in an abridged form. He also retained the public confession and absolution, and recommended
private confession of sin to the minister.^625
The Lutheran churches in Northern Germany and in Scandinavia adopted the order of
Wittenberg with sundry modifications; but the Lutheran churches in Southern Germany (Würtemberg,
Baden, Palatinate, Alsace) followed the simpler type of the Swiss service.
The Lutheran order of worship underwent some radical changes in the eighteenth century
under the influence of rationalism; the spirit of worship cooled down; the weekly communion was
abolished; the sermon degenerated into a barren moral discourse; new liturgies and hymnbooks
with all sorts of misimprovements were introduced. But in recent times, we may say since the third
centennial celebration of 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:
- 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.^626 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.^627 His most popular sermons are those on the
Gospels and Epistles of the year, collected in the Kirchenpostille, which he completed in 1525 and
- Another popular collection is his Hauspostille, which contains his sermons at home, as taken
down by Veit Dietrich and Rörer, 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
(^625) The Augsburg Confession, Part II. art. IV., says: "Confession is not abolished in our churches. For it is not usual to communicate
the body of our Lord, except to those who have been previously examined and absolved. ... Men are taught that they should highly regard
absolution, inasmuch as it is God’s voice, and pronounced by God’s commsand."
(^626) His sermons fill 16 vols. in the Erl. ed. of his Works.
(^627) They were taken down in short-hand, and first published by his companion Aurifaber. In the Erl. ed., XVI. 209 sqq.