheran congregation, but it had neither a church nor a parsonage. However, like the pastor Hoover, the miller Rudisill also took the pastor Wyneken into his house and gave him his own room, and this he did, since Wyneken was unmarried, for two years, free of charge. In Hoover's time, one room of the still unfinished courthouse, which was boarded up, was used for church meetings. The seats were made of rough, unplaned boards, and the altar was made of the same material. When the courthouse was declared dangerous to life because it threatened to collapse, they moved to a small brick schoolhouse across (page 20) the now reopened canal at Harrison and Superior streets, which has long since disappeared. There, for a time, Pastor Wyneken also continued to preach; but he taught his confirmands where the love of his parishioners afforded him a place.
But already in the fall of 1839, the congregation had built a small church, a frame building (40X24), on the property where the present St. Paul's Church stands, so that services could be held there. However, since the church could not be completed immediately, but because of the great poverty of the congregation only the shell could be erected, and not even a floor, but only rough planks could be laid and the walls inside could not be whitewashed, and since the following winter was a particularly severe one, the services had to be held once again in a frame building newly erected at the corner of Barr and Jefferson Streets, also still unfinished, but at least provided with two fireplaces.
How poor and miserable it was at that time can be seen from the following. The number of members had doubled around the year 1839, to about 50. However, they did not all live in the city; the majority were rather country people who had to walk 8 to 10 miles or even further to church on Sundays. For at that time there were neither carts nor passable roads on which one could have driven to church. A still living member of that time tells that he carried his firstborn son 5 miles through deep snow in the middle of the cold winter (page 21) to the city for baptism. Although the congregation had grown in number of members, it could not give a large salary to Pastor Wyneken. The daily wage in those days was 50 cents, the peasants received not only the lowest prices for their grain, eggs, butter, etc., but in many cases not even money. It was the heyday of bartering, and money was very scarce. So we should not be surprised that in those early days the pastor did not receive a certain salary. But this did not depress him at all. "On the contrary, he called these times of poverty the most beautiful of his life. He was poor then, very poor, "for all the support he received he quickly gave back to even poorer people; it happened that he gave away shirt, stockings to sick people he visited. At the same time he was always content and cheerful." He ate what God provided for him through the settlers; he slept where he was bedded - on hay and straw as sweetly as in a bed. When he arrived home, he ate and drank what he found, usually only bread and cold black coffee, and was so satisfied and pleased in his God that he did not wish for anything else and better. With such meager financial circumstances, Pastor Wyneken's clothing admittedly did not always have a particularly clerical appearance. It is known that for a long time Pastor Wyneken went about in yellow leggings of so-called "English leather". However, still living (page 22) members of the congregation remember to have seen him preaching even in cheap jeans, patched at the knees, as they are worn today by workers at work. Such a somewhat simple suit of the pastor, at the sight of which not only a German congregant, but now also many an American pastor would have been horrified, did not, however, stand out too much from the clothing of his listeners. The women, for example, wore Calico dresses and so-called sun-bonnets of Calico to church; the men, however, probably came to church in summer in shirtsleeves because they had no suitable skirt.
With Wyneken's powerful revivalist sermons and his heart-warming private pastoral care, as he pursued the individual souls, warning, punishing, enticing, the congregation grew visibly. At every communion, new members came forward for admission. But when Wyneken noticed that a raw, wild worldliness was threatening to break in among old and young in his congregation, he was not content to testify against it from the pulpit, but he called his church council, and together with them, as he himself wrote in the document still preserved in the first church book of the congregation, "some necessary rules which should be read out as obligations to anyone who should wish to join the congregation in the future". This document was read and accepted on Sunday, April 24, 1839, before the assembled congregation. However, these "rules" are such an important (page 23) document of St. Paul's congregation, because they not only form the first congregational order of the same, but because they allow us to take a deep look into the state of knowledge of pastor and congregation at that time, as well as the holy seriousness that lived in them.
After a righteous church member is described in the introduction as a person who leads a godly life in true repentance and living faith, and it is shown that every member commits himself to lead such a life by joining, it is now demonstrated: "In general, we have two commands in Scripture for every Christian church:
I. To keep itself separate and undefiled from the world, and in no wise to be like it.
"Every member therefore," it is hereupon said, "1) not only to shun gross vices, . . Gal. 5:10. on the other hand, to walk honorably, as before God, in the home and publicly, but also 2) to renounce jesting and the foolish defenses of the world and its pleasures, as dancing, gambling, lounging about in taverns, in short, to renounce a worldly life, Eph. 5:4-9.; to walk as children of light, . 2 Cor. 7:1." But in order that this may be carried out in life, all the members of the congregation are to watch over each other, and each over the other, and above all to use diligently the means of grace of word and sacrament. (page 24)
II. A Christian congregation is commanded to put out from among themselves those who are evil, according to 1 Cor. 5, 13. 2Thess. 3, 6. Rom. 16, 17. Matth. 18, 15.
According to this, anyone who, despite all pleading and exhortation, will not cease from his evil ways should finally be excluded from the church until he has repented.
Furthermore, while members of other communities (!) and strangers should not be excluded from the Lord's Supper, only those residents of the city or surrounding area should be admitted to the Lord's Supper who could be accepted as members of the congregation. However, the greatest caution should be used in the admission and no one should be admitted without first examining his faith and conduct.
In these wavy sentences the most important conditions of admission and membership are laid down, which are also found in our present congregational order. Only one thing is missing, namely the confession of the congregation to the Lutheran confession and the requirement of such a confession on the part of the person to be admitted. This important piece is missing in these rules, of course, because both Wyneken and his congregation at that time placed little emphasis on this point.
However, because Wyneken vividly recognized that one had to take care of the youth in particular if better church conditions were to be created, he also began to hold Christian teachings every Sunday afternoon when he was at home (page 25). This important institution of the Lutheran Church has existed in our congregation almost as long as the congregation itself has existed, namely since the year 1839.
The seriousness with which Wyneken insisted on the attendance of these Christian lessons is proven by the following incident, recounted by your blessed director Lindemann: "Once the young boys began to become careless and negligent in their attendance of the Christian lessons. He admonished them publicly, he did it privately; but it did not help. He inquired where they had their meeting and what they were doing there. Unfortunately he had to hear that they were playing cards and carrying on useless chatter. The next Sunday, when the Christian lesson was to begin, he made the congregation wait a little and went to the house where his young parishioners were gathered. Suddenly and unexpectedly he stood among them, preached a serious punitive sermon to them, then admonished them kindly and led them with him to church."
In the midst of such work on the inner development of his congregation, he was met by a missionary sent in 1839, named Joh. Nülsen. He writes in a letter about this as follows: "I greeted Brother Wyneken after only a few hours, when he rode into town from his home, which is about a mile from town at the home of a miller, Mr. Rudisill, to teach the children. I accompanied him to one of his churches in Adams County, where he likewise taught school three days, and where he preached in the morning, I in the afternoon (page 26). The people seem to be attached to him with much love, and the Lord has already used him as an instrument of blessing in many a heart.... He is generally very simple and childlike in his dealings with the people."
In another letter from the same time, Nülsen wrote: "I was pleased by his simply childlike and heartfelt dealings with his congregations. The Lord has already placed him here for the blessing of many. Most of his members are also devoted to him in love. He devotes most of his time and energy to teaching children, visiting the sick, and preaching, so that he seldom has time to prepare for his sermons."
To complete the picture of Wyneken and his equally blessed and self-sacrificing ministry in that time, let us add to the above a statement that Pastor Häsbärt of Baltimore made in a letter of that year. He wrote: "Wyneken is a hero of the faith, such as one is accustomed to look for only in old, long-gone times. O how shameful is his example to so many among us who sit there in all quietness and leisureliness, in abundance, and may not even offer the least sacrifice to the Lord in his poor brethren!"
In 1841 Wyneken undertook a journey which was of the most important and beneficial consequences for his own development, as well as that of the congregation, indeed, of the entire Lutheran Church in this country (page 27). And in this alone the congregation had a share insofar as it granted permission for this journey by a congregational resolution of August 12, 1841. Wyneken had long since recognized that the great need of the spiritually neglected Germans in the West could not be remedied by one or two traveling preachers, but that whole flocks of pastors would be necessary. Therefore, the decision matured in him to travel to Germany and to arouse a more active participation in their situation among the Lutherans there by verbally describing the spiritual misery and woe of the Germans scattered in the West and to induce them to be more abundantly supplied with preachers. When the Lutheran General Synod assembled in Baltimore in May decided to "send Pastor Wyneken over to Germany as soon as possible for the advancement of the German mission in the West," and he had received a substitute for his congregation in the person of G. Jensen, the missionary sent over by the Stade Missionary Society, he traveled from Philadelphia to Germany in October of that year with the approval of his congregation and remained there for two years. During his absence there was almost a rupture, indeed, the congregation was in danger of being torn away from Wyneken and going astray. One part wanted to call Jensen as pastor. There was a very stormy meeting about this, and it was only thanks to Rudisill's resolute appearance, as well as the vigilance and faithful work of the then school teacher, later pastor F. W. Husmann, that the congregation remained faithful to their pastor Wyneken. Jensen hereupon accepted a call to Pittsburg, and now Husmann, who had hitherto served the congregation as teacher, preached until Wyneken returned from Germany, Among the men to whom St. Paul's congregation owes a great debt of gratitude, therefore, its first faithful school teacher, Husmann, must not be forgotten. With great faithfulness and self-denial, the same initially held school not only in the city, where children came 6 and 8 miles away, but he himself walked to Lutheran settlements, one of which was 8, the other 18 miles from the city, and alternately held school in these also, until he was called by the congregation in Marion Township to pastor.
It was true that Wyneken had been away from his congregation for two long years; but although he was active in Germany for the mission throughout the West, the St. Paul's congregation was at first to have the greatest blessing from this journey. Not only was the booklet written by Wyneken in Germany, "Die Not der deutschen Lutheraner in Nordamerika" ("The Need of German Lutherans in North America"), the man who as Wyneken's successor was to water and build what he had sown and planted after Hoover, namely Dr. W. Sihler, moved to America. W. Sihler; but Wyneken himself came back as a completely different man, as a man who had grown in the knowledge of the pure Lutheran (pg. 29) doctrine and who was zealous for the Lutheran Church against all its enemies.
And this showed itself immediately on his return to his congregation. While he had previously held prayer meetings in the Methodist manner, in which he called on individual members to pray in public, next to him in his pulpit were pastors of other communities, e.g. He even expressed his opinion that Lutheran congregations should be founded on the basis of the Augsburg Confession, while Reformed congregations should be gathered on the basis of a Reformed symbol, and both types of congregations, together with their synods, should be in contact with each other: Thus, after his return, he preached the Lutheran doctrines of distinction with all determination, testified most emphatically against the errors of the Reformed, the Methodists and other enthusiasts, and worked most diligently to give his congregation a more and more truly Lutheran form.
The consequence of his genuinely Lutheran way of preaching and practice was, of course, that a great tumult arose in the congregation. The Reformed separated from the Lutherans and founded their own congregation. But also some well-meaning Lutherans, among them even Rudisill, were shaken in their trust in Wyneken, as if he was not a true Lutheran after all. Wyneken did indeed emerge victorious from a disputation with (page 30) a pastor sent here by the Reformed Synod for this purpose, by proving conclusively that the Lutheran confession was based solely on God's Word and was drawn from it. But the old confidence did not want to return completely with some.
What did Wyneken do now? He invited the "Synod of the West", which consisted of so-called Lutheran preachers in Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee and of which he was a member, to hold their next meeting in Fort Wayne. This was done. In October of 1844, this so-called Lutheran Synod met in what was already considered an "old Lutheran" congregation, even considered Catholic by many. He even let members of his own congregation sue him before the synod. However, this gave him the opportunity to give a magnificent confession for the pure Lutheran doctrine as the doctrine of the Word of God in a speech lasting more than two hours, first in German and then in English. Even the synod had to testify to him that he was a faithful Lutheran preacher. His congregation, however, joined him again from that synodal assembly with full confidence, indeed, all the more intimately. Yes, since that time the congregation increased in number so much that the church soon proved to be too small.
Then, in the midst of his newly blessed work in his congregation, Wyneken received a call from the Lutheran congregation in Baltimore. He as well as his congregation recognized it as God's will that he (p. 31) had to follow the call, and so he took leave of his congregation in February of 1845 with many tears and deep sadness of the members. But although Wyneken, the later perennial general president of the Missouri Synod, after a richly blessed
Pastor F. Wyneken.
— 32 —
activity in the widest circles, also took leave of this world many years ago by a blessed death, the name of Wyneken will certainly never be forgotten, especially in St. Paul's parish, which was his first love. In the history of the parish, however, probably no better memorial can be set up for him than with the splendid words in which the blessed Dr. Walther sketches an apt picture of the former pastor of St. Paul's parish." These are the words:
"A rich and highly gifted spirit, a truly evangelical preacher, 'an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, a pastor highly experienced in the school of severe spiritual temptations, an undaunted witness to the pure full truth, a brave fighter for the same, a faithful guardian of the church, a man without falsity, whose whole being bore the stamp of straightforwardness and uprightness, an enemy of all lies and hypocrisy, a true Nathanaels soul, in short, a righteous Christian and faithful servant of his Lord, but who in true humility knew only his weakness, not his strength, he has been an example to whole multitudes of preachers and laymen, a spiritual father to thousands, their apostle to whole regions of America, but loved and honored by all who knew him, one of the most beautiful ornaments and one of the mightiest armaments of our American Lutheran Zion, whose name will never decay, but will be and remain blessed as long as our Lutheran Church here remains worthy of its name. "
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II.
Inner and outer growth of the congregation under
Dr. W. Sihler's forty years of ministry.
Before leaving Fort Wayne, Wyneken recommended to his congregation that Dr. Sihler, who had been at the Lutheran congregation at Pomeroy, O., since 1844, and whom he had come to know from his articles for the "Lutherische Kirchenzeitung" as a truly Lutheran pastor, be called as his successor. The congregation did so, and as early as July 15, 1845, Pastor Sihler arrived in Fort Wayne and immediately took up his duties at the same, which he faithfully administered to the great blessing of the same until the year 1885, a period of 40 years.
With Dr. Sihler's assumption of office, a new period in the history of the congregation began; it entered its second stage. Pastor Sihler was not such a powerfully eloquent preacher as Wyneken, he did not have, as he himself said, the gift of taking hold of the mind, as the latter did; his sermons, in which he did preach law and gospel, repentance and faith with great earnestness, were more "doctrinal". Far from the latter being a shortcoming, however, Dr. Sicher's way of preaching was a great blessing to the congregation, as experience shows. While the congregation under Wyneken had only gradually become aware of the fact that it was a Lutheran congregation, especially since his return to Germany, (page 34) Sühler's ministry in preaching, Christian teaching, and confessional registration now promoted and firmly established the congregation in the correct knowledge of pure Lutheran doctrine. While through Wyneken's pioneering work the field of the congregation was first "cleared, cleaned and planted, the congregation under Sühler's faithful care grew by God's grace into a lovely garden of God in the Lutheran Zion of this land, which in the course of the years brought forth the most glorious fruits to the praise of God. When Wyneken left the congregation, it was a Lutheran congregation, but through Sihler's faithful, conscientious work in doctrine and practice, it received "the right form of a truly Lutheran congregation.
When Sihler arrived in Fort Wayne, he found about 60 voting members in the congregation, in the school Husmann was still working as a teacher, but in the parsonage two students left behind by Wyneken, Jäbker and C. Frincke, whom the latter had begun to prepare for the preaching ministry and whom his successor was now to continue teaching. Sihler gladly accepted Wyneken's inheritance, which was the first impulse for the seminary for preachers founded soon after by Löhe and placed under Sihler's direction, from which hundreds of capable Lutheran preachers emerged in the course of the years.
In spite of Sühler's simple, plain way of preaching, (page 35) the attendance at the services increased so much that the small church could no longer hold the audience. In 1847, the old church, which had long since become too small, was moved back to the rear part of the property owned by the congregation and converted into a schoolhouse. In place of the old one, however, a new church (a frame building, 64X44 feet) was built. This church still stands today; it forms the present St. Paul's Church with the cross building completed in 1862.
Before that, however, a parsonage had also been built for Pastor Wyneken. At first it consisted of a single room, which Wyneken jokingly called his "Elias room. Given the great poverty of the community, Rudisill had built this little house almost entirely from his own funds. This room was later converted into a kitchen and two somewhat larger rooms were built in front of it. Sihler and his family lived in this modest hanse for many years, and he always accommodated one or two students. His salary in the first years was only about 200 dollars, that of his teacher Wolf, who from 1847 to 1862 faithfully served the community at its school, initially even only 40, later 150 dollars. This low salary, however, was by no means a sign of stinginess; on the contrary, with the great poverty of the people, who themselves saw little money, the same had to make sacrifices in order to raise these sums. In addition, they voluntarily and abundantly brought food into the house, so that pastor and teacher never suffered any shortage. (pg. 36) Therefore, Sihler was not only content and happy with his small salary, which came in very irregularly, but he was also able to contribute abundantly to the cause of the Kingdom of God and thus spur his congregation on to ever greater generosity and sacrifice through his example.
In the course of the years, many important meetings were held in the small parsonage of St. Paul's Parish, not only for the parish, but for the entire Lutheran Church in the West. Thus, as early as July 1846, the preliminary meeting of several Lutheran pastors for the founding of a German Lutheran synod took place here. When the "Lutheran" appeared in St. Louis in 1844, Wyneken and Sihler welcomed it with great joy. Both recognized from the paper that in those Lutherans who had emigrated from Saxony, who had come to complete clarity and unshakable firmness in Lutheran doctrine, especially in the article of church, ministry, church government and church ordinances through severe inner and outer challenges, God had prepared for Himself a group of men from whom a healthy revival and strengthening of the Lutheran church could be expected. Both therefore entered into correspondence with the editor of the "Lutheran", C. F. W. Walther, pastor of Trinity Parish in St. Louis. Sihler, however, traveled with Pastor A. Ernst, who had resigned with him from the Ohio Synod in 1845 because of its un-Lutheran position, and with Pastor F. Lochner, sent over by (page 37) Löhe, who was in Toledo, O., standing pastor F. Lochner nor St. Louis, and the result of the discussion with the Saxon brethren there was that these, namely, Pastors Löber, Walther, Keyl, Brohm, met in July of the same year with Pastors Selle, Bürger, Crämer, Hattstädt, Lochner, Burger, Ernst, Knape, Jäbker, and Husmann at Fort Wayne, and discussed and brought to a conclusion the draft of an orthodox Lutheran synodal constitution drawn up by Pastor Walther. In the following year, 1847, at Chicago, III, by the adoption of this synodal constitution by 12 postors and the deputies of their congregations, "the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States" was established. And since St. Paul's congregation was represented at this first synodal assembly by its pastor as well as its first congregational deputy, E. Voß, it was also one of the founders of the Missouri Synod.
In 1846 another important event happened, which also intertwined the history of St. Paul's congregation with the history of the Missouri Synod and the Lutheran Church of the West in general. In August of this year, Pastor Löhe of Neudettelsau in Bavaria sent 11 students to Fort Wayne to found the Preachers' Seminary, and Dr. Sihler was entrusted with the teaching at this institution as well as the entire management of it. Initially, things were very poor here as well. Of course, a grand seminary building was not available (page 38). Rather, a house with four rooms was rented near the rectory, in which the students lived. In the upper room of the parsonage, instruction was given by Dr. Sihler and first by the candidate Röbbelen, who had come over with the students, but from November of the same year by the excellent, richly gifted and godly Professor Wolter. For three years this excellent servant of God worked alongside Dr. Sihler with untiring zeal and under visible blessing on the new institution, also supporting Dr. Sihler in his work in the congregation, in that he, to whom God also gave great oratorical talent, often preached for him, until in 1849 in the cholera epidemic he was one of the last to be carried off by the terrible plague. This was a heavy loss for the institution and the congregation. But his short work was not in vain; it also brought fruits for both, which remain in eternal life.
From the very beginning, the community took care of the newly founded seminary and its residents in the most loving way. When in 1848 a plot of land of 15 acres with a beautiful apple orchard and a brick house with four rooms was purchased for the seminary, which Löhe had shortly before in the same year handed over to the newly founded Missouri Synod at its second meeting for free disposition, the sum of the purchase price, 4000 dollars, was largely collected in the congregation at Fort Wayne, so great was their zeal for the prosperity of the institution. (Page 39)
In 1850, Rev. A. Crämer at the congregation at Frankenmuth, Mich. was appointed professor at the seminary. He too, like Wolter, worked with the same untiring zeal and faithfulness and in the same unity of spirit with Dr. Sihler at all this institution, and supported the same by diligent preaching, by active participation in all the congregational meetings, as well as cordial brotherly intercourse with the members of the congregation in such a blessed manner that through all this he too has indelibly engraved his name in the hearts of the old families of our congregation. When, under his faithful work, the number of students had grown so much that the existing rooms were no longer adequate, a new building had to be erected in 1857. The parish again contributed 3000 dollars to this project; the remaining 4000 dollars were largely collected from the surrounding rural parishes, some of which had branched off from St. Paul's parish. If we consider that even at that time there was no wealth in our parishes, these were indeed great gifts. But this great willingness to sacrifice was also caused by the immediate spiritual blessing that the congregations had from this institution. Students and professors went diligently to the congregations, preached there and interacted with them in the most cordial and fraternal manner. This blessing received could not but bear glorious fruit in opening hearts and hands. In general, in that (page 40) time of first love, the Lutheran Zion at Fort Wayne was also in this respect a, albeit weak, yet lovely image of the first apostolic congregation. Here, too, people met, if not daily, at least diligently in the houses and talked about the one thing that is necessary, the great deeds of God and the affairs of the Kingdom of God. In other ways, too, the heartfelt and intimate fellowship of love was manifested in demonstrations of love. When in 1849 during the terrible cholera epidemic about 60 people died in a short time, a very large number for the then relatively not too large community, and among them quite a number of fathers and mothers, it did not take long until the orphaned children found loving reception and a new home with members of the community.
In 1857, after a large new seminary building had been erected, a second important educational institution, namely a school teachers' seminary, was founded here under Professor Fleischmann's direction and housed and connected with the preachers' seminary in one building. This seminary remained in Fort Wayne until its removal to Addison, III, in 1865, and enjoyed the same love of the Lutheran congregations of Fort Wayne and vicinity. And when, in 1861, the practical seminary was moved by synodical resolution to St. Louis and united with the theoretical seminary there, while the synodical high school was transferred from St. Louis to Fort Wayne, (page 41) St. Paul's congregation, together with the daughter congregations branching off from it, has proved to be a faithful and loving caretaker of this institution, too, for more than 25 years.
Not only did it contribute thousands for new buildings and for the maintenance of this institution, not only did it, when on December 28, 1869, fire broke out in the college and destroyed part of the building as well as property worth 3,000 dollars. Not only did it, when fire broke out at the college on December 28, 1869, destroying part of the building as well as the students' belongings worth 3,000 dollars, together with the Immanuel congregation it provided shelter for 100 students for a longer period of time and made an excellent contribution to covering the damage done through charitable donations, but together with the two other congregations it also provides the high school students with Sunday meals year after year, as it used to do for the students, Through its women's clubs, which have existed for decades and regularly meet to provide the students with the often underestimated but very necessary services of sewing and mending, it even provides the poorer students with new clothing.
The congregation has proven its active participation in the affairs of the Kingdom of God not only through its generous contributions to the local and all synodal institutions and through its support of students, a whole group of whom have come from its own midst and are now serving the Lutheran Church of this country in churches and schools, but also by the fact that they, through their pastor, the founder and first professor of the Practical Preaching Seminary, the co-founder of the Missouri Synod besides Walther (page 42) and Wyneken, the perennial vice-president of the General Synod and president of the Middle District, Dr. Sihler, who was closely associated with the synod and who hosted it most willingly during many of its most important synodal meetings. Thus the third Synodal Assembly in 1849, at which the Seminary for Preachers was transferred; the sixth in 1852, at which the important paper on "Church and Ministry" was presented; the ninth in 1857, at which Chiliasm was discussed; the eleventh in 1863 and the twelfth (an Extra Assembly) in 1864; the fourteenth in 1869, when the doctrine of usury was discussed; the sixteenth in 1874, at which the transfer of the Practical Seminary to Springfield, III, the eighteenth in 1881, in which the Synod dealt with the dispute that had broken out over the doctrine of election by grace, and finally the twentieth in this year 1887, in which the various important ecclesiastical institutions of our Synod were discussed.
As far as the internal affairs of the congregation are concerned, it should be emphasized that from the beginning the importance of the congregational meetings, in which all internal and external affairs of the congregation were discussed, was recognized and attendance at them was urged on the part of all members. The congregational meetings were considered so important that they were initially held even on weekday afternoons, with the members suspending their work for this purpose; indeed, by congregational decision, even the teachers had to suspend their schooling (page 43) in order to attend the meetings. Repeatedly, in special sermons and speeches, the members were reminded of their duty to attend the meetings.
It is to be praised as a special grace of God, however, that never since the existence of the congregation have arrogant and quarrelsome spirits caused violent unrest and factionalism in it. Wyneken's decisive stand against the Reformed heresies caused the departure of the Reformed, and it was not without struggle. And later, in the fifties, a number of people who were offended by both the Lutheran worship customs and the strict church discipline left the congregation and formed an opposition congregation, and there were stormy meetings during this time as well. But otherwise, to the glory of God, there was no quarrelsome, quarrelsome, opinionated nature in the meetings, but Christian simplicity, a lovely harmony and a peace pleasing to God.
After the pastors Föhlinger, Stephan and Renz had successively assisted Dr. Sihler as assistant preachers in the fifties, the congregation had grown so much again by 1861, with all the serious discipline in teaching and life, that not only to support Dr. Sihler in the person of Rev. Sicher in the person of Pastor Stubnatzy and that two services had to be held on Sunday mornings in order to give everyone the opportunity to hear God's word, but that in the following year the building of the cross mentioned above also had to be carried out, whereby the church was enlarged by a considerable amount, so that it now holds about 1200 people. But after some years even this room proved to be too small. Therefore, in 1868, the congregation was divided. Pastor Stubnatzy was appointed pastor of the newly formed Immanuel congregation, and already in the fall of 1869 the new church at the
The Ev..-Lutheran St. Paul's Church.
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corner of Jackson and Jefferson Streets could be consecrated. This church building, built for the sum of $32,000, and performed in pure Gothic style in the form of a cross, is without doubt one of the finest churches in the Missouri Synod, and an ornament to the city. St. Paul's congregation naturally felt obliged to assist the retiring sister congregation, since the latter had hitherto shared in its church property, in acquiring and building a new church property. Thus, having already participated in the purchase of a plot of land and the construction of a school, it also contributed the sum of about 7000 dollars to the construction of the new church in a fine fraternal manner.
Until 1875, Dr. Sihler was the sole pastor of St. Paul's parish. But then the congregation became too large again, and the strength of the gradually aging pastor was no longer sufficient: so in that year the current pastor of the congregation was appointed as the second pastor in addition to Dr. Sihler. Working side by side for ten years, both pastors, without their relationship to each other or to the congregation ever being disturbed by hasty disagreement, stood before the congregation in unity of spirit — to the glory of God this may well be said — in blessing. Already in 1882, the congregation had grown so much in number - it counted more than 300 members with voting rights, more than 400 families and more than 500 children in its schools — that it was decided to divide it once again. Therefore, the third congregation, branching off from the old Mothers' congregation, was founded under the name Zion's congregation in the southern part of the city. The St. Paul's congregation again contributed almost 7000 dollars for the purchase of land and the construction of the most necessary buildings. The young congregation, which now numbers over 120 members with voting rights, has already built a beautiful two-story school building, the top floor of which is still prepared for holding services, a rectory and two teachers' apartments.
While the St. Paul's congregation expanded outwardly and grew in number of members, the inner life of the congregation as such did not slacken or die during the 50 years of its existence. St. Paul's parish had to make the experience of all aging parishes. The world and earthly sense penetrates into it. But the congregation as such, together with its guardians, has always been on its guard and has raised its voice loudly against the corrupt nature of this world. No member of a secret society, not even an innkeeper, can become a member of the congregation. Whoever became a member of a lodge or started a tavern was always taken into church discipline. Gradually, however, an evil had crept into the community that did not serve the community well, namely the tavern next to the grocery. In 1882, the pastors of the congregation testified against this in special meetings and proved from God's Word that this activity was also dangerous to the soul. The congregation agreed with their pastors and obliged them to work on the individual members until they gave up this highly dangerous and tempting business. In the winter of 1885, special public meetings were held before the young people to prove from God's Word that no Christian with a good conscience could participate in the worldly entertainment clubs of our day, further that no Christian with a good conscience could participate in the worldly dances, and finally that no Christian with a good conscience could attend the theater. All the meetings were well attended by the young people and did not remain without good fruit.
A special proof that the spiritual life in the congregation has not yet died is the cultivation of the congregational school. The same realization of the importance of teaching children in a Christian school, which moved the fathers of our community to found the school, still inspires our community today and moves it to make great sacrifices to maintain it. While it recognizes it as the duty of the state to provide for the instruction of children through elementary schools so that they do not go wild, our congregation nevertheless considers it a sin if Christians do not provide for the daily instruction of their children in God's Word. Therefore, while all other Protestant congregations, which formerly had their own parochial schools, have abandoned them out of indifference and use the religionless state schools for their children, our Lutheran congregations here are the only Protestant congregations which, after 50 years, are gladly making sacrifices for the preservation of the parochial school with old zeal. Yes, the St. Paul's parish is so concerned about the care of the school that it does not only let the parents of the children pay school fees and in this way makes the teachers' salaries possible, but the whole parish, every member of it, contributes to the maintenance of the school by contributions to the communal treasury. Although, therefore, in the course of these 50 years, several rural congregations have been branched off, each having its own school, namely, Martini congregation and Trinity congregation in Adams township, and St. Peter's congregation in St. Joseph township, and although in the city from St. Paul's parish since 1869, two large congregations have gone forth, one of which, Immanuel's parish, has over 400 children, the other, Zion's parish, has over 230 children in the school, yet now our parish school, at which, instead of one 50 years ago, now has 6 teachers (at the 1st. Class teacher J. Ungemach, at the 2nd teacher C. Grahl, at the 3rd H. Backner, at the 4th E. Gerberding, at the 5th J. Riedel, at the 6th C. Strieder) a number of pupils of over 500 children. *)
_____________________
*) To complete the statistics of the community, the following figures may be added. The congregation now counts again 340 voting members, 1760 communicating members, nearly 400 families; in the past year 115 children were born and baptized. — During the 50 years of existence of the congregation more than 4400 children were baptized in it, 1751 were confirmed, 932 marriages and 1631 funerals took place.
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The most important event in the history of the congregation in recent times is without doubt the resignation and the departure soon thereafter of the long-serving, faithful pastor of the congregation, Dr. W. Sihler, in 1885. After he had almost sunk down at the altar during a confession at Pentecost,
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affected by an attack of weakness, he realized that the time had come when God wanted to let him go. On June 7, he therefore submitted his letter of resignation to the congregational meeting, which, because it characterizes the dear man most aptly, may be included here:
"Beloved brethren in the Lord!
"It has pleased God, after the work of the Easter season, to afflict me with a persistent rheumatism, which unfortunately has not yet disappeared in spite of all the means applied. In addition to this, another evil has joined in; for the speaking power of my voice, which until then existed, has noticeably diminished, so that I am also no longer able to perform the two-fifths of my work that I have done up to now.
"Under these circumstances and moreover with my high age it would be absolutely dishonorable, yes, conscienceless against the spiritual welfare and prosperity of the congregation of me acted to hold my office at it still longer and to stand in the way of a more efficient coworker. I therefore lay it down and return it into your hands.
"It has been a great grace of God for me that I have been allowed to serve you publicly and especially with word and sacrament for almost 40 years - for I took up my office with you on July 15, 1845. And it is no less God's grace that I can say with a clear conscience that during this time I have sought neither money, nor honor, nor prosperity in and through you, but (page 51) according to my prevailing disposition, have kept the honor of God and your eternal salvation in mind, to the best of my ability, in the conduct of my office.
"At the same time I tell you, beloved brethren in the Lord, my heartfelt thanks that you have borne with patience my more than six years of hearing loss, in which I have been more of a burden to you at the church meetings than a bearer and helper.
"Finally, I ask anyone whom I might have offended with words, especially in earlier years, to forgive me from the bottom of my heart for the sake of Christ.
"And now I commend you to the Lord and to the word of his grace, beseeching him that you may increase joyfully, not merely outwardly in number, but also inwardly in a healthy, vigorous congregational life, chiefly through the faithful ministry of your Lord pastor and his associate, if any, in the ministry of the word, and be a city upon the mountain.
"May the grace of the Lord be with you and
your
old spiritual guide and
brother in Christ
W. Sihler."
At the reading of this farewell word of the aged pastor, graying in the service of the congregation, many an eye became moist. With deep emotion of the whole congregation the resignation was accepted and Dr. Sihler was retired for life with an annual pension of 600 (page 52) dollars and leaving the parsonage to him.
But his pilgrimage hereafter was not to last long. After his resignation, his strength rapidly declined, and already on October 27 of the same year he fell asleep to eternal life with the parting word to his family and congregation: "Stay with Christ!”
With the resignation and departure of the long-time, faithful pastor, Dr. W. Sihler, the congregation has undeniably begun a new chapter in its history. In Dr. Sihler and his work in the ministry of the Word, which has lasted for an age, God has given this congregation a special gift of grace. He too, like Wyneken, was reminiscent of the men of faith of old; he was a hero of God, a bold, manly fighter for the pure Lutheran doctrine against the pope and sects and all emerging errors, a zealot for the house of God, a loud, a bold witness against all worldliness, all hypocrisy and sham Christianity, a "hurried wall that stood against the crack," a faithful watchman on the battlements of Zion, a sharp preacher of the law, but also a truly evangelical preacher of God's grace to all terrified sinners. Above all, however, he, one of the fathers of our Synod, was a father to his congregation, who, under the outer rough shell of his nature, bore the sweet core of a heart full of intimate love for his whole congregation, and, a fervent intercessor for our Synod and the whole Church, he bore above all his congregation, one (page 53) every individual, on a praying heart. What he was to the church cannot be better briefly summed up than in the scriptural word 2 Cor. 1:12. which was applied to him in his memorial sermon: "Our glory is this, namely, the testimony of our conscience, that we have walked in simplicity and godly integrity, not in carnal wisdom, but in the grace of God in the world, but most of all with you."
But now that he, this excellent servant of God, has departed, and with him almost all the founders of this congregation, "among whom the word of God arose," we are involuntarily reminded of Luther's word that God's word seldom remains for more than one human age, that it is also commonly taken away again with those who bring it up.
Probably Dr. Sihler, who was a sharply marked character, as few are, has by his forty years of faithful work of his congregation marked this character of his, so that he, too, with all humility, could say of his congregation according to the apostle: "Ye are our epistle, known and read of all men; who have been made manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, prepared by our preaching ministry, and written by us, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God." It can also be said of our church, by God's grace, that, in spite of some imperfections and infirmities with which it is afflicted, it nevertheless "walks in simplicity and godly integrity, not in carnal wisdom, but in the grace of God" as (page 54) a church.
But all the more does the admonition apply to St. Paul's congregation: "Keep what is entrusted to you!" Yes, just now, as this congregation looks back on a past of fifty years richly blessed by God, in which not only in the one small St. Paul's congregation in the year 1837 in the course of time has become 6 large flourishing congregations, 3 in the country and 3 in the city, but during which God in the mother church, as well as in the congregations branched off from it, has kept His Word loud and clear, has not pushed the lampstand of our congregation from its place, but has let the light of His Word shine brightly in it into the land, the admonition applies above all to St. Paul's congregation to faithfully preserve this glorious heritage, pure Word and unadulterated Sacrament. Especially now in this Jubilee year, when the congregation is about to build a new large church, it is important not to disregard the One thing needful, now and always, namely, that the old Bible word, the old Luther doctrine, the old faith, the faith of the fathers, remain in the new St. Paul's Church, and thus the old St. Paul's congregation remains until the latest generations.
"Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown!"
Revelation 3:11.