Serbin, the 20th of December 1857

Beloved Brother!

This letter to you is the first which I am writing from Texas to a clergyman in Germany. Clergymen have grounds to expect a description of the religious conditions in a foreign land when they receive letters from there from a fellow clergyman. The religious conditions in the United States of America, and especially in the new big State of Texas, are of the type to which a person must first get used to before he is able to write about it firsthand.

Also this letter is the first in which I use the name of "Serbin" in the heading. We have made an application at the General Post Office in Washington for a post office for our settlement. I heard that our request has been approved and that our post office is to start the beginning of 1858. At the same time the name "Serbin", which we gave our settlement, will be made public. However, if you should write to me soon, I request for the time being to keep on using the old address, namely, Rever. John Kilian, Cunningham's P.O., Bastrop, Texas. Our settlement already has more than 50 farms and in a year will have more than 60 farms, when all the families who have already purchased land in our established settlement have moved here.

Now to come to the point. How are things with the church in Texas? The people of Texas, totaling close to one and a half million, consist of Americans, the name for those who were born in America and speak English; of Germans; Frenchmen; Poles; Bohemians; Mexicans; and Negro slaves and Indians.

Concerning the church, they form 5 fundamental main groups, namely: 1) those who are essentially heathen, 2) the multitude of people, who, although descended from Christians, do not belong to any of the existing churches and of which a portion has not been baptized; this un-churched multitude I have heard called the "big church", an awful, but true designation, because the multitude of the un-churched in Texas is very large, if not the largest; 3) Roman Catholics; 4) various different churches, Reformed in doctrine regarding the sacrament: the Reformed who call themselves Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists; 5) Lutherans, unionistic and strict so-called Old Lutherans. I make these classifications, not as a statistician, who writes for publication, but only as a friend who mentions the churched and un-churched groups in order to thereby give a description of the religious situation. In no way do I maintain that all people in Texas fit exactly into the above 5 classifications. By giving just what came to my mind, I forgot the Jews, who are also represented here.

After the colonies in North America first broke away from England, the United States was shaped by English Reformed Puritans, Quakers and others, from whom came the rigorous restless legalism of Calvinism together with its denial of the real presence in the sacrament, that permeated the whole church as long as it was not Roman or Lutheran. Also the professed total separation of the church from the state, this great event of world history, placed those, who somehow had a falling out with the existing churches or wished to have the freedom of the prodigal son, the option to go their own way. That is why also here in Texas the spirit of Calvinism, as far as the church is concerned, prevails in Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist form. For the spirit of Rome is not as yet very perceptible, even less, the Lutheran. Besides that, also the spirit of liberalism prevails in a manner like it prevailed in German cities and regions where the preaching of rationalism emptied the churches. Even so the German libertines in Europe had their children baptized, had their dead buried by clergymen, and had clergymen conduct marriages. Here all that may be left undone. No one is commanded to baptize children. Anyone may bury the dead, how and where he wants to. The larger settlements and cities have their own cemeteries. Farmers living in solitude may be buried near their houses. A squire [secular official such as a notary] may perform marriages (that is, civil marriages), as a well as a minister. The couple to be married decides if they want to have a religious ceremony by a minister or if they want to have a secular ceremony by a squire. I know of very large settlements that never had a minister from the beginning and remain without one today. I personally know many educated Germans who do not let their children be baptized and stay away from church altogether. Many such libertines are also found among the Americans, who, as a rule, even if they are un-churched, do not attack God's word and the church with as much mockery and derision as many German libertines do. Nevertheless, the complete separation of the church from the state is good. Here no one has to pretend to be what he is not; here everyone can say what he is. No one here needs to be a hypocrite. And the worst religious mockers and atheists, who we have, were not born and brought up here, but came here after being educated compulsively in the state churches and schools. In no way would I like to trade the sorry legalism, which has spread within the state churches in Germany, for our separation of the church from the state.

This freedom of ours has been tumultuous after our departure from Europe. First, came the many deaths from cholera which began at Liverpool and after we set sail, there were so many deaths that we had to dock in Cork Harbor near Queenstown in Ireland for 3 weeks in quarantine. Thus we did not arrive at Galveston until the 14th of December 1854. After the slow arduous overland journey in ox wagons during the wet winter, a second tumult was that many families found themselves in need of money due to the compassion many families exerted in helping the poor. The well-to-do provided for the passage of the poor and also advanced around 6000 Thalers of which about 2000 Thalers were lost due to the deaths of many of the poor, through the faithlessness of some, etc. The third tumult, a long lasting visitation, was the drought of the years 1856 and 1857, during which, to be sure, we always had enough to keep body and soul together, but with many difficulties and heavy thoughts. Not until September of this year did we have normal rainfall which still continues at intervals and is an early sign of a good year to come. This fall we already had many melons, pumpkins, turnips, etc.

A fourth tumult was a spiritual one, which this year partially awakened my main congregation from within, partly broke in from without. The need for a liturgy and church discipline for the congregation became evident; therefore, several congregational meetings were held, which became stormy since in the congregation the proponents of the customary former "Stunden" [prayer meetings] or conventicles, already in Germany, clashed with those who opposed them even though in the ecclesiastical confession both sides were united. The ascetic side wanted the essence of legalism to be enforced, which only produced anger, since the opponents of the ascetics felt scorned and therefore did not want to accept the conventicle form of the ascetics because the leadership of this sort did not produce any better fruits than the others. When this inner division began to become dangerous, the Methodists came and held encampments, called "camp meetings", 4 English miles from here, where they won over several Moravian Brethren [Herrnhuter] families from Rabbs Creek who up to now came to me and to whom, as a rule, I had preached Sunday after Sunday. These former Moravian Brethren went there, so they said, as opponents, but were convinced. One of their women, who through the incessant onslaughts of encouragement and prayer, through hugging and the ranting of talkative women, through jumping, rapturous songs, became so touched and carried away that she fainted. After that, she said, she was magnificently comforted and found peace. Another woman, Mrs. Jeschke from Weicha, the widow who married the Widower Noack from Gröditz, was overtaken by the spirit of laughing and ecstasy as though for joy she wanted to ascend into heaven. That is the only family of my local Wends who fell away from the Lutheran Church and became Methodists. The Methodists intruded time and time again into several families of my congregation, invited them to their meetings, where all the members, one after another had to pray, hoping to alienate my congregation and draw them away to themselves. At that point I had a difficult time, since many felt an attraction to them, because, so they said, over there they were more earnest than we were. I preached against this: the Reformed Church, which took away 7000 churches from the Lutherans in Prussia, properly and improperly, while their watchmen slept, is attacking us here in the Methodist form. I said, that I heard that a few of us want to join the Methodists, even though I cannot yet rightly believe it. If it is true, why do they want to join this group? Because over there on Rabbs Creek they have revivals while we do not have revivals. I know that one time when there was a revival in the United Church in Gross Radisch many went there. At the beginning of this century Martin Boos started a big revival in the Roman Catholic Church in Austria and Bavaria. If such a revival would now emerge among the Catholics in our neighborhood would you go to the Catholics? Would you run to every revival and thus run from church to church? I spoke thus and pointed out to the people that the decision what church to join should be based, not on revivalism, but on the public confession of the church. In order that the people would no longer be tempted to get the water of life elsewhere while it is available at home, Wednesday and Friday evening prayer meetings were arranged, in which I would present a text and provide an introduction, followed by an open discussion. Then I would call on someone, someone I could trust, to give the closing prayer. These prayer meetings have given us many blessings and many are deeply concerned about their salvation. God has awakened us through the Methodists to clean the Lutheran fountains so that they may flow fresher. The tumult [caused] by the Methodists has been repulsed, chiefly by these prayer meetings. The congregation, which had already become dangerously divided, is again united. To learn more about the Methodists I put twenty questions to the "Lutheraner" but up to now have not received an answer.

I believe that in our dispute with the Methodists we are dealing with the certainty of salvation, if this, as a rule, must be an extraordinary event which the Methodists appear to accept, since everyone who sits on the penitential bench they belabor in every possible way until he falls or else something special happens to him, or if this certainty is ordinary, that is, taken from the signs [better word??] which are recorded in Matthew 5: 3-10 and which we, with regard to the Methodists, discussed one after another. Write me your opinion about this important question: How can I be certain of salvation?

Besides that, if no other work is necessary and when I am not in New Ulm, to which I have to ride a distance of 40 miles (8 German miles) every 5th Sunday, I have Bible Classes on Sunday and holiday afternoons in which I began at the beginning of the Bible, presenting one segment after another up through the flood. In one of these Bible Classes a new tumult originated when a member of the congregation insisted "that the grace of God does not end in death." The reason for this came out of the discussion of Christ's descending into hell. Since at a meeting of the Church Council (elected for 3 year terms) this member agreed with my formulated disavowal, which I read to the congregation on Reformation Day, it was not necessary for me to call a congregational meeting, which has the supreme church authority. Since this important discussion in the congregation I work the most and hardest on the last things [end of the world].

I feel much displeasure that the strict Lutheran Missouri Synod, of which I am a member, declared its opposition to all chiliasm. In a letter to Prof. Walther in St. Louis I declared myself neutral on this matter. The harsh opponents to all chiliasm, including your Pastor and Superintendent Ehlers, violate the obvious simple meaning of Scripture. Therefore, I am also not at home in my own synod. And I also cannot agree with the Lutherans of the General Synod, which do not like to point out the difference between Lutherans and Reformed and in practice are like the Lutheran State Churches in Germany. But I must close. Cordial greetings from me to your wife. Also greet my friend Dutschmann and his family and tell him, because he wants to know this, that Arldt from Weigersdorf still lives as a renter in New Ulm, and together with his wife and his son and his daughter is healthy. He is a respectable man and attends church regularly. I get more pleasure from this family here than I did in Germany. Live well and forgive the hurry with which I wrote, because I just have the opportunity to mail this. Thus I remain yours in the Lord, your
Johann Kilian, P.

[Biar]

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: This letter was written to a clergyman, presumably Pastor Gotthold Albert Gumlich, Weigersdorf.