# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1860_S104
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

104 On the Zeal of Preachers.

and even-tempered conduct, so that they might show themselves receptive
to the truth.

Let us therefore feed the flock of Christ not in a domineering and
dictatorial way, still less tyrannically and harshly, but in a fatherly way —
namely earnestly, kindly, gently, and with a fatherly goodness and
warmth, seeking rather to be loved than feared. Laurentius, on 1 Pet. 5:3,
has rightly said: let every pastor govern his congregation carefully and
thoughtfully, not with the harshness of force but through the spirit of
gentleness, and not by constantly insisting on his official power and
authority in all matters and against everyone — which, to be sure, he
could do in and of himself with the fullest right — but rather by at times
waiving something of his right, as Paul is attested to have done more than
once, 1 Cor. 9:12, 2:13, 2, 2 Thess. 3:9. Let us imitate Basil, who through
gentleness was a magnet, and through patience and steadfastness a
diamond. —

Moreover a preacher should do everything with warmth and zeal,
nothing sluggishly or indifferently. Let us cry aloud and lift up our voice as
with the blast of a trumpet, because we speak to the dead and to stones.
Let us beseech the Father of light to touch our mouth with the glowing
coal, that only what is pure, divine, and heavenly may come from our lips,
so that we may be burning and shining lamps, burning within through
zeal, faith, and love, shining to others through words and works; that we
may be coals and torches — coals to ourselves, torches to the flock, John
5:25. Hence Christ gave the first teachers of the church not fleshly but
fiery tongues, that with them they might speak with glowing zeal and
kindle the hearts of the hearers, Acts 2:3. Glorious was that praise of
Luther: "Whatever Luther says, and whatever he writes, penetrates the
heart and leaves behind wondrous stings in the mind of the hearer." Let
us imitate Elijah, who zealously burned with zeal, who, kindled by fierce
ardor, was wholly fire, and therefore also rode to heaven on a fiery chariot.
Let us imitate Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah (29:9), John the Baptist, and Paul
(Gal. 2:11-12), who, burning in the fire of love, set the cold hearts of their
hearers aflame through fiery preaching. Let us in holy zeal have glowing
minds, mouths, and hands, that we may lead people from vice to virtue.
To the children we will give milk, to the stronger solid food, and neglect
nothing through sloth that serves the welfare of the flock.

Let us finally imitate the seraphim, who in burning zeal are nimble and
ready to carry out every commission of God, and who, like them, have not
merely two but six wings, with which we may move and fly upward and
downward, forward and backward, right and left, with the greatest speed
(Isa. 6:2) — like the angels who proclaim the eternal gospel, who neither
creep nor walk, but fly swiftly with hastening wings through the midst of
heaven, Rev. 14:6. —