# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1862_S225
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Lehre und Wehre [Doctrine and Defense].

Volume VIII.    August 1862.    No. 8.

Report on the True Mean of the Lutheran Liturgy.
(Conclusion.)

d) Confession and the Church Prayer: "Of this common prayer there still remains, from old custom, an indication, in that at the end of the sermon the confession is recited and prayer is made from the pulpit for all Christendom. But it should not be accomplished merely by this, as is now the custom and manner; rather it should serve as an exhortation to pray, throughout the whole Mass, for such needs as the preacher moves us to; and in order that we may pray worthily, we should first be admonished of our sin and thereby humbled — which should be done as briefly as possible, so that afterward the people, gathered together, may all confess their sin to God themselves and pray for everyone with earnestness and faith. Oh, if only God would grant that some congregation would hear and pray in this manner after Mass, so that a common, an earnest outcry of the heart of the whole people might rise up to God — what immeasurable virtue and help should follow from such prayer! What could more terribly confront all evil spirits? What greater work could be done on earth? Thereby so many devout people would be preserved, so many sinners converted. For truly, the Christian church on earth has no greater power or work than such common prayer against everything that may assail it. The evil spirit knows this well; therefore he too does everything in his power to hinder this prayer." (Sermon on Good Works, 1520. E. A. 20, 241-242.)

"But whether one wishes to deliver such a paraphrase and exhortation from the pulpit immediately after the sermon, or before the altar, I leave freely to each one's own choice. It appears that the ancients hitherto did it from the pulpit; hence it has remained the custom that the common prayer is made, or the Lord's Prayer spoken beforehand, from the pulpit, but the exhortation has become one to a public confession,*) for thereby the Lord's Prayer remains, together with a short

*) As, for example, in Nuremberg, through the Vollprecht communion-exhortation. It is also found in our Agenda as far as the words: "and drink from one cup." From there on, the Nuremberg exhortation continues thus: "And since we have all sinned and stand in need of God's grace, humble your hearts before
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