490 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1530.
the Reformation (1817), there has been a gradual revival of the liturgical spirit in different parts of Germany, with a restoration of many devotional treasures of past ages. There is, however, no uniform Lutheran liturgy, like the Common Prayer Book of the Church of England. Each Lutheran state church has its own liturgy and hymnbook.
§ 81. Prominent Features of Evangelical Worship.
Taking a wider view of the subject, we may emphasize the following characteristic features of evangelical worship, as compared with that of the Latin and Greek churches : —
1. The prominence given to the sermon, or the exposition and application of the word of God. It became the chief part of divine service, and as regards importance took the place of the mass. Preaching was the special function of the bishops, but sadly neglected by them, and is even now in Roman-Catholic countries usually confined to the season of Lent. The Roman worship is complete without a sermon. The mass, moreover, is performed in a dead language, and the people are passive spectators rather than hearers. The altar is the throne of the Catholic priest; the pulpit is the throne of the Protestant preacher and pastor. The Reformers in theory and practice laid the greatest stress on preaching and hearing the gospel as an act of worship.
Luther set the example, and was a most indefatigable and popular preacher.’ He filled the pulpit of the town church alternately with Bugenhagen, the pastor, on Sundays and week-days, sometimes twice a day. Even in the last days of his life he delivered four sermons from the pulpit at Eisleben in spite of physical infirmity and pain.2 His most popular sermons are those on the Gospels and Epistles of the year, collected in the Kirchenpostille, which he completed in 1525
1 His sermons fill 16 vols. in the Er]. ed. of his Works.
2 They were taken down in short-hand, and first published by his com- ~ panion Aurifaber. In the Erl. ed., XVI. 209 sqq.
§ 81. FEATURES OF EVANGELICAL WORSHIP. 491
and 1527. Another popular collection is his Hauspostille, which contains his sermons at home, as taken down by Veit Dietrich and Rérer, and published in 1544 and 1559. He preached without notes, after meditation, under the inspiration of the moment.
He was a Boanerges, the like of whom Germany never heard before or since. He had all the elements of a popular orator. Melanchthon said, “One is an interpreter, one a logician, another an orator, but Luther is all in all.” Bossuet gives him credit for “a lively and impetuous eloquence by which he delighted and captivated his hearers.” Luther observed no strict method. He usually followed the text, and combined exposition with application. He made Christ and the gospel his theme. He lived and moved in the Bible, and understood how to make it a book of life for his time. He always spoke from intense conviction and with an air of authority. He had an extraordinary faculty of expressing the profoundest thoughts in the clearest and strongest language for the common people. He hit the nail on the head. He was bold and brave, and spared neither the Devil nor the Pope nor the Sacramentarians. His polemical excursions, however, are not always in good taste, nor in the right spirit.
He disregarded the scholars among his hearers, and aimed at the common people, the women and children and servants. “Cursed be the preachers,” he said, “who in church aim at high or hard things.” He was never dull or tedious. He usually stopped when the hearers were at the height of attention, and left them anxious to come again. He censured Bugenhagen for his long sermons, of which people so often and justly complain. He summed up his homiletical wisdom in three rules : —
“Start fresh; Speak out; Stop short.” !
1 “Tritt frisch auf; Mach’s Maul auf; Hor’ bald auf.” Literally: Get up freshly; Open your mouth widely; Bedone quickly. Comp. E. Jonas, Die Kanzelberedtsamkeit Luthers, Berlin, 1852; Beste, Die bedeutendsten Kanzel
>