# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 07 09_S181
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

181

and stop their ears altogether, sitting there like deaf, yea, like dead men, to whom, as it were, a funeral sermon is being preached. Over this many a godly preacher is so zealous that his heart within him aches for it. He calls and cries: "Awake, ye dead (ye church-sleepers), that Christ may give you light. Yea, sleep on a little, slumber on a little, and the punishment of God will overtake you!" The preacher sighs when he is to preach, not to living, but to dead men, and to speak only into the air. But one might ask how it comes that church-sleeping is so very common in many places. One of the chief causes is that sleeping under the preaching of the divine Word is accounted no sin, or at most a very small one, which proceeds only from weakness and has not much to signify, and that all the more because, as happened to Eutychus, even Christian and devout hearers are sometimes wont to fall into such sleep; so this too may be a contributing cause, that against the church-sleeper there is not due zeal shown by many preachers. But that church-sleeping is displeasing to God, sinful, offensive, and therefore to be diligently avoided by each and every churchgoer and hearer, this shall be briefly set forth in the following chapter and proved as need requires.

The Second Chapter.

Of the Sinfulness of Church-Sleeping.

That the slumbering and sleeping under the preaching of the divine Word and the public worship, so very common in our day, is a sin, needs no special proof. Whoever only goes a little into his own heart and considers to what end one should go into the temple of the Lord and attend divine service, will soon find that church-sleeping is most certainly evil and sinful. Nevertheless, for the sake of the simple, we will adduce one thing and another by way of proof and confirm it with the authority of some Christian theologians.

First, it is undeniable that spiritual drowsiness in Christianity is not only dangerous, but also in itself sinful and inexcusable. The Spirit of the Lord earnestly commands that one should be at all times alert and watchful. "Watch ye," says the Apostle, "stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." "Watch and pray," admonishes the Savior, "that ye enter not into temptation." Now church-sleeping is a piece of such sloth, indolence, and drowsiness as everyone to whom his Christianity is a serious matter guards against with all diligence, and does not suffer himself to be overpowered by it.

Secondly, through church-sleeping God's house of prayer is made into a house of sleep. As Christ, the Son of God, in the days of His flesh, was most vehement against the Jews who carried on trade in the temple of the Lord, drove out the buyers and sellers by force, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of them that sold doves, sharply rebuking them for such unseemly doings, saying: "It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves" (Matth. 11, 12.); so the Savior may with right say to the church-sleepers, who go to church only out of custom and sleep and snore through half or the whole sermon, yea, even during the prayer and singing, and rebuke them: "My house is a house of prayer, but ye make it a house of sleep."

Thirdly, the Savior admonishes that one should take heed how one hears God's Word. "Take heed therefore (He says, Luc. 8, 18.) how ye hear; for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have." But the church-sleepers do not at all take heed how they hear, but let the preacher call and cry as he will. They stop their ears by sleep, like the deaf adder. It is truly very terrible what the Son of God further says in the place referred to, namely, that the devil cometh and taketh away the word out of the hearts of the hearers who are by the way side, lest they should believe and be saved. But that not all sleep in church is natural, but sometimes proceeds from Satan, is testified by the Christian theologian Dr. Arnd in a certain place, as shall be cited more fully below.

Fourthly, the church-sleepers act contrary to the admonition of the Apostle James, where he says: "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was"; a church-sleeper is therefore as bad as, yea, even worse than, a forgetful hearer. For the latter hears the Word, though only outwardly; but the former hears nothing at all, seeing that a sleeping man is more to be compared to a dead man than to a living one.

Fifthly, the Wise Man says: "Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of the LORD, and be more ready to hear." The church-sleepers, however, do quite the contrary. For although, if asked, they would not dare to confess that they go to church for the sake of sleeping, but would rather affirm that they came to the public assembly of the church for prayer, singing, and hearing preaching, to be edified in faith and Christianity, yet one sees from the church-sleeping that follows that they were not truly in earnest, for otherwise they would well have refrained from sleeping.

Sixthly, the church-sleepers, especially those who are accustomed to slumber and sleep through almost the whole sermon, cause pious and faithful preachers and shepherds of souls to complain and sigh over it. Dr. Müller writes in a certain place: "It would be no wonder if God should strike with lightning and thunder, yea, with all the Turks and devils out of hell. It would be no wonder if Germany had long since gone to ruin, or been utterly destroyed by Turks and Tartars, because of such damnable forgetfulness and contempt of the great grace, of the Word of God and the Gospel." Now the holy Apostle admonishes that the hearers should so conduct themselves that teachers and preachers may do their office with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for them. (Heb. 13, 18.)

Seventhly, church-sleeping is offensive. The church-sleepers give offense to their fellow Christians who sit near them, when these see before their eyes how soon this one or that one hangs his head, sleeps and snores, whereby the neighbor is now and then moved and induced to sleep also. But woe unto him by whom the offense cometh, says the Savior, especially when parents, masters and mistresses do it and their children and servants must look on.

Eighthly, deliberate church-sleeping does not occur without disregard of the high majesty of God and contempt of His divine Word. No one will deny that God the LORD is present in His temple. "Where two or three," says the Savior, "are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." If this is believed, how can a man, before God, who speaks with him through the preacher, His servant, stop his ears by means of sleep? Teachers and preachers are indeed in God's stead; they speak to the people not their own word, but the word of their LORD, who hath sent them!

Ninthly, church-sleeping is contrary to the custom and devotion of other religions. Consider how devout and zealous Jews, Turks, and heathen show themselves in their synagogues, mosques, temples, and churches at their worship. All these put Christians to shame in their so poor and drowsy devotions; they would also be much offended and scandalized if they should come into a Christian church and see so many sleepers under the preaching of the Word of God.

The Third Chapter.

Of Some Testimonies of Pious Theologians that Church-Sleeping Is a Sin.

Although the arguments adduced are strong enough to convince the church-sleepers, especially those who make a habit of church-sleeping, that they sin against God and His Word, yet we will also hear the thoughts of several eminent theologians on the matter. The holy Augustine writes very thoughtfully in the 16th Homily, concerning negligent hearers of God's Word, as follows: "I ask you,