# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1858_S172
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

172 On Visiting the Sick.

of the Lord's Prayer. Hereto also belong individual expositions of Psalms, particularly of Psalm 23, 25, 118, 130, etc., as well as the sermons on the Gospels, such as, on the day of the Purification of Mary, on Simeon's blessed art of dying; on Judica Sunday, on the saying: Whoever keeps my word shall never see death; on the 16th Sunday after Trinity, on the widow of Nain's fountain of tears and comfort.

Finally, there is found in the Table Talk a rich supply, unknown to most, of all kinds of teaching and comfort for the sick and dying — for example, chapter 26, on temptations, particularly §§ 61–67, and chapter 47, on sicknesses, in which § 18 contains a brief account of how Dr. Luther was accustomed to visit and comfort the sick.

It is not enough, however, to read through such things and the like repeatedly; this should also be done in writing, so that one gathers individual sentences or shorter passages into a summary and provides this with a heading. Further, let one note down short prayers and sighs, the most powerful Bible passages, hymns and hymn verses, as well as short sayings of Luther, and arrange all this under certain headings or alphabetically. — In short, let one lay up for oneself a little book of need and help, as preparation for visiting the sick, a storeroom of every kind of spiritual gift, of which one has particular need when one must spend hours at the bedside of the dangerously ill. Afterward let the pastor note down the experiences he has had, the shortcomings he has perceived in his own procedure, the difficulties in individual cases, and the like — in doing which it is advisable to observe the same manner and order as with the collections just mentioned. Finally, let one complete this little book with whatever noteworthy things one reads or hears, since in particular the pastoral conferences ought to be used for the exchange of everything pertaining to this, and especially for reports on individual remarkable cases. Our dear elders were far more diligent than we in recording such cases, as the twenty-four volumes of Fresenius's Pastoral Collections bear witness — which contain several very detailed and often quite instructive diaries, in particular also from the venerable Mühlenberg. So much, then, for what we ought to do in order to become ever more capable in this important part of our office as well.

We ought, however, also more often instruct the congregation in sermons concerning how a Christian ought to conduct himself in his own sickness and that of his household. To this the Lutheran church orders — among others the Pomeranian — called attention with the following words: "The pastors shall diligently and often admonish the congregations not to withhold their repentance and their receiving of the venerable Sacrament until they fall sick, but rather, while still in good bodily health, not to despise the gracious season of grace, to show themselves as Christians, and to come to repentance. Likewise they shall often admonish that sick persons not delay confession, absolution, and the Sacrament until the last extremity, but seek before all things the medicine of the soul." Such admo-