# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1862_S161
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Lehre und Wehre.

Volume VIII.    June 1862.    No. 6.

Report on the Right Mean of the Lutheran Liturgy.

Preliminary Remark. The following report was prepared, by commission of the Reverend District Presidium, for the meeting of the Synod of the Northern District held at Monroe, Michigan, from May 29 to June 4, 1861, but on account of its length could not be taken up for discussion. Its communication to "Lehre und Wehre" was therefore proposed instead, though the reporter requested that it first be subjected to a careful review by the District President, for possible improvement.

In treating this subject, the reporter has been set the task of first setting forth the principles and fundamental features of a Christian liturgy, then of showing, by reference to these same principles, the aberrations of a false, hierarchical or enthusiast spirit; and finally, of demonstrating the realization of those principles in the pattern of a complete Lutheran liturgy. For the sake of discussion, the reporter takes the liberty of dividing the material into paragraphs and of proceeding in a more compendious manner.

I.
Principles and Fundamental Features of a Christian Liturgy.
§1.
Its Source.

As such we designate, from the outset, next to the Gospel, for us as Lutheran Christians, the Symbols and the liturgical writings and other testimonies of Dr. Luther. If the Reformation restored to us the eternal Gospel, then with it also the right worship and the principles on which its outward form was built. Dr. Rudelbach rightly characterizes, in his historical-critical account "The Words of the Sacrament," Dr. Luther's liturgical principles as "drawn from the innermost life-spring of Scripture and of evangelical church practice."

§2.
The Nature and Fundamental Character of Christian Worship.

The outward, communal worship of Christians does not rest, as did Old Testament worship, on a statutory (ceremonial-legal) command of the Lord or of his Apostles, but is rather the product,

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