# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1904_S12
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

12 Proceedings of the twentieth convention

you find within yourself inwardly a biting conscience, which the sin oppresses, which longs for grace or is afraid of death or hell and would gladly be strong, and so with good confidence in Christ's word seeks and takes the Sacrament, to fetch such grace, strength and help. For a hungry, needy, oppressed and anxious soul demands this Sacrament, one that would press toward it of itself, regardless of the Pope's law or lawlessness, but only its own need, in good confidence. For the Sacrament cannot bear that people be driven or forced to it, but they are to ask for it and press for it of their own accord out of hungry faith, taught through the Gospel. That is the examination [*Prüfe*] of faith, and inward." — To this are then joined the words on examination cited before, that one look at one's outward conduct.

The same thing Luther teaches in the "Christian Questions" [*Christliche Frageſtücke*] composed for self-examination, with their chief questions: "Do you believe that you are a sinner?" "Are you also sorry for your sins?" and: "In what then do you comfort yourself?"

Δοκιμαζέτω δὲ ἄνθρωπος ἑαυτόν, καὶ οὕτως ἐκ τοῦ ἄρτου ἐσθιέτω καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ποτηρίου πινέτω [Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup]. οὕτως [so], thus, as one who complies with the command of self-examination, he is to eat and drink. This οὕτως makes self-examination an absolutely necessary requirement for every communicant. — How much now has the preacher who administers the Sacrament to do with it? That is the question for us. As a bishop, who is to be apt to teach, he must instruct others; as one who has the office of exhorting, he must urge and exhort to it; as one who is a shepherd, he must guide to it, help with it, support in it, as is done among us at the announcement for Communion [*Abendmahlsanmeldung*], likewise also through the confessional address customary among us before confession. Whether now a confessant, especially as regards the "inward examination," undertakes such self-examination with all due earnestness and fidelity, that is beyond the judgment of the father confessor; therefore he too, if he administers his office faithfully in the manner just named as shepherd and bishop, is relieved of every responsibility.

But one thing does not escape his judgment, and on this point he is and remains responsible. If a communicant is to examine himself as is required here, then he must be in a position to examine himself; he must be able to examine himself. About this a proper preacher can and must form a judgment with regard to those to whom he gives the Sacrament. Whether someone can examine himself does not escape his judgment. For this he is therefore also responsible, that those who receive the Sacrament under his pastoral care are people who can examine themselves, whereas for whether they actually examine themselves he is not responsible, and indeed should not let it occur to him to act, in refusal or admission, according to his moral conviction as to whether he has to do with a truly believing person or not. Only manifest unchristianity can play a part there.