# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1851 03 18_S116
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

116

thoughts to the resolution, the LORD alone, the loving, faithful God, joined to them the right helpers; the LORD alone strengthened the faith of His servants to overcome all hindrances and to conquer the resistance of the devil, the world and their own flesh; the LORD finally made the way smooth more and more, and brought the work to a stand and being.

Therefore to the LORD alone belong honor, thanks, praise and glory for all His goodness and benefit which He does to the children of men; — therefore we also, at the completion of this work, are to praise His name, since He is the true Beginner and Finisher of the same.

This praising and extolling of the triune God becomes us all the more, since this house is especially consecrated and hallowed to His holy name; for in this place shall be taught, and out of it shall go forth, servants of the living God, who are to proclaim His holy name, to teach God's Word purely and clearly, to divide rightly Law and Gospel, with the former to break the hard hearts, with the latter in Word and Sacrament to bind up the broken hearts; — fellow-laborers and helpers of the Holy Ghost, angels of the LORD of Hosts, shepherds of the Chief Shepherd, who by God's Word alone are to destroy the bulwarks of Satan, break his prisons, kill death, shut up hell, make blessed ones out of the cursed, children of grace out of servants of the law, found and living ones out of the lost and dead, citizens with the saints and of the household of God out of the rejected and banished, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, kings and priests and possessors of the eternal joys of heaven out of those condemned to eternal hell-torment.

But as great, glorious and exalted as this calling is, to be ambassadors in Christ's stead and to carry on the office that preaches reconciliation, so important also are the requirements for this service and office, and so important is the preparation to become fit for it.

Let us, so far as time permits, cast a glance at both points.

I. What are the necessary requirements for an upright servant of the holy Church? —

1. That he hold fast the form of sound doctrine and abide in that which is committed to him, as the orthodox Church, now called Luth., on the ground of the divine Word believes, confesses and teaches from the beginning. And closely connected with this is that he have nothing to do with the unscriptural mixing of faiths and churches and the false Unionism of our days, in which, alas, almost all Luth. synods of this country, according to their churchly manner of action, lie captive; rather is it the duty of all faithful Luth. ministers of the church to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints, and to desire and enter into no other unity than that which is and abides in one and the same faith, confession and doctrine in all articles of the truth delivered to us by God in His Word unto salvation.

2. That he have not merely a sound and thorough knowledge of this saving doctrine, but, God willing, also the inward experience of it, having already in a certain measure tasted inwardly the killing power of the Law and the quickening might of the Gospel.

It is surely highly needful that even the prospective minister of the church begin to live and move in the most precious and most weighty article of Justification; for otherwise he is merely a doctrine-machine, an orthodox clockwork, a lifeless and loveless sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. He is like a wooden signpost, which indeed shows others the right road, but does not walk it itself; and while he has the church's faith constantly in his mouth, his heart is nevertheless far from it.

Therefore it belongs, further, to this, that the servant of the Church, far from such pride, stand rather in sincere humility, simplicity and purity, and hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

3. That he be fit also to teach others, and to preach to others the faith of the Church, already inwardly experienced, God willing, with demonstration of the Spirit and of power, and yet so simply, clearly and plainly, and to lay it upon the heart with exhortation, that it is not the fault of his preaching if sinners do not smite upon their breasts and those godly sorrowing are not comforted, if not, God willing, all his sheep believe aright, live Christianly and die blessedly.

4. That he take heed to himself and to the flock which the Bishop and Chief Shepherd of their souls has committed to him to feed; here it is chiefly a matter that he occupy himself with all earnestness and diligence with God's Word, meditate upon it devoutly, move it with sighing to the Holy Ghost in his heart, and chiefly thereby grow ever more in the grace and knowledge of the LORD Jesus Christ; it is incumbent on him that first he especially watch and pray for himself, that Satan and his own flesh do not outwit or lull him to sleep in this way or that; but thereafter it is no less his duty to watch and pray carefully for his flock, to tend, to guard, to rebuke, to threaten, to warn, to exhort and to comfort the individual lambs according to their particular spiritual need, etc.

No less is it his sacred duty, in this taking heed, to rebuke false doctrine and to strip the sheep's clothing from the wolves, whether it please his own parishioners or not; for God has commanded it to him in His Word, to hold fast the Word that is sure, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.

5. That he, with the most faithful care possible of his sheep, yet desire and expect not in this life the days of men and good ease, but rather be at all times ready, for the LORD's sake and for His pure doctrine, to endure all manner of tribulation and to bear after the LORD Christ His dear cross, so that he be not merely His confessor but also His follower; a lion in the LORD's, a lamb in his own cause; for only if he suffer with Him, will he also reign with Him, only if he die with Him, will he also live with Him.

6. Finally, that he be an example to his flock in every fruit of the Spirit and in all Christian virtues, so that he live what he teaches and adorn the pure doctrine of God our Saviour with a godly walk.

II. What is the right preparation to become a fit servant of the holy Church?

1. That our young brethren walk in upright fear of God, and that the greatness and exaltedness, the fruitfulness and sweetness of their future office be present, as far as possible, always before their eyes. There belongs here, therefore, a great earnestness of mind, which diligently bears in mind the high aim of such preparation, and has a hearty abhorrence of its ever being a mere must and outward business. If that earnestness of mind is lacking, it is greatly to be feared that the future preachers will be bare and void of the fervent spirit, of the holy zeal, of the seeking love of Christ, and will become orthodox day-laborers and hirelings, who preach for so much and so much, so often and so often, etc.

2. That they with faithfulness and care use God's Word daily for the nourishment and strengthening of their souls, that they may not merely gain from it, for their instruction, the necessary knowledge of the understanding, but with their whole inward man live more and more in the Word, and this in them.

3. That they join with such use of the holy Scripture also earnest and persevering prayer, and with such prayer again bright and keen watching, especially against the sins formerly liked and customary. Here it behooves them, with right willingness, to give themselves up to the discipline of the Holy Spirit and also to the rebuke and admonition of the brethren, in order gradually to change their former darling sins into the opposite virtues, anger into meekness, levity into earnestness, ambition into humility, sloth into zeal, melancholy into cheerfulness, etc.

4. That they, with conscientiousness and fidelity, use the means of instruction offered, in order not merely to acquire all sorts of single items of knowledge, but, God willing, at the same time to gain more and more the one connected knowledge of the divine truth, and to penetrate through to a living view of it. In this it becomes young men well to redeem the time carefully, so that even the better gifted do not lightly squander it, but devote it to the private study of important writings, especially Luther's works.

5. That they strive that a cheerful earnestness be the ruling keynote of their being, and especially also of their social conduct with one another and also outside the house, more and more. For on the one hand it ill becomes them to carry about a forced spiritual demeanor, and after the manner of the Pietists and Methodists to have a morbid craving to start all sorts of edifying phrases and to convert all people by force even in their private intercourse; but on the other hand it is no small evil when the deeper background of earnestness is lacking in cheerfulness, so that insipid merriment, a wantonness of the flesh, a worldly demeanor, and all sorts of loose and unspiritual talk result from it.

6. That they be toward their teachers reverent and confiding at once, but among themselves open, brotherly, hearty, forgiving, so that no crooked and false spirit, no open or