# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 10 31_S35
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

35

gregation had to do with all manner of seductive spirits, who scatter dangerous doctrines and thereby lead the weak astray, and seek to draw away one soul after another from their lawful spiritual shepherd. Here it is indeed needful, not merely to warn and rebuke in public preaching, but also to go confidently to meet the wolves themselves, and as far as possible still to counsel the seduced souls and to instruct them to something better.

But still more painful is the second case which Paul here cites: "also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them." This is certainly the most painful thing of all for a preacher, when even those who at first received his word with joy side with the evil party and bring about divisions and factions in the congregation. Here there is need for a faithful pastor to watch and to pray, to contend and to resist, that he may still save what is to be saved, so that the fire that has broken out may not consume everything.

But if it does not succeed with the enemy in one way, he tries it in ten other ways to lay waste our scattered seed of the divine Word. Yes, is not the field on which we sow always of at least four kinds? There are impenitent and secure hearts, sunk in sin and vice, from whom the devil at once takes away the Word, that they may not believe and be saved. There are the fickle, who make a good beginning once, and when one looks after them again, they have fallen away and no faith is any longer to be found. There are the earthly-minded, with whom the Word cannot come to fruit because of care, riches, and the pleasures of this life.

Are we then to let it be done with, that we have preached the Word from the pulpit to all such? By no means. If every Christian is to warn, teach, rebuke, and admonish his erring neighbors wherever he can, how much more ought the called teachers and pastors to do it! Ought they not always to watch over the souls entrusted to them, and take care that they be not lost? Ought they not to give account of every soul that is committed to them? What mighty words of thunder are those which the Lord speaks through the prophet Ezekiel to unfaithful shepherds: "The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost. — Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: Behold, I will require my flock at your hand." (Ezek. 34, 4 and 10.)

But if there is already so much to do for an upright pastor among such souls as have not yet come to true faith, there is no less, yes, almost still more to do among those who have awakened to spiritual life and become believers. Yes, there the right work for us first begins, that we tend and nurse, like a spiritual nurse, the weak little children who have been born to our God, that we give them not strong meat, but the right milk, and yet seek also to bring them further in all knowledge and doctrine; that we teach them to separate themselves from evil men, and yet also guard them against false separation and other wrong paths, into which they often fall, even with the best of intentions. Alas, it is not so soon to be shouted for joy, as the Methodists do, as though such spiritually awakened souls had been carried so soon over all the mountains of dangers that threaten them with falling away. Especially among such Christians are found countless temptations from within and from without, wherein we must exhort and strengthen them against flesh, world, and devil, and comfort them in all manner of tribulation against distress and death, if they are not to become fainthearted or weary in their faith, or even lose again what they have scarcely obtained by grace. Yet let this little suffice to indicate how necessary the private care of souls is. "Therefore watch," says the Apostle in the following verse, "and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears." And herewith he has set himself forth as an example, not only to those elders of Ephesus, but to all shepherds of souls, and has shown them that it is quite possible to administer the office of the care of souls also to each individual member. Therefore we speak

3.

here yet of some things concerning the right practice of the private care of souls. But ought we not all first of all to blush before this fidelity of the Apostle, wherewith, amid his other labors, toils, struggles, and tribulations, he admonished every one night and day with tears? Yes, we can hardly form an idea how it was even possible for him to do this in the great city congregation at Ephesus. And yet he would not say it if it had not been true, and the elders present could bear him witness.

But why then did he admonish every one with tears? This is probably to show us three things and to teach us to imitate them: first, we see from it his fervent zeal, with which he certainly did not make cold, empty words, but besought and adjured the souls with all the power of the Spirit and by the blood of Christ: Be ye reconciled to God! Abide with Christ, who has loved you unto death! Remember the tears of Christ, which He once wept over Jerusalem, and neglect not the time in which ye are visited! — Secondly, we see from these tears of the Apostle his great affability, patience, and humility, how he did not lord it over the souls, but with fatherly and motherly love allured and softened them, as he also writes to the Thessalonians: "Ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, and that we, as the apostles of Christ, might have been burdensome, but were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children." 1 Thess. 2, 7. 11. But thirdly, we conclude with certainty and with right, from the tears of the Apostle, also this, that he had to make many painful and bitter experiences in his care of souls, and to contend with many and great hindrances therein. And who among us would not, at least in this respect, weep after the Apostle, or say with Jeremiah: "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears," in order to weep over the misery and blindness wherewith so many of the souls entrusted to us thrust from them all particular discipline and admonition unto the Lord, and look upon us as their oppressors and enemies, when we take them in hand and wish to save them.

Much might here still be said of the manifold other distresses whereby our hands are so often bound in our pastoral care. But, dear and beloved brethren, as we see that the dear Apostle, amid all opposition and grief which he had to suffer, yet did not cease to admonish every one again and again with tears, so let us also, amid all difficulties with which we have to contend, yet not give up courage, and by no means overlook how much time and opportunity we still always have to care also for every single soul that is committed to us: In the first place, most of us instruct the children of our congregations ourselves; and though this is in many respects troublesome and not properly our office, yet it is an opportunity by which we may lead those tender lambs to Christ and perhaps draw many parents after them. We also hold, no doubt, all the church examinations, or at least have the preparation of the catechumens, whereby we have opportunity to get around among the young and to speak to the individual to his heart. We have the announcement of the communicants, or at least the right to go into the house of him who will not announce himself, and to question him on the chief parts of the wholesome doctrine and to admonish him to repentance, if we are in any case to administer to him the venerable Sacrament. And whoever by God's grace succeeds, by the way of instruction, in bringing up again private confession, now despised by so many in ignorance and prejudice, or hindered by manifold difficulties, he will certainly experience what our fathers have so often testified, what a support there is given therein to the private care of souls, in order to apply the publicly preached Word here to individuals, and to impress the Law upon the individual souls in particular for the practice of repentance, but the Gospel, through the comforting private absolution, for the practice and strengthening of faith. We have further, on occasion of all manner of offenses or quarrels which may perhaps occur in our congregations between husband and wife, or neighbors, and the like, the quite