# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1857_S68
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

68    Instruction for Catechism Sermons.

Likewise you will find, in both Postils, rich contributions, namely on
Baptism and the Lord's Supper, on the Office of the Keys and on
Confession.

Finally, if you catalogue Luther's writings — for which purpose you will
find an aid in the "Lutherophilus" — you will gradually come to a
complete collection of materials such as you will not find gathered
together in any other books, and which you will never, ever exhaust.

Secondly, make for yourself a plan for a threefold course of catechism
sermons, corresponding to these three classes of Luther's differing
writings. Let the first course comprise 10 sermons: namely, one
preparatory sermon; then, on the 6 chief parts of the Catechism, as well
as on the 3 parts of the appendix (Household Prayers — the Table of
Duties — the Questions), one sermon each. The second course is a
further elaboration of the first, and the third of the second course;
and these three courses stand to one another as, in a building, the
foundation walls, the superstructure, and the finishing work together
with the ornamentation of all the individual chambers. Compare, in this
connection, the preface to the exposition of the Catechism at the end.

The brief, summary manner of the first course is especially and
urgently to be recommended, because through it, on the part both of the
preacher and of the congregation, the right practice of the Catechism is
best learned. You may, without hesitation, in the second and third
year, and later as well, again deliver the diligently worked-out
sermons with the necessary improvements — as I myself have often done
for fifteen years now, and have found by much experience that it is
precisely these summary sermons that have been dearest and most useful
to hearers eager to learn.

In this way one can get through the Catechism every year, for which
purpose especially the Trinity Sundays are to be used; in doing so one
gains, every other Sunday, additional time as well for the exposition
of Old Testament books, which is altogether necessary. If the Catechism
is drilled almost daily in the school, and the communicants are
examined on it at the time of their registration, then, with the
inclusion of 10 sermons, sufficient opportunity for learning the
Catechism is present within a single year.

Suppose, however, that in a given year you wished to preach more fully
on one piece or another; then see to it only that you also preach
summarily on the other pieces, as is done in the first course, and
never omit the preparatory sermon.

Thirdly, proceed to the working-out of the sermon in the following
manner: First of all, read through the shorter expositions of Luther,
from Class I, on a given piece of the Catechism, in such a way that you
attend closely to every detail, to the context, to the bringing-out of
what is most important, etc., and assist your eyes and memory by
pencil-strokes in the margin.

After this, begin, in a special preparation-notebook in octavo, to
excerpt what you have newly read, or better still to catalogue it —
leaving, in doing so, a finger's breadth of space on the left, in order
later to note down the individual parts, for example