# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1863_S58
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

58 A New Homiletical Monthly.

preacher with the nature of a Christian. The Apostle Paul is right when he says that a Christian without love, even if he otherwise had all possible gifts, is a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal; but Dr. Schaff is wrong to transfer this saying, then, straightaway and without further ado, to a preacher — and that not to his person as a Christian, but to his office as a preacher. Because, on his view, the preacher does not hold the preaching office in a lawful manner, the preaching office accomplishes nothing, is a sounding brass, etc. — that is Schaff's conclusion. But a preacher, whether he is called outwardly and inwardly or not, whether he has climbed into the office like a thief, or even, as Luther says, is the devil himself — if he preaches only God's Word, then he is effective, and is no sounding brass or tinkling cymbal. A genuine gold dollar remains a genuine gold dollar, whether a swindler or an honest man spends it. Is Dr. Schaff, then, also caught up in the false Roman teaching concerning office and ordination? According to this third rule it very nearly seems so.

No. 9. "The evangelical sermon is a living and experiential testimony of Christ, as the sole and all-sufficient Savior of sinners, for the awakening and edification of the hearers. It is not mere instruction and exhortation, but a communication of the Christian life. What comes from the heart goes to the heart, and life begets life." If No. 3 was falsely Roman, then No. 9 is falsely enthusiastic. The Methodists talk exactly this way. The "evangelical sermon" does indeed produce "Christian life," but the reason is solely that the "evangelical sermon" is a preaching of the Word of God. The Word of God is spirit and life, and therefore imparts spirit and life, whether the preacher himself believes the Word or not, whether he himself has life or not, whether it comes to him from the heart or not. "The life" of a preacher never begets life; otherwise "the life of a preacher" would itself also be a means of grace. Schaff means to express a certain truth, but he overstates it. For it is true that a believing preacher, whose heart is seized and penetrated by the Gospel, accomplishes more than one who is spiritually dead — but that is because such a man lays the Word of God upon his hearers' hearts more clearly, more urgently, more joyfully, more confidently than one who is spiritually dead. But it is always the Word, and the Word alone, that gives life. In laying down homiletical rules one ought above all to keep clear of every excess, through which clarity — and not seldom truth as well — comes to harm.

No. 11: "Every sermon should be a deed of the study and of the pulpit. At home it is conceived under quiet prayer and faithful study; in the church it is born under the inspiring sight of the devout congregation." That, again, is too much fine rhetoric. For if that were true, then especially in the West, where in the bush congregations and log cabins there are not always "inspiring sights of devout congregations" to be had, many sermons would indeed be conceived, but would remain unborn.

No. 15: "The Bible is wonderfully rich in texts for all sorts of themes that suit the pulpit and serve for edification." That is