教育書庫(課外閱讀本英語版)：the large catechism(馬丁路德的大本《教理問答》)

1、The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther1The Large Catechism byDr. Martin LutherTranslated by F. Bente and W. H. T. DauThe Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther3as it is, the common people regard the Gospel altogether too

2、 lightly, andwe accomplish nothing extraordinary even though we use all diligence.What, then, will be achieved if we shall be negligent and lazy as we wereunder the Papacy?To this there is added the shameful vice and sec

3、ret infection ofsecurity and satiety, that is, that many regard the Catechism as a poor,mean teaching, which they can read through at one time, and thenimmediately know it, throw the book into a corner, and be ashamed, a

4、s itwere, to read in it again.Yea, even among the nobility there may be found some louts andscrimps, who declare that there is no longer any need either of pastors orpreachers; that we have everything in books, and every

5、 one can easilylearn it by himself; and so they are content to let the parishes decay andbecome desolate, and pastors and preachers to suffer distress and hunger aplenty, just as it becomes crazy Germans to do. For we Ge

6、rmans have suchdisgraceful people, and must endure them.But for myself I say this: I am also a doctor and preacher, yea, aslearned and experienced as all those may be who have such presumptionand security; yet I do as a

7、child who is being taught the Catechism, andevery morning, and whenever I have time, I read and say, word for word,the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Psalms, etc.And I must still read and study d

8、aily, and yet I cannot master it as I wish,but must remain a child and pupil of the Catechism, and am glad so toremain. And yet these delicate, fastidious fellows would with one readingpromptly be doctors above all docto

9、rs, know everything and be in need ofnothing. Well, this, too, is indeed a sure sign that they despise both theiroffice and the souls of the people, yea, even God and His Word. They donot have to fall, they are already f

10、allen all too horribly, they would need tobecome children, and begin to learn their alphabet, which they imaginethat they have long since outgrown.Therefore I beg such lazy paunches or presumptuous saints to bepersuaded