ly tradition and
permeating it with the new understanding of the Gospel, such are the
characteristics of Luther's Catechisms, especially the Small Catechism."
"On every page new and original features appear beside the traditional
elements." "The essential doctrinal content of the booklet is thoroughly
original; in it Luther offered a carefully digested presentation of the
essence of Christianity, according to his own understanding as the
Reformer, in a manner adapted to the comprehension of children--a
simple, pithy description of his own personal Christian piety, without
polemics and systematization, but with the convincing power of
experienced truth." (W. 30, 1, 647.)--Similar testimonies might easily
be multiplied and have been collected and published repeatedly.

The best praise, however, comes from the enemy in the form of imitation
or even verbal appropriation. Albrecht says: "Old Catholic catechetes,
and not the worst, have not hesitated to draw on Luther's Large
Catechism. If one peruses the widely spread catechism of the Dominican
monk John Dietenberger, of 1537 (reprinted by Maufang in his work on the
Catholic Catechisms of the sixteenth century, 1881), one is frequently
edified and delighted by the diligence with which, besides older
material, Luther's Large and Small Catechisms, as well as the Nuernberg
Catechism-sermons of 1533, have been exploited" (W. 30, 1, 497.)

118. Literary Merit of Small Catechism.

Moenckeberg remarks: The Small Catechism betrays "the imperfection of
the haste in which it had to be finished." As a matter of fact, however,
Luther, the master of German, paid much attention also to its language
in order, by pithy brevity and simple, attractive form, to make its
glorious truths the permanent property of the children and unlearned who
memorized it. In his publication "_Zur Sprache und Geschichte des
Kleinen Katechismus Luthers,_ Concerning the Language and History of
Luther's Small Catechism," 1909, J. Gillhoff writes: "Here, if ever,
arose a master of language, who expressed the deepest mysteries in
sounds most simple. Here, if ever, there was created in the German
language and spirit, and in brief compass, a work of art of German
prose. If ever the gods blessed a man to create, consciously or
unconsciously, on the soil of the people and their needs, a perfect work
of popular art in the spirit of the people and in the terms of their
speech, to the weal of the people and their youth t