# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 09 17_S13
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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entrance of the essence of the flesh of Christ into the bodies of men, whether they invent and preach a subtle, spiritual, heavenly, supernatural or unnatural, secret and incomprehensible one. (Admon. contra lib. Concordiae p. 109.) Verily! the author of the Heidelberg Catechism could not have declared more plainly that the German Reformed Church also is purely Zwinglian in its faith, however much it has always sought by all manner of wavering expressions to give the appearance that it had purified itself of Zwinglian rationalism. — Finally Peter Martyr writes: "It has therefore always seemed to me as though you (you Lutherans) were not quite wise, that you toil over an article of faith as silly as it is useless, for the maintenance of which you have nothing more than the word [to rheton] of Christ: This is my body." [Dialog. p. 127.] This crafty Calvinist could hardly have borne a more glorious testimony for our doctrine, nor a worse one against the Reformed faith.

(Contributed by P. Keyl.)

The Old Approved Measures of the Lutheran Church for the Abundant Exercise of the Word of God.

(Continuation.)

Yet all this, comprehensive as it is, and deserving our admiration as much for its wise counsel as for its powerful execution, was nevertheless only a part of what was held necessary for the abundant exercise of the Word of God. Dr. Luther and, through him, his faithful fellow-laborers had convinced themselves from the earlier history of the Church and from their own experience that a chief constituent still had to be added, and that was the exercise of the Catechism, as the true layman's Bible, which in its Chief Parts, rightly so called, being taken from Holy Scripture, leads back again into it, so that no section is to be found in the Bible which does not belong to one of those Chief Parts, and again, that no Chief Part is to be found in the Catechism which does not belong to very many sections and verses of the Bible. With the understanding of the Catechism stands and falls, increases and decreases, the understanding of the whole Holy Scripture, and what influence the exercise of the Catechism had for that very reason upon the prosperity of the whole Reformation is evident, among other things, from the brief and pithy testimony of Dr. Luther: "The Catechism would bring much good, as indeed it has brought all the good that is now in our people and still brings it, and there is no better art stronger than this for keeping the people in devotion and the Church whole, than the Catechism, as we experience daily." [W. A. 19, 1486.]

Also in this kind of exercise of God's Word we have to observe a threefold form: the reciting and rehearsing of the text of the Catechism, the Catechism sermon, and the Catechism examination.

Concerning the reciting and rehearsing of the Catechism the following is to be noted. According to Dr. Luther's prescription every father of a household was to have it recited word for word daily by the children and servants, as was also done in the school; but whoever would not recite or learn the Catechism was to be denied food and drink, yea, was to be driven out of the house and out of the land. But it was well known that one dared not rely entirely upon house and school even in this exercise, and it was therefore necessary to give the congregation also, in the divine services, opportunity to learn the Chief Parts and to recall them to memory. Therefore not only did the school children have to recite the Catechism regularly in the examination, but it was also spoken forth by the preacher, at least after the sermon, but sometimes also before it, from the pulpit to the people, slowly and distinctly, yet without the explanation, as had been customary even in popery. The Hochberg Church Order must have known that an enlightened and distinguished nineteenth century would one day look down upon it, for it excuses its provisions and says: "Although this ordinance may seem of small account to many, as being much meaner and more childish, since the learned especially would be burdened with it; yet whoever considers the high and great authority of the aforesaid pieces, and what excellent profit comes therefrom to the holy Christian Church, will not be ashamed, however learned he may be, to speak for the same on behalf of the Church. For the Ten Commandments have been held by God in such high esteem that He Himself spoke them before to His Church upon Mount Sinai. So our Lord Christ also Himself taught us to pray the Lord's Prayer. As to the Symbolum apostolicum, especially the articles concerning the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, Peter preached it in the presence and with the testimony of his other fellow-apostles on the feast of Pentecost (Acts 2), when they had but just received the Holy Ghost. And it is not to be doubted, after the true, right Christian doctrine had been darkened for many years with the inventions of men, and yet the use of the above-mentioned pieces was kept up, being recited after the sermon, that many men have been enlightened and preserved through them by the grace of the Holy Ghost. Therefore let no one think it burdensome to undertake this Christian and profitable work, but let him perform it with all diligence and earnestness."

Besides this there was a special Catechism hearing of individuals at confession, further of those who wished to undertake the office of sponsor and had to pledge themselves at the baptismal act to teach their godchild the Chief Parts of the Catechism or to see to it that this be done; finally it was kept up in like manner with betrothed persons before the churchly marriage, all according to earlier laudable custom.

"But it shall not be enough," says Dr. Luther, "that one merely grasp it according to the words and be able to repeat it, but let the young people also go to the sermon appointed for the Catechism, that they may hear it expounded and learn to understand what each part contains."

This leads us to the second form, to the Catechism sermon, by which a richer and fuller understanding of the Catechism, after the guidance of the Large one, was to be given to old and young. If a master in the teaching of the Catechism like Dr. Luther had to remain, and also desired to remain, ever still a pupil of the same, it would indeed be a very perverse question why adults also should continue to take part in such Catechism instruction. In the case of this pattern of wholesome doctrine there is not, as in ciphering, reading and writing, a certain goal to be set, so that one might say, when a Christian knows so and so much, he has therein enough for his whole life, as in our time men are accustomed to regard confirmation as such a goal and as it were the conclusion of all learning of the wholesome doctrine; that at the time of the Reformation the opposite view was held is evident already from this, that only in a few places was confirmation taken into the public divine service, but in most places the well-instructed catechumens were, without more ado, allowed to take part in confession and in the Holy Supper. How necessary continual Catechism instruction through the sermon, which was intended first of all for them, is also for all adults, Dr. Luther tells us in the Preface to his Large Catechism, when he says: "Are we not the very finest fellows, who suppose, when we have once read and heard it, that we know it all and need no more read nor learn, and can learn out in one hour what God Himself cannot teach out? seeing that He teaches thereof from the beginning of the world to the end, and all the prophets together with all the saints have had to learn from it, and have remained pupils ever still, and must still remain so!"

With the Catechism sermons there were to be joined Catechism examinations or catecheses, as appears from the shorter Preface, wherein Dr. Luther, after speaking of the participation of the young in the Catechism sermons, continues thus: "so that they may also be able to recite it as they have heard it, and answer rightly when they are asked, that it may not be preached without profit and fruit; for therefore we take pains to preach the Catechism often, that it may be hammered into the youth, not high nor sharp, but briefly and in the simplest manner, that it may go well into them and remain in memory."

So one part of the Catechism after the other was first explained in the sermon and then asked over in the examination, concerning which the old church orders, and especially the Pomeranian, give very detailed prescriptions, from which one can well feel that their venerable authors must have had a great and holy earnestness for the instruction in the Catechism.

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