# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1862_S173
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Essay on the Right Mean of the Lutheran Liturgy.    173

or begin." (Even though Luther here has in view the old division of the Mass, according to which the sermon still belonged to the Introit, he nonetheless does not wish thereby to have the sermon and the Supper merely joined, but rather the latter to follow the former.)

The same, German Mass and Order of Divine Service: "Everything in divine service should indeed be done among Christians for the sake of the Word and the Sacraments." (L. WW. Erl. A. 22, 243.)

§ 9.
The Spiritual Priesthood.

In the public divine service of Christians, the spiritual priesthood should come to its right, its exercise and practice, in its God-ordained relation to the public office and ministry of the Word, also through the liturgy. The congregation must be able to pray along, give thanks along, praise along, confess along, and proclaim along.

1. For this it is required above all that the whole divine service be held in a language understood by the congregation.

Luther, in the Instructions for the Visitors: "Some sing German, some Latin Masses; this we allow to happen. Yet it is considered useful and good, where most of the people do not understand Latin, to hold a German Mass there, so that the people may the better understand the singing and whatever else is read; as St. Paul says, 1 Cor. 14 (16): For if you bless with the spirit, how shall he who occupies the place of the unlearned say the Amen at your giving of thanks, seeing he does not know what you say? You verily give thanks well, but the other is not edified thereby. Now Paul also says in the same place (v. 26): Let all things be done unto edifying."

Note. In his writing "German Mass and Order of Divine Service," Dr. Luther does not merely express himself to the effect that he would not wish the Latin language — at that time a far more widely known language than it is today — to fall entirely out of use, particularly for the sake of the young; rather, he also desires the use of the other languages in divine service, when he says: "And if I could manage it, and the Greek and Hebrew languages were as common to us as the Latin, and had as much fine music and song as the Latin has, then one should hold Mass, sing, and read on alternate Sundays in all four languages — German, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew." Only on the condition, then, that the foreign languages be understood by most, would L. wish to admit them into divine service.

2. For this it is further required that the assembled congregation not be a merely passive listener, but take an active part, particularly in the offering of prayer, thanksgiving, and praise. This happens, on the one hand, through the loud, unanimous Yes and Amen to the prayers which the officiant, as their spokesman, brings before God; and, on the other hand, through their letting their heart break forth before God through the mouth in psalms and songs of praise and sweet spiritual hymns, or also, in that they