# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 05 24_S162
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

...that one need only take in order for it to work; rather, it is a treasury whose treasures can be taken hold of, grasped, and kept only by the hand of faith. Whoever has no faith nonetheless also partakes of the real and entire sacrament — that is, he partakes not merely of bread and wine, but, in, with, and under these elements, of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, as a precious pledge of grace and forgiveness, really and truly with his mouth; but he comes away with nothing of the blessing contained therein for the salvation of his soul; for what good can even so precious and valuable a pledge do a person, and how can it serve to assure him of anything, if he does not believe that it is so precious and valuable a pledge? — Yet whoever partakes of the Holy Supper without true faith, and therefore unworthily, not only fails to become a partaker of the grace contained therein, but finds in it, instead of grace — wrath; instead of life — death; instead of blessing — a curse; he becomes, as St. Paul writes, "guilty of the body and blood of the Lord; he eats and drinks judgment to himself, in that he does not discern the body of the Lord." Dreadful, then, is the sin that such a person commits, and fearful the ruin that he brings down upon himself, who partakes of the Holy Supper unworthily; and those who say, "one must, after all, be glad that people still come to the Holy Supper at all," reveal thereby how sorry a state their understanding of this holy Sacrament is in.

Another distinctive feature of the Holy Supper, as of the holy sacraments in general, is that it belongs among the marks, the standards of the Church, and the seals of doctrine. Whatever church, therefore, one takes part in the Holy Supper with, to that church and its doctrine one confesses oneself. There can be no more intimate brotherly fellowship than the one a person enters into with those in whose fellowship he partakes of the Holy Supper. "For," says the holy Apostle, "as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes," 1 Cor. 11:26; and: "It is one bread; so we, being many, are one body, for we all partake of that one bread," 1 Cor. 10:17. It is, then, a great difference whether one merely listens to the preaching for once in a fellowship of a different church, or whether one takes part there in the celebration of the Holy Supper. One may indeed sometimes listen to the preaching there, perhaps in order to become acquainted with the doctrine of such a party, without thereby taking part in false-believing worship; the Holy Communion, on the other hand, is an act of confession; if one communes in a church not one's own, one thereby actually joins oneself to it, appears as a witness for its doctrine, and declares its members to be one's brothers and sisters in the faith.

Given this, then, what is to be thought of the custom, at the celebration of the Holy Supper, of inviting all those present, without distinction, to participate, and admitting them without examination? That preachers do this who themselves do not believe that in the Holy Supper the body and blood of the Son of God are present and are partaken of by all communicants — preachers who hold the Holy Supper to be a mere memorial supper, a mere ceremony, as do the Reformed, the Methodists, and most of the Union-Evangelicals — this is perfectly natural. But when those who wish to be Lutheran preachers, and who are convinced of the truth of the Lutheran doctrine of the Holy Supper, act in this way, that is irresponsible.

Such preachers act, in the first place, against the commandment of God: "Do not make yourself a partaker of other men's sins." 1 Tim. 5:22. For whoever can prevent a sin, and not only does not prevent it but even lends it support, makes himself a partaker of it. Now those preachers could indeed very often prevent the dreadful sin of unworthy reception of the Supper, but they fail to do so, partly out of fear of man, partly out of a desire to please man, and, not content with that, even lend support to that sin through their thoughtless invitations. Oh, how terrible their accountability will one day be! How they will one day be terrified, when God charges to their own account all the guilt for the body and blood of Christ that the unrepentant, unbelieving, and false-believing people whom they admitted without any examination have brought upon themselves! Surely, when unworthy communicants are one day condemned, those who enticed them to it will have to suffer a tenfold condemnation. Luther writes in the Instruction for the Visitors of Parish Pastors: "No one should be allowed to go to the Holy Sacrament unless he has first been specially examined by his own pastor as to whether he is fit to go to the Holy Sacrament. For St. Paul says, 1 Cor. 11:27, that those are guilty of the body and blood of Christ who receive it unworthily. Now it is not only those who receive the Sacrament unworthily who dishonor it, but also those who, through negligence, give it to the unworthy."

Beyond this, a preacher sins particularly grievously in this respect in that he thereby becomes an unfaithful, careless, and conscienceless shepherd of souls. To every preacher applies the word of the Lord in the prophet Ezekiel 3:17–18: "Son of man, I have made you a watchman over the house of Israel; you shall hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say to the wicked, You shall surely die; and you do not warn him, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, that he may live: that wicked man shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand." To every preacher applies further the word of the Lord spoken to Peter, Matt. 16:19: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." To every preacher applies the apostolic word: "Be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And reprove those who oppose themselves, if perhaps God will grant them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." (2 Tim. 2:15, 25–26.) Of all faithful preachers it is said: "They watch for your souls, as those who must give account." Heb. 13:17. Of all that is thereby laid upon a preacher as a pastor of souls, the very opposite is done by him who admits everyone to the Holy Supper without examination. He is supposed to proclaim to the wicked: "You must die," but by admitting him to the table of grace he says to him instead: "You shall live." He is supposed to bind the impenitent, and instead he looses them. He is supposed to reprove the rebellious so that they come to repentance, and instead he pronounces them in the right, so that they only harden themselves the more. He is supposed to watch over souls, and instead proves himself a "dumb dog," which, as Isaiah 56:10 says, "cannot bark, is lazy, loves to lie down and sleep." He is supposed to help souls out of sin and condemnation, and instead he strengthens them in their impenitence, and plunges them ever deeper into sin, God's wrath, death, hell, and condemnation. Ah, surely, however zealous a preacher may otherwise be — if he does not, so far as lies in him, guard souls against partaking unworthily of that most holy Sacrament, this alone will render him reprobate and will bring down upon him, as a hireling, as a faithless shepherd, indeed as a destroyer of souls, a severe judgment. Therefore Luther writes in his incomparable "Exhortation to the Parish Pastors, to Preach Against Usury," of the year 1540: "When such usurers become angry that you will not absolve them, nor administer the Sacrament to them, nor bury them, ... then say: It is forbidden you, in the first place, by God, that you should regard any usurer as a Christian. ... And how should it come to this, that I should stake my soul for you and to you, and damn myself along with your sin, seeing you are such a skinflint? ... Moreover, it will not help you, and it will damn me, if I absolve you all the same. For God and the emperor alike will not accept it as valid in their own right. Therefore do penance and set things right; if not, you may just as well go to the devil alone, without me and my absolution, as go to the devil doubly with my absolution, and drag me along with you, through your fault and none of my own. No, fellow, the word is: you go your way, I remain here; I am not a pastor who goes to the devil with everybody, but one who brings everybody with me to God."
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