# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1914_S69
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

14th Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States, 1914. 69

teachers whose mind and body are no doubt weary after a week full of
work, but who not only teach again fresh and loud on Monday, but had
likely already done their part leading the singing in church the
Sunday before. The ill effects, however, generally set in eventually.
And in general: the throat is the most sensitive and weakest part of
the human body. Furthermore: a large proportion of our preachers and
teachers experience this sooner or later, mostly sooner. Then comes
the complaint: "I suffer from my throat, full work is impossible for
me"; from many a poor brother: "I can do no more!"

Can our Synod now do something to remedy this harm? If so, that is
plainly its duty. Just as it is its task to train workers for God's
vineyard, it should also, so far as it is able, see to it that these
workers may also remain in service, that they be instructed in good
time how to spare their vocal organs and keep them fit for service.

The cause of the throat trouble frequently found among preachers and
teachers is, not in every case but still very often, not so much the
use as the wrong use of the vocal means God has given man. To be
sure, despite all instruction and practice, some preachers and
teachers will, through a so-called weak throat, find themselves
hindered just as other speakers are. But there too something can be
prevented and helped, and in general the trouble of the clergyman's
sore throat can be curbed or even entirely prevented.

Experience proves this sufficiently. Consider actors, consider public
speakers, who often must speak with full exertion and yet take no
harm. Consider public singers, male and female; how quickly they learn
to sing long phrases from a full chest without pausing, and they lose
neither strength nor voice. Recently a young pastor, on his way home
after hearing confession, preaching, and celebrating the Lord's
Supper, found his mouth full of blood. A good doctor applied an
effective remedy, but gave this advice: "Take three to four months of
instruction in vocal culture, and the trouble will disappear. You are
harming yourself through improper use of your vocal organs." Has
anyone who had his daughter given singing lessons so that she might
help in the congregation's choir, to further enhance the Lord's
beautiful services, not been astonished at how different it soon
sounded — how chest and throat and full breath and vocal cords served
one another naturally in singing and came into their own, how slowly
fatigue was felt? In addition: not a few pastors of our Synod could
tell how good advice, and even more so, brief instruction, has served
them excellently in speaking. It is doubtless known to many among us
that, for example, some senators and representatives, when they