# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 03 07_S105
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

"God's Word and Luther's teaching
shall now and nevermore pass away."

Der Lutheraner.

Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States.

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 4.

St. Louis, Mo., March 7, 1848.

No. 14.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at the annual subscription price of one dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who must pay it in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis, each single issue is sold for 5 cents.

Only letters containing communications for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, however, containing business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent here under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

(Submitted by P. Keyl.)

On Daily Family Devotion.

By family devotion is understood the contemplation of the Word of God, the reading of Christian books of edification, the exercises of prayer, or also the singing of spiritual hymns, as a father of the household daily conducts at a certain time with his own. This devotion is called, to distinguish it from the public devotion in church, also domestic worship, or house-church. The obligation to it lies in general already in the second and third commandments, according to which we are to call upon God in all need, thank him, and gladly hear and learn God's Word. But in particular we have for it an express command of God, Deuteronomy 6:6–9, where God commands all fathers of households: These words, which I command you today, shall you take to heart. And you shall impress them upon your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, or walk along the way, when you lie down, or rise up; and you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as a memorial before your eyes; and you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house, and upon the gates. Now what is here said, in the time of the Old Testament, concerning the Ten Commandments, holds true also now, in the time of the New Testament, and indeed just as much of the Gospel, which at that time was not yet revealed to all the world; here too belongs the admonition of St. Paul, Colossians 3:16–17: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom; teach and admonish one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and sing to the Lord in your hearts. And whatsoever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, and give thanks to God the Father through him.

Encouraging examples for the keeping of such family devotion we find in Abraham, of whom the angel of the Lord testifies, Genesis 18:19: I know that he will command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, and do what is right and good, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what he has promised him. Likewise in the grandmother, as well as the mother, of young Timothy, to whom he owed, in particular, the learning of the Holy Scripture and the guidance to unfeigned faith from his childhood on, 2 Timothy 3:15 and 1:5; and Sirach praises it in a father of a household who ever further searches out heavenly wisdom, namely the Word of God, that he also brings his children under her little roof and remains under her arbor, Sirach 14:26.

To this duty of the heads of households the headings before all the chief parts of the Small Catechism also point, in that it is said of each one: How a father of a household should simply set it forth to his household; similar headings are also found with the household prayers of the Small Catechism.

Although Holy Scripture, with regard to family devotion, contains several clear commands and encouraging examples, and although we are repeatedly pointed to it by one of our confessional writings, namely the Small Catechism, yet on closer inquiry into the matter — which ought especially to be made by the pastor at house-visits — one learns that this duty is often either not practiced at all, or at least not practiced in a fitting manner.

Many a father of a household, in the city and in the country, especially among those who count themselves among the so-called educated, keeps no family devotion at all with his own — indeed, he does not even pray aloud the grace before and after meals; he leaves it to them whether and how they hold their own devotions; perhaps he never even inquires of them about it; he does not remind them of it, assuming that they would do this anyway on their own — though it often does not happen — and the father of the household himself likewise does not do it even for himself alone.

Not seldom is the omission of family devotion excused with the pretext that there is always a lack of time — in the morning one must hasten to one's business, in the evening to one's rest; also that it would not be possible, especially in larger households, to gather all the members of the house once, or even twice, a day for a common devotion; one also perhaps seeks to make this whole praiseworthy practice suspect as something pietistic and legalistic, and whatever other empty pretexts there may be.

Others do indeed hold family devotion, but with much negligence; they often let themselves be kept from it by small disturbances, or even by the mere fear of them, as well as by various business affairs which they would gladly represent as works of necessity, or by the desire for rest, by visits, etc.; thus there arises, among the heads of households as well as among the members of the household, an ever greater lukewarmness, which shows itself, when the devotion is indeed still held, in that the father of the household makes it as short and hurried as ever possible, while the members of the household attend this so-called devotion with great distraction and are glad when it is over.

Still others, finally, do indeed regularly hold family devotion, in the morning or also in the evening; they do this, too, in complete earnestness and with the intention of caring for their own souls as well as for the souls of the members of their household; yet in doing so they often feel a certain emptiness; they complain that they still have by no means the desired benefit from it, and they confess that, although they have tried it now this way, now that, they are nevertheless still not certain how family devotion may actually be conducted most usefully. Therefore, for the profit and benefit of the beloved household estate, the following three questions shall be answered: 1.) what should be practiced in family devotion, 2.) how often, and at what time, it should be held, and 3.) how it may be conducted most usefully.

First, then, is the question: What should be practiced in family devotion? To this we can answer, from 1 Timothy 4:5: God's Word and prayer; for if by this every creature, e.g. food and drink, is to be sanctified, then this surely also holds true of every day, which God likewise gives, and