# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 04 17_S132
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

132

ten Christmas holiday), of Matthias the 24th of February, of Philip and James the 1st of May, of Peter and Paul the 29th of June, of James the 25th of July, of Bartholomew the 24th of August, of Matthew the 21st of September, of Simon and Jude the 28th of October.

Among the more rarely occurring saints' days is found:

The Conversion of Paul (January 25), with the Gospel Matt. 19, 27-30, or Acts 9, 1-22, and with the Epistle 1 Tim. 1, 14-17, or Acts 9, 1-22. Dr. Luther on this day preached only on the text from the Acts of the Apostles, because it is, after the manner of the Gospels, of historical content; he says: “This feast we hold and keep for the sake of the glorious and lovely history and story, wherein it is described how St. Paul was called to be an apostle by Christ Himself and appointed a preacher, which preacher and apostle He has given to us (who are descended from the Gentiles).” (XII, 1506.) — “The history of the conversion of the holy Paul one should retain in the Church as a special wonderful work of grace of our dear LORD God, and preach thereof, both for the sake of the great comfort and profitable doctrine which is set before us in such a wonderful work.” (XIII, 2520.)

The Day of Mary Magdalene (July 22) has been placed on a level with the Apostles' days in most Lutheran territorial churches, as regards whole-day and half-day observance. Of the Gospel of this day (Luke 7, 36-50) Dr. Luther says: “That is an excellent history, which ought fitly to be preached on a special day every year in the Church; for it sets before us the two chief parts of the Christian doctrine, what true repentance is, and how one is to come to the forgiveness of sins. (XIII, 2778.)

The Day of Laurentius, the holy martyr of the third century, (the 10th of August) occurs only in a few, but good, church orders, and likewise is for the most part placed on a level with the Apostles' days. To this belongs the saying of the holy Augustine, which Dr. Luther cites: “The feasts of the martyrs are exhortations to follow them in their testimonies of blood, that we should not be loath to follow them in that whose memory we celebrate with pleasure.”

Among those days and feasts which the strictly Lutheran church orders of the 16th century do not yet know belong:

The days of Repentance and Prayer, to which first the afflictions of the 17th century gave occasion, and which only about the 18th century obtained ever more general acceptance; strictly speaking they ought, according to Holy Scripture, to be kept only on certain outward occasions, e.g., in plagues of the land and like general distresses. Just as little is a harvest festival found in that time, although it not seldom happens that the harvest thanksgiving is transferred to Michaelmas. If one had said to the Lutherans of the 16th century of a harvest festival, mission festival, festival of the dead and the like, they would not have understood such language at all, or at least would have held it to be something Popish; for a feast was to them only such a day as the LORD Himself had made; and Dr. Luther, when he blames in the papal church the passion for making feasts, says: “Nature is inclined, yea restless, to set up outward customs and to institute divine services; therefore it is necessary that one meet it beforehand and that it be kept in the Word of God, that we may be sure that we deal in divine things and do God a pleasure.” (XIII, 2318.) (Continuation follows.)

Direction for a Truly Christian Life.

(By Luther.)

To shun sin is a shrine:
Put patience in suffering therein,
Good for evil do thereto,
Cheerful in poverty —: now lock it up!
(See Delitsch's Schatzkästlein.)

The Sermon and the Sermon Texts in the Lutheran Church.

Among the means which the Church uses for the salvation of souls, preaching stands first. It is the means to call near those who stand afar off, and to make firm in calling and election those who have been called and have come. In preaching the Church does not aim at supporting the holy Word by human art, but the chief thing is not to hinder its power and effect and not to force upon the Word any manner of working which is not fitting for it. The preacher proclaims the salvation in Christ JESUS with the consciousness that not his addition, but the noble content of the Word must separate souls from the world and bring them near to God. To be sure, it is natural that the preacher believes and therefore speaks, and it is a hateful contradiction to preach and not to believe oneself; but a true preacher does not wish to recommend the truth by a display of his faith and experience; he would thereby only recommend himself; rather he seeks to bring his people to this, that it can say with those Samaritans: “Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God.” A sincere preacher therefore does not indeed purposely step back, but neither does he purposely step forward, but he comes with the Word and the Word with him; he is a simple, faithful witness of the Word, and the Word bears witness for him; he and the Word appear as one. All his preaching is based on holy calm. Even when he rebukes and the zeal of God's house eats him up, it is not the wrath of the restless world, but the wrath of the inviolable, peaceful God, which awakes in him. It is not he chiefly who speaks, but the LORD in him and through him, and his conduct of his office is worthy of the LORD. By all means it is the measure of manly maturity which distinguishes the churchly preacher.

In great confidence in the divine Word he therefore disdains every kind of Methodism. He has a method, that of simplicity suited to the subject and the word; but precisely this is capable of no Methodism. He wishes to win friends for the LORD JESUS neither by human eloquence, nor by excitements of feeling, nor by the more impure means of excited nerves. It is not the restlessness of revival at which he aims, but the revolution of divine thoughts. As the calling to enlightenment goes forward and every advance in the inner life is conditioned by an advance of knowledge, so he seeks above all things to bring the holy thoughts of the divine Word rightly known, near to the memory, the contemplation, the delight, the innermost being of his hearers. He too does not reject the feelings of men, but he stirs them by the quiet presentation of the heavenly light, or rather, he lets this light shine and then knows for certain that with the beam warmth also goes forth. His watchwords are not “awaken” and the like, but those words of Scripture which point to the gradual, quiet growth of the divine mustard seed. His urging and constraining is not the urging and constraining of human impatience, but the patient abiding by the Word. He waits gladly and knows that the precious fruits do not grow overnight, and waits for all his sheep, for he knows that the LORD has His hours, His hastening, but also His tarrying.

The preacher of the Church is therefore no friend of the “new measures,” to speak with the Methodists, but he abides by the old measures of patient, faithful adherence to the Word and to the pure doctrine.

The same spirit of calm, sure, prudent and confident wisdom governs him in the choice of his texts. He rejoices in the old-established pericopes and would, even if he were allowed, not gladly lay free texts or continuous portions of Holy Scripture instead of them at the foundation of his discourses in the chief services. He retains most gladly the Gospels for the chief service, leaves the Epistles in their place in the order of the service, and does not grow weary of preaching on the Gospels. As the people like best to hear them, so they also become ever fuller and richer to him, the oftener he speaks on them. He learns, the longer he treats them, the great wisdom of the preacher, to procure entrance for the unknown through the known and to show all the doctrines of the Church in the well-known texts. He who changes his text every year is not fit to be a preacher of the people, yea, one may well say, of the Church. The ever different and new without