# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 05 24_S161
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall never perish."

Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

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

Volume 4.

St. Louis, Mo., June 13, 1848.

No. 21.

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

Only 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.

Something concerning the custom, at the celebration of the Holy Supper, of inviting to participate also such people as had not confessed.

"Sooner would I myself give up body and life than allow the body of the Lord to be given unworthily to anyone; and sooner would I let my own blood be shed than permit that His most holy blood be administered to an unworthy person."

Chrysostom. (Hom. 83 on Matthew.)

Not a few preachers in this land are accustomed, whenever they hold the celebration of the Holy Supper, first to turn to the whole assembly and to call upon everyone — not excepting even those present who are members of other confessions — to participate. The German Methodist preachers here make particular use of this means in order to gain a foothold among the German Protestants living scattered about in this area. The latter have often had to do without public preaching and the enjoyment of the Lord's Supper for years; and now, when a Methodist preacher happens into their isolation, and not only preaches to them but also makes not the least difficulty about holding a celebration of the Supper among them and admitting everyone to it without further ado, he has thereby already won over most of the people for himself. He uses the Holy Supper as bait, that is, as a cheap means of luring souls into the net of his enthusiasm and sectarianism. But would that many so-called "Lutheran" preachers did not also follow a similar practice! We have, however, unfortunately learned that not a few even among preachers who call themselves Lutheran (in the opinion that this is truly evangelical), once they have prepared the holy table for the administration of the sacrament, now call up to this dispensing of grace everyone who cares to come, and admit them without examining their faith and life; and it is to be feared that many act in this way from the impure motive of being regarded and praised among the members of all parties as truly "kind, broad-minded" men; it is to be feared that many surrender the Holy Sacrament to everyone for this reason, and administer it even to manifestly godless persons, because they wish also to stand well with the godless, do not wish to bring the wrath and hatred of the world upon themselves, and do not wish to lose their perhaps lucrative pastoral position. For it is indeed true: there is hardly anything in the whole care of souls that gives a faithful servant of the Church more trouble than when he wishes to act conscientiously in admitting people to the Holy Supper. If an orthodox Lutheran preacher takes over a new congregation, and will not let any member of it come to the Table of the Lord until he has spoken with each one individually and heard from that person's own mouth that he knows what the Holy Supper is, that he recognizes himself as a poor sinner, that he believes God's Word from the heart, that he sincerely longs for grace and forgiveness of sins in Christ's blood, that he also has the earnest resolve to follow Christ in a holy life unstained by the world, and the like — what hard resistance he then usually meets with at once! How seldom does it then pass off without resulting divisions! How often does he then find himself compelled to move his walking staff onward, and even to have it said of him that he wanted to lord it over the congregation!

How now? Does a preacher, then, indeed do right when he would rather let everything be visited upon him — indeed, would rather give up his office — than admit everyone to the Holy Supper without examination? Is the liberality of many preachers of this land really so blameworthy in this respect? We answer: Yes! But in order to judge rightly of this, it is necessary first to consider what is really the true nature of the Holy Supper.

It is quite otherwise with the Supper than with the preaching of the Word. From the preaching of the Word, therefore, indeed no one may or should be turned away, for that would mean shutting against him the one door of grace. The Word, namely, is given not only to preserve a believer in faith, but also to awaken a person in the first place out of his sleep of sin, to bring him to the knowledge of his sins, to repentance and to faith, and to convert him; indeed, without the Word all this is impossible.*) Not so is it, however, with the Holy Supper; through it a person is not first to be brought to repentance and to faith, but rather strengthened in it; through it a person is not first to obtain grace and become a Christian, but the grace already obtained through the Word is thereby to be sealed to him, and he is to be preserved, kept, and advanced in Christianity; through this food a person is not first to be awakened to life from God, but, if he is already spiritually alive, to be nourished and refreshed. Whoever, therefore, wishes to partake of the Holy Supper worthily and to his salvation must already beforehand have come to repentance and to faith; must already beforehand have obtained grace and become a true Christian; must already beforehand have been awakened to life from God and been born again. Therefore only he should partake of the Holy Supper who has already, through the bath of regeneration — that is, through Holy Baptism — become a child of God; just as in the Old Testament only he was permitted to partake of the Passover lamb who had already been received into the divine covenant of grace through the sacrament of circumcision. To partake of the Holy Supper is not in and of itself something good; rather, everything depends on how one partakes of it. It is not like a medicine

*) On this Luther writes in his Church Postil: "Thus Christ also did: he let the preaching go out to the crowds, over everyone, as afterward the apostles likewise did, so that all heard it, believers and unbelievers alike; whoever caught it, caught it. So must we also do. But the Sacrament should not be thrown among the people in heaps in this way, as the Pope did. When I preach the Gospel, I do not know whom [illegible]; but here I ought to know the particular person who comes to the Sacrament; there I must not leave it in doubt, but must be certain that he to whom I give the Sacrament has grasped the Gospel and rightly believes, just as when I baptize someone; just as he, too, who receives it, or who is baptized, ought not to doubt." (On Easter Day, on receiving the Holy Sacrament.)