The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1929-02-14

! ine Following circular sent out
by the church authorities explain
the years program:
Lutheran groups all over the
world will commemorate this year
the 4OOth anniversary of the two
Catechisms, published by Martin
Luther in 1929. Jubilee editions
of the so-called sSmall' Catechism,
which has been translated into
more than one hundred languages
and used as the Iayman's Bible
for four centuries, viii be issued,
one house planning on an edition
of a million copies. Mass meetings
in large centers and special services
in congregations are planned. The
Lutheran Synod, of Missouri, Ohio
and other states is sponsoring an
essay contest, in which the children
of its parish and Sunday schools
are to participate. That same body
at its triennial convention next
June, when delegates representing
more than million Lutherans will
assemble in Chicago, is giving
prominent place on it's program to
the celebration of the Catechism
quadricentennial. Several books
on the history and Importance of
the Catechism have already ap-
peared and more are expected.
The book so uniquely vital has
a fascinating history. We possess
it in two forms. Martin Luther
wrote the Large Catechism as a
treatise, in which he expounded thk
fundamental truths of Christianity,
which he also set forth in questions
and answers in the Small Cate
chism. Both of these appeared in
1929. r
"They were born of the need of
the times. Religious ignorance was
widespread. "A survey of conditions
in the churches of Saxony, made a
decade after the Reformation had
gotten under way, revealed de-
plorable lack of Christian know
ledge, even among clergymen. The
preface to the Small Catechism
contains graphic picture of the
situation that prompted Luther to
write these books.
"Like his 95 Theses, published
twelve years previously, Luther's
Catechism took Europe by storm.
At one time every printer in Wit
tenberg was printing them. Ever
since it has remained the chief
textbook for the religious instruc-
ton of children in Lutheran
churches Of all lands. Thousands of
American boys anI GIRLS are daily
studying the booklet that first ap-
peared in 1929.
"The popularity and continued
usefulness of the Small Catechism
are readily understood. The great
truths of the Bible are summed up
and presented in a form so simple
that every child may grasp them.
These truths are eternal and meet
the religious needs of every soul in
every age.
'The Catechism is of especial in
terest to Americans because it was
the first book to be translated into
the language of the American In
dams. Prof. Theo. Graebner, edi-
tor of the Lutheran Witness, in his
book entitled ''The Story of the
Catechisnn," tells how a Swedish
Lutheran pastor, John Campanius,
arrived in 1643 with company of
colonists from Sweden and settled
on the banks of the Delaware. He
soon began to work among the ma
tives and as an aid in this labor
of love translated Luther's Small
Catechism into the language Of the
Delawares. The earliest English
Catechism printed in America APP
peared at Philadelphia in 1749 and
was probably issued blythe publish
ing house of Benjamin Franklin,
in whose office German reprint
appeared in the same year. A book
with such history deserves the at
tention that will be given to it this
uaorO