# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 05 15_S147
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

147

No less do they misuse Holy Baptism,

2.) who have grossly and openly fallen away from the faith in the triune God and have turned again to the devil and his ways and works, although they were baptized; that is the crooked and perverse generation, these are the men of the flesh and in disposition the children of Esau; for as he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, so these sell their divine sonship, which they received through Holy Baptism, for money and goods, power and honor, lust of the eyes and of the flesh; such hate not the spotted garment of the flesh, but rather the garments of salvation and the robe of the righteousness of Christ, which they formerly put on through Holy Baptism; to such the true proverb has happened: The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. Against such, if they thus persist, the blood of Christ in their little hour of death will cry no more for mercy but for vengeance, and precisely for the sake of their misuse and contempt of Holy Baptism it will be more tolerable on the Last Day for the children of the Flood than for such Christians.

But also on account of such Edomites the enthusiasts accuse the dear Holy Baptism and our Scriptural doctrine concerning it, with great injustice; for what can both help it, if the baptized person, instead of ever more weakening original sin through the grace of Baptism and pursuing sanctification, with desire and love ever more weakens the grace of Baptism through growing original and actual sin and pursues worldliness? Do not many children born into the natural life sicken and die without the parents and nurses being to blame for it? And if the servant of a prince, at his command, puts a splendid robe of honor upon a wretched naked beggar, is he then guilty if the one thus presented afterwards rolls about in this garment in the mire of the street? Just so Holy Baptism and the Church, if the latter has otherwise nourished her newborn little ones in motherly fashion with the milk and solid food of the divine Word, are innocent if these afterward leave the Father's house, seek their home in the foreign land of this evil world, and become prodigal sons.

Public and impenitent sinners ought indeed, after the first two degrees of brotherly admonition have been fruitless with them, according to the ordinance of the LORD Christ in Matt. 18, 15—17., to be publicly and solemnly excluded from the congregation and put under the ban, in order that they may, if God will, then at last come to thorough repentance and conversion; and that is indeed a cancer of the Lutheran Church in Germany and of many a Lutheran congregation here, that this church discipline commanded by the LORD is not duly exercised, so that, for example, open and impenitent adulterers, drunkards, usurers, unreconciled persons, etc., receive the Holy Supper; and here the enthusiasts are quite right when they sharply attack the Lutheran congregations concerned on account of such lax church discipline.

3.) On the other hand, we must also earnestly attack them on account of their contempt and non-use of Holy Baptism, namely when, although baptized as children, but afterwards departed from their baptismal covenant and later led astray by false doctrine, they fall into the delusion that the setting up of human inventions, arrangements, exercises, and customs, for example the Methodist mourners' bench, prayers of shouting, etc., is needed in order, as they think, first to attain to the new birth.

All this legalistic bustle, namely, and all this works-religion springs from the secret pride of the heart, that man out of his own ability could yet contribute something, in order, as they think, to attain to the new birth and to the forgiveness of sins; and therefore such driving takes place to the disgrace and dishonor of Holy Baptism; for this presupposes that man, born of Adam, is through and through a poor sinner, cursed and condemned by the law, spiritually dead, who for his spiritual revival cannot contribute even the least, but requires the full grace of God and the sole merit of Christ and the whole working of the Holy Ghost in the Gospel and in Holy Baptism, in order to be born again and declared righteous before God.

But if a man after Baptism has lost this righteousness by sinning, has on his part departed from the covenant which the faithful God made with him in Holy Baptism, and if, precisely for the sake of this covenant faithfulness of God in the holy covenant of Baptism, the Holy Ghost follows him with the Word of God, that he may turn again from the heart to the gracious and merciful God: — then the penitent sinner needs none of those Methodist means of compulsion and constraint and those artificial institutions of conversion; it suffices that he do as the prodigal son, return to the God of his Baptism, confess his sin before Him sincerely and thoroughly, but thereafter also lay hold again in faith of the gracious promise of the faithful Father, which He once for all spoke to him in Holy Baptism (Mark 16, 16.), and comfort himself with it, and so through the renewal of repentance and faith regain the sonship lost on his part.

Only in this way does the returning sinner rightly use and honor Holy Baptism and trust the never-wavering word of grace of God in it; and only in this way can he attain to a thorough conversion and to a firm and sound state of grace, wherein he relies not, like the Methodist convert, on his feelings at the mourners' bench, but on the gracious assurance and promise of his God in His Word.

So we should now have treated, as far as the shortness of time permitted, the chief points concerning the benefit of the right use and the harm of the misuse and non-use of Holy Baptism. May the gracious and merciful God bless the word heard in the hearts of us all, for the sake of JESUS Christ, His dear Son, our LORD. Amen.

"Where Christ keeps His own, we are willing gladly to let go our own for His sake," so writes Luther, after he had been asked to agree to a compromise in religion. (Werke. Hall. A. XIX, 2154.)

"The Gospel, according to its proper office, does not say who and what sin is; but indeed shows that there must be great harm, since so great a medicine is required: but it does not say what sin is called or what it is. That the law must do." Luther. (H. A. XX, 2071.)

(Contributed by Pastor Keyl.)

The Original Order of Divine Service in the German Churches of the Lutheran Confession.

(Continuation.)

5) The Individual Parts of the Chief Service.

The Introitus or entrance consisted in the ancient church of the singing of an entire psalm at the beginning of the service; the Roman church in time abridged these psalms to single verses, to which it added other words, mostly borrowed from Scripture; thus arose the Introits, which express the significance of the individual Sundays and festival days. From this the Sundays in Lent and after Easter especially have received their names, for example Invocavit (he calleth upon me) from the Introitus Psalm 91, 15. These Introits passed from the Roman into the Lutheran church because they were Scriptural and were regarded as the voices of a forerunner or herald; they were sung by the choir to the melodies still extant, as once the heavenly hosts announced to the shepherds the joyful birth of Christ; hence every Sunday and festival day has its own Introitus, which in the case of the former stands in close relation to the Gospel, in the case of the latter to the Word of God which proclaims the festival. As proof how greatly these Introits distinguish themselves by their content-rich brevity as well as by Scriptural conception, let the Introitus for the Christmas festival stand here:

"Unto us a child is born, and this Son is given unto us; whose government is upon His shoulders, and He is called a messenger of great counsel. Therefore I announce unto you great joy, which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, for He hath done marvellous things."

The little Gloria (Gloria Patri), or the proclamation of divine praise (Doxologia), reads in its fullest form thus: "Glory be