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| St. Louis Edition, from the Dau library, historictrinity.org |
[St. Louis Edition, vol. 21a (1903)]
First part: Letters from the years 1507 to 1532.
Herewith, the last volume of our great and beautiful Luther edition has been tackled and, for the time being, half of it has been completed. And also this new volume offers a rich, interesting and excellent content in the well-known splendid decoration that our publishing house has bestowed upon it. Certainly, among the twenty-one volumes of Luther's works published so far, there are even more important volumes than this one, which should be purchased and studied especially by Lutheran Christians. …
And now a short word about the content of these letters. How they throw so much light on the life of the great man of God and his friends and co-workers in the work of the Reformation and report on the progress of this work of God. How they show us the Reformer as the highly enlightened, conscientious teacher and pastor to whom one turns from all sides for instruction, counsel and comfort. How he knows how to help the erring on the right path, to give sure and excellent counsel in difficult doubts of conscience, to comfort so powerfully and warmly in distresses and temptations.
We will pick out a few letters that our eyes come across while leafing through the volume, without having searched in any way for those that are particularly rich in content. Luther sends Spalatin an instruction on how to confess (No. 137); to Martin Seligmann, he answers the question of how a Christian, especially a pastor, should behave in the face of the plague and other plagues of the land (No. 221); in a letter to Paul Speratus, he praises Speratus's sermon and wishes to see it printed, and at the same time speaks out about the Bohemians' doctrine of Holy Communion (No. 494); to Elector John of Saxony, he makes suggestions on how to equip and visit the parishes (No. 933); to Landgrave Philip of Hesse, he advises not to hurry with the publication of the church order (No. 1052); to "all dear Christian people", he writes “a blessed story of Leonhard Kaiser in Bavaria, burned for the sake of the Gospel” (No. 1086); to Nikolaus Hausmann he thanks for the comfort he has received (No. 1143); to Conrad Cordatus he consoles him in the sufferings that the direction of his ministry brings (No. 1436); to Wenceslaus Link he consoles him over the death of his daughter and at the same time gives him information about a difficult passage of Scripture (No. 1565); to Spalatin he shares his opinion about a difficult marriage case (No. 1783); to Johann Brenz he writes about the doctrine of justification (No. 1813); to Robert Barnes in England he gives his opinion about the intended divorce of King Henry VIII of England (No. 1838); to the council of Torgau he asks for a scholarship for a student of theology (No. 1866).
But where would we stop, if we were to give even a slight insight into the contents of the letters. Every one of these letters, even though they will soon be four hundred years old, will be read with interest, very many with great benefit and to rich blessing. This is especially true of Luther's theological opinions and concerns, of which the old Lutheran theologian Conrad Porta, in his "Pastorale Lutheri," said more than three hundred years ago: “The man of God Lutherus, out of a strange and wonderful illumination of the Holy Spirit, bases himself before all others who have written anything on this subject, especially on the Holy Scriptures, and thus also shows the pastors how, according to the counsel of Jesus Sirach (9, 22.) they are to judge all their official matters, doings, and non-doings according to God's Word.” And in another place he says: “His (Luther's) counsels and concerns in grave and dangerous cases are glorious and good, and no one can easily improve them.”
Of the detailed, thorough and careful work of the proven editor, Mr. Professor A. F. Hoppe, also this volume again abundantly testifies. May the second half, which will contain Luther's letters from the year 1533 onwards, soon follow; then only the detailed index volumes, which are so valuable and necessary for the use of the entire great work, will be missing. And above all, may God the Lord bestow his rich blessing on all who diligently read and study Luther's words and writings. L. F.
[Volume 21b (1904)]
Second part: Letters from the years 1533 to 1546.
… a new volume has been completed almost every year, and with the present 21st volume, after the 22nd volume was published earlier, the enterprise has indeed been happily completed. The only thing that is still missing are the detailed index volumes, which are, however, so valuable and necessary for the use of the entire great work, and which our faithful Luther editor, Professor A. F. Hoppe, is currently working on. But that all the writings of Luther, the greatest teacher of the Church since the days of the holy apostles, have now been made available to us again in this complete and beautiful edition, is truly a cause to thank God and to diligently study and faithfully use what is presented to us in these writings. We cannot but heartily agree with the words of the preface to the present volume: “With this volume, by the grace of God, the reissue of the complete writings of Luther by Dr. Joh. G. Walch is now completed; praise, glory, and thanks be to God, who has faithfully assisted us in this great work for twenty-four years. May He grant that these glorious writings may also be diligently read, so that through the God-enlightened Luther we may ever better attain the right understanding of the Scriptures given by God, and, like him, grasp and hold them in fervent faith.”
As far as the just finished volume is concerned, already the title says that it contains all letters that Luther wrote or that were addressed to him, in total not less than 1541 numbers. About the letters of Luther we have already spoken in more detail in the description of the first half of this volume ("Lutheraner" 59, p. 167). How interesting these documents are! How important they are for the history of the Reformation! But above all, how much teaching and exhortation, comfort and encouragement they contain! How they give us a glimpse into the daily life, into the tremendous work of this man of God, who is approached from all sides and yet makes his time and strength available to all! …
L. F. [Ludwig Fürbringer]
We will hear more from the editor and translator Prof. Hoppe in the next Part 3.
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