# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S72
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

[p. 72]

—the time when, as a student, I would make pilgrimages to men who gave very little, and yet it seemed to me like a royal banquet. One took in every word from their lips and was inexpressibly happy at having received so much, wrote it all down, and treasured it like a holy relic. Whenever a preacher was installed of whom one heard that he too was a believer, people streamed to him. Neither heat nor cold, neither snow nor rain kept anyone from covering stretches of three to nine hours to get to church. And yet, even where the dear Word of God still resounded, it was not present in the abundance in which we have it, so that the poor heart still could not become certain of its salvation. And now? Weak as we are, it is nevertheless generally preached in our churches in such a way that whoever does not resist can become certain of his salvation. People are indeed pointed to Christ. But how do things stand among us — particularly in the older congregations? Perhaps people still go to church once; but for many that is already enough. In the afternoon they do not want to go. Catechism class holds no appeal. Where does this exceedingly bitter observation come from? Because people have become sated — sated. Oh, how dreadful! In how many congregations must one notice that people, listening to a sermon, pay attention only to whether its form is flawless, whether it is full of flourish and flowers of speech, whether the preacher has a good voice, gestures well; where they find that, they still go gladly. But if, on the other hand, the preacher looks timid, if perhaps he is not entirely master of the language, if the wheels of a sentence sometimes come off, if the preacher does not know how to make use of the beauties of language — even though the pure Gospel is there, so that whoever hears him can learn how he is to be saved, if only he takes in what he hears — that is not enough for most people. It goes through my heart like a dagger every time, when I come out of church, and the first thing I hear people say is: well, he certainly stumbled today, or, there was no proper order in the sermon, or, it was too long or too short, or, he did not always stay with the text; yes, such talk goes through my heart like a dagger when I have noticed that the precious doctrine of redemption accomplished through Jesus Christ was truly present in it all the same. I remember the time when I would have found such a sermon as delicious as marzipan, and I could not have it, for I had to live mainly off the dead [i.e., off writings of departed teachers]. I was nearly in despair, for I wanted to know the right way to eternal life, but there was no one to lead me to faith through the Gospel; instead, people thought the world could be saved solely through legalistic fear-mongering and terror. The Gospel of God's free grace through faith was not to be heard. And we? We are led like a flock to pasture in the green clover. Yet we still say so often, like the Jews in the wilderness concerning the bread from heaven: "our soul loatheth this light bread." It was further said: Luther already said: "It is this accursed complacency that will yet bring us down, if we do not truly repent and turn back." We have—