# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S85
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 85 —

How does the physician go about it? He is happiest to be where there are
a great many illnesses, where he has the most practice. We are merely the
helpers of the Lord Jesus, the physician of souls. We too, therefore,
should be happiest to be where conditions are worst. To change office and
calling so willfully and recklessly is likewise a great presumption. What
does a preacher have to do? Nothing but things he cannot do by his own
strength; if he now runs off on his own initiative and seeks out a field for
his own activity, he cannot hold his ground when he meets difficulties, he
cannot be cheerful in his struggles. It is commonly thought that if the new
congregation is a little larger, one must follow the call that has come at
once, because it is supposedly a more important post. But a preacher
should first ask himself: are you really the one who has the right gifts for
it? Whether he has the necessary gifts, however, is not for him to say of
himself; rather others, his brothers, should convince him that his gifts in
particular can best be used, in this place, for the benefit of the kingdom of
God. But if, in changing posts, a man seeks only his own advantage, his
own comfort, he is a hireling. One must also warn against the reckless
proposing and recommending done by unauthorized persons, or when, for
instance, good friends simply want to have one another nearby for the
sake of friendship and collegiality. What has been said naturally applies
equally to teachers at higher and lower schools.

Finally, it is cited as a further obligation of pastors that they "bring no
contempt upon the gospel through their conduct." If a pastor's conduct is
blameworthy, he commits a twofold sin: first, the sin itself that he
commits, and second, he thereby helps bring it about that God's name is
misused, despised, and blasphemed. The gospel itself bears no guilt for
the sin, but it is then reviled by the wicked world that sees it happen.
Just as such a person commits a twofold sin, so he will surely also one day
suffer a twofold condemnation, since through his ungodly conduct he
brings shame upon the gospel. St. John divides sins into three classes: the
lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. From these
three idols of the world a preacher should above all keep himself far
removed — not only he in his own person, but also his whole family. A
preacher sins terribly, therefore, if he does not already take care, in the
choice of his wife, that she be a Christian person. If, together with his
household, he serves greed; if his house is run in a self-indulgent way; if
gluttony holds sway there; if a proud way of life prevails in the parsonage;
if a craze for fashion is indulged; or if the pastor's wife lends her ear to
gossip and carries it to her husband; if the pastor frequents taverns or
other public places where a decent Christian would already be ashamed to
be seen — by all this he will give dreadful offense and, through his ungodly
conduct, bring shame upon the gospel; and if he then reproves members of
his congregation, it will carry little