Full Text for CTM Miscellanea 10-4 (Text)

(!tnurnrbia m~tnln!lirul ilnutltlg Continning LEHRE UNO WEHRE MAGAZIN FUER EV.-LUTH. HOMILETIK THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLy-THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY Vol. X April, 1939 No.4 CONTENTS Pqe The Means of Grace in Roman Theology. Theodore Graebner ...... 241 Der Pastor als Synodalglied. F. Pfotenhauer ................ _ ... _ .... _ ....... _ 250 The False Arguments for the Modern Theory of Open Questions. Walther-Arndt ... _... ... . .. _ .... _.............. . ..... _ ... _ .. __ .... _. 254 Sermon Study on 1 Cor. 10:16, 17. Th. Laetsch ......... _ ..... _ ........ _ ...... 262 Evil Spirits ... _ ............... _ .................. ................................. ....... ............. __ ....... 2'16 Predigtentwuerfe fuer die Evangelien der Thomasius-Perikopen- reihe ... _._ .... _._ ....... _ .... _ ................ _ .... _ .......... _ ..... _ ......... _ ........ __ ........ %'19 Miscellanea ... __ . __ ._ .... _ .... _ .... _ .... _ .... _ .... _ .... _ .......... _ .... _ ... __ ... _ ... _ ... _._ 293 Theological Observer. - Kirchlich-Zeitgeschichtliches ... _ .... _ ..... _ .. _ 29'1 Book Review. - Literator ......... _ ... _ .......... _ ... _ .... _ ... _ ... _ ... _. __ .. _._. 309 BIn Predller mua n1cht aIleln wei- tift. aIIO duI er cUe Scha1e unter- welM. wle de rec:hte ChrIsten lOIlen _In. sondem aucb daneben den Woe!- fen we""". duI de cUe Scbafe nlcht l!I8l'Uten und mit fabcber Lehre ver- fuehren und J:rrtum eblfuehren. Ea 1st keIn DIne. du cUe x-te mehr bel der Xlrcbe behael& deDn die JUte Predlit- - Apologfe. An. ... Luthiif'. If the trumpet live an uncertaJn sound who IbaJl prepare blmNlf to the battle? - J Crw.l4.'. Published for the Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri. Ohio, and Other States CONCORDIA PUBLISHING BOUSE, St. LoaJs, Mo. BCHIV Miscellanea 293 Miscellanea The Campanius Catechism Through the generosity of Mrs. Lydia Leatherman, well-known and active churchwoman, member of Salem Church, Minneapolis, Minn., the Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary has become the custodian of one of the most important relics of the Lutheran Church in America, the Delaware Catechism of John Campanius. The gift has an especial timeliness in view of the widely observed commemoration last year of the three-hundredth anniversary of the coming of the Lutheran Swedes to Delaware. But it has a perpetual significance as a great trophy of the spirit of true Lutheranism. One may doubt that American Lutheranism has a holier relic than this little book. When we consider that this devoted pastor, who sojourned in this country, then a wilderness, for only five years and was burdened throughout with parish cares, found time to learn the Delaware language from the Indians, reduce it to writing, and translate the Catechism into it, we wonder and admire. How great must have been his love for his fellow-men and his love for the Gospel! It is, moreover, a great glory to our Church that this book is the first translation of a Christian work into a tongue of the American Indians. The Rev. John Campanius came to Fort Christina, Delaware, Feb- ruary 15, 1643, a man fitly described by his bishop as "a man most highly to be praised on account of his unwearied zeal in always propagating the love of God." He built a church at Tinicum, nine miles from Phila- delphia, and returned to Sweden in 1648. Weare told that he preached on Sundays and festivals, on Wednesdays and Fridays, and on all week- days held morning and evening services. His Catechism was published by King Charles XI of Sweden, whose coat of arms appears on the leather cover and who sent many copies to America. The seminary's copy of the Catechism is a beautifully printed volume, with an illumi- nated title-page, bound in leather, and is in an excellent state of preser- vation. Though several hundreds of copies were printed and sent to this country, so far as we have been able to find out, fewer than half a dozen are now known to exist. There is an introduction of fourteen pages. The translation is followed paragraph by paragraph with a Swedish version. At the close there is a vocabulary of the Delaware language. Thomas Campanius Holm, grandson of Campanius, writes: "The Indians were frequent visitors at my grandfather's house. When for the first time he performed divine service in the Swedish congregation, they came to hear him and greatly wondered that he had so much to say and that he stood alone and talked so long, while all the rest were listen- ing in silence. This excited in them strange suspicions; they thought everything was not right and that some conspiracy was going forward among us, in consequence of which my grandfather's life and that of the other priests were, for some time, in considerable danger from the Indians, who daily came to him and asked him many questions." Holm goes on to tell how the missionary won the natives' affection 294 Miscellanea and such acceptance for his message that they "induced him to exert himself to learn their language," with the result that "those people who were wandering in darkness were converted to the Christian faith or at least acquired so much knowledge of it that they were ready to exclaim, as Captain John Smith relates of the Virginia Indians, that, so far as the cannons and guns of the Christians exceeded the bows and arrows of the Indians in shooting, so far was their God superior to that of the Indians." It is not without awe that one takes up this little book harking from the remote beginnings of our Church in the New World and reflects on the power that produced it and the fruits, which its author could never surmise. - The Lutheran, Feb. 15, 1939. Sur tyragc bon bcr :!:cifnafjmc am ~cmci1tb'cgottc~bic1tft ,,~m:f idj ein paat