# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 10 03_S18
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

18

to introduce in their congregations the announcements for confession, which are indispensable for the proper discharge of churchly pastoral care and, when they are used by the pastors with love and wisdom, yield a great blessing for the pastors themselves and give them rich opportunity to become more and more fathers in Christ also in their sermons, while at the same time they are of benefit to their parishioners in the most manifold way.

Sixthly, there is connected no less closely with the public recognition of the churchly symbols this, that the preachers of the Ohio Synod henceforth may no longer be men-servants hired and engaged by the congregation for a time; for the call to the undertaking of the holy ministry, even when it comes mediately, that is, through men, is divine, and as such contains also the requirement, 1. upon the preacher, to spend his whole life in the service of the congregation that calls him, and 2. upon the congregation, to hear its called shepherd as long as he lives, so far as he continues in pure doctrine and blameless conduct and discharges his office on all sides with zeal and faithfulness.

On the other hand, the levity of many a preacher would of course also have to be checked, who hastily leaves his congregation in order to better himself outwardly, and offers himself formally to vacant congregations, and so shows himself plainly to be a belly-servant and a hireling; for even in the case of a regular call from a congregation that has perhaps become vacant to the preacher serving another congregation, the consent of the latter belongs to it, before the pastor may accept the new call.

This abominable and unworthy hiring and engaging of Lutheran congregations for a time, and the no less shameful letting themselves be hired and engaged on the part of Lutheran preachers, is one of the worst blots upon most of the Lutheran congregations and synodical constitutions in this country; and not to a small degree is the unchurchly deformity of the congregations thereby also produced and maintained. For how should a sound churchly form break through, where the congregations, through a false encroachment of civil democracy upon the government of the Church, are accustomed to regard the servant of the holy Church, who deals with them by Word and Sacrament in God's stead, not as God's servant, not as an ambassador in Christ's stead, but as their hired servant, as their preacher-keeper and sacrament-administrator, whom after the expiration of the term of hire they can keep or send away at pleasure? How should such congregations have a reverent awe of the holy ministry and for its sake also of the bearer of it, and, so far as he publicly and particularly handles God's Word purely and sincerely and leads a holy, godly life, regard him also as an angel of God and obey his, that is, God's, Word with thanks and love?

Likewise conversely — how should such hirelings and servants for hire, when they, contrary to divine and human order, let themselves be engaged for a time and buy their office with the favor of men — how should they then have the holy courage and the divine joyfulness to ply the office of the Law's reproof not merely in the sermon, but also in private pastoral care, without respect of persons, powerfully and penetratingly, since now once for all, alas, in almost all congregations there is more to rebuke than to comfort? This evil, however, ought first of all to be remedied by the Synod.

If it does not itself wish, first of all, now as before, to tread the dignity of the holy ministry in the mire, it must tolerate no preacher among itself or receive into its body one who lets such shameful conditions of being hired for a time be put upon him and cannot obtain a regular call from his congregations, which indeed are first of all carefully to be instructed about this. And every preacher who recognizes the glory of his office and is spiritually minded would in any case have to leave such a congregation as, in spite of all thorough and repeated instruction, would hold fast to the old bad habit and disorder of hiring and give its preacher no regular call.

On the other hand, the Synod would also be bound to remove thoroughly a seventh evil. This concerns, namely, the superficiality in the examination of its candidates. For how is it possible, by an examination of perhaps two or three hours, over perhaps five or six and still more candidates, to form a judgment whether they are sufficiently qualified in disposition, knowledge, aptitude to teach, gifts for pastoral care and for church government, to undertake the holy ministry, so heavy, so full of responsibility, and in this country bound up with such peculiar difficulties? Should the Synod persist in this frivolous procedure, which is also directly contrary to its new avowal of the symbolical books, it would become partaker of all the sins which impure and unfit men, whose character was not sufficiently recognized in that superficial examination, commit in their administration of the office. No! Let it examine thoroughly and carefully, not now by this man, now by that, but by a standing examining commission of the most pious, most learned and most experienced preachers of its body, orally and in writing; let it have the candidates also preach and catechize; let it look carefully to the testimonials of character brought with them; but after a well-passed examination, and with a written, regular (hence not hired and temporary) call at hand, let it grant forthwith the churchly ordination, and let it drop entirely the arbitrary expedient of annual licenses, which yet affords no security whatever either to the Synod or to the congregation.

Eighthly, there is connected no less closely with the confession of the churchly symbols the obligation of the synods to provide for the establishment of regular parochial schools, in which the children, whether by the preachers themselves or by believing and competent schoolteachers, are carefully instructed chiefly in Biblical history, in the Catechism, in the learning and singing of the noblest hymns of our Church. For everyone readily sees that the little patchwork and piecework of the Sunday schools of this country, where now these, now those people teach the children now this, now that, cannot train the youth churchly in sound knowledge, nor ground and build them up in "the words of faith and of good doctrine," nor impart a churchly mind, taste and habit. And what lasting fruit is wrought there for the preservation and strengthening of the Church, if, while labor is bestowed upon the parents, the children meanwhile run wild, are not brought in home and school into the knowledge and discipline of the divine Word, but instead are carnally Americanized and also in churchly respects fall a prey to the English language, instead of retaining a preference for the German as their home and church language.*)

And with this there stands connected also, ninthly, the introduction of Sunday catechizations, first of all of the children, the confirmands and the newly confirmed, if possible also of the older people, in close connection, wherein also the most important false doctrines of the principal religious parties and sects are to be treated.

Finally, the Ohio Synod would be urgently advised, upon the ground of the Confession, to draw up a new synodical constitution, wherein the abuses and defects mentioned would be thoroughly remedied and also the so exceedingly important office of oversight established through a president elected for a longer term; for if he is a truly godly man, churchly minded, rich in knowledge and experience, especially equipped with the gift of leadership and wisdom, a servant of God, then an unspeakable blessing may grow out of him for the Church in that synodical district, partly in that, by official visiting journeys, he takes into closer view chiefly the conduct of office of the synodical members in their congregations, in an evangelical, fatherly manner and according to an instruction given him by the Synod, partly in that he also gives counsel in writing, especially for the more difficult cases of pastoral care and church discipline.

May the gracious and merciful God accordingly richly grant to the worthy Ohio Synod desire, light, zeal and skill, upon the ground of the public and solemn obligation to the symbolical books so decidedly expressed by it of late, to carry out the constitution in conformity with the same and briefly indicated above, con-

*) It is not meant hereby that the German children should not also in due time learn to speak, read and write the English language, and appropriate to themselves what is good in this country; only the frivolous throwing away of their language, customs and national character, and the no less frivolous adopting, together with the English language, of that which in this country is worse than in Germany, is censured above and called carnally Americanized.