To fit for their whole work, men, whom God shall call, through his Church, to teach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments, involves, in its most perfect form, that they shall understand, in its own tongues, the Holy Book, to the teachings of whose truths they are to devote themselves, that they should see those truths in their relations, as well as in their isolation, should thoroughly comprehend the faith of the Church, which is built upon them, and should be able to defend the truth, and the faith, which is its inspiration. The student of theology must be taught the history of the Church, in order to comprehend prophecy, in order to test all things and hold fast to the good, and in order to comprehend the force and value of the decisions, on disputed points, which the Church maintains over against all errorists. He must know the history of the past in order to live in the life of to-day, which is the outflowing of the life of yesterday, and in order to reach beyond the hour into that solemn to-morrow of the future, which is to be the outflowing of the life of to-day. For all these and for many other reasons, the student of theology must master the great facts in the history of the Church of all time; but most of all, the history of our own Church, the richest, the most suggestive, the most heart-inspiring of the whole.

Looking forward to the position of a Bishop in the Church, and of a Counsellor in the Synod, the student of theology needs to be master of the great principles of Church government, a sphere specially important to our Church amid the radicalism and anarchical tendencies of the hour. The Christian Pastor of the future should be master of the principles which are to guide him in his vocation as guardian of the flock; the Preacher of the future should understand the theory, and be practically trained in the power of that simple but mighty eloquence, which becomes the preaching of the cross; the Catechist of the future should be trained for the great work of feeding the lambs; the future Ministrants at the altars of the Most High should be shaped in the tender, trusting, and all prevailing spirit of worship, which God, the Holy Ghost, kindles in his saints, the devotion, whose flame trembles upward to its source, in the humble confessions, in the holy songs, and in the fervent prayers of the Church, all hallowed by the memories of ages of yearning and aspiration.

. . . We want men apt to teach, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. We want men of decision, ready to confront those "whose mouths must be stopped; who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake." We want men, who will "hold fast the form of sound words; who will take heed unto themselves and the doctrine, and continue in them, knowing, that, in doing this," and alone in doing this, "they shall both save themselves and them that hear them;" men, who shall "stand It in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel," " earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints;" men, " like-minded one toward another, speaking the same thing, with no divisions among them, but perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment."

But, with all, and in all, and above all, we wish to send forth men, who shall be living illustrations of the power of the gospel they preach; men, who shall show the oneness and stability of a true faith, ready to yield preferences to secure principles, to make the sacrifices of love to the consciences of the weak in things indifferent, and to stand as the anvil to the beater under the strokes of obloquy and misrepresentation. We wish men, who will have the mind of Jesus Christ, thrilling in every pulse with love to souls; men that will seek the lowliest of the lowly, men filled with the spirit of missions, men of self -renunciation; men open as the day, men that abhor deceit, who use great plainness of speech, who speak the truth in love; men who are first pure, then peaceable, "gentle to all men," not self-willed, not soon angry, yet in conflict with the "many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, rebuking them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;" men so glowing with love of the gospel, so clear in their judgment as to its doctrines, so persuaded that life and death, heaven and hell, hang upon its pure proclamation, that they shall be ready to say: "Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, let him be accursed," and again, in the very power of the apostle’s iteration: "As I said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." It is in the simple Biblical faith, in the incorrupt, profound, and self harmonizing system of doctrine, in the historical caution and thoroughness, in the heart-felt piety, in the reverential spirit of worship, in the holy activity which reaches every want of the souls and bodies of men, in fidelity in the pulpit and pastoral life, in uncompromising maintenance of sound government, in all these, which belong to our Church, it is in these the men of the future should be shaped.

Krauth, Charles Porterfield. The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology. Philadelphia: United Lutheran Publishing House, 1963. Pages 176-179.

From Volume 3, Issue 1 January/February 1999