# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1860_S102
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

102 On the Zeal of Preachers.

us, 1 Cor. 9:27. The day is short, the work much, the reward very great.
Let us look to the prize of the contest, and, that we may joyfully persevere
in the labor, let us have love: for to one who loves nothing is hard, but he
runs, flies, overcomes all things, Song of Songs 8:6-7, 2 Cor. 5:14, Gen.
29:20. Peter, who loves Christ, tends the flock in a threefold way, John
21:15, through the word, through life, through writing. When Zacharias
could not speak, he wrote, for the voice of the pen carries further than
that of the mouth, because through letters we can converse with those far
distant, and because through them even the dead still speak. —

Further, one must labor freely in the Lord's vineyard, with full confidence
of heart and an undaunted spirit. Let the die be cast, and let us leave the
ship to the winds, because it is necessary that we sail, not that we live, as
Caesar heroically said. For whoever fears too greatly the hatred and
scorn of the worldly-minded will soon waver. Hence a certain frankness
and self-assurance is needed, that with it one may despise all dangers and
all contempt of the godless. As the general must die standing, so the
pastor must die suffering and laboring, bearing and denying himself,
praying and preaching, gladly taking upon himself everything dreadful and
heavy through the love of Christ.

For this is truly what it means to suffer as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,
2 Tim. 2:3 — to bear evil, to endure wrong of every kind for the gospel's
sake, and to harden the heart against the mockeries of the unreasonable,
after the pattern of Christ, who set his face like a flint, Isa. 50:7, and
therefore, in the greatest need and danger, stood unmoved and unconquered
like a rock against which the waves dash and rebound and dissolve
into foam. Therefore let others flee, be afraid, and become full of terror:
we must fight and struggle unto death. Let that Bias be an example to us,
who was shut in by the Athenian general Iphicrates, and when his soldiers
asked him what should be done, said: "What else but that you should take
thought for your own safety: I shall die fighting!" As Alexander addressed
himself: "Either fight bravely or lay down the name!" so Christ also
addresses us: "Either carry out the preaching office zealously, or be no
preacher!"

For the chief business of a pastor is to destroy and bring to ruin the
kingdom of Satan with spiritual weapons. But this we cannot accomplish
by acting gently and speaking to please, but through the frankness and
resoluteness with which we rebuke the prevailing heresies, errors, and
sins — especially those that lay waste the conscience — in both great and
small, frankly, thoughtfully, and boldly, without any respect of persons.
For it is our duty to convict all, even kings themselves, of their sins. So
Nathan rebuked King David, Elijah rebuked Ahab, Elisha rebuked Joram,
Hosea (5:1)