# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 07 09_S183
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

183

nevertheless go gladly to church and miss no sermon; if I cannot understand the preacher, I pray by myself the Lord's Prayer, a few Psalms and good verses which I have learned." Others ought to do likewise in the like case.

That, third, the afternoon sermons in some places are appointed so soon after the meal is not held to be edifying by various theologians, for indeed the devotion of the hearers, especially on hot Sundays, is not strengthened thereby. Be that as it may, this excuse can help the church-sleepers nothing. One ought to live the more temperately at the meal, not to take so much food and drink, that one may also be fit to attend divine service with lively devotion.

Otherwise it is natural, when the body is filled with food and drink and rests soon afterward, that a man sinks into sleep and becomes sluggish.

This can be met only by temperance. Furthermore it is not to be forgotten here that those masters and mistresses do ill in this who, on Saturday, which indeed ought to be a preparation for the holy Sabbath, sometimes burden their servants with work until midnight and let them be wearied; for hereby it comes to pass that such servants, having had no rest, or very little, the night before, when they come to church sleep and snore through the whole sermon and, as they went in, so come out again.

Surely to everything there is a season, to work also and to rest.

The Fifth Chapter.

By What Means Church-Sleeping Is to Be Avoided.

Since then, as has been heard, church-sleeping is sinful, offensive and harmful, let us touch briefly upon how it may be warded off and the church-sleepers aroused to the hearing of the preached divine Word. When some would put forward as a supposed excuse that one cannot well ward off sleep in church, the answer to this is that it can very well be done, if only one will.

1. One should go to church with the firm intention of hearing God's Word with devotion, praying, singing, and being edified in Christianity.

2. One should firmly believe that sleeping under the sermon and in divine service is a sin.

3. One should consider that the glory of God is present in the church and looks upon every hearer, whether he sleeps or wakes, whether he hearkens or not to His Word, which goes forth from His servant's mouth.

4. When the sermon begins, one should sigh to God that He would, with His Spirit, open the heart, enlighten the understanding, and awaken desire and longing to receive the preached Word.

5. One should well consider that no one knows at what time or hour, by what verse or sermon God will touch and enlighten his heart, and that it may very well happen at the hour and in the sermon which he has slept through or neglected.

If now, during the sermon or at the beginning of it, the hearer should become drowsy, he should at once remember what has just been said and, right at the start, before he is yet wholly overtaken by sleep, resist the sleep, then strive against it with prayer of the heart and sighs, and beg of God steadfast devotion.

2. One can also the more easily refrain from sleep if, as is done by some, one hears the sermon not sitting, but standing.

3. If one, as touched upon above, keeps due measure in eating and drinking and does not overburden the body too much therewith.

4. If one is encouraged by his fellow Christian sitting beside him and exhorted to watchfulness. In various places the laudable custom has been introduced that certain persons are appointed who must go about during the sermon and wake the church-sleepers by a gentle touch. Likewise every one ought to wake his neighbor in church, when he sleeps, in a modest manner.

5. Church-sleeping is checked when the preachers, as often happens, zealously oppose it and put to shame the church-sleepers who merely out of habit sleep through the whole sermon, so that others, thereby aroused, may refrain from sleeping and snoring.

Help, God! that we all may be alert and vigilant to hear, to read, and to meditate upon God's Word at home and in church with fervent devotion and zeal, and may order our Christianity, life and conduct accordingly. Amen.

All to the honor of God and the edification of our neighbor.

Hearty Entreaty to All Cheerful Givers for the Support of Our Heathen Mission.

Ye remember the word of the LORD JEsus, which He said: "It is more blessed to give than to receive," Acts 20, 35.; and have recognized the truth of this word from your own experience. Therefore ye rejoice, as often as God grants you a new opportunity to give and to impart of your temporal goods to God's honor and the welfare of your neighbor. Ye rejoice at the news that our mission treasury is empty, yea, still burdened with debts, for now ye can again satisfy your fervent impulse of love to impart, and feel anew the blessedness of giving. Only one thing would I ask: Give not too much at once, lest ye rob yourselves and your own of the necessary food and clothing. For it is said: "If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not," 2 Cor. 8, 12. Even if ye be willing beyond your ability, it is enough if ye give according to your ability.

Herewith I would by no means dampen your zeal of love; rather would I adduce some sayings from God's Word which may stir you to show your liberality further still. This virtue is in the Holy Scriptures also called mercy, kindness, gentleness, is the opposite of the vice of covetousness, and springs from faith in JEsus. For when a man has experienced in his heart the love of his Savior, who has done and suffered all things for him, who shed His blood for him upon the cross and thereby obtained all things for him; then his heart is kindled with holy love in return and fervent gratitude, so that for Christ's sake he gives up with a thousand joys all things, even his life. His heart clings no more to the earthly; through Christ he becomes a lord of mammon. He finds his joy in using his money for charitable purposes, for the poor, the church, the mission. And this he does out of simple obedience to God's commandments. "Be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful," Luc. 6, 36. "But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased," Heb. 13, 16. "Let your moderation be known unto all men," Phil. 4, 5. He gives abundantly, not to earn salvation thereby, for that he has already by grace, but constrained by the love of Christ. He gives abundantly, not as a servant, merely for the sake of the reward promised by God, but as a child, out of a free spirit and hearty delight in God.

Yet God also allures us thereby to works of mercy and liberality, in that He promises to reward them out of grace eternally and unspeakably richly. "Give, and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom," Luc. 6, 38. "Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not," Gal. 6, 9. "Love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest," Luc., 6, 35. Even the least gift which we bring for the kingdom of God shall be faithfully repaid to us, as Christ assures: "Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward," Matth. 10, 42. Christ will repay every gift which we reach out in His name to the poor and suffering, in that life as though we had given it to Himself. For He says: "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me," Matth. 25, 40. "He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth