# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1863_S13
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the Evangelical Conduct of a Christian-minded Parish Schoolteacher, etc. 13

...he bears, is superior. He will nevertheless, as to the shepherd of the whole flock, and thus also as to his teacher, pastor of souls, and dispenser of the means of grace toward him as well, and as to his nearest supervisor and overseer, show him the deference that is due, and will hate and suppress from the heart, even inwardly, the rising self-exaltation that comes precisely because he may perhaps surpass him in this or that matter of formal knowledge and ability. Rather, when his pastor is present at his instruction, he will willingly and gladly accept from him this or that fitting remark and helpful correction, especially in the handling of the divine Word, particularly when the pastor is older and more experienced in teaching than he himself. For younger teachers — who on the whole also have a lesser self-knowledge and experience of sin and grace in the heart, and are frequently still beginners themselves in applying the divine Word to their own heart and conscience — younger teachers will often find, in their teaching, that in handling the Word of God toward their schoolchildren they apply it to the hearts and consciences of the children either too little or too much. The former happens when the teachers remain fixed only on the external and formal aspects of the history or doctrine, even where it is grasped and treated in an orthodox manner, and are satisfied that the children have merely an external knowledge of it. But rather, in each individual commandment, for instance, the holy God's first and inviolable demand for a holy being and life ought, through the teacher's exposition, to come powerfully upon the soul, and through the grace of the Holy Spirit work in the heart a repentant recognition of sin and a wholesome terror before God's wrath and judgment. And likewise every portrayal of Christ in the Gospel history, or according to the Second Article, ought to be carried out in such a way that through it the true faith in Christ is strengthened in the children. Too much, on the other hand, is applied to them when the teachers, perhaps out of pietistically composed handbooks, independent of the main point at issue in the doctrine or history in question, dwell too much on side issues, and at the same time work upon the children in a legalistic and driving manner, in order to produce in them all sorts of shocks or emotional stirrings.

Under such circumstances, a younger and humble schoolteacher will certainly gladly accept the necessary correction and help from his pastor, and will also follow his good advice. And no less will he willingly submit his school discipline to his pastor's oversight, since it can easily happen that he exercises it too much or too little, or at times with the application of unsuitable means, and the legalistic spirit has not yet been thoroughly swept out.

Now when, on the schoolteacher's part, the cordial deference just described exists toward his pastor as his immediate superior, and when the pastor, in turn, likewise shows him deference, then in this respect the mutual relationship is Christianly right and healthy. Then