uch were Luther's convictions. Accordingly he
implored and adjured pastors and parents not to refuse their help in
this matter. In the Preface to his Small Catechism we read: "Therefore I
entreat you all for God's sake, my dear sirs and brethren, who are
pastors or preachers, to devote yourselves heartily to your office, to
have pity on the people who are entrusted to you, and to help us
inculcate the Catechism upon the people, especially upon the young."
(533, 6.) And as he earnestly admonished the pastors, so he also
tenderly invited them to be faithful in this work. He was firmly
convinced that nothing except the Gospel, as rediscovered and preached
by himself, was able to save men. How, then, could he remain silent or
abandon this work because of the hatred and ungratefulness of men! It
was this new frame of mind, produced by the Gospel, to which Luther
appealed in the interest of the Catechism. "Therefore look to it, ye
pastors and preachers," says he, concluding the Preface to his Small
Catechism. "Our office is now become a different thing from what it was
under the Pope; it is now become serious and salutary. Accordingly it
now involves much more trouble and labor, danger and trials, and in
addition thereto secures but little reward and gratitude in the world.
But Christ Himself will be our reward if we labor faithfully." (539,
26.)

At the same time Luther also took proper steps toward giving the
preachers frequent opportunity for Catechism-work. Since 1525 Wittenberg
had a regulation prescribing quarterly instruction in the Catechism by
means of special sermons. The _Instruction for Visitors,_ of 1527,
demanded "that the Ten Commandments, the Articles of Faith, and the
Lord's Prayer be steadily preached and expounded on Sunday afternoons.
... And when the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and the Creed have
been preached on Sundays in succession, matrimony, and the sacraments of
Baptism and the Lord's Supper shall also be preached diligently. In this
interest the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Articles of
Faith shall be recited word for word, for the sake of the children and
other simple and ignorant folk." (W. 26, 230.) November 29, 1528, in an
admonition to attend these Catechism-sermons, Luther proclaimed from the
pulpit: "We have ordered, as hitherto has been customary with us, that
the first principles and the fundamentals of Christian knowledge and
life be preached four times each year, t