# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1860_S57
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— Page 57 —

...knees we should slide our way to where we can find the comfort of
private absolution. This is by no means to say that people's
consciences should be burdened, or that they should be pressed and
driven to private confession; it is only meant as an encouragement to
us preachers, that we offer them, freshly and joyfully, the blessing
the Gospel gives in its full richness. Incidentally, this is not
about the churchly institution of private confession as such; for the
Savior did not institute a requirement that one must always first
confess before the Lord's Supper — rather, we are now speaking of
private absolution in itself, which we ought to recognize fully in
its glory. It would be false and wrong-headed of us to try to force
private confession upon people; that would be putting the cart before
the horse. No, we want to go about it quite differently: we want to
present to them, freshly and joyfully, the great glory of private
absolution, and then in the end they will press us to give them
private absolution.

Objection: it does seem to follow from what has been said — and it
is indeed sometimes stated outright — that those who do not make use
of private confession are to be regarded as blameworthy and as lesser
Christians than those who do. — Answer: every time we have spoken of
private confession, we have expressly entered our protest against any
such nonsense. The more earnestly we pursue sanctification, the more
we will recognize how hard the comfort of forgiveness is to grasp;
then we will come, little by little, to see what great blessedness it
is that the promises of the Gospel are conveyed to us not merely in
general, but also, through appointed ministers, individually and
specifically in private absolution. But it is a cursed and shameful
abomination when private confession is forced upon
congregations in such a manner. Once the doctrine at issue in
the Referat comes to be properly clarified, what we desire will come
of itself; therefore we should simply preach the doctrine rightly.
Many hypocrites go to private confession, and many upright Christians
to the general confession. That private confession is held in such
low regard is due to a lack of proper understanding of this
teaching — that preachers have the power to forgive sins, and that
their word, because it is God's word, is valid; this has not yet been
truly grasped from the heart and has not yet become truly alive in
people's hearts. One thinks: well, I hear it every Sunday, I believe
it too, and I feel the power of the word in my heart — but we do not
firmly believe that we have forgiveness of sins solely through the
word, not because of the state of our heart; it lurks in all of us to
ground our comfort on the state of our heart, whereas it lies only in
the word. Can there be anything more comforting than that God draws
so near to us poor sinners in private absolution? That congregations
are still filled with so much aversion to private confession is also
due to the fact that we preachers do not yet know how to preach the
Gospel as we should. Certainly, the more sweetly and winsomely we
knew how to hold up the Gospel to people as a power of God, the more
faith would be awakened; the more faith awakened, the more spiritual
struggle [Anfechtung] there would be; and the more struggle, the more
longing for comfort...