Holden Lutheran Church,

Goodhue County, Minnesota,

June 13-21, 1874

President Preus again gave a report from which only the first paragraph is translated.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all! Amen.

Dear brethren in Christ! “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body,” 2 Corinthians 4:8-10. With these words of the apostle Paul I introduce the thoughts and the feelings which most want to assert themselves in me now when it is again my duty to present my annual report to our esteemed synod. I am certain that many of you have felt with me both the cross and the comfort, both the pain and the joy, which, of course, always walk more or less together with them for whom it is a serious matter to follow after Jesus in faith and love, in work, struggle and cross. But surely the heavier this following many times fell upon us for reasons I have sought to present in my synodical sermon¹⁹, the more are we required to thank God who of his grace grants us again after a lapse of time to be gathered in “one Spirit, one faith, one mind, and with one hope.” How much comfort and encouragement, how much instruction and strengthening can we not with God’s help take to ourselves here during our being together, and how needful are we not all of it! Now then let us be wise and redeem the opportune time because the days are truly evil! Important business awaits us, and the orthodox church among our countrymen over here anticipates with confident expectation the results of its pastors and delegates meeting, and their mutual deliberations. May God grant that its hope and ours not be disappointed!

19 President Preus had preached the sermon on Sunday, June 14,1874.