# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1845 07 12_S90
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

(Submitted.)*

On the Spiritual Priesthood.

A little pamphlet has recently appeared under the title: Testimonies of Old and New Teachers of the Lutheran Church Concerning the Spiritual Priesthood. Buffalo, printed by Krause, 1845. It gives a literal and rich extract from Luther's writings, in particular also his splendid epistle to the Bohemians, on this important subject. The appended testimonies of other teachers, such as Arndt, H. Müller, Großgebauer, Dannhauer, and others, serve as proof that this doctrine of the spiritual priesthood was not merely a private teaching of Luther's, but rather the unanimous teaching of the best pure church teachers of the following age. The less this doctrine — grounded in God's Word, so comforting to all orthodox Christians, and most conducive to the exercise of faith and love — is known to many Christians of our day, the more thanks the compiler of these testimonies deserves for having spared neither time nor effort in bringing these jewels of Lutheran doctrine again to light.

Some things, however, remain to be desired in the pamphlet. Among these are: 1. that especially from Luther's later writings more testimonies might have been gathered, in order to refute the erroneous claim that Luther, in his more mature years, abandoned his earlier teaching on the spiritual priesthood or substantially altered it. That this is not so can be abundantly demonstrated from his later writings; besides the passages cited, one need only read the Altenburg edition, vol. VII, pp. 287–88, from the year 1539, as well as vol. VIII, p. 373, from the year 1544. 2. that to the testimonies in which Luther makes the right to deal with God's Word and to preach common to all Christians, the further testimonies should also have been added from vol. V, p. 968 and following, and vol. VI, p. 530, in order to guard this right against abuse by unauthorized preachers and interlopers; likewise, that at least a few of Luther's countless statements on the necessity of a proper, mediate call, and on the right manner of calling, should have been cited; for although the pamphlet is not meant to treat of the call, it nevertheless belongs to a right understanding of the matter, as Luther himself does in his epistle to the Bohemians. But so that it might not, through misunderstanding, give the appearance that Luther, in the epistle mentioned, regarded the election of one of the spiritual priests to be a preacher as a merely human, useful arrangement, and not rather as an arrangement instituted by God himself, it would have been necessary to let Luther speak, as he explains himself elsewhere concerning the call, as in vol. VI, p. 529, or in the House and Church Postil, on St. Andrew's Day.

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3. that the right and duty of every Christian to examine and judge all doctrine and teachers should have been demonstrated still more fully from Luther than has been done — for example, from the Church Postil, Whit-Tuesday — while, on the other hand, Luther's faithful warning against false, unruly, arrogant, unbrotherly judging should not be missing, from the Jena edition, vol. VI, p. 375. 4. to the statement in which Luther vindicates for all Christians the right to consecrate the holy bread and wine, his opinion in vol. VI, p. 434 ought also necessarily to have been added, where, in answer to the question whether a householder, in places where the holy sacrament is not administered according to Christ's institution, may commune himself and his household at home, he answers with an unconditional and well-grounded No. In this Luther by no means contradicts himself, as might appear on superficial consideration; for in the first writing Luther speaks of the right of every Christian to all the offices of the church, and of the use of that right in case of necessity; in the latter writing Luther by no means denies this right, but does not recognize the lack of the sacrament as an actual case of necessity; therefore he does not wish that one should depart from God's order — that the sacrament is to be administered by regular, called ministers — an order from which only genuine necessity is permitted to make an exception. In this way the reader would get the whole Luther, who everywhere presents the right balance between the spiritual priesthood and the public preaching office, and strikes down with equal force both priestly pride and lay presumption, and all disorder. Would that the Lutheran preachers might also promote and put into practice, in a truly Lutheran manner, this part of the wholesome doctrine of the spiritual priesthood in their congregations, and not, as unfortunately happens, stunt it further — through one-sided, unevangelical warning against its abuse, in an irresponsible manner — instead of cultivating it! And would that all Christians might recognize their divine calling, and be diligent to offer spiritual sacrifices to God, and to proclaim the virtues of him who has called them out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now, says Luther, the name and title of the priesthood is glorious, and is soon named and praised by everyone, but the office and the sacrifice are strange, and everyone dreads them.
Th. Brohm.

Mission News.
(From a Correspondence.)

On June 9th, the expected small mission colony sent from Bavaria, together with its mission preacher, landed in New York and traveled on to Michigan, in order to open up a mission field among the Indians there. This is a colony of a quite peculiar kind. Here the missionary does not go among the heathen alone, but is accompanied by a number of Christian farmers and craftsmen, who through their life and conduct are meant to give the heathen Indians a picture of true Christians, and thus support the missionary's spoken preaching. Indeed, a splendid, great task! May God mightily strengthen them for it with the gifts of his Spirit! The mission preacher accompanying them is named F. A. Crämer, a pupil of Pastor Löhe in Bavaria, who is so active on behalf of the Lutherans in America. At the same time, four other young men came from Löhe's institution, in order to serve their abandoned fellow believers here, especially in Ohio and Michigan, as preachers and schoolteachers; their names are Romanowsky, Trautmann, Lochner, and Detzer. They have, it is true, received no learned theological university education, but have doubtless been so instructed in Christian doctrine by the sound and upright Pastor Löhe that they are competent also to teach others; and that is the main thing. The Lord requires faithfulness of his stewards, not great gifts and learning. They carry with them an instruction that obligates them to enter into church fellowship only with those who hold with all fidelity to the entire Book of Concord of the Lutheran Church; they also have with them an agenda [liturgy] recently issued by Pastor Löhe which (I have so far only been able to look at it superficially) appears to contain nothing but the core of the old, pure Lutheran agendas; it is dedicated to the dear Pastor Wyneken and is actually intended for the Lutheran Church of America. With God's help it will prove an excellent antidote to the newest agenda here, that of 1842. God willing, this agenda of Pastor Löhe shall later be discussed in this paper.

From a Letter of Dr. Delitzsch to the Editor.

— — Often, often I think of you all, dear fellow believers who have passed through many tribulations, and especially of you, my dear W., and of the first days spent in your fellowship, the time of my awakening. It was a time still much marked by a legalistic spirit and self-imposed pain, but nevertheless also a time of such holy earnestness that the memory of it now puts me to shame, and also of many rich experiences of grace, which I would not now give up for many treasures of gold and silver. I also often think, with praise to God, of the time when we awoke to a consciousness of what the church is, when in the confession of our Lutheran church we recognized the Yes and Amen to the word of Scripture, and when the defects of the Christianity of our day — first of all our own — became clear to us. I often think of that time and rejoice that I can still, even now, reach out to you in spirit the hand of a brother and cry out with joy: I still stand upon the rock-foundation of the Word of God, Jesus Christ is still my One and All, I am still ready to bring every sacrifice for our dear church, which even in Germany is a struggling and oppressed one.

Since June '44 I have been associate professor of theology at the university here. I declined a call to Prussia (Breslau) under better conditions. The number of believers in Leipzig, that is, of those of a churchly mind, has increased considerably.

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