# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 12 12_S58
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

58

a matter of conscience out of it, and bind what God has left free;

c) the giving of the venerable Sacrament into the hands (see above, b);

d) the inviting of members of other church communions to take part in the holy Supper, because thereby the sole Scriptural doctrine of the Supper of the Lutheran Church is denied, the godless, unscriptural Union of our day is furthered, and the conscience of such an inviter is violated, since in this case, through his own fault, he may distribute the holy Supper to the unworthy unto judgment.

e) the churchly ceremonies of burial: for unbaptized children of unbaptized parents; for unbaptized despisers of holy Baptism; for baptized despisers of the same Sacrament and of divine service in general; for sinners who have died in manifest impenitence. For neither heathen nor fallen Christians can the Church plant in the churchyard as seeds of a joyful and blessed resurrection; and especially in this country she has, by refusing churchly burial to the above-named unbaptized, to bear witness against the contempt of holy Baptism.

To the third class of ceremonies the following are chiefly to be reckoned:

The celebration of the festival seasons, the sign of the cross at the blessing, at Baptism, and at the consecration, the altar service, the use of the crucifix and of images, kneeling at prayer, the turning of the preacher toward the altar, etc.

These and similar ceremonies are left to the pleasure of each individual Lutheran congregation, to introduce them or not, to let them fall or to retain them, according to circumstances and inclination.

For if, for example, the Papists of a Lutheran congregation wished to make it an article of faith, and thus also a matter of conscience, to introduce or retain the sign of the cross and the crucifix, and the Reformed of another Lutheran congregation wished to make it a matter of conscience not to introduce them or to abolish them, then this congregation and that would have to do precisely the opposite of what is demanded, so as not to injure, by a false yielding, the doctrine of justification and of Christian liberty; and in that both congregations, precisely according to these outward circumstances, do the very opposite, they are genuinely Lutheran and act according to evangelical truth and wisdom; yes, the same congregation could, when that demand was first made upon it by the Romanists, and afterward the opposite by the Reformed, first not introduce or abolish that ceremony, and afterward introduce or abolish it, without thereby being in contradiction with itself; rather would it only in this way, in both cases, maintain by deed the venerable articles of justification and of Christian liberty.

With regard, however, to the introduction of such ceremonies as belong to the above third class, where there is no definite contradiction on the part of the Reformed or Unionists, the pastor may not accomplish these out of official plenary authority, in the same way as he, for example, unasked preaches the Word of God, Law and Gospel, purely and clearly; but to him alone belongs the public instruction also concerning these matters, while to the congregation with him belongs the deciding whether this or that ceremony is to be introduced; and as he would encroach upon the rights of the congregation and sin against 1 Cor. 14, 40., if in official presumption he introduced those usages, so the congregation would violate his rights if it would not even permit him to instruct concerning this matter. —

Moreover, in the introduction of those and similar ceremonies in this country, very great regard is also to be had to the former custom in Germany, in which the greater part of the congregation has grown up.

4. What are the reasons that must determine us to require the announcement for confession?

a) Because this is the proper place for the exercise of churchly pastoral care, in opposition to the traditional driving method of the factious and enthusiasts.

b) Because this institution attracts the penitent and believing as wholesomely as it holds back a good part of the hypocrites.

c) Because thereby the pastor has opportunity, as a father in Christ, to become better acquainted with the spiritual need of his parishioners and, according to their particular condition, to help them, and to come into an ever more intimate relationship with them.

d) Because thereby he does not so easily fall into the danger of absolving the manifestly impenitent and unbelieving, or the wholly ignorant, and thus also, through his own fault, of giving them the holy Supper unto judgment.

Some of the members of the conference here communicated individual experiences in office made with regard to the announcement for confession, from which it is evident how exceedingly full of blessing this institution is, and how, after taking over the office, one must win even the resisting by special and occasional instruction and friendly admonition, and work toward the announcement for confession. In this instruction it is especially needful and useful to bring out properly the reprehensible torture of conscience of the papal auricular confession and the lovely and comforting nature of private absolution, especially for tempted consciences, which latter, of course, cannot be attained without the announcement of the individual for confession. And as natural and fitting as it is for a sick man to make known to the physician his particular suffering, be it in the head or in any member or inward part, in order then also to receive the suitable remedy: so natural and fitting is it also for the poor sinner to impart his particular spiritual pressure, pain, care, and temptation to his pastor and confessor, in order to receive from him, out of and according to God's Word, the corresponding spiritual medicine, and above all the balm of holy absolution, which thoroughly heals all wounds of the soul, however deep, and to hear from the mouth of the servant even today the comforting words of the LORD: "Be of good cheer, my son, my daughter, thy sins are forgiven thee!" —

With the young people especially, at the announcement for confession, diligent pains are to be taken to hear individual portions of the small Lutheran Catechism recited, and at the same time, for young and old, to use Luther's Questions for those who intend to go to the Sacrament, likewise the Table of Duties, in order to attach further questions to them, according to the need of the individual.

5. What sort of people are not to be admitted to the holy Supper?

a) The unbaptized;

b) the manifestly imbecile and feeble-minded;

c) those who lack even the most necessary knowledge for self-examination. (As the least measure of knowledge there is to be required: the knowledge of the text of the first three chief parts of the Catechism and the most necessary understanding of the same, as also of the fourth and fifth chief parts);

d) public and impenitent sinners, as, for example, cursers, blasphemers, sorcerers, perjurers, scoffers, drunkards, fornicators, adulterers, the covetous, usurers, liars, slanderers, willful and obstinate neglecters of the household and of the training of children, etc.;

e) those who, despite repeated admonition, frivolously and persistently neglect divine service;

f) the unreconciled;

g) the self-righteous, who, despite thorough exposition and presentation of the Law, persist in their self-righteousness;

h) those who, despite careful instruction and admonition, obstinately maintain and spread false doctrines;

i) those who, despite similar instruction and warning, continue in the unscriptural use of superstitious means (the so-called charming or exorcising) for the healing of diseases, etc.;

k) the unconfirmed, special cases, for example in grave illnesses, excepted, namely when a sincere change of mind wrought by the Word of God and a special longing for the holy Supper are present. As a rule, however, it is to be held fast that confirmation, after shorter or longer instruction, precede the enjoyment of the holy Supper. For although confirmation is not a divine ordinance and institution, but only a human arrangement, yet it is so important and salutary that it would be given up temporarily only if it were forced upon us by falsifiers of the article of justification and of Christian liberty as a binding matter of conscience.

6. May, upon request, the children of those of another faith, thus, for example, of Catholic and Reformed parents, also be baptized by the Lutheran pastor?