My Comfort in Affliction

Collections of sermons for the summer season and for the Church festivals were early issued which were later embodied in the Church Postil. They were:

1. “Fourteen Fine Christian Sermons, Preached at Wittenberg in 1522. Also, The Use We are to Make of the Sufferings of Christ,” Basel, 1523.

What are some examples of the sufferings of Christ?

2. “Twenty-Seven Sermons, Strassburg, 1523.”

3. “Thirteen Sermons, 1523. A Supplement to the Twenty Seven Sermons.”

4. Twelve Sermons For Certain Festivals of the Saints. 1524. II. Luther being engaged from 1527 by other labors Rodt of Zwickau edited the Summer Postil and the Postil for the Chief Festivals, which were printed at Wittenberg in 1527, along with Bugenhagen’s Summaries translated from the Latin. Here the Epistles are omitted.

What are Festivals of the Saints?

In 1528 he also prepared a new edition of the Winter Postil, further revised by Luther. These three books, prepared by Rodt, were reissued at Wittenberg in 1527, 1528, 1529, 1530, 1531, 1532, 1533 and 1535; the Winter Postil nine times, the Summer Postil eight times, the Festival Postil four times.

Psalm 119:50 NASB95

This is my comfort in my affliction, That Your word has revived me.

Job 5:7 NASB95

For man is born for trouble, As sparks fly upward.

In his editorial work Rodt omitted some and added other material; now and then he united two sermons into one and divided one into two sermons. For this Friedrich Francke no doubt criticised him too severely. True, later Luther was not fully satisfied with Rodt’s work, but he was not pleased with his own and hence he continually corrected it. According to Luther’s opinion Rodt corrected too little. Creuziger was appointed by Luther to prepare a new edition of the Postil with many marked changes. III. In an essentially changed form the Church Postil was edited by Creuziger at the close of Luther’s life work, from 1540 to 1544, under 8 Luther’s supervision. In 1540 there was printed at Wittenberg, “The Exposition of the Epistles and Gospels from Advent to Easter. By Dr. Martin Luther. Revised with a Useful Index.” It was again issued in 1543. In 1544 appeared the new edition, revised by Creuziger, of “The Exposition of the Epistles and Gospels from Easter to Advent. Dr. Martin Luther. New Edition.”

Thus the whole Church Postil was corrected and revised, and printed first at Leipsic and then at Wittenberg in 1544 under the title, “The Exposition of the Epistles and Gospels for the Whole Year. Dr. Martin Luther. Lately revised, with a Useful Index.”

It contained Forewords by Luther and by Creuziger. The winter part was revised mostly by Luther. He corrected the text of other editions, shortened some sermons, omitted parts and added new matter

Metropolitian Tabernacle Pulpit

By: C.H. Sprugeon