# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1859_S114
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

114 On the Caution Most Necessary to a Preacher in His Walk.

...that caution which he must observe in his conduct toward the other
sex. Their office brings them into manifold contact with the female sex,
which they cannot possibly avoid; Satan is busy, the flesh rages, and ah!
how easily a grievous fall occurs in an evil hour! How many a preacher,
led astray by Satan and the flesh, has already lost honor and good name,
office and a good conscience, indeed his life, which despair drove him to
take from himself! Let no one object: such men surely never stood in
faith; otherwise it would not have come to this with them. It may be that
some of them were unbelievers or hypocrites their whole life long; but who
can maintain that even those standing in faith cannot fall prey to base
fleshly lust? If caution is to be recommended to the preacher anywhere, it
is in his official or social intercourse with persons of the other sex —
whether so that he bring no temptation upon himself, or so that he not,
through conduct perhaps innocent yet all too free, give the slanderer room
to spread lying rumors about him, which are readily believed but hard to
refute with success.

Having spoken thus far of avoiding what is actually evil, it remains for
us also to speak of avoiding the appearance of evil, and perhaps the
recommendation of caution here is all the more necessary the less
carefully many a preacher, secure in his good conscience, which is
conscious of no wrong, makes use of his liberty. The chapter on avoiding
the appearance of evil and on renouncing one's liberty out of regard for
the weak is found only in Christian morals; in heathen morals one will
seek it in vain. The maxim of the non-Christian is: do right and fear no
one; that of the Christian: I have power to do all things, but not all
things are profitable. It befits preachers above all to practice this
Pauline caution in the use of their liberty, and this motherly care toward
the weak, which they themselves are to preach to others. Or should it be
too heavy a task for a servant of Christ, who has devoted his whole life
to the service of Christ and His Church, if the love of Christ indeed
constrains him, to set bounds upon himself in the use of lawful matters
of indifference, so that he give no hindrance to the Gospel of Christ?
Into the category of matters of indifference belong particular kinds of
clothing, fashions, certain social recreations, certain peculiar ways of
living and carrying oneself, etc. Who may prescribe to me, for example,
what coat or hat I am to wear, whether I let my beard grow or not,
according to what fashion my wife and children dress, or whom I marry?
etc. Yet a preacher who seeks above all things his Lord's honor and his
Church's welfare will here too make St. Paul's word — I have power to do
all things, but not all things are profitable — the rule of his conduct.
The judgment of men, indeed, shall not govern my conscience; it shall be
a small thing to me whether I am judged by anyone or by any human
tribunal; yet with the restriction that I always keep in view what is
profitable and to the