B. It is incomparably harsher, however, to openly contradict
oneself before God both in words and works, and to convert the
divine service into an empty clatter of words.

A. You speak truly.

B. And it is just as true, believe me, that a simple, plain
sermon, exhibited and sealed by your life, is more valuable
than a thousand clever declamations.

This want of consistency between the profession of the clergy and their
daily life is indeed a dark picture. While we would not forget that
there were noble exceptions to all the examples of declension that we
have adduced, and that there were also exemplary illustrations of
ministerial devotion amid all the deformity of these times, we must
maintain that the ministerial spirit which characterized this period was
not merely cold and indifferent, but wicked, and to a great extent
abandoned.

The scenes of clerical immorality are enough to chill one's blood even
at the distance of more than two centuries. The preachers were not
licensed to preach until they had been graduated through a course of
study extending from five to ten years. According to the judgment of the
Lutheran Church, they must be fitted intellectually for exercising the
functions of their office. But after settlement over the churches of the
land, their conduct furnishes a sad proof that their intellectual
qualifications were utterly barren without the more important adjunct of
spiritual regeneration. They were not converted men, as the sequel will
plainly show. The salary allowed them was usually small; and this is the
apology pleaded for them by their friends; but scanty salaries are the
outgrowth of scanty ministerial piety. The people, in no age of the
world, have refused a proper and sufficient support to a zealous,
God-fearing ministry.

A Church Order of 1600 reads thus: "Since we have received information
that servants of the church (clergy) and schoolmasters, the parochial
teachers, are guilty of whoredom and fornication, we command that if
they are _notoriously_ guilty they shall be suspended. We learn, too,
that some of the village pastors do not possess the Bible. We command
that they shall get a Bible and Concordance. Those whom we formerly
suspended shall remain so until they give proof of a reformation." A
pastor Pfeifer of Neukirchen and Lassau lived five unhappy years with
his congregation; and from mere private prejudice refused the sacrament
of the Lord