# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1857_S65
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Lehre und Wehre.
[Doctrine and Defense.]

Volume III.                    March 1857.                    No. 3.

(Submitted by a Preachers' Conference of the Eastern District Synod, written by
Pastor Keyl in Baltimore.)

Instruction for Catechism Sermons.

The most powerful commendation of the Catechism is, and remains, all the
good that it accomplished among the people at the time of the
Reformation, and the most powerful eulogist of the Catechism is, and
remains, Dr. Luther in all his writings. When, then, shall we come ever
nearer to this goal? When we walk the path that those men walked. In
this connection we must:

1. attend to the connection of the catechism sermon with
the examination.

The chief passage for this is Dr. Luther's word in his Large Catechism,
shortly before the exposition of the First Commandment: "Therefore let
the young folk be sent to the sermon, especially at the time appointed
for the Catechism, that they may hear it expounded and learn to
understand what each part contains, so that they are also able to
recite it as they have heard it, and answer correctly when they are
questioned, so that it may not be preached without use and fruit."

Accordingly, most Lutheran church orders prescribe a constant connection
of catechism sermon and examination, as this connection also existed for
a long time in the Lutheran Church, until at last the laziness and
know-it-all attitude of the preachers separated the two exercises from
one another, and in particular did away with catechism sermons
altogether from the church. All misgivings against this practice will
vanish when we consider that it is grounded in experience and has been
confirmed by manifold experience, which is repeated still today for
everyone who faithfully follows it for a series of years.

The connection of the sermon with the examination stands in a relation
similar to that of the sound and its echo, or the resounding of the
voice, as indeed the very origin of the name "Catechism" teaches; like
seed and harvest. Given the shortness of the time, since no more than
an hour is to be spent on both together, a salutary limitation to what
is most necessary is called for. In doing so, one may have regard to the
three classes of hearers, as they have already since

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