# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1862_S25
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Excerpts as Contributions to Pastoral Casuistry. 25

and hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for men; as St. Paul says, Eph. 4:8: He is ascended up on high, and led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now where the ministers of the Word are as skilled as has just been said, the Word will without doubt also be powerful and effectual, and not preached in vain; as God says in Isaiah 55:10-11: As the rain and snow fall from heaven, and return not thither again, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Note that he says: what pleases me, not what pleases the preacher; and that it shall also prosper whereto He sends it, not whereto the minister of the Word has been driven and moved to speak out of his own presumption. Therefore it is terrifying and dangerous on both sides, either to teach the words of men under the title of God's Word, or to force and press the pure Word of God after our own sense and inclinations; both of which monstrous wonders have taken hold of the church in these days with a strong and forceful tyranny.

So then let everyone who stands before the congregation of Christ in the Word be for that reason fearful and humble, and apply himself more to pure prayer than to great wit and art, to teach the Word of God freely and in plain simplicity alone, and so commend to God both his tongue and the souls of his hearers. For it is so ordained that in the congregation of God there shall be no master save him who says, Matt. 23:8: One is your Master, even Christ. And Ps. 60:8 stands thus: God speaks in his sanctuary, that is, in his congregation. But where man, or Satan the devil, speaks, there is without doubt the devil's synagogue and congregation. For as the word is, so also is the people, so also is God, so also is the worship, so also is the faith, so also is the conscience, so also are the works and all things together; for it is by the Word alone that all things are wrought in man." — (Luther's Works, Walch edition, IV, 763-766.)

Further, Luther writes in a letter to Nic. Hausmann: "Grace and peace in Christ. Worthy, dear Pastor! It has been told me, and also reported by N., how one of your preachers has begun to conduct himself indecorously in the pulpit, and attacks the person of the council disorderly, which pleases the common people; and so the spirit that seeks its own honor and following still keeps stirring in it. Therefore my friendly request is that you, together with the council, take heed here, that sloth and negligence do not bring us trouble again. You surely know from God's Word that such chastising of the person belongs nowhere else but under the assembly