# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1855_S59
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Lutheran-Theological Pastor's Library. 59

we shall nevertheless not fail to give a pointer as to the greater usefulness of one work over others of the same kind; and even as regards the writings of the first class we shall here and there set down an "Either-Or," where we must fear that the procurement of the one work or the other might prove more difficult. The order we follow in this is meant to indicate the relatively greater or lesser worth, according to our conviction, or at least the relatively higher or lower indispensability and usefulness for local circumstances here.

If, further, we divide the books of the various three classes — with the exception of the first section — according to the main disciplines, each into six sections, and in part also arrange these sections by the parts into which the main disciplines fall, this lay in the nature of the matter and was required by the necessary clarity of so crumbly a subject-matter as bibliography presents.

We further note that, in order to achieve a relative completeness, we will ourselves include some things that, within the circle of our readers, might be assumed to be generally known already. —

A. First Class, that is, works which by right ought not to be missing from any Lutheran-theological pastor's library.
Section I: Works covering the whole field of the theological sciences; to this we reckon

1. Collected works, among which we name here only Luther's Works. To spend a word commending these works to Lutherans, indeed even to Lutheran preachers, seems foolish. In our judgment, one can no more speak of a Lutheran-theological library if it does not contain Luther's Works than one could call a library Christian in which the Bible was missing. Whether a preacher who does not care to obtain Luther's Works for his own can be a Lutheran at heart, we will not decide. Instead of our own praise of the Lutheran writings, we recall here only a few sayings of the most learned and godly men that our Church can show. Thus Melanchthon says: "Dr. Pomeranus is a grammarian, who searches through the words of the text; I am a dialectician and consider the order, the context, the individual members, the conclusions; Dr. Jonas is an orator and knows how to set things in the light with rhetorical grace; Luther — is everything, none of us can be compared with him."*) So further writes the Württemberg theologian Brentius: "Luther alone lives in his writings,

*) "Dr. Pomeranus is a grammarian, and weighs the words of the text; I am a dialectician, and consider order, context, members, and conclusions; Dr. Jonas is an orator, and can illustrate matters with oratorical charm: Luther is everything, to whom none of us can be compared." (Nic. Selnecer, recital concerning the authority of Luther and Philip, p. 323.)