The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1911, Page 76

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

aaa

46 The Lutheran Pioneer.

Luther in the Pulpit.

A distinguished historian of our times says:
“Luther may well be called the most powerful
preacher since the days of the apostles; for moving
eloquence in the pulpit no one excelled him. He
possessed all the elements of a true orator. <A friend
of his said of him as a preacher: ‘His expression
was gentle and winning. THis voice was so agrec-
able and musical, his manner of address so enga-

ging, 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.’”

That which, most of all, made Luther such a
powerful preacher whom people of all classes gladly
heard, was the fact that he preached the Word of
God in all its purity. He, like the apostles, preached
Christ and Him crucified, and therefore his preach-
ing brought peace and joy to thousands of souls
who were thirsting after righteousness and longing
for salvation. .

In the year 1529, several noted theologians
preached in the presence of Landgrave Philip of
Hessia. When Luther’s turn came, every one ex-
pected the great and learned Reformer to preach
something new and subtile. But Luther simply
preached on the forgiveness of sins. When Land-
grave Philip asked his counselors with which one
of the theologians they were most pleased, they re-
plied that they must confess that Dr. Luther’s ser-
mon was the best, for from it they learned how
before God the Father they could get for-
giveness of sins through Jesus Christ, and,
also, how they could rightly pray and com-
fort themselves in all distresses and mis-
fortunes.

Luther 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.”

And he always preached in plain Jan-
guage and in the simplest manner, so that
also the common people understood him and
heard him gladly. He despised the hunger
for applause and considered ambition “the
rankest poison of the Church when it pos-
sesses preachers.” He therefore said : “Cursed
are all preachers that in the Chureh aim at
high and Joud things, and neglecting the
saying health of the poor, unlearned people,
seek their own honor and praise, and there-
with 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 there
are more than two thousand. I preach to

these, directing myself to them that have need
thereof. Will the rest not hear me? ‘The door.
stands open to them; they may be gone. I see that
the ambition of preachers grows and increases; this
will do the utinost mischief in the Church, and pro-
duce great disquietness and discord; for they will
need teach high things, touching matters of state,
thereby aiming at praise and honor; they will please
the worldly wise, and meantime neglect the simple
and common multitude.’—“An upright, godly,
and true preacher should direct his preaching to the
poor, simple sort of people, like a mother that stills
‘her child, dandles and plays with it.”