3<5 Life of The 



He looked upon the holy fathers of the early ages 

 of the Church, St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, St. 

 Augustine, St. Bernard, &c., as the witnesses best 

 entitled to be believed with respect to what were the 

 teachings and the practices of the early Church, and 

 no doubt ever harassed his mind, that the doctrine 

 taught by these holy fathers was the same as that 

 preached by himself. 



What then must have been the disappointment of 

 a man who clung thus ardently to the teachings of 

 the fathers, to find here in this country, on his 

 arrival, these teachings diregarded; — to witness the 

 indifference, the lukewarmness and the infidelity of 

 those who professed to be the ministers and the 

 followers of the great (?) Reformer! 



Chagrined and in sorrow at the want of unity in 

 doctrine among the teachers of the protestant belief, 

 with whom he associated in New York, he resolved to 

 visit Missouri, where the Lutheran Bishop, Dr. 

 Stephan, resided. He expected to find in him a true 

 professor of the belief taught to himself on the other 

 side of the Atlantic. But he was disappointed. 

 Bishop Stephan believed, as he often told him, 

 "f/iaf the Lutheran Church is extinct, not only in 

 Germany, but throughout all Euro l^e.^' How soon did 

 Mr. Oertel find this so ! How soon did he realize the 

 truth of the charge, that "there are not three pro- 

 fessors of Theology in Germany, who consent to or 

 agree with the old Lutheran doctrines as laid down in 

 the Lutheran symbolical books!" 



