# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 09 17_S14
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

14

custom is found in the old Lutheran period; for adults were never examined publicly and in the presence of the youth, since those well-experienced fathers not only took into consideration the good will of the adults to let themselves be examined also, and also considered not merely the good impression which a good answer from them might make upon the youth, but they also thought of the easily possible shame of the adults, if they should give no answer at all or a wrong answer, and, from a wise regard for the bad impression which such a thing must produce upon old and young, they preferred to omit altogether examining those with the rest; they had indeed, in any case, by listening at the examination, opportunity enough to hear the brief repetition of the preceding sermon and in the meantime to answer silently for themselves the questions put to the youth.

Besides these ordinary examinations, which took place in connection with the Catechism sermons at least on all Sundays and festival days in the afternoon, in almost all places, quarterly, within two weeks, all the Chief Parts of the Catechism were preached through and examined, for which purpose all the divine services were employed with the sole exception of the Sunday forenoon service. Finally the superintendent at church visitations had to catechize the congregation, that is, the adults, yet not in the presence of the youth, as was done formerly by the bishops and at the first Lutheran church visitation by Dr. Luther, according to his own declaration in the Preface to the Small Catechism.

Thus the reciting and rehearsing of the Catechism led to a knowledge of the text and of the explanation, the sermon to a richer understanding of both, and the examination to a deeper impressing of what was heard and learned in this twofold manner.

How faithfully, then, did preachers and congregations follow the exhortation of St. Paul, Col. 3:16: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom!" Where do we find a similar zeal in any sect? What wisdom and orderly understanding were required to draw up such a pattern of the system of teaching, in the whole and in the particulars! What unceasing activity was required to put all this into effect, of which Dr. Luther's words in the aforementioned Preface bear witness: "Therefore see to it, pastor and preacher, our office is now become another thing than it was under the Pope; it is now earnest and wholesome. Therefore it has now much more toil and labor, danger and temptation, and withal little reward and thanks in the world; but Christ Himself will be our reward, if we labor faithfully. May the Father of all grace help us thereto! To Him be praise and thanks in eternity through Christ, our Lord! Amen.

Of the Methodist Grace of Sanctification.

Motto: Dost thou dare, Novatian, to call thyself pure? and even if thou wert pure in thy works, by this one word thou wouldst be impure. Ambrose.

(Continuation.)

The truth of the divine Word is so clear and plain that with its bright light it sometimes compels even its enemies to give it honor and to acknowledge it. This appears quite plainly in the Apologist. As is well known, he labors, to the offense of the whole Christian Church, by all manner of perversions of Scripture to defend the false doctrine that man, by the so-called grace of sanctification, can here below already attain to perfect sinlessness. And yet he asserts, contradicting himself, in No. 13 of this year, in the passage already quoted: "Although his soul is free from that which the Bible calls sin, yet he has his infirmities and unavoidable faults, which come from the Fall, wherefore he must every moment claim the atoning blood of Jesus and the merit of His death: forgive me my debt, as I forgive my debtors." Beside the lie that the sanctified man is free from sin, the Apologist thus at the same time confesses against his will the truth that he has his infirmities and unavoidable faults, and thereby utters the doctrine of Holy Scripture, that the Christian during his earthly life can attain no perfect sinlessness. For if unavoidable faults cling to a Christian, that is, sins for which he needs forgiveness, if he is to be saved at all, then it is plainly impossible for him to become sinless here below.

The Apologist will accordingly now have to concede that the Lutheran Church is right, when she understands Rom. 7:14-25 of the state of a regenerate man and confesses with the Formula of Concord thus: "But since believers in this life are not renewed perfectly, completely and altogether (completive vel consummative); for although their sin is covered by the perfect obedience of Christ, so that it is not imputed to believers unto condemnation, and the mortification of the old Adam and the renewal in the spirit of their mind has also been begun by the Holy Ghost, yet the old Adam still clings to their nature and to all its inward and outward powers, of which the Apostle has written, Rom. 7:18: I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing; and again: I know not what I do, for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I; further: I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin; again Gal. 5:17: The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. For if the Apologist says that even the sanctified man has his infirmities and unavoidable faults, he will also have to admit that the words: "what I hate, that do I; sin dwelleth in me; I am carnal; evil clings to me," etc., are applied with full right to a regenerate man, for they say indeed no more than that even the sanctified man has his "unavoidable faults."

As the passage Rom. 7:14-25 is understood by the Formula of Concord, so it is also explained by Augustine and Luther, thus precisely by the men who had the richest and deepest spiritual experience and who in this are probably as yet surpassed by no one. Let us only hear Luther, how he describes his state of soul with the very words of the Apostle: "The others, who boast of spirit or flesh, thou shalt not hear. As now our fanatics boast, who have devoured the Holy Ghost, feathers and all, are altogether spirited through and through, say that the Holy Ghost has talked with them down from heaven and revealed much that is extraordinary, and the like. I cannot boast much of the Spirit, they would soon become spirit to me. I boast of the spirit of love, otherwise I am a poor carnal sinner; I too ought to know something of the Spirit of which they boast; but they are far too highly spirited for me." Sermon on the 8th Sunday after Trinity.

(Continuation follows.)

The Bible and the Roman Church.

A number of bishops assembled at Bononia in the year 1553 for the purpose of deliberating upon the manner in which the wounds dealt to the Roman Church by the Reformation might be healed, issued a letter to Pope Julius III., in which, among other things, the following counsel is given him:

"Finally — this counsel, as the most important of all that we can give at this time, we have kept to the last — the eyes are here to be opened, and with all might it is to be labored that in the states which are under thy dominion and rule, as little as possible of the Gospel (especially in the vernacular) be read. Let that little suffice which is wont to be read at the Mass; and more than this let no one among mortals be permitted to read: For so long as the people were content with that little, so long have thy affairs had their progress according to wish, but have fallen into decline as soon as it