# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1858_S171
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On Visiting the Sick. 171

is a further elaboration of Dr. Luther's sermon. Further, Felix Bidembach's Manuale, in which there is a short account for younger churchmen of how to deal with the sick and the dying. This account, which comprises only a hundred pages, would well deserve to be rescued from oblivion by a new printing. Phil. Hahn's Kirchenbuch contains no connected instruction, but only individual counsels and theological reflections from Luther, Melanchthon, and others.

These are, roughly, the writings whose study the Lutheran church orders especially recommend — not to mention the countless other directions that have appeared, some individually, some in the textbooks of pastoral theology, some in periodicals and elsewhere. However much that is useful is indeed to be found in many of these, still, on the whole, the earlier writings are shorter, clearer, and more practical, and also more in agreement both with one another and with Luther's teaching and practice; they appeal again and again to him, with frequent citation and with urgent recommendation of his writings — which is usually lacking in the newer writers, so that it seems as though they were all cleverer than Dr. Luther and had no need of him.

Of his writings, the aforementioned sermon especially deserves diligent study; its sum is this: there are three images that terrify the sick and the dying — the image of sin, of death, and of damnation. They should let none of these fasten itself upon the conscience, but should instead turn their eyes away and look steadfastly upon Christ, as he is the image of grace, of life, and of blessedness; so shall they finally overcome and keep the victory. Of all this Dr. Luther speaks as one who has already truly passed through from death to life. When I read this sermon with greater attention seventeen years ago, because trial had taught me to attend to the Word, I was overjoyed, as over a great treasure, and my conviction of that time has since become ever more firmly settled, that this writing has no equal in brevity, savor, and power. This was soon proven true in the case of a believing, though often sorely tried, sufferer, who cried out with a face radiant with joy: O Luther, you give one a true desire to die, and I myself would gladly have died at once, joyfully and blessedly, upon such comfort. Countless are the experiences I have had since then of the great blessing of this small writing. It stands in Walch, 10, 2292, in the Erlangen edition.

Next, mention deserves here to be made of Luther's small writing: "Christian Instruction, How One May Meet and Guard against Faintheartedness and Other Temptations of the Devil in Bodily Weakness." With this comfort Dr. Luther himself comforted a sick man, and we owe this account also to the diligent pen of V. Dietrich. (Walch, 10, 2086, Erlangen edition.)

Much comforting medicine for the soul is furthermore contained in his letters of comfort, which are found in his catechetical writings at the sixth and seventh petition