# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1860_S70
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

70 The Diligent Practice of the Catechism in the Lutheran Church of Former Times.

In Pomerania it was determined in the year 1663 (for earlier we find nothing there bearing on this) "that on all Sundays afternoon the catechism shall be preached in the churches in the countryside, and immediately after the sermon the young shall be examined on it in the presence of their elders."

Similarly, from the year 1666 on, in the Wismar churches, "after every sermon the young were to be examined by the ministerium in the church on the passage that had been preached, on their understanding of it, and on what they had retained from the sermon."

In Lüneburg it was determined in the year 1682 that the weekly sermon in every church should last only half an hour, the other half hour being devoted to catechism instruction.

In Weimar, according to an ordinance of the year 1693, "besides the usual catechism exercises, a catechism lesson and examination was appointed for Mondays, and a special deacon was assigned to it."

So much for the testimonies, known to me, of the old church orders concerning the connection of the catechism sermon and the examination. I have for the past 10 years followed this practice, and have become ever more convinced of its manifold usefulness — that one first preaches a portion beforehand and then questions on it, so that both together take roughly an hour. In this the meaning of the word "catechism," which derives from "echo," comes fully into its own; for that which is first preached, recited, or read beforehand, and then questioned again afterward, is to be compared to the sound, but the answer to the resounding or the echo. This method further affords great relief both to the teachers and to the pupils, in that the former can ask far more precise questions, and the latter, if they have listened attentively, can answer far more aptly. Even in such a short sermon many a hint can still be given for the adults, which the children do not yet need so much, and from whom then only the main points, broken down into small questions, are asked; for otherwise a half-hour sermon would require an examination of at least an hour.

Should not, then, all preachers who have hitherto kept sermon and examination separate, or preferred the one to the other, subordinate their own judgment in this matter to the voice of Dr. Luther, to so many Lutheran church orders, and to the long experience of others, and try, for at least a year, to work themselves into this practice? The more faithfully they do this, the more all their former prejudices and misgivings will disappear, and with the greater joy will they proceed along the old but now new path, and will only wish that they had chosen it sooner.

The zeal of the dear men of old, however, was not content with the manner just described, in which they expounded the catechism entire — including the so-called appendix — in one year, or at the latest in a year and a quarter; rather, this zeal drove them to fix certain additional times for its repetition besides.