# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1862_S162
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Report on the Right Mean of the Lutheran Liturgy. 162

the expression, the necessary revelation, exercise, and enactment of the inner life of the congregation of saints, which, though invisible according to its essence, becomes recognizable through the existence it has, created as it is by Word and Sacrament. The inward fellowship of the saints consists in the one living faith of all the individual members; the outward fellowship is their assembly for the common use of the Word and Sacrament, as well as for adoration and invocation, for thanksgiving, praise, and glory to God.

Eph. 4:3: "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

Acts 2:42: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers."

Heb. 10:25: "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching."

Note. When Dr. Luther calls the Holy Supper "the one ceremony or exercise that Christ instituted" (Sermon on Good Works, Erlangen Edition 20, 232), this by no means contradicts the above, since the Lord made no more precise determination regarding form, time, place, and administration.

But since Christian worship consists in the common use of the Word and the Sacraments, together with the exercise of prayer and praise, it characterizes itself as the public and common enactment of a love that is, on the one hand, divinely bestowing and blessing, and, on the other, humanly receiving and returning. God serves man in that he ever again presents himself to him with his salvation and comes to him with blessing in Word and Sacrament; and man serves him in that, through believing acceptance of the salvation offered in Word and Sacrament, he honors him, and in prayer, thanksgiving, and praise, and in the offering of himself and of the gifts bestowed upon him, returns the divine love.

Ex. 20:24: "In all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee."

Ps. 100: "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence, etc."

Matt. 18:20: "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

Rom. 12:1ff: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, etc."

Heb. 13:15-16: "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Cf. 1 Cor. 16:2.

Luther: "To serve Christ and to serve God means, chiefly in St. Paul, to carry out an office that Christ has commanded him, namely, the preach-