%20(crop%20pano).jpg "Prof. C. F. W. Walther")
Dr. Martin Luther's
Complete Writings,
published by
Dr. J. Georg Walch.
Published anew on behalf of the Ministry of the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States.
Eleventh volume.
Church-Postils. Gospel Part.
St. Louis, Mo. "Concordia Lutheran Publishing House" (M. C. Barthel, agent). 1882.
Through God's gracious help, this part of Luther's works has now also been completed. When one considers in what time and in what country this has happened, one cannot be surprised enough and cannot praise and glorify God enough for it. In Germany, the only new edition of Luther's works begun in Erlangen in this century has been worked on for 56 years, and it is still not finished, although the configuration is a very poor one, while the first editor has added his entire fortune to it. How did this come about? — Only a few theologians had a desire for this commodity, and that it should have occurred to even one layman in Germany to acquire Luther's complete works was hardly conceivable from the outset. Only since, by God's grace, the old Luther faith has been reawakened in America, has it come to life somewhat in the Erlangen downfall of Luther's writings, and hereupon one copy after another has migrated across the sea. Unfortunately, however, the Erlangen edition, although prepared with great diligence that cannot be praised enough, is not a suitable edition for the Lutheran Christian people mainly for three reasons: first, because of the small print, second, because of the large mass of small volumes, and third, because the writings originally published by Luther in Latin have been included in the Erlangen edition only in that language.
So here in America, where the preaching of the old Lutheran faith has created a people standing and living in this faith, we have dared in God's name to tackle a new edition of the magnificent Walch edition of Luther's works. And behold! Already the Lord has promoted and blessed beyond expectation the work begun in His name. Thousands of copies are already to be found within our congregations. In Germany, one cannot be surprised enough by this and recognizes it partly with joy that this is an undeniable proof that Lutheran life of faith must have been planted here again and that it will also take deeper and deeper root in our people through the dissemination of Luther's writings.
Perhaps some are surprised that the individual volumes do not appear in the order that the Walch Edition (or W1) has, in which the Church Postils on the Gospels only is contained in the eleventh volume. However, Walch did not publish his 24 volumes in the order that the number of them indicates. After the first seven volumes were published in 1740 and 1741, they were followed in 1742 by the eleventh and twelfth volumes, which contained the Church Postils, and in 1743 by the thirteenth volume, which contained the House Postils. The reason why we have not retained the subject order that Walch observed in his edition, even according to the volume number, is this, because our Lutheran people should first get the most necessary, most important and for them most enjoyable of Luther's writings into their hands.
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