THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
The branch of the cure of souls dealing with the suffering man is the paracletic or consolatory. Real comfort or joyful confidence is procured by the conviction that suffering experienced in 8. Paracletic the way of restrictions of life, pain, loss, or Consola- is intended, by the will of God, to betory Cure of come gain, joy, advancement. This it Souls. becomes through faith, in the Gospel sense of the term, which is proved in patience, confirmed in prayer (Rom. viii. 28; II Cor. iv. 1&-18; Heb. xii.). In each instance, according to the sufferer's individuality and history, the suffering leads to sobering reflection or to defiance and despair, to friendly mildness or to stubborn egoism. Accordingly the applied consolation must manifest itself either as an alleviating and assuaging force, or as an admonitory and corrective power. The question as to the pastor's duty in preparing the sick for death is to be answered on like principles. The medieval visitation of the sick went to extremes in this matter; the elaborate confession and the terrors of death and judgment were made its chief feature. According to the Evangelical conception, preparation for death consists in aiding the sick to a state of composure, because death means no loss, but gain for the Christian; and the like spirit should pervade the entire sphere of the visitation of the sick, whether there be express reference to approaching death or not.
Special mention is necessary of the means of treatment of the spiritually sick (cf. Kostlin, pp. 314-315 and the bibliography cited p. 334; H. Romer, Psychiatrie und Seelsorge, Berlin, 1899). The number of these patients increases in serious proportions, and certain milder forms, which when unassisted are somewhat portentous, confront the pastor frequently. Not in every instance, indeed, has he to deal with spiritual diseases, but rather with nervous impairment. The spiritual adviser must confine himself to his proper province, and banish the thought of competing with the physician. In conversation with the spiritually sick he should direct the patient's interest toward new topics, and seek to occupy his thoughts with friendly contemplations. The pastor's religious task recedes while the malady increases and stays at its height, but comes to the front so soon as convalescence has begun. More difficult is the pastor's task during incipient illness, in that the afflicted are wont to oppose every phase of pathological treatment. Moral laxity, that can be corrected only by ethical treatment, sometimes — especially during the period of development — makes itself known by physical disorders, which seem to be the physician's concern; but many nervous conditions are to be repressed by earnest will-power or moral decision.
The paideutic, or corrective cure of souls has to do with sinning man, and is to be classified as prophylactic, or preventive, and epistreptic, or converting. (1) Since nearly all transgressions and crimes go back to defective home training, and since the most effectual forces of integrity are the imponderable impressions wrought by the mental, religious, and moral atmosphere of the parents' house, the prophylactic cure of souls will direct itself in first instance to the parental home, partly through the
channel of public worship, partly by household visits, partly in connection with the school, by dissemination of wholesome educational principles among the parents. Direct prophy- 9. Paideutic lactic cure of souls begins in the reli"or Correct- ious or, in this connection, ecclesiastical ive Cure of instruction of youth. Here, too, con- Souls, fidence is the condition of fruitful activity,— confidence of the young in their pastor, which is procured by the pastor's confidence in them, manifesting itself in fatherly thoughtfulness, in comprehension of youth, in earnestness and firmness combined with forbearance and patience as well as in his guidance to religious and moral independence of decision. The prophylactic spiritual charge has its most difficult task in the guidance safeguarding, and strengthening of youth from the age of fifteen to twenty-five. Young people should be gathered informally and freely; entertainment and instruction are to be offered in the best forms at command; and the aid of the experienced and proficient is to be invited with grateful pleasure. (2) The epistreptic or converting cure of souls has to do with acute cases of sin and with chronic states of sin, whether these have become openly offensive or not. It is the specific field of the Roman sacrament of penance, and of the judicial office of the priest. The Evangelical spiritual adviser must renounce all judgment in respect to moral worthiness or un worthiness in estimating the personal guilt and character of the sinner, because he is no fathomer of the heart.
It is not the pastor's office to judge the sinner, but to assist him toward conversion and newness of life; and he will the better succeed, the more he realizes that only God's merciful guidance has preserved him from similar falling. According to the Augsburg Confession (Art. xii.) the pastor's aim in correction may be reached in three ways: (1) By securing acknowledgment of the sin. Various means are necessary to lead the sinner to this condition; in every instance the dominating religious and moral susceptibilities already latent in him must be appealed to. (2) By inducing repentance in the form of contrition, and " saving faith." False contrition broods over the external consequence of sin; true contrition, over the guilt and misery of sin itself. Contrition alone begets despair and desperation, and not until combined with the " saving faith " does it lead to " godly sorrow " (II Cor. vii. 10), when it thereby honors God by accounting his grace to have been shown in the forgiveness of sin, as it also accounts all the guilt and misery the sinner's own. (3) " Then should follow good works which are fruits of repentance." " Good works " are the new life of the one converted. The pastor has to offer protection and encouragement; protection against temptation from former companions in sin, against seductive false religion; encouragement to sturdy decision, to bear the consequences of faults; he should also help to make these consequences endurable, warn against undue security, aid the convert to stand firmly against relapses, and, it may be, remove him to a good environment.
The didactic cure of souls endeavors, by means of instruction, to correct ignorance, half-knowledge