# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1858_S126
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

126 A Few Words on Philipp Melanchthon.

...credit myself with the honesty of knowing that I shall one day have to give
account before Christ's judgment seat for what I write here privately. So I
confess gladly and gratefully that Philippus was a blessed instrument of God in
school and church, whom God gave to Luther, to spread learning together with
the pure Gospel. That he was a man who could himself err and lead others into
error, I must indeed admit; for that various human things befell him after
Luther's death is plain; yet far be it from me that I should therefore condemn
him or think and speak disgracefully of him — rather I love and honor him from
my heart, and if anything disgraceful happened to him, I would rather cover it
with Shem and Japheth than uncover his shame with Ham. I comfort myself with
the comfort of a good conscience, though no one can deny that after Luther's
death various things were inserted into the loci theologici that do not agree
with Lutheran doctrine. Yet the whole work, so highly esteemed by Luther, is
not therefore to be thrown away; rather let the work stand, and let the
students merely be made attentive to it, so that they may distinguish the
valuable from the poor. Now let all who love peace and harmony judge whether
that amounts to sinning against our common teacher. Rather it is certain that
those who spread this rumor by no means love Philippus, but merely make the
great man's authority a cloak for their own base passions. If they truly love
him so, let them imitate his piety, his diligence, his faithfulness, his
gentleness, his love of peace and truth. As for his humanistic studies, I have
never spoken of them otherwise than honorably. It has always been my opinion,
and still is, that as the awakening of the Gospel was accompanied by the
awakening of learning and the liberal arts, so it is to be feared that if
these should perish, the splendor of the Gospel too would be obscured."

This judgment of the famous Polycarp Leyser may and should always weigh with
us where Melanchthon is concerned. Who would call his undeniable merits toward
the church into question? That would indeed be a sin against God Himself, who
adorned him with His rich gifts and set him as a blessing to the church. He is
and surely will remain the Praeceptor Germaniae, the "Teacher of Germany"; for
he helped set upon the lampstand not only the light of faith, but also, in
particular, that of learning. But to join in unqualified praise of Melanchthon,
as some are again striking up nowadays, as though everything he ever said had
been spoken down from heaven, one cannot and must not do. One must especially
not do so in such a distracted age, given over to sentimental gushing and to
dissolving, as ours is. Every Lutheran must hold fast to Luther's word: the
Word they still shall let remain. Even a Philippus Melanchthon