# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1863_S10
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

10 On the evangelical conduct of a Christian-minded parish schoolteacher, etc.

Thirdly, the schoolteacher's serving love toward the congregation will show itself in this, that he does not grow weary and despondent, even at various scattered places in the countryside, wherever necessity requires it, in holding school there. Did not our dear Lord Christ, although He was the Son of God, grow not weary of wandering three years long on foot through the hot land, teaching the people in every place, and having no lasting abode where He might lay His head, relying otherwise too on what He received daily for His own and His followers' support, in order to leave His believers an example in this as well, that they should follow in His footsteps.

It is certainly much to be lamented when even younger and vigorous schoolteachers tire so easily and quickly in this service of love, and strive to obtain, as soon as possible, a position more comfortable to the flesh. Some such schoolteachers are also rather discontented that they perhaps have only a few schoolchildren in each place, as though their sphere of activity were too small, and for that reason gladly accept a call to a congregation that has only one school with many children. But were they not hindered by the tiresome schoolmaster's conceit from a deeper knowledge of sin and of themselves, and were they more deeply grounded in Christian humility, they would soon come to realize how much they still lack, even to care perfectly for the smallest school.

Fourthly, it likewise belongs to the service of love that the schoolteacher not be anxiously troubled about the amount of his salary. For his work of love is indeed also meant to be a work of faith, and faith, in masterful fashion, casts all its cares upon the Lord, who at all times, even under unfavorable circumstances, cares for His servants. This service of love occurs especially where a congregation that has grown up — whose pastor had until then kept school himself — calls a schoolteacher for the first time. There the congregation has not yet come to know from its own experience the blessing of a regularly, faithfully, and competently conducted school, and is also sometimes, out of little faith, still fainthearted about his appropriate salary; to this is added, in this or that member of the congregation, the covetous old Adam, nor does the devil fail to stir diligently and to strengthen the unbelief of the flesh, since a faithful and competent schoolteacher does him honest damage as well, in that through the Law he weakens as much as possible the hereditary and actual sin in his schoolchildren, and through the Gospel strengthens as much as possible the new man.

Under such circumstances it can easily happen that the schoolteacher first called is not assured a generous income. There it is in keeping with faith and love that he nevertheless serve the congregation with the same faithfulness as if it had from the very first appointed him a far higher salary. If he thus acts in faith and according to love, then the Lord, whose hand is nowhere shortened, will further