The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1881, Page 22

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The Lutheran Pioneer.

(For the ‘Lutheran Pioneer.’’)

The Eighth Commandment.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
neighbor.

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God, that we may not
deceitfully belie, betray, slander, nor defame our
neighbor; but defend him, speak well of him, and put
the best construction on everything.

(Luther's Small Catechism.)

More precious than all the gold and silver
and jewels of the world isa good name before
men. Thouzh I own but the clothes on my
back, if even the last crust of bread is stolen
from me, I am still fortunate and blessed if my
good name is left me. Again, though I were
the owner of the whole world and bore a bad
name and reputation before men, I should be
most miserable. Very often, it is true, persons
having a bad name prosper fora time. Lewd
and loose women flourish as long as their beauty
and charms last. Dishonest, licentious, gam-
bling, drunken men flourish as Jong as their
money holds out. Then allis over. Despised
and avoided by all respectable people, they
sink lower and lower, until they have become
beasts. A good name when kept will follow a
person all through life’s circumstances, yea live
on after death and benefit the family of its
bearer. It is easy to see what a great crime it
is to wilfully throw away one’s good name by
caring not for the respect and opinion of others
and doing what no honest, decent, sober person
would do. It is also a crime for anyone to so
live that one must doubt his honesty and good
morals, thus placing his good name in danger.
But a greater crime still is the stealing of an-
other’s good name. It is worse than the robbery
of silver, of gold, houses and lands. This crime
of stealing or causing one to lose his good name
is forbidden in the commandment which we are
to consider in the present article.

“Thou shalt bear no false witness against thy
neighbor”, says the Lord. This forbids all
lying. We should ‘‘not deceitfully belie’’ our
neighbor. A lie is a wilful falsehood told with
the intention to deceive. Not every falsehood
is a lie, because the one uttering it may believe
it to be true and not intend to deceive others;
or he may have it from hearsay and only say
what he heard, not to deceive his listeners.
But when one knowingly utters a falsehood to

" impose on others and deceive them, it is lying.
And all lying is wrong. There are no such
things as “‘innocent falsehoods”, or ‘‘lies of
emergency”’. Outside of those lies by which
men try to deceive God and the lies of those
who preach false doctrine and deceive souls,
the worst lies are those by which the good name
of anyone is damaged or destroyed. If we say
anything about our neighbor let it be the truth,
the truth in all things. We should not ‘‘slan-

_ der” our neighbor. That is, we should not

falsely accuse our neighbor of wrongdoing
neither publicly nor privately, neither as wit-
nesses in court or as the accusers, neither in

Writing nor in. print—in no way! Nor should

we seek to spread all evil reports we hear about
our neighbor. Some people take pleasure in
such evil reports, eagerly take them up and
spread them abroad, perhaps adding a few lies
ere they send them through the town.—We
should not ‘‘defame’”’ our neighbor, nor help to
do it, by creating a scandal to the damage of
our neighbor’s good name. We should not in
certain cases even speak what we know is true
concerning our neighbor, namely when it would
disgrace him and give him a bad name, while
he, at the time, enjoysa good name. For in-
stance, if Iand perhaps only a few others knew
of a crime or a wrong that our neighbor had
done, or of his faults and failings, I should not
“betray”? him nor make it known to any one.
I should keep the secret buried in my heart.
Only when asked on oath by my government,
or if I surely know that damage will surely
come to some one if I further conceal it, then I
may speak. Otherwise I bear false witness
against my neighbor when revealing secrets
about him. To condemn our neighbor without
cause, without giving him a hearing, or without
giving him a chance to defend himself and show
his innocence, is all wrong and forbidden in this
commandment.

Instead of tearing down our neighbor's good
name we should help to build it up. Weshould
“defend” him. Defend him when you are told
something evil about him, as far as you truth-
fully can. Say that you don’t believe it, you
can’t believe it, never can believe that he did
so, because he also did so and so as you well
knew. We should “‘speak well’’ of our neigh-
bor to all. Kind words and even some praise
we should always use when speaking of the
neighbor. Never mention the bad points, the
faults, failings, wrongs of the neighbor, but
only the good points. We should furthermore
‘‘put the best construction”’ upon all that our
neighbor says or does. Don’t let us rightaway
think the worst of him, whenever his words or
actions do not seem right.
he spoke or acted thoughtlessly or in haste.
Whenever he says or does anything actually
bad and sinful, we should think, that he was in
such circumstances that better men than he
would have fallen. And, above all, remember,
that we would have done the same sins, if the
mercy and grace of God had not kept us.

¥F. B.
——s+o-<P o> oo

(For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer’? .)
Christ, the Model of a true Pastor.

By Rey. H. HANsER.

106
HOW A CHRISTIAN CONGREGATION I8 TO BE
: GATHERED.

We learn from Christ, the good Shepherd,
how a Christian congregation is to be gathered.

In what manner did Christ then gather His
congregation? In no other way than through
the Word and the Sacraments. The Lord
comes forth with the sermon: ‘‘The time is

fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand:

Let us think that |,

repent ye, and believe the gospel,’’? and He
continued this sermon, and him, who believed
it, He took into His fold; besides, He baptized
through His disciples. It is, therefore, the
Word of God, the Word of repentance and of
faith, by means of which, according to the
model of Christ, we are to gather His Church.
And, indeed, through the Word and the Sacra-
ments alone, not also through human or worldly
means. It would have been a trifle for the
Lord to have drawn the whole people to His
side, had He yielded to their fleshly desires.

On one occasion, for instance, when He had
miraculously fed them in the desert, they
wanted to make Him their king at once; but
He does not feed them again the next day, on
the contrary, He rebukes them on account of
their worldly thoughts, and continues the ser-
mon about repentance and faith, which was so
disagreeable to them; He continues His hard
words about the many who are called, and the
few who are chosen; continues the command so
disagreeable to the flesh: ‘‘ Whosoever for-
saketh not all that he hath, can not be my dis-
ciple.’ He refers those who want to follow
Him inconsiderately, to the fact, that no
worldly advantage is to be found with Him;
that He had not where to rest His head. Him
who would not believe the word, He cast off,
and sought to catch no one through cunning
and temporal gain. At no time did He seek to
put His doctrine and His kingdom in such a
light, that it could seem advantageous to the
carnally and worldly-minded to follow Him.
Never did He seek the friendship of the world,
nor the advancement of His cause from those,
who were inwardly hostile to Him. The Pha-
risees would have held friendship with Him, if
He had only somewhat favorably looked upon
them, and had attempted to please them; but
He told them in plain terms: ‘‘ But woe unto
you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
shut up the kingdom of heaven against men:
for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer
ye them that are entering to go in.’’

So there remains for us, according to the
model of Christ, no other means of gathering
and building the church of the Lord, than the
Word of the Kingdom. He who will not be
brought to faith through the Word and bap-
tism, and who, therefore, will not enter into
the kingdom of God through the right door,
which is Christ, him we must leave outside, for
such a manifest, impenitent and unbelieving
person will neither be of any true benefit to the
congregation, nor have such a benefit for him-
self; on the contrary he will thereby only be
‘lulled into security as if he already were a
Christian and a disciple of the Lord, whereas
he is just as far away from Him, as before.

According to the model of Christ, a pastor,
therefore, dare not place the prospect of tem-
poral, worldly advantage by joining the con-
gregation, before any one, he must rather rep-
resent the congregation of Christ as the poor
despised little flock, with which no temporal
profit, but only spiritual, celestial treasures are
to be sought. With all our eagerness to in-
crease the congregation of the Lord, the pastor
must also be able to wait patiently until the
Gospel has brought fruit in the heart of a per-
son; no spiritual chase must be made upon
souls as the fanatics do; that which can not be

athered through the simple pure Word of

od, must be relinquished; but we must not
impatiently make use of various other means
which have no promise.