# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 05 29_S156
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Divine Preservation from the Plague.

When Dr. Justus Jonas, the well-known friend of Luther, was still a child, his father — at that time mayor of Nordhausen — once lay mortally stricken with the plague. The sick man placed a roasted onion on his plague-boil, and after it had done its service, he laid it beside him on a bench. What happens? A few moments later the little son comes to the bench, takes the onion, and, before his father can stop him, has swallowed it. Everyone now supposes that the child will certainly become a victim of the pestilence, which was contagious even by touch. But behold! the boy remains healthy and later becomes an important instrument for spreading the pure doctrine. Here the word of God was fulfilled: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He shall say of the LORD: He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him will I trust: surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence," etc. Psalm 91.

*
*

(Submitted by Pastor Keyl.)
The Original Order of Worship in the German Churches of the Lutheran Confession.

(Continued.)

The Te Deum, or "Lord God, we praise Thee," is the counterpart of the litany; for just as the latter is the great general prayer of supplication of the Church, so the former is its great general prayer of thanksgiving. From ancient times it has been ascribed to Ambrose, and is therefore also called the Ambrosian hymn of praise. It probably originated in the Greek Church and was adopted by the Roman Church, where it is already found around the year 550. Dr. Luther translated it from the Latin in the form in which it appears in his works (X, 1756). In this form it is an antiphonal chant, performed either by two choirs, or by the two halves of the congregation, or by the choir and preacher on one side and the congregation on the other, so that one of the former intones and the latter responds. It is further carried out in such a way that the two choirs sing line by line: thus the first choir intones, "Lord God, we praise Thee," and the second choir responds, "Lord God, we acknowledge Thee," and so on, until, at the line "Holy is our God," both choirs join together; then it proceeds again line by line, until at the close, at the lines "In Thee, dear Lord, have we trusted; let us never be confounded, Amen!" both choirs again join together. The Te Deum is always followed by a versicle and a collect of thanksgiving.

Dr. Luther says of the Te Deum: "It is a fine symbol or confession (whoever its author may be) composed in the form of a hymn, not only to confess the true faith, but also therein to praise and thank God." (X, 1199) Therefore the Lutheran church orders likewise expressly exhort that it should be sung often, so that it might remain in the memory of the congregations; thus its use is found throughout, and for over 200 years, not only on all high festivals but also on Sundays, and furthermore in the weekday services, at the harvest thanksgiving, on the Reformation festival, at church dedications, at the ordination and installation of preachers, indeed also at weddings and baptisms of children.

The Benedictus, or the Song of Zacharias, Luke 1:68–79, was used already by the Greek Church, and then, from the sixth century on, by the Roman Church, and, following the example of both, also in the Lutheran Church, particularly in the Sunday Matins. From it there later arose the hymn: "Praised be the Lord, the God of Israel."

The Magnificat, or the Song of Mary, Luke 1:46 ff., likewise passed from the Greek into the Roman Church, and from there into the Lutheran Church, where it was used throughout in Vespers on Saturday and Sunday. An adaptation of this Magnificat is the hymn: "My soul doth magnify the Lord."

The Nunc Dimittis, or the Song of Simeon, Luke 2:29–32, which, in its origin and earlier use, stands on the same footing as the two songs already mentioned, was adapted by Dr. Luther, for the use of the congregation, into the hymn "In peace and joy I now depart," which, according to the church orders, the congregations sang at the close of Sunday Vespers, after the Magnificat.

The sermon, at the main service, was always preached only on the Gospels. Originally, and particularly in Dr. Luther's time, there was as a rule neither a special introduction nor an opening prayer; rather, the preacher began at once with a repeated reading of the Gospel. The use of confession and absolution after the sermon likewise arose only later, and is found in only a few church orders; for, as Dr. Kliefoth says, "the Lutheran Church did not set much store by this general confession and absolution: whatever of it was necessary lay in the Kyrie and Gloria; moreover, it regarded the sermon itself, the proclamation of the Word, as essentially the general confession and absolution; and besides, among the subordinate services preceding the main service, it had its own confessional service, namely the Saturday Vespers." — In place of the church prayer, Dr. Luther wanted to have read a "common form for how, at the close of the sermon, the people are to be exhorted to general prayer," which is found at the end of his Hauspostille of the year 1559; in it, the particular intercessions are also assigned their place; it closes with the words: "to obtain all this, pray an Our Father with devotion and faith"; this prayer was followed by the apostolic benediction, "the grace of our Lord," etc., with which the service of the Word was concluded. This exhortation was probably used when Communion took place, for otherwise the litany was sung as the general church prayer; that arrangement was built upon the genuinely Lutheran principle that the congregation must necessarily pray the general prayers along with the pastor itself, and it is only from the increasing disregard of this principle that the rise of the ever more numerous printed formulas for such prayers can be explained — formulas which the congregation often could not even look up in their hymnbook, let alone pray along with. A very commendable custom, however, which almost all Lutheran church orders prescribe, was this: that every time, after the sermon, all the chief parts of the Catechism were read aloud without their explanation, so that they might become and remain known to the congregation.*)

Communion, as Eucharist or thanksgiving, originally began with the Preface, which, both by its name and its purpose, is a preamble or preparation for the celebration of the Lord's Supper, and as such is already found in the second century; the Sanctus, or the threefold Holy, followed upon it. The arrangement of these Prefaces, as found both throughout the whole ancient Church and consistently in the older Lutheran Church, is as follows: after the Salutation or greeting ("The Lord be with you" — "and with thy spirit"), which does not properly belong to the Preface itself, the preacher calls the congregation to devotion with the words, "Lift up your hearts," and the congregation shows its willingness in the response, "We lift them up unto the Lord"; then the preacher exhorts, "Let us give thanks unto the Lord our God," and the congregation answers, "It is meet and right so to do"; and now the preacher continues, "It is truly meet and right, just and salutary, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto Thee, Lord, almighty Father, everlasting God," to which introduction there follows a longer prayer of thanksgiving, which always ends with the words, "with whom (the angels) we sing without end, saying," and hereupon choir and congregation strike up, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, all the earth is full of His glory," from Isaiah 6:3. The Lutheran Church returned in this to the ancient Church, in that it let not the choir alone but also the congregation make the response; but of the great multitude of Prefaces, it retained only one for all Sundays and a few for certain festivals, on account of which the Sanctus was, as a rule, likewise expanded with certain additions. Soon the text of the Prefaces was translated into the German language and, together with their associated melodies, incorporated into the church agendas. Dr. Luther also gave the Church the "German Sanctus," in that he adapted Isaiah 6:1–4 into the church hymn "It came to pass that Isaiah the prophet beheld." It was, however, less often used immediately after

*) Dr. Kliefoth very often refers to his treatise "On Preaching and Catechesis in the Past and Present of the Lutheran Church" (Mecklenburg Church Gazette, issues 1, 2, 3); should any of the readers possess these issues, he is kindly requested to send them to me as soon as possible. — The contributor.