# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1876_S35
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 35 —

swineherd, before I would bring myself to teach others and could not do it.

"The high people have not done it; we have the holy prophet Isaiah, and when God wanted to call him to the preaching office, he says: Lord, I am of unclean lips. Moses says to the LORD: I have a heavy tongue, I cannot speak, one must pull them by the hair to make them speak. But now, if one is ruined in all trades, he is good enough for a parson. He is good for the peasants, to whom one need not preach anything special, as if the peasants were not people too and had no soul as well as the emperor. God cares just as much for the soul of a peasant and of the poorest beggar as for that of a great lord. That is nothing. Things go badly; one should see to it that churches are provided with upright men. . . . One must also pray to our LORD God that he give such people as serve him to his honor; for when he wants to punish, he gives such teachers as do great harm to the Christian Church." (Sermon for Trinity Sunday: John 3.)

After this excursus the question was finally raised, on the one hand, with regard to the thesis before us: Is every temporary call to be regarded without qualification as a non-divine call? Does it not make a difference when preachers and congregations do this out of weakness and ignorance? Is the non-temporary, then, something so essential that, if it is lacking, the divineness of the call is lacking altogether? Let one think here of the earlier times. There were many brave men chosen for their poor, forsaken emigrants. At first, to be sure, no one wanted to go to America to them. It was regarded as a great sacrifice when a theological candidate decided on it. But the love of Christ urged them on. So they went to America, but their mind was set on returning to the homeland after a few years and administering the office there. This happened also out of patriotism. They believed they owed this service to their fatherland. Here in America, however, the congregations also wanted to protect themselves, so that the preachers would not leave again so quickly. Hence the clause was usually made in the call: "at least so and so many years." How is this now to be regarded?

To this it was answered, on the other hand: This much is certain: weakness and ignorance do not make an invalid call a valid one. The question here is: Is the temporary ordained by God? God has instituted an office and wills that persons be set apart for it who are to remain in this office until the last breath of their life, who, when the LORD comes, shall receive the unfading crown of honor, 1 Peter 5. Further, the congregation is commanded to hear the preacher and to obey him. All this does not fit a temporary call; there the congregation wants to determine how long it will hear God's Word from its preacher and obey him. Now the congregation is, however, not in