RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Walsh Walther
Wesleyan Theological College, Richmond, Surrey (graduated, 1895); became assistant to H. P. Hughes in the West London Mission, of which he was chosen superintendent on the death of Hughes in 1902. In 1890 he was elected a member of the St. Pancras Borough Council, and from that year until 1892 was chairman of the Public Health Committee, while in 1898 he was made a member of the St. Pancras Vestry and local manager of the London School Board. He is editor of The Advance.
WALTHER, val’ter, CARL FERDINAND WIL- HELM: German-American Lutheran, founder of the Synod of Missouri (see Lurumrans, III., 5, § 1); b. at Langenchursdorf (near Waldenburg, 37 m. s.e. of Leipsic) Oct. 25, 1811; d. at St. Louis, Mo., May 7, 1887. He was educated at the University of Leipsic (1829-33); was private tutor at Cahla, Altenburg (1834-36); and pastor at Briéiunsdorf for a year (1837-88). His firm orthodoxy and resistance to the rationalism prevailing about him, combined with the hopelessness of his endeavors to reform the moral and spiritual life of his congregation, led him to join the company of emigrants led by a pastor named Stephan. Early in 1839 he reached New Orleans, and by February the party, which numbered about 800, reached Missouri, some settling in St. Louis and the remainder in Perry Co., Mo. But before many months it was found that Stephan was unworthy of confidence, and it was mainly through the efforts of Walther that his wavering comrades regained their courage. In Feb., 1841, he was chosen pastor of the Lutheran congregation at St. Louis, and in Sept., 1844, began to edit the semimonthly Der Lutheraner. The next step was the foundation of the Synod of Missouri, and after a preliminary session at Fort Wayne, in 1846, the first convention of the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States was held at Chicago in Apr., 1847. The synod took charge of the educational institution which had been founded at Altenburg, and in 1849 transferred it to St. Louis, Walther becoming the directing professor of the theological seminary, though his old congregation insisted that he should preach thrice annually and exercise a general supervision over it.
Walther now became involved in a controversy with Léhe (q.v.), who was not in sympathy with the democratic organization favored by the head of the Missouri Synod, and in 1851 this body determined to send Walther and Wyneken as delegates to Germany to seek to avoid any possible schism. Léhe was in favor of the plan, and the delegates proceeded to visit all the prominent Lutherans of the mother country, though Walther himself remained chiefly in Erlangen, gathering material for his attack on the High Church principles advocated by Grabau and the Buffalo Synod (see Luruerans, III, 5, § 2), the result being Die Stimme unserer Kirche in der Frage von Kirche und Amt (Erlangen, 1852). In Oct., 1851, Walther and Lohe met in personal conference, and the former, while recognizing the difficulty of reconciling their views on ordination, was able to express lively hopes of reunion, though this was not destined to be realized. In 1853, to give the Lutherans a trustworthy text of Luther’s ver-
sion of the Bible, Walther founded the St. Louis Bible Society, of which he remained president until his death; and in 1855 he established the periodical Lehre und Wehre. He was also the leader of the Missourians at the conferences with the Buffalo Synod in 1866 and the Iowa Synod in 1867. In 1868-69 he conducted the conferences with the synods of Ohio, Wisconsin, and Illinois, which led to corporate union between these bodies and the Synod of Missouri, and in 1872 he was chosen president of the synodal conference of all western Lutherans in sympathy with the Missouri position. In addition to his other activities, Walther was a voluminous writer, his chief productions being as follows: Die rechte Gestalt einer vom Staate unabhdngigen evangelisch-lutherischen Ortsgemeinde (St. Louis, 1863); Amerikanisch-lutherische Pastoral-T heologie vom Jahr 1872 (1872); a new edition of J. G. Baier’s Compendium theologie positive (1879); and the homiletic collections: Amerikanisch-lutherische Evangelien-Postille (1871); Lutherische Brosamen (1876); Amerikanisch-lutherische Epistel-Postille (1882); and the posthumous Ansprachen und Gebete (1888) and Kasual-Predigten und Reden (1889.) (ApoLPH SPAETHT.) BrsutiograpHy: M. Giinther, C. W. F. Walther, Lebensbild, St. Louis, 1890; C. Hochstetter, Die Geschichte der Missourt-Synode, Dresden, 1885; C. W. Ernst, in The Watchman, Boston, June 7, 1887; H. E. Jacobs, in American Church History Series, vol. iv. passim, New York, 1893; G. I. Fritschel, Geschichte der lutherischen Kirche in Amer-
tka, li. 184 sqq., Giitersloh, 1897; J. Deinzer, Wilhelm Léhe’s Leben, vol. iii., 3d ed., Giitersloh, 1901.
WALTHER, JOHANN: German Lutheran musician and writer of hymns; b. near Cola, a small Thuringian village, 1496; d. at Torgau (81 m. e.n.e. of Leipsic) perhaps Mar. 25 (at least before Apr. 24), 1570. By 1524 he was at Torgau as bassist to Frederick the Wise, and during the same year he assisted Luther at Wittenberg in adapting the old music to Lutheran requirements, the results, first used in Luther’s Deutsche Messe, appearing in the Geystliche gesangk Buchleyn (Wittenberg, 1524), while Walther himself attended the first German celebration of the Holy Communion, as rearranged by him and Luther, at the Wittenberg Stadtkirche on Oct. 29, 1525. In 1526 Walther was appointed choirmaster by Elector John of Saxony, and eight years later he was also made singing master to the school at Torgau. He went to Dresden in 1548 as choirmaster to Elector Maurice of Saxony, and on Aug. 7, 1554, was pensioned, whereupon he returned to Torgau and there passed the remainder of his life.
Walther’s musical settings were for choral, not congregational, singing. In the Deutsche Messe his part was the responses of the choir and congregation, while Luther prepared the portions to be sung by the pastor. Walther also made two settings (in 1530 and 1552) for the passion music from Matthew and John. His hymns, ten in number, appeared chiefly in the Christliches Kinderlied D. Martini Lutheri (Wittenberg, 1566), and are conveniently collected by P. Wackernagel, Das deutsche Kirchenlied, iii. 187-206, nos. 219-229 (5 vols., Leipsic, 1864-77). Two of these have been translated into English: “ Herzlich Lieb hab ich dich, mein Gott!’’ by A. T. Russell as ‘‘ O God, my Rock, my heart on Thee’’;
Walther ; Wandering in the Wilderness