# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 03 01_S113
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall never pass away, now nor evermore."

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States.

Volume 4.

St. Louis, Mo., the [illegible] of March, 1848.

No. 15.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at the annual subscription price of one dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who are to pay it in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 cents.

Only those letters containing contributions for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, however, containing business matters, orders, cancellations, moneys, etc., are to be sent here under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

(Submitted by P. Keyl.)
On Daily Family Devotion.
(Continuation and Conclusion.)

With regard to the prayers used in family devotion, this is a chief requirement: that the father of the household lead them rightly, and that all members of the household be able to join in the prayer; but to lead prayer rightly is no such easy matter, and it is precisely those who consider themselves most skilled at it who are the most unskilled. How often there is a lack of the right selection and order of what is to be asked for, or of the right expression; how often the one leading the prayer is himself distracted, wearied, or otherwise indisposed to prayer; how often, for this very reason, what ought to be prayer becomes nothing but a powerless, sapless babbling, in which no one can truly join. Many use certain prayer books for family devotion, which are especially dear to some because they contain particular prayers for the most varied circumstances, and especially for every day of the week; yet let each one examine himself as to whether he is able always truly to pray along with such prayers read aloud. He will have to confess that, unless they are fixed prayers used daily and thus learned almost by heart, he may indeed have many good thoughts while they are read, but can never truly pray along — and this for the reason that both spoken and read-aloud prayer rushes past the ears all too quickly, so that before the first words fall into the heart to kindle devotion to prayer, the next words already follow and, as it were, crowd out the first; and the longer the prayer formula is, the more noticeable this drawback becomes.

Oh, if only in this matter we followed the counsel of Sirach: "Look at the examples of the ancients, and follow them"; for it is an observation as remarkable as it is unknown to most, that, for example, Dr. Luther, who indeed possessed the spirit of prayer in such rich measure, never once introduced any similar set prayer in any of his many sermons, of the kind that later came to be used ever more frequently; indeed, not even a trace is to be found in Dr. Luther's writings of the commonly used church prayers that were later taken up into the hymnals for reading along and praying along. Rather, at the end of his House Postil there stands "a general form for how, at the close of the sermon, the people are to be exhorted to common prayer," which not only agrees with the principles set forth above, but also gives the Our Father precedence over all other prayers, when it says at the close: "To obtain all this, pray with devotion and in faith an Our Father."

As for the collects, or short altar prayers, however, the ancient Church wisely so ordained, and the Lutheran Church has just as wisely retained, that these are sung slowly by the minister following the preceding exhortation, "Let us pray," whereby it becomes possible for everyone to pray along and to seal the short prayer with his own Amen. Now, what has been said thus far concerning public worship holds also for family worship; therefore for the latter, too, neither spoken nor read-aloud prayers are to be recommended, but above all the holy Our Father itself. But should one wish to use other prayers besides this, I know of none better to suggest, thus far, than the incomparable morning and evening blessing in Dr. Luther's Small Catechism, for these solve the difficult task of uniting brevity with richness of content in such a way that in similarly long prayers one will not easily find anything that is not already contained in that one; for what in other prayers is enumerated at length and paraphrased with many words, Dr. Luther gathers briefly together with the often-repeated little word "all." Thus in the morning blessing:

"I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have protected me this night from all harm and danger; and I ask you that you would also protect me this day from sin and from all evil, so that all my doing and living may please you; for into your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let your holy angel be with me, that the wicked foe may have no power over me. Amen."

Likewise also in the evening blessing: "I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have graciously protected me this day; and I ask you that you would forgive me all my sins, wherever I have done wrong, and graciously protect me this night; for into your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let your holy angel be with me, that the wicked foe may find no power over me. Amen."

These short prayers, which unfortunately are not as generally known and valued as they deserve to be, can easily be learned by heart by all members of the household and prayed along with; and each one also finds in them an opportunity to include his own particular concern under the little word "all" and to bring it before God.

The singing of spiritual hymns, finally — although it is commendable and conducive to devotion, especially because in singing one can more easily follow the words and reflect upon them — is nevertheless often not generally practicable, because in our time many a father of the household lacks knowledge of the melodies. In such a case it is better for him to read a hymn, or a few verses of one, slowly and devoutly, than to confuse the singing through an incorrect leading of the tune and thereby hinder devotion. But if a father of the household can lead the singing correctly, he will find in the unadulterated hymnals a rich store of hymns, especially also for the morning and evening hours, from which he may choose above all the oldest, simplest, and shortest, or a few connected verses from them.

So much, then, in general, for what ought to be practiced in daily family devotion — namely, Holy Scripture, Dr. Luther's Small and Large Catechism, his morning and evening blessing, or also the singing of spiritual hymns.

As to how necessary it is for every Christian to practice all this daily, this question shall be answered with the following pointed words of Dr. Luther: