# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 11 24_S58
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Accordingly, thirdly, he appears in no visited congregation as lawgiver and judge, but as a fatherly counselor, who, even in existing disagreements — for example, between this or that minister and his congregation — renders his arbitrating decision only when both contending parties desire it, but otherwise contents himself with bringing about, in an evangelical-advisory manner, a peaceful settlement.

In this capacity, however — namely, as a father in Christ — he shall direct his particular attention to the ministerial conduct of the preacher visited. And God be praised — we hope in Him — that at present there is not a single minister of the Church within our synodical association to whom this fatherly oversight and counsel is more a burden than a joy; especially with regard to the younger brethren in office, we cherish the joyful confidence that this very arrangement is most welcome to them. For, as we partly know and partly hope, they have all taken up the holy preaching office more with fear and trembling than with Methodist-like exuberance — an office which is in itself already so great, weighty, and full of responsibility, but which here in this country, especially in our Church and given the mostly disordered state of its government, is bound up with double difficulties. Here it requires not only a twofold watchfulness over oneself, a constant and earnest supplication to God the Holy Spirit, first of all for one's own soul, and a devout and faithful use of the divine means of grace for oneself, in order rightly to feed the flock of Christ which He has purchased with His own blood — but besides all this, cases will surely arise for each one individually, so difficult in matters of church government and of particular pastoral care, that the counsel of an older and more experienced fellow minister, on the spot, will be most welcome and dear to him. Likewise, we harbor no concern that any of our number is so possessed by spiritual pride that the fatherly oversight of his preaching and catechizing by the traveling president should be so burdensome and troublesome to him. For although, even before undertaking the holy preaching office, we are, by God's grace, orthodox and competent to teach — otherwise this office ought not to be entrusted to us at all — and although, in the exercise of it, and especially in the earnest preaching and teaching of the divine Word, we grow and increase chiefly through devout meditation upon it (meditatio), prayer (oratio), and the manifold trials of soul, office, and household, and all sorts of temptation (tentatio) — nevertheless we by no means wish to deny that the thorough and expert assessment of our performance in this field, given by the president and overseer as the one acknowledged to be most capable among us, is of the greatest benefit. To be sure, we are divinely certain that the content of our preaching remains, now as before, the truth unto salvation revealed in Holy Scripture; yet we are just as humanly certain that in the arrangement of the material, in the form and manner of expression, and so forth, we stand in need of a good deal of schooling and correction. Here is one who preaches, even without any particular need on the part of most of his hearers, too much law and too little Gospel; another perhaps the reverse; a third goes too high and rhetorical; a fourth, on the other hand, is rather in danger of descending from plain, popular speech into vulgarity; a fifth preaches too long, a sixth too briefly; a seventh preaches only doctrine without exhortation, an eighth weakens the force of the exhortation by making it too long and unduly shortens the space given to doctrine. Others perhaps incline somewhat toward the Methodist and Pietist manner of preaching, working too one-sidedly upon the feelings of their hearers and aiming particularly at individual emotional stirrings and shocks, instead of simply setting forth thoroughly and forcefully the divine fact of Law and Gospel and leaving it to that alone — without any special human assistance — to work true repentance toward God and true faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Still others have this or that pulpit mannerism, perhaps without even knowing it; one is too monotonous, another emphasizes too many words, and sometimes wrongly; a third sings, a fourth shouts, a fifth gestures too little, a sixth too much. In sum, there are, in these respects as everywhere, certainly also among us, so many kinds of weaknesses and faults, that every sincere and humble servant of the Lord will, we hope, be heartily thankful to the visiting fellow minister when he calls his attention to his particular deficiency.

Now if the writer of the above article thinks that, through this arrangement of oversight by the traveling and visiting president, "not a few excellent Old Lutheran brethren have been kept from uniting with this Synod, as he knows from a reliable source," this indeed grieves us — not, however, for our own sake, but for the sake of those who allow themselves to be kept away by it; for precisely such a reason for staying away might easily fill us with some mistrust toward the prevailing disposition of these so-called Old Lutherans, since it has something of the appearance of evil about it, as though they lacked sufficient humility to submit even their own persons, with willingness and love, to that oversight; for on the merits of the case they can hardly raise any well-founded objection to it, since this arrangement, as shown above, has its good foundation in apostolic practice and ordinance, and is, moreover, most definitely guarded, in its exercise among us, against its possible abuse — that is, especially against its passing over into the episcopal power of the Romanists and Episcopalians. For, as already mentioned above, the president is only a visiting overseer acting under commission of the Synod and furnished by it with special instructions; and he is, moreover, accountable to the Synod for the discharge of this part of his office according to his instructions, before which every pastor and every congregation may indeed bring complaint against him, if they are able to prove that he has exceeded his instructions and encroached upon their rights.

If, furthermore, the writer of the said article in the Lutheran Observer thinks that this arrangement of oversight by the traveling president will have to cease before his three-year term of office is over, we leave that an open question. Suffice it to note here that this undeniably so salutary arrangement was by no means forced upon the ministers and congregations of the synodical association by cunning or violence, but was, in the adoption of our synodical constitution, at the same time voluntarily and from inner conviction of its salutary character, accepted.

Should it, however, in the worst case, turn out — which, however, we do not fear from the sound churchly sense of any of the congregations already joined — that this or that congregation should refuse the visit of the president as overseer, it could nevertheless by no means prevent its pastor from personally accepting such a visit with thanks and deriving, at least for himself, this or that benefit for the conduct of his office from it.

3. In conclusion, we still receive some measure of praise from the writer of the above article; for he says as follows:

"We believe that the members of this new Synod are honorable men and are earnestly intent on doing good. They hold very stubbornly to the ancient landmarks (ancient landmarks — probably meaning among other things the church's confessional writings) and stand or fall with their own Lord. We do not wish to judge them, although we could wish that they would set aside what we regard as mistaken views concerning the practically wise conduct of the church (church policy), and enter into more cordial relations with their brethren of the same name in their new fatherland."

To this the following may now be noted:

If the writer of the said article thinks that we are earnestly intent on "doing good," we thank him very much for the good opinion, and may the faithful God, of His grace, lay His blessing upon our present and future humble labor. Yet we by no means wish to be ashamed to confess that our "doing good" as a body — and I hope my dear brethren in the faith and in the ministry entirely agree with me on this — is meant to show itself precisely within those "ancient landmarks"; that is, all our testifying, teaching, warning, rebuking, comforting, and our entire labor of love shall, God willing, be founded altogether upon the church's confession, borne and pervaded by it; as servants of the Church we wish to act and to conduct ourselves,