# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1862_S356
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

356 On the Evangelical Conduct of a Christian-minded Parish Schoolteacher, Etc.

for the most part also gave instruction in the catechism in them. Before
the rise and coming to dominance of rationalism, then, it was naturally
the church that was the rightful nurse and guardian, especially of the
parish schools in the towns and in the country, and that watched over
and took care that pure Lutheran doctrine and Christian discipline
should prevail in them. The schoolteachers, however, stood, in
churchly terms, naturally under her oversight, while, in the discharge of
their office in doctrine and discipline, they represented, before the
children, the place of the natural fathers.

After these introductory outlines we now proceed to the answering of
the first part of our task, namely, what the evangelical conduct of a
Christian-minded parish schoolteacher should be, first of all, toward his
pupils, and what, indeed, since he stands precisely in the fathers' place
in dealing with the children in school, must be the nearest and most
important thing that he ought to have and cherish toward them.

This, however, is nothing other than a fatherly heart, even should he
himself still be young, unmarried, and without children of his own. Such
a heart, from which all his teaching and discipline should rightly flow, is
indeed, in a Christian-minded schoolteacher, no natural gift, but a work
of the Holy Spirit and of the love of Christ. He must first rightly have
experienced in his own heart that he does not, by nature, have such a
fatherly heart toward children at all, that instead his heart is rather full
of frivolity, sloth, harshness, ill temper, and especially full of pride; he
must then have borne, thoroughly and earnestly, contrition and sorrow
before God over the corrupt condition of his heart, and must still do so
daily, but must thereafter, in faith, have laid hold of the grace of God in
Christ, and must still do so daily. He must — even if he has not, like
Peter, publicly denied Christ three times with curses upon himself
before Christ's enemies — nevertheless have experienced in his heart
the forgiving love of Christ set forth in the gospel, and a heartfelt and
sincere love in return for Christ must have been kindled within him; for
only thus can he, too, with a good conscience, answer the Lord's
question, "Lovest thou me?" with: "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou
knowest that I love thee!" And only thus will he then also rightly
recognize and take to heart the Lord's charge: "Feed my lambs."

From what has just been said, then, it is evident that a heart filled and
moved by the love of Christ, and therefore fatherly disposed toward his
pupils, must be inwardly present in an upright parish schoolteacher, if
his professional activity and effectiveness are to be a wholesome and
blessed one for the children.

But what will flow forth from such a heart toward his children,
according to the strength of his faith? The brief, summary answer is:
the love of Christ in all the expressions of his fatherly teaching and
upbringing.

But before we go further into the individual points contained in this