# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1855_S283
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

283
The "Lutherophilus."

This periodical, appearing in unscheduled numbers *), edited by the Reverend Pastor E. G. W. Keyl in Baltimore, has here, no doubt because of its tendency, swimming altogether against the current of the age, on the whole found little support and encouragement; in Germany, however, it has by no means gone unnoticed. It is not only announced and characterized but also reviewed, in the brief and telling words by which it is introduced in Germany, in the second issue of this year's quarterly of the Rudelbach-Guericke journal: "Truly worth reading and heeding!" To be sure, we too cannot altogether reconcile ourselves to the manner of using Luther for the composition of sermons which the "Lutherophilus," and the "Sermon Outlines" recently published by the same author, recommend; but the direction itself — "We must go back up to Luther!" — is beyond all doubt the only right one. Indeed, when we think of the unanointed, vapid sermons, bristling with newfangled and unbiblical phrases, which now resound from the pulpits not only of the sectarian preachers but of those who would be counted good Lutherans, we feel strongly tempted to beg every one of them, for God's sake, instead of all the other unhappy attempts at improvement, to follow to the last detail the path which our dear fellow-laborer in the work of the Lord, Keyl, traces out. In any case, what Pastor Keyl offers us, out of the treasury of more than twenty-five years of pastoral experience and of untiring study of Luther's writings by morning light and lamplight, in his "Lutherophilus," in his "Sermon Outlines," and in his "Exposition of the Catechism" (Nördlingen, published by Beck; also obtainable in New York, Philadelphia, and St. Louis), is so important that it deserves the earnest attention of every Lutheran preacher and cannot be used and made use of without yielding rich fruit in every respect. The concern that acknowledging our dissent — though only partial, and one which honesty in any case forbade us to conceal — would neutralize our recommendation has hitherto kept us from calling our readers' attention also to those fruits from the tree of our own synod. We now see that we were in error, and therefore seek herewith to make up for what was neglected.

The Reverend Pastor A. Hoyer in Philadelphia held it his duty to call Professor Dr. Guericke's attention to the "Lutherophilus" and to send him a copy of it. He accompanied it with a private letter to him, and Dr. Guericke has had this letter printed in his journal "for the benefit also of the Christianity and teachers on this side" [of the Atlantic]. We cannot forbear once more, from here,

*) The first number appeared with Schäfer and Koradi in Philadelphia last year, and is obtainable here as in St. Louis and New York for 20 cents.