# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1876_S30
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 30 —

least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Zechariah 2:8: "He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye." Such congregations strike Christ himself with the fist in his eyeball. As a king certainly begins war with the city that maltreats his legate, so Christ does not let anyone trifle with his orthodox servant and envoy: for under him lies Jesus hidden. God rewards it here with all manner of misfortune and there with hellish fire.

It is, then, indeed easy to get rid of a preacher, but Christ goes away with him, and with the preacher, who is perhaps glad that the other is gone and he gets the congregation for the sake of the living, with such a preacher the devil comes into the congregation. One need not see this plainly, as if the preacher were physically possessed. Oh no! Satan disguises himself gladly as an angel of light, and apparently there is great contentment and quiet in the congregation. But it is a quiet like that which reigns among the dead in the churchyard. Meanwhile the preacher goes ahead toward hell, and the congregation after him. For how can a blind man show the blind man the way; will they not both fall into the pit? Here the congregation is spoken of by synecdoche, namely for all the wicked rascals who work to have an upright preacher deposed.

These are the earnest words of Luther, which he wrote in the year 1543 to a congregation which indeed had not itself deposed its preacher but wanted to move the visitors to do so. He writes:

"Since there is no other cause and guilt than that you have cast a grudge on the pastor without his deserving it, indeed on account of his great merit and faithful preaching, it is not to be done, nor possible, for the sake of your grudge and wrongful purpose to do violence and wrong to such a well-attested pastor and to throw dirt at him. I cannot blame the visitors for not doing such a thing, nor burdening their conscience for the devil's sake with such wrong and, with you (if they consented to your purpose), going to the devil. You are not lords over the pastors and the preaching office, you have not founded them, but God's Son alone; you have also given nothing to it, and much less right to it, any more than the devil to the kingdom of heaven; you shall not school them nor teach them, nor prevent them from rebuking. For it is God's, not men's rebuke; he wills it unhindered, indeed commanded; mind your own office and leave God to his government, before he must teach you otherwise. Not one of you could bear that a stranger should dismiss or drive away his servant, whom he could not do without. Yes, there is no shepherd boy so lowly who would suffer a crooked word from a strange master: only God's servant is to be and must be everyone's doormat and suffer everything from everyone; whereas from him one will suffer nothing, not even God's own Word. This admonition, pray,