Memories 11: Joyful- “lay the heart… on justification” (not psychology)

      This continues from Part 10 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series by Prof. Ludwig Fürbringer of his personal memories of the departed Franz Pieper in the 1931 Der Lutheraner magazine. — We learn more of Pieper's writing career and preference for the journal Lehre und Wehre (Doctrine and Defense) over Der Lutheraner in his later years.  We then learn more of his family.  But of great interest is the description of Pieper's state of mind, and we learn how a Christian thinks...

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(page 300, col. 1)

Memories of Dr. Franz Pieper.

by Ludwig Fürbringer – [4.] (Part 11 of 16)

So it was when, as often happens, one was asked what one should hold on the teaching on tithing, and whether we Christians should not be anxious and act to give the tithe of our fortune. Not only did he give the right instruction that no commandment should be made of it, but also a heartfelt encouragement, and he usually said: “We want to start with what the Jews have ended with. They had to give tithing, we have no definite commandment of God in the New Testament; the whole law of ceremonies is dismissed, but it is certainly pleasing to God if we voluntarily at least tithe and out of love for God and the kingdom of God, out of gratitude for the good Gospel, possibly progress from tithing [the tenth] to the fifth.” And on this occasion I may say that I know very well, not from him but in another way, that he also acted on his own words when giving for church and charitable purposes.

In his clear, generally understandable and popular manner, he also wrote, especially in earlier years, often for the Der Lutheraner – short, absorbing and convincing. Older readers may remember that some of the articles, which, as was usually the case with him, bore a captivating title, such as "The Christian Church Is Aggressive." (Vol. 52, page 5). Later, when his work was steadily piling up and he continued to write numerous articles for Lehre und Wehre – almost every number had a longer or shorter contribution – he no longer found the time to speak directly to our Christian people also in the Der Lutheraner. And if, in this way, I let his long busy life, which I was quite able to observe during the last thirty-eight years in almost daily dealings with him, pass before my mind, (page 300, col. 2) that is how…

the memory of his joyful, sacred, hallowed disposition keeps coming back to me. He was an optimist in the best biblical sense of the word. The Church has often called the The Letter to Philippians an “Epistle of Joy,” because in this letter the apostle Paul, while imprisoned in Rome, repeatedly speaks of joy in spite of all the tribulations. And so to cheer myself up, I have thought more than once about how this also suited our Dr. Pieper. He lived in the Gospel of the free grace of God, and even the heavy experiences he had to go through – and these were not few – could not stifle him. Again and again he became joyous in looking up to his God and Savior. He could say to one or the other student, who was disgruntled and showed it outwardly, as in one case I know:

“You have to get another face, a Christian must always be cheerful.” I remember, as he said once during the years of his illness in 1910 or 1911 that as  his feelings were also depressed according to their nature, the dear God however gave him a little proverb every day in which he could stand up and with which he could console himself.  

There were sometimes sad experiences in the institutional life as well; but they only moved him more earnestly to lay the heart of the student on the doctrine of justification and the spiritual life of the Christian; and his beautiful lectures held before the students were first mimeographed and later appeared in print. And I know that in his happy family life he always expressed this joyful disposition sanctified in God. In 1877, he married Minna Köhn [2019-07-14: Minnie Koehn Pieper] of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, with whom he could then also celebrate quietly some years ago in the family circle the rare golden wedding anniversary. She was a particularly loving, caring life companion to him all his life into the days of his last illness. A large crowd of children blossomed from him, in whom he had his heartfelt joy. I remember how, when his eldest daughter had married and followed her husband to North Dakota, he was quite sad on the day of farewell that he “must give” her away”; but the greater was the joy when children and grandchildren came to the parental home and grandparent's house for the visit, or he could visit the children, who were scattered throughout the United States. But even then he was not spared serious suffering. He has had to bury the youngest daughter in childhood and later an adult child after long, severe suffering. And at the burial of the latter in May 1926, he showed me in the churchyard the place on which he would once rest. But from his last days I would like to later report some things. L[udwig] F[ürbringer].

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      Fürbringer reveals that Pieper went through "heavy experiences"... as all Christians do.  It was reported elsewhere that his colleague George Stoeckhardt also went through very "heavy experiences".  Unfortunately that report on Stoeckhardt did not record the same sources of recovery that Fürbringer did: a) using Philippians, the “Epistle of Joy”, as a source of comfort and b) to "lay the heart… on the doctrine of justification".  Today's LC-MS would rather send parishioners-patients with "heavy experiences" to a "professional" psychologist.  What a shame… to turn away from God in the hour of need. —  In the next part 12…