The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1883, Page 39

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‘The Lutheran Pioneer.

39

Luther in the Pulpit.

Our picture shows us Luther in the pulpit.
People from all classes most gladly listened to
the eloquent Reformer, who may well be called
the most powerful preacher since the days of
the apostles. He preached Christ and Him
-erucified, and therefore his preaching brought
joy and peace to thousands of souls who were
thirsting after righteousness.

In the year 1529 several noted theologians

preached in the presence of Landgrave Philip | the Gospel in the plainest and in the most sim-

of Hessia. When Luther's
turn came everybody expected
the great Reformer to preach
something new and subtile.
But Luther plainly and simply
preached on the forgiveness of
sins. And when Landgrave
Philip asked his counselors
with which one of the theo-
logians they were most pleased,
they said that they must con-
fess that Dr. Luther’s sermon
was the best; for from it they
learned how before God, the
Father, they could get forgive-
ness of sins through Jesus
Christ; and also how they
could rightly pray and comfort
themselves in all their dis-
tresses and misfortunes. Lu-
ther knew from experience
what the human heart needs.
On being asked how it came
that he preached so powerfully
as to move the hearts of his
hearers so deeply, he replied:
‘My afflictions have instructed
me in this.”’

He possessed all the ele-
ments of-a true orator, <A
friend says of him: ‘‘ His
expression was gentle and win-
ning. His voice was’so agree-
able and musical, his manner
of address so engaging, and his
speech so full of power, that when he spoke,
he would send such barbed arrows into the
hearts of his hearers, that any man who was
not a/stone and had heard him once, would
feel as though he wished to hear him always.”

On Ascension Day, in the year 1536, Luther
preached in the presence of visitors who had
come to Wittenberg to speak with him on the
doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. After the ser-
mon one of the hearers said that Luther's speak-
ing sounded like a voice thundering from heaven
in the name of Christ. On the following Sun-
-day Bucer, one of the visitors, preached. He
spent the evening at Luther's house, and Lu-
‘ther, speaking of the sermon, said that he was
much pleased with Bucer’s preaching, ‘‘and
yet’’, he added, ‘‘I am a better preacher than
you are,” to which Bucer promptly assented.
But Luther said he did not mean it in that
way; he would not indulge in boasting; he

knew his weakness and that he could not preach
with such learning as Bucer could, but when
he entered the pulpit he always observed that
| his hearers were chiefly poor people, and he
preached to them somewhat like a mother who
feeds her infant delicately on milk, and does
jnot drench it with rich syrup; but Bucer was
| quite too high in his discourse, moving about
in the regions too lofty for his hearers.

Yes, Luther, the deeply learned man, who |

excelled all the scholars of his time, preached |

ple manner to his beloved congregation at Wit-
tenberg. He himself says: ‘

“Cursed are all preachers that in the church
aim at high and hard things, and neglecting
the saving health of the poor unlearned people,
seek their own honor and praise, and therewith
to please one or two ambitious persons. When

I preach, I sink myself deep down. I regard
neither doctors nor magistrates, of whom are
here in this church above forty; but I have an
eye to the multitude of young people, children
and servants, of whom are more than ‘two
thousand. I preach ‘to those, directing myself
to them that have need thereof. Will not the
rest hear me? The door stands open unto
them; they may be gone.
bition of preachers grows and increases}. this
will do the utmost mischief in-the church, and
produce great disquietness and discord:; for

I see that the am-

ter of state, thereby aiming at praise and
honor, they will please the worldly wise, and

meantime neglect the simple and common mul-
titude.’’

——> -e-<me

Luther’s Work.

Luther did not start a new sect or party.
No! He did not preach a new doctrine. No!
He only purified the Church of Christ and
gave back to her the true liberty and glory
which she possessed in the days of the apostles,
but of which she had been
robbed by the Antichrist at
Rome. He preached anew
the old eternal doctrines of the
Bible which had lain hidden
for centuries under the rubbish
of Romish errors and super-
Stitions.

Prince George of Anhalt, a
true friend of Luther, says in
one of his writings: ‘‘I remem-
ber well how Dr. Martin Lu-
ther, when he sat here on my
chair at Merseburg, shortly
before he took his leave, made
mention of the many sects that
sprang up in foreign countries,
and especially the Zwinglians.
He then lifted up his eyes and
hands and said, ‘I thank my
dear God that I have not in-
vented nor set up any new
doctrine, but have held fast
to the old true doctrine and
clung to it, and have strug-
gled against all new doctrines
brought in contrary to the old
Christian doctrine and faith,
by Jews, Turks, heretics, the
pope and all sects, Sacrament-
arians, Anabaptists, and what-
ever their name may be; for I
have done all in my power to
check their progress.’ These
words pleased me very much,
and I relate them only to show that it was not
his desire to bring in something new, as I for-
merly myself supposed as well as others; but
he clung firmly to the Scripture and the articles
of our Christian Faith, and attacked only the
contrary doctrine and the abuses. Neither is
there a safer way of keeping pure doctrine and
avoiding error, then to hold fast to the articles
of our holy Christian faith, as the Apostles’
Creed teaches us, and not to depart from it,
neither to the right nor to the left.’

Short Prayers.

‘© We should be short in our prayer’’, says
Luther, ‘‘but frequent and strong; for God
does not inquire how great and long our
prayers are, but how good they are, and how

they will need teach high things touching matz| far they. come from the heart.””