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When a Lutheran candidate of theology is assigned to a parish where he is to discharge the office of a Lutheran preacher, for him that place ought to be the dearest, most beautiful, and most precious spot on earth. He should be unwilling to exchange it for a kingdom. Whether it is in a metropolis or in a small town, on a bleak paris or in a clearing in the forest, in a flourishing settlement or in a desert—for him that place should be a miniature paradise. Do not the blessed angels descend from heaven with great joy when3ever the Father in heaven sends them to minister to those who are to inherit salvation?

However, no matter how joyful a young, newly called pastor is when he enters his parish, he soul be completely serious and determined to do all he can to save every should entrusted to him. It may often seem to him that the majority of—if not all—the member of his congregation are still spiritually blind and unconverted people. That observation must not make him bloomy or discourage him, but rather it should fire him up with the burning desire to wake them out of spiritual death through the divine Means of Grace, to make them living Christians. He should not let the devil stop him; he should take up his work in the power of faith!