# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 06 07_S138
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

138

in his heart: I am indeed a poor and great sinner; I confess and acknowledge also that with my sins I have deserved GOD's wrath and displeasure, temporal death and eternal damnation. Nevertheless, I will not despair on account of my sins: for Christ, true GOD, begotten from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my LORD, and hath redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, and from the power of the devil, with His holy, precious blood, and with His innocent suffering and death. This I believe steadfastly, and am certain that GOD in heaven, for the sake of this, of grace forgiveth and remitteth all my sins.

3. The Confession of Faith, or Confession. In this connection it is to be remembered:

Before the confession in the church there shall go before it the confession before GOD as well as toward the neighbor.

Before GOD one shall plead guilty of all sins, and according to the holy ten Commandments call his sins to mind one after another and confess them.

For this one may also use the 51st Psalm, the Prayer of Manasseh, and other beautiful little prayers of repentance and confession, Dan. 9, 4.

Toward the neighbor private confession shall take place, and to him whom one has perhaps offended, apology shall be made, and hearty reconciliation follow, as also restitution of what has been taken away, or of what one may otherwise possess unjustly.

In confession one shall

1. Acknowledge that he was conceived in original sin, and has increased the same with many actual sins, and

2. That he has hereby deserved GOD's wrath, temporal punishment and eternal damnation, but

3. Testify that he is heartily and painfully sorry for this, and

4. In true faith take comfort against his sin in his dear LORD JESUS Christ, who hath redeemed him from his sins, and obtained forgiveness of the same, so that

5. Thereupon he be willing to go to the Table of the LORD, and there, for the confirmation of this his faith, receive the true body and the true blood of Christ.

6. That henceforth, through the grace of GOD and the assistance of the Holy Ghost, as far as is possible to him, he will amend his life and become more pious.

And when the priest then announces to him the absolution, and absolves him from his sins, he shall accept it, not as the voice of man, but, as it also truly is, as the voice of GOD.

After confession and absolution he shall

1. Heartily thank GOD the LORD that He has brought him to the knowledge of his sins, and humbly pray that He would let him feel powerfully in his heart the power of the absolution.

2. Thereupon he shall prepare himself for the worthy use of the holy Lord's Supper; wherefore

3. He shall pray to and call upon GOD the LORD from the bottom of his heart that He would let him be a worthy guest at this heavenly meal.

4. He shall hear the sermon with hearty devotion.

When he now goes up to the altar, he shall do so with becoming devotion and fervent meditation upon the dear and precious words of institution: This is my body, which is given for you: This is my blood, which is shed for you, for the remission of sins.

In such meditation he shall receive the holy Lord's Supper, and not doubt, but firmly believe, that he receives the very body of Christ, which for his sake was given on the cross, and for his sin into death, and the very blood of Christ, which He shed for his sin on the tree of the holy cross.

After receiving this precious treasure he shall again heartily thank his most deserving Saviour JESUS Christ, and besides pray that He would let this wholesome food and drink of the soul prosper in him unto strong faith toward GOD, unto fervent love toward his neighbor, unto constant hope and patience in the cross and adversity, and also in the last distress of death.

Hereupon now follows the new obedience, which consists:

1. In true fear of GOD toward GOD.

2. In upright love toward the neighbor.

3. In faithful and diligent performance of the works of our calling.

Whoever takes all this into due heed, receives the Sacrament of the true body and blood of Christ worthily, and has thereby life, comfort and eternal salvation.

Which may GOD, the heavenly Father, in Christ JESUS, His Son, grant and bestow upon all Christian communicants through the grace of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

(Sent in.)

The Baptismal Customs.

The customs at the act of Baptism, as all orthodox Agenda prescribe them on the ground of Luther's Baptismal Booklet, are full of meaning and significance. Many devout and attentive Christians may sense this whenever they see baptizing in a Lutheran church, but few clearly recognize the real meaning of each of the several customs in this most holy act. For this reason the old Valerius Herberger at Fraustadt in Prussian Poland, the author of the well-known glorious hymn for the dying, "Valet will ich dir geben," etc., as also of the glorious Herzpostille, explained these customs on the Baptism of Christ to his parishioners in a lovely, edifying manner, and it is well needful, now again also, to introduce an understanding of them, so that thereby also "the sponsors and assistants may be the more stirred up to faith and earnest devotion, and the priests who baptize may have so much the more diligence for the hearers' sake." The old, sincere-hearted Herberger would speak here also to thee, my dear reader, and I am sure that thou wilt, when thou hast heard him, from now on not only look with so much the greater pleasure upon the old baptismal customs in thy church, and be the more earnestly intent that they be inherited also by thy descendants, but also say joyfully with Herberger to thyself: "Behold, dear heart, what a beautiful act this is! Why, it goes almost as beautifully as in heaven. I thank my God from my heart that I know that it went thus at my baptism."

What thoughts ought we to have when we think of our Baptism, when we look on as little children are baptized, or when someone among us is asked to be a sponsor? This is very needful to know, for many people do not consider how it went with their baptism, how can they then comfort themselves with it? Many people do not even desire to look on or to listen, which is a shameful disgrace.*) Therefore the Evangelicals (Lutherans) do not like to set their baptismal fonts in hidden corners, but in public, visible places and spots. Many people do not know what the sponsorship amounts to. They stand there to the mockery and disgrace of holy Baptism, and because they cannot pray, to the evident harm of the little child. Therefore I will go through all the customs which have been observed among us in these places from the beginning of the Gospel.

*) How many of our own does this reproach not touch! For as soon as, after the close of a forenoon or afternoon service, a baptism begins, usually everybody streams out of the church. Only a few remain seated to consider the high things that take place there, to honor the Holy Trinity, which there reveals its gracious presence, to render the baptized child a Christian service of love with their intercession, to remember their own baptismal covenant and to renew it in the heart. Whenever, therefore, a baptism is performed in a public service, the whole congregation should stay and be fellow-witnesses and fellow-intercessors. D. E.

1. The sponsors stand still with the little child at the door (or at the altar, at the baptismal font). Here we consider how the little child, on account of its sinful conception and its birth, might be separated from God forever, and with the foolish virgins have a closed door of heaven (Matt. 25), and with all the damned remain outside before the heavenly Jerusalem, as is to be read in the Revelation of John 22.†)

†) To awaken such thoughts serves the glorious baptismal exhortation with which the baptismal service is opened among us.