# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1862_S179
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Essay on the Right Mean of the Lutheran Liturgy.    179

is as far removed from what we do before God through prayer and thanksgiving, vowing and confessing, as heaven is from earth. Both the hierarchical and the enthusiast spirit alike allow man's action toward God to come to the fore in the manner of divine service, while God's action toward man recedes — each in its own way.

In papist divine service, and above all in the sacrifice of the Mass, the priest's action and work is — as cannot be otherwise, given the crude doctrine of works — not merely a substitute in place of it, but is, for all who take part, the first thing and the last. This is, in general, the type of all the other papist services and acts, up to and including the so-called "great functions" in the Sistine Chapel at Rome on the high festivals, where, through an overabundant symbolism of ceremonies, everything is the action of the clergy, while the Pope, as the earthly god, himself acts the less, the more he is acted upon. — Corresponding to all this is also the position which Word and Sacrament occupy in Roman worship. Only for this reason is the latter the keystone of divine service: because it becomes the sacrifice of the Mass. The Word, by contrast, recedes very much into the background; its proclamation is often altogether lacking; the excess of ceremonies conceals even the little of God's Word that remains.

Luther, On the Abomination of the Silent Mass: "The papist priests now do nothing else in the Mass but continually go on, without ceasing, with such words as: We offer, we offer, and this offering, these gifts, etc. — and they keep entirely silent about the offering that Christ himself made; they do not thank him for it, indeed they despise and deny it, and wish to come before God themselves with their own offering." (Erl. A. 29, 117.)

The same, Order of Divine Service in the Congregation: "Three great abuses have fallen upon divine service. The first, that God's Word has been kept silent and only read and sung, alone, in the churches; that is the worst abuse. The second, that while God's Word was thus kept silent, so much unchristian fable and falsehood crept in alongside it — both in legends, chants, and sermons — which is horrible to see. The third, that men have performed such divine service as a work, in order thereby to earn God's grace and salvation. Thereby faith has perished, and everyone has wanted to give to churches and foundations, and to become a priest, monk, or nun." (Erl. A. 22, 153.)

The same, Formula Missae: "The words of salvation and of life are shut up, as the ark of the Lord was in the temple of the idol, next to Dagon." (See Rudelbach, Sacr. WW., p. 9.)

Also in the divine service of enthusiasm, human action asserts itself unduly, though in a more refined manner. The tumultuous praying, the mourner's bench with all that belongs to it, the whole arrangement of the enthusiasts' devotional gatherings — aimed as it is at stirring up excitement — especially among the Methodists, is directed at man's action toward God.