# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1855_S258
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

258 How Are Truly Lutheran Congregations Founded, Etc.

and has acknowledged it before God;—if, for Christ’s sake, much has been forgiven him, as it was to the sinful woman, and the Holy Spirit has first kindled in him, through faith, a fervent love in return for the Shepherd and Bishop of his soul;—if he can answer Peter’s question from the Lord, “Do you love me?” with firm confidence: “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you!”—then he should keep well in mind the faithful Savior’s words: “Feed my lambs; feed my sheep!” That is, he should always remember that only through faith and in love for Jesus is he able and fitted to feed and guard with all diligence each of the lambs and sheep purchased at so great a price with the blood of the Son of God.

Then, precisely because of the great value before God of every individual human soul, he should keep this truth as fully present within him as possible, indeed impress it ever more deeply upon his heart: that the Chief Shepherd and Bishop of all souls also requires faithfulness—that is, constancy of love—in caring for each individual sheep entrusted to His undershepherd through a proper mediate call. He should always remember how, through an unfaithful neglect of even a single soul, that soul may suffer irreparable harm; but how, through faithful pastoral care, many a straying sheep or little lamb of Christ may be brought back, many a wounded one healed, and eternally saved. He should be encouraged and warned by the twofold Word of God, which promises reward to faithful servants and threatens the unfaithful; for to the former Christ says: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things; I will set you over many things; enter into the joy of your Lord!” And he will receive the gracious reward that, together with all faithful teachers, he “will shine like the brightness of heaven and like the stars of God forever and ever.” But to the latter the Lord says: “If you do not warn the wicked, he will die because of his sin, but I will require his blood at your hand.”

No less should he always remember that properly caring for even a single soul, according to its spiritual need, requires nothing more and nothing less than the gift of the Holy Spirit, and that he is incapable of doing this by his natural ability and powers. For even if he has received certain natural aptitudes and abilities for it, such as a certain degree of knowledge of human nature, sound judgment, prudence, and so forth, all these things are nevertheless by nature enslaved to unbelief and selfishness; and only the Holy Spirit can wrest those natural gifts from the dominion of sin, give them new life, and sanctify them for the proper service of God, including the care of each individual soul. He must enlighten the pastor concerning the condition of the soul in each of the members of his church and, as to a spiritual physician, grant him the penetrating vision to recognize the seat of the malady, whether it is, as it were, a more temporary illness and an affliction by this or that acute fever of the age, or a persistent one connected with the temperament,