# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1859_S27
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the Right Conduct of the Office of Discipline.        27

—to which, among other things, it gave the following counsel, as
Ludwig Hartmann cites it in his "Pastorale evangelicum," pp. 548-551:

"A preacher should conduct the office of discipline in such a way:
1. that every hearer may sense a fatherly heart that seeks only
improvement; teachers in the church are called fathers, 1 Cor. 4:14.
Now just as a father must discipline his child in such a way that the
child senses toward him, on the one hand, a true, heartfelt love, but
toward the child's misbehavior and wickedness a fierce, bitter
hatred; in like manner it is fitting for the preacher also to
discipline his hearers in such a way that they sense a godly zeal
against sin, yet can perceive nothing else from all the preacher's
conduct and conversation than that he is heartily favorable and well
disposed toward the persons themselves. In this way Elisha made
himself appear grieved, and wept bitterly, when he had to point out
to Hazael the wickedness he would practice against Israel, 2 Kings 8.
How sorrowfully did the Lord Christ sigh and weep when he rebuked the
Jews' stiff-necked wickedness and foretold their downfall! Luke
19:41. St. Paul admonished the people at Ephesus with tears, Acts
20:21, and likewise he rebukes negligence in Christianity with
entreaties, 2 Cor. 5:20: We beg you in Christ's stead, be reconciled
to God. And this is the patience and gentleness which the apostle
requires in the office of discipline, 2 Tim. 4:2. Where this is not
found, the preacher certainly does not have the intention and purpose
that is needful for him; nor does he build up by it, since he only
produces greater bitterness in the one he disciplines, so that this
person thinks the preacher is rebuking him merely to vent his own
hatred and displeasure against him, etc.

2. That he pay good heed to the gradus admonitionum (the degrees of
admonition). For the sins that one is to rebuke are not all of one
kind. Rather, some are in facto publico et notorio (known as a matter
of fact) — as when one finds a man slain and does not know the doer;
when a theft has occurred and one does not know the thief; when one
finds an exposed or murdered infant: then it is known that fornication
and murder have been committed, but it remains hidden who has done
it. In such cases the degrees are not to be observed, and such a
public vice is publicly punished before all the world. Some are known
vices, where everyone knows the sin and the persons who committed it;
for these the apostolic rule applies, 1 Tim. 5:20: Those who sin,
rebuke before all, that the rest also may fear. Some sins are indeed
known to the preacher, but are not everywhere manifest; in this case
he must see to it: a. that he prevent secret sins from breaking out
into a public scandal; b. that, so far as can be tolerated, he cover
his neighbor's shame; c. that he not neglect to conduct the office of
discipline. Here there is no other counsel than that the preacher
rebuke only the one who has sinned; for if he were to bring before the
congregation at once what has become known to him in secret, he would
bring the sinner into public disgrace where it is not needed; the
congregation would take offense at it, and the sinner would not be
improved thereby; and such is the