# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1858_S95
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church-Historical Items of the Day. 95

would have been an obstacle. A preacher has here a treasure-trove of
material for his sermons on the gospel pericopes, from which in no
single year will he exhaust all the thoughts that flash out at him, and
every year he will discover ever new ones. The less the material has
already been given sermon form here, the less will the work serve to
relieve the preacher of the labor of working things out for himself.
Rather, he has here only a gnomon, which keeps him from going astray,
and, secondly, a rich store of thoughts not yet developed but highly
fruitful, whose development, selection, subordination under a single
governing idea, arrangement, and application are left to the preacher.
As firmly as we are convinced that, before all other human books,
Luther's postils and his other relevant writings ought to be
thoroughly studied and faithfully used by every preacher in preparing
his proclamation of God's word for the salvation of mankind, just as
firmly are we at the same time convinced that the accompanying use of
this "truly evangelical exposition" will make the study of Luther all
the more fruitful and profitable. Whoever, therefore, is in earnest
about giving his congregation the best that is possible; whoever is not
content merely to have preached something edifying to his hearers every
Sunday; whoever is rather intent on redeeming, with the utmost
faithfulness, the few precious hours given him for preaching, and on
grounding those entrusted to him as deeply as he is able by God's grace;
whoever therefore also knows that the main thing consists in this, that
the hearer recognize every thought uttered by the preacher as a thought
of God disclosed to him from the text, and therefore receive it with
full confidence as God's unshakable word — such a preacher will find, in
the "truly evangelical exposition" offered to him here, what he seeks;
let such a preacher lay hold of it without delay: he will certainly not
regret the sacrifice in money that he must bring for it, and he will
also help ensure that, with God's assistance, the whole beautiful work
of our church is bit by bit given back to us for salvation and blessing.
Laymen, too, who belong to those who, like the Bereans, search the
Scriptures daily, are urgently commended to this work as a treasury of
deep scriptural understanding. This first volume may be obtained from
Mr. Otto Ernst in St. Louis, Mo., for the price of $1.50.

Church-Historical Items of the Day.
I. America.

The Lutheran Observer. The new editors of this paper, who now take the
place of Dr. Kurtz, are Rev. F. R. Anspach, D. D., and Rev. George Diehl.
In the issue of Feb. 5 these gentlemen declare their harmony with the
outgoing editorship and that they stand on the doctrinal basis of the
General Synod.

How times change! — Recently an elaborate liturgy has appeared here for
both the Reformed and the Episcopal Methodist church. Ten years ago one
would hardly have believed it, had it been foretold then. At that time
people still thought that things like liturgical formularies were only
for the "dead" Old Lutherans and papists, and that even the most
wretched, spiritless extemporizing of prayer out of one's own head was
still always better than one read out of a liturgy.

The "Evangelist," organ of the German Reformed Synod of Ohio, etc., in
Tiffin, finds it almost unbelievable that, according to a report it has
received, when parents in Germany wish to have their child baptized,
they must beforehand give the preacher the names of the godparents, so
that he may satisfy himself whether they are indeed fit for it. Mr.
"Evangelist," with this astonishment at something quite natural, betrays