Luther - Works of Martin Luther Vol. 6 - Righteousness is Love

44here, which had already been tried out at a number of places, are not evenmentioned. The one emphatic statement is that the daily Masses are toremain discontinued; but provision must always be made to meet the desireof such as would receive Holy Communion, even if this be on a weekday!There is no objection to continuing the use of the customary singing at theMasses and at Vespers; but certain propers, which are purely legendary andunscriptural must be omitted.But there is an extended program for the other services. Carlstadt haddiscontinued the daily Masses in the Wittenberg church early in 1523. Afterthat the doors remained dosed during week days, except for an occasionalpreaching service. It is not difficult to realize Luther’s reaction to this whenone begins to read the Von ordenung. The necessity of a daily devotion isdemanded from the standpoint of read and expounded Word andcongregational prayer. Purposes of worship and edification and pedagogicreasons are about equal. Hence his emphasis on these devotions; and thepractical experiment was tried out in the StadtpfarrkircheThe simple morning service, outlined by Luther, was quite typical of theEvangelical Movement. It consisted of a lesson, mad prayer (intercession).A similar daily evening or afternoon devotion was planned for earlyintroduction, or at least when the proper person or person’s to conduct itwould be at hand.For the morning devotion, which still carried the name Matins, NewTestament scriptures were appointed for reading and exposition; it wasproposed to use Old Testament scriptures similarly in the afternoon. Theprocedure suggested was to have one person do the reading and anotherexpound; for example, reading by the scholars, exposition by the pastor.Luther was quite frank in stating his reasons for this. It would bring aboutthe presence of the scholars at worship; it would insure their activity in it; itwould familiarize them with the content of Holy Scripture; and as thelessons were still read in Latin, it would contribute various educationalvalues. Some of the other elements of the old Hours were also retained inthese new devotions: Psalms, antiphons, responsories, the last two only if“pure.”Luther’s first effort at a cleansing of the Church Year is moderation itself,even including the broad abrogation of all saints’ days. Here is the veryatmosphere of worship, where the common man would be affected andprobably easily offended, as every tradition of spiritual life would be united