# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1859_S215
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On Bible Sermons. 215

be much shorter than the application, as is generally the case with most
historical texts. With doctrinal texts, on the other hand, e.g. Hebrews
9:11–15, the explanation must often be more detailed than the
application, or, better still, the latter should be combined with the
former wherever possible; thus here, at verses 11 and 12, one should
point to the greatness of our sin, but also to the greatness of the love of
the Father and of the Son.

In the explanation one should employ, according to the difficulty of
the text, one of the methods we find in Dr. Luther, giving now a
summary of the main content, now a paraphrase (as though he wanted to
say), now a gloss (that is), or Dr. Luther's own marginal gloss, now a
reference to an explanatory parallel of word or subject matter, now a
more detailed exposition. Only one should beware of finding fault with
Dr. Luther's translation, for I must say with Harms: "One takes much
away from the people when one takes from them their faith in the
correctness of the translation and teaches them to say: is this not right,
and that not right, and that not, then surely everything is false."

In the application one should as a rule keep to the two main
questions, how the text serves for doctrine and comfort; for just as with
doctrinal texts the explanation often becomes too extensive, so with
historical texts this easily happens with the application. If one reads all
the splendid things that Dr. Luther preached, for example on Genesis and
the Gospel of John, and how there he often made a whole meadow out of
a single flower, one would gladly want to preach all of that too, and it
therefore takes no small self-restraint to content oneself with only what is
most necessary and to be brief. Occasionally one may draw the attention
of eager listeners to such particular treasures and encourage them to look
them up for themselves. This can be done, for example, with Exodus
chapter 12, with the spiritual interpretation of the Passover lamb, which
Dr. Luther carries through in twenty-six points. With regard to such
spiritual interpretations, I would advise adding them only where the New
Testament itself points us to them, e.g. with the Passover lamb, with
Sarah and Hagar, Melchizedek, etc. Moreover, the shortness of time
already does not allow one to dwell much on spiritual interpretations,
which after all serve only as ornament.

At the close of the sermon one should, in a manner similar to the
opening, gather the whole into a brief summary and add a brief mention
of faithful use, as well as a wish for divine grace.

For those preachers who wish to give their listeners an overview of
the whole Bible in as short a time as possible, I append a plan with an
indication of content and text for each sermon, for whose execution the
first chapter of the Table Talk, as well as Dr. Luther's prefaces, already
supply sufficient material.

1) On the Bible and its use in general; 2 Timothy 3:16-17. —
2) On the Old and New Testament and their mutual relation;
Hebrews 1:1-2. 3) On the five books of Moses; John 5:46-47. —