C.F.W. Walther Mausoleum Endowment Established

Today, the Walther Mausoleum is cared for by the LCMS International Center. It is in good repair, but our Executive for General Services, David Fiedler, working together with the descendants of Dr. Walther, has established a small endowment fund for future upkeep of the Mausoleum. It's located in Concordia Cemetery on Bates Street, in South St. Louis. Find the info HERE (scroll down the page a bit for the article).

Pastor H.

Address at the Dedication

of the Walther Mausoleum

1892

By Francis Pieper

Translated by Matthew C. Harrison

“Yesterday at the Bates Street cemetery of the local Germany Trinity and Holy Cross congregations, the sepulcher commemorating the departed Dr. C. F. W. Walther was dedicated. The mausoleum was devoted to the memory of the departed by the local Evangelical Lutheran congregations. The service began about 4 p.m., and in brief and impressive fashion, lasted three- quarters of an hour. Many, many members of the local Evangelical Lutheran congregations came by way of the Oak Hill Branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Also present were many Germans who are not members of the congregations, yet hold the memory of the departed in high esteem. After Pastor Hermann Bartels spoke a few introductory words, the gathering sang the beautiful church hymn Jesus, meine Zuversicht [Jesus Christ, My Sure Defense], after which the aforementioned pastor read the Bible text, 1 Corinthians 15:12–23, 55, 57. Another hymn by the congregation, glorifying the eternal life won through Christ, led to the following festival address, delivered by Professor F. Pieper.” 1

Dear brethren in the faith! It was on May 7 in the year 1887 that God called out of this life the blessed Dr. Walt

her, professor of theology at the local Concordia College and pastor of the local Lutheran Gesammtgemeinde. Ten days later, on May 17, we buried his body here. After five years, the same death has given us occasion to assemble at the same place and in like numbers. We have not forgotten the departed one, and we do not want to forget him. This finished sepulcher should also be an external support for our remembrance.

Some months ago, in another place, we also had opportunity to think about this great and faithful teacher. We have erected his statue, hewn of marble, in the aula [hall] of our theological institution. And justifiably so! Dr. Walther was a great theological instructor. Indeed, he was—and I well know what I am saying—the greatest theologian of this century. It’s not that there were not men in this century who have acquired a greater external knowledge in the disciplines that contribute to the study of theology. But there is no known theologian of our century who had exceeded Walther in that which forms the very essence of theology, namely, the clear and certain knowledge of the doctrine revealed in the Scriptures and the ability to present this doctrine convincingly. God also used Walther to exercise a wide-ranging salutary influence upon the Church at large. Even those who found themselves opposed to him acknowledge this.

But Walther was not only a great theological instructor and a great teacher of the Church in general. He was also—this we must confess to God’s glory—great as a practical preacher and curate of souls [Seelsorger]. There are many men who as theologians have a great name, but with all their theology cannot rightly teach and lead a congregation, and thereby demonstrate that they deserve the name theologian only in a limited sense. Walther was a theologian who could also apply his entire theology in leading souls and thereby show that his theology was the correct form. It did not consist in the spouting of more or less learned-appearing human speculations. His theology was rather the ability to communicate the saving truth revealed in the Holy Scriptures to lead souls to salvation.

Let me now speak to you about Walther as a practical preacher and curate of souls. The theme is very comprehensive. I can keep this short because most of you knew Walther the pastor from your own experience.

Walther was above all a true pastor in his public preaching. His preaching was as didactic—that is, presenting the doctrine as clear and sharp—as it was heartfelt, warm, and urgent. In every sermon he gave clear instruction from the Scriptures on doctrine. But every hearer had to note that it had to do not with a mere communication of knowledge, but with the soul and salvation. He preached Law and Gospel in correct distinction and in their correct connection. He preached the Law so that the hearer had to acknowledge: “I cannot through my works be saved. In God’s eyes I am a damnable sinner; if I am re- garded according to what I merit, then wrath and eternal damnation are mine.” But then he preached so that he poured forth the entire fullness of the free grace of God revealed in the Gospel for his hearers. He preached that for every sinner—even the greatest—grace has been won by Christ and is present in the Gospel. Thus no sinner need doubt; rather, through faith in the Gospel, he can and should say: “The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin.” The clearly acknowledged truth that God through Christ is completely reconciled with all men lay at the base of every one of Walther’s sermons. Thus the proper task of a Christian preacher consists in bringing men to faith in the redemption that has occurred and keeping men in this faith. Walther also understood how, as a preacher, to fill Christians with the desire for good works and a God-fearing life! He understood the art of stirring Christians to good works, without making human works the basis for salvation and without falling into a legalistic conversion of works. He admonished Christians to good works “through the mercy of God,” that is, through remembrance of the fact that for the sake of Christ, heaven and salvation are already given to them. Walther was convinced that with the correct evangelical admonition, one could accomplish everything among Christians.

Furthermore, Walther was a true pastor also in the private care of souls. Here in particular the old members of the congregation can speak from experience. But also those of us who are younger noted, from occasional communications of Walther regarding his pastoral activity, how for him every individual soul lay on his heart, and how he in particular went after the erring. The opposition, indeed, the open hostility that he experienced on the part of the erring did not prevent him from carrying out his office. He saw in these fallen ones only those purchased by the precious blood of Christ, but now souls captive in the net of sin. The curate of souls must seek to rescue them from perdition. Many such persons treated this way by Walther later came to thank this true curate of souls with tears in their eyes. Even when Walther had already been active as a theological professor as his proper office, he was often drawn into exercising private admonition.

Walther was also a true pastor through faithful intercession for the congregation. In his theological instruction, he admonished future pastors to pray daily for their congregations in general and for individual members whose spiritual or physical need is known to the pastor. He himself did this faithfully in the pastoral office. He made it a rule daily and regularly to pray for the congregation. When his office compelled him to speak with an individual, he had already previously spoken to God regarding that person. The need of the member of his congregation was his own need and drove him to prayer; their joy was his joy and moved him to pray in thanksgiving.

I must remind Lutheran congregations of something else. It was chiefly through the witness of Walther that in our time, the biblical doctrine of the nature, the value, and the duty of a Christian congregation was again placed in its proper light.

The often forgotten doctrine that not a sum of churchly orders or churchly persons [but] rather the Christians themselves are the Christian congregation or church he had again demonstrated to be the doctrine confessed in the Scriptures and in the Lutheran Confessions. What blessings this knowledge brought for the Church! With this knowledge, all in external association with the congregation will seriously examine themselves, whether or not there is in their hearts the living faith in Christ, the Savior. With this knowledge, the Church cannot foolishly rely on external means of power or any kind of worldly institutions to build itself. The Church’s entire concern is based upon the faithful and diligent preaching of the Word of God. This preaching of the Word alone works and maintains faith in Christ in the heart. It alone can build the Church.

Walther had also testified powerfully again to the doctrine of the rights of a Christian congregation, a doctrine that had largely been forgotten in Lutheran Christianity. He had again placed into proper light the worth of the Christian congregation granted it by Christ. He bore witness again that all spiritual goods and rights, which there are in the Church, belong not to one person or a few persons or to a particular estate in the Church, [but] rather to the entire congregation of believers. Through faith in Christ, Christians possess the forgiveness of sins. They are children of God and have salvation. Christ has given to them originally and immediately the Word and Sacraments and all spiritual goods and rights. They, the Christian congregations, therefore also have the right and duty to call preachers and to dismiss false teachers. Walther had also powerfully taught again the freedom of the Christian from all human regulations. As decisively as he emphasized that the Christian congregation must submit unconditionally to the Word of God, and all doctrine and admonition taken from the Holy Scriptures requires unconditional obedience, so decisively did he also maintain that no man, no matter how high his position in the world, may lay upon a Christian anything as a binding matter of conscience that is not commanded in the Scriptures.

Finally, Walther did not neglect to show the congregations their Christian duties. He taught: The entire congregation is to be concerned for and is therefore answerable to Christ to see that God’s Word holds sway pure and clear and richly in its midst. The entire Christian congregation is thus the spiritual society [Verein] established by God, that is, to place the light of divine truth upon the lampstand. Walther taught: The entire congregation has the duty to see to it that in its midst, Christian discipline is exercised, in order to guard against offense and so that the fallen brother be returned to the way of life. The Christian congregation is therefore the society established by God, in which the members are duty-bound to aid each other toward the acquisition of the final goal, the acquisition of salvation. Walther taught: The entire Christian congregation is duty-bound to take on also the physical need of its brothers, knowing that in these suffering brothers, Christ suffers, and that in them, Christ is served. Walther taught: The entire Christian congrega- tion is given the concern for the spreading of the Church through the preaching of the Gospel. The establishment, maintenance, and upkeep of Christian institutions are duties inseparably bound together with the Christian estate. The entire Christian congregation is therefore the mission society established by Christ.

Congregations are indebted above all to Dr. Walther for the clear witness to these divine truths. Truly, the congregations have every reason to thank this man who is their teacher. We do not wish to simply leave it at establishing this monument. Rather, by this monument, we would above all remind ourselves to firmly maintain the divine truth to which he bore witness, and to follow his example, which he as pastor and as Christian gave us by God’s grace. And finally: We stand at the grave of a man for whom Christian doc- trine and Christian faith was no mere theory. It was rather praxis. He finished the course and kept the faith to the end. God grant us all grace, that this earthly life and, finally, also death is for us the entrance into eternal life, where we shall thank God from eternity to eternity for all benefits, and also for the gift of this great and faithful teacher. Amen.

From "At Home in the House of My Fathers"