# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 09 03_S5
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

5

...who were brought up here, yet in all places some of them will be found who will look back with sorrow upon their former neglect with regard to the knowledge of the wholesome doctrine and will cherish a desire for amendment.

Do we then need new measures for this? Shall we, like Martha, in the good intention of serving the Lord, be so much encumbered with all manner of proposals for church constitutions, Christian societies, and other external arrangements? Is it necessary for us to go begging at strange doors, that is, to borrow all manner of measures from false-believing parties for the awakening of a new spiritual life? No, this disgrace we will not do to our rich mother, the Lutheran Church, but rather we will eagerly inquire of her what measures she took in her best time to remedy a similar state of need. The sum of this answer lies in a testimony of him through whom God brought help to his Zion, so that one could teach with confidence, Dr. M. Luther, who says: "One thing is needful, namely that Mary sit at Christ's feet and hear his word daily; that is the good part, which is to be chosen and shall never be taken away. It is an everlasting word; the other must all pass away, however much it may give Martha to do" — "so that by daily exercise in the Scripture the Christians may become intelligent, fluent, and skilled in the Scripture." (W. A. X. 267. 265.)

With regard to this abundant exercise in the Word of God, the old Lutheran church orders, following the example of Dr. Luther and others, prescribe the diligent use of these two means, the exposition of the Bible and the extract drawn from it, namely the Catechism; and these are the old tried means for the abundant exercise in the Word of God, of which we now propose to speak, and indeed in three sections, of which the 1st is to set forth their observance at the time of the Reformation, the 2nd their neglect at the time of the apostasy, and the 3rd their renewal in our time.

1.

The measures just named are to be called old, not only with respect to our time, but also to the first Christian time, from which they derive; they are accordingly to be called old, not in the sense as though they were merely antiquated and no longer had any validity, but because they have been proved by the experience of 18 centuries. It cannot be demonstrated here how it stood with preaching and catechization before the rise of the papacy, under it, and at the beginning of the Reformation, and how through their service both were brought again into their right order; we shall speak only of the observance of these old measures, taken up anew, and indeed first of the exposition of the Bible, for which they had three forms, namely the actual sermon upon the customary Gospels and Epistles, the Bible lessons, and the exposition of whole books of the Bible.

The Lutheran Church has never, as the Reformed do, left the choice of the customary texts to the preachers, but has always bound them to the prescriptions given for that purpose, although she has held these, just as little as anything else belonging to ceremonies and the like, to be unalterably fixed. In establishing the order of texts the Lutheran Church carefully took up what she found historically at hand, namely the old Gospel and Epistle texts, whereas the Reformed Church set the same aside. These pericopes, which were only chanted in the Latin language, had indeed become ever more unknown and unpalatable to the people, after the pure Word of God had vanished from the pulpits. Hence the preachers were directed with respect to the festival Gospels "that on these festivals the circumstances of the histories be faithfully explained and impressed upon the people with special diligence, for thereby the hearers are the more grounded and founded in the articles of their Christian faith, because on the festivals they hear how every article came to pass and was fulfilled." The Sunday Gospels, however, were to be expounded "because in them the chief parts of the history of Christ our Savior and of his doctrine are comprehended." Accordingly the sermons upon the evangelical pericopes were regarded as fundamental on account of their rich content of history and doctrine, and all the Lutheran church orders without exception agree in this, that they give unconditional preference to these pericopes, and indeed before the epistolary ones, in that they assign the former throughout as texts for the forenoon or chief sermons, but on no condition grant the latter this place, assigning them the same in towns either exceptionally in the early or matins sermon, or ordinarily in the vesper or afternoon sermon; but in the country, when no catechism instruction was held in the afternoon, the Epistles fell away entirely and were read only at the forenoon service.

The second are the Bible lessons. These were suitably chosen portions of the Holy Scripture, e. g. the lesson on Christmas Day, Isa. 9, 2 — 7, but for the most part whole chapters of it, which were read aloud in the church in the order of the biblical books, after the ancient Christian manner. No sermon was preached upon them, but they contented themselves with reading aloud, distinctly and audibly, either the biblical text alone or, before it, so-called summaries, that is, short explanatory statements of contents. Thus in the Pomeranian, Prussian, and other churches they made use of the excellent, but now wholly unknown, Summarien of Veit Dietrich, one of Luther's most faithful disciples. When in the times of the Thirty Years' War this book had become ever scarcer, they put in its place, without being concerned for a new edition of it, the Würtembergian Summarien, which, however, on account of their great prolixity alone, fall far behind those of Dietrich. In towns these Bible lessons were prescribed for the confessional services on Saturdays, for the Sunday matins or early services, as well as for the weekday services, but in the country these lessons had usually to be confined to the Saturday vespers. As a rule they were read aloud not by the preacher, but in the towns by pupils, in the country by the sexton. In this way the people, who were for the most part unable to read, were gradually made acquainted with the whole Holy Scripture; besides the text they also learned the most necessary part of the understanding and application of the individual chapters.

Finally they held it necessary also to preach upon whole books of the Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testament; this took place without formal setting up of theme and parts and more in that artless manner which the most renowned fathers of the church had formerly used. After the reading of a whole chapter or a section of the same, there followed a brief statement of the contents and the connection. Thereupon the verses belonging together, and especially the most difficult, were briefly explained, the doctrines contained in them pointed out and applied for warning, exhortation, etc. Then they passed on without more to the following words of the text and proceeded in like manner.

The time for these biblical expositions was gained by making the weekday services out of the former papal masses, which were held daily; these were held daily in the larger towns, indeed sometimes twice a day, namely morning and evening, but in the country at least once a week. The prescriptions relating thereto contain only general provisions, e. g. that alternately upon a book from the Old and upon one from the New Testament preaching should be done, and the like.

Thus each of these three forms had its particular purpose. The sermon upon the evangelical pericopes expounded the most necessary parts of Christian faith and life, the Bible lesson led into acquaintance with the Holy Scripture in general, and the expository sermon led deeper into the understanding of the individual biblical books.

(To be continued.)