# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 12 06_S60
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doubtful matters to rest on the judgment of the Pope and to do what he commands." (Lib. 4. de pont. Rom. c. 5.)

Toletus writes: "Sometimes it is permitted to use ambiguities and to deceive him who hears; not always, but when the judge demands an oath contrary to right, it is permitted to use ambiguity and to swear in one's own sense against the sense of the judge; e. g., when a judge asks: Have you done that? let one answer: 'I have not done it,' meaning in one's inmost mind: 'that I say this,' or 'at this time,' or something similar. And when the husband asks his wife whether she is an adulteress, she can say, 'no, I am not,' although it is the case, inasmuch as she understands it so: 'that I disclose it to you.' So if anyone is compelled to swear that he will take another woman for his bride, he can think thereby: 'if it should please me later.' And he who, when seized by robbers, swears that he will afterward give a hundred ducats in order to be set free, and, while swearing ambiguously, says to himself: 'if it should please me afterward,' is then not bound to pay. So also one who is held captive unlawfully by a jailer, when he swears, in order to be let go, that he will return afterward, may make use of an ambiguity and is then not bound to return." (Lib. IV. Instruct. Sacerd. c. 21.)

Thus writes Escobar, a Spanish Jesuit, of Valladolid, died 1669: "Is it sin to make use of ambiguity of expression in taking an oath, that is, to take the words in a different sense from that in which the other takes them? In itself it is not wrong; often it can be a sin. For a good cause it is permitted to make use of ambiguity in expression. When such an ambiguity is only in the understanding, and the words themselves do not contain it in themselves, it is a probable opinion that it is not permitted so to swear, but still more probable that it is not unpermitted." (Theol. moral. tract. I. exam. 3. c. 4.)

Thus writes Sanchez, died at Granada 1610: "It is doubted whether it is permitted to an innocent man to accept or to offer a duel†), when it is certain that his accuser will oppress him by fraud in court and obtain for him an unjust condemnation. Some say that neither of the two is permitted . . . But others say better that to such an innocent man the duel is permitted for the protection of his life, his honor and his property, if it concerns something considerable, if it is wholly certain that the accuser proceeds unjustly and slanderously, and if it is wholly certain that the innocent man will lose this, and that no other means of escaping the affair is at his command. For since this duel takes on the character of a defense, so this defense against the assailant is permitted, as well for the protection of life and honor as of property.— Yes, Navarra says well "(a Spanish theologian of Toledo)" that the innocent man is not bound to accept a duel, nor to offer it if by secretly killing the other he can escape this danger in regard to his life, his honor and his property. For thus he will avoid the threatening danger to his own life in the duel and the sin of the accuser who offers or accepts the duel." (In praecepta decalogi lib.. II. c. 89.) Thus even the good end, to save one's money, sanctifies the means of assassination.

†) A duel which ends only with the death of one of the combatants.

(To be continued.)

Katechismusauslegung

from Dr. Luther's writings and the symbolical books, compiled by E. G. W. Keyl, pastor of the Evang. Luth. St. Paul's congregation in Baltimore.

Although convinced that the dear readers of the Lutheraner will already be inclined, through the earlier notices of the Katechismusauslegung of Pastor Keyl, to procure this beautiful book, I yet hold it not superfluous to call attention to it more fully. Those brethren who on the occasion of the last synodical convention commissioned me to procure the Katechismusauslegung for them will have received the copies they desired, all or at least in part, from the book firm of Messrs. Schäfer and Koradi in Philadelphia. The first shipment, which arrived here, was at once exhausted, but a larger one is already on the way. The copy costs one dollar, but since the postage, when it is prepaid, amounts to only about 10 cents per copy for all parts of the United States, the book firm undertakes this prepayment and asks the recipients to send in, besides the $1 00, about 3 postage stamps (that is, 9 cts. worth), so that they may receive it postage free.

What in general is to be found in the book has already been announced. Pastor Keyl intends, with God's gracious assistance, to expound the whole Small Lutheran Catechism by an exact compilation of everything that has been said in Dr. Luther's writings and in the Symbolical Books about the catechism and its doctrine. The work which we shall receive in this way will present the Christian doctrine in its full extent and contents, as it is set forth by Dr. Martin Luther and the Symbolical Books. That such a work is necessary and will be of great, blessed effect, we must all perceive, since we know indeed that Christendom is visited with great ignorance of the pure doctrine of the Word of God and plagued with dreadful disunity of faith: we need it, that we may have the Christian doctrine in its purity and fulness again set before us by Dr. Luther. We too have certainly noticed ourselves that the speech which the Christian teachers of the present time mostly use is unintelligible to us, or at least highly unedifying, when we read it; that, on the contrary, when we hear Dr. Luther speak, not only the ear, but also the spirit understands and listens, and the heart is seized by the fulness of the eternal thoughts of God and carried on to repentance and faith. Therefore, as to content and form, Pastor Keyl has undertaken an important and edifying work; let us now consider its extent, as it lies before us in the first volume as an exposition of the first chief part, the holy Ten Commandments.

"It is a diligent work," that is the first judgment which I have heard from Germany about this book. On 440 pages and by means of 931 questions it expounds to us the holy Ten Commandments through excerpts from the great number of Dr. Luther's writings and from the Symbolical Books. Whoever desires information about the manner in which the work was carried out, but also would form an idea of the difficulty of it, let him note the account of it which the author gives on pages VI and VII of the Preface. To the judgment cited above my correspondent adds that the book is only too broadly planned, and thereby perhaps hits the thoughts of many readers of this notice. But the author has also had these thoughts and yet has not made the plan shorter. He could, on the one hand, not prescribe to Dr. Luther how many sayings he should give for the doctrine of the catechism, as are necessary for a book of such and such brevity; on the other hand, the author, if he would be faithful, might not choose the one saying of Luther and reject the other, but was bound to give what Luther gives. If Dr. Luther now expounds the catechism to us on 440 pages, let us not be frightened at this exposition as being too lengthy, but wish Pastor Keyl God's reward for having let such a noble gift come to us, and set ourselves at the feet of the old, faithful and gifted Dr. Luther and listen to him with ear and heart. As little as there is anything superfluous or spiritless in Luther's writings in general, so little is there in this Katechismusauslegung, but rather the reader becomes with every page only the more eager to read on. (See pages IX and X of the Preface.)

The plan of the book is most simple. It begins with an introduction which in 4 different parts shows what the catechism, what in particular the Small Catechism