THE WAY OF 
 SALVATlOn 
 
 m tkeLutkeVdPi CkuYck 
 
 c2 
 
 By 
 
 Q, ■/-/, (^elUtllni 
 
 D.O. 
 

 lii!iiii!i;|l!l;ii;i 
 
 BX 8065 .GA 1919 
 Gerberding, G. H. 1847-1927 
 The way of salvation in the 
 Lutheran Church 
 
THE WAY OF SAU 
 
 IN THE LUTHERAN CHURCH 
 
 By Q. J-l. Qerberding 
 
 REVISED EDITION 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 AUGSBURG PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS 
 
 MINNESOTA 
 
THE WAV OF SALVATION IN THE 
 LUTHERAN CHURCH 
 
 Copyright 1919 by G. H. Gerberding 
 
 Revised Edition issued by permission of 
 
 The Lutheran Book Concern 
 
 Publishers 
 
 Manufactured in the United States of America 
 
"FAITH IN ACTION" 
 SERIES 
 
 Prayer by O. Hallcsby 
 TJie Way of Salvation by G. H. Cicrbcrdiiii^- 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2009 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/wayofsalvationin1919gerb 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Intboduction 9 
 
 Preface 20 
 
 Pbefatoey Sceiptube Passages 23 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 All are Sinners , 25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 All that is Born of the Flesh must be Born of the Spirit. . 31 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Present, a Dispensation of Means 38 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Baptism, a Divinely Instituted Means of Grace 45 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Baptismal Covenant can be Itept unbroken — Aim 
 and Responsibility of Parents 53 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Home Influence and Traning in their Relation to the 
 Keeping of the Baptismal Covenant 60 
 
 V 
 
VI CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Sunday School in its Relation to the Baptized 
 Children of Christian Parents 67 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Sunday School — Its relation to those in Covenant 
 Relationship with Christ, and also to the XJnbap- 
 tized and Wandering 75 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Catechlsation 81 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Contents, Arrangement and Excellence of Luther's 
 Small Catechism 87 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Manner and Object of Teaching Luther's Catechism 94 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Confirmation 101 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Lord's Supper — Preliminary Observations 109 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 The Lord's Supper, Continued 115 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 The Lord's Supper, Concluded 121 
 
CONTENTS VU 
 
 PACn 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 The Preparatory Service, Sometimes Called the Con- 
 fessional Service 132 
 
 ^ CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 \ The Word as a Means of Grace 142 
 
 CHAPTER XVni. 
 Conversion — Its Nature and Necessity 151 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 Conversion — ^Varied Phenomena or Experiences 158 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 Conversion — Concluded 167 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 Justification 176 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 Sanctiflcatlon 187 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 Revivals 197 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 Conclusion 207 
 
 The Reformation Church 215 
 
 Guide Questions 219 
 
VUl CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 Modern Revivals, Concluded 226 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 Revivals — The Billy Sunday Type 237 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 True Revivals ..... 242 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 Conclusion 257 
 
 The Refobmation Church 265 
 
 Guide Questions 269 
 
 Index 275 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 THE STORY OF THE BOOK. 
 
 IT is thirty years since we began to write what 
 grew into The Way of Salvation in The 
 Lutheran Church. 
 
 We have been asked again and again how we 
 came to write the book. 
 
 In sending forth this new, revised and en- 
 larged Jubilee Edition, which is the thirty- 
 second thousand, we comply with the request 
 and briefly tell the story. 
 
 The Author had grown up in a non-Lutheran 
 community. None of his companions were Lu- 
 therans. His father, a plain German farmer, was 
 a devout Lutheran. He helped to organize the 
 first German Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh. 
 He preferred the German. As the children 
 grew up in the public school they were among 
 those who talked and thought and played and 
 dreamed in English. The wise father saw that 
 to keep the children in the Lutheran Church it 
 was better that the parents unite with an Eng- 
 ix 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 lish Church. They therefore united with the 
 First English Lutheran Church of Pittsburgh 
 when the Rev. Reuben Hill was pastor, who 
 afterwards confirmed the Author of this book. 
 Before that, father had occasionally worshipped 
 there under the Rev. W. A. Passavant, and then 
 under the Rev. C. P. Krauth. Neither of these 
 promising young ministers was a doctor then. 
 
 We lived over four miles distant from the 
 Church and there were not even horse-car lines. 
 So we children could not go to the Lutheran 
 Sunday School. We attended a Methodist and 
 a Union Sunday School. There the writer 
 learned to understand the spirit and the diverse 
 teaching of the Reformed Churches. He saw 
 their good side, as well as their weaknesses. 
 He met some beautiful Christian characters 
 there who had a blessed influence over him. 
 Some of the impressions for good that were then 
 received abide to this day. Had his father not 
 gone into an English speaking Lutheran Church 
 it is more than likely that the writer would have 
 united with one of the Reformed denomina- 
 tions, for whose people he cherished such a 
 high regard. 
 
 Had he gone to a Reformed or State College, 
 he probably would not have become a Lutheran 
 minister. But he went to Thiel Hall where he 
 came under the personal influence of the 
 founder of the school, the Rev. Dr. Passavani; 
 
INTRODUCTION- XI 
 
 who was a frequent visitor, and whose prayers, 
 talks and sermons he can never forget.* There 
 he was influenced for the ministry by the Rev. 
 H. E. Jacobs, then a young man. Later on at 
 Muhlenberg College he was specially impressed 
 by the Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, and at Philadel- 
 phia Seminary by Drs. C. F. and C. W. Schaef- 
 fer, Drs. Spaeth, Krauth, and especially by Dr. 
 Mann. 
 
 During his student vacations he worked un- 
 der Dr. Passavant, supplying congregations 
 which the doctor had founded. He became the 
 doctor's successor at McKees Rocks, and 
 through his encouragement founded Mount Zion 
 Church, the Church at Pine Creek and also 
 started the movement for Memorial English 
 Lutheran Church. 
 
 Then he accepted a call to a country charge 
 in Harrison County, Ohio. Here he found the 
 old-fashioned, wild, mourners-bench, revivalism 
 in full sway. The revival leaders had become 
 very bold, had publicly denounced the Luther- 
 ans as sad examples of spiritual deadness and 
 often prayed in public that these Lutherans also 
 might **get religion." Many of our Lutheran 
 people were uneasy, disturbed, confused, apolo- 
 getic and timidly hoped that they might still 
 be saved, even as Lutherans. 
 
 These things deeply grieved the writer. He 
 
 ♦See Life and Letters of Passavant, p. 501 ff. 
 
XU INTRODUCTION 
 
 became indignant and protested against the 
 phariseeism and unfairness of his religious 
 neighbors. He wrote a rather scathing article 
 against False Revivalism, describing its scenes 
 and fruits as they had come to his knowledge, 
 for Dr, Passavant's paper, The Workman. 
 That copy of The Workman was passed from 
 home to home in Harrison County and agitated 
 the whole community. A scurrilous reply, full 
 of personal abuse, was published in a local 
 paper. To this we wrote a quiet answer for 
 the same paper. We appealed for fair play 
 and invited our opponents to private or public 
 discussion in a Christian spirit. That ended 
 the controversy and revivals after that were 
 never again so wild or abusive of those Chris- 
 tians who did their -church work in a more 
 quiet, instructive and scriptural way. 
 
 The writer of this had been made to see 
 that what his own people and Lutherans in 
 general needed was a more clear understand- 
 ing of The Way of Salvation as set forth in 
 the Scriptures and as held by the Lutheran 
 Church. After much thought and prayer he 
 began to write a series of articles for The 
 Workman, which was read by nearly all the 
 families in his congregations. 
 
 These articles, covering over a year's time 
 in the paper, met with a kind and favorable 
 reception all over the Church. A Lutheran 
 
INTBODUCTION XIU 
 
 consciousness, such as had never prevailed 
 before, was awakened and strengthened in his 
 parish. The Lutheran Church was no longer 
 scorned as a church unsound in teaching and 
 devoid of life. 
 
 Bequests came to the writer to have the suc- 
 cession of articles published in book form. 
 The Eev. A. Ramsey offered a resolution in 
 the Southern Conference of the Pittsburgh 
 Synod, that the author be requested to publish 
 the articles in book form. The Eastern Con- 
 ference did likewise. Others followed; and so 
 he was persuaded to publish the book. 
 
 He had one thousand copies bound and as 
 many more published in sheets and left un- 
 bound. Some of his friends thought him 
 overly sanguine in having so many bound, and 
 as many more ready to bind. It was not long 
 till the bound edition was sold. The sheets 
 were bound and they also were soon sold out. 
 
 Some revisions were made and the type had 
 to be set up again — this time in electro-plates. 
 Since then editions of a thousand each have 
 rapidly succeeded one another at the rate of 
 more than a thousand books a year. Among 
 American Lutheran books it has been the 
 best seller. It has been translated into Ger- 
 man and had a good circulation in Germany. 
 The writer has been informed that it had a 
 good influence there in giving the American 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION 
 
 Lutheran Church recognition and standing. 
 The same is true of the Norwegian translation 
 — permission for which w^as requested that it 
 might be used to combat the proseletizing of 
 Lutherans in Norway. We have not been in- 
 formed of the influence of the Swedish trans- 
 lation in Sweden. We hope it is doing a like 
 good work there. Permission for a transla- 
 tion into Tamil was requested ; it is in pro- 
 gress if not finished at this writng. Parts 
 have been translated into Telugu, Japanese 
 and Yiddish. 
 
 ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE BOOK 
 
 The Book has been instrumental in winning 
 scores of non-Lutheran for our Church and 
 faith. 
 
 Before us lies a letter from one of the most 
 useful and active pastors of the Augustana 
 Synod. He informs us that their Book Con- 
 cern published six thousand copies in Swedish 
 and then as many more. He says in conclu- 
 sion: *' Think how many forlorn children of 
 our Church have been awakened by reading 
 The Way of Salvation in The Lutheran 
 Church." 
 
 One of our most successful pastors in the 
 Chicago Synod writes: **I owe you a great 
 debt of gratitude for the help that the little 
 
INTRODUCTION XV 
 
 book has been to me in my work. The instances 
 of people coming from other denominations 
 into our Church are many. The book is con- 
 stantly used in preparing them for membership. 
 We keep a battery of from twelve to fifteen in 
 action most of the time. The prospective mem- 
 bers read it as a basis of the instruction which 
 I give privately from time to time. Many buy 
 the book for themselves. They lend their books 
 to friends and neighbors. I am about to receive 
 two members from the M. E. Church, who read 
 the book, loaned by a neighbor, one of our 
 Councilmen. No small part of the increase of 
 over three hundred per cent, since I came here, 
 I am certain, is due to the influence of The Way 
 of Salvation. I recently attended the funeral 
 of a child in a church of another denomination. 
 The preacher spoke like a Lutheran on Grace 
 through the means of Grace. When I ques- 
 tioned him as to these ideas he answered: *I 
 am no stranger to the Lutheran faith for I read 
 and re-read The Way of Salvation by Dr. G. It 
 helps to keep me straight on the Bible way of 
 Salvation.' " 
 
 A prominent Doctor in the Wartburg Synod 
 of the General Synod writes: ''In my experi- 
 ence as a pastor I can refer to many cases 
 where people have found their way into the 
 Lutheran Church by reading your convincing 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION 
 
 discussion. I used the book successfully in the 
 instruction of Eoman Catholics." 
 
 An active pastor of the Joint Synod of Ohio 
 writes: **I have circulated over one hundred 
 copies. Have used it for the instruction of 
 about twenty-five adults who have come into our 
 Church from other denominations." 
 
 And here we might say that we get many or- 
 ders for the book to be used in Adult Cate- 
 chetical and Bible Classes, as also for Confir- 
 mation gifts. One Augustana pastor has been 
 sending for fifty or more copies annually for a 
 number of years. One in the Synod of the 
 Northwest has done likewise. A pastor who 
 gives out these books, properly inscribed, at his 
 last meeting with his class, never loses any- 
 thing and certainly gains in the joy of seeing 
 more of his catechumens remain firm and grow 
 in their Lutheran and spiritual consciousness. 
 
 A successful young pastor in the General 
 Synod informs us that through the book he 
 has won Immersionists and Eoman Catholics 
 into his Church. 
 
 Another brother, highly esteemed for his 
 work's sake and prominent in the Pittsburgh 
 Synod, writes: ''There is something strange 
 about that book. It slips away from me. I had 
 a kind of a circulating library. I loaned 'Sal- 
 vations' to different people, but they never 
 come back. Hope they are still circulating. ' ' 
 
INTRODUCTION XVll 
 
 "The one true revival that I had was in a 
 country parish in Ohio. One of the congrega- 
 tions, now a part of that parish, with a Church 
 of its own, was brought into being through the 
 direct influence of that wonderful book. It 
 was a Methodist center where one or two high 
 pressure revivals were worked up a year. The 
 Methodist was the only church in the commun- 
 ity before our mission was organized. There 
 were a number of level-headed people in the 
 community who did their owtl thinking. They 
 sought satisfaction in the M. E. Church, but 
 their questionings were not answered. Others 
 wanted a church-home but could not be dra- 
 gooned into the revival-holiness church. They 
 wanted instruction, knowledge, clearness first 
 and then assent and confidence. 
 
 "The Way of Salvation was circulated among 
 these people. They studied it, discussed it, 
 absorbed it, found satisfaction and loved it be- 
 cause they had gotten an answer to so many 
 questions that had never been answered in the, 
 other church. One good Christian woman of 
 over three-score years who had been of the M. 
 E. persuasion all her life told me, after reading 
 the book, that now she had found that for which 
 she had been hungering in our doctrine of the 
 Sacraments. 
 
 "We held services and Sunday School in the 
 schoolhouse. On one Sunday I baptized twenty- 
 
XVIU INTRODUCTION" 
 
 two ; fathers and mothers standing side by side 
 with their children. These Lutherans now have 
 a neat little church of their own. 
 
 ''I attribute much of my success there to your 
 book. It certainly was a great Lutheran mis- 
 sionary in that region. In that high-pressure, 
 holiness community it did bring many people 
 into The Way of Salvation. It was a source of 
 much joy to me to see its blessed influence." 
 
 We might add many more testimonies. But 
 enough I To write dowm these might look like 
 boasting. But, truly, we do not mean it so. We 
 have long had a conviction — it grows with the 
 years — that true Lutheranism is the Gospel, 
 that it is good for men, women and children of 
 all classes and conditions. We verily believe 
 that where it is presented plainly, warmly, out 
 of a heart that daily experiences its peace and 
 blessedness, it commends itself. We believe 
 that wherever such a presentation gets an un- 
 prejudiced hearing there it will win. What we 
 have written above is a living and speaking 
 demonstration of this fact. We have written 
 down these things in order to hearten, encour- 
 age and strengthen the brethren. 
 
 We have gone over every page with care. 
 Here and there Ave corrected expressions, elim- 
 inated unnecessary words, added words, clauses 
 and sentences to make the sense more clear or 
 the argument more forcible. In a few places 
 we added paragraphs. 
 
INTEODUCTION XIX 
 
 A number of foot-notes have been added. 
 
 The larger additions have been, first, this 
 Introductory and second a number of pages 
 and a new Chapter on Revivals. 
 
 We thought the latter additions advisable be- 
 cause the methods and spirit of present-day 
 Evangelism differ widely from those of the re- 
 vivalism in vogue when we first wrote the book. 
 It is our hope that these additions may be help- 
 ful toward a clearer understanding of profes- 
 sional Evangelism as it confronts us today. 
 
 We also add a number of Review Questions 
 for the use of Leagues, Societies, Brotherhoods 
 and Adult Classes, and a Topical Index. 
 
 For eighty-three of these ninety-four ques- 
 tions we are indebted to the Rev. H. E. Berkey, 
 of Roaring Springs, Pa. This genial and 
 capable brother prepared these valuable ques- 
 tions over a score of years ago. We knew 
 neither the name nor the address of the author 
 of the questions when we added them to the 
 thirty-second thousand edition. Since then we 
 have found him, and hereby gladly and grate- 
 fully give the credit which he so richly deserves. 
 
 May this Revised Edition, and its successors, 
 be a potent voice for God and for good in this 
 wilderness of sin and error. May it help to 
 bring our dear Church, so often misunderstood 
 and misrepresented, into her own in this doubt- 
 ing and drifting land of our love. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 I TAKE pleasure in commending this unpreten- 
 tious volume to the prayerful attention of all 
 English-speaking ministers and members of the 
 Lutheran Church. The aim of the author is to 
 present a clear, concise, and yet as comprehen- 
 sive a view as possible, of the way of salvation 
 as taught in the Scriptures, and held by the Lu- 
 theran Church. That he has accomplished his 
 task so as to make it throughout an illustration 
 of the truth as it is in Jesus, and a correct testi- 
 mony to the faith of the Church of which he is 
 an honored minister, I believe will appear to all 
 who read with an unbiased mind, and a knowl- 
 edge of the sources of information from which 
 he has drawn. There is always need for such 
 a candid and considerate statement of funda- 
 mental truth as this. The signs of the times 
 clearly indicate that there is no security for 
 the Church save in maintaining the Apostolic 
 faith and spirit — not the one without the other, 
 but the one with the other. The supremacy of 
 the Scriptures needs to be recognized with a 
 mightier emphasis, not only of the intellect, but 
 
 XX 
 
PREFACE XXI 
 
 also of the heart. This vital conjunction is 
 maintained in this book. I am certain that a 
 clear view of the way of salvation as taught by 
 the Scriptures and held by the Church will go 
 far not only toward correcting wrong impres- 
 sions, but will tend to the relief of much mental 
 perplexity, and to the increase of that much- 
 needed spirit of unity throughout our Church, 
 the want of which is not only the greatest 
 reflection on her noble history and holy faith, 
 but the greatest hindrance to her important 
 mission. A kindly Christ-like spirit pervades 
 this book, which is no small testimony to its 
 worth. 
 
 Those who stand up for the truth do not 
 always illustrate its spirit. Not all who might 
 desire greater unity in the Church are qualified 
 to promote it. The author of this little treatise 
 has not only manifested the proper spirit, but 
 he has shown as well the faculty of using it for 
 the increase of harmony, without the least dis- 
 loyalty to the Scriptures, or to the standards 
 of the Church. The appeal throughout is to 
 the Word of God. The faith of the Church is 
 subjected to this test, and it is maintained be- 
 cause it endures the test. 
 
 These chapters present a continuity of 
 thought which should not be lost sight of in 
 the reading. In order to get a correct verdict, 
 they should not be read with such discrimina- 
 
XXU PREFACE 
 
 tion as would accept some and reject others, 
 but from the first to the last in order. That 
 this little book may be owned of God to the 
 establishment of the faith of the Lutheran 
 Church, and for the promotion of a more mani- 
 fest unity among those who bear her name, is 
 a prayer in which I am sure many will join the 
 author of this work, and the writer of this in- 
 troductory note. 
 
 M. RHODES. 
 
 President of the General Synod 
 of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. 
 
 St. Louis, Mo., March, 1887. 
 
Prefatory Scripture Passages 
 
 To the Law and to the Testmony; if they speak not 
 according to this Word, it is because there is no light 
 in them.— laa. vlii. 20. 
 
 Thus saith the Lord; Stand ye in the ways, and see, and 
 ask for the old paths, where is the good way and walk 
 therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. — Jer. vi. 16. 
 
 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and 
 fro, and carried about with every wind of dontrine, by the 
 sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie 
 in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love, may 
 grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even 
 Christ.— Eph. iv. 14. 
 
 Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines; 
 for it is a good thing that the heart be established with 
 grace. — Heb. xiii. 9. 
 
 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue 
 in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and 
 them that hear thee. — I Tim. iv. 16. 
 
 Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast 
 heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. — 
 2 Tim. 1. 13. 
 
 And be ready always to give an answer to every man 
 that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with 
 meekness and fear. — I Pet. iii. 15. 
 
 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of 
 the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto 
 you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for 
 the faith, which was once delivered unto the taints. — 
 Jude 3. 
 
XXIV PBEFATORY SCBIPTURE PASSAGES 
 
 For the time will come when they will not endure sound 
 doctrine; but after, their own lusts they shall heap to 
 themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall 
 turn their ears away from the truth, and shall be turned 
 unto fables. — 2 Tim. iv. 3, 4. 
 
 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine 
 of Christ, hath not God. lie that abideth in the doctrine 
 of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there 
 come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive 
 him not into your house, neither bid him God-speed. For 
 he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evil 
 deeds.— 2 John 9, 10, 11. 
 
 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of 
 the Prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these 
 things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written 
 in this book; and if any man shall take away from the 
 words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away 
 his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, 
 and from the things which are written in tMs book. — Rev. 
 xxii. 18, 19. 
 
THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Ai.L Are Sinners. 
 
 WE often have heard from persons who 
 should have known better, remarks some- 
 thing like these: *'I wonder how sinners are 
 saved in the Lutheran Church?" *'I do not 
 hear of any being converted in the Lutheran 
 Church." More than once was the remark 
 made in our hearing that in certain churches 
 sinners were saved, because converted and 
 sanctified, while it was at least doubtful whether 
 any one could find such blessings in the Lu- 
 theran Church. The writer also freely con- 
 fesses, that in his early days, surrounded by 
 such unsettling influences, *'his feet had well- 
 nigh slipped — his steps were almost gone/' 
 Therefore, he can sympathize with those honest 
 questioners, who have not had the privileges of 
 instruction in the doctrines of sin and Grace, 
 and who are consequently in the dark. This 
 determined him to write a series of plain, prac- 
 25 
 
26 THE WAY OF SALVATION" 
 
 tical papers on the ''Way of Salvation in the 
 Lutheran Church. ' ' It was his endeavor to set 
 forth the manner and method through which 
 the Church of the Reformation proposes to 
 reach the sinner, and apply to him the redemp- 
 tion that is in Christ Jesus. 
 
 The first question that presents itself is: 
 Who are the subjects of salvation? The answer 
 clearly is : All who need to be saved. ^Hiom 
 does this embrace? The answer to this is not 
 so unanimous. The views diverge. True, there 
 is quite a substantial harmony on this point, 
 among all the older Protestant Confessions, 
 but the harmony is not so manifest among 
 the professed adherents of these Confessions. 
 
 In many of the denominations there is a wide- 
 spread skepticism as to the reality of original 
 sin, or native depravity. Doubtless on this 
 point the wish is father to the thought. The 
 doctrine that, "after Adam's fall, all men be- 
 gotten after the common course of nature, are 
 born with sin," is not palatable. It grates 
 harshly on the human ear. It is so humbling 
 to the pride of man's heart, and therefore he 
 tries to persuade himself that it is not true. It 
 has become fashionable to deny it. From the 
 pulpit, from the press, from the pages of our 
 most popular writers, we hear the old-fashioned 
 doctrine denounced as unworthy of this en- 
 lightened age. Thus the heresy has spread, and 
 
AU^ AEE SINNERS 27 
 
 is spreading. On every hand we meet men wlio 
 stand high in their churches, spurning the idea 
 that their children are sinners, and need to be 
 saved. Their creed is : ' ' I believe in the purity 
 and innocence of childhood, and in its fitness 
 for the kingdom of heaven, without any change 
 or application of divine Grace." Ah! yes, we 
 should all like to have this creed true. But is 
 it true? If not, our believing it will not make 
 it true. 
 
 Then let us go '^to the law and to the testi- 
 mony;" to the source and fountain of all truth, 
 the inspired Word of God. Listen to its sad 
 but plain statements. Job xv. 14: ''What is 
 man that he should be clean? and he which is 
 horn of a woman that he should he righteous?'* 
 Ps. li. 5 : "Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and 
 in sin did my mother conceive me/' John iii. 6 : 
 "That which is horn of the flesh is flesh,*' 
 Ephesians ii. 3: "Among whom also we all . . 
 . were hy nature" — i. e. by birth — "the chil- 
 dren of wrath even as others." These are a 
 few of the many clear, plain statements of the 
 divine Word. Nowhere does it teach that chil- 
 dren are born pure, righteous and fit for heaven. 
 
 The Luthean Church, then, teaches and con- 
 fesses nothing but the pure truth of God's Word 
 when in the Augsburg Confession, Article II., 
 she says : ' ' Also they teach, that after Adam 's 
 fall all men, begotten after the common course 
 
28 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 of nature, are born with sin." Also Smalcald 
 Articles, Part III., Article I: ''Here we must 
 confess, that sin originated from one man 
 Adam, by whose disobedience all were made 
 sinners and subject to death and the devil. This 
 is called original or capital sin . . . This 
 hereditary sin is so deep a corruption of nature 
 that no reason can understand it, but it must 
 be believed from the revelation of Scripture." 
 So also in the Formula of Concord, Chapter I., 
 ''Of Original Sin," we see a full presentation 
 of our faith and its foundation. Also Luther's 
 Explanation of the Second Article of the 
 Apostles' Creed, where he says: "Who — 
 Christ — has redeemed me, a poor, lost and con- 
 demned creature, secured and delivered me 
 from all sins, from death, and from the power 
 of the devil." 
 
 This, then is the teaching of our Church, as 
 founded on the Word of God. That this doc- 
 trine is true, beyond the possibility of a doubt, 
 we can learn even from reason. It will not be 
 disputed that what is in the child will show it- 
 self as it develops. The germs that lie hidden 
 there will unfold and bring forth their proper 
 and natural fruit. By its fruits we can know 
 even the child. And what are these fruits? 
 How long will it be before that helpless and 
 seemingly innocent b«be, that slumbers on its 
 mother's breast, will show symptoms of anger, 
 
ALL ARE SINNEES 
 
 29 
 
 jealousy, stubbornness and disobedience? Let 
 that child alone, and, without a teacher, it will 
 learn to lie, deceive, steal, curse and give pain 
 to others. But, without a teacher, it will not 
 learn to pray, confess wrong, and "fear, love 
 and trust in God above all things." Are these 
 the symptoms and evidences of inward purity, 
 or of inbred sin? 
 
 Again, that child is subject to sickness, suf- 
 fering and death. As soon as it draws its first 
 breath its life is a struggle. It must contend 
 against the inroads of disease. Its little body 
 is attacked by dire maladies. It is weakened by 
 suffering and often racked by pain. And how 
 frequently the feeble life succumbs and the in- 
 fant dies. 
 
 How can we account for this on the ground 
 of infant sinlessness? Do we not all believe 
 that suffering and death are the results of sin? 
 Is there, can there be suffering and death where 
 there is no sin? No babe would ever die if it 
 were without sin. ''The wages of sin is death." 
 But this wages is never exacted where the work 
 of sin has not been done. The conclusion then 
 is irresistible. The child is a sinner. It needs 
 salvation. It must be reached by saving Grace. 
 It must be counted in. It is one of the subjects 
 of salvation, and must be brought into the Way 
 of Salvation. 
 
 The Church is the Bride of Christ, the institu- 
 
30 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 tion through which Christ brings and applies 
 this Grace to the children of men. She must 
 begin with the child. She must reach down to 
 the tender infant and carry the cleansing and 
 life-giving Grace of the Redeemer even into its 
 sin-sick soul. 
 
 How is this to be done? How does the Lu- 
 theran Church propose to reach that child? 
 Let us lay aside all our own notions and preju- 
 dices. Let us come with an open and an un- 
 biased mind, ready to learn and believe what 
 God teaches and what our Church confesses. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ALL THAT IS BORN OF THE FLESH MUST BE BORN OF 
 THE SPIRIT. 
 
 IN the former chapter we have shown, from 
 Scripture and from reason, that our Church 
 teaches only the plain truth of God, when she 
 confesses that: "After Adam's fall, all men, 
 begotten after the common course of nature, 
 are born with sin. ' ' 
 
 As a sinful being the new-born infant is not 
 in the Way of Salvation. By its natural birth, 
 from sinful parents, it is not in the kingdom of 
 God, but in the realm and under the dominion 
 of sin, death and the devil. If left to itself — to 
 the undisturbed development of its own nature 
 — it must miserably and hopelessly perish. 
 True, there is a relative innocence. The Apostle 
 exhorts: *'Be ye folloivers of God, as dear 
 children/' ''In malice he ye children.'' Our 
 blessed Saviour, on several occasions, rebuked 
 the vain and ambitious spirit of the disciples by 
 contrasting it with the spirit of a little child. 
 He said: ''Of such is the kingdom of heaven," 
 and "Except ye be converted, and become as 
 31 
 
32 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 little children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of 
 heaven." 
 
 These passages are generally quoted by those 
 who refuse to believe the doctrine of Original 
 Sin, as though they taught sinlessness and nat- 
 ural j&tness for the kingdom. But if we accept 
 this interpretation, then the Scriptures contra- 
 dict themselves ; for we have seen that, in many 
 places, they clearly teach the opposite. These 
 passages can only mean that children are rela- 
 tively innocent. Compared with the forbidding, 
 haughty, loveless disciples, little children are 
 much better subjects for the kingdom. While 
 the roots of sin are there, that sin has not yet 
 done its hardening work. 
 
 They do not wilfully resist the good. They 
 are much more tender, docile, trustful and lov- 
 ing. The Grace of God has less to overcome 
 in them. They are more easily reached, and 
 thus are fit subjects to be brought into the king- 
 dom of God. In this sense only can it be said, 
 '* Suffer the little children to come unto me/' 
 that I may touch them, bless them, impart my 
 Grace to them, and thus make them partakers 
 of my kingdom. ^'Of such is the kingdom'' be- 
 cause I desire and purpose to bring them into 
 the kingdom. 
 
 Thus far we can safely go. This much in 
 favor of the child, over against the adult, we 
 freely admit. But this does not say that the 
 
THE NEW BIRTH 33 
 
 child is innocent, pure and holy by nature. The 
 undeveloped roots and germs of sin are still 
 there. Its nature is evil. It must be saved 
 from that moral nature. How? 
 
 Here again we meet those who claim to have 
 a very easy solution of the difficulty. They say : 
 "Admitting that the child has sin, this will in 
 no way endanger its salvation, because Christ 
 died to take away sin. Children have no con- 
 scious sin. Therefore, the atonement of Christ 
 covers their case, and, without anything fur- 
 ther, they pass into heaven, if they die in their 
 infancy. ' ' 
 
 This view seems to satisfy a great many well- 
 meaning people. Without giving the matter 
 any further thought, they dismiss it with this 
 seemingly easy solution. Surely, did they stop 
 to consider and examine this theory, they would 
 see that it has no foundation. 
 
 Christ's atonement alone, and in itself, never 
 saved a soul. It removed the obstacles that 
 were in the way of our salvation, opened the 
 way back to our Father 's house, purchased for- 
 giveness and salvation for us. But all this 
 profits the sinner nothing, so long as he is not 
 brought into that way; so long as the pur- 
 chased salvation is not applied to him person- 
 ally. 
 
34 THE WAY OF SALVATION" 
 
 The position is utterly groundless. It is even 
 contrary to reason. It assumes that a being who 
 has in his heart, as a very part of his nature, 
 the roots and germs of sin, can, with that heart 
 unchanged, enter into eternal bhss. It makes 
 (xod look upon sin with allowance. It does 
 violence to the hohness of His nature. It 
 makes Iieaven the abode of the imclean. 
 
 No, no. It will not do. When men try to 
 avoid what seem to them, difficult and unwel- 
 come doctrines of God's Word, they run into 
 far greater difficulties and contradictions. That 
 child is conceived and born in sin. It is a child 
 of wrath, dead in trespasses and in sins. Its 
 nature must be cleansed and renewed. Other- 
 wise, if it can pass into heaven as it is. there are 
 unregenerate souls in heaven! 
 
 Better abide by what is written, and believe 
 that every one, infant or adult, who has been 
 born of the flesh, must be, born of the Spirit. 
 Listen to the earnest words of Jesus as he em- 
 phasizes them with that solemn double affirma- 
 tion, ^* Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a 
 man he horn again he cannot see the kingdom 
 of God.'* He repeats this sweeping declaration 
 a second time. In the Greek it reads, Except 
 
THE NEW BIRTH 35 
 
 any one be born again. The assertion is in- 
 tended to embrace every human being. Lest 
 this should be disputed, Jesus further says, 
 "That which is born of the -flesh'* — i. e., nat- 
 urally born — "is flesh, and that which is horn 
 of the Spirit is spirit/* Wherever there is a 
 birth of the flesh, there must be a birth of the 
 Spirit. The flesh-born unchanged cannot even 
 see the kingdom of God, still less possess it, 
 much less enjoy it. There must be new life, 
 spiritual life, divine life breathed into that 
 fleshly, carnal nature. Thus will there be a new 
 heart, a new spirit, a new creature. Then, and 
 not till then, can there be comprehension, appre- 
 hension and appreciation of the things of the 
 kingdom of God. This is the teaching of the 
 whole Word of God. Gal. vi. 15. "For in 
 Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any- 
 thng, nor uncircumcision, hut a new creature'* 
 — i. e., neither Jewish birth nor Gentile birth, 
 without the new birth. 
 
 Here also then, spite of all objections, our 
 Church confesses the pure truth of God's Word, 
 when, in the second Article of the Augsburg 
 Confession, as quoted above, she goes on to say : 
 **And this disease, or original fault, is truly 
 sin, condemning and bringing eternal death 
 upon all that are not born again." 
 
 Here we must take our stand. No child can 
 be saved unless it be first reached by renewiug 
 
36 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Grace. If ever an infant did die, or should die, 
 in that state in which it was born, unchanged by 
 divine Grace, that infant is lost. There are, 
 there can be, no unregenerate souls in heaven. 
 Where there is no infant regeneration, there 
 can be no infant salvation. This will be more 
 fully explained in the next chapter. 
 
 Here also we remark, in passing, that this doc- 
 trine, of the absolute necessity of infant re- 
 generation, is not held by the Lutheran Church 
 alone. Even the Romish and Greek Churches 
 teach that it is impossible for any human crea- 
 ture, without a change from that condition in 
 which he was born, to enter heaven. All the 
 great historic confessions of the Protestant 
 churches confess the same truth. The Calvin- 
 istic Baptists also confess the necessity of in- 
 fant regeneration. 
 
 In short all churches that have paid much 
 attention to theology, and have been careful to 
 have consistent systems of doctrine, agree on 
 this point. However much those who call them- 
 selves by the names of these churches may deny 
 it in their preaching and in their conversation, 
 their own confessions of faith and their great- 
 est and best theologians clearly teach it. 
 
 Yes, there must be infant regeneration. But 
 is it possible? Can the Grace of God reach the 
 helpless infant? Will He reach down and make 
 it a new creature in Christ Jesus? Has He 
 
THE NEW BIKTH 37 
 
 made provision for this end? Yes, thanks be 
 to his abounding Grace, we believe He can and 
 will save the child, and has committed to His 
 spouse, the Church, a means of Grace for this 
 purpose. He, of whom it was prophesied long 
 before He came, that He would '' gather the 
 lambs in His arms and carry them in His 
 bosom;'* who made it the first duty of the re- 
 instated apostle to feed His lambs, must have a 
 special care for them. It is not His or His 
 Father's will "that one of them should perish." 
 He has made provision for these sin-stricken 
 ones, whereby His Grace can reach down to re- 
 new and heal them. There is a Balm in Gilead. 
 The Great Physician is there. The Church need 
 only apply His divine, life-giving remedy. 
 
CHAPTER m. 
 
 The Present, a Dispensation of Means. 
 
 WE have seen that the carnal, sinful nature 
 of the child unfits it for the kingdom of 
 heaven ; that, therefore, there must be a change 
 in that nature, even the birth of a new life, and 
 the life of a new creature, before there can be 
 either part pr lot in the kingdom of God. We 
 have also expressed our firm conviction that it 
 is the good and gracious will of God in Christ 
 to bestow upon the poor sin-sick and unholy 
 child the Grace needed to so change it as to 
 make it a partaker of His great salvation. We 
 do not deem it necessary to stop to multiply 
 scripture passages and arguments to prove this. 
 From beginning to end, the divine Word 
 everywhere represents our God as a most lov- 
 ing, gracious, compassionate and tender Being. 
 The tenor of the whole record is, that He de- 
 lights in showing mercy, forgiving iniquity, and 
 bestowing the Grace that bringeth salvation. 
 He only punishes when justice absolutely de- 
 mands it, and then reluctantly. It is not His 
 will that any should perish. 
 38 
 
THE PRESENT, A DISPENSATION OF MEANS 39 
 
 Beyond controversy, God is willing to save the 
 little helpless sufferers from sin, by making 
 them subjects oi His kingdom of Grace here, 
 and thus of His kingdom of glory hereafter. 
 
 But can He? Is He able to reach down to 
 that unconscious little child, apply to it the 
 benefits of the atonement, impart to it the Grace 
 of the new life, subdue the power of sin, and 
 remove entirely its guilt? We are almost 
 ashamed to ask such questions. And yet the 
 humiliating fact is, that day by day, in every 
 village and on every highway and public place 
 of our land, we can hear men and women, pro- 
 fessing to be Christians and calling themselves 
 members of Christ's Church, gravely asserting 
 that their Redeemer cannot so bless a little child 
 as to change its sinful nature ! If hard pressed, 
 these persons, so wise in their own conceits, 
 may admit that He can change a child 's nature 
 if He so wills, but they still feel certain that he 
 cannot do so through His own sacrament, insti- 
 tuted for that very purpose ! Thus would they 
 limit the Holy One of Israel, and say to Omni- 
 potence: ** Hitherto canst Thou come, but no 
 farther. ' ' 
 
 With such people, wise above what is written, 
 knowing better than Christ, practically, even if 
 not intentionally, charging the Son of God with 
 folly, we desire no controversy. Let them over- 
 throw the very foundations of redemption if 
 
40 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 they will. Let them argue that all things are 
 not possible with God if they dare. We still 
 prefer to believe that the Spirit of God can 
 change, renew and regenerate the new-born 
 child. In Matt. iii. 9, we read : ''For I say unto 
 you that God is able of these stones to raise up 
 children unto Abraham/* — i. e., as the connec- 
 tion shows, spiritual children of Abraham, true 
 children of God. 
 
 We may not be able to understand the pro- 
 cess by which God could change the rough, hard 
 stones of the field into true children of God, 
 but we believe it, because the Word says so. 
 And believing that, it is not hard for us to be- 
 lieve that He can impart His own divine life 
 to the heart of the child, and thus make it a 
 new creature in Christ Jesus. 
 
 He could, if it so pleased Him, do it without 
 any means. By a mere act of His will, God 
 could recreate the human soul. He could do so 
 by a word, as He created the universe. Without 
 the contact of any outward means, without di- 
 rectly bringing His Word to them in any 
 way, Christ healed the ruler's son and the 
 daughter of the Syro-Phenician woman. But 
 if He can do this without means, who will say 
 that He cannot do the same thing through 
 means? Since, then, He can accomplish his own 
 purposes of Grace either with or without 
 means, it only remains for us to inquire, in what 
 
THE PRESENT, A DISPENSATION OF MEANS 41 
 
 way has it pleased God to work? Does He in 
 the present dispensation work mediately or im- 
 mediately? It will scarcely be disputed that 
 the present is a dispensation of means — that 
 even in the domain of nature, and much more 
 in the realm of Grace, He ordinarily carries out 
 His purposes through means. He chooses His 
 own means. They may sometimes seem foolish- 
 ness to man, especially in the operations of His 
 Grace. 
 
 Our Saviour, in working miracles, used some 
 means that must have struck those interested 
 as very unsuitable. When He healed the man 
 blind from his birth, He mixed spittle and clay, 
 and with this strange ointment, anointed and 
 opened his eyes. Well might the blind man 
 have said: *'What good can a little earth 
 mixed with spittle do?" Yet it pleased our 
 Lord to use it as a means, in working that stu- 
 pendous miracle. When Jesus asked for the 
 five barley loaves and two small fishes, to feed 
 the five thousand, even an apostle said : ' ' What 
 are these among so many?'* Yes, what are 
 they? In the hands of a mere man nothing — 
 nay, worse than nothing; only enough to taunt 
 the hungry thousands and become a cause of 
 strife and riot. But in the hands of the Son 
 of God, with His blessing on them, taken from 
 His hands, and distributed according to His 
 Word, they became a feast in the wilderness. 
 
4J THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 A poor woman, a sufferer for twelve years, 
 craves healing from our Lord. With a woman 's 
 faith, timid though strong, she presses through 
 the crowd close up to Jesus, and with her tremb- 
 ling bony fingers touches the hem of His gar- 
 ment. Jesus perceives that virtue is gone out of 
 Him. The woman perceives that virtue, healing 
 and life are come into her. There was a trans- 
 fer from Christ's blessed life-giving body, into 
 the diseased suffering body of the woman. And 
 what was the medium of the transfer? The 
 fringe of His garment — a piece of cloth. Yes, 
 if it so pleases the mighty God, the everlasting 
 Saviour, He can use a piece of cloth as a 
 means to transfer healing and life from Him- 
 self to a suffering one. 
 
 The same divine Saviour now works through 
 means. He has founded a Church, ordained 
 a ministry, and instituted the preaching of the 
 Word and the administration of His own 
 sacraments. Christ now works in and through 
 His Church. Through her ministry, preach- 
 ing the Word, and administering the sacra- 
 ments, the Holy Spirit is given. (Augsburg 
 Confession, Article 5.) When Christ sent forth 
 His apostles to make disciples of all nations. He 
 instructed them how they were to do it. The 
 commission correctly translated, as we have 
 it in the Revised New Testament reads thus: 
 "Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all 
 
THE PRESENT, A DISPENSATION OF MEANS 43 
 
 the nations, baptizing them into the name of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost; teaching them to observe all things 
 whatsoever I commanded you; and lo, I am with 
 you alway, even unto the end of the world." 
 Here then is the Saviour's explicit instruction. 
 The Apostles are to make disciples. This is the 
 object of their mission. How are they to do 
 it? By baptizing them into the name of the 
 triune God, and teaching them to observe all 
 Christ's commands. This is Christ's own ap- 
 pointed way of applying His Grace to sinful 
 men, and bringing them out of a state of sin 
 into a state of grace. 
 
 And this is the Way of Salvation in the Lu- 
 theran Church. We begin with the child, who 
 needs Grace. We begin by baptizing that child 
 into Christ. We, therefore, lay much stress on 
 baptism. We teach our people that it is sinful, 
 if not perilous, to neglect the baptism of their 
 children. The Lutheran Church attaches more 
 importance to this divine ordinance than does 
 any other Protestant Church. While all around 
 us there has been a weakening and yielding on 
 this point; while the spirit of our age and 
 country scorns the idea of a child receiving di- 
 vine Grace through baptism; while it has be- 
 come offensive to the popular ear to speak of 
 baptismal Grace, our Church, wherever she has 
 been and is true to herself, stands to-day where 
 
44 THE WAY OF SALVATION" 
 
 Martin Luther and his co-workers stood, where 
 the confessors of Augsburg stood, and where 
 the framers of the Book of Concord stood. 
 
 The world still asks: **What good can a 
 little water do?" We answer, first of all: 
 *' Baptism is not simply water, but it is the 
 water comprehended in God's command, and 
 connected with God 's Word. ' ' (Luther 's Small 
 Catechism. ) The Lutheran Church knows of no 
 baptism that is only * * a little water. ' ' We can- 
 not speak of such a baptism. Let it be clearly 
 understood that when we speak of baptism, we 
 speak of it as defined above, by Luther. We 
 cannot separate the water from the Word. We 
 would not dare to baptize with water without 
 the Word. In the words of Luther, that would 
 be ' * simply water, and no baptism. ' * Let it be 
 kept constantly in mind that whatever benefits 
 and effects we ascribe to baptism, in the further 
 forcible words of Luther's Catechism: **It is 
 not the water, indeed, that produces these ef- 
 fects, but the Word of God which accompanies 
 and is connected with the water, and our faith 
 which relies on the Word of God connected with 
 the water." If now the question is further 
 asked : What good can baptism as thus defined 
 do? we will try to answer, or, rather, we will 
 let God's Word answer. **What saith the 
 Scripture?'* 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Baptism, a Divinely Appointed Means of 
 Geace. 
 
 WHEN we inquire into the benefits and bles- 
 sings which the Word of God connects with 
 baptism we must be careful to obtain the true 
 sense and necessary meaning of its declarations. 
 It is not enough to pick out an isolated passage 
 or two, give them a sense of our own, and forth- 
 with build on them a theory or a doctrine. In 
 this way the Holy Scriptures have been made 
 to teach and support the gravest errors and 
 most dangerous heresies. In this way many 
 persons ''wrest the Scriptures to their own 
 destruction/* On this important point our 
 Church has laid down certain plain, practical, 
 safe and sound principles. By keeping in mind, 
 and following these fundamental directions, in 
 the interpretation of the divine Word, the plain- 
 est searcher of the Scriptures can save himself 
 from great confusion, perplexity and doubt. 
 
 One of the first and most important princi- 
 ples, insisted on by our theologians and the 
 framers of our Confessions, is that a passage 
 of Scripture is always to be taken in its natural, 
 45 
 
46 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 plain and literal sense, unless there is some- 
 tliing in the text itself, or in the context, that 
 clearly indicates that it is intended to convey 
 a figurative sense. 
 
 Again : A passage is never to be torn from 
 its connection, but is to be studied in connection 
 with what goes before and follows after. 
 
 Again — and this is of the greatest importance 
 — Scripture is to be interpreted by Scripture. 
 As Quenstedt says: ''Passages which need ex- 
 planation can and should be explained by other 
 passages that are more clear, and thus the 
 Scripture itself furnishes an interpretation of 
 obscure expressions, when a comparison of 
 these is made with those that are more clear. 
 So that Scripture is explained by Scripture. ' ' 
 
 According to these principles, we ought never 
 to be fully certain that any doctrine is scrip- 
 tural, until we have examined all that the divine 
 Word says on the subject. In this manner then 
 we wish to answer the question : What is writ- 
 ten as to the benefits and blessings conferred 
 in baptism? 
 
 We have already referred to the commission 
 given to the Apostles in Matt, xxviii. 19. We 
 have seen that in that commission our Lord 
 makes baptism one of the means through which 
 the Holy Spirit operates in making disciples. 
 In Mark xvi. 16, he says: '^He that believeth 
 and is baptized shall be saved." In John iii. 5, 
 
BAPTISM, A DIVINE MEANS OF GRACE 47 
 
 he says: "Except a man" — i. e., any one — "be 
 born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter 
 the kingdom of God." In Acts ii. 38, the 
 Apostle says: "Repent and be baptized every 
 one of you for the remission of your sins." 
 Acts xxii. 16 : "Arise and be baptized, and wash 
 away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." 
 Romans vi. 3: "Know ye not that so many of 
 us as were baptized into Christ, were baptized 
 into His dcathf" Gal. iii. 27: "For as many 
 of you as have been baptized into Christ, have 
 put on Christ." Eph. v. 25-26: "Christ also 
 loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that 
 He might sanctify and cleanse it with the 
 washing of water by the Word." Col. ii. 12: 
 "Buried with Him in baptism, wherein ye are 
 also risen with Him through the faith of the 
 operation of God." Tit. iii. 5: "According to 
 His mercy He saved us by the washing of re- 
 generation, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." 
 1 Pet. iii. 20: " . . . tchile the ark teas a prepar- 
 ing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, tcere saved 
 through water: which also after a true likeness 
 doth now save you, even baptism, not the put- 
 ting away of the filth of the flesh, but the inter- 
 rogation of a good conscience toward God, 
 through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." 
 (Am. Stand.) 
 
 These are the principal passages which treat 
 of the subject of baptism. There are a few 
 other passages in which baptism is merely men- 
 tioned, but not explained. There is not one 
 
48 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 passage that teaches any thing different from 
 those here quoted. 
 
 All we now ask of the reader is to examine 
 these passages carefully to compare them one 
 with the other and to ask himself: What do 
 they teach ? What is the meaning which a plain, 
 unprejudiced reader, who has implicit confi- 
 dence in the Word and power of God, would de- 
 rive from them ? Can he say, * ' There is nothing 
 in baptism?" *^It is of no consequence." *'It 
 is only a Church ceremony, without any particu- 
 lar blessing in it.*' Or, do the words clearly 
 teach that it is something more than a sign — an 
 outward sign — of an invisible grace ? 
 
 Look again at the expressions of these pas- 
 sages. We desire to be clear here, because this 
 is one of the points on which the Lutheran 
 Church to-day differs from others. Jesus men- 
 tions wafer as well as Spirit, when speaking of 
 the new birth. "Make disciples, (by) baptizing 
 them. " * ' Be baptized for the remission of your 
 sins." "Be baptized and wash away ihy sin." 
 "Baptized into Christ." By baptism "put on 
 Christ." Christ designs to sanctify and cleanse 
 the Church with "the washing of water by the 
 Word. " " Washing of regeneration and renew- 
 ing of the Holy Ghost." ". . . water, which also 
 after a true likeness saves you, even bap- 
 tism . . ." The language is certainly strong 
 and plain. Any principle of interpretation, by 
 which baptismal Grace and regeneration can 
 
BAPTISM, A DIVINE MEANS OF GRACE 49 
 
 be eliminated from these passages, will over- 
 throw every doctrine of our holy Christian 
 faith. 
 
 Our Catechism here also teaches nothing but 
 the pure truth of the Word, when it asserts 
 that baptism ''worketh forgiveness of sins, de- 
 livers from death and the devil, and confers 
 everlasting salvation on all who believe, as 
 the Word and promise of God declare." Our 
 solid and impregnable Augsburg Confession, 
 also, when in Article II. it confesses that the 
 now birth by baptism and the Holy Spirit de- 
 livers from the power and penalty of original 
 sin. Also in Article IX., *'of baptism they 
 teach that it is necessary to salvation, and that 
 by baptism the Grace of God is offered, and that 
 children are to be baptized, who by baptism 
 being offered to God, are received into God's 
 favor." And so with all our other confessional 
 writings. 
 
 The question might here be asked: Is bap- 
 tism so absolutely essential to salvation, that 
 unbaptized children are lost? To this we would 
 briefly replv, that the very men who drew up 
 our Confessions deny emphatically that it is 
 thus absolutely necessary. Luther, Melanch- 
 thon, Bugenhagen and others, repudiate the idea 
 that an unbaptized infant is lost. No single ac- 
 knowledged theologian of the Lutheran Church 
 ever taught this repulsive doctrine. Why then 
 
50 
 
 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 does our Confession say baptism is necessary 
 to salvation? It is necessary in the same sense 
 in which it is necessary to use all Christ's or- 
 dinances. The necessity is ordinary, not abso- 
 lute. Ordinarily Christ bestows His Grace on 
 the child through baptism, as the means or 
 channel through which the Holy Spirit is con- 
 ferred. But when, through no fault of its own, 
 this is not applied. He can reach it in some 
 other way. 
 
 As we have seen above, He is not so limited 
 to certain means, that His Grace cannot operate 
 without them. The only thing on which our 
 Church insists in the case of a child as abso- 
 lutely necessary, is the new birth. Ordinarily 
 this is effected, by the Holy Spirit, through 
 baptism, as the means of Grace. When the 
 means, however, cannot be or, through no fault 
 of the child, are not applied, the Spirit of God 
 can effect this new birth in some other way. He 
 is not bound to means. And from what we have 
 learned above of the will of God toward these 
 little ones we have every reason to believe that 
 He does so reach and change every infant that 
 dies unbaptized. The position of our Church, 
 as accepted by all her great theologians, was 
 tersely and clearly expressed by Augustine in 
 the words, "Not the absence but the contempt 
 of the sacrament condemns. ' ' Not the child but 
 
BAPTISM, A DIVINE MEANS OF GKACE 51 
 
 the parents are responsible for the absence of 
 the Sacrament. The guilt is on the parents. 
 
 While the Lutheran Church, therefore, has 
 confidence enough in her dear heavenly Father 
 and loving Saviour, to believe that her Lord 
 will never let a little one perish, but will always 
 regenerate and fit it for His blessed Kingdom 
 ere He takes it hence, she still strenuously in- 
 sists on having the children of all her. house- 
 holds baptized into Christ. It certainly cannot 
 be a matter of indifference to deprive one of 
 these little ones of a means of Grace. 
 
 Others may come and say: You have no 
 authority in the Bible for baptizing infants. 
 Without entering fully upon this point we 
 briefly say: It is enough for a Lutheran to 
 know that the divine commission is to "baptize 
 the nations'* — there never was a nation without 
 infants. The children need Grace : baptism con- 
 fers Grace. It is vspecially adapted to impart 
 spiritual blessings to these little ones. We can- 
 not take the preached Word, but we can take 
 the sacramental Word and apply it to them. 
 God established infant membership in his 
 Church. He alone has a right to revoke it. He 
 has never done so. Therefore it stands. If the 
 Old Testament convenant of Grace embraced in- 
 fants, the New is not narrower, but wider. 
 
 The pious Baptist mother's heart is much 
 more scripturally correct than her head. She 
 
52 THE WAY OF SALVATIOIT 
 
 presses her babe to her bosom, and prays 
 earnestly to Jesus to bless that babe. Her 
 heart knows and believes that that dear child 
 needs the blessing of Jesus, and that He can 
 bestow the needed blessing. And yet she will 
 deny that He can bless it through His own 
 sacrament — ''the washing of water hy the 
 Word." 
 
 The devout Lutheran mother presses her 
 baptized child to her bosom, looks into its eyes, 
 and thanks her Saviour from the depth of her 
 heart, that He has blessed her child; that He 
 has breathed into it His divine life, washed it, 
 sealed it, and adopted it as His son or daughter. 
 How sweet the consolation to know that her 
 precious little one is a lamb of Christ's flock, 
 ''hearing on its body the marks of the Lord 
 Jesus.'' 
 
 But Christian parents have not fulfilled their 
 whole duty when they have had their children 
 baptized into Christ. The children certainly 
 are now in covenant relationship with Jesus 
 Christ. But it is the bounden duty and blessed 
 privilege of father and mother to keep their 
 little ones in that covenant of Grace. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Baptismal Covenant Can Be Kept Un- 
 broken. Aim and Responsibility of 
 Parents. 
 
 WE have gone "to the Law and to the Testi- 
 mony" to find out what the nature and 
 benefits of Baptism are. We have gathered out 
 of the Word all the principal passages bearing 
 on this subject. We have grouped them to- 
 gether and have studied them side by side. We 
 have noticed that their sense is uniform, clear 
 and strong. Unless we are willing to throw 
 aside all sound principles of interpretation, we 
 can extract from the words of inspiration only- 
 one meaning, and that is that the baptized child 
 is, by virtue of that divine ordinance, a new 
 creature in Christ Jesus. 
 
 Here let us be careful, however, to bear in 
 mind and keep before us that we claim for the 
 child only the hirth of a new life. It has been 
 horn of water and the Spirit. A birth we know 
 is but a very feeble beginning of an independent 
 life. So faint are the flickerings of the natural 
 life at birth, that it is often doubtful whether 
 53 
 
64 THE WAY OP SALVATION" 
 
 any life is present. The result of a birth is not 
 a full-grown man, but a very weak and helpless 
 babe. The little life needs the most tender, 
 watchful and intelligent fostering and care. 
 
 So is it also in the Kingdom of Grace. The 
 divine life is there. But it is life in its first be- 
 ginnings. As yet there is only the seed and 
 germ of the new life. And this young spiritual 
 life also needs gentle fostering and careful 
 nourishing. Like the natural life of the child, 
 so its spiritual life is beset with perils. While 
 the germs of the new life are there, we must 
 not forget that the roots of sin are also still 
 there. Our Church does not teach with Eome 
 that *^sin (original) is destroyed in baptism, 
 so that it no longer exists." Hollazius says: 
 ''The guilt and dominion of sin is taken away 
 by baptism, but not the root or tinder of sin. ' ' 
 Luther also writes that "Baptism takes away 
 the guilt of sin, although the material, called 
 concupiscencej remains." 
 
 Unfortunately for the child these roots of sin 
 will grow of their own accord, like the weeds 
 in our gardens. They need no fostering care. 
 Not so with the germs of the new life. They, 
 like the most precious plants of the gardens, 
 must be watched and guarded and tended con- 
 tinually. Solomon says; Prov. xxix. 15, ^'A 
 child left to himself bringeth his mother to 
 
THE BAPTISMAL COVENANT 55 
 
 shame.** And this is only too often true even 
 of a baptized child. 
 
 The Christian parent, therefore, has not ful- 
 filled his whole duty to the child when he has 
 had it baptized. It is now the parents' duty; 
 or rather it should be considered the parents' 
 most blessed privilege to keep that child in 
 covenant relationship with the blessed Re- 
 deemer. This also belongs to the teaching of 
 the Church of the Reformation. This point, 
 however, many parents seem to forget. Many 
 who are sound on the question of baptismal 
 Grace, are very unsound as to a parent's duty 
 to the baptized child. 
 
 Hunnius, a recognized standard theologian 
 of our Church, in speaking of the responsibil- 
 ity of those who present children for baptism 
 says it is expected of them First, to answer, in 
 behalf of the child, as to the faith in which it is 
 to be baptized, and in which it is to be brought 
 up. Second, to instruct the child when it comes 
 to years of discretion, that it has been truly bap- 
 tized, as Christ has commanded. Third, to pray 
 for the child, that God may keep it in that 
 Covenant of Grace, bless it in body and spirit, 
 and finally save it with all true believers, and 
 Fourth, to use all diligence that the child may 
 grow up in that faith, which they have con- 
 fessed in the child's name, and thus be pre- 
 served from dangerous error and false doctrine. 
 
56 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 That most delightful Lutheran theologian, 
 Luthardt, says : ' * Infant baptism is a comfort 
 beyond any other, but it is also a responsibility 
 beyond any other. ' ' Again : ' * As Christians we 
 know that God has bestowed upon our children 
 not only natural, but spiritual gifts. For our 
 children have been baptized and received by 
 baptism into the Covenant of Grace. To pre- 
 serve them in this baptismal Grace, to develop 
 in them the life of God's spirit, this is one side 
 of Christian education. To contend against 
 sin in the child is the other." Dr. Schmid, in 
 his Christian Ethics, also teaches that it is 
 possible to continue in the uninterrupted enjoy- 
 ment of baptismal Grace. Dr. Pontoppidan, in 
 his excellent explanation of Luther's Small 
 Catechism, asks the question: ''Is it possible 
 to keep one's baptismal covenant?" He an- 
 swers: ''Yes, by the Grace of God it is possi- 
 ble." 
 
 The teaching of our Church, therefore, is 
 that the baptized child can grow up a child of 
 Grace from infancy and that, under God, it 
 rests principally with the parents or guardians 
 whether it shall be so. And this Lutheran idea, 
 like all others, is grounded in the Word of God. 
 
 We note a few examples : Samuel was a child 
 of prayer, given to his pious mother in answer 
 to prayer. She called him Samuel, i. e., asked 
 of God. Even before his birth she dedicated 
 
THE BAPTISMAL COVENANT 57 
 
 him to God. As soon as he was weaned she 
 carried him to the Tabernacle and there publicly 
 consecrated him to the service of the Most 
 High. From this time forth, according to the 
 sacred record, he dwelt in God's Tabernacle 
 and ''ministered unto the Lord before Eli." 
 As a mere child God used him as a prophet. 
 Of the prophet Jeremiah it is written: (Jer. i. 
 5) "Before thou earnest forth out of the womb, 
 I sanctified thee." Of John the Baptist it is 
 written: (Luke i. 15) "He shall be filled with 
 the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb." 
 To Timothy, Paul says: "From a child thou 
 hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able 
 to make thee wise unto salvation," and in speak- 
 ing of Timothy's faith Paul says that that faith 
 "dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy 
 mother Eunice." Psalms Ixxi. 5-6: "Thou art 
 my trust from my youth. By thee have I been 
 holden up from the womb." 
 
 It is therefore possible for God not only to 
 give His Grace to a child but to keep that child 
 in His Grace all its days. To dispute this is, 
 simply, to dispute the record that God gave. 
 
 Lest some one should still say, however, that 
 the examples above noted are isolated and ex- 
 ceptional, we note further, that the tenor of the 
 whole Word is in harmony with this idea. No- 
 where in the whole Bible is it even intimated 
 that it is God's desire or plan that children 
 
58 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 must remain outside of the covenant of Grace, 
 and have no part or lot in the benefits of 
 Christ's redeeming work until they come to 
 years of discretion and can choose for them- 
 selves. This modern idea is utterly foreign and 
 contradictory to all we know of God, of His 
 scheme of redemption, and of His dealings with 
 His people, either in the old or new dispensa- 
 tion. He ordained that infants at eight days 
 old should be brought into His covenant. He 
 recognized infant children as partakers of the 
 blessings of His covenant. "Out of the mouth 
 of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected 
 praise;'' "Suffer them to come unto Me." 
 Everywhere it is taken for granted that the 
 children who have received either the Old or 
 New Testament sacrament of initiation are His. 
 Nowhere are parents exhorted to use their en- 
 deavors to have such children converted, as 
 though they had never been touched by divine 
 Grace. But everyw^here they are exhorted to 
 keep them in that relation to their Lord, into 
 which His own ordiance has brought them. Gen. 
 xviii. 19, "I know that he tvill command his 
 household after him, and that they shall keep 
 the way of the Lord." Psalm Ixxviii. 6, 7, "That 
 the generation to come might knoiv them, even 
 the children which should be born, which should 
 arise and declare them to their children, that 
 they might set their hope in God, and not forget 
 
THE BAPTISMAL COVENANT 
 
 59 
 
 the works of God, but keep His command- 
 ments.'* Prov. xxii. 6, ''Train up a child in the 
 way he should go; when he is old he will not 
 depart from it." Eph. vi. 4, "Bring them up in 
 the nurture and admonition of the Lord." 
 
 Let the baptized child then be looked upon 
 as already belonging to Christ. Let the parents 
 not worry as though it could not be His until 
 it experiences a change of heart. That heart 
 has been changed. The germs of faith and love 
 are there. If the parent appreciates this fact 
 and does his part, there will be developed, very 
 early, the truest confidence and trust in Christ, 
 and the purest love to God. From the germs 
 will grow the beautiful plant of child-trust and 
 child-love. The graces of the new life may be 
 thus early drawn out, so that the child in after 
 years will never know of a time when it did not 
 trust and love God and as a result of this love 
 hate sin. This is the ideal of God's AVord. It is 
 the ideal which every Christian parent should 
 strive to realize in the children given by God, 
 and given to God in His own ordinance. Can 
 it be done? 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Home Influence and Training in Theib 
 
 Relation to the Keeping of the 
 
 Baptismal Covenant 
 
 ACCORDING to the last chapter, it is indeed 
 a high and holy ideal that every Christian 
 parent should set before him in regard to his 
 children. Every child that God gives to a 
 Christian parent is to be so treated that, from 
 the hour of its baptism, it is to be a son or a 
 daughter of God. It is to be so fostered and 
 nurtured and trained that, from its earliest self- 
 consciousness, it is to grow day by day in 
 knowledge and in Grace. As it increases in 
 stature, so it is to increase in wisdom and in 
 favor with God and with man. 
 
 In order that this may be realized, it is first 
 of all necessary that there be the proper sur- 
 roundings. We cannot expect that parent to 
 draw out these graces of the new life in the 
 child, who is not himself imbued with a spirit 
 of living faith and fervent love to Christ. In 
 the beautiful words of Luthardt: ''Religion 
 must first approach the child in the form of 
 60 
 
HOME INFLUENCE AND TRAINING 61 
 
 life, and afterward in the form of instruction. 
 Let religion be the atmosphere by which the 
 child is surrounded, the air which it breathes. 
 The whole spirit of the home, its order, its 
 practice — that world in which the child finds 
 himself so soon as he knows himself — this it is 
 which must make religion appear to him a thing 
 natural and self-evident." 
 
 And this is especially important for the 
 mother. It is while resting on the mother's 
 bosom and playing at the mother's knee, that 
 the child is receiving impressions that become 
 stones for character building. The father, of 
 course, is not released from responsibility. He 
 too is to set a holy example, to make impres- 
 sions for good and to use all his influence to di- 
 rect the thoughts and inclinations of the child 
 upward. The man who does not help in the 
 religious training of his own children is not fit 
 to be a father. But it is after all with the 
 mother that the little child spends most of its 
 time and receives most of its impressions. Oh, 
 that every mother were a Hannah, an Elizabeth, 
 an Eunice. Then w^ould there be more Samuels, 
 Johns and Timothys. Let us have more of the 
 spirit of Christ in the heart of the mother and 
 father, and in the home. Let the child learn, 
 with the first dawnings of self-consciousness, 
 that Jesus is known and loved and honored in 
 
62 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 the home, and there will be little or no trouble 
 about the future. 
 
 But the child must be instructed. Begin 
 early. Let it learn to pray as soon as it can 
 speak. Let it use its first lispings and stam- 
 merings in speaking words of prayer. We 
 quote again from Luthardt: ''Let it not be 
 objected that the child cannot understand the 
 prayer. The way of education is by practice 
 to understanding, not by understanding to prac- 
 tice. And the child will have a feeling and a 
 presentiment of what it cannot understand. The 
 world of heavenly things is not an incompre- 
 hensible region to the child, but the home of its 
 spirit. The child will speak to his Father in 
 Heaven without needing much instruction as to 
 who that Father is. It seems as though God 
 were a well-known friend of his heart. The 
 child will love to pray. If mother forgets it, 
 the child will not." 
 
 Therefore, oh, ye parents! pray for your 
 child. Pray with your child. Teach that child 
 to pray. The writer knows of a little girl who 
 came home from Sunday-school and said: 
 ' ' Mamma, why don 't you ever pray ? ' ' What a 
 rebuke ! 
 
 The ciiild must be taught the truth of God's 
 Word. It also must be sanctified, i. e., made 
 more and more holy "through the truth." As 
 a child it needs first the 'Unilk of the Word." 
 
HOME INFLUENCE AND TRAINING 63 
 
 It is not desirable, neither is it necessary, to 
 try to teach the very young child doctrines and 
 abstract truths. Neither ought the child to be 
 required to learn by rote long passages from 
 the Scriptures. In this way some well-meaning 
 but mistaken parents make the Word a burden 
 to their children, and it becomes odious in their 
 eyes. There are other and better ways. Begin 
 by showing the child Bible pictures, even if it 
 should soil the book a little. Better a thousand 
 times have the lessons of life and love from 
 the old Bible graven on the heart of the child, 
 than to have its fine engravings as a parlor 
 ornament for strangers. In our day there is 
 also an abundant supply of Bible pictures and 
 story books for children. Those parents who 
 have never tried it will be surprised to see the 
 interest the little ones will take in these. With 
 the pictures connect the stories of the Bible. 
 And where are the stories better calculated to 
 interest a child than those same old stories, that 
 have edified a hundred generations ? When will 
 children ever weary of hearing of Joseph, and 
 Moses, and David, and Daniel, and especially 
 of Him who is the special Friend of children? 
 It will be easy to so connect the teachings of the 
 Word with these pictures and stories that very 
 young children will be able to distinguish right 
 from wrong, to know and hate sin, and to be 
 drawn ever nearer to the blessed Jesus. 
 
64 THE WAY OF SAI^VATION 
 
 As they become able to study, to think and to 
 comprehend it, the judicious parent will be glad 
 to avail himself of the help of Luther's Cate- 
 chism. Here the more important teachings of 
 the Word are summarized and systematized. 
 
 Most parents indeed are glad to shirk this 
 duty, and flatter themselves that if they send 
 their children to catechetical class when they 
 grow old enough they have performed their 
 whole duty. Such parents do not perhaps 
 know, that Martin Luther wrote his Small 
 Catechism especial^ for family use. Let them 
 take their Church Books and turn to the Cate- 
 chism, and they will find that Luther heads the 
 Ten Commandments with the words : "In the 
 plain form in which they are to be taught by 
 the head of the family." 
 
 So also with the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, 
 and the Sacraments. This is Luther's idea. 
 
 It is the true idea. It belongs to the Way of 
 Salvation in the Lutheran Church. It is the 
 custom, still practiced in our older Lutheran 
 churches. The pastor, as we shall see hereafter, 
 is only to help the parents, and not to do it all 
 for them. The teaching of the Catechism at 
 home, will give the parents an opportunity to 
 speak of and to explain what sin is, what faith 
 is, what prayer is, and what the sacraments are. 
 
 We would impress also the importance of in- 
 structing the child concerning its own baptism. 
 
HOME INFLUENCE AND TRAINING 65 
 
 Let it understand not only the fact of its bap- 
 tism, but the nature, benefits and obligations 
 of the same. It certainly has a most salutary 
 effect to impress the thought on the child fre- 
 quently that it was given to Christ and belongs 
 to Him — that He has received it as His own, 
 and adopted it into the family of the redeemed. 
 
 Here also there is a sad neglect on the part 
 of parents. Many never say a word to their 
 children about their baptism. Many children 
 even grow up and know not whether they are 
 baptized or not. This is certainly un-Scriptural 
 and un-Lutheran. ''Know ye not/' says Paul, 
 as if he said, have you forgotten it I ''that as 
 many of us as have been baptized into Christ 
 have been baptized into His death?" Doubtless 
 if we appreciated our own baptism as we 
 should, it would be a constant source of com- 
 fort, a never-failing fountain of Grace to us, 
 and to our children. 
 
 The Apostles frequently speak of the 
 "Church that is in the house." By this they 
 mean such a household as we have tried to por- 
 tray — a home where the religion of our blessed 
 Saviour permeates the whole atmosphere; 
 where the Word of God dwells richly; where 
 there are altars of prayer and closets for prayer 
 — a home where Jesus is a daily, a well-known 
 Guest ; where the children, baptized into Christ, 
 are nourished with the milk of the Word, so 
 
66 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 that they grow thereby, increasing more and 
 more, growing up unto Him who is the Head, 
 even Christ. In such a home the Church is in 
 the house, and the household in the Church. 
 Blessed home! Blessed children, who have 
 such parents, who have thus learned God's ways 
 of Grace! No anxious, restless parents there, 
 hoping and praying that their children may be 
 converted. No confused, repelled children 
 there, crying because Jesus will not love them 
 till they ''get religion." On the contrary, 
 parents and children, kneeling at one altar, 
 children of one Father, with the same trust, 
 the same hope, the same Lord — hand in hand 
 they go from the church in the house to the 
 house of God's Church. 
 
 Says Dr. Cuyler, an eminent Presbyterian, 
 ' * The children of Christian parents ought never 
 to need conversion." 
 
CHAPTEB VII. 
 
 The Sunday School in Its Eelation to the 
 Baptized Children of Christian Parents. 
 
 WE have tried to set forth the Lutheran idea 
 of a Christian home. In such a home, 
 called, "a Church in the House," all ought to be 
 Christians. The children having been given 
 and consecrated to Christ in holy baptism, and 
 having had His renewing and life-giving Grace 
 imparted to them through that Sacrament, are 
 to be kept in that relationship with Him. 
 
 The popular idea that they must of necessity, 
 during the most impressible and important 
 period of their existence, belong to the world, 
 the flesh and the devil, is utterly foreign to the 
 Lutheran, or Scriptural view. That the child 
 is fated, for a number of years, to be under the 
 influence of evil, and to be permitted to **sow 
 wild oats" before divine Grace can reach it, is 
 certainly a principle that is contradictory to the 
 whole scheme of salvation. Yet this seems to 
 be the idea of those parents who will not believe 
 that God can reach and change the nature of a 
 child, and bring it out of the state of nature 
 67 
 
bo THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 into the state of Grace, and keep it in that 
 Grace. These people treat their children much 
 as a farmer does his colts, letting them run 
 wild for a while, and then violently breaking 
 them in. 
 
 This pernicious idea has also obtained sway 
 to an alarming extent in the Sunday-school 
 system of our land. The children in the Sun- 
 day-school, whether baptized or not, whether 
 from Christian or from Christless homes, are 
 looked upon as outsiders, impenitent sinners, 
 utter strangers to Christ and His Grace, until 
 they experience such a marked change that 
 they can tell exactly where and when and how 
 they were converted. Hence the popular idea 
 that it is the object of the Sunday-school to 
 convert the children. This seems to be the un- 
 derlying principle of both the American Sun- 
 day-school Union and the American Tract 
 Society ; institutions otherwise so excellent that 
 we are loth to say aught against either. This 
 idea pervades also the undenominational helps 
 and comments of the International Lesson Sys- 
 tem. This is the undertone of the great mass 
 of undenominational Sunday-school hymnology. 
 It is the key-note of the County, State, National 
 and International Sunday-school Conventions 
 and Institutes. So popular and wide-spread is 
 this idea that many Lutheran pastors, Sunday- 
 school teachers and workers have unconsciously 
 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND BAPTIZED CHILDREN 69 
 
 imbibed it. Even some of our own Church 
 papers, sometimes publish articles setting 
 forth the idea that it is the object of the 
 Sunday-school to Christianise the children. 
 As though the baptized children of the 
 Church, the children of devout Christian par- 
 ents, had been heathen, until Christianized by 
 the Sunday-school! Some of our old Sunday- 
 school constitutions also set it down as the ob- 
 ject of the school to '4ead the children to 
 Christ," or to ''labor for their conversion." 
 
 Now we believe that this idea is un-scriptural 
 and therefore un-Lutheran. If what we have 
 written in the preceding chapters on baptismal 
 Grace, the baptismal covenant, and the possi- 
 bility of keeping that covenant, is true, then this 
 popular idea, is false. And vice versa, if this 
 popular view is correct, then the whole Lu- 
 theran teaching of baptism, baptismal Grace, 
 and the baptismal covenant must fall to the 
 ground. 
 
 But notwithstanding the immense array of 
 opposition, we still believe that the Lutheran 
 doctrine is nothing else than the pure teaching 
 of God's Avord. Where we have the "Church 
 in the House/' there we have lambs of Christ's 
 flock. Ah, how many more we could have, how 
 many more we would have, if the fathers and 
 mothers in the Church understood this precious 
 article of our faith, and prayerfully built their 
 
70 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 home life thereon! Then would there be a 
 more regular and healthful growth of the 
 Church, and the necessity for fitful, spasmodic 
 revival efforts would cease. 
 
 From our Christian homes the baptized chil- 
 dren of the Church come to the Sunday-school. 
 How is the school to treat them? — We speak 
 now of the baptized children from Christian 
 homes; we shall speak of the unbaptized and 
 untrained further on. 
 
 These children, with all their childish way- 
 wardness and restlessness, do generally love 
 Jesus. They do trust in Him, and are unhappy 
 when they know that they have committed a sin 
 against Him. They do, when taught, pray to 
 Him, believe that He hears their prayers and 
 loves them. Shall the teacher now begin to 
 impress upon the minds and hearts of these 
 little ones the idea that they are not yet 
 Christ's, and that Christ has nothing to do with 
 them, except to seek and call them, until they 
 are converted? And shall they go home from 
 Sunday-school with the impression that all their 
 prayers have been empty and useless, because 
 their hearts have not been changed? Dare the 
 Sunday-school thus confuse the child, raise 
 doubts as to Christ's forgiveness and love, and 
 *' quench the Spirit f** Oh how sad, that thus 
 thousands of children have their first love, their 
 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND BAPTIZED CHILDREN 71 
 
 first trust, quenched by those who have more 
 zeal than knowledge ! 
 
 No, no, these are Christ's lambs. They come 
 with His marks upon them. Let the Sunday- 
 school teacher work in harmony with the mother 
 who gave these children to Christ Let the 
 whole atmosphere of the school impress on that 
 child the precious truth that it is Jesus' little 
 lamb. Feed that lamb, feed it with the sincere 
 milk of the Word. Lead that lamb gently ; teach 
 it to understand its relation to the Great Shep- 
 herd, to know Him, to rejoice in His love, to 
 love His voice, to follow His leadings more and 
 more closely. 
 
 Instead of singing doubtfully and dolefully: 
 
 "I am young, but I must die. 
 In my grave I soon shall lie. 
 Am I ready now to go, 
 If the will of God be so?" 
 
 or. 
 
 or, 
 
 or. 
 
 "Child of sin and sorrow 
 Filled with dismay, 
 
 Wait not for to-morrow; 
 Yield thee to-day." 
 
 "Depth of mercy, can there be 
 Mercy still reserved for me?" 
 
 'Hasten, sinner, to be wise. 
 Stay not for to-morrow's sun," 
 
72 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 or, 
 
 "I can but perish if I go, 
 
 I am resolved to try, 
 For, if I stay away, I know 
 I shall forever die." 
 
 or, 
 
 "When saints gather round Thee, dear Saviour above. 
 And hasten to crown Thee with jewels of love. 
 Amid those bright mansions of glory so fair — 
 Oh, tell me, dear Saviour, if I shall be there!" 
 
 Some of these sentiments are unscriptural. 
 Some may do for grown up penitent prodigals. 
 But all are out of place on the lips of the bap- 
 tized children of the Church. Let such rather 
 joyfully sing : 
 
 **I am Jesus' little lamb. 
 Therefore glad and gay I am; 
 Jesus loves me, Jesus knows me. 
 All that's good and fair He shows me. 
 Tends me every day the same. 
 Even calls me by my name," 
 
 and such other cheerful and healthy hymns as 
 breathe the spirit of the Church of the Ref orma- 
 tion. 
 
 This we believe to be the object of our Sun- 
 day-schools, as far as the baptized children of 
 Christian parents are concerned. They are to 
 be helps, to keep the children true to their 
 baptismal covenant, and to enable them to grow 
 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND BAPTIZED CHILDREN 73 
 
 strong and ever stronger against sin and in 
 holiness. Jesus did not tell Peter to convert, 
 but to feed His lambs. 
 
 From these considerations we see how impor- 
 tant it is for Lutheran Sunday-schools to have 
 teachers who "know of the doctrine, whether it 
 he true;" who are ''rooted and grounded in the 
 faith;" who are "ready always to give an an- 
 swer to every man that asketh them a reason of 
 the hope that is in them;" who are "apt to 
 teach." 
 
 A teacher who does not understand and ap- 
 preciate the Lutheran doctrine of baptism is 
 out of place in a Lutheran Sunday-school. It 
 is certainly not desirable to have the child in- 
 structed at home that it was given to Christ in 
 baptism, received and owned by Him and be- 
 longs to Him, and then have the Sunday-school 
 teacher teach it that until it experiences some 
 remarkable change, which the teacher cannot 
 at all explain, it belongs not to Christ, but to 
 the unconverted world. The teaching of the 
 pulpit, the catechetical class, the home and the 
 Sunday-school, ought certainly to be in perfect 
 harmony — especially so on the vital point of the 
 personal relation of the child to the Saviour 
 and His salvation. To have clashing and con- 
 tradictory instruction is a sure way to sow the 
 seeds of doubt and skepticism. 
 
 We must have sound instruction and influence 
 
74 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 in the Sunday-school, and to this end we must 
 have sound and clear helps and equipments for 
 teacher and pupil. The worship of the school, 
 the singing, the opening and closing exercises, 
 must all be in harmony with this great funda- 
 mental idea of feeding those who are Christ's 
 lambs. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Sunday School — Its Relation to Those 
 
 IN Covenant Relationship with Christ, 
 
 AND Also to the Unbaptized and 
 
 Wandering. 
 
 WE are still speaking of the dealing of the 
 Sunday-school with the baptized children 
 of Christian parents. We have seen how im- 
 portant it is that the Sunday-school work in 
 harmony with the pastor and the parent. We 
 have seen that, to this end, it is especially im- 
 portant that the instruction of the teacher be 
 in harmony with the doctrine of our Church on 
 baptismal Grace, and the keeping of the baptis- 
 mal covenant. 
 
 Here, however, we meet with a practical diffi- 
 culty. Too many of our teachers are not clear 
 themselves on this subject. Their own early 
 instruction may have been imperfect. Their 
 whole environment may have been unfavorable 
 to rooting and grounding them in this faith, 
 once delivered to the saints. This old-fashioned 
 faith, as we have seen, has become un- 
 75 
 
76 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 popular with the masses even of professing 
 Christians. 
 
 The whole current of the religionism of the 
 day is against it. In many localities and circles, 
 to profess this faith is to invite ridicule and op- 
 position. The Lutheran Church in this matter, 
 as in others, is considered behind the age, be- 
 cause the age is away ahead of Christ and the 
 Apostles, the Church Fathers and the Ee- 
 formers. 
 
 What wonder then that in many places, our 
 members, on whom we must depend for teach- 
 ers, have unconsciously drifted away from the 
 old landmarks, and are altogether at sea as to 
 God^s means and methods of Grace, especially 
 with the children? 
 
 It is, therefore, a matter of the gravest im- 
 portance that our Church place in the hands of 
 her willing but inexperienced teachers such 
 plain, pactical and full helps and equipments as 
 will enable them to be safe and successful in- 
 structors in our Sunday-schools. Our good 
 teachers are always willing to learn. They need 
 to be and want to be first taught. They need 
 clear, sound exposition, illustration and appli- 
 cation of every lesson for themselves, before 
 they can successfully teach others. They need 
 to be shown in every lesson, how the divine 
 Word everywhere sets forth the precious doc- 
 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL, AND UNBAPTIZED CHILDREN 77 
 
 trines of our Church.* They need to be shown 
 over and over again, how these doctrines are 
 to be impressed and applied to the heart, con- 
 science, and life of the pupil ; and how the truth 
 is to be so instilled that it may, by means of 
 every lesson, awaken and deepen a sense of 
 sinfulness and repentance therefor, and in- 
 crease faith and love for the dear Saviour. 
 Every lesson that does not make sin more hate- 
 ful and Christ more precious is, in so far, a 
 failure. 
 
 From what we have learned in the last chap- 
 ter, a Lutheran Sunday-school cannot safely use 
 the literature, whether lesson leaves, lesson 
 helps, or hymns, of others. And this simply be- 
 cause their sentiment is not only at variance 
 with, but openly hostile to our faith. It is there- 
 fore even more important for our Church than 
 for any other, to furnish all the necessary 
 equipments for good, sound, live Sunday- 
 schools. Our equipments ought to aim to be- 
 come more and more superior to all others. The 
 Church should strive to constantly improve 
 
 * For all this we need Teacher-training Classes, taught 
 by the pastors, in every Sunday School. S. S. Teachers' 
 Institutes and summer schools, real normals, of long 
 enough duration, for S. S. teachers and Church workers. 
 If our Church does not furnish these helps for her S. S. 
 teachers she must not complain if they go elsewhere for 
 their training. In every great city we need a Lutheran 
 Bible School. 
 
78 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 them until they become so desirable and attrac- 
 tive that no Lutheran school would think of 
 exchanging them for any others.* 
 
 We hope to see the day when our Church will 
 lead in all these practical enterprises, even as 
 she has led and still leads in the sphere of 
 sound doctrine. 
 
 In these two chapters on Sunday-school work, 
 we have thus far spoken only of the relation 
 of the school to the baptized children of Chris- 
 tian parents. A Sunday-school has, however, 
 by no means fulfilled its mission by looking 
 only after those who are already lambs of the 
 flock. A Sunday-school, like a congregation, 
 to be true to itself and to its divine Master, 
 must be a missionary institution. In every 
 community there are lambs who have never 
 been in the flock of the Good Shepherd, or have 
 already wandered away. There are children 
 who have never been either baptized or in- 
 structed in heavenly things. Or, if baptized, 
 they have been permitted to grow up after- 
 wards as wild as heathen children. Yes, even in 
 the homes of members of our own Church, there 
 are children, whether baptized or not, who are 
 thus growing up utterly neglected. If baptized, 
 they don't even know it. Much less do they 
 know the significance of their baptism. 
 
 * See Problems and PossibiUties p. 103 ff. and also Chap- 
 ter X of same book. 
 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND UNBAPTIZED CHILDKEN 79 
 
 It is the mission of the Sunday-school to 
 gather in these destitute ones, from the street, 
 and from their Christless homes. This is one 
 effectual form of Lutheran Evangelism. The 
 Sunday-school must become a spiritual home 
 for them. The earnest teacher can and ought 
 to find out who of his pupils belong to this class, 
 and apply to such the needed instruction and 
 exhortation. In their case it is truly the object 
 of the Sunday-school to lead them to Jesus, to 
 labor for their conversion, to Christianize them. 
 This, as a matter of course, also applies to 
 those, even from Christian homes, who were 
 baptized, and perhaps also, to some extent, in- 
 structed in divine things, but who have gone 
 astray, and have thus fallen from their bap- 
 tismal covenant. All such, who are not at 
 present in covenant relationship with Christ, 
 who are turned away from Christ, must be 
 turned back, i. e., converted. 
 
 Now this difficult work, this great change, can 
 be accomplished only through the power of 
 God's Word. '^The law of the Lord is perfect, 
 converting the soul.*' "The Gospel of Christ is 
 the power of God unto salvation.*' The words 
 of Christ, "they are spirit and they are life." 
 If sinners, whether young or old, are to be re- 
 claimed for Christ, it must be through that 
 Word which "is quick" — i. e., fuU of life — "and 
 powerful and sharper than any two-edged 
 sword." 
 
80 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Let the Sunday-school teacher depend on 
 nothing else than this Word of God. It is al- 
 ways accompanied by the Spirit of God. It is 
 the living soul of the new life. Let it be used 
 prayerfully. Let it be taught carefully. Let it 
 be taught clearly. Let it be impressed and ap- 
 plied to heart, and conscience, and life. Drive 
 it home personally and individually to the im- 
 penitent pupil. See him by himself, visit him in 
 his home, teach him in his class. Cease not 
 your prayers and your efforts till the Word so 
 lodge and fasten itself in the mind and con- 
 science that it makes him realize his own sinful- 
 ness and his need of a Saviour, and also that 
 Saviour's readiness to save. This is God's way 
 of salvation. This is the Way of Salvation in 
 the Lutheran Church. The Sunday-school 
 teacher who follows this way will win souls. 
 The impenitent sinners of his class will be 
 brought to repentance toward God, and faith in 
 our Lord Jesus Christ; or in one word, they 
 will be converted ; whilst those who are already 
 Christ's will grow in Grace and in the knowl- 
 edge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 Where this is faithfully and persistently done 
 there the Sunday-school teacher is doing a truly 
 scriptural and a most blessed evangelistic work. 
 Let us have more of it. It is sorely needed in 
 city, in village and in the open country. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Catechisation. 
 
 WE have spoken of the importance and bene- 
 fits of home training and instruction. We 
 endeavored to show that Christian parents are 
 under the most solemn obligation to instruct 
 their children in the truth of God 's Word. We 
 also endeavored to show that, in order to give 
 their children a clear understanding of the 
 saving truths of the Bible, they could do no 
 better than to diligently teach them Luther's 
 Small Catechism ; that this was really Luther 's 
 idea and purpose when he wrote that excellent 
 little religious manual ; that the first catecheti- 
 cal class ought indeed to be in the family, 
 with father and mother as teachers ; — that this 
 home class ought to be carried on so long and 
 so persistently, that in it the children would 
 become perfectly familiar with the contents of 
 the book; so familiar indeed, that they would 
 know all the parts that Luther wrote perfectly 
 by heart. Luther's Small Catechism, i. e., the 
 parts that Luther wrote himself, is really quite 
 a small book. By giving only a little time and 
 81 
 
82 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 attention to it each week, the parents could 
 easily, in a few years, have all their children 
 know it as perfectly as they know their multi- 
 plication table. And such ought to be the case. 
 
 After these beginnings have thus been made, 
 and while the home instruction is still going 
 on, the work of the Sunday-school teacher 
 comes in as a help to the home class. In every 
 Sunday-school class there ought to be, with each 
 lesson, some instruction in the Catechism. To 
 this end each teacher, in a Lutheran Sunday- 
 school, ought to be familiarly at home in this 
 most important text-book. The teacher should 
 endeavor so to teach these lessons, that the 
 pupil would learn to love and appreciate the 
 Catechism more and more. Thus, the school 
 ought to be a helper to the home. And thus, 
 home and school together, working in harmony 
 for the same end, would prepare the children 
 for the pastor's catechetical class. 
 
 If this good old-fashioned custom were kept 
 up in all our households and schools, then 
 would the pastor's catechetical class be more 
 of a pleasure and a profit to himself and his 
 catechumens. It would then be the pastor's 
 part, as it should be, to review the contents 
 with his class, and thus to find how well the 
 preparatory work had been done. Then he 
 could devote his time and energy to what should 
 be really the pastor's part of the work, viz., to 
 
CATECHISATION 83 
 
 explain and set forth clearly the meaning of 
 the Catechism, and show how it all applies to 
 the heart and life of every one. 
 
 It is not at all the pastor's place, and it 
 should never be expected of him, to act the 
 school-master, to see to and oversee the memor- 
 izing of the answers. It is his office to expound 
 and apply the truth, to make the doctrines clear 
 to the minds of the learners, and to show how 
 they are all related to the individual life. 
 
 But, alas, how little is this understood or 
 practiced ! How many parents, who call them- 
 selves Christians, and Lutherans, seem to think 
 that they have nothing to do in this whole mat- 
 ter ! They seem to think that if they send their 
 children once a week, for a few months, to the 
 pastor's class, they have done their whole duty. 
 They do not even help and encourage the chil- 
 dren to learn the lessons that the pastor as- 
 signs. And thus does this part of the pastor's 
 work, which ought to be among the most de- 
 lightful of all his duties, become wearisome to 
 the flesh and vexatious to the spirit. Scarcely 
 anywhere else in all his duties does a pastor 
 feel so helpless and hopeless and discouraged, 
 as when standing week after week before a 
 class of young people who have such poor in- 
 structors at home. 
 
 Christian parents, if you desire your sons 
 and your daughters to become steadfast and 
 
84 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 useful members of the Church of Christ, see 
 to it that you do your part in their religious 
 instruction. Insist on it, and use your parental 
 authority, if necessary, that your children learn 
 the Catechism and regularly attend the pastor's 
 instructions. 
 
 We believe that the trouble in this matter lies 
 largely in the fact that in many quarters cate- 
 chisation has become unpopular in our fast 
 age. It is looked upon as a riiark of old-fogy- 
 ism, if not as an evidence of tli.o absence of 
 ''spiritual religion!" The new measures and 
 methods of modern revivals are more accept- 
 able to the fickle multitude. They seem to 
 point out a shorter route and quicker time to 
 heaven. As a boy once said to the writer : * ' I 
 don't want to belong to your church, because 
 I would have to study the Cate ^hism all winter, 
 and down at the other church I can 'get 
 through' in one night." That boy expressed 
 about as clearly and tersely as could well be 
 done, the popular sentiment of the day. 
 
 Yielding to this popular sentiment, many 
 churches, that once adhered strictly and firmly 
 to the catechetical method, have either drop- 
 ped it entirely or are gradually giving it up. 
 And in order to clothe their spiritual ignor- 
 ance and laziness in a pious garb, they say: 
 ''The Bible is enough for us.'* "We don't 
 need any" man-made Catechisms." "It is all 
 
CATECHISATION 85 
 
 wrong anyhow to place a human book on a 
 level with or above the Bible." "We and our 
 children want our religion from the Spirit of 
 God, and not from a Church Catechism." 
 
 Do such people know what they are talking 
 about, or do they sometimes use these pious 
 phrases to quiet a guilty conscience? Do they 
 know what a Catechism is 1 
 
 Look at it for a moment. What is the nature 
 and object of Luther's Small Catechism? Is 
 it in the nature of a substitute for the Bible? 
 Does it purpose to set aside the Bible? We 
 can scarcely muster patience enough to write 
 such questions. No ! No ! 
 
 Any child that can read this little book knows 
 better. The plainest reader cannot fail to see 
 that it is intended as a help to understand the 
 Bible. Its purpose clearly is to awaken and 
 develop in the reader or learner a more intelli- 
 gent appreciation and love for the Bible. It 
 contains nothing but Bible truth. Its design 
 is simply this: To summarize and systematize 
 the most important truths and doctrines of the 
 divine Word: To so arrange and group them 
 that even a child may learn what the Bible 
 teaches as to creation, sin, salvation, and the 
 means whereby it may be attained. 
 
 We have the assurance, also — and we believe 
 that history and observation will bear out the 
 statement — that those who appreciate and have 
 
86 THE WAY OP SALVATION 
 
 studied a sound scriptural Catechism most 
 thoroughly, appreciate, understand, love and 
 live their Bibles most sincerely. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Contents, Aerangement and Excellence op 
 Luther's Small Catechism. 
 
 WE have spoken of Luther's Small Cate- 
 chism as a help with which to lay hold of 
 and to understand the most important truths 
 of the Bible. These fundamental truths are 
 taken from the Scriptures, and are so grouped, 
 arranged and explained in the Catechism that 
 the learner can easily grasp and understand 
 them. That some of the truths contained in 
 the Bible are of greater importance than others 
 will scarcely be denied. 
 
 It is certainly more important that the child 
 should know and understand the Ten Command- 
 ments, than that it should be familiar with all 
 the details of the ceremonial law. Certainly 
 better to be familiar with the Apostles' Creed, 
 than to know all about the building of the 
 Temple. Better be able to repeat and under- 
 stand the Lord's Prayer, than to have a clear 
 knowledge of the elaborate ritual of the Temple 
 service. Better understand the meaning of 
 87 
 
GO THE WAY OF SALVATIOISr 
 
 Christ's two Sacraments than to be able to 
 tell all about the great feasts of the Jews. 
 
 If any one can know all these other matters 
 also, so much the better. The Catechism will 
 certainly be a help instead of a hindrance to 
 this end. But if all cannot be learned — at least 
 not at once — let the most important be taught 
 first. And for this we have a Catechism. 
 
 Look at its contents. It is divided into five 
 parts. Each division treats of a separate sub- 
 ject. The first contains the Ten Command- 
 ments, with a brief and clear explanation of 
 each Commandment. The second part has the 
 three articles of the Apostles' Creed, with a 
 clear and most beautiful explanation of each 
 one. The third is the Lord's Prayer, its intro- 
 duction, the seven petitions, and the conclusion ; 
 with a terse, though comprehensive explana- 
 tion of each sentence. The fourth and fifth 
 parts treat similarity of the two sacraments, 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
 
 Here then we have, in a brief space, the most 
 important teachings of the whole Bible sys- 
 tematically arranged and clearly explained. Of 
 these contents and their arrangement, Luther 
 himself says: 
 
 ''This Catechism is truly the Bible of the 
 laity (or common people), wherein is contained 
 the entire doctrine necessary to be known by 
 every Christian for salvation. Here we have 
 
Luther's small catechism 89 
 
 first the Ten Commandments of God, the doc- 
 trine of doctrines, by which the will of God is 
 known, what God would have us to do and what 
 is wanting in us. 
 
 ' ' Secondly : The Apostles * Creed, the history 
 of histories or the highest history, wherein are 
 delivered to us the wonderful works of God 
 from the beginning, how we and all creatures 
 are created by God, how all are redeemed by 
 the Son of God, how we are also received and 
 sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and collected to- 
 gether to a people of God, and have the 
 remission of sins and everlasting salvation. 
 
 *' Thirdly: The Lord's Prayer, the prayer 
 of prayers, the highest prayer which the high- 
 est Master taught, wherein are included all 
 temporal and spiritual blessings, and comfort 
 in trouble and in the hour of death. 
 
 '^ Fourthly: The blessed Sacraments, the 
 ceremonies of ceremonies, which God himself 
 has instituted and ordained, and therein as- 
 sured us of his Grace." 
 
 John Arndt, in a sermon on the Catechism, 
 says: **The Catechism is a brief instruction 
 in the Christian religion, and includes in itself 
 the doctrine of the Law of God, Christian Faith, 
 the Lord's Prayer, the institutions of Holy 
 Baptism and of the Lord's Supper, which five 
 parts are an epitome and kernel of the entire 
 
90 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Holy Scriptures, for which reason it is called 
 a 'Little Bible.' " 
 
 Dr. Seiss, in his Ecclesia Lutherana, says: 
 *'It is the completest summary of the contents 
 of the Bible ever given in the same number of 
 words. It gave to the reviving Church a text- 
 book for the presentation of the truth as it is 
 in Jesus to the school, lecture-room and pulpit. 
 
 The sainted Dr. Krauth says: ''The Cate- 
 chism is a thread through the labyrinth of 
 divine wonders. Persons often get confused, 
 but if they will hold on to this Catechism it will 
 lead them through without being lost. It is 
 often called the 'Little Bible' and 'the Bible 
 of the laity' because it presents the plain and 
 simple doctrines of the Holy Book in its own 
 words. Pearls strung are easily carried, un- 
 strung they are easily lost. The Catechism is 
 a string of Bible Pearls. The order of arrange- 
 ment is the historical — the Law, Faith, Prayer, 
 Sacrament of Baptism, and all crowned with 
 the Lord's Supper — ^just as God worked them 
 out and fixed them in history." 
 
 Thus we might go on quoting page after page 
 of words of admiration and praise, from the 
 greatest minds in our own and in other 
 Churches, of the contents and arrangement of 
 this little book. Neither can we charge these 
 writers with extravagance in their utterances. 
 For the more we examine and study the pages 
 
Luther's small catechism 91 
 
 of this little book, the more we are convinced 
 that it is unique and most admirable in its 
 matter and plan. 
 
 Let each one look for a moment into himself, 
 and then from himself into this little book after 
 this manner. 
 
 I come into this world ignorant, yet full of 
 presentiments and questions. I learn my first 
 vague lesson about myself and God. I naturally 
 ask: For what purpose has God put me here? 
 What does He wish me to do ? The Catechism 
 answers: To do His will, to keep His com- 
 mandments. Here they are, and this is what 
 they mean. I study them, and the more I study 
 them, the more am I convinced that I never did 
 and never can perfectly keep this law. 
 
 I ask again: What then shall I do? My 
 Catechism tells me I must have faith. I must 
 believe. But what shall I believe? Answer: 
 This summary of truth called the Apostles* 
 Creed. It tells me of my Creator — His work 
 and providence, and His gift of a Redeemer. It 
 tells me of that Redeemer and His redemption; 
 of the gift of the Spirit, and of His application 
 of redemption. It not only tells me what to 
 believe, but in the very telling it gives me 
 power to believe. 
 
 But I am still weak and more or less per- 
 plexed. Whither shall I go for more strength 
 and Grace? My Catechism furnishes the an- 
 
92 THE WAY OP SALVATION 
 
 swer: Go to the great Triune God. Ask Him 
 in prayer. Here is a model. It will teach you 
 how to pray. 
 
 I learn what it is to pray. But again I 
 ask: How do I know that God will hear my 
 prayer? Is He interested in me personally? 
 Has He any other means besides His written 
 Word to assure me of His love and to give 
 me, in answer to my prayers, encouragement 
 to believe Him and love Him? 
 
 My Catechism points me to my baptism. It 
 teaches me what it means, and how that in it 
 I have God's own pledge that He is my Father 
 who has renewed, reconciled and adopted me, 
 and that I am truly His child. Here then is a 
 fountain to which I can return again and 
 again when weak and perplexed. 
 
 Further, my Catechism teaches me concern- 
 ing my Saviour's last logacy of love before 
 His death for me. His Holy Supper. In it 
 He holds out to me and gives to me, personally 
 and individually. Himself and all His heavenly 
 Grace. For my famishing soul this holy 
 Sacrament is meat indeed and drink indeed. 
 
 Thus does this little Catechism meet me in 
 my perplexity, take me by the hand, and lead 
 me through the labyrinth of the wonders of 
 Grace. Thus does it tell me what I am, what 
 I need, and where and how to get what I need. 
 It takes me to the wells of salvation. It draws 
 
Luther's small catechism 93 
 
 from them living water. It holds it to my 
 parched lips. It gathers the precious manna 
 of the Word, and feeds me when I am faint 
 and weary. 
 
 Such is Luther's Small Catechism. Is it 
 any wonder that we love it? Is it any wonder 
 that we count the study of it a part of the 
 Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church? * 
 
 * On the wisdom of the arrangement and sequence of 
 Luther's Five Parts see The Lutheran Catechist, pp. 95-102. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 Manner and Object of Teaching Luther's 
 Catechism. 
 
 WE have spoken of the importance of cate- 
 chisation. We have seen that Luther's 
 Small Catechism is indeed a priceless Bible 
 manual. It sets before us, in matchless order, 
 God's plan of salvation. It is so full and yet 
 so brief, so doctrinal and yet so warm and 
 hearty. ''The only Catechism," says Dr. 
 Loehe, ''that can be prayed." "It may be 
 bought for sixpence," says Dr. Jonas, "but 
 six thousand worlds could not pay for it." 
 
 No wonder that no book outside of the Bible 
 has been translated into so many languages, 
 or circulated so widely. Thirty-seven years 
 after its publication one hundred thousand 
 copies were in circulation. The first book 
 translated into any of the dialects of the 
 American Indian, it was from its pages that 
 the red man read his first lessons concerning 
 the true God, and his own relations to that 
 God. At the present day it is taught in a score 
 of different languages in our own land.* 
 
 * On the history of Luther's Small Catechism see The 
 Lutheran Catechist, Chapter vii. 
 
 94 
 
TEACHING LUTHER'S CATECHISM 95 
 
 And yet how sadly neglected and abused, 
 even by those who bear its author's name! It 
 is neglected, if not entirely ignored, in count- 
 less Lutheran homes and Sunday-schools. It 
 is even neglected by many so-called Lutheran 
 pastors. They set at naught the testimony of 
 four centuries. They set their own opin- 
 ions above the testimony of the wisest, as 
 well as the most deeply spiritual and conse- 
 crated witnesses of their own Church. They 
 prefer the baseless, shallow, short-cut methods 
 of this superficial age. Some of them have 
 even joined in the cry of the fanatic, and called 
 all catechisation in the Church dead formalism ! 
 Fortunately, their number is growing rapidly 
 less, and many, who for a while were car- 
 ried away with the tide of new measures, are 
 asking for and returning to the good and tried 
 old ways. 
 
 Not only is this Catechism neglected, but it 
 is and has been much abused. Abused, not 
 only by its enemies, who have said hard things 
 against it, but it has been and still is abused, 
 like all good things, by its professed friends. 
 And doubtless it is the abuse by its friends that 
 is largely responsible for much of the neglect 
 and contempt into which it sometimes has fal- 
 len. Thus in the family, it is still too often 
 taught as a mere task. The home teacher often 
 has no higher aim than that the children should 
 
96 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 learn it by rote — learn to rattle it off like the 
 multiplication table, or the rules of grammar. 
 
 Worse than this, it has often been used as 
 an instrument of punishment. A child has 
 done something wrong. It is angrily told that 
 for this it must learn a page or two of the 
 Catechism! The task is sullenly learned and 
 sullenly recited; and the Catechism is hated 
 worse than the sin committed. Then, too, it is 
 slurred over in the Sunday-schools, without 
 an earnest word of explanation or application. 
 The learner does not realize that it is meant 
 to move the heart and to influence the life. 
 
 This same sad mistake is also made by many 
 pastors in the catechetical class. Strange as 
 it may seem, this mistake is most commonly 
 made by those very pastors who profess to 
 be the warmest friends of and the most zealous 
 insisters on the catechisation of every lamb in 
 the flock. Thus we find not a few pastors who 
 catechise their classes after the schoolmaster 
 fashion. They go through the exercise in a 
 perfunctory, formal manner. They insist on 
 the letter of the text, and are satisfied if their 
 pupils know the lessons well by rote ! To urge 
 on the dull and lazy pupil they will scold and 
 rage, and even use the rod! The Catechism 
 becomes a mere text-book. The pupils get out 
 of it a certain amount of head knowledge. 
 There are so many answers and so many proof- 
 
TEACHING Luther's catechism 97 
 
 texts that must be committed to memory. And 
 when all this is well gotten and recited by rote, 
 the teacher is satisfied, the pnpil is praised, 
 imagines that he has gotten all the good out 
 of that bock, and is glad that he is done with it ! 
 Now we would not for a moment depreciate 
 the memorizing of the Catechism. It is of the 
 most vital importance, and cannot be too 
 strongly urged. What we object to — and we 
 cannot object too strenuously — is the idea that 
 head knowledge is enough! There must of 
 course be head knowledge. The memory should 
 store up all the precious pearls of God's truth 
 that are found in the Catechism. The mind 
 must grasp these truths and understand their 
 meaning and their relation to one another. But 
 if it stops here, it is not yet a knowledge that 
 maketh wise unto salvation. In spiritual mat- 
 ters the enlightening or instructing of the in- 
 tellect is not the end aimed at, but only a means 
 to an end. The end aimed at must always be 
 the renewal of the heart. The heart must be 
 reached through the understanding. To know 
 about Christ is not life eternal. I must know 
 about Him before I can know Him. But I 
 might know all about Him, be perfectly clear 
 as to His person and His work, and stop there 
 without ever knowing Him as heart only can 
 know heart, as my personal Saviour, my Lord 
 and my God. 
 
98 THE WAT OF SALVATION 
 
 Here, we fear, many ministers make a sad 
 mistake. They are too easily satisfied with a 
 mere outward knowledge of the truth. They 
 forget that even if it were possible to ^'under- 
 stand all mystery and all knowledge*' — intel- 
 lectually — and not have charity, i. e., deep, fer- 
 vent, glowing love to God in Christ, springing 
 from a truly penitent and belibving heart, it 
 would profit nothing. The true aim and end 
 of all catechetical instruction in the Sunday- 
 school, in the family, and especially in the 
 pastor's class, should ever be a penitent, believ- 
 ing and loving heart in each catechumen. 
 
 We have, in a former chapter, shown the 
 duty of the Sunday-school teacher in this mat- 
 ter. The pastor should likewise use all dili- 
 gence to find out in whom, among his catechu- 
 mens, the germs of the divine life, implanted 
 in baptism, have been kept alive, and in whom 
 they are dormant. Where the divine life, given 
 in holy baptism, has been fostered and cher- 
 ished — where there has been an uninterrupted 
 enjoyment of baptismal Grace, more or less 
 clear and conscious — there it is the pastor's 
 privilege to give clearer views of truth and 
 Grace, to lead into a more intelligent and 
 hearty fellowship with the Eedeemer, to deepen 
 penitence and to strengthen faith through the 
 quickening truth of God's word. 
 
 Where, on the other hand, the seeds of bap- 
 
TEACHING Luther's catechism 99 
 
 tismal Grace have been neglected, where the 
 germs of the new life lie dormant or asleep, or 
 where there never has been any implanting of 
 Grace through Word or Sacrament — in short, 
 where there are no pulsations, no manifesta- 
 tions of the new life, there the pastor has a 
 different duty. He must endeavor to so bring 
 the acquired truth to bear on the conscience 
 and heart, as to awaken and bring about a sense 
 of sin, a genuine sorrow therefor, a hatred 
 thereof, a longing for deliverance, a turning to 
 Christ and a laying hold on Him as the only 
 help and the only hope. 
 
 Thus the one great aim and object of the 
 conscientious pastor, with each impenitent 
 catechumen, is to awaken and bring about 
 genuine, heartfelt penitence and a true, trust- 
 ing, clinging faith. In one word, he must labor 
 for that catechumen's conversion. Only those 
 of whom there is evidence that they are in a 
 converted state should be admitled to confirma- 
 tion. 
 
 By this we do not mean, as some do, that 
 each one must be able to tell when, and where, 
 and how he was converted. We mean simply 
 this: That each one must have in his heart 
 true penitence, i. e., sorrow for and hatred of 
 sin, and true faith, i. e., a confiding, trustful 
 embracing of Christ as the only Saviour. 
 
 Whether these elements of the new life have 
 
100 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 been constantly and uninterruptedly developed 
 from Baptism, or whether they have been 
 awakened gradually by the Word, is not ma- 
 terial. The only important question is: Are 
 the elements of the new life now there — even 
 though as yet feeble and very imperfect — is 
 the person now turned away from sin to a 
 Saviour? If so, we consider that person in a 
 converted state. 
 
 This much, we believe, should be demanded 
 of each catechumen before he is admitted to 
 the rite of confirmation. It is largely because 
 this has not been demanded as the only true 
 and satisfactory result of catechisation, that 
 this important branch of the Church's activity 
 has so largely fallen into disrepute. It is doubt- 
 less because of carelessness on this point that 
 so many fall back after confirmation to the 
 world, the flesh and the devil. They did not 
 hold fast to their crown because they had no 
 crown. 
 
 Where the Catechism is properly learned, un- 
 derstood and applied, the intellect is used as 
 the gateway to the heart. Where the result of 
 an enlightened mind is a changed heart, there 
 are intelligent believers. They know what it 
 means to be a Christian. They have an earnest 
 desire for closer fellowship with Him who has 
 loved them and washed them from their sins i/ii 
 His own blood. There is good hope that such 
 will be faithful unto death. 
 
CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 Confirmation. 
 
 IN our studies concerning the methods of 
 Grace, or the application of the Salvation 
 purchased by Christ to the sinful race of 
 Adam's children, we necessarily had to begin 
 with the new-born child. We noted the first 
 known operations of Grace at the baptismal 
 font. We traced the infant through the holy 
 influences received at a Christian mother's 
 knee, and in the nurture of a Christian home. 
 We followed up through the lessons and influ- 
 ences of the Church's nursery, the Sunday- 
 school, and from thence into the pastor's cate- 
 chetical class. We have learned that these are 
 the different successive steps in the Way of 
 Salvation. This is God's way in the sanctuary. 
 It begins at the baptismal font, where the child 
 is received as a member of the Church of 
 Christ; it leads through the Church in the 
 house, and through the house keeps up a living 
 connection with the Church. It is making dis- 
 ciples in accordance with Christ's plain direc- 
 tions, viz., ** baptising them, and teaching 
 them.'' 
 
 101 
 
102 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 We have also admitted all along that there 
 may be some who will go through with this 
 whole process and yet not be disciples of Christ 
 at the end. They wilfully resist the operations 
 of divine Grace, and cast it away from the heart. 
 This class we leave, for the present. We shall 
 consider them further on. 
 
 We speak now of those who have been made 
 disciples; who have not resisted the gracious 
 influences of the Spirit of God, working through 
 the sacramental and the written Word. Their 
 minds are enlightened ; they know something of 
 sin and Grace and the bestowal and reception 
 of Grace; they have an intelligent understand- 
 ing of the plan of salvation revealed in the 
 Word of God. But this is not all. 
 
 Their hearts also have been drawn ever 
 nearer and closer to their dear Saviour; they 
 believe in and love the Lord Jesus Christ; they 
 are ready to give an answer to every man that 
 asks of them a reason of the hope that is in 
 them. In the ardor and fervor of their young 
 hearts' devotion they can repeat these beauti- 
 ful words of their catechism and say: **I be- 
 lieve that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of 
 the Father from eternity, and also true man, 
 born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord ; who has 
 redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, 
 secured and delivered me from all sin, from 
 death, and from the power of the devil . . . 
 
CONFIRMATION 103 
 
 in order that I might be His, live under Him 
 in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting 
 righteousness, innocence and blessedness." 
 
 Further, they can joyfully say: "I believe 
 that I cannot by my own reason and strength 
 believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to 
 Him. But that the Holy Ghost has called me 
 through the Gospel, enlightened me by His 
 gifts, sanctified and preserved me in the true 
 faith." 
 
 This happy faith of their hearts has never 
 been publicly professed before men. But the 
 Word of God demands not only faith in the 
 heart, but also confession by the lips. Rom. 
 X. 9-10: ''If thou shall confess with thy mouth 
 the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart 
 that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou 
 shall he saved. For with the heart man he- 
 lieveth unto righteousness, and with the mouth 
 confession is made unto salvation." Jesus also 
 says. Matt. x. 32 : "Whosoever, therefore, shall 
 confess Me before men, him will I confess also 
 before my Father which is in heaven." 
 
 And should any one be ashamed of this public 
 profession and refuse to make it, Jesus clearly 
 tells such an one that of him He also will be 
 ashamed in the judgment day. There are no 
 promises to him who does not confess. 
 
 If our catechumens would therefore still fol- 
 
104 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 low God's Way of Salvation he must now also 
 take this step, and publicly confess Jesus as 
 his Lord and Redeemer and himself as His 
 disciple. And for this there is no time so ap- 
 propriate as when he desires to be numbered 
 among the communicants of the congregation 
 and participate with them in the celebration of 
 the Lord's Supper. 
 
 For this also our Church has made fitting 
 arrangement. It is done at, or is rather a part 
 of, the impressive ceremony of confirmation. 
 Who has not witnessed this beautiful and touch- 
 ing rite? And what could be more interesting 
 or impressive than to see a company of young 
 hearts encircling the altar of Christ, confessing 
 their faith, and bowing the knee to their 
 Saviour amid the prayers and benedictions of 
 the Church? This is confirmation. 
 
 The catechumen has been examined by the 
 pastor as to his fitness for this important step. 
 The pastor has found that he possesses an in- 
 telligent understanding of the doctrines taught 
 in the Catechism, and that the experience of his 
 heart bears witness to their truth and power.* 
 
 On this account he is adjudged as fit and 
 well prepared to be admitted to the holy com- 
 munion. He now comes of his own accord — 
 not because he is old enough, or knows enough, 
 
 * On deciding as to who ought to be admitted to Con- 
 firmation see further The Lutheran Catechist, Chapter xvii. 
 
CONFIRMATION 105 
 
 or because father, mother, or pastor wants 
 Mm to — ^before the altar of Christ. There, 
 in the presence of the assembled congre- 
 gation and the all-seeing God, his lips confess 
 the faith of his heart, the faith into which he 
 was baptized as a child. He now voluntarily 
 takes upon himself the vows and promises that 
 parents or sponsors took for him at baptism. 
 He receives an earnest admonition from his 
 pastor to hold fast that which he has and to 
 be faithful unto death. The whole congrega- 
 tion, together with the pastor, lift their hearts 
 in earnest intercessory prayer to God for His 
 continuous blessing on and protection of the 
 young confessor ; and, the catechumen kneeling 
 at the altar, the pastor directs the intercessions 
 of the Church to each kneeling one in turn, by 
 laying his hands on him and offering up for 
 him a fervent petition in inspired words. 
 
 This is the simple and appropriate ceremony 
 which we call confirmation. We claim for it no 
 magical powers. It is not a sacrament. It adds 
 nothing to the sacrament of baptism, for that 
 is complete in itself. There is no conferring of 
 Grace by the pastor's hands, but simply a di- 
 recting of the Word and the Church's prayers 
 to the individual. 
 
 The confirming, strengthening and establish- 
 ing of the catechumen in Grace, is effected 
 primarily and alone through Christ's own 
 
106 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 means of Grace, viz.: the Word and the 
 Sacraments. The Word has been applied to 
 mind and heart all along from tenderest child- 
 hood. It is now brought home in the review 
 and admonition of the pastor, amid specially 
 solemn surroundings. The previous adminis- 
 tering of baptism, and the perpetual efficacy 
 of that sacrament, are now vividly recalled 
 and impressed. And this unusually impres- 
 sive application of the power of Word and 
 Sacrament confirms and strengthens the di- 
 vine life in the catechumen. Thus the means 
 of Grace do the confirming, or rather the Holy 
 Spirit through these means. Instrumentally 
 also the pastor may be said to confirm, since 
 ho, as Christ's ambassador or agent, applies 
 His means of Grace. 
 
 In still another, though inferior sense, the 
 catechumen confirms. He receives the offered 
 means of Grace, assents to their truth and 
 efficacy, obtains divine virtue and strength 
 through them, and with this imparted strength 
 lays hold on Christ, draws nearer to Him, is 
 united to Him as the branch to the vine, and 
 thus confirms and establishes the covenant and 
 bond that unites him to his Saviour. 
 
 We do not claim for the rite of confirmation 
 a "thus saith the Lord." We do not claim that 
 it possesses sacramental efficacy, or that it is 
 absolutely essential to salvation. We do claim, 
 
CONFIKMATION 107 
 
 however, that there is nothing unevangelical or 
 anti-scriptural in this ceremony. On the con- 
 trary, we believe that it is in perfect harmony 
 with the whole tenor and spirit of the Gospel. If 
 we cannot trace it to apostolic usage, we can find 
 it in all its essential features in the pure age 
 of the Church immediately succeeding the 
 Apostles. In some form or other it has been 
 practiced in the Church ever since. 
 
 True, it has often been and is still grossly 
 abused. It has often been encumbered and en- 
 tangled with error and superstition ; and there- 
 fore there have not been wanting radical purists 
 who have not only set it aside, but cried it down 
 as Romish and heathenish. The more sober 
 and conservative churches have been content 
 to purge it of its error and superstition. In 
 its purified form they prize it highly, cherish 
 its use, practice it, and find it attended by God's 
 richest blessing. 
 
 It is a significant fact also that some of those 
 who were once its most bitter opponents are 
 gradually returning to its practice. We find, 
 for example, that certain Presbyterian churches 
 confirm large classes of catechumens every 
 year. 
 
 Certain Methodist book concerns and publish- 
 ing houses also publish confirmation certifi- 
 cates, from which we infer that some of j;heir 
 churches also must practice this rite. Again, 
 
108 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 we find in certain ''pastors' record books,'* 
 gotten np to suit all denominations, columns 
 for reporting the number of confirmations. 
 
 All churches must indeed have some kind of 
 a ceremony for the admission of the young into 
 the communion of the church. And there cer- 
 tainly is no more befitting, beautiful and touch- 
 ing ceremony than confirmation, as described 
 above and practiced in the Lutheran Church. 
 
CHAPTEB Xni. 
 
 The Lord's Supper — Preliminaby 
 Observations. 
 
 OUR catechumen has now been confirmed. 
 The pastor has given him, in the name 
 of the congregation, the right hand of fellow- 
 ship, and also publicly authorized him to join 
 with the congregation in the celebration of the 
 Lord's Supper. For the first time, then, the 
 young Christian is to partake of this holy 
 sacrament, in order that thereby he may be 
 still further strengthened and confirmed in the 
 true faith. 
 
 This sacred institution, also, is a part of 
 God's 'Way of Salvation. It is one of the 
 means of Grace appointed and ordained by 
 Christ. It *'hath been instituted for the special 
 comfort and strengthening of those who humbly 
 confess their sins and who hunger and thirst 
 after righteousness.'* 
 
 It is true that multitudes do not regard it as 
 
 a means or channel of Grace. To them it is 
 
 only an ancient rite or ceremony, having no 
 
 special significance or blessing connected with 
 
 109 
 
110 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 it. It is at most a symbol, a sign, or represen- 
 tation of something entirely absent and in no 
 way connected with it. If there is any blessing 
 at all attached to it, it consists in the pious 
 thoughts, the holy emotions and the sacred 
 memories, which the communicant tries to bring 
 to it and which are in some way deepened by 
 it. At best, it is a memorial of an absent 
 Saviour, and in some form a representation of 
 His sufferings and death. 
 
 Now if this were all that we could see in the 
 Lord's Supper, we should not regard it as a 
 part of God's Way of Salvation. But our 
 Church sees much more in it. With her it is 
 indeed an essential and integral part of that 
 Way. And since this is another of the points 
 on which the Lutheran Church differs mater- 
 ially from many others, it will be well for us 
 to devote some space and time to its study. 
 
 Much has been written on this important 
 subject. We may not have anything new to 
 add, but it is well often to recall and re-study 
 the old truths, so easily forgotten. Before we 
 consider the nature of this sacrament, we make 
 a few preliminary observations that will help 
 us to guard against false views, and to arrive 
 at correct conclusions. 
 
 We observe first, the importance of bearing 
 in mind the source from which this institution 
 has come. Who is its author? What is the 
 
THE lord's SUPPEB 111 
 
 nature or character of its origin? Our views 
 of any institution are generally more or less 
 influenced by thus considering its origin. 
 Whence then did the Church get this ordinance 
 which she has so conscientiously kept and de- 
 voutly celebrated? Did it emanate from the 
 wisdom of man? Did some zealous mystic or 
 hermit invent it, because forsooth he supposed 
 it would be pleasant and profitable to have such 
 an ordinance in the Church? Or did some early 
 Church Council institute it, because those earn- 
 est fathers in their wisdom deemed it necessary 
 that the Church should have such a service? 
 Can it, in short, be traced to any human origin ? 
 If so, then we can deal with it as with any other 
 human institution. We are then at liberty to 
 reason and speculate about it. We can apply 
 to it the rules of human science and learning. 
 We can test it, measure it, sound it by phil- 
 osophy, logic, and the laws of the mind. Each 
 one then has a right to his own opinion about 
 it. Each one can apply to it the favorite test 
 of common sense, and draw his own conclusions. 
 But now, we know that this is not a human 
 institution. The Church has received it from 
 the hands of the Son of God. It was ordained 
 by Him who could say, ''All power is given unto 
 Me in heaven and in earth/' and, ''In whom 
 dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;" 
 who, even before his birth in human form, was 
 
112 THE WAY OP SALVATION 
 
 called "the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, 
 the Prince of Peace." When we come to deal 
 with an institution of His, we dare never expect 
 to fathom or test it by our poor, short-sighted 
 and sinblinded reason, philosophy, science, or 
 common sense. "For my thoughts are not your 
 thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith 
 the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than 
 the earth, so are my ways higher than 
 your ways, and my thoughts than your 
 thoughts." Whenever, therefore, we come to 
 deal with anything that comes from His hands, 
 it is no longer of the earth, earthy, and is not 
 subject to earthly laws and human rules. His 
 acts. His deeds. His words, belong to the realm 
 of faith, and not of reason. Reason must ever 
 be taken captive and made to bow before the 
 heavenly things connected with Him. Or shall 
 we try to reason out His human birth. His 
 growth, His nature, His deeds? Shall we rea- 
 son out the feeding of the multitudes with those 
 few barley loaves and fishes? No; they came 
 through His hands, and the power of those 
 hands we cannot comprehend. We cannot com- 
 prehend how that afflicted woman could receive 
 virtue, health and life, by touching the hem of 
 His garment — a mere fabric of cloth — or how 
 the clay and spittle from His hands could open 
 the eyes of one born blind. 
 Whenever, therefore, we come to study this 
 
THE LORD'S SUPPER 
 
 113 
 
 ordinance, let us ever bear in mind its divine 
 origin. It is the Lord's Supper. This precau- 
 tion will be a safeguard against error, and a 
 help to the truth. 
 
 We notice secondly the time of institution. It 
 was "in the night in which He was betrayed." 
 That awful night, when the clouds of divine 
 wrath were gathered over Him, and were ready 
 to burst upon Him ; when the accumulated guilt 
 of a sinful race was all to be laid on Him, borne 
 by Him as though it were His own, and its 
 punishment endured as though He had com- 
 mitted every sin. Then, when the strokes of 
 justice were about to fall, our blessed Saviour, 
 "having loved His own, He loved them to the 
 end," He gathered His little band of chosen 
 ones about Him for the last time before His 
 crucifixion. Ha spoke to them His farewell 
 words, uttered His high-priestly prayer, insti- 
 tuted and administered to them this holy sacra- 
 ment. All the suiroundings conspired to throw 
 round it a halo of heavenly mystery. Every- 
 thing was calculated to impress that little band 
 that what He nov/ ordained and made binding 
 on the Church, till He v/ould come again, was 
 something more than an empty sign or cere- 
 mony. Thus the time, the circumstances, and 
 all the surroundings of the institution of this 
 holy sacrament, prepare us in advance to be- 
 lieve that there must be in it or connected with 
 
114 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 it some heavenlj^ gift of Grace that can be ob- 
 tained nowhere else. 
 
 We notice thirdly the significant term by 
 which Jesus designates this institution. When 
 he administered the cup He said: ''This cup 
 is the New Testament in my blood.' ' He calls 
 it a testament. A testament is a last will. 
 
 Jesus was about to go forth to die. Before 
 he departed, He made His will. He bequeathes 
 to the Church an inheritance. The legacy that 
 He leaves is this sacrament. Before we under- 
 take to study the words of the institution, we 
 wish to impress this thought. A will is the last 
 place where one would use ambiguous or figura- 
 tive language. Every maker or writer of a 
 will strives to use the clearest and plainest 
 words possible. Every precaution is taken 
 that there may be no doubtful or difficult ex- 
 pression employed. The aim of the maker is 
 to make it so plain that only one meaning can 
 be taken from it. 
 
 Neither is any one permitted to read into it 
 any sense different from the clear, plain, literal 
 meaning of the words. Fanciful, metaphorical, 
 or far-fetched interpretations are never applied 
 to the words of a will. Much less is any one 
 permitted to change the words by inserting or 
 substituting other words than those used by 
 the maker. Christ's words of institution are 
 the words of His last Will and Testament. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Lokd's Supper — Continued. 
 
 IN the former chapter we made some prelimin- 
 ary observations, intended to be helpful, as 
 guards against false conclusions, and as guides 
 to a correct understanding of the subject under 
 consideration. It is important that we always 
 keep these in mind in our study of the doctrine 
 of the Lord's Supper. Let us ever keep before 
 us therefore the Author or Founder of this in- 
 stitution, the time and circumstances of the 
 institution, and its testamentary character. 
 
 We are now ready to inquire further into the 
 nature and meaning of this holy ordinance. 
 And in order to determine this we desire to go 
 directly to the law and to the testimony. We 
 want to know, first of all : w^hat does the Word 
 of God teach on the subject? 
 
 Before we proceed, however, to note and ex- 
 amine the passages of Scripture bearing on the 
 matter, let us recall what we said, as to the 
 interpretation of Scripture, in one of the 
 chapters on the Sacrament of Baptism. We 
 there stated that our Church has certain plain 
 115 
 
116 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 and safe principles of interpretation tJiat are 
 always to guide the searcher after the truth 
 of God's Word, viz.: 
 
 1. *'A passage of Scripture is always to be 
 taken in its plain, natural and literal sense, un- 
 less there is something in the text itself, or in 
 the context, that clearly indicates that it is 
 meant to be figurative." 
 
 2. ''A passage is never to be torn from its 
 connection, but it is to be studied in connection 
 with what goes before and what follows after." 
 
 3. *' Scripture is to be interpreted by Scrip- 
 ture, the dark passages are to be compared 
 with the more clear, bearing on the same sub- 
 ject." 
 
 4. * ' We can never be fully certain that a doc- 
 trine is Scriptural until we have examined and 
 compared all that the Word says on the sub- 
 ject." 
 
 On these principles we wish to examine what 
 the Word teaches as to the nature of the 
 Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. We note first 
 the accounts of the institution as given by the 
 three Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. 
 In Matthew xxvi. 26-28, we read, ^^ Jesus took 
 bread and blessed it and brake it, and gave it 
 to the disciples and said; 'Take, eat, this is my 
 body.' And he took the cup and gave thanks 
 and gave it to them saying: 'Drink ye all of it. 
 For this is My hlood of the New Testament, 
 
THE lord's supper 117 
 
 which is shed for many for the remission of 
 sins/ " With this the accounts in Mark xix. 
 22-24, and in Luke xxii. 19, 20, substantially 
 agree. There is a slight variation of the words, 
 but the substance is the same. 
 
 We notice only this difference: Luke adds 
 the words, ''This do in remembrance of Me." 
 On this point let us notice, in passing, that St. 
 Luke's was the last written of the three. The 
 Gospels of Matthew and Mark had been written 
 and were read and used in the churches several 
 years before St. Luke's. And yet the two 
 former do not contain the words, ''Do this in 
 remembrance of Me." Now we submit right 
 here, if to remember Christ were all that is in 
 this sacrament, or even the chief thing, why 
 did those who were inspired to write the lirst 
 Gospels, and knew that there were no others, 
 leave out these words? 
 
 Almost thirty years after the time of the 
 institution of this sacrament, the great apostle 
 of the Gentiles wrote a letter to the Church at 
 Corinth. That Church was made up of a mixed 
 multitude — Jews and Gentiles, freemen and 
 slaves. Many of them were neither clear nor 
 sound on points of Christian doctrine and prac- 
 tice. In his fatherly and affectionate letters to 
 the members of this Church, Paul, among other 
 things, gives them instruction concerning this 
 sacrament; and, lest some of them might per- 
 
118 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 haps suppose that he is giving them merely 
 his own wisdom and speculation, he takes 
 especial care to disavow this: ^'For I have re- 
 ceived of the Lord that which also I delivered 
 tmto you, that the Lord Jesus the same night 
 in which he was betrayed, took bread," etc., 
 giving in substance the same words of institu- 
 tion as given by the Evangelists (1 Cor. xi. 23, 
 24, 25). 
 
 After thus giving them the words of institu- 
 tion, Paul goes on to instruct them about 
 worthy and unworthy communing. In these 
 instructions we cannot help but notice how he 
 takes the real presence of Christ's body and 
 blood for granted all the way through. Notice 
 his language. Verse 27: ^'Whosoever shall 
 eat of this bread and drink of this cup of the 
 Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and 
 blood of the Lord." Verse 29: ''For he that 
 eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and 
 drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning 
 the Lord's body." Going back to chapter ten, 
 verse sixteen, we find the Apostle giving the 
 doctrine of the Lord's Supper in a few words 
 thus: ''The cup of blessing which we bless, is 
 it not the communion of the blood of Christ? 
 The bread which we break, is it not the com- 
 munion of the body of Christ?" 
 
 We have now noted all the passages that 
 speak directly on this subject. There are other 
 
THE lord's SUPPEE 119 
 
 strong passages that are often quoted in de- 
 fence of the doctrine of the real presence, and 
 which we doubtless have a right to use in cor- 
 roboration of those above quoted. We refer 
 to John vi. 53-56: *' Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, 
 and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 
 Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my hlood 
 hath eternal life. . . .for my flesh is meat 
 indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He that 
 eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth 
 in me, and I in him." 
 
 As it is a disputed point, however, whether 
 this passage refers to the Lord's Supper or 
 not, we are willing to waive it here. We are 
 content to take those passages quoted above, 
 which every one acknowledges as referring 
 directly to our subject. These we would have 
 the reader carefully examine. Note particu- 
 larly the language, the words employed. In the 
 four accounts given of the institution, three by 
 the Evangelists and one by Paul, we have the 
 same clear, plain words concerning the bread 
 and wine — words of the last will and testament 
 of the Son of God. our Saviour — "This is my 
 body.'* "This is my blood of the New Testa- 
 ment;" or "the New Testament in my blood." 
 Note the language of Paul: "Guilty of the 
 body and blood of the Lord." "Not discerning 
 the Lord's body." The cup is called the com- 
 
120 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 munion of the blood, and the bread, the com- 
 munion of the body of Christ. The word 
 communion is made up of two Latin words, con 
 and unio, meaning union with, or connection 
 with. The marginal reading in our family 
 Bibles, as well as in the revised version, is 
 '^ participation in." The plain English of the 
 verse then is, the bread is a participation in, 
 or a connection with Christ's body, and the 
 wine with His blood. 
 
 We are now ready to take all these passages 
 together, to compare them one with another, 
 and to ask, A^Hiat do they teach? What is the 
 Bible doctrine of the Lord's Supper? Is it 
 transubstantiation ? Is it consubstantiation ? 
 Is it that the bread and wine are mere repre- 
 sentations or memorials of the absent body and 
 blood of Christ? Or do these passages teach 
 "That the body and blood of Christ are truly 
 present under the form of bread and wine and 
 are communicated to those that eat in the 
 Lord's Supper?" (Augsburg Confession, Art. 
 X.) 
 
The Lord's Supper — Concluded. 
 
 WE have quoted, noted, collected and com- 
 pared the words of Scripture that speak 
 of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. We 
 now wish to ask and examine the question: 
 What do these passages taken together and 
 compared with one another teach? Or, in other 
 words, what is the Bible doctrine of the Lord 's 
 Supper? 
 
 Does the Bible teach the doctrine of Tran- 
 substantiation, as held and confessed by the 
 Roman Catholic Church? If our investigation 
 of the teachings of the Holy Scriptures con- 
 vinces us that they teach Transubstantiation, 
 we will be ready to believe and confess that 
 doctrine, no matter who else may believe or 
 disbelieve it. What we want to know, believe, 
 teach and confess, is the Bible doctrine. 
 
 What is Transubstantiation? The word 
 means a change of substance. The doctrine of 
 the Romish Church is that after the consecra- 
 tion by the priest, the bread in the sacrament 
 is changed into the material body of Christ, and 
 121 
 
122 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 the wine into His blood — so entirely changed in 
 substance and matter, that after the consecra- 
 tion there is no more bread or wine there ; what 
 was bread has been converted into the flesh of 
 Christ, and what was wine has been converted 
 into His blood. Is this the doctrine of God's 
 word? Does the Word anywhere tell ns that 
 the bread and wine are thus changed? Does it 
 call the bread flesh, either before or after the 
 consecration? Let us see. ''Jesus took bread." 
 *'I will not drink of the fruit of the vine.*' 
 "The bread which we break." ''For as often 
 as ye eat this bread and drink this cup." Such 
 is the language of inspiration. Now we ask, 
 if the Holy Spirit desired that plain and un- 
 prejudiced readers should find the doctrine of 
 Transubstantiation in His words, why does He 
 call the earthly elements bread and wine before, 
 during and after the consecration and distribur 
 tion? Why does He not say, "as often as ye 
 eat this flesh and drink this blood?" Evidently 
 because the bread is, and remains plain, natural 
 bread, and so with the wine. There is no change 
 in the component elements, in the nature, mat- 
 ter, or substance of either. Transubstantiation 
 is not the doctrine of God's word; neither was 
 it the doctrine of the early Church. It is one 
 of the human inventions and corruptions of the 
 Church of Rome. 
 Do then these words of Scripture teach the 
 
THE lord's supper 123 
 
 doctrine of Consubstantiation? There are 
 persons who talk a great deal about Consub- 
 stantiation, and yet they know not what it 
 means. What is it? It is a mingling or fusing 
 together of two different elements or sub- 
 stances, so that the two combine into a third. 
 A familiar example, often given, is the fusing 
 or melting together of copper and zinc until 
 they unite and form brass. Applied to the 
 sacrament of the altar, the doctrine of Con- 
 substantiation would teach that the flesh and 
 blood of Christ are physically or materially 
 mingled and combined with the bread and wine, 
 so that what the communicant receives is 
 neither plain, real bread, nor real flesh, but a 
 gross mixture of the two. 
 
 Again we ask, is this the teaching of the 
 Word? The very same proofs that convince us 
 that the divine Word does not teach Transub- 
 stantiation, also convince us that it does not 
 teach Consubstantiation. The simple fact that 
 the earthly elements are called bread and the 
 fruit of the vine, before, during and after con- 
 secration and distribution satisfies us that they 
 remain plain, simple bread and wine, without 
 physical change or admixture. Consubstantia- 
 tion is not the teaching of the Word ; neither is 
 it, nor has it ever been, the teaching of the Lu- 
 theran Church. It often has been, and is still 
 called the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's 
 
124 THE WAY OF SALVATION" 
 
 Supper, but it is found in none of her confes- 
 sions. It was never taught by a single recog- 
 nized theologian of our Church. One and all, 
 they have repudiated it and repudiate it still. 
 The question then is still unanswered: What 
 is the doctrine of the divine Word? 
 
 There are many who have a ready and easy 
 answer as to this doctrine. They say it is 
 only a Church ceremony, one of the old, solemn 
 rites by which Church members are distin- 
 guished from outsiders. There is indeed no 
 special significance or Grace connected with it. 
 There is really nothing in it but bread and wine. 
 There is no presence of Christ at all in this 
 sacrament in any way different from His gen- 
 eral presence. The bread represents or signi- 
 fies, is a sign, or symbol, or emblem of Christ's 
 body, and the wine of His blood. The com- 
 municant receives nothing but bread and wine, 
 and while he partakes of these he remembers 
 Christ's sufferings and death. Whatever spe- 
 cial benefit he is to derive from this sacrament 
 he must first put into it, by bringing to it pious 
 thoughts, good feelings, deep emotions, tender 
 memories, and a faith that swings itself aloft 
 and holds communion with Christ far off in 
 heaven. 
 
 This is about the current, popular view of 
 this subject as held and taught in nearly all 
 the Protestant Churches of to-day, outside of 
 
THE lord's supper 125 
 
 the Lutheran Church. As a natural conse- 
 quence of this superficial view, the whole mat- 
 ter is treated very lightly. There is little, if 
 any, solemn, searching preparation. In many 
 places there is no formal consecration of the 
 elements. The table is thrown open to any one 
 who desires to commune. There are no regula- 
 tions, no guards, no disciplinary tests, con- 
 nected with it. Even unbaptized persons, and 
 persons who have never made a public profes- 
 sion of faith, are often permitted to commune. 
 We return to the question : Is the view just 
 noticed in harmony with and based on the 
 Word ? Let us see. If there is nothing present 
 but bread and wine, why does Christ say, * * This 
 is My body . . .My blood?" . Why not say. This 
 is bread, this is wine? If Christ wanted us to 
 understand that the bread and wine merely 
 represent or are emblems of His body and 
 blood, why did He not say so? Did He not 
 know how to use language? Did He use dark 
 or misleading words in His last Will and Testa- 
 ment? Why does Paul, in speaking of worthy 
 and unworthy communing, speak of the body of 
 Christ as present, as a matter of course ? Was 
 he inspired to misunderstand Christ and lead 
 plain readers astray? If there is nothing more 
 in the sacrament than to remember Christ, why 
 — as already noticed — did not the writers of 
 the first two Gospels put in the words, ''Do this 
 
126 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 in remembrance of Me?'* Or why did not 
 Christ plainly say, * ' Take, eat this bread, which 
 represents My body, in remembrance of Me?" 
 Clearly, the doctrine in question is not based 
 on the words of Scripture. It cannot be sup- 
 ported by Scripture. Neither do its defenders 
 attempt to support it by the passages that 
 clearly speak of this sacrament. If they try to 
 bring in any Scripture proof, they quote pas- 
 sages that have nothing to do with the subject. 
 They draw their proofs and supports princi- 
 pally from reason and philosophy. 
 
 Surely a doctrine that changes the words of 
 the institution, wrests and twists them out of 
 their natural sense, and does violence to all 
 sound rules of interpretation ; that must bolster 
 itself up by the very same methods of interpre- 
 tation that are used to disprove the divinity of 
 Christ, the resurrection of the body, and the 
 eternity of future punishment, is not the doc- 
 trine of Christ. 
 
 We have not found the Bible doctrine in any 
 of the views examined. Can we find it? Let 
 us see. We are satisfied, from our examina- 
 tion of the passages that have to do with our 
 subject, that there must be earthly elements 
 present in this sacrament. They are bread and 
 wine. They remain so, without physical change 
 or admixture. We also find from these pas- 
 sages that there is a real presence of heavenly 
 
THE loed's supper 127 
 
 elements. These are the body and blood of 
 Christ. Not indeed that body as it was in its 
 state of humiliation, when it was subject to 
 weakness, hunger, thirst, pain and death. But 
 that glorified, spiritual, resurrection body, in 
 its state of exaltation, inseparably joined with 
 the Godhead, and by it rendered everywhere 
 present. And this body and divinity, we re- 
 mark in passing, were already present, though 
 veiled, when the God-man walked this earth. 
 Peter and James and John caught a glimpse 
 of it on the Mount of Transfiguration. It is of 
 this body, and blood, of which Peter says, 1 
 Peter i. 18, 19, that it is not a corruptible thing, 
 and of which the Apostle says, Heb. ix. 12, ''Bi/ 
 his own blood he entered in once into the Holy 
 Place'' (that is, into heaven), and of which 
 Jesus spoke when He said, ^'Take eat, this is 
 my body . . . this is my blood." 
 
 Of this body and blood, the Scriptures affirm 
 that they are present in the sacrament. The 
 passage Avhich sets forth the double presence, 
 that of the earthly and heavenly elements, which 
 indeed sums up and states the Bible doctrine 
 in a few words, is 1 Cor. x. 16. There Paul 
 affirms that the bread is the communion of 
 Christ's body, not of His Spirit or His influ- 
 ence. If the bread is the communion of, par- 
 ticipation in, or connection with His body, then 
 bread and body must both be present. It takes 
 
128 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 two things to make a communion. They must 
 both be present. It would be absurd to speak 
 of bread as a communion of something in no 
 way connected with it. 
 
 As we have already said, the plain sense of 
 the words of this passage is, that the bread is 
 a connection with, or a participation in Christ's 
 body, and so with the wine; so much so that 
 whoever partakes of the one must, in some 
 manner, also become a partaker of the other. 
 The bread, therefore, becomes the medium, the 
 vehicle, the conveyance, that carries to the 
 communicant the body of Christ, and the wine 
 likewise His blood. And this, we repeat, with- 
 out any gross material transmutation or mixing 
 together. The bread and wine are the earthen 
 vessels that carry the Heavenly treasures of 
 Christ's body and blood, even as the letters 
 and words of the Scriptures convey to the 
 reader or hearer the Holy Spirit. This is the 
 clear, plain, Bible doctrine of the Lord's Sup- 
 per. There is nothing gross, carnal, Capernait- 
 ish or repulsive about it. 
 
 And exactly this is the teaching and doctrine 
 of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Article 
 X., Augsburg Confession, says, **0f the Lord's 
 Supper they teach that the true body and blood 
 of Christ are truly present, under the form of 
 bread and wine, and are there communicated to 
 those that eat in the Lord's Supper." And 
 
THE lord's supper 129 
 
 Luther's Catechism says, ''The sacrament of 
 the altar is the true body and blood of Jesus 
 Christ, under the bread and wine, given unto 
 us Christians to eat and drink, as it was in- 
 stituted by Christ himself." 
 
 We therefore find that on this point also our 
 dear old Church is built impregnably on the 
 foundation of Christ and His Apostles. And 
 though she may here differ from all others, she 
 cannot yield one jot or tittle without proving 
 false to her Lord and to His truth. It is not 
 bigotry. It is not prejudice, that makes her 
 cling so tenaciously to this doctrine. She 
 knows, as the great Reformer knew, that the 
 very foundations are at stake ; that if she gives 
 up on this point, and changes the Scriptures to 
 suit human reason, she will soon have to give up 
 other doctrines, and by and by the rock on 
 which the Church is built will be removed, and 
 the gates of hell will prevail. 
 
 And further, if there is any risk of being mis- 
 taken — which she, however, does not admit — 
 she would rather run that risk, by taking her 
 Master at His Word, than by changing His 
 Word. In childlike confidence and trust; she 
 would rather believe too much than too little. 
 She would rather trust her dear Master "too 
 far than not far enough. And therefore here 
 she stands ; she cannot do otherwise. May God 
 help her I Amen. 
 
130 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Others may still say, "This is a hard saying, 
 who can bear it? The idea of eating and drink- 
 ing the body and blood of our Lord offends us." 
 
 Well, it also offends all rationalistic liberals, 
 that their salvation should depend on the literal 
 shedding of the literal blood of Jesus. But it 
 does not offend us. On the contrary, this same 
 doctrine is to us the very heart of the whole 
 Gospel, and is therefore more precious than 
 life itself. 
 
 Neither does it offend us that the mother, 
 whose pure and tender love to her infant child 
 is an emblem of the divine love to us poor sin- 
 ners, while she presses to her bosom that little 
 one, soothes away its frettings and sings away 
 its sobbings, at the same time feeds and nour- 
 ishes that feeble life with her own physical life, 
 giving it literally her body and blood. This is 
 no offense to us. 
 
 And why should it offend us that our dear 
 loving Saviour comes so close to us, leads us 
 into His banqueting house, where His banner 
 over us is love, speaks to us words that are the 
 out-breathings of the yearning love of His 
 divine heart, and, at the same time, feeds us 
 with His own spiritual and glorified body and 
 blood, and thus makes us partake of the divine 
 nature. 
 
 Instead of being offended, let us rather bow 
 down, and worship, and adore, and sing: 
 
THE lord's supper 131 
 
 "Lord, at Thy table I behold 
 
 The wonders of Thy Grace; 
 But most of all admire that I 
 
 Should find a welcome place." 
 
 "I that am all defiled by sin; 
 
 A rebel to my God: 
 I that have crucified His Son 
 And trampled on His blood!" 
 
 "What strange surprising Grace is this 
 
 That such a soul has room; 
 My Saviour takes me by the hand. 
 
 And kindly bids me come!" 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Prepaeatory Service; Sometimes Called 
 THE Confessional Service. 
 
 IN our examination of the nature and meaning 
 of the Lord's Supper, we have found that it 
 is indeed a most important and holy Sacrament. 
 It is in fact the most sacred of all the ordin- 
 ances of the Church on earth. There is nothing 
 beyond it — nothing so heavenly, on this side of 
 heaven, as this Feast. NoAvhere else does the 
 believer approach so near to heaven as when 
 he stands or kneels, as a communicant at this 
 altar, the Holy of Holies in the Church of 
 Christ. 
 
 What a solemn act ! To approach this altar, 
 to participate in its heavenly mysteries, to be- 
 come a partaker of the glorified body and blood 
 of the Son of God ! Surely no one who under- 
 stands the import of this Sacrament, will dare 
 to approach hastily, thoughtlessly, or on the 
 impulse of the moment. Surely there must be 
 forethought and preparation. Our Church has 
 realized this from the very beginning. She has 
 had, and still has, a special service for those 
 132 
 
THE PREPAKATORY SERVICE 133 
 
 who intend to commune. Her preparatory ser- 
 vice precedes her communion service. And we 
 can safely affirm, that no Church has so search- 
 ing and suitable a preparatory service as has 
 the Lutheran Church. Where this preparatory 
 service is properly conducted and entered into 
 by pastor and people, it is a not unimportant 
 step in the Way of Salvation. 
 
 Our Church, in this particular also, is purely 
 scriptural. Israel of old had seasons of special 
 preparation, previous to special manifestations 
 from God. There was a season of special pre- 
 paration before the giving of the Law; also be- 
 fore the receiving of the quails and the manna 
 from heaven. There were days of preparation 
 before and in connection with the great annual 
 festivals, as well as in connection with other 
 great national and religious events. Our Lord, 
 Himself, observed a most solemn preparatory 
 service with His disciples before He instituted 
 the Last Supper. He not only spoke very com- 
 forting words to them, but He also plainly 
 pointed out to them their sins, e. g., their pride, 
 their jealousy, their quarrels, their coming de- 
 fection, the fall of Peter and the treachery of 
 Judas. In harmony with all this, Paul directs : 
 **But let a man examine himself, and so let him 
 eat of that bread and drink of that cup." 
 
 And it is to aid and assist the communicant in 
 this self-examination that we have our prepara- 
 
134 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 tory service. Its great object is to enable the 
 communicant to realize his own sinfulness, to 
 deepen in him true penitence and longing for 
 forgiveness, and also to aid him in appropriat- 
 ing and rejoicing in the full and free for- 
 giveness of Christ. To this end we sing our 
 penitential hymns, plead for Grace to know 
 ourselves, our sinfulness, and the fulness of 
 Christ's Grace, and hear such searching ap- 
 peals from the pastor as often pain and agonize 
 the heart. 
 
 Then follows a united, audible and public 
 confession of sin, of sorrow because of it, of 
 earnest desire for forgiveness, of faith in Christ 
 as the divine Saviour, and of an earnest pur- 
 pose to hate and avoid all sin in the future. 
 This confession is followed by the words of ab- 
 solution from the pastor. 
 
 In pronouncing the absolution the minister 
 uses the following, or words to the same effect : 
 ** Almighty God, our heavenly Father, having 
 of His great mercy promised the forgiveness 
 of sins to all those who with hearty repentance 
 and true faith turn unto Him, and having au- 
 
THE PKEPAEATOKY SERVICE 135 
 
 thorized His ministers to declare the same, I 
 pronounce, to all who do truly repent and be- 
 lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ, and are sin- 
 cerely determined to amend their ways and lead 
 a godly and pious life, the entire forgiveness 
 of all your sins, in the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. ' ' 
 
 This is the closing part of the preparatory 
 service, which is called Confession and Absolu- 
 tion. 
 
 Some time ago we were asked, by a minister 
 of another denomination, why Lutherans re- 
 tained and practiced Eomish confession, and 
 forgiveness by the minister. We handed him 
 our formula for Confession and Absolution, and 
 asked him to examine it and point out to us 
 wherein it was Eomish or unscriptural. After 
 examination he handed it back, saying: **I 
 cannot say that it is exactly unscriptural. In 
 fact, I can easily see how you can quote Scrip- 
 ture in its defense." 
 
 And so we can. Li Matt. xvi. 19, Jesus says 
 to Peter: '*/ will give unto thee the keys of the 
 kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt 
 
136 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 hind on earth shalt be bound in heaven; and 
 whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be 
 loosed in heaven.'* In Matt, xviii. 18, the 
 Saviour gives the same power in the same 
 words to all the disciples as representatives of 
 the Christian congregation. In John xx. 21-23, 
 He says again to the disciples : ^'As my Father 
 hath sent me, even so seyid I you, .... 
 whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted 
 unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they 
 are retained." 
 
 What do these words of Christ mean? They 
 must mean something. They must be of some 
 use. Our Lord certainly does confer some kind 
 of authority or power on His Church, which is 
 His Bride. Does He hereby give into her hand 
 the keys of His kingdom, and authorize her to 
 dispense its treasures? Does she through her 
 ministry, employ these keys, bring forth 
 heavenly treasures, and distribute and with- 
 hold them among the children of men? To the 
 Church's ministers Christ says, Luke x. 16; 
 ''He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that 
 despiseth you, despiseth me.'* One of these 
 ministers, who certainly understood his office 
 and its perogatives, speaking in the name of 
 all true ministers of Christ, says, 2 Cor. v. 20: 
 ''Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as 
 though God did beseech you by us, we pray you 
 in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." If 
 
THE PREPARATORY SERVICE 137 
 
 we would see how this ambassador exercised 
 his high authority in an individual case, he 
 tells us in 2 Cor. ii. 10 : *'If I forgave anything , 
 to whom I forgave it for your sakes forgave I 
 it, in the presence of Christ/' 
 
 If now we take these passages together, we 
 must admit that in their plain literal sense, they 
 do teach that Christ, the Head of the Church, 
 has in some sense committed to His Church 
 the power to remit and retain sins, and that 
 this power is exercised in the Chruch through 
 its ministry. 
 
 In what sense then has a minister power to 
 remit sin ? Certainly not by any inherent virtue 
 of his own, nor by any power originating in his 
 own person. In this sense only God can forgive 
 sin, as all sin is committed against Him. But 
 God can delegate that power to another, and 
 permit him to use it in His name. And this is 
 all the power any human being can have in this 
 matter. It would indeed be blasphemy for any 
 man to claim that he had power in himself to 
 forgive sins. If he can have any power at all, 
 it must be Christ* s power. He can only use it 
 as a deputy, as an ambassador, or as an agent. 
 And this is exactly what the Word teaches. 
 The minister is Christ's ambassador. He be- 
 seeches and speaks in Christ's stead, as though 
 God were speaking by him. Paul forgave the 
 penitent Corinthian, not in his own name or by 
 
138 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 his own authority, but "in the presence of 
 Christ." 
 
 When a part of our country was in rebellion, 
 the government at Washington sent deputies to 
 those who had renounced their allegiance, em- 
 powered to confer pardon, and reinstate as 
 citizens, all who accepted the government's 
 terms of pardon. These agents had no power 
 in themselves, but they were authorized to 
 carry the pardoning power of the government, 
 and to those who accepted it from them, it was 
 as valid as though each one had received a 
 special proclamation of pardon from the gov- 
 ernment. Just so does the pastor, as Christ's 
 ambassador, offer and bestow Christ's forgive- 
 ness to the penitent and believing sinner. He 
 offers this pardon only on the terms laid down 
 by Christ. The means through which he con- 
 veys this pardon is God's Word. This Word, 
 preaching repentance and remission of sins, 
 when spoken by the minister, is just as effective 
 as when it fell from the lips of Christ or His 
 inspired apoetles. Whenever he preaches God's 
 Word he does nothing else than declare Christ's 
 absolution. It is the Word of God, that still 
 remits and retains, that binds and looses. 
 
 The pastor can only declare that Word, but 
 the Word itself does effectually work forgive- 
 ness to him that rightly receives it. Not only 
 can the minister carry this Word of God, this 
 
THE PKEPAEATOEY SEEVICE 139 
 
 key of the kingdom, this power of God unto 
 salvation, and apply it, but any disciple of 
 Christ can do so. Dr. Krauth beautifully says : 
 *'The whole pastoral work is indeed but an 
 extension of the Lutheran idea of Confession 
 and Absolution." And Dr. Walther says: 
 *'The whole Gospel is nothing but a proclama- 
 tion of the forgiveness of sins, or a publication 
 of the same Word to all men on earth, which 
 God Himself confirms in heaven." Dr. Seiss 
 somewhere says: ''Every time a believer in 
 Christ sits down beside a troubled and penitent 
 one, and speaks to such an one Christ's pre- 
 cious promises and assurances of forgiveness, 
 he carries out the Lutheran or scriptural idea 
 of absolution. " 
 
 And even the minister of another denomina- 
 tion, above referred to, acknowledged to the 
 writer, that when he found one of his parish- 
 ioners of whom he was convinced that she was 
 a true penitent, despondent on account of her 
 sins, he unhesitatingly said to her, ''Your sins 
 are forgiven by Christ." 
 
 We had intended to still say something about 
 the public confession of Israel at Mizpeh, 1 
 Sam. V. 6, and of the multitudes w^ho went out 
 to John the Baptist, Matt. viii. 6; also of the 
 private Confession and Absolution of David 
 and Nathan, 2 Sam. xii. 13. But each one can 
 examine these cases for himself. Enough has 
 
140 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 been said to assure us that our Church, in this 
 matter also, is grounded on the eternal Word 
 of God, and that she did wisely when, after re- 
 pudiating the blasphemous practices of the 
 Romish confessional, she yet retained an evan- 
 gelical Confession and Absolution. 
 
 When we therefore hear the declaration of 
 absolution from God's Word, let us believe it, 
 ''even as if it were a voice sounding from 
 heaven. ' ' 
 
 Therefore the Augsburg Confession, Art. 
 XXV, says that ''On account of the very great 
 benefit of Absolution, as well as for other uses 
 to the conscience, Confession is retained among 
 us." 
 
 Such evangelical Confession and Absolution 
 establishes and maintains the true relation that 
 should exist between an evangelical pastor and 
 the members of his flock. Instead of a mere 
 preacher, a platform orator, he becomes a true 
 spiritual guide, a curate for the cure of souls. 
 He encourages his members to reveal to him 
 their weaknesses, their besetting sins, their 
 doubts and spiritual conflicts, in order that he 
 may instruct, direct, comfort and strengthen 
 them with the all-sufficient and powerful Word 
 of God. 
 
 And thus, wherever he finds true penitence 
 and faith, however weak, he carries out the 
 divine commission which directs him: ''Com- 
 
THE PKEPARATORY SERVICE 141 
 
 fort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord, 
 speak ye comfortably to — i. e., speak ye to the 
 heart of — Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her 
 warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is 
 pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord's 
 hand double for all her sins,'' Is. 40, 1, 2.* 
 
 "How beauteous are their feet. 
 
 Who stand on Zion's Hill! 
 Who bring salvation on their tongues. 
 And Words of peace reveal. 
 
 "How charming is their voice! 
 How sweet the tidings are! 
 'Zion behold thy Saviour King; 
 He reigns and triumphs here.' " 
 
 * See further on this whole subject of Confession and 
 Absolution, The Lutheran Catechist, Chapter xxiv. Also 
 The Lutheran Pastor, Chapter xiv. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Word As a Means of Grace. 
 
 IN the last chapter we learned that the Word 
 of God is the key of the kingdom, which key- 
 Christ has given to His Church, and that this 
 Word, declared by the pastor, does really con- 
 vey and apply the forgiveness of sins to the 
 penitent and believing. Following out this 
 idea, we wish now to show that God's Word is 
 the power and the effective means through 
 which the Holy Spirit operates on the minds 
 and hearts of the children of men. 
 
 The popular idea in regard to the use of the 
 Word, seems to be that it is intended to be 
 merely a book of instruction and a guide — that 
 its purpose is merely to tell us about sin and 
 salvation; that like a guide-post it points out 
 the way of salvation, and shows the necessity 
 of repentance, faith, and holiness. That it tells 
 about the need of the Holy Spirit to effect a 
 change of heart, and that further than this it 
 affords no help for fallen man. A poor sinner 
 goes to that Word. He reads it, or hears it 
 preached. He learns indeed that he is a sinner, 
 142 
 
THE WORD AS A MEANS OF GRACE 143 
 
 but he has no deliverance from sin. He learns 
 of Christ's redemption, but its benefits are not 
 applied to him. He sees that he must repent 
 and believe, but by his own reason and strength 
 he cannot. He learns further, that he needs 
 the Holy Spirit to enable him to repent and 
 believe, but, according to the current opinion, 
 that Spirit is not in the Word, nor effective 
 through it, but operates independently of it. 
 The using of the divine Word is at best an oc- 
 casion that the Spirit may use for independent 
 operation. He might go from his Bible and 
 from many a sermon and say: *'I know I need 
 religion — I need the Spirit of God, and I hope 
 that at some time the Spirit may come to me 
 and bless me with pardon and peace, but I 
 cannot tell when or how this may be." Ac- 
 cording to this popular conception, the Holy 
 Spirit might be compared to a dove flying 
 about, and alighting at hap-hazard now on this 
 one and then on that one. 
 
 The Lutheran Church does not so understand 
 the teaching and claims of the Word concern- 
 ing itself. According to her faith the Word 
 of God is more than a book of information. It 
 not only tells about sin and salvation, but de- 
 livers from sin and confers salvation. It not 
 only points out the way of life, but it leads, 
 nay more, we might say, it carries us into and 
 along that way. It not only instructs concern- 
 
144 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 ing the need of the Holy Spirit, but it conveys 
 that Spirit to the very mind and heart. It is 
 indeed a precious truth, that this Word not only 
 tells me what I must do to be saved, but it 
 also enables me to do it. It is indeed the prin- 
 cipal means of Grace. It is the vehicle and in- 
 strument of the Holy Spirit. Through it the 
 Holy Spirit works repentance and faith. 
 Through it He regenerates, converts, and sanc- 
 tifies. 
 
 This is the doctrine of the Lutheran Church, 
 concerning the use and efficacy of the divine 
 Word. Luther's Small Catechism, Apostles' 
 Creed, Art. III. explanation says: "I be- 
 lieve that I cannot by my own reason or 
 strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or 
 come to Him; but that the Holy Spirit hath 
 called me through the Gospel, enlightened me 
 by His gifts," etc. Thus also Augsburg Con- 
 fession, Art. V. : *'For by the Word and Sacra- 
 ments, as by instruments, the Holy Spirit is 
 given; who worketh faith, where and when it 
 pleaseth God, in those that hear the Gospel" 
 
 Is this the teaching of the Word itself? Let 
 us see. In John vi. 63, Jesus says: ''The 
 words that I speak unto you, they are spirit 
 and they are life." In Eomans i. 16, Paul says 
 of the Gospel: ''It is the power of God unto 
 salvation to every one that believeth." Heb. 
 iv. 12: "For the word of God is quick (living) 
 
THE WORD AS A MEANS OF GRACE 145 
 
 and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 
 sword." 1 Peter i. 23: ''Born again not of 
 corruptible seed, hut of incorruptible, by the 
 Word of God, which liveth and abideth for- 
 ever." James i. 21: ''Receive with meekness 
 the engrafted Word, which is able to save your 
 souls." It is clear, therefore, chat the Word 
 does claim for itself virtue, life, power, and 
 effectiveness. 
 
 But does it claim to be the Spirit's means 
 and instrument, by and through which He 
 operates? In 2 Cor. iii. 8, it is called a "minis- 
 tration of the Spirit." In Eph. vi. 17, Paul 
 calls it the "sword of the Spirit." 
 
 We learn the same truth from the fact that 
 the same effects are ascribed indiscriminately 
 to the Spirit and to the Word, showing clearly 
 that where one is, there the other is also, and 
 that one acts through the other. 
 
 Thus the divine call is ascribed in one place 
 to the Spirit, and in another to the Word. Eev. 
 xxii 17. "The Spirit . . . says come." In 
 the parables, Christ's ministers, preaching the 
 Word, say: "Come, for all things are ready." 
 
 In like manner, enlightening, or teaching, is 
 ascribed to both. John xiv. 26, Jesus says of 
 the Spirit: "He shall teach you all things;" 
 chapter xvi. 13, "He shall guide you into all 
 truth." He is called a "spirit of wisdom" — a 
 "spirit of light." On the other hand, the Word 
 
146 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 is called a ''Word of wisdom;" also, Ps. cxix. 
 130: ''The entrance of thy Word giveth 
 light;" 2 Tim. iii. 15: The Scriptures are said 
 to be "able to make wise unto salvation;" 2 
 Pet. i. 19: It is as "a light that shineth in a 
 dark place." 
 
 So, also, regeneration is ascribed to both. 
 John iii. 5 : "Bom of water and of the Spirit;" 
 verse 6: "That which is born of the Spirit is 
 spirit;" verse 8: "So is every one that is born 
 of the Spirit;" 1 John v. 4: "For ivhatsoever 
 is born of God {i. e., of God's Spirit) over- 
 cometh the world." But of the divine Word 
 it is said, 1 Pet. i. 23, "Born again . . , by 
 the Word of God;" James i. 18: "Of his own 
 will begat he us, with the Word of truth." 
 
 In like manner, sanctification is ascribed to 
 both John x^di. 17: "Sanctify them through 
 thy truth; thy Word is truth;" but 1 Cor. vi. 
 11, "Ye are sanctified , . . by the Spirit 
 of our God." 
 
 And thus we might go on, and show that what 
 is ascribed in one place to the Spirit, is ascribed 
 in another place to the Word — proving con- 
 clusively that the two always go together. 
 Where one is, there the other is also. The 
 Spirit operates through the Word, whether it 
 be the written, the preached, the sacramental, 
 or the Word in conversation or reflection. The 
 ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit are 
 
THE WOED AS A MEANS OF GBACE 147 
 
 through that Word. Those who are renewed 
 and sanctified by the Holy Spirit are those who 
 have been influenced by this regenerating and 
 sanctifying Word. 
 
 This blessed Word of God, quick, powerful, 
 able to save the soul, because of the life-giving 
 Spirit connected with it, is not only to be read, 
 but to be preached and heard. This is God's 
 own arrangement. From the days of Enoch, 
 Noah, the patriarchs and prophets, down to 
 Jesus and the apostles, and from them to the 
 end of the Gospel dispensation. He has had 
 and will have His preachers of righteousness. 
 
 Our Lord preached His own Gospel, the 
 words of spirit and of life. He commissioned 
 His apostles to preach the same Gospel. They 
 "went everywhere preaching the Word.*' The 
 Church called and sent others, whose life-work 
 it was to "preach the Word, to he instant in 
 season and out of season, reproving, rebuking, 
 exhorting.*' And this divine arrangement is 
 to continue. Eom. x. 13-15: "For whosoever 
 shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be 
 saved; how then shall they call on Him in whom 
 they have not believed? And how shall they 
 believe in Him of whom they have not heard? 
 And how shall they hear without a preacher? 
 And how shall they preach except they be 
 sent?" 1 Cor. 1. 21: "It pleased God by the 
 foolishness of preaching to save them that be- 
 
148 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 lieve;" Rom. x. 17: ''So then faith cometh by 
 hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." 
 Therefore, according to Rom. x. 6-8, let no one 
 say, ''Who shall ascend into heaven {i. e., to 
 bring Christ down from above), or who shall 
 descend into the deep? {i. e., to bring Christ up 
 again from the dead) for "the Word is nigh 
 thee . . . that is the Word of faith which 
 we preach." This then is evidently God's 
 order of the application of divine Grace. 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding these plain declara- 
 tions, men try all sorts of measures and 
 methods to bring Christ near, because they can- 
 not understand that when they have the Word, 
 they have the Spirit, and when they have the 
 Spirit, they have Christ. In Luke xi. 27, we 
 read how a woman called down a blessing on 
 the mother of our Lord because she was privi- 
 leged to have borne Him. But Jesus answered, 
 "Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the 
 Word of God and keep it." That Word 
 carries the Spirit to the hearer, and through it 
 converts the sinner and sanctifies the saint. In 
 the Acts of the Apostles also we read how 
 again and again the Spirit was given through 
 and in connection with the Word. The Apostles 
 depended on nothing but Word and Sacrament. 
 
 The Lutheran doctrine, then, that the Word 
 of God is the great effectual means of Grace; 
 that it is the vehicle and instrument of the 
 
THE WORD AS A MEANS OF GRACE 149 
 
 Holy Spirit ; that through it, the Spirit renews 
 the soul, applies forgiveness, and sanctifies the 
 hearer or reader more and more — is the pure 
 truth of Christ. Hence, wherever the Lutheran 
 Church is true to her name and faith, she 
 preaches the whole counsel of God, and relies 
 on that for ingathering and upbuilding. A 
 true Lutheran pulpit cannot be a sensational 
 pulpit, for discoursing wordly wisdom, philoso- 
 phy, poetry, or politics. It must expound the 
 Word, and never gets done preaching repent- 
 ance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 What a beautiful and harmonious system of 
 God's methods of saving men is thus brought 
 into view! How helpful to the sinner desiring 
 salvation ! Instead of waiting and hoping and 
 dreaming of something wonderful to happen 
 to bring him into the kingdom, he needs only 
 to go to the divine Word and let that Word do 
 its work in his heart. 
 
 "Though devils all the world should fill, 
 
 All watching to devour us, 
 We tremble not, we fear no ill, 
 
 They cannot overpower us. 
 This world's prince may still 
 Scowl fierce as he will. 
 He can harm us none, 
 He's judged, the deed is done. 
 
 One little Word o'erthrows him. 
 
150 THE WAY 0¥ SALVATION" 
 
 "The Word they still shall let remain, 
 
 And not a thank have for it, 
 He's by oxir side upon the plain, 
 
 With His good gifts and Spirit; 
 Take they then our life, 
 Goods, fame, child and wife; 
 When their worst is done. 
 They yet have nothing won. 
 The Kingdom ours remaineth." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Conversion, Its Nature and Necessity. 
 
 CLOSELY related to the doctrine of the 
 power, or efficacy, of the divine Word — as 
 considered in the last chapter — is the doctrine 
 of conversion. It is the subject of conversion, 
 therefore, that we now purpose to examine. It 
 is an important subject. It deserves a promi- 
 nent place in treating of the Way of Salvation. 
 It is also an intensely personal subject. Each 
 one who desires to be in the Way of Salvation 
 is personally interested in it. The eternal des- 
 tiny of every one who reads these pages is 
 closely connected with the question whether or 
 not he is converted. To be in an unconverted 
 state, is to be in a state of great peril. The 
 issues of eternity are involved in the final de- 
 cision of the soul, in reference to this great sub- 
 ject. It is of the most vital importance, there- 
 fore, that each one examine and understand it. 
 And yet, strange as it may seem, there are 
 few subjects concerning which those interested 
 are more in the dark. Stranger still, often 
 those who preach and talk most about it, who 
 151 
 
152 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 are loudest in proclaiming its necessity, know 
 least about it. Ask them as to its meaning, its 
 nature, its elements. Ask them who need it, 
 how it is brought about, and what are the evi- 
 dences of its existence; and they give at best 
 very confused and unscriptural answers. We 
 therefore propose to examine it in the light of 
 the Word of God, and may He, the Spirit of 
 truth, enable us to know and believe its divine 
 teachings ! * 
 
 What then is conversion? The original and 
 simple meaning of the word convert is to turn 
 — to turn about This is also the meaning of 
 the Latin word from which the English comes. 
 The Greek word, which in the New Testament 
 is translated '' convert" or '* conversion, " also 
 refers to the act of turning. It is so translated 
 quite frequently. Thus the same Greek word 
 that is in some places translated convert, is in 
 other places translated turn, e. g., as in Mark 
 V. 30: ''Jesus . . . turned him about in 
 the press." Acts xvi. 18: ** But Paul . . . 
 turned and said." Matt. xii. 44: *'I will re- 
 turn into my house. ' ' Acts xxvi. 18 : * * To turn 
 them from darkness to light. " And so in many 
 other places. It is plain, then, that the mean- 
 ing of the word is a turning or facing about — 
 a returning, or a changing of direction — as if a 
 
 * For an examination and application of Bible examples 
 of Conversion, see the book "New Testament Conversions." 
 
CONVERSION, ITS NAME AND NECESSITY 153 
 
 traveler, on finding himself going the wrong 
 way, turns, returns, changes his course, comes 
 back, he converts himself. 
 
 Applying this word now to a moral or re- 
 ligious use, it means a turning from sin to 
 righteousness, from Satan to God. The trans- 
 gressor who had been walking in the way of 
 disobedience and enmity against God, and to- 
 wards eternal death, is turned about into the 
 way of righteousness, towards eternal life. 
 This is a change of direction, but it is also some- 
 thing more. It is a change of state — from a 
 state of sin to a state of Grace. It is still more. 
 It is a change of nature — from a sinner unto a 
 saint. It is finally a change of relation — from 
 an outcast and stranger unto a child and heir. 
 Thus there is an outward and an inward turn- 
 ing, a complete change. 
 
 That this is the scriptural meaning of con- 
 version is very clear from Acts xxvi. 18. The 
 Lord is about to send Paul to the Gentiles for 
 the purpose of converting them. He describes 
 the work of conversion thus: ''To open their 
 eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, 
 and from the poiver of Satan unto God; that 
 they may receive forgiveness of sins, and in- 
 heritance among them which are. sanctified hy 
 faith that is in me.'* 
 
 As already remarked, the word here trans- 
 
154 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 lated to 'Hurn" is the same that is elsewhere 
 translated to '^ convert." 
 
 If we now inquire more particularly into the 
 nature or process of this change which is called 
 ''conversion," we find in it two constituent ele- 
 ments. The one is penitence or contrition, the 
 other is faith. Taken together, they make up 
 conversion. In passing, we may briefly notice 
 that sometimes the Scriptures use the word 
 ' ' repentance ' ' as embracing both penitence and 
 faith, thus making it synonymous with con- 
 version. 
 
 Penitence or contrition, as the first part of 
 conversion, is sorrow for sin. It is a realizing 
 sense of the nature and guilt of sin, of its 
 heinousness and its damnable character. True 
 penitence is indeed a painful experience. A 
 penitent heart is, therefore, called ^'a broken 
 and a contrite heart.'* It takes from the sin- 
 ner his self-satisfaction and false peace. It 
 makes him restless, dissatisfied and troubled. 
 Instead of loving and delighting in sin, it makes 
 him hate sin and turn from it with aversion. It 
 brings the sinner low in the dust. He cries 
 out, '^I am vile;** ''I loathe myself;'* '^God 
 be merciful to me a sinner.** 
 
 This is the penitence insisted on by the pro- 
 phets, breathed forth in the penitential psalms, 
 preached by John the Baptist, by Christ and 
 by all His apostles. It is not necessary to quote 
 
CONVERSION, ITS NAME AND NECESSITY 155 
 
 passages in proof of this. Every Bible reader 
 knows that the Word is full of exhortations to 
 such sorrow and repenting for sin. 
 
 But penitence must not stop with hating and 
 bemoaning sin, and longing for deliverance. 
 The penitent sinner must resolutely turn from 
 sin towards Jesus Christ the Saviour. He 
 must believe that He took upon Himself the 
 punishment due to his sins, and by His death 
 atoned for them; that He satisfied a violated 
 law, and an offended Law-giver; that thus He 
 has become his Substitute and Redeemer, and 
 has taken away all his sins. This the penitent 
 must believe. Thus must he cast himself upon 
 Christ, and trust in Him with a childlike confi- 
 dence, knowing that there is now, therefore, no 
 condemnation. Having this faith, he is justi- 
 fied, and '^ being justified hy faith, he has peace 
 with God.'* 
 
 True penitence always grows into faith, and 
 true faith always presupposes penitence. 
 "Where one is, there the other is: and where 
 both are, there is conversion. Penitence, there- 
 fore, is not something that goes before conver- 
 sion, and faith something that follows after, 
 and conversion an indefinable something sand- 
 wiched in between, as some seem to imagine; 
 but penitence and faith are the constituent ele- 
 ments that make up conversion. 
 
 In the next place we would inquire: Who 
 
156 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 needs this change? We answer, first, all who 
 are not in a state of loving obedience to God; 
 that is, all who are not turned away from and 
 against sin and Satan, and turned toward holi- 
 ness and God. On the other hand, all who 
 really hate sin, mourn over it, strive against 
 it, trust in and cling to Christ as their personal 
 Eedeemer, need no conversion. No matter 
 whether they can tell where and when and how 
 they were converted or not. All who know by 
 blessed experience that they now have in their 
 hearts the elements of penitence and faith, are 
 in a state of conversion, and if they earnestly 
 ask God they may have the assurance that their 
 sins are forgiven and that they are accepted 
 in the Beloved. True, this assurance may some- 
 times be dimmed by doubt or under the strain 
 of strong temptation; but as long as there is 
 real hatred of sin and an earnest desire to 
 rest in Christ alone, there is Grace and accept- 
 ance with Christ. 
 
 To the class of those who are in a converted 
 state belong those baptized children of the 
 Church who have kept their baptismal covenant. 
 Given to Christ in holy baptism, the seeds of 
 the new life implanted through that divine or- 
 dinance, reared and trained by Christian 
 parents or guardians, they have belonged to 
 Christ from their childhood. From their 
 earliest years they have hated sin, repented 
 
CONVERSION, ITS NAME AND NECESSITY 157 
 
 of it, trusted in Christ, and loved Him. They 
 are ^'turned from darkness to light and from 
 the power of Satan to God." They need only 
 that daily dying to sin, and that daily turning to 
 Christ, which all Christians need on account of 
 the sins and infirmities of the flesh which still 
 cleave to them. Such were Joseph, and Samuel, 
 and Daniel, and Jeremiah, and John the Bap- 
 tist, and Timothy, and others of whom we read 
 in the Scriptures. They were children of the 
 covenant, and therefore children of God. Of 
 this class we have written in former chapters. 
 We need not enlarge on them here. They need 
 no conversion, because they are in a converted 
 state. Yet there are well-meaning people, who 
 have more zeal than knowledge, who would 
 violently exhort even such to be converted. 
 Thus would they confuse them, distract them, 
 unsettle their faith in Christ, quench the Spirit, 
 and, perhaps, drive them to unbelief and 
 despair. From all such teachers, we pray: 
 ' ' Good Lord, deliver us. ' ' 
 
CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 Conversion — ^Varied Phenomena or 
 Experiences 
 
 WE have spoken of the meaning of this term, 
 inquired into the nature of the change, and 
 noted its essential elements. We have also 
 learned that there are some who do not need 
 it because they are in a converted state, and 
 that all who are not in such a state of Grace, 
 do need conversion, regardless of anything 
 that may or may not have taken place in the 
 
 "We inquire now as to the agencies or means 
 by which this change is brought about. For it 
 is a change which man can certainly not effect 
 by his own efforts. Of this change it can cer- 
 tainly be said that it is "not ly might, nor hy 
 power, hut hy my Spirit, saith the Lord.*' To 
 have this change brought about in the heart, 
 all need to pray in the words of the Psalmist, 
 Ps. Ixxxv. 4, "Turn us, God of our salva- 
 tion;" or as Ephraim in Jer. xxxi. 18, "Turn 
 thou me and 1 shall he turned, for thou art the 
 Lord my God;'* or as Judah in Lamentations, 
 158 
 
CONVERSION — PHENOMENA OR EXPERIENCE 159 
 
 V. 21, "Turn thou us unto thee, Lord, and wc 
 shall he turned." It is God the Holy Ghost 
 who must work this change in the soul. This 
 He does through His own life-giving Word. 
 It is the office of that Word, as the organ of 
 the Holy Spirit, to bring about a knowledge 
 of sin, to awaken sorrow and contrition, and to 
 make the sinner hate and turn from his sin. 
 That same Word then directs the sinner to 
 Him who came to save him from sin. It takes 
 him to the cross, it enables him to believe that 
 his sins were all atoned for there, and that, 
 therefore, he is not condemned. In other 
 words, the Word of God awakens and con- 
 stantly deepens true penitence. It also begets 
 and constantly increases true faith. Or, in one 
 word, it converts the sinner. Of this wonder- 
 ful power and efficacy in the Word, we have 
 already fully written, so that we need not en- 
 ter upon this again. To the Word, then, let 
 the unconverted sinner go. Let him be care- 
 ful to put no barrier in the way of its influence. 
 Let him permit it to have free course, and it 
 will do its own blessed work. 
 
 We desire now to notice and to call special 
 attention to the diversified phenomena and ex- 
 periences incident to this change. 
 
 There are some, indeed, who will not admit 
 that there are any variations. They would 
 measure all by the same standard, and that 
 
160 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 standard often a very abnormar one. With 
 some, the only standard is their own distorted 
 experience. In their pharisaic self-righteous- 
 ness they are ready to assert that every one 
 whose experience does not in every respect 
 conform to their own is not converted. The 
 writer has frequently, in his pastoral work, met 
 poor; downcast souls, who were groping in the 
 dark, bemoaning themselves, and living a cheer- 
 less life, because they had been taught that, as 
 they had not had an experience just like some- 
 body else, they were not converted, and had 
 neither part nor lot in the kingdom of God. He 
 has also met more than one who, by just such 
 vagaries and delusions, had been driven to un- 
 belief and despair. And what a relief it often 
 is to such poor, benighted ones, if they are 
 not too far gone, to be led out of their vain 
 imaginings into the blessed light of God's 
 truth. 
 
 We notice, first, that not all conversions are 
 alike clearly marked. Some are more strongly 
 marked than others. There are greater and 
 lesser degrees of intensity in the change. The 
 degree of intensity, or depth of experience, may 
 depend on several things. It may depend, to 
 a certain extent, on the temperament of the in- 
 dividual. One person is of a phlegmatic tem- 
 perament; his mind is sluggish; his feelings 
 are not deep ; he rarely becomes excited. Of a 
 
CONVERSION PHENOMENA OR EXPERIENCE 161 
 
 cool, calculating disposition, he does everything 
 deliberately and cautiously. He feels the 
 ground before him ere he takes a step. When 
 God's Word comes to such an one it does not 
 generally revolutionize him at once. He hears 
 it, carries it home, weighs it, ponders it, and 
 wants to hear more. Gradually, slowly, his 
 mind is enlightened, his heart is moved, his will 
 is changed. In him the Word is likely to grow 
 as a seed, or operate like leaven in meal. There 
 is seldom much excitement, and little outward 
 manifestation. 
 
 Another is of a sanguine temperament; he is 
 impulsive, easily aroused, and ready to jump 
 at conclusions. When God's Word comes to 
 him, and is not wilfully opposed, it is likely to 
 take a strong hold of him. It may so alarm him 
 and take away his peace that he may at once see 
 the depth of his guilt. Again, when Christ, His 
 atonement and love for guilty men are pre- 
 sented he may quickly lay hold of the hope set 
 before him in the Gospel, and rest himself en- 
 tirely on Christ. God's Word comes to him like 
 a hammer that breaks the stony heart. Both 
 persons have been led by the same Spirit, 
 through the same Word. Both have repented 
 and believed, but each in his own way. 
 
 The degree of intensity may also depend on 
 the former life of the person. 
 
 One has wandered very far from his Father 's 
 
162 THE WAY OP SALVATION 
 
 house. He has ivasted his substance in riotous 
 living. He has sunken very low in sin and guilt. 
 When God's Word comes to such an one, and 
 shows him his wretched state, when he comes 
 to himself, his penitence is likely to be deep and 
 painful, and when he is enabled to believe, his 
 faith will probably be quite joyful, because he 
 realizes the depth from which he was drawn. 
 God's Word has acted on him like a fire, burn- 
 ing deep down into the conscience, consuming 
 its dross. 
 
 Another has never wandered so far away. 
 He has all along been more or less under divine 
 influence. Baptized in childhood, brought up 
 amid Christian restraints, he has at least ob- 
 served the outward obligations of religion, 
 though he may not in the past have yielded him- 
 self unreservedly unto Christ. When such an 
 one does give himself to God, his repentance 
 may not be so marked, or his faith be so demon- 
 strative, but on this account the conversion is 
 none the less real. God's Word, at length, 
 opened his heart, as the heart of Lydia, the sel- 
 ler of purple, was opened. 
 
 We notice in the next place that there are 
 differences in the duration of the process. With 
 some the process lasts longer than with others. 
 This fact is implied indeed in the variations 
 noted above. On one person the Word may 
 make but a superficial impression at first. It 
 
CONVERSION PHENOMENA OR EXPERIENCE 163 
 
 may be only a slight dissatisfaction with self. 
 But with more light and knowledge, the feeling 
 of penitence is deepened. Longings for some- 
 thing better are awakened. Yearnings and out- 
 cryings after deliverance arise from the heart. 
 There is then at first only a timid trembling 
 look to Christ. Gradually, slowly, the faith is 
 drawn out, until the heart is enabled to cast 
 itself on the Saviour and rest trustingly there. 
 It may be weeks, months, or even years, before 
 that penitent one comes out into the clear sun- 
 light of assurance and peace. In all such cases 
 it is ^' first the blade, then the ear, and then the 
 full corn in the ear." 
 
 On the other hand, we freely admit that there 
 are sudden conversions. God's word comes as 
 a hammer or as a fire ( Jer. xxiii. 29). It smites 
 and burns until the sinner is brought low in the 
 dust. The heart is broken and becomes con- 
 trite and ready to lay hold of the Crucified 
 One, as soon as He is presented. To this class 
 generally, belong some of those noted above 
 who are of a sanguine temperament, and those 
 who have fallen deeply into sin. Going to the 
 Word of God for examples of the two latter 
 classes, we might mention Zaccheus, Saul of 
 Tarsus, the Philippian jailer, and the three 
 thousand on the day of Pentecost, as cases of 
 sudden conversion — while we might instance 
 the disciples of Christ in general, as cases of 
 
164 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 slow and gradual conversion. 1 Cor. xii. 6, 
 
 "There are diversities of operation, hut it is 
 the same God which worketh all in all." 
 
 From all this it follows that not every one 
 can tell the exact time when, and the place 
 where he was converted. True, some can. 
 Zaccheus and the Jailor, and Saul, and the 
 three thousand, w^ould doubtless always remem- 
 ber and be able to tell about the time and place 
 and circumstances of their entrance into the 
 kingdom. But could the apostles of Jesus tell? 
 Do we not read how slowly they were enlight- 
 ened ; how, little by little, their errors had to be 
 removed, and the truth applied ? They did not, 
 in fact, become established in the faith until 
 after the resurrection. 
 
 And so it is with many, probably indeed, 
 with most of the very best Christians in the 
 church to-day. They cannot tell when they 
 were converted. 
 
 Neither is it necessary. On the Day of Judg- 
 ment the question will not be asked: ** Where 
 and when and how were you converted?" The 
 question will be, ''Were you in a converted 
 state, turned from darkness to light, and from 
 the power of Satan to God?" No matter 
 whether you belonged to that favored class who 
 kept their baptismal covenant unbroken; or 
 whether, after you had been a stranger and a 
 foreigner for a time, you were slowly and 
 
CONVERSION PHENOMENA OR EXPERIENCE 165 
 
 through much doubt and misgiving brought to 
 penitence and faith; or whether you were sud- 
 denly brought into the kingdom. 
 
 Can each one then tell whether he is at 
 present in a converted state or not? We an- 
 swer unhesitatingly, Yes, to a certainty. The 
 inquirer need only look into his heart and see 
 how his sins a feet him. Do his sins grieve him ? 
 Does he hate them? Does he earnestly long 
 and strive to be rid of them? Does he daily 
 turn to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and 
 strength? If he can answer these questions in 
 the affirmative, he has the elements and evi- 
 dences of conversion and the new life. Though 
 faith be weak, it is accepted. Though assur- 
 ance at times be dim, the vision of faith clouded, 
 and faith itself almost unconscious, it still 
 saves ; for it is not the assurance, but the faith, 
 that justifies. 
 
 But if, on the other hand, his sins do not 
 trouble the sinner; if they are as trifles to 
 him; if they do not daily drive him to the 
 Cross, the elements and evidences of the new 
 life are certainly wanting. Such a person is 
 in an unconverted state. And let not such an 
 one delude himself with the false idea that 
 something, which he called a change, had taken 
 place at some time in the past. He can know 
 whether he is now in the faith. 
 
 It is poor theology, it is altogether anti- 
 
166 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 scriptural, for a Christian to go through the 
 world singing plaintively: 
 
 " 'Tis a point I long to know; 
 
 Oft it causes anxious ttiought, 
 Do I love the Lord, or no? 
 Am I His, or am I not?" 
 
 He whose faith, reaching up out of a heart 
 that mourns over and hates sin, lays hold of 
 Christ, even tremblingly, can say, "7 know in 
 whom I have believed," "I know that my Re- 
 deemer liveth." He can joyfully sing: 
 
 "I know that my Redeemer lives! 
 What comfort this sweet sentence gives! 
 He lives, He lives, who once was dead, 
 He lives, my ever-living Head. 
 
 "He lives to bless me with His love, 
 He lives to plead for me above. 
 He lives my hungry soul to feed. 
 He lives to help in time of need. 
 
 "He lives to silence all my fears, 
 He lives to wipe away my tears, 
 He lives to calm my troubled heart. 
 He lives all blessings to impart. 
 
 "He lives, all glory to His Name! 
 He lives, my Jesus, still the same; 
 Oh the sweet joy this sentence gives, 
 I know that my Redeemer lives!" 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 CoxvERSiox (concluded) 
 
 ( These theses on Conversion were presented 
 by the first union committee in 1908 and 
 adopted by the Hauge Synod, the Norwegian 
 Synod, and the United Norwegian Lutheran 
 Church as part of the union agreement.) 
 
 1. 
 
 In his natural state man is fallen away from 
 God, is a stranger unto Him and His grace, 
 and even His enemy. 
 
 1 Cor. 2:14: The natural man receiveth not 
 the things of the Spirit of God; for they are 
 foolishness unto him; and he can not know 
 them, because they are spiritually judged. 
 
 Eph. 2:12: Ye Avere at that time separate 
 from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth 
 of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of 
 the promise, having no hope and without God 
 in the world. 
 
 167 
 
168 THE ^VAY OF SAI,VATIOX 
 
 Koni. 8:7: The mind of the flesh is enmity 
 against God; for it is not subject to the law 
 of God, neither indeed can it be. 
 
 Col. 1:21: And you, being in time past 
 alienated and enemies in your mind, in your 
 evil works. . . . 
 
 2. 
 
 In his natural state man is also void of spir- 
 itual power and dead in sin. 
 
 Eph. 2:1 : And you did he make alive, when 
 ye were dead through your trespasses and sins. 
 
 Eph. 5:14: Wherefore he saith: Awake, 
 thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, 
 and Christ shall shine vipon thee. 
 
 Col. 2:13: And you, being dead through 
 your trespasses and the uncircumsion of your 
 flesh, you — I say — did he make alive togethei* 
 with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. 
 
 3. 
 
 Xo power or ability is found in man himself 
 to change this deplorable state or to help even 
 in the least to eff'ect a change. 
 
 Job. 3:6: That which is born of the flesh, is 
 flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is 
 spirit. 
 
 Rom. 8:7-8: Because the mind of the flesli 
 is enmity against God; for it is not subject to 
 the law of God, neither indeed can it be; and 
 
coxvERSiox (concluded) 169 
 
 they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 
 
 Matt. 7:17-18: Even so every good tree 
 bringeth forth good fruit ; but the corrupt tree 
 bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot 
 bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt 
 tree bring forth good fruit. 
 
 John 15:5: I am the vine, ye are the branch- 
 es: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the 
 same beareth much fruit ; for apart from me ye 
 can do nothing. 
 
 4. 
 
 The great change which must take ])lace 
 with a man fallen away from God and dead 
 in sin. Scripture calls conversion. 
 
 5. 
 
 Conversion means a translation from dark- 
 ness to light, from Satan's power unto God. 
 and this is eff'ected by knowledge and contri- 
 tion of sin and by faith in Jesus. Two parts, 
 therefore, belong to conversion: 1) Contrition, 
 and 2) faith in the Lord Jesus. 
 
 6. 
 God uses His law to bring a man to acknowl- 
 edgment of his sinful state and to repentance. 
 This law, through its conviction and judgment 
 works upon the intellect, the will, and the con- 
 science, and this law man must listen to and 
 reflect upon. 
 
170 THE WAY OF SALVATfOX 
 
 Rom. 3:20: By the works of the hiw shall 
 no flesh be justified in his sight; for through 
 the law Cometh the knowledge of sin. 
 
 Rom. 7:7: What shall we say then? Is the 
 law sin? God forbid. Howbeit, I had not 
 known sin, except through the law; for I had 
 not known coveting, except the law had said: 
 Thou shalt not covet. 
 
 2 Cor. 7:10: For godly sorrow worketh re- 
 ])entance unto salvation, a repentance wliicli 
 bringeth no regret. 
 
 ^lark 4:23-24: If any man hath ears to hear, 
 let him hear. And he saith unto them: Take 
 heed what ye hear : with what measure ye mete 
 it shall be measured unto you; and more shall 
 be given imto you. 
 
 Is. 1:10: Hear the Word of Jehovah, ye 
 rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our 
 God, ye people of Gomorrah. 
 
 Luke 1G:29: Abraham saith: They have 
 ^Nfoses and the prophets; let them hear them. 
 
 7. 
 While man, however, through the operation 
 of the law, may learn to acknowledge sin and 
 judgment, he is as yet by no means converted; 
 for it is ])ossible for a man in such state, con- 
 trary to God's ])iu"pose, either to despair, l)e- 
 
CONVERSION (concluded) 171 
 
 coine self-righteous, or to return to the former 
 hfe in sin. 
 
 Rom. 7:12: The law is holy, and the com- 
 mandment holy, and righteous; and good. 
 
 Rom. 4:15: For the law worketh wrath. 
 
 Rom. 3:20: By the works of the law shall no 
 flesh be justified in his sight. 
 
 Acts 24:25: And as he (Paul) reasoned of 
 righteousness, and self-control, and the judg- 
 ment to come, Fehx was terrified, and an- 
 swered: Go thy way for this time; and when 
 I have a convenient time, I will call thee unto 
 me. 
 
 See also jNIark 10:17-24, the young ruler. 
 
 8. 
 
 When the law has acquired such power over 
 man's heart that he bows before the judgment 
 of God, it works contrition or sorrow for sin, 
 and thus becomes a schoolmaster to bring us 
 unto Christ. 
 
 Ps. 51:3-4: For 1 know my transgressions, 
 and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, 
 thee alone have I sinned, and done that which 
 is evil in thy sight, that thou mayest be jus- 
 tified when thou speakest, and be clear when 
 thou judgest. 
 
 Gal. 3:24: So that the law is become our 
 
172 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 tutor to bring us to Christ, that Ave may be 
 justified by faith. 
 
 9. 
 
 The man who through the operation of the 
 law has been brought to contrition and peni- 
 tence, is now alone by the promptings of the 
 gospel and without coercion, led to believe in 
 Christ and thus perfectly converted and 
 changed. "A darkened intellect becomes an 
 enlightened intellect, a rebellious will is 
 changed to an obedient will; and this Scripture 
 calls the creation of a new heart." Psalm 51 : 
 10: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and 
 renew a right spirit within me." 
 
 John 6 : 44 : No man can come to me, except 
 the Father, that sent me, draw him, and I will 
 raise him up at the last day. 
 
 INIatt. 11:28: Come unto me, all ye that la- 
 bor and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
 rest. 
 
 Eph. 2 :8 : For by grace have ye been saved 
 through faith ; and that not of yourselves, it is 
 the gift of God. 
 
 Rom. 1:16-17: For I am not ashamed of 
 the gospel; for it is the power of God unto sal- 
 vation to every one that believeth; to the Jew 
 first and also to the Greek. For therein is 
 revealed a righteousness of God from faith 
 
CONVERSION (concluded) 173 
 
 unto faith; as it is written: but the righteous 
 shall live by faith. 
 
 Ezek. 36:26: A new heart also will I give 
 you, and a new spirit will I put within you; 
 and I will take away the stony heart out of 
 your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. 
 
 10. 
 
 When a man fails to be converted, his alone 
 is the responsibility, because he was unwilling; 
 in other words: in spite of the fact that God 
 through His call makes it possible for man to 
 repent or become converted, he resists and 
 frustrates the work of the Holy Ghost both 
 through the law and through the gospel; and 
 this, man can do at every point. 
 
 ^latt. 23:37: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that 
 killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are 
 sent unto her! How often would I have gath- 
 ered thy children together, even as a hen gath- 
 ereth her chickens under her wings, and ye 
 would not! 
 
 Jer. 6:16-17: Thus saith Jehovah: Stand ye 
 in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, 
 where is the good way; and walk therein, and 
 ye shall find rest for your souls : but they said : 
 We wull not walk therein. And I set watchmen 
 over you, saying: Hearken to the sound of the 
 trumpet; but they said: We will not hearken. 
 
174 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 Hebr. 3:7-9: Wherefore, even as the Holy 
 Spirit saith: today if ye shall hear his voice, 
 harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, 
 like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, 
 where your fathers tried me by proving me, 
 and saw my works forty years. 
 
 Isaiah 5 :4 : What could have been done more 
 to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? 
 Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring 
 forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 
 
 11. 
 
 When a man is converted, the glorj^ belongs 
 to God alone, for the reason that He from be- 
 ginning to end, without any cooperation on the 
 part of man, effects conversion in him who is 
 converted, or who acknowledges his sin and 
 believes in Christ. 
 
 John 1:12-13. But as many as received him, 
 to them gave he the right to become children 
 of God, even to them that believe on his name ; 
 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of 
 the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 
 
 Phil. 2:13: For it is God who worketh in 
 you both to will and to work, for his good 
 pleasure. 
 
 1 Cor. 4:7: For who maketh thee to differ? 
 And what hast thou that thou didst not re- 
 
COXVEKSIOX (conclx^ded) 175 
 
 ceive? But if thou didst receive it, why dost 
 thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? 
 
 (Compare also Ei)h. 2:1-10 and Rom. 3:28, 
 where the apostle describes conversion as a 
 work of grace from God, to God alone belong- 
 ing the glory.) 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Justification. 
 
 AMONG all the doctrines of our holy Chris- 
 tian faith, the doctrine of Justiflcation by 
 Faith alone, stands most prominent. Luther 
 calls it: "The doctrine of a standing or of a 
 falling church," i. e., as a church holds fast 
 and appropriates this doctrine she remains 
 pure and firm, and as she departs from it, she 
 becomes corrupt and falls. This doctrine was 
 the turning point of the Reformation in the 
 sixteenth century. It was the experience of 
 its necessity and efficacy that made Luther 
 what he was, and equipped him for a Re- 
 former. Naturally, therefore, it occupies the 
 chief place in all our Confessions, and is promi- 
 nent in all the history of our Churchy 
 
 In these chapters on the ''Way of Salva- 
 tion, ' ' it has been implied throughout. There is 
 indeed no doctrine of salvation that is not more 
 or less connected with or dependent on this one. 
 
 Some time ago we noticed the statement of a 
 certain bishop in a large Protestant Church, 
 declaring that ' ' not Justification, but the Divin- 
 176 
 
JUSTIFICATION 177 
 
 ity of Christ, is the great fundamental doctrine 
 that conditions the standing or falling of a 
 church." At first sight this seems plausible. 
 But when we come to reflect, we cannot but see 
 that the true doctrine concerning the Person 
 of Christ is not only implied, but embraced in 
 the doctrine of Justification by Faith. A man 
 might be sound on the Divinity of Christ, and 
 yet not know aright the Way of Salvation. But 
 a man cannot be sound on Justification without 
 being sound, not only on the Person of Christ, 
 but also on His work and the Way of Salvation 
 through Him. 
 
 So much has been written and preached in 
 our Church on this subject, that it is not neces- 
 sary for us to enter upon a full discussion here. 
 We will endeavor, therefore, merely in outline, 
 to call attention to a few of its most prominent 
 and practical features. 
 
 We inquire briefly into its meaning and 
 nature. Justification is an act of God, by which 
 He accounts or adjudges a person righteous in 
 His sight. It is not a change in the person's 
 nature, but it is a change in his standing in the 
 sight of God. Before justification he stands in 
 the sight of God, guilty and condemned. 
 Through justification, he stands before God 
 free from guilt and condemnation; he is ac- 
 quitted, released, regarded and treated as if 
 he had never been guilty or condemned. The 
 
178 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 justified person stands in the sight of God, as 
 if he really had never committed a sin and were 
 perfectly innocent. Thus it is clear that justifi- 
 cation treats of and has regard to the sinner's 
 relation to God. It has nothing to do with his 
 change of nature. It is of the utmost import- 
 ance that this be kept constantly in mind. It 
 is by applying justification to the change in the 
 sinner's nature that so many become confused, 
 and fall into grievous and dangerous errors. 
 
 The original source, or moving cause of 
 justification, is God's love. Had God not 
 "loved the ivorW* there would have been no 
 divine planning or counseling for man 's justifi- 
 cation. Truly it required a divine mind to 
 originate a scheme by which God ''could he just 
 and yet justify the ungodly.'* All the wisdom 
 of the world could never have answered the 
 ^juestion: "How can mortal man he just with 
 Godf" 
 
 Man stood, in the sight of God as a rebel 
 against His divine authority, a transgressor of 
 divine law, guilty, condemned and wholly un- 
 able to justify himself, or to answer for one in 
 a thousand offences. God had given His word 
 that, because of guilt, there must be punish- 
 ment and suffering. This word was given be- 
 fore sin was committed, and was repeated a 
 thousand times afterwards. There must then 
 be obedience to an infinite law, or infinite pun- 
 
JUSTIFICATION 179 
 
 ishment for transgression. How could this gulf 
 be bridged, and man saved? 
 
 There was only one way. "God so loved the 
 world that He gave His only-begotten Son." 
 That Son, "the brightness of the Father's glory 
 and the express image of His person," "in 
 whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead 
 bodily," came into our world. He came to take 
 the sinner's place — to be his substitute. 
 Though Lord and giver of the law, He put Him- 
 self under the law. He fulfilled it in every jot 
 and tittle. He did no sin, neither was guile 
 found in his mouth. Thus He worked out a 
 complete and perfect righteousness. He did 
 not need this righteousness for Himself, for 
 He had a righteousness far above the righteous- 
 ness of the letter of law. He wrought it out not 
 for Himself, but for man, that He might make it 
 over and impute it to the transgressor. Thus 
 then while man had no obedience of his own, 
 he could have the obedience of another set down 
 to his account, as though it were his own. 
 
 But this was not enough. Man had sinned 
 and was still constantly sinning, his very nature 
 being a sinful one. As already noted, the divine 
 Word was pledged that there must be punish- 
 ment for sin. The Son, who came to be a 
 substitute, said: Put me in the sinner's place; 
 let me be the guilty one ; let the blows fall upon 
 me. And thus, He "who knew no sin was made 
 
180 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 sin (or a sin-offering) for us." He ''was made 
 a curse/' ''bore our sins," and "the iniquity 
 of us all." He, the God-man, was regarded as 
 the guilty one, treated as the guilty one, suf- 
 fered as the guilty one. 
 
 He suffered as God, as well as man. For the 
 Divine and human were inseparably united in 
 one person. Divinity by itself cannot suffer 
 and die. But thus mysteriously connected with 
 the humanity it could and really did participate 
 in the suffering and dying. God suffered 
 through His human nature. And so God really 
 suffered. 
 
 As Luther sang 
 
 "O Orosse noth! 
 Gott selbst ist tot!" 
 
 Oh awful dread! 
 God's self is dead! 
 
 And who will calculate what Immanuel can 
 suffer? What must that suffering have been 
 when it crushed Him to earth, made Him cry 
 out so plaintively, and at last took His life! 
 Our old theologians loved to say, that what 
 the sufferings of Christ lacked in extensiveness 
 or duration, they made up in intensiveness. 
 Thus there was a perfect atonement. All 
 the punishment had been endured. A perfect 
 rigl^teousness had been wrought out, and the 
 Father set His seal to it in the resurrection 
 
JUSTIFICATION 181 
 
 and ascension of His dear Son. Here, then, 
 was real substitution, and this is the ground 
 for our justification. 
 
 "Therefore His obedience, not only in suf- 
 fering and dying, but also that He in our stead 
 was voluntarily subject to the Law, and ful- 
 filled it by His obedience, is imputed to us for 
 righteousness, so that, on account of this com- 
 j)lete obedience. . . . God forgives our sins, 
 regards us (as) godly and righteous, and 
 eternally saves us." 
 
 Form. cone. 612. 
 
 And thus Christ by His life, sufferings and 
 death wrought out a negative righteousness, 
 the forgiveness of sin, and a positive righteous- 
 ness, the latter conferring standing and honor 
 in the kingdom of God. 
 
 To illustrate. Two persons have broken the 
 laws of their land, are guilty, condemned, and 
 suffer the penalty in prison. To one comes a 
 message of pardon from the king. The prison 
 doors are opened and he goes forth a free 
 man. The law cannot again seize him and con- 
 demn him for the crimes of which he is par- 
 doned. But as he goes forth among his fellow- 
 
182 THE WAY OF SALVATION" 
 
 men he realizes that though released from pun- 
 ishment, and negatively righteous, he has no 
 standing, no character, no positive righteous- 
 ness, unless he earn and merit it for himself. 
 
 To the other criminal also comes a message 
 of pardon from his king. In addition to par- 
 don, or release from punishment, he is assured 
 that his king has adopted him as his son, will 
 take him into his family and endow him with 
 his name and all the privileges of his house. 
 
 Now this pardoned one has a double right- 
 eousness. Negatively, pardon and release from 
 punishment ; positively, a name, standing, char- 
 acter, honor, and the richest endowments of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 Even thus has the Son of God wrought out 
 for us a two-fold righteousness. 
 
 And therefore the two-fold message of con- 
 solation. Is. xl. 1, 2 : *' Comfort ye, comfort ye 
 
JUSTIFICATION 183 
 
 my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfort- 
 ably to — (i. e., speak ye to the heart of) — Jeru- 
 salem, and cry unto her that her warfare is ac- 
 complished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for 
 she hath received of the Lord's hand double for 
 all her sins." 
 
 This justification has been purchased and 
 paid for. But it is not yet applied. The sinner 
 has not yet appropriated it and made it his own. 
 How is this to be done ? We answer : By faith. 
 Faith is the eye that looks to Christ. It sees 
 His perfect atonement and His spotless right- 
 eousness. It is, at the same time, the hand that 
 reaches out, lays hold of Christ, and clings to 
 Him as the only help and the only hope. This 
 faith, springing from a penitent heart, that 
 realizes its own unworthiness and guiltiness, 
 renouncing all claim to merit or self -righteous- 
 ness, casts itself on the divine Saviour, trusts 
 implicitly in Him, and rests there. This faith 
 justifies. Not because it is an act that merits 
 or earns justification. No! In no sense. 
 Christ has earned it. Faith only lays hold of 
 and appropriates Christ and what He pur- 
 chased and paid for. 
 
 There certainly can be no merit in our faith, 
 because it is itself a '^gift of God," as the 
 Scriptures declare. He that has the faith is 
 justified, acquitted, forgiven. The appropria- 
 
184 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 tion or application, is when we believe with all 
 the heart on the Son of God. 
 
 This faith is not a mere historical or intel- 
 lectual belief. It is a living thing. Yet it is not 
 its livingness that justifies. The justifying ele- 
 ment is that it grasps and holds Christ. Christ 
 really justifies. Faith justifies in so far as it 
 grasps, holds, rests in and trust in Christ alone. 
 
 Such, in brief, is the Lutheran doctrine of 
 ^'Justification by Faith." We have not thought 
 it necessary to quote from the Augsburg Con- 
 fession or the Formula of Concord for proof. 
 Neither is it necessary or desirable tliat we 
 lengthen out this chapter with quotations from 
 standard theologians. Any one desiring fur- 
 ther proof or amplification can find abundance 
 of it in all our Confessions, and in all recog- 
 nized writers in the Church. Nor have we 
 taken up the space with Scripture quotations. 
 To quote all that the Bible says on the subject 
 would be to transcribe a large proportion of 
 its passages. It would necessitate especially a 
 writing out of a large part of the writings of 
 Paul, who makes it the great theme of several 
 of his epistles. Every devout reader of Paul's 
 letters will find this great doctrine shining forth 
 in almost every chapter, so much so that the 
 Romish Bishop who was driven by Luther to a 
 study of the New Testament threw down his 
 
JUSTIFICATION 185 
 
 book and said: ''Paul also has become a Lit- 
 
 theran!'' 
 
 In conclusion, we desire to impress one 
 thought. The doctrine of Justification is so 
 highly prized by the believer, not so much be- 
 cause of the grand and matchless scheme it 
 brings to light, as because of the peace and com- 
 fort it has brought into his heart. He who 
 truly embraces this doctrine, realizes its efificacy 
 and power. It is precious to him, above all 
 things, as a matter of personal experience. 
 This experience is not the doctrine, but the 
 result of receiving the doctrine. He has real- 
 ized the blessedness of having his own sins 
 forgiven, his transgressions covered. Being 
 justified hy faith, he has peace with God 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 This blessed experience was the root and 
 spring of Luther's courage and strength. 
 Luther's inner experience fitted him to become 
 the Reformer. Without it all his other gifts 
 and qualifications would not have availed. Let 
 Sunday School teachers, church-workers and 
 ministers examine themselves. Without this 
 heart-experience, all theorizing about the 
 doctrine is vain. Such a scriptural experience 
 never develops a Pharisee. It never runs 
 into self-exhaltation. It constantly exalts 
 and magnifies Christ. It habitually humbles 
 self. It lays self low at the foot of the cross, 
 
186 THE WAY OP SALVATION 
 
 and it remains there. Not that it is a gloomy 
 or despondent spirit. For while it constantly 
 mourns over the imperfections and sins of self, 
 it, at the same time, constantly rejoices in the 
 full and perfect salvation of Christ. While it 
 never ceases in this life to shed the tears of 
 penitence, it also never ceases to sing the joyful 
 song of deliverance. It develops a Christian 
 after the type of a Paul, a Luther, a Gerhard 
 and a Francke. Blessed is he who understands 
 and experiences justification by faith. Doubly 
 sad the state of him who has the doctrine, with- 
 out its experience and peace and glory. 
 
 "Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness 
 My beauty are, my glorious dress; 
 Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed. 
 With joy shall I lift up my head. 
 
 "Bold shall I stand In that great day, 
 For who aught to my charge shall lay? 
 Fully through these absolved I am 
 From sin and fear, from guilt and shame. 
 
 "This spotless robe the same appears. 
 When ruined nature sinks in years: 
 No age can change its constant hue; 
 Thy Blood preserves it ever new. 
 
 "Oh let the dead now hear Thy voice; . 
 Now bid Thy banished ones rejoice! 
 Their beauty this, their glorious dress, 
 Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness." 
 
CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 Sanctiticatioit. 
 
 IN the last chapter we showed that the doc- 
 trine of justification deals with the sinner's 
 change of relation,- or change of state. 
 
 We also learned that faith is the instru- 
 mental or applying cause of justification. In 
 another place we showed that true faith pre- 
 supposes penitence, and this again presupposes 
 a sense and knowledge of sin. Again we 
 showed that penitence and faith are the two 
 essential elements of conversion; that where 
 these elements are found there is a change of 
 heart, and the beginning of a new life. 
 
 This newness is of a germinal or seed char- 
 acter. Now it belongs to the very nature of life 
 to develop, to increase, and to make progress. 
 And it is this development or growth of the 
 new life that we wish now to consider. It is 
 187 
 
188 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 called sanctification, or the growth of the soul 
 into the image of a holy God. 
 
 It is closely related to justification, and yet 
 clearly distinct from it. In justification, God 
 imputes or counts over to the sinner the right- 
 eousness of Christ. In sanctification, God 
 imparts the righteousness of the new life. 
 Justification is what God does for the believer ; 
 sanctification is what His Spirit does in him. 
 Justification being purely an act of God, is in- 
 stantaneous and complete; sanctification being 
 a work in which man has a share, is progres- 
 sive. Justification takes away the guilt of sin; 
 sanctification gradually takes away its power. 
 Sanctification begins with justification. So 
 soon as the sinner believes he is justified; but 
 just so soon as he believes, he also has the 
 beginnings of a new life. 
 
 In time, therefore, the two come together; 
 but in thought they are distinct. And it is of 
 the greatest importance that these distinctions 
 be understood and kept in mind. It is by con- 
 founding justification with sanctification, and 
 vice versa, that all the flagrant, soul-endanger- 
 ing errors concerning the so-called ''higher 
 life," ''sinless perfection," and "holiness," are 
 promulgated and believed. It is by quoting 
 Scripture passages that speak of justification 
 and applying them to sanctification, that this 
 delusion is strengthened. How often have we 
 
SANCTIFICATION 189 
 
 not heard that precious passage, 1 John i. 7, 
 ''The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth 
 us from all sin," quoted to prove entire sancti- 
 fication. Now, if we understand the Scriptures 
 at all, that passage speaks of the forgiveness of 
 sin through the efficacy of Christ's blood, and 
 not of overcoming sin in the believer, or eradi- 
 cating its very fibres and impulses. 
 
 Let us understand clearly what we mean by 
 sanctification. The English word comes from 
 a Latin word that means sacred, consecrated, 
 devoted to holy purposes. The Greek word 
 translated sanctify in our English Bible also 
 means to separate from common and set apart 
 for holy purposes. The same word that is 
 translated sanctify, is in many places trans- 
 lated consecrate, or make holy. The English 
 word saint comes from the same Latin root, 
 and is translated from the same Greek root, as 
 sanctify. A saint means a sanctified one, or 
 one who is being sanctified. Thus we find be- 
 lievers called saints or sanctified ones. "We 
 find, indeed, that the apostles call all the mem- 
 bers of their churches saints. Thus they speak 
 of "the saints which are at Jerusalem," "The 
 saints which are at Achaia," ''To all that he 
 in Rome . . . called to he saints," "As in 
 all the churches of the saints." So in many 
 other passages. 
 
 In harmony with the apostolic usage, we con- 
 
190 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 fess in the Apostles' Creed: ''I believe in tlie 
 Holy Christian Church (which is) the com- 
 munion — or community — of saints." If then 
 saints means sanctified ones, or holy persons, 
 do not the Bible and the Apostles' Creed de- 
 mand perfect sinlessness? By no means. 
 Christians are indeed to strive to constantly 
 become more and more free from sin. They 
 are ''called to he saints," are constantly being 
 sanctified or made holy. But their sanctity or 
 holiness is only relative. 
 
 They have indeed "come out from the 
 world," to ''he separate." They are "a pecu- 
 liar people." They hate sin, repent of it, flee 
 from it, strive against it, and overcome it more 
 and more. They "mortify the deeds of the 
 hody," "keep it under," "crucify the flesh 
 with its affections and lusts," "present — (or 
 consecrate) — their hodies, as living sacrifices 
 to God." They have pledged themselves at 
 Christ's altar to ''renounce the devil and all 
 his works and ways, the vanities of the world 
 and the sinful desires of the flesh, and to live 
 up to the doctrines and precepts of Christ." 
 
 In so far, they are separated from the worlcf, 
 set apart to become holy, consecrated to Christ. 
 Not that their sanctification or saintship is 
 complete. If that were the case, the apostles 
 would not have written epistles to the saints. 
 For perfect beings need no Bibles, no Churches, 
 
SANCTIFICATION 191 
 
 no means of Grace. The angels need none of 
 these things. There is indeed not one sinless 
 person mentioned in the Bible, except that 
 divine One, ''who did no sin, neither was guile 
 found in His mouth/* 
 
 If there were one Scripture character who, 
 if such a thing were possible, would have at- 
 tained to sinless perfection, that one would cer- 
 tainly have been the greatest of all the apostles. 
 He labored more than they all; he suffered 
 more than they all; he went deeper into the 
 mysteries of redemption than they all. He 
 was not only permitted to look into heaven, as 
 the beloved John, but he ''was caught up into 
 the third heaven, and heard ivords that it ivas 
 not lawful for him to utter'' on this sinful 
 earth. Oh, what purifying through suffering! 
 AVhat visions and revelations! What experi- 
 ence of Grace ! And yet this burnished vessel 
 never professed sinless perfection. Indeed, he 
 never ceased to mourn and lament the sinful- 
 ness and imperfection of his own heart, and 
 called himself the chief of sinners. He does 
 indeed speak of perfection. Hear what he savs, 
 Phil. iii. 12, 13, 14: "Not as though I had 'al- 
 ready attained, either luere already perfect; 
 hut I follow after, if that I may apprehend that 
 for which also I am apprehended of Christ 
 Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have 
 apprehended; but this one thing I do, forget- 
 
192 THE WAY OF SALVATION" 
 
 ting those things that are behind, and reaching 
 forward unto those things which are before, I 
 press toward the mark, for the prize of the 
 high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
 
 The saints on earth, then, are not sinless 
 ones. The Bible does indeed speak of those 
 born of God sinning not, not committing sin. 
 But this can only mean that they do not wilfully 
 sin. They do not intentionally live in habits 
 of sin. Their sins are sins of weakness and not 
 sins of malice. They repent of them, mourn 
 over them, and strive against them. They 
 constantly pray, "Forgive us our trespasses 
 as ive forgive them that trespass against us." 
 Their heart-purity and sanctification are only 
 relative. 
 
 Sanctification is gradual and progressive. 
 We have seen that Paul thus expressed him- 
 self. He was constantly "folloiving after," 
 "reaching forth," "pressing toivard" the 
 mark. He exhorts the Corinthians, 2 Cor. vii. 
 1, to be "perfecting holiness in the fear of the 
 Lord," and again, 2 Cor. iii. 18, to be "changed 
 into the same image from glory to glory." He 
 tells them in chapter iv. 16 that "the inward 
 man is renewed day by day." He exhorts the 
 saints or believers, again and again, "to 
 grow," "to increase," "to abound yet more 
 and more." 
 
 Growth is the law of the kingdom of nature. 
 
SANCTIFICATION 193 
 
 And the same God operates in the kingdom of 
 Grace, and, indeed, much after the same order. 
 Our Saviour, therefore, so often compares the 
 kingdom of God, or the kingdom of Grace, to 
 growth from a seed, where it is "first the blade, 
 then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear,'* 
 Mark iv. 26-29. In harmony with all this Paul 
 calls those who have but lately become be- 
 lievers, ''babes in Christ." He tells them they 
 must be ''fed with milk as babes/' etc. There- 
 fore, it is quite natural that we find so many 
 exhortations to grow in Grace and in knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 How directly contrary to all this is the un- 
 scriptural idea, not only of entire sanctifica- 
 tion, but of instantaneous sanctification. 
 Surely, in this fast age, many have run far 
 ahead of prophets, apostles, martyrs, re- 
 formers and the most eminent saints of all 
 ages. As we read the lives and words of these 
 heroes of faith, we find that the more Christ- 
 like and consecrated they were, the more did 
 they deplore their slow progress and their re- 
 maining sin. 
 
 While, therefore, we have no Scripture war- 
 rant to expect sinlessness here ; while we must 
 "die daily," "mortify our members," and 
 "fight the good fight of faith," between the old 
 Adam, whose remnants cleave to us, and the 
 new man in Christ Jesus, we can still do much 
 
194 THE WAY OF SALVATION" 
 
 to promote our sanctification, and make it 
 more and more complete. We can use the 
 powers that God has given ns to carry on the 
 warfare with sin. We can increase these 
 powers, or rather permit divine Grace to in- 
 crease them, by a diligent use of the means of 
 Grace. In the chapter on the Word of God as 
 a means of Grace, we showed that the Holy 
 Spirit sanctifies through the Word. In the 
 chapters on baptism and the baptismal cove- 
 nant, we showed how that holy sacrament is a 
 means of Grace, whose efficacy is not confined 
 to the time of its administration, but that it is 
 intended to be a perennial fountain of Grace, 
 from which we can drink and be refreshed while 
 life lasts. That for our daily life it means ''that 
 the old Adam in us is to be drowned and des- 
 troyed by daily sorrow and repentance together 
 with all sins and evil lusts and that the new 
 man should daily come forth and rise and shall 
 live in the presence of God in righteousness and 
 purity forever." In the chapters on the Lord's 
 Supper, we learned that it also was ordained 
 and instituted to sustain and strengthen our 
 spiritual life. 
 
 We have, therefore, all the means necessary 
 for our sanctification. De we prayerfully use 
 them? Might we not be much further on in 
 the work of holiness than we are? Do we 
 use the truth as we should, that we may be 
 
SANCTIFICATION 195 
 
 "sanctified through the truth?" Do we ''de- 
 sire the sincere milk of the Word, that we may 
 groiv thereby?" Does it ''dwell richly among 
 us?" Know we not, or have we forgotten it, 
 that "as many of lis as have been baptized 
 into Christ, were baptized into His death?" 
 Do we say, with those early Christians, 
 "henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear 
 in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus?" 
 And when we go to our Lord's Table do we 
 realize that His "flesh is meat indeed, and 
 His blood is drink indeed?" Do we go in the 
 strength of that heavenly nourishment many 
 days? Might we not, by making a more sin- 
 cere, hearty and diligent use of all these 
 means of Grace, live nearer to Christ, lean 
 more confidingly on Him and do more effec- 
 tually all things through Him who strengthen- 
 eth us?* 
 
 Yes, doubtless, we must all confess that it 
 is our own fault that we are not sanctified 
 more fully than we are ; that if, in the strength 
 derived from a proper use of the means of 
 Grace, we would watch more over self, pray 
 more, meditate more on divine things and 
 
 * It ought to go without saying that a sanctified life 
 must be a life of service. Every believer is sanctified that 
 he may serve, even as he has been redeemed that he might 
 serve. Read carefully on this whole subject of sanctified 
 service Problems and Possibilities, Chapter vi. 
 
196 THE -WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 thus surround ourselves more with a spiritual 
 atmosphere, we should be more spiritual. 
 *'This is the will of God, even your sanctifica- 
 tion.'* "Without holiness, no mem shall see 
 the Lord." 
 
 "And what am I? My soul, awake. 
 And an impartial survey take. 
 Does no dark sign, no ground of fear 
 In practice or in heart appear? 
 
 "What image does my spirit bear? 
 Is Jesus formed and living there? 
 Ah, do His lineaments divine 
 In thought and word and action shine? 
 
 "Searcher of hearts, O search me stilL 
 The secrets of my soul reveal; 
 My fears remove; let me appear 
 To God and my own conscience clear." 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Revivals 
 
 The word revive means to bring back life. 
 Life had been present: it had failed and was 
 restored. Strictly speaking, only a person who 
 has once had the new life in him, but lost it for 
 a while and regained it, can be said to have 
 been revived. Only a church or a community 
 that was once spiritually alive, but had grown 
 languid and lifeless, can be said to be revived. 
 
 Therefore we maintain that it ought to be 
 the aim and policy of the Church to preclude 
 the necessity of revivals, po])ularly so called. 
 Prevention is better than cure. We firmly ])e- 
 lieve that those who were early consecrated in 
 Baptism and then trained, taught, and nur- 
 tured in faith and in love, may keep the bap- 
 tismal covenant, and that they make the health- 
 iest, the strongest, and most reliable members 
 and workers in the Church. 
 
 And if this is possible for any member, why 
 not for a whole congregation? For Bible proof 
 look at the congregation at Smvrna and that at 
 197 
 
198 THE WAV OF SALVATION 
 
 Pliiladelpliiu. See Rev. 2 and 3. We believe that 
 wlierc there is a sound, faithful, and earnest 
 pastor, and an earnest, united and active nieni- 
 l)ership, many will grow up in their baptismal 
 co\'enant ; and among those who wander more 
 or less therefrom, there will be frequent con- 
 \ ersions under the faithful use of the ordinary 
 services and ordinances of the Church. Ex- 
 amples we find in the pastorates of Richard 
 Raxter, Ludvig Harms, Oberlin {at Stein- 
 thal )and Dr. Greenwald (at Eaton and Lan- 
 caster ) . 
 
 Rut alas ! })arents, teachers, and pastors too 
 often come short of their duty. Therefore we 
 admit that times of refreshing are often need- 
 ed, and then why not have them after the man- 
 ner of those around us? Why not adopt the 
 modern system? We will briefly state our ob- 
 jections to this system: 
 
 We object to the modern revival system, be- 
 cause it rests on an entire misconception of the 
 coming and work of the Holy Spirit. The idea 
 seems to be that the Holy Spirit is not effec- 
 tively present in the regular and ordinary ser- 
 A'ices of the sanctuary, that since the day of 
 Pentecost He has come and worked with ])()wer 
 during every revival and then departed to be 
 absent until the next. 
 
 This is directly contrary to the teaching of 
 
REVIVALS 199 
 
 the Divine Word. When Jesus was about to 
 leave His disciples, He said, John xiv:lG: "I 
 will pray the Father, and He will give you 
 another Comforter, that He may abide with 
 you forever, even the Spirit of truth." 
 
 From these words, and others spoken by our 
 Saviour, two things are plain: That the Com- 
 forter came as the visible CJirisfs substitute, 
 and that He came to abide. 
 
 The system also undervalues the divinely- 
 ordained means of grace. Little if any renew- 
 ing grace is expected from the sacrament of 
 Christian baptism. Few if any conversions are 
 expected from the regular and ordinary 
 preaching of the Word. Little if any spiritual 
 nourishment is expected from the sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 Because the regular Church ordinances are 
 thus undervalued, they are largely fruitless. 
 Few conversions are expected during the ten 
 or eleven months of regular church services. It 
 naturally follows that the imconverted will 
 shake off all serious thoughts under the reg- 
 ular church services, under the plea that they 
 will give this matter attention when the next 
 revival comes around. And even the work of 
 sanctification for the saints is largely crowded 
 into the few weeks of revival. 
 
 It is doubtless for this reason that we find 
 
200 THE WAY OF SAIAATIOX 
 
 SO much levity and irreverence in many so- 
 called revival churches. Because the Holy Spir- 
 it is not sujiposed to be effectively present in 
 the Word and Sacraments, there is nothing in- 
 spiring and uplifting in these things. A care- 
 ful observer can not fail to notice that in 
 churches wliich believe in grace through the 
 means of grace, there is an atmosphere of 
 deeper solemnity and more earnest devotion 
 than in such revival churches. 
 
 Another objection to the modern revival 
 system is the utter indifference to doctrine that 
 generally goes hand in hand with its methods 
 and practices. To "contend earnestli/ for the 
 faith once delivered to the saints" seems to be 
 altogether out of place at a modern revival. 
 The popular sentiment is: it makes no differ- 
 ence wliat a person believes, or to what church 
 he belongs, or indeed, whether he belongs to 
 anj% if only he is converted, if only his heart is 
 right ! 
 
 Hence we find but small provision, if any, 
 for doctrinal instruction in the revival system. 
 Those who are expected to be gathered in and 
 brought to Christ, are left in ignorance of the 
 great doctrines of sin and salvation. They have 
 the most imperfect conception of God's Wa^^ 
 of Salvation. And yet they are expected to 
 enter upon that way and walk in it! 
 
REVIVALS 201 
 
 The first and great object of the revivahst 
 seems to be to work directly on the emotional 
 nature of his hearers. And when the feelings 
 are aroused, when the excitement is up, the 
 hearers are urged to come forward, stand up, 
 to follow the saw-dust trail, etc. 
 
 Now there is no true religion without feel- 
 ing, no true piety without heartfelt sorrow for 
 sin, longings for union and fellowship with 
 God, together with a childlike trust and love 
 to Him. But when Paul was sent to convert the 
 Gentiles, he was directed first of all "to open 
 their eyes," that is; to instruct them, and then 
 to ''turn them from darkness to light." The 
 revivalist, however, makes a short cut and goes 
 at once to the feehngs, contrary to the Scrip- 
 tures and to the laws of the mind. 
 
 Therefore the revivalist not only permits, 
 but encourages the ignorant and inexperienced 
 to assist in exhorting and helping such as are 
 inquiring after life and salvation. But, "can 
 the blind lead the blind? Will they not both 
 fall in the ditch?" Better let these novices sit 
 at the feet of Christ! 
 
 We may also mention the proselyting spirit 
 that so often accompanies this system. How 
 with all its protestations of charity, brotherly 
 love, and union, it often runs out into the 
 meanest spirit of casting aspersions on others 
 
202 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 and stealing from their churches. We niiglit 
 speak of the divided churches that often result. 
 As Dr. Krauth once forcible said: "They are 
 united to pieces, and revived to death." No 
 wonder, that in sections of our country where 
 this system has held sway, worldliness and 
 skepticism abound. These places have been 
 aptly called "burnt districts." It seems next 
 to impossible to make lasting impressions for 
 good on such communities. 
 
 True Revivals 
 
 The Church ought constantly to aim at keep- 
 ing up such a state of spiritual life as to render 
 revivals unnecessary. But owing to human in- 
 Hrmity, carelessness, and neglect of a pro]jer 
 and prayerful use of the means of grace, the 
 spiritual life will ofttimes languish in individ- 
 uals, in families, in congregations, and com- 
 munities. At such times a spiritual awakening 
 or refreshing is necessary. What then is to be 
 done when a revival is needed? 
 
 First let there be a revival in the individual 
 Christian heart. Any Christian who sees the 
 need of a revival, must see the need first of all 
 for himself. Then let there be an earnest and 
 prayerful return to the neglected Word. Let 
 there be a devout reading and meditation of 
 the Law of God, an earnest, persevering 
 
REVIVALS 203 
 
 searcliing of heart and life in the hght of that 
 law. Let there he a study of the Gospel, a 
 prayerful reading of such sections of the Word 
 of God as Psalms 32 and 51, Is. 53, Rom. 3-8, 
 Luke 15, and the epistles of John. This will 
 hring ahout a deeper sorrow for sin and a 
 stronger faith in Christ. Let there be a daily 
 dying unto sin, a daily living unto righteous- 
 ness, a daily ])utting off of the old man, a daily 
 j)utting on of the new man. 
 
 For the reviving in the whole congregation, 
 let the preaching of the Word be plain and 
 direct, full of "repentance toward God and 
 faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." Let the 
 })reaching of the Word be supported by the 
 earnest prayers of the believers, and there will 
 be a constant and scri])tural revival. 
 
 The Church also has its regular communion 
 services. These, if rightly improved by pas- 
 tor and people, can be made still richer seasons 
 of grace. In our Lutheran Church special com- 
 munion services are generally held in connec- 
 tion with our great Church Festivals. Church 
 historians inform us that during the age im- 
 mediately succeeding the time of the Apostles, 
 these festivals were real highdays. The Word 
 was preached with more than ordinary power, 
 and the Sacraments dispensed with unusual 
 solemnity. At such times, even the worldly and 
 
204 THE ^^'Av of sai.vatiox 
 
 careless felt a strong impulse to follow the 
 happy Christian crowd to the House of God, 
 multitudes of sinners were converted and 
 gathered into the Church of Jesus Christ, while 
 saints were strengthened and built up in their 
 holy faith. 
 
 An evangelistic agency that our Church 
 should use everywhere is the adult Bible class. 
 It is an agency for wooing the sinner with the 
 Word, and for teaching the way of God more 
 clearly. Such classes ought to be frank and free 
 conferences, where everyone may unload his 
 questions, objections, and doubts; where every- 
 one may ask for more information and light. 
 For the unconfirmed adults, we should have 
 catechetical classes much after the same model 
 as the Bible classes. 
 
 There are times when the Spirit of the Lord 
 manifests Himself more fully in the church 
 than at other times. In His own wise provi- 
 dence God brings about and prepares for such 
 "times of visitation." Thus, when, from causes 
 noted above, the Church grows cold and lan- 
 guid, He sends afflictions of various kinds. 
 People are made to realize the uncertainty and 
 unsatisfactoriness of the affairs of this life. God 
 brings them to reflection. They are willing to 
 hear the long neglected Word. The Word 
 finds free course, and it does not return void. 
 
REVIVALS 205 
 
 If now pastors and people know this ''time 
 of visitation," they will respond to these in- 
 dications. Provision ought to be made to gather 
 the quickly ripening harvest. Special services 
 may be held with a series of special sermons. 
 The preaching must be a plain and direct set- 
 ting forth of the Way of Salvation. The great 
 themes of sin and grace, and the application 
 and reception of grace should be set forth with 
 all possible simplicity and earnestness. Besides 
 the preaching there should also be made provi- 
 sion for personal xvork. 
 
 Such seasons result in a growth of true 
 Church life. The means of grace are more dil- 
 igently and more prayerfully used. The Word 
 of God and prayer take their proper place in 
 the home. There is increased liberality in the 
 congregation. There is a revival of strict hon- 
 esty and truthfulness in business affairs. 
 Worldly companionship, questionable amuse- 
 ments, pleasures tjiat draw the heart away 
 from God, are avoided. Religion is not only a 
 Sunday garment, but a living force that shows 
 itself in every department of life. The world 
 takes knowledge of true converts, that they 
 have been with Jesus and learned of Him. 
 Such are the results of a true revival. In such 
 we believe. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 Conclusion. 
 
 WITH this chapter we conclude our studies 
 of the Way -of Salvation. They have been 
 extended much beyond our original purpose. As 
 we remarked in the beginning, we have written 
 for plain people ; for those who, surrounded by 
 all forms and varieties of belief, unbelief, and 
 misbelief, are often attacked, questioned and 
 perplexed as to their faith, and their reasons 
 for holding it. Our object has been to assist 
 our unpretentious people always to he ready to 
 give an answer to those who ask a reason for 
 the hope that is in them. 
 
 We also remarked in the beginning that there 
 often come to our people arrogant and self- 
 righteous persons, who say "the Lutheran 
 Church has no religion," that it ''does not 
 bring its members into the light, ' ' and does not 
 "believe in or insist on personal salvation." 
 
 Unfortunately there are only too many Lu- 
 therans who do not know how to answer such 
 bold and baseless assertions. Sometimes they 
 apologize for being Lutherans, and timidly hope 
 207 
 
208 THE WAY OF SALVATION" 
 
 that they still may find salvation even in their 
 own Church I Many also have been persuaded 
 to abandon the Church and faith of their 
 fathers to find more light and religion else- 
 where. After having been wrought upon and 
 strangely affected by human and unscriptural 
 methods, after they have experienced some new 
 sensations, they proclaim to the world that now 
 they have found the light which they could 
 never find in the Lutheran Church 1 And thus 
 not a few of our simple-minded and unreflect- 
 ing people are led to depart from the faith and 
 follow strange delusions. 
 
 Our people need to be better informed about 
 their own Church. When they come to under- 
 stand what that Church is, and what she 
 teaches, they will be ''no more children, tossed 
 to and fro, and carried about with every wind 
 of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning 
 craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive." 
 
 It is to assist them to such an understanding 
 and appreciation of the truth as it is in Jesus, 
 and is confessed by our Church, that we have 
 written these pages. If they have strengthened 
 any who are weak in the faith, removed any 
 doubts and perplexities, established any who 
 wavered and made anyone love the Church and 
 her great Head more, we are more than repaid. 
 
 Whatever may have be6n the effect of read- 
 ing these chapters, the writing of them has made 
 
CONCLUSION 209 
 
 the Church of the Reformation, her faith and 
 practices, more precious than ever to the 
 writer. He has become more and more con- 
 vinced that what Eome stigmatized as "Lu- 
 theranism" is nothing else than the pure and 
 simple Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Let us take a rapid backward glance. We 
 see that the Lutheran Church grasps fully and 
 accepts unreservedly the whole sad and unwel- 
 come doctrine of sin. She believes all that is 
 written as to the deep-going and far-reaching 
 consequences of sin — that every soul comes into 
 this world infected with this fearful malady, 
 and, therefore, unfit for the kingdom of God, 
 and under condemnation. She believes there- 
 fore that every human being, down to the young- 
 est infant, must have its nature changed when 
 it is saved. The necessity of this change is ab- 
 solute and without exception. 
 
 In the very beginning, therefore, we see that 
 no Church places the necessity of personal re- 
 newal and salvation on higher ground than does 
 the Lutheran Church. She believes that our 
 blessed Saviour has appointed a means, a chan- 
 nel, a vehicle, by and through which His Holy 
 Spirit conveys renewing Grace to the heart of 
 the tender infant, and makes it a lamb of His 
 flock. She believes that where Christ's Sacra- 
 ment of holy Baptism — which is the means re- 
 
210 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 ferred to — does not reach a child, His Spirit 
 can and will reach and renew it in some way 
 not made known to ns. 
 
 She believes that the beginning of the new 
 life in a child is a spiritual hirth; that this 
 young and feeble life needs nourishment and 
 fostering care for its healthy development ; that 
 it is the duty of Christian parents to see to this ; 
 that the Sunday-school and catechetical class 
 are helps offered to the parents by the Church; 
 She believes that by this nourishing of the di- 
 vine life in the family and in the Church, ''with 
 the sincere milk of God's Word," the baptismal 
 covenant can be kept unbroken, and the divine 
 life developed and increased more and more. 
 
 After careful instruction in the home and 
 Church, if there is due evidence that there is 
 grace in the heart, that penitence and faith, 
 which are the elements of the new life, are 
 really present, she admits her children to the 
 communion of the body and blood of Christ, by 
 the beautiful and significant rite of confirma- 
 tion. 
 
 The scriptural doctrine of Christ's holy 
 Sacrament of the Altar, which our Church holds 
 and sets forth, and the solemn, searching pre- 
 paratory service which she connects with it, 
 make it truly calculated to strengthen the child 
 of God, and unite him closer to Christ. 
 
 Our Church insists that the whole life of the 
 
\ 
 
 CONCLUSION 211 
 
 believer, in the fellowship of the Saviour and 
 of His people, is to be a ^* growth in Grace and 
 in knowledge." In this, also the believer is 
 wonderfully assisted by our teachings concern- 
 ing the efficacy of the Word of God as a means 
 of Grace, a vehicle and instrument of the Holy 
 Spirit. He is further comforted and quickened 
 by that precious doctrine of justification by 
 faith in Jesus Christ. He is encouraged to 
 press forward to the mark, to purify himself 
 more and more, to become more and more ac- 
 tive, earnest and consecrated by what the 
 Church teaches of sanctification. 
 
 Nor does the Church overlook or forget the 
 sad fact that many — often through the fault of 
 those who ought to be their spiritual guides in 
 the home and Church — lapse from their bap- 
 tismal covenant, or forget their confirmation 
 vows, and thus fall back into an impenitent 
 state. She insists on the absolute necessity of 
 conversion or turning back, for all such. She 
 does not, however, expend all her energies in 
 proclaiming its necessity, but also sets forth 
 and makes plain the nature of conversion, and 
 the means and methods of bringing it about. 
 
 While the Church would, first of all, use every 
 endeavor to preclude the necessity of conver- 
 sion, by bringing the children to Jesus that He 
 may receive and bless them through His own 
 sacrament; and while she would use all dili- 
 
212 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 gence and watchfulness to keep them true to 
 Christ in their baptismal covenant, yet, when 
 they do fall away, she solemnly assures them 
 that except they repent and be converted, they 
 will eternally perish. 
 
 And if this lamentable backsliding should 
 take place more or less with a large portion of 
 a congregation, our Church prays and labors 
 for a revival. While she repudiates and abhors 
 all that is unscriptural, and therefore danger- 
 ous, in the modern revival system, she yet ap- 
 preciates and gives thanks for every "time of 
 refreshing from the Lord." 
 
 Yes, the Lutheran Church does believe in 
 salvation, in the absolute necessity of its per- 
 sonal application, and in eternal perdition to 
 every one who will not come to God in His own 
 way of salvation — through Jesus Christ. 
 
 And thus the Lutheran system is a complete 
 system. It takes in everything revealed in the 
 Word. It teaches to observe all things that 
 Christ has commanded. It declares the whole 
 counsel of God. 
 
 The Lutheran Church believes in a Way of 
 being saved. She has a positive system of faith. 
 Her system of the doctrines and methods of 
 Grace is a complete, a consistent, a simple, an 
 attractive one. It avoids the contradictions and 
 difficulties of other ways and systems. It is 
 thoroughly loyal to God's Word. Where it 
 
CONCLUSION 213 
 
 differs from other systems and faiths, it is be- 
 cause it abides by and bows to what is written, 
 while others depart from and change the record 
 to suit their reasons. It gives all the glory of 
 salvation to God. It throws all the responsi- 
 bility of being lost on man. It is indeed the 
 highway of the Lord, where the redeemed can 
 walk in safety and in joy. It is the old path, 
 the good Way wherein men can find rest unto 
 their souls. It is the Way trodden by Patri- 
 archs, Prophets, and ancient servants of God. 
 It is the Way of the Apostles, and Martyrs, 
 and Confessors of the early Church — the Way 
 that became obscured and almost hidden during 
 the dark ages. It is the Way for the bringing 
 to light and re-opening of which God raised up 
 Martin Luther. 
 
 Yes, the nominally Christian Church had 
 largely lost that Way. God wanted to put her 
 right again. For this purpose He raised up the 
 great Reformer. Is it not reasonable to be- 
 lieve that He would lead him and guide him and 
 enlighten him to know and point out this Way 
 aright? If the Lutheran Reformation was a 
 work of God, does it need constant improve- 
 ments and repetitions! No! we believe that 
 God led Luther aright, that the Way of Salva- 
 tion to which He recalled the Church through 
 him is the Divine Way. Millions have walked in 
 it since his day, and found it a good, safe, and 
 
214 THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 happy Way. No one who has ever left it for 
 another way has gained thereby. 
 
 To abandon the Lutheran Church for another 
 is to exchange a system that is based on sound 
 and well-established principles of interpreta- 
 tion, logical, consistent, thoroughly scriptural, 
 and therefore changeless in the midst of 
 changes, for one without fixed principles of 
 interpretation, only partially loyal to the in- 
 spired record, more or less inconsistent, uncer- 
 tain, shifting and changing with the whims or 
 notions of a fickle age. 
 
 It is to exchange a faith that satisfies, brings 
 peace, and manifests itself in a child-like, cheer- 
 ful, joyous trust in an ever-living and ever- 
 present Redeemer, for one that ofttimes per- 
 plexes, raises doubts, and is more or less moody 
 and gloomy. A faith that is built either on un- 
 certain and ever-varying emotion or on an 
 inexorable and loveless decree, cannot be as 
 steadfast and joyous as one that rests implicitly 
 in a Redeemer, who tasted death for every man. 
 
 We conclude with the eloquent words of Dr. 
 Seiss: **We do not say that none but Lu- 
 therans in name and profession can be saved. 
 But we do assert that if salvation cannot be 
 obtained in the Lutheran Church, or the high- 
 way of eternal life cannot be found in her, there 
 is no such thing as salvation. There is no God 
 but the God she confesses. There is no sacred 
 
CONCLUSION 215 
 
 Scripture which she does not receive and teach. 
 There is no Christ but the Christ of her confes- 
 sion, hope and trust. There are no means of 
 grace ordained of God, but those which she 
 uses and insists on having used. There are no 
 promises and conditions of divine acceptance, 
 but those which she puts before men for their 
 comfort. And there is no other true ministry, 
 Church, or Faith, than that which she acknowl- 
 edges and holds.'' 
 
 THE REFORMATION CHURCH 
 I. 
 
 What! leave the Reformation Church, 
 
 Our fathers' and our own! 
 Desert, betray and wound the breast 
 
 On which our strength has grown? 
 No! we may leave our land and tongue. 
 
 Those near and dear we've known. 
 But not the Reformation Church, 
 
 Our fathers' and our own. 
 
 u. 
 What? leave the Reformation Church, 
 
 Our glory and our pride? 
 Forsake the faith that Jesus taught — 
 
 There is no truth beside! 
 No! on this Rock 'gainst every shock. 
 
 Though proselytes assail, 
 We'll stand secure, with promise sure. 
 
 They never shall prevail. 
 
2lg THE WAY OF SALVATION 
 
 in. 
 Our dear old Reformation Church! 
 
 We love her ancient name; 
 And Ood forbid that one of us 
 
 Should ever do her shame. 
 The mother of true Protestants, 
 
 A mother's love has shown; 
 Nor can we now deny her cause, 
 
 A stranger's claim to own. 
 
 Our own dear Reformation Church! 
 
 We've heard the tales of blood. 
 Of those who loved thee to their death, 
 
 The true, the wise and good; 
 The faith of Augsburg they have kept. 
 
 They burned, and bled, and died. 
 And shall their children's children now 
 
 Be traitors at her side? 
 
 V. 
 
 O. dear old Reformation Church! 
 
 The love can not grow cold. 
 That coursed like streams of living light. 
 
 In martyrs' veins of old; 
 That cruel Thirty years of war, 
 
 'Mid persecution's flame, 
 Has warmed the blood in every heart. 
 
 For those of Lutheran name. 
 
 We love our Reformation Church, 
 
 For she reveres her Lord, 
 She teaches naught, confesses naught, 
 
 But from the written Word; 
 
COBTCLUSION 217 
 
 Her voice is like our Saviour's voice. 
 
 Compassionate and kind. 
 She teaches us the Gospel pure — 
 
 Thus we salvation find. 
 
 VIL 
 
 We love our Reformation Church, 
 
 Because she leads us on 
 To heaven and God — the Church above. 
 
 Where Christ our Lord hath gone: 
 We follow in the steps of Him, 
 
 The Life, the Truth, the Way, 
 The Morning Star that lights the path 
 
 From darkness unto day. 
 
 Then with our Luther, bold and true. 
 
 And loyal to each vow. 
 We'll stand with Christ and for His Church, 
 
 As God doth call us now; 
 In protest strong, 'gainst every wrong. 
 
 Proclaim His truth alone — 
 This faith shall still be dear to us. 
 
 Our fathers' and our own. 
 
 J. E. BrsHNEix. 
 Oakland, Cal. 
 
GUIDE QUESTIONS 
 
 Numbers refer to the page. Roman numerals to the article 
 in the Augsburg Confession, except in Introductory where they 
 refer to page. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 1. What is the author's aim? xii, xiii, 258. 
 
 2. To what does this book appeal throughout for proof? xxi. 
 
 3. How should it be read? xxi. 
 
 ORIGINAL SIN 
 
 4. How is Original Sin regarded in some cjuarters? 26-7. How 
 in the Lutheran Church? 27-8, II. 
 
 THE NEW BIRTH 
 
 5. Does the new born infant need salvation? 31-7, II. 
 
 6. What is the office of the Church? 37, 42-44, VII, VIII. 
 
 7. At what age does the Lutheran Church start man in the 
 way of salvation? 38, 43, 44. How? 31, 46-8, IX. 
 
 8. Does God will men to be lost? 49-51, IV. 
 
 (J. How does God reach men and give the Holy Spirit? 40-43, 
 \. 
 
 10. What is the way of salvation in the Lutheran Church? 
 43- N- 
 
 BAPTISM 
 
 n. What do Lutherans understand Baptism to l)e? 46-9, IX. 
 12. Is baptism necessary? 49-51, IX. 
 
 219 
 
220 THE WAY OF SAI.VATIOX 
 
 13. What are the benefits and effects of baptism? 49, IX. 
 
 14. What authority for infant baptism? 51, 52, IX. 
 
 15. When Christian parents have their children baptized, 
 have they fulfilled their whole duty? 52. What more is required? 
 52. 57- 
 
 iG. What ideal should every Christian parent strive to realize? 
 56-60. 
 
 17. Why teacli the cliild concerning its own baptism? 64, IX. 
 
 HOME IXFLIJEXCE AND TRAINING 
 
 18. Why cannot parents who are not Christians properly pre- 
 sent a child for jjaptism? 60-61. 
 
 19. What is the Lutheran conception of a Christian home? 
 60-66. 
 
 20.. How should the Bil)le be taught to children? 64-5. 
 
 21. Should the parents or the pastor teach the children? 64. 
 
 IHE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND BAPTIZED CHILDREN 
 
 22. AVhy docs the Lutheran church start man in the way of 
 .salvation in infancy instead of letting them grow up and then 
 converting them? 67-9. IX. 
 
 23. What is the object of the Sunday school with reference 
 to baptized children from Christian homes? 70-73. 
 
 24. Why should teachers in Lutheran Sunday schools know 
 and teach the doctrines of the Lutheran church? 73-77. 
 
 25. Why should Lutheran literature be taught in our Luther- 
 an Sunday schools? 73, 74, 76-8. 
 
 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND THE UNBAPTIZED 
 
 26. What is the object of the .Sunday school with reference 
 to the unbaptized and wandering? 79, 80. How accomplish it? 
 
 79-80. 
 
GUIDE QUESTIONS 221 
 
 CATECHIZATION 
 
 27. Why ha\e our Lutheran Sunday school helps had portions 
 of the Catechism in connection with each Sunday's lesson? 81-2. 
 
 28. What is the Lutheran Sunday school teacher's duty with 
 reference to the Catechism? 82. 
 
 29. What should be the pastor's part in catechization? 83. 
 
 30. What is the nature and object of Luther's Small Cate- 
 chism? 85-6. What do you know of the contents, arrangement 
 and excellence of it? 87-93. 
 
 31. How and why sliould the catechism he taught? 94-100. 
 
 CONFIR\L\TIO\ 
 
 32. What is Confirmation? 104-7. I's origin? 106. 
 
 33. ^Vho should be confirmed? 99-100. 
 
 IHE LORDS SUPPER 
 
 34. What is the source of the Lord's Supper? 110-113. '^Vhen 
 instituted? 113, X. The icrm used to designate it? 114. Gi\e 
 its meaning. 1 1 j. 
 
 35. What is the nature of the Lord's Supper? 115-120. 
 
 36. What is the Bible doctiiiie of the Lord's Supper? 121-131, 
 X. 
 
 37. What is Transubstantiation? 121-2. Consubstantiation? 122- 
 4. Does the Lutheran Church believe or teach either? 123. 
 
 38. What is the current popular view of the Lord's Supper 
 outside the Lutheran Church? 124-5. 
 
 39. What is the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper? 126- 
 130, X. 
 
 IHE PREP ARMORY SERVICE 
 
 40. What is the preparatory service? 132-5. Is it scriptural? 
 133, XL XXV. What is its object? 134. 
 
 41. \Vhat is Al)solution? 134-5, XI, XXV. 
 
 42. In what sense can a minister remit sin? 137-9. ^^^^V. 
 
222 THE WAY OF SALVATIOX 
 
 THE WORD OF GOD AS A MEANS OF GRACE 
 
 43. How does the Lutheran Church regard the Word of God? 
 142-9 (Int. Augs. Conf.) . 
 
 44. What relation does the Word sustain to the Holy Spirit 
 according to Lutheran teaching? 1428, V. 
 
 45. Why cannot a true Lutheran pulpit be sensational? 149. 
 
 46. What rules does the Lutheran Church have in regard to 
 the interpretation of Scripture? 45, 46, 116. 
 
 CONVERSION 
 
 47. What is Conversion? 152-4. Its essential elements? 154-5, 
 169, IV, VI, XII. 
 
 48. Who need conversion? 155-7, 211-2, XII. 
 
 49. Who do not need conversion? 156. Why not? 53-9. 156-7, 
 VI, IX. 
 
 50. How is Conversion brought about? 158-166, 169. 
 
 51. Do all men have the same experience in conversion? 159, 
 164. 
 
 52. Can every one tell the exact time and place \vhere he 
 was converted? 164. Is it necessary? 164. 
 
 53. Can you tell whether you are now in a converted state? 
 165-6, VI. 
 
 54. Can man do anything to bring about his conversion? 167- 
 175. XVIII. 
 
 55. Does the Lutheran Church teach that in conversion the 
 new life is complete? or only begun? What further is necessary? 
 
 187-8. 
 
 56. Does the sinner first come to God or God to the sinner 
 and how? 169-71, V. 
 
 57. If you are con\erted, to whom does the glory belong? 174. 
 
 58. If you are lost who will be responsible? 173. 
 
GUIDE QUESTIONS 223 
 
 JUSTIFICATION 
 
 r/). What is the most prominent doctrine of Lutheranism? 176. 
 
 60. What is justification? 177-8, IV. 
 
 61. On what ground are we justified? 179-182, IV. 
 
 62. How does this justification become personal possession? 
 182-3, IV, VI. 
 
 63. Is there any merit in faith? 183, IV. 
 
 64. Why is the doctrine of justification by faith so highly 
 prized? 185-6. 
 
 S.WCTIFICATION 
 
 65. What is sanctification? 189-191, VI. 
 
 66. What is the difference between justification and sanctifi- 
 cation? 187-9. 
 
 67. Are the saints on earth sinless? 189-192. 
 
 68. Is sanctification instantaneous and entire, or gradual and 
 progressive? 192-3, V. 
 
 69. How is sanctification brought about? 193-6. 
 
 REVIVALS 
 
 70. What does the W'ord revive mean? 197. 
 
 71. Should revivals be necessary? 156, 197-8. 
 
 72. When and why are revivals necessary? 198, 202. 
 
 73. Objections to modern revivals? 198-202. 
 
 74. What is the place of feeling in religion? 201. 
 
224 THE WAY OF SALVATIOX 
 
 75. How is a revival Ijrought about in the individual Chris- 
 tian? 202-3. 
 
 76. How is a revixal brought about in the whole congregation? 
 203. 
 
 77. \Vhat should be the nature of revival preaching? 203, 205. 
 
 78. How can communion seasons aid in revival? 203. 
 
 79. What are the benefits of adult Bible classes? 204. 
 
 80. Mention some indications of special "times of visitation"! 
 204. 
 
 81. How should pastor and lay memljers respond to such indi- 
 cations? 205. 
 
 82. What are the fruits of a true revival? 205. 
 
 83. Give a brief systematic statement of the way of salvation 
 in the Lutheran Church. 207-15. 
 
Date Due 
 
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