Missing Walther, tonight I delved into the Seventh Evening Lecture, expecting one thing and receiving another.

This lecture, more so than the first six, is aimed squarely at the incipient pastor.  Leaning heavily upon the sixth one, Walther encourages and warns them on rightly dividing Law and Gospel in their sermons, repeating over and over and over again that such can only be done by the Holy Spirit.

At one point, as he is writing about the worry and troubles of Christians, though they have joy, he states:  While Christians are weeping, the angels are rejoicing over them.  While Christians are in anguish of soul and terror, God is cherishing the most cordial thoughts of love for them and calls them His beloved. (55)

SIGH.  Would that I remember this more!

But to the sermonizing, his first bit made me think of Pastor:

Preach so that every hearer feels:  "He means me.  He has painted the hypocrite exactly as I am."  Again, the pastor may have described a person afflicted with temptation so plainly that the actual victim of a temptation has to admit:  "That is my condition."  The penitent person must soon feel while listening to the pastor:  "That comfort is meant for me; I am to appropriate it."  The alarmed soul must be led to think:  "Oh, that is a sweet message; that is for me!"  Yea, the impenitent, too, must be made to acknowledge:  "The preacher has painted my exact portrait."  (53)

Oh, the work a pastor has before him!

In describing Luther's sermons, Walther writes:  At all times, Luther preaches the Law and the Gospel alongside of each other in such a manner that the Law is given an illumination by the Gospel which makes the former much more terrible, while the sweetness and the rich comfort of the Gospel is greatly increased by the Law, i.e., by contrast.  (54)

Sprinkled throughout the lecture are key points of advice for his students, each backed with several examples, both positive and negative results.

• Preach so that every hearer feels:  He means me.  He has painted the hypocrite exactly as I am."
• Accordingly, the preacher must understand how to depict accurately the inward condition of every one of his hearers.
• But a preacher must take great care lest he say something wrong.
  
• Another point that you will have to bear in mind while wiring your sermons is not to say anything that may be misunderstood.
• It is faulty, likewise, not to explain some points at greater length.
• Finally, the greatest difficulty is encountered  in dealing with true Christians according to their spiritual condition.
  
• A word in conclusion.  In order that a pastor may correctly judge and treat people, it is of the utmost importance for him to understand temperaments.
  

Certainly these are salient points from which any author could take notes.  For the pastor, one who preaches, they are a reminder that it is not he who can successfully craft a message so, but the Holy Spirit.

He concludes:  An ordinary preacher may be an excellent theologian, and another, though he has studied all the languages, and God knows what other things besides, may not even be worthy of the name of theologian.  Not man, but God, makes theologians.  If you think that this statement goes too far, you are still blind.  If you had had any experience, you would admit that this [the proper distinction between Law and Gospel] is a very difficult art.  (58)


I have a simple measuring stick, impossible as though it may sound:  If, while listening to your pastor, you forget that he is preaching, and instead hear the Lord Jesus Christ filling your heart and mind, then he, too, has learned the art of the proper distinction of Law and Gospel. 

As to the parts in between, Walther's sage advice, I could type most all of it as examples of how I learned Law and Gospel as he painted such clear portraits for his students.  One of which speaks of a young seminary student who heard Law and was devastated; in his anguish, he was ready to bring an end to his life, so sure he was of his condemnation.  Then he happened upon a note from a theologian who clarified the Law burning his soul with the quenching waters of the Gospel.  The student when on to be a great theologian, skilled in the proper distinction of Law and Gospel.

Saul brings me anguish.  When I read of how the Spirit left him, I tremble and fear that the Spirit will leave me in the face of my weakness.  Pastor keeps telling me, sometimes patiently and sometimes not so patiently, that Saul left first.  That he walked away from his faith before God removed the Spirit.  Still, when Pastor tells me that I am a sheep of the Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 to find the 1, that He will never leave, nor forsake me, my mind returns to Saul.  I know my sin.  I know how weak I am.  I know how I long, at times, for the world to be flat.  I fear I am destined to be Saul because I do ever so much more that which I do not want to do than that which I long to do.

The comfort that young seminarian found was comfort I needed, this day, nearly one hundred and twenty-five years later to the date.

Aegidius Hunnius, during his college years, on a certain occasion heard this statement during a service at church:  "However, there is a sin that cannot be forgiven.  That is the sin against the Holy Ghost."  Like a dagger that statement entered the young student's heart.  He promptly imagined that he had committed that sin.  The result was that he planned suicide.  He remembered that the Holy Spirit has indeed many a time knocked at the door of his heart for admission while he had been listening tot he sermon, but in his youthful light-heartedness he had allowed these invitations to pass out of his mind.  In a miraculous manner, however, God rescued him from his great anguish of conscience.  Approaching his seat in the classroom one day, he found a leaf torn from a precious book of devotion written by Magister Spangenberg.  It contained remarks about this very sin against the Holy Spirit, this statement in particular, that a person, after committing this sin, is unwilling to repent until his death.  That saved Hunnius.  And it is due to the fact that even in his youth he had to pass through such great tribulations that he became the great theologian he was. (56)

You cannot give the terror of the Law, without also offering the sweet consolation of the Gospel.  In that short note, Hunnius was reminded of the great gift of the Cross.  He was forgiven of his sin against the Holy Spirit, for if he had no repentance, then he would not have labored beneath so great a burden of anguish and terror at the thought of committing an "unforgivable" sin, a burden which drove him to such despair that he was ready to end his life.  And Hunnius knew that where there is repentance, there is forgiveness.  Always.

Saul had no terror or anguish or despair of the condition of his soul when the Spirit left him.  I do.  I am not Saul.