NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY t t SCHOOL OF EDUCATION - servance belonged to the Sabbath of the Jews. As with them the Sabbath commandment was the cen¬ tral point from which the whole ceremonial law proceeded, so has Sunday become the source of the whole ordering of divine service among Christians. The entire Christian year has developed from the observance of Sunday. Celebrated at first as a weekly Easter festival, the day gave rise at an — 26 — early date to the annual Easter festival, to vs^hich ■was added Whitsuntide. Subsequently the Christ- naas festival arose, and about these three chief fes¬ tivals were grouped Festival Cycles, the last festi¬ val to be introduced being that of the Trinity. After Trinity Sunday there are no more festivals imtil Advent. As, then, the Christian Sunday is different from the Sabbath of Israel, so also is its hallowing or sanctifying. This results from the different char¬ acter of the day. The Sabbath was observed by rest, the Lord's day is observed by the exercise appropriate to it—^by public divine worship. What this observance should be Luther explains. He points us to Preaching and His Word. ^^How does such sanctification occur?" Luther asks in the Large Catechism; and he answers: "Not that with folded hands we sit behind the stove and do no rough work, or deck ourselves with a garland and put on our best clothes, but that we occupy ourselves ■with God's Word and exercise ourselves therein." God's Word is what God has spoken, partly through men, but espec¬ ially through His Son (Heb. 1:1 and 2). This Word of God we have in the Holy Scriptures. There we learn to know God, His Beftig, His Com¬ mandments, His Will: there God still speaks to us to-day. This Word of God, as Luther says (L. C.), "is the sanctuary above all sanctuaries, yea, the only one which we Christians know and — 27 — have. . . It is the treasury which sanctifies every¬ thing, whereby even all the saints themselves were sanctified". (John 17:17) ; and again: "Notice, therefore, that the power and efficacy of this Com- ' mandment consists not in the resting, but in the sanctifying, so that to this day belongs a special holy exercise. For other works and occupations are not properly holy exercises, unless the man himself he first holy. But here a work is to he done whereby a man himself is to he made holy, which occurs alone through God's Word." He con¬ cludes, therefore, that the day is kept holy when the man is made holy by God's sanctifying Word. This is the plain purpose of the day. "For this, then, fixed places, times, persons, and the entire external order of divine service have been created and appointed, so that it may be publicly and con¬ stantly exercised" (L. C.). It will be observed that Luther does not men¬ tion God's Word alone, but also preaching. This sounds as if two things were meant, but this is not the case. The word "and" here signifies "namely." Luther is considering the Word not as it stands on the printed page, but as it is pro¬ claimed in the sermon (1 Thess. 2:13). He has the use of the Word in view, as this occurs not only in the sermon (above all in the Sacrament), but also in the lessons, hymns and prayers. Neverthe¬ less, it is the sermon which he has chiefly in mind; and at one time he said, "The peculiar office of this day is the office of the sermon". (Kom. 10:13-17). " It is, then, in this way that the day is sanctified — 28 — and becomes, in verity, the Lord's Day. It is not sanctified, however, when preaching and His Word are Despised. What we esteem and prize we value highly and hold dear. What we despise we disparage and hold cheap, and even worthless. The latter attitude toward preaching and the Word of God is shown when we give the preference to other things and do not attend and take part in the Church's service. Some make the point that we can be edified by God's Word also at home, and this is true. This itself is a real sanctifying of the day on the part of all who are prevented from being present in God's house. But, as Luther once said: "It is best done in the assembly where men come together for this purpose alone." In family and private worship the Word is " nevertheless not so fruitful and powerful as it is through the public preaching of it. Here is the advantage therefrom, when Christians come together, that prayer goes more mightily than otherwise." In a public service the question is not only concerning preaching, but also concerning the congregational worship to which each worshiper contributes his share (by presence and example, by prayer and praise) to the whole (Col. 3:16). This raises congregatioiial worship above all household and private worship (Heb. 10: 24 and 25). It will even commonly be found, as Luther has said, that they who neglect the public service " also do not read the Bible at home." This is a virtual despising of God's Word, the prefer- — 29 — ence being given to such selfish and worldly things as ease or gain or pleasure. Deem it Holy. This means both to count it as holy—as the Word of God and not of man—and to use it as such, i. e., to come under its influence and power. It is to this end that the Word is preached and divine service is held. God Himself has so willed ^ and arranged it, and Luther at one time said of it: ^Tt is the highest, most pleasing service to Him that we can render." But if we engage in such public worship Luther would have us do it in the right manner. This he describes in the words: Gladly Hear and Learn It. In the Large Catechism he further explains: "This commandment is violated not only by those who grossly abuse and desecrate the Sabbath, as those who, on account of their avarice and frivolity, cease to hear God's Word . . . but also by that other great crowd, who listen to God's Word as though it were a trifle, attend upon preaching only from custom, and at the end of the year know as little of it as at the begiiming." We should, on the other hand, hear reverently, as the preacher said (Ecc. 5:1), and hear gladly, as did Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:39). From such hearing there will not result such forgetftil- ness and neglect as that which St. James describes (1: 22-25), but there will be a lesson learned and retained. For what we learn, e. g., a prayer or a hymn, we take and make our own; and so should we leam and lay up in our hearts God's holy Word (Ps. 119:11). This is the keeping it in a good and true heart and bringing forth fruit with pa¬ tience of which the Saviour speaks (Luke 8:15). Not they who hear the Gospel so often that they can repeat it and do no more, are to be credited with having kept the commandment; but they who gladly hear and learn, believe and obey the Gospel (Luke 11:28). ^^The Bible," says Luther, "con¬ tains not merely words to be read, but words to be lived/' It should be said, in conclusion, that to the Lord's day belongs also the element of rest. With¬ out this the day cannot be properly observed. We need to refrain from our daily labor in order that "on such day of rest (since otherwise it cannot be accomplished) time and opportunity be taken to attend divine service" (L. C.). Our holy day has, therefore, become a rest day, and such public rest is secured even by civil laws, which have re¬ gard not only to the interests of sacred worship, but also to the interests of those who toil, that they be not imposed upon. We keep the rest day also "for bodily causes and necessities, which na¬ ture teaches and requires," so that working peo¬ ple "who are occupied the whole week with their work and trade for a day may forbear, in order to rest and be refreshed" (L. C.). But works of nec¬ essity, and especially of charity and mercy, are not prohibited. Luther would not have the observance of rest to be so strictly interpreted "as to forbid any other incidental and necessary work/' Within these limits, what is permissible for the individual is obviously different, being conditioned by age, sex, occupation, etc., but the whole question is briefly comprehended in Luther's familiar lines: " Thou shouldest from thy work be free, That God may have His work in thee." The Fourth Commandment. Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. What is meant hy thisf We should fear and love God, and not despise our parents and superiors, nor provoke them to angerf but honor, serve, obey, love and esteem them. The fourth commandment is the first on the sec¬ ond Table. The first Table set forth our duty towards God: the second Table sets forth our duty towards our neighbor, i. e., anyone to whom in any way we are brought near. Father and mother are our earliest and nearest neighbors. With them we have most and chiefly to do, and our duty towards them is, therefore, the first to be specified. Our parents, moreover, occupy a special position and relation. According to Luther, they are to be re¬ garded as standing in the place of God, i, e., to be to us His vicegerents and deputies. "Just as God provides for us, nourishes, protects and guards, instructs and teaches us, so also the father teaches the child, nourishes and provides for it." Luther adds: And Superiors, Parental au¬ thority is the source and type of all other human authority. " From parental government," Luther says, "all other government takes its rise and is extended. Those who are to be obeyed and are called masters in the home, the school, the church and the state, stand in the place of parents." That is to say, the father is ruler and priest in his own family, but he delegates certain rights and powers to assistants and helpers in the home, school, church and state, and these are to be accorded the same honor and obedience which are due to him. This is at the basis of all discipline and good order, and is God's purpose and plan in the government of the world (1 Tim. 2:1-3). The fourth commandment enjoins the duty of honoring our parents and superiors. In the three former commandments God would be honored as He is in Himself: in this commandment He would be honored in His representatives (Col. 3:20; Rom. 13:1; Heb. 13:17). To "honor" is men¬ tioned, because "to honor is far higher than to love, inasmuch as it comprehends not only love, but also modesty, humility and deference as though to a — 33 — majesty there hidden, and requires not only that they be addressed kindly and with reverence, but most of all that both in heart and with the body we so act as to show that we esteem them very highly, and that next to God we regard them the very highest" (L, C.). We are, accordingly, on the negative side. Not to Despise Them. To despise parents is not to hold them in proper respect. This is a frequent and a grievous fault. The young should remember, Luther says in the Large Catechism, ^^that however lowly, poor, frail and queer they may be, nevertheless they are father and mother given them by God. Therefore we are not to regard their persons, how they may be, but the will of God who has thus appointed and or¬ dained." Elsewhere he declares those children to be of a bad sort who are ashamed of their parents on account of poverty, obscurity, deformity and disrepute, especially when the children have be¬ come richer, better educated and more cultured than they (Prov. 30:17). When such a disposi¬ tion arises in the heart of the child, it should be subdued; otherwise it will strengthen and show it¬ self in word and conduct. Then will arise the second feature which the explanation mentions. Not Provoke Them to Anger. This anger of theirs is righteous anger. Our parents and superiors desire and labor for our best 3 — 34 — and highest good. When, therefore, we despise and disdain them—^whether by disobedience and stubbornness or by lack of gratitude and affection ■—they are justly indignant, i. e,, are provoked to anger. Such provocation the fear and love of God forbids and will prevent; for he who fears God will not displease those who represent Him; and he who loves Him will cheerfully do what He or¬ dains and commands. Honor. Luther repeats the word found in the command¬ ment, and in the Large Catechism explains what the word signifies in the two places: 'Tirst, that they (the parents) be held in honor and esteemed above all things as the most precious treasure on earth. Secondly, that in our words to them we observe modesty, and do not speak roughly, haugh¬ tily and defiantly; but yield to them in silence, even though they go too far." In other words, the showing of honor in speech, gesture and behavior is here set forth (Gen. 22:7-9; 47:12; 1 Sam. 24:7; 1 Kings 2:19). Serve. To serve them is to do something for them in the way of helpfulness and support (Ruth, Chs. 1 and 2; John 19:26 and 27; cf. 1 Tim. 5:4). "We should," says Luther, "show them such honor, with body and possessions, as to serve them, help them, and provide for them when old, sick, infirm or poor, and all that not only gladly, but with hu¬ mility and reverence, as doing it before God" (L. C.). Elsewhere he says: "God and one^s parents can never be sufficiently thanked and re¬ paid : a child's duty never ceases." Obey. Obedience is the special virtue of the young, who are both to hear and to heed the command, L e,, submit their will to the one who gives it (Luke 2:51). Children are to do what is com¬ manded by parents and superiors, not by compul¬ sion, but cheerfully and willingly, for such alone is true obedience. The apostle admonishes (Eph. 6:1), "Children, obey your parents in the Lord;" and herein is found not only the motive to obey, but also the limit of the duty (1 Sam. 20: 27-34; Dan. 3:13-30). If parents and superiors com¬ mand what is contrary to God's Word, the answer of the apostles should be given, "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29), for in that case parents and superiors have ceased to represent God. However, such service is not to be a mere external and servile work. It is to have its springs of action within the heart. Therefore Luther further, and finally, says: Love and Esteem Them. Love and esteem come by nature, but they are not able to maintain themselves under adverse cir¬ cumstances without the help of divine grace. — 36 — Hence they are emphasized as a part of the divine command. Each one should remind himself of what his parents have done for him and are to him, and he will be rebuked for any lack of affection and esteem and be confirmed in right thought and feeling. With the fulfilment of this fourth command¬ ment is connected a promise (Eph. 6:1-3), which declares what God will do for those who keep it, viz.: That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. In the second clause Luther prefers the New Testament form to that of the Old Testament—"in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee"— because the latter was spoken to Israel, while the former is addressed to us. Well-being and long life belong together and are to be desired only together. In itself long life is not a blessing: it becomes such only when connected with well-being. Luther says: "To have long life in the sense of the Scriptures is not only to become old, but to have everything which belongs to long life, as, namely, health, wife and child, support, peace, good government, etc., without which this life can neither be enjoyed in cheerfulness nor long en¬ dure." Earthly blessing is, therefore!^ in no small degree dependent on the performance of this com¬ mandment, just as earthly bane is the sure conse¬ quence of its disobedience and transgression (1 Tim. 4:8). The Fifth Commandment. Thou shalt not kill. What is meant by this? We should fear and love Ood, and not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help and be¬ friend him in every bodily need. ' The fifth commandment treats of murder. To murder is to destroy human life—^not animal life, although animals are not to be tortured, or killed without a cause. A man's life, which he has re¬ ceived from God through father and mother, is, next to his immortal soul, his most precious pos¬ session. Therefore God has thrown this command¬ ment about it as a safeguard. *'He would hereby defend and keep in peace every one against all the crime and violence of everyone else; and has, as it were, placed this commandment as a wall, fortress and refuge about our neighbor, that we do him no bodily harm or injury" (L. C.). The Scriptural reason for this prohibition is twofold. In Gen. 9: 6 we read: "Whoso shed- deth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man." In this fact consists the sacredness of human life (as over against animal life), and this is the first reason why murder should not be done. In the second place, human lifewis the gift of God (Dent. 32:39; Job. 1:21). As He alone has given it, so He alone can take it away. When, therefore, a man interferes and destroys it, he usurps God's prerog¬ ative and invades His right. This is equally true of self-murder. Suicide is so wicked and wrong that it can proceed only from guilty despair (Judas) or extreme misfortune (Saul). The suicide is guilty of a cowardly act, for he leaves others to bear the burdens from which he has sought escape, and of an eternal sin, for he dies in his sin and has no space to repent. It is not true that we are our own masters, the '^cap¬ tains" of our own souls. God is our Master; we are His servants. He alone knows when our work¬ ing-day is over, and at evening-time He will call us and give us our hire. It follows, also—since our life is to be His serv¬ ice—^that we should shun everything which would tend to shorten our life ("kill oneself by inches") or lessen our usefulness, as is so often done by in¬ temperance, licentiousness, foolhardiness, careless¬ ness, etc. While God, however, is Lord over life and death. He " has delegated his authority to govern¬ ments to punish evildoers" (L. C.). Whoever has killed, him the magistracy kills (Gen. 9:6; Rom. 13:4), and in doing so precisely ta]fes care for the proper enforcement of this commandment. It may also be regarded as the infliction of the death penalty when one kills another in self-defense, although this should not be done unless the life of the person assailed is really imperilled and there is no other way of escape. Defensive war is self- defense on a large scale. Every other kind of war is a transgression of this commandment. It is, of course, often diiBcult to decide whether a war is a righteous one of defense or an unrighteous one of aggression. It is not, however, the duty of the private citizen to determine this, but of the pub¬ lic officials who have undertaken the war. The responsibility rests upon them. In his explanation Luther is careful to prevent a merely literal understanding of the command¬ ment* Thus he says that we should: Not Hurt nor Harm our Neighbor in his Body. Not hurt. So it happened to him who fell among robbers (Luke 10:30), who was hurt in body by blows and wounds. So it happened to the Israelites when they were overtasked with toil (Ex. 1:14). So it can happen through the with¬ holding of safety-appliances, through lowering of wages, through neglect, poor workmanship, and in all sorts of ways. Not harm. This is not the same as to hurt. To hurt means to inflict hodily pain. To harm in¬ cludes something mental and spiritual, a sorrow which reacts injuriously upon the body, such as Jacob experienced (Gen. 37: 35; cf. Jer. 18:18). Such care destroys bodily health and vigor as surely, if less swiftly, as a violent personal as¬ sault. Not a few persons are killed through worrv. Not a few die of a broken heart. 40 Thus, then, Lnther describes the indirect viola¬ tion of the commandment. In the Large Cate¬ chism he cites Matt. 5:21 fF., and says: "We must not kill, either with hand, heart, mouth, signs, gestures, help or counsel. Therefore it is forbidden to everyone to be angry. . . . For where murder is forbidden all cause is also for¬ bidden whence murder might originate. For many a one, although he does not kill, yet curses and makes imprecations, which, if fulfilled with respect to anyone, he would not live long." Of all the causes which lead to murder, such as anger, hatred, revenge, drunkenness, envy, robbery and the concealment of past sin, anger is the first and chief. Thjerefore St. Paul admonishes, "Be ye angry, and sin not" (Eph. 4:26), and St. John declares, "Whoso hateth his brother (hatred is per¬ manent anger) is a murderer" (1 John 3:15). From such anger, which is the source and root of murder, righteous anger is to be distinguished (Mark 10:14; 11:15). The sinful anger Luther calls "human anger," the righteous anger "divine anger," and says of the latter: "Where it goes forth at God's command, it comes not of envy and hate, but from pure love and a good heart." The offender we are to forgive, even while we reprobate the offence (Matt. 6:15; 5:28-25). "Thus we may learn to calm our wrath, and fb have a pa¬ tient, gentle heart, especially towards those who give us cause to be angry, i. e., our enemies" (L. C.). There is, however, a positive side to the com- — 41 — mandment in which tlie fear, and especially the love of God are shown. We owe it to our neighbor that we should: Help and Befriend Him in Every Bodily Need. This is vividly illustrated by the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30 ff.), who helped and befriended the robbers' victim, bound up his wounds, soothed his pains, brought him to an inn and there took care of him. It is benevolence which is here set forth (Is. 58:7). Not only are we to come to our neighbor's rescue and relief when in danger—"anticipate, defend and save him, so that no bodily evil or harm happen to him" (L. C.)—^but we are also to minister to him in his need, "If, therefore, you send away one that is naked when you could clothe him, you have caused him to freeze; if you see one suffer hunger and do not give him food, you have caused him to starve" (L, C.). This aid we should render through both private and public charities, and es¬ pecially through the benevolent agencies of the Church, contributing to alms funds, hospitals, or¬ phanages, and the like. The Sixth Commandment. Thou shalt not commit adultery. What is meant hy this? We should fear and love God^ and live chaste and pure in words and deeds^ and husband and wife each love and honor the other. In prohibiting adultery the sixth commandment treats also of marriage, the family and the home, for adultery is the violation of the marriage bond, the destruction of the family and the ruin of the home. Already in the fourth commandment men¬ tion was made of father and mother, and it was there said how children should behave toward them: here it is said how father and mother should behave toward each other. The special relation in which parents stand towards each other is the estate of marriage. The children may be few or many, but they have only one father and one mother. Marriage is a relation between one man and one woman. It was God who performed the first marriage (Gen. 2:18 ; cf. John 2:1-11) and there and then instituted marriage. But no one is*compelled to marry. Marriage is a matter of choice. Hence it is a covenant voluntarily made and entered into by two persons in the name of God. God is one of the parties to the covenant, for He ratifies and sanctifies it. It is He who joins husband and wife together, and no man shall put them asunder (Matt. 19:6). Marriage is for life. When this married life is lived according to God's Word and Will, there is no divorce. Divorce is allowed to the innocent (or injured) party only for the cause of adultery (Matt. 5:32). Other¬ wise the marriage tie is binding and lasting. Marriage is, therefore, the covenant and union between one man and one woman which God Him¬ self has ordained and blessed, and in which they live together in love and faithfulness until sepa¬ rated by death. It is one of the most important steps in life that anyone can take, and is not to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly (as for social or financial reasons), but reverently, discreetly and in the fear of God. When, therefore, the holy estate of marriage has been entered into, husband and wife are not to be false and unfaithful to each other, i. e., are not to commit adultery, but be true and faithful to each other throughout life. Luther explains that this is done when Husband and Wife Each Love and Honor the Other. Love stands first as the human basis of marriage. But we cannot long love where we do not respect and honor. When respect dies, love draws near its end. Love is fed and strengthened by respect. Without love and honor marriage cannot prosper, but love and honor keep the marriage tie intact. When husband and wife do not each love and tonor the other, then the marriage tie is broken, either in a gross way (2 Sam. 11:1-27; Mark 6:17 and 18), or in a subtle way (Matt. 5: 27 and 28). Adultery is a grievous sin. It is always shameful to violate an agreement, but the violation of no earthly agreement is so shameful as that of the marriage bond; none is so sinful, for it breaks the solemn promise made in the presence of God; and none is so destructive, for it disrupts the family and the home and excludes the offender from the kingdom of Christ and of God (Eph. 5:5). This commandment, however, does not apply to married persons only. It pertains also to the un¬ married, and describes the relation in which men and women, as such, should stand to each other, and that from youth up. Of such proper behavior, which all are to observe, Luther speaks when he says that we should fear and love God: And live Chaste and Fnre in Words and Deeds. Chastity is purity of heart. It is for this that David prays in Ps. 51:12, "Create in me a clean heart, O God," and it is this which has heavenly recognition and reward (Matt. 5: 8). This is the first requisite to purity "in words and deeds," that we be pure in thought and heart, thfit we keep our thoughts and hearts clean. To this end we should think upon God and His holiness, and occupy our minds with the things which are true and just and pure. We should, on the other band, avoid and ahun everything and everyone that is impure and unholy, such as bad companions (1 Cor. 15:33), indecent stories and pictures, songs and jests. Much rather should we seek and cultivate the com¬ panionship of those among whom shameful words will not be heard (Eph. 5:3 and 4), and think upon what is virtuous and praiseworthy (Phil. 4:8), and when evil thoughts do arise in our hearts instantly suppress them and resolutely stamp them out. We shoidd remember the parting words of a father to his son: "Never say or listen to anything which you would not wish your mother or sister to hear. Then you will not have brought shame on yourself when you come home, and when we see you again we will not be ashamed of you." The best way to keep this commandment is that pointed out by our Lord in the words: "Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." In the midst of a corrupt and corrupting world, one cannot be too watchful. In view of the infirmity of the flesh, one cannot be too prayerful. When once the temptation has been entered into, it is often too late to escape. The victim is ensnared and cannot extricate himself; and then is perpe¬ trated the sin which defiles the bodily temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. 6:18-20; 3:17) and dis¬ inherits from the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:19-21). The Seventh Commandment. Thou Shalt not steal. ^Yllat is meant hy this? We shonld fear and love God^ and not take our neighbor's money or property, nor get it by false wares or false dealing, but help him to improve and protect his property and living. This commandment protects our own and our neighbor's property. This comes next; for if we are to live and support wife and family, money and property are needed. Money is specified be¬ cause it can buy all other necessary objects. By property is meant earthly possessions of all sorts, silver and gold, houses and lands, etc., which be¬ come ours by inheritance and gift, labor and thrift. This money and property are unequally distrib¬ uted. That men are rich and poor is of God's ap¬ pointment (Prov. 22: 2). Men are no more alike in worldly fortune than they are in bodily form and feature, or in mental talent and endowment. This difference in worldly estate is «iot something fortuitous or capricious: it, too, is a part of God's wise plan for the salvation of men. But this dif¬ ference should not be widened broad and deep (as it is so often done) by oppression and greed. Such a chasm is the work of sin. Men would pre- — 47 — fer, however, to be rich than to be poor. But to be rich and to be poor is not the same as to be happy and unhappy (Prov. 13:7). Kich and poor is the great contrast made and emphasized by the world; but Christians view and value these things in the light of eternity (1 John 2:15-17). To them this difference is not nearly so important as it is to the mere man of the world, to whom the things of this world are everything. Still, in spite of every difference, each one has his portion of goods which we call his property. It is, " after our person and wife or husband, our nearest good" (L. C.). We need it and have a right to it. And God secures us in its possession. This he does precisely through this seventh com¬ mandment, which prohibits stealing. To steal is to Take Our Neighbor's Money or Property. "To steal," Luther says, "is nothing else than to get another's property wrongfully into our pos¬ session" (L. C.). The stealing may be done by a corporation or an individual, or from a corpora¬ tion or an individual. It may be done violently (robbery); secretly (theft); cunningly (fraud). He also is a thief who keeps what he finds, or who is a receiver of stolen goods. Indeed, as Luther says, "This comprehends all kinds of advantage in all kinds of trade to the disadvantage of our neigh¬ bor" (L. C.) This fact he here expresses in the words: — 48 — Get it by False Wares or False Dealing. This applies to the indirect ways of stealing as it is done in all sorts of transactions, especially in buying and selling, when the wares bought and sold are false, i, e., adulterated or counterfeit; or when the dealing is false, L e., when deception is practiced through misrepresentation, short weights and measures, etc. This comes under the head of what is called ''business." Business is proper in itself and is necessary for the carrying on of hu¬ man affairs. Just as possession is proper, so also is the acquiring of possessions through the mani¬ fold exchanging of goods in which all men are in one way or another engaged. This is God's own arrangement. He would have business done, but done justly and honestly (1 Thess. 4:11 and 12). This is not done, however, when the dealing is false, as when debts are not paid, either to the in¬ dividual (loans, credit, keeping back wages), or to the company or state (fares, taxes, customs duties) ; or when trustees are faithless (embezzle¬ ment—^breach of trust), or when advantage is taken of need (usury), or when no equivalent is given (gambling), or when false pretence is made (begging), and such like. All such forms of steal¬ ing are sinful, whether men regard them so or not. The world takes a very tolerant and lenient view of many of them, especially when they shade off into the lighter kinds of deception and have be¬ come, as it is said, "the way business is done." Says Luther in the Large Catechism: "This is 49 indeed such a widespread and common crime, but so little regarded or observed, that it exceeds all measure, so that if all thieves—who nevertheless do not wish to be considered such—^were to be hanged to the gallows, the world would soon be desolate, and would be without both executioners and gallows." Not all who steal are convicted and punished by the civil authorities; but they are con¬ victed by God's Word, which furthermore declares that He is the avenger of all such. The causes which lead to this sin are idleness, envy, extravagance, avarice and covetousness. Luther says, *TLe who covets his neighbor's prop¬ erty has already stolen before God." In Matt. 15: 9 "thefts" are said to proceed out of the heart. This is the principal source of dishonesty, this lust and love of money, this unbridled desire for what is our neighbor's, which does not inquire as to his rights and interests, but only wishes and strives, by fair means or foul, to obtain possession. Such selfishness and covetousness are at the root of all theft whatsoever (1 Tim. 6: 9 and 10). Of all this we have to beware, for something of it is sticking in each one of us. "We are all thieves together," Luther says, "there is no exception." As such evil, moreover, very easily mingles itself with a righteous striving for gain, first lightly, then grossly, we shotdd be perfectly honest in even the very smallest matters (Luke 16:10). The true freedom from this sin lies in the fear and love of God. But he who loves God is pre- — 50 — pared to observe and do what is enjoined in this commandment: But Help Him to Improve and Protect His Property and Living. His property and his business (trade or pro¬ fession) are his means of livelihood. This he has a right to, and so far from using any advantage we may have to despoil and deprive him of it, we should put ourselves in his place and help him to improve and protect it according to our ability (Phil. 2:4). As God's stewards and our brother's keeper we should befriend and assist him by our advice and aid (Heb. 13:16). Our motto should be, "Live and let live," and our Golden Rule, "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." The Eighth Commandment. Thou Shalt not hear false witness against thy neighbor. What is meant by thi^ We should fear and love God, and not falsely helle, betray, backbite nor slander our neighbor, but ex¬ cuse him, speak well of him, and put the best con¬ struction on all he does. — 61 ^ " Besides body, wife or husband, and temporal )ossessions, we have yet another treasure, namely, )ersonal honor and good report, with which we lannot dispense. For it is intolerable to live imong men in open shame and general contempt, rherefore God wishes the reputation, character ind honor of our neighbor to be assailed and liminished as little as his money and possessions, hat everyone may stand in his integrity before vife, child, servants and neighbors" (L. C,). "The most manifest meaning of this command- nent," the Large Catechism continues, "pertains ;o courts of justice, where a poor innocent man is iccused and oppressed by false witnesses." This s true; and whereas, in such cases, evidence is ilways given under oath, this commandment, like he second, forbids perjury. There, however, per¬ jury is regarded as an act of impiety against God: lere as an injurious act against our neighbor. But the meaning is much wider than this. It ncludes ordinary conversation and the intercourse )f men with one another in daily life. It forbids dl lying, detraction and misrepresentation, and de- nands that truthfulness and trustworthiness which s the bond of mutual confidence among men and :he foundation-stone of society. The lie (joined vith hatred) is here the chief bane, and the truth 'joined with love) is the chief blessing. Luther nentions four particulars in connection with the )rohibitioiL The first is, that we do not % — 52 — Falsely Belie our Neighbor. To belie anyone means to say something untrue about him. Luther adds "falsely," and the addi¬ tion is not superfluous. The word has to do not with what is said, but with the one who savs it 7 The speaker is a deliberate falsifier, L e,, he utters a falsehood, not as an error of information or of judgment, but knowingly, with malicious intent. This is to sin against the truth and against God. God is truth, and His children are to think, speak and live the truth (Eph. 4: 25). All liars are of the devil (John 8:44), and they share his fate (Rev. 21:8). A lie not only makes trouble for others, but brings upon the offender the wrath of God (Gen. 2Y: 19; 37: 32). This duty of entire truthfulness rules out also the so-called "white lies" and "necessary lies;" but it does not mean that we should tell everyone everything we know. Under certain circumstances it may be necessary for us to refrain from telling a truth which has come to our knowledge, i. e., when it is not re¬ quired and would be to our neighbor's hurt. "I can indeed see and hear that my neighbor sins, but I have no command to report it to others. If, therefore, I rush on, judging and passing sentence, I fall into a sin which is greater than his. But if you know it, change your ears into a grave and cover it, until you are appointed as judge and to punish by virtue of your ofiice " (L. C.). 53 Betray. To betray is to abuse our neighbor's confidence by revealing his secrets, with the intent to damage his good name. It has to do not with what is un¬ true, but with a truth whose discovery would be in- jiirious to him. Such betrayal is not a sin when the truth about him is demanded in legal proceed¬ ings. It is then as little a transgression of the eighth commandment as the infliction of the death penalty is a transgression of the fifth. Here, how¬ ever, the every-day life is treated of. It is en¬ joined upon us that we keep to ourselves our neigh¬ bor's infirmities and sins, and divulge them only for cause and for his benefit. Luther speaks strongly of those "who are not content with know¬ ing a thing, but proceed to exercise judgment, and when they know a slight offence of another carry it into every corner, and are gratified that they can stir up another's baseness, as swine roll them¬ selves in the dirt, and root it out with the snout" (L. C.). Backbite. To backbite means to speak evil of one's neigh¬ bor behind his back. The purpose is to injure him, and the act is as treacherous as it is cowardly. It is assassination of his reputation and honor with the tongue. Slander. To slander means much the same thing—^to bring our neighbor into disrepute. This is defa- mation of character and the chief thing forbidden by the commandment. Whether there be a basis of truth and fact in the slander or not does not lessen the oflFence (2 Sam. 15: 2-4; Gen. 39:13-18; Matt. 26: 59-61). The enormity of this sin is measured by the injury which it inflicts. For that which is assailed and subverted is a man's good name, which is above price and whose robbery makes him poor indeed. "Two things I must have in this world: a good conscience before God, and a good name before my fellow-man" (Augustine). See Prov. 22:1. This protection is all the more nec¬ essary because a man's good name is so fragile a thing. One can restore what has been stolen; one can apologize for a wrong; but "honor and a good name are easily tarnished, but not easily restored" (L. C.). The source of this sin is likewise to be foTind in the heart. In the Large Catechism Luther thus describes it: "It is a common evil plague that everyone prefers hearing evil to hearing good of his neighbor; and although we ourselves are ever so bad, we cannot suffer that anyone should say anything bad about us, but everyone would much rather that aU the world should speak of him in terms of gold, and yet we cannot bear that only the best be said of others." The root of this sinful fruit is self-love, which feels itsell aggrieved and put down by the good which is praised in another. It is the odium of comparison and the envy ex¬ cited by another's virtue which is extolled. This envy is largely its own punishment (Prov. 14: 30). This, then, is the meaning of the prohibition. The injunction demands that we Excuse Him, Speak Well of Him, and Put the Best Construction on all He Does. Instead of bearing false witness against our neighbor, we are to bear true witness for him; and first, we are to "excuse" him, i. e,, apologize for him. When he is belied, etc., all sorts of blame is heaped upon him. Then we are to do precisely the opposite—^take away his reproach and cover his infirmities and sins (1 Cor. 13:5 and 6; 1 Pet. 4:8). When falsehood is spoken of him we are to declare the truth and not keep silent. And when the statement is true, while we should not call wrong right, we are not yet at the end of our resources. We should then "speak well of him." There is also good in him, some virtue, worth, saving grace, redeeming trait, and we shall emphasize this to the covering over of his fault. And when, as often happens, it is uncer¬ tain how our neighbor has acted—^whether it be because the report or the reality of the action is in doubt, or the motive or intention on which his demerit depends—then we should "put the best construction on all he does," believe the best of him and credit him with good motives and inten¬ tions, as it is said in the Large Catechism: "It is especially an excellent and noble virtue for one always to put the best construction on all he may hear of his neighbor . . . and present it in a fav- 56 oraLle iigiit against the poisonous tongues that are busy wherever they can pry out and discover any¬ thing to blame in a neighbor, and that pervert it in the worst way." The Ninth Commandment. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's honse. What is meant by this? We should fear and love God, and not craftily seek to gain our neighbor's inheritance or home, nor to get it by a show of right, but help and serve him in keeping it. The Tenth Commandment Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man servant, nor his maid servant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is his. t What is meant by this? We should fear and love God, and not estrange, force or entice from our neighbor his wife, servants or cattle, hut urge them to stay and do their duty. In the Large Catechism these two command- nieiits are considered together. The Scriptures themselves do not distinguish between the objects of which it is said "thou shalt not covet" them (Ex. 20:17; Dent, 5:21). It is not, indeed, on these precise objects that the chief emphasis falls, but on the active verb, " thou shalt not covet." These commandments, therefore, deal not so much with the speech and conduct, L e., the outward and accomplished deed, as with the inward thought' and desire. They are the commandments of the evil heart. To covet is to lust. To lust after a thing is to indulge a strong and wrong desire for it, one which is irregular and excessive, uncontrolled by what is just and right, and therefore one opposed to the will of God. It is this evil lust which is here forbidden. In our explanation of the several command¬ ments on this second Table, we have more than once traced the prohibition to the sinful lust which lay at the root of the transgression. These lusts have their nest in the human heart (Matt. 15:19). This evil heart—the source from which * the issues flow—is our corrupt nature, handed down from parents to children ever since the fall of Adam (Gen. 8:21; John 3:6). It is an in¬ herited and inborn inclination to evil and is called "original sin" (cf. the Augsburg Confession, Article II, "This disease or original fault is truly sin"). It is this inward sinful condition which breaks out into actual sin (Jas. 1:14 and 15). In heart and in life we are sinners; and Luther therefore says, "The last two commandments teach how evil our nature is." But for this very reason, i. e., to correct and counteract this evil nature, the commandment is given, "Thou shalt not covet;" and though it is true that "we shall never attain to this as long as we live here," still we have to take up the struggle against sin and fight the battle with the help of God's Word and Spirit. There are many objects of such immoderate de¬ sire. Of these, coveting or lusting after a man's wife was considered under the sixth command¬ ment; after his money and property under the seventh commandment. Luther here wisely ad¬ heres to the original text and confines himself to the simple patriarchal inventory, because em¬ phasis is to be laid not so much on the particular objects as on the fact that they are "thy neigh- hor's." Here it is forbidden that we do Not Craftily Seek to Gain our Neighbor's Inherit¬ ance or Home, nor to Get it hy a Show of Eight. I Inheritance and home are specified because it is in connection with inheritances that the prohibited sin is so often done. "This occurs principally in litigations, where it is the purpose to get some¬ thing from our neighbor, and to wject him from his possessions, as when people quarrel and wran¬ gle for a large inheritance, real estate, etc." (L. C.) To seek to acquire property in a crafty and illegal way is, of course, wrong (Gen. 25: 29 £F.) ; but it is scarcely less wrong when the effort is made in due legal form. There may be formal, but not moral right. Hence Luther adds, " nor get it by a show of right," and says in the Large Catechism: "They avail themselves of, and resort to, whatever has the appearance of right, so dressing and adorning everything that the law must favor their side, and they keep pos¬ session of the property with such title that no one can make complaint or lay claim thereto" (1 Kings 21:1-16). In the explanation of the tenth commandment, Luther goes still further into particulars. We are not to Estrange, Force or Entice Away from our Neighbor his Wife, Servants or Cattle. These all belong to our neighbor and sustain to him a useful and valuable relation. This relation is not to be disturbed and the neighbor deprived of their possession and service, as when they are estranged from him (by all manner of allurements and fine promises), or forced from him (by per¬ sistent urging and even by violence), or enticed away (by generous offers and flattering words) (2 Sam. 15:3-6). So far from injuring our neighbor in this way and causing him to suffer loss, we should, on the other hand. Help and serve him in keeping it (his inheri¬ tance), and urge them (wife, servants and cattle) to stay and do their duty. That is, in the case of wife and servants, when they are about to desert and leave, whether of their own accord or on the solicitation of others, we should remind them of their duty and of the promises and contracts by which they are bound (Gen. 39:7-9; Philemon 11-14). In the case of cattle, when they have strayed or are about to go astray, we should restore and secure them to their owner. "Therefore we abide by the common sense of these commandments, that in the first place we do not desire our neighbor harm, nor even assist nor give occasion for it, but gladly leave and see him in the possession of his own, and besides ad¬ vance and preserve for him what may be for his profit and service, as we should wish to be treated. Thus these commandments are especially given against envy and miserable avarice, that God may remove all causes and sources whence arises everv- V thing by which we do injury to our neighbor" (L. C.). What does God say of all these Commandments? He says: I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thou¬ sands of them that love me and keep giy command¬ ments. What is meant hy this? God threatens to punish all who transgress these commandments; therefore we should fear His wrath. 61 and do nothing against such commandments. But He promises grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments; therefore we should love and trust in Him, and gladly do according to His commandments. At the conclusion of the commandments Luther repeats the words found in Scripture (Ex. 20:5 and 6) at the close of the first commandment, "that we may learn how strenuously God insists upon it that we learn, teach and practice the Ten ^ Commandments." I the Lord Thy God. The Lord renews the declaration made in the introduction, and reminds anew that He who has given these commandments is none other than the Lord our God. Here, however, the announcement is to he understood in the light of the conclusion, which now follows: Am a Jealous God. Jealousy is the opposite of indifference/ We are jealous for those alone whom we love and have a concern for. So is God (from Whom, however, all human frailty is to be kept afar) grieved and offended when we turn away our affections from Him and disregard His will and disobey His law. He is jealous or zealous in this, that He is in the greatest earnest that His commandments should be kept (2 Cor, 11:2). How deeply in eaniest He is appears from both His threat and His promise. (Text) Visiting the iniquity of the fathers — 62 — upon the children unto the third and fourth gener¬ ation of them that hate me. {Explanation.) God threatens to punish all who transgfress these commandments. Here it is declared what God will do to those who "hate Him," i. e., who "transgress these com¬ mandments," and thereby commit sin. We thus leam what sin really is. It is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4). Accord¬ ing as men sin with or without knowledge, we speak of wilful sins and sins of ignorance. Ac¬ cording as it is an injimction or a prohibition which is not kept, we speak of sins of omission (Luke 10:31 and 32) and of commission (Luke 10: 30). Every such sin is truly sin (Jas. 4:17). But God here points still more deeply to the real nature of sin. Sinners are said to "hate Him." They transgress His commandments which have their source in and correspond to His own Person and Hature. Whoever is against them is against Him; whoever rebels against them defies and fights against Him. There is, therefore, in every transgression an act of enmity against God (Ps. 51:4; Rom. 8:7; James 4:4). Where the sin is deliberate and persisted in, there the enmity in¬ tensifies into a settled hatred of Him, The emphasis, however, does not Ke here on the characteristics of sin, but on God's punishment of sin (Hosea 4:9). This punishment may be a spiritual one and consist in pangs of conscience (Is. 48:22). All necessities, sicknesses, suffer- ings and death itself are the consequences of sin — 63 — (Rom. 3:16-19). And finally this punishment may be of endless duration (2 Thess. 1: 8 and 9). We must admit that such punishment is deserved and just, although we ourselves are sinners. But there is a difference between sinners and sinners. The sinners who are here meant are those who hate God, who despise and transgress His com¬ mandments, and "imagine, because He is long- suffering and lets them alone, that He knows noth¬ ing about it, and takes no interest in it." (Rom.'' 2:3-11). These especially are the objects of the Divine threatening. But God does not only threaten: He also prom¬ ises. (Text) And showing mercy unto thousands that love me and keep my commandments. (Explanation,) But He promises grace and every blessing to all who keep these commandments. That the love of God is closely connected with keeping His commandments (1 John 5:3) is the repeated statement of all these explanations. Just as sin is hated of God, so is obedience love of God. As we have seen, His commandments are not any¬ thing arbitrary and external to Himself, but the very expression of Himself; so that in keeping them there is involved more or less a conscious love of Him (Matt. 22:37-40; Rom. 13:10). Therefore Luther can write: "All commandments require love, for all commandments, if they are done without love, i, e,, without a cheerful, ready, joyful and submissive will, remain unfulfilled, although the outward works are done, since in — 64 — that case there remains a rebellious, i. e., a sinful will." We look here, therefore, into the depths of obedience, as formerly into the depths of sin; and just as there the emphasis was upon the punish¬ ment of sin, so here it is upon the rewards of obedience. God punishes the disobedient, but He shows mercy to the obedient. This mercy Lnther defines as " grace and every blessing." "grace" is meant God's loving favor which the obedient receive and experience in wellbeing of soul. By "every blessing" is meant temporal welfare (1 Tim. 4:8). Thus does the blessing which follows obedience correspond, in turn, to the punishment which is the wages of sin. The punishment and the blessing are so lasting and thoroughgoing that they still work on. Unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. The ordinals are no more to be pressed than are the seventy times seven in Matt. 18: 22. It is meant that the offspring shall still experience the consequences of the misdeeds of the fathers. The truth of this is often seen in historv, and it con- c/ / stantly comes out in human lifg. The children must suffer along with the parents in their pun¬ ishment (Lam. 5:7) ; hut they also have a share in their blessings. What a shower of benefits was poured upon the Israelites because they were Abraham's children! (cf. Ps. 103: 17 and Prov. — 65 — 20:7). But is this just? Should there be this difference in the case of persons who are in no wise responsible for it? The answer is, that whether the conditions to which one is born turn out favorable or unfavorable rests with oneself- The same fire which destroys the chaff purifies the gold: the good may be abused, and the evil may be overcome. In the light of heaven and eternity, everything earthly and temporal—^poverty or riches, sorrow or joy, sickness or health—is a means, not an end, the material of a divine disci¬ pline. So that we see here no injustice, but along with the working of natural law the manifold wis¬ dom of God, which only the last day will fully disclose. Thus God comes to the support of the Moral Law which He has given. He threatens and He promises, "to induce and encourage us to receive and highly esteem His Word as a matter of divine earnestness, because He Himself declares how much He is in earnest and how rigidly He will enforce it" (L. C.). Accordingly, Luther adds the admonition to the threat, Therefore, we should fear His wrath, and do nothing against such com¬ mandments ; and the encouragement to the promise, Therefore we should love and trust in Him, and gladly do according to His commandments. In the explanation of the first commandment, it will be remembered, Luther declared that the right relation to God consists in this, that we fear, love and trust in Him above all things. He repeats this here in the conclusion with essentially the 5 * same meaning. What, however, was there said of our relation to God in general should here be considered in our special relation to Him as the Lawgiver. The fear ("fear His wrath") is espec¬ ially related to His threat: the love to His promise. But Luther now again takes up the word "trust," which was omitted in his explanation of all the commandments after the first. He does so for a very good reason. These commandments are the gift of God's love to us and are for our soul's health and peace, however much at times they may be against our natural inclination. Neverthe¬ less, we obey God and keep His commandments; and we trust in Him both when He declares that they are our wellbeing and salvation, and when He promises that He will richly bless all who keep them. Our trust, in short, is the confidence in God and in His law expressed so repeatedly throughout the 119th Psalm. "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord " (Ps. 119:1). PAET n. The Creed. Introduction. The Creed of the Church is the declaration of what the Church believes. When the Creed is said by the Christian he declares that it is his own belief, L e., he confesses his faith. The universal Church has expressed its Christ¬ ian belief in three General Creeds: The Apostles', the Nicene and the Athanasian. The Apostles' Creed is the one found in the Catechism because it is the most simple and plain and the one in most frequent use. The Creed, then, in its printed form, is the Church's ancient statement of its faith. On the lips of the Christian it is his personal confession of this faith. Thus the Creed of the Church be¬ comes the fitting expression of the faith in his own heart. But what, it may be asked, is to be understood by "faith?" The answer is given in Heb. 11:1. "Now faith is the substance (assurance) of things hoped for, the evidence (proving) of things not seen," It is evident that a distinction is to be made between faith and knowledge (or science). Faith always deals with invisible things: knowledge with visible, observable things. It is as foolish, therefore, to make a matter of knowledge—e, the relation of the sun to the earth—an object of faith, as to make an object of faith—e, g., God and His relation to the world—a matter of scientific knowledge, as though He could be observed and described and His influence noted and measured. Each has its own sphere—knowl¬ edge the seen, faith the unseen. So there can be no real conflict between them, although such is often said to exist. But when we look more closely we find that such a conflict is not between knowledge and faith, but between faith and faith. Whoever, e. jr., says that there is no God and that He has not made the world, but that the world is self-made, gives expression to a belief as surely as he who believes and declares that God the Eather Almighty is the Maker of heaven and earth. But while faith in general has to do with the things which are not seen, Christian faith has to do with the unseen things which are heavenly and divine. Of course, there could be no faith in them without some knowledge of them; and God has revealed them to our knowledge in His holy Word. But these are spiritual things and they are spirit¬ ually discerned. The knowledge itself is of a spiritual kind (a gift of God'^i enlightening Spirit), corresponding to the invisible world which the Word of God makes known. God Him¬ self is the center of this unseen world, and He has revealed Himself through prophets and apostles, and especially through His Son. The record of — 69 — this revelation is the Bible. Consequently the true faith is that which believes all that may be learned of God—His Person and Counsel, Will and Work—as set forth in Holy Scripture. Such is the faith which we briefly confess in the words of the Apostles' Creed. So much for the question with what faith has to deal. We speak now of what faith is in itself. This we learn from the passage of Scripture al¬ ready quoted, where faith is described as "evi¬ dence," "assurance." This description rejects two misconceptions. The first one grows out of the lan¬ guage of daily life, in which "I believe" is often used in the sense of to think, to suppose, to con¬ jecture. Here, however, emphasis is laid on faith's assurance. Faith is not uncertainty in comparison with the certainty which lies in pres¬ ent knowledge, not a guess, a perhaps, a may-be-so, but a yea and amen, a conviction reasonably formed and firmly held. There belongs to faith a certitude which the certitude of knowledge does not surpass. On the contrary, the more deeply one penetrates into knowledge, the more skeptical will one become; but the more deeply one pene¬ trates into faith, the more assured will one be¬ come. A second misconception is that faith is here confessed in the Creed itself, i. c-, that one declares one's belief in a series of creedal propositions. Faith is often classed and confused with the con¬ viction that these assertions are true, which is the conception of fjfith found in the Roman Church. In the Evangelical view, however, faith is a ^liv¬ ing thing," the act of a living person directed to a living Person. It is, therefore, best illustrated from life. Abraham hears the honored title, ^^the father of US all," i. e,y of all believers. God revealed Himself to Abraham, and Abraham believed Him. In the midst of heathen neighbors and surround¬ ings he was sure of God the Lord on the ground of the revelation which He gave. He held this revelation to be true, Him to be real. This is the first and indispensable element in faith, an as¬ sured conviction of God. But God^s words to Abraham contained also a promise. God declared that He would bless him and mankind through him. This was nothing accidental, for God is always the God of promise, and faith always has before it "things hoped for.'' What attitude, then, did Abraham take to this promise ? He trusted it; and this trust, this con¬ fidence with which he embraced it, was his faith. Trust is the second element in faith along with the assurance that God is and that He is the Lord. We first, however, embrace faith fully when to assurance and confidence we add another element. Whereby do we leam that Abraham was certified of God and trusted His promise?* By this, that he did as God said, that he obeyed Him. Obedi¬ ence to God's will and word is the third element in a true and living faith. This three-stranded cord formed the faith of Abraham, the father of the faithful—an assurance of God which showed — 71 — itself in confidence, and a confidence in God which verified itself in obedience. It only remains to add that because the first and highest object of our holy faith is a Person, this characteristic of faith is expressed by the words, believe in." Luther says that there are two v/ays of believing: "First, of God, i,e., when I believe that what is said of God is true, as when I believe what is said of Turks, of the devil, of hell: this faith is more a knowledge than faith. On the other hand, God is believed in, L e., when I not only believe what is said of God is true, but I put my trust in Him, resign myself to Him, and believe without doubt that He will be to me and act as it is said of Him." This is a living faith. "Oh!" Luther exclaims, "it is a living, active, busy thing which we have in faith." "Faith is a living, wide-awake confidence in God^s grace, that is so certain that one who has it is ready to die for it a thousand times." This is the conception of faith which Luther has in mind in his explana¬ tion of the three articles of the Creed. The First Article Of Creation. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. What is meant hy this? I believe that God has made me, together with all creatures; that He has gfiven and still preserves to me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my mem¬ bers, my reason and all my senses; also clothing and shoes, meat and drink, house and home, wife and child, land, cattle, and all my goods; that He richly and daily provides me with all that I need for this body and life, protects me from all danger, and guards and keeps me from all evil; and all this, purely out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me; for all of which I am in duty bound to thank and praise, to serve and obey Him. This is most certainly true. Introduction. It was said in the introduction to the Ten Com¬ mandments that man's perfection J^or righteous¬ ness) consists in faultlessly fulfilling them, but that such faultless fulfilment is beyond his power because of human infirmity and disability; that he nevertheless makes the commandments the rule of bis life, and that by comparing his thoughts. — 73 — words and deeds with this righteous rule, he ar¬ rives at the knowledge of sin and of the need of salvation. It is for this reason that the Ten Com¬ mandments stand first in the Catechism, because they make known to man the will of God, his sin¬ fulness and his need of a Saviour. Therefore, as next in order, comes the Creed, which sets forth the faith unto salvation, L e., faith in God the Father, the Creator; God the Son, the Redeemer, and God the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier. At the same time this faith has, so to speak, a reflex action on the Ten Commandments and the believer's fulfilment of them. He is helped in keeping them by his faith in the Triune God, Who inspires in his heart fear, love and trust, and equips him with spiritual power, as Luther points out in the Large Catechism, where he introduces this Second Part with these words: "Thtis far we have heard the first part of Christian doctrine, in which we have seen all that God wishes us to do or to leave undone. The Creed, therefore, properly follows, (and) ... is intended to help us do that which according to the Ten Command¬ ments we ought to do. For they are set so high that all human ability is far too feeble and weak to keep them. Therefore it is as necessary to leam this part in order to know how to attain thereto, and whence and whereby to obtain such power." The first article of the Creed treats of Creation. In the explanatjon we also confess our faith in 74 two other and related works of God the Father, Preservation and Providence; then what moved Him to bestow such benefits upon us; and finally what we owe to Him in consequence. I Believe. First, we confess our faith in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. This faith, however, is not only in Him, it is really into Him, L e., faith is not simply a subjective act or state, not a stationary thing, but a living and active thing which goes out and up to God as its object. Faith is directed to God ward and the life of faith is lived to heavenward. It should he ob¬ served, moreover, that each one makes this confes¬ sion of faith for himself. In the Lord's Prayer, as we shall see, we say "we" and "us" when we pray; hut when we believe and confess our belief, we must say "I" and "me," The use of the sin¬ gular instead of the plural number brings the faith home to each one of us as his own faith and not that of another. It is as the Almighty Father and Creator of all that exists that we here confess our faith in God. The article and its explanation—"Of Creation"— comprehends the source and coursie of all things, and especially of ourselves. The knowledge of these things has often been sought by men, hut no man by searching has been able to find it out. Knowledge ends where perception by the senses ends, and can no more go beyond it than one can 15 spring over one's shadow. Whatever answer men may give to these things, it must be an answer of belief. Such an answer the first article also gives, but it is the answer which God Himself has re¬ vealed. "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (TIeb. 11: 3). The source of all things, therefore, is God. It is not possible for a finite being to define the infinite God or to give a complete description of Him Who dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto; Whom no man hath seen, nor can see (1 Tim. 6:16). Nevertheless, God has re¬ vealed Himself to the eye of faith as the eternal Spirit, Who is from everlasting and to everlast¬ ing; as Self-existing and TJnchangeable; as All- mighty, All-holy, All-wise, All-merciful; as in¬ finitely Kind and Faithful and True. The Father. God is not impersonal, but personal. This fidly appears in His designation as "the Father." He is perfectly and infinitely what a human father is very imperfectly and finitely. He is, it is true, without a body and without parts, but he is Spirit and the Father of spirits. He does not exist for life's short day, Jle is eternal. He is not present — la¬ in one definite place, He is omnipresent. He is not limited in His knowledge, He is omniscient. He is not relatively and occasionally good, He is absolutely and always good. But it is especially in the love of God to men that we find and feel the heart-throb in His designation as the Father. This is the highest and tenderest that we believe and confess of Him (Ps. 103:13; John 16:27), and He Himself has revealed and declared both by His words and by His works that He is love (John 3:16; 1 John 4:16). God is holy, infin¬ ite, unwearied love; and this love is the source and goal of His divine Fatherhood, whether we consider it in relation to His creation of man, to the sending forth of His only begotten Son, or to His adoption into His great family of all who be¬ lieve in and are the brethren of His dear Son. Withal, this heavenly Father is Almighty. He is the Lord of hosts, of all powers and forces. Wherever there are beneficent forces at work, in earth or sky or sea, they proceed from Him and are ordered by Him. All power is His, and to Him nothing is impossible (Ps. 115:3; Jer. 32:17). And His is not oijy the power, but also the dominion. He is the Euler and Dis¬ poser of all. Nothing is and nothing is done without Him. Of the whole world of men He is Lord. In their actions men and nations of men supply the threads, but the Master on the 77 — weaving-stool gives the woof and determines the web. Of His almightiness He has given us a proof in the fact that He is Maker of Heaven and Earth. By heaven is meant the heavenly world with its angelic inhabitants, as well as the visible heav¬ ens with its sun, moon and stars. By the earth is meant the goodly world in which we live, with its flowers and fruits, mountains and vales, rivers and seas—its animal, mineral and vegetable king¬ doms. By both expressions is meant all that is not God, all that is outside of God, visible and invisible. Hence the origin of all things is re¬ ferred to Him (Ps. 33:9). He created them by His word out of nothing (Heb. 11:3). How it was done we do not know. The fact, however, remains that He is the Maker of all things, the Source from which all things have proceeded and do proceed. Among them are we ourselves. In his explanation Luther declares: I believe that God has made me, together with all creatures. The emphasis is on me. Just as in the Scrip¬ tural narrative of the creation the visible world reached its highest point in the making of man, so here the acknowledgment that God has made me implies and involves His authorship of all lower and lesser creatures. Indeed, throughout these explanations the faith is personal. First — Y8 — and last, God and the soul are the subjects under discussion—God and I. What I here confess is that God has created me¬ lt is true that I have human parents, of whom I have been born, but they are only the agents of my birth. They were born of their parents, these of theirs, and so on back to the beginning. At the last it is God who has created all the children of men (Acts 17:26). By this is meant not only that God once made a beginning, but also that He (mediately) continues His creative agency in the birth of every living person (Job 33:4), as may be seen in the stamp of individuality which every person bears. This fact, then, that God has made me Luther further describes when he says that God Has . . . given to me my body and sonl, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses. In the second chapter of Genesis is given the account of man's creation. The body, formed of earthly material, Luther describes in the words " eyes, ears," as the most important organs, and then, in general, " and all my members." The body is a component part of man's being exactly adapted to his indwelling soul, and that not only for time, but also (in a more gloqous form) for eternity (1 Cor. 15:35-58). With it there is bound the soul (or spirit) in harmonious union (Gen. 2:7; Acts 17:25), which is described by Luther in the words "my reason and all my senses." By " senses" are here meant not the — 79 — five bodily senses, but the faculties pertaining to the soul, such as those of thought, feeling and will. Just as there are physical powers to grasp that which is physical, so there are spiritual pow¬ ers to grasp that which is spiritual. Among these latter the reason is specified as the most important, as formerly " eyes and ears " in the case of the body. It is by the exercise of this faculty that man apprehends what is above and beyond sense. While the brute creation is limited in all its per¬ ceptions and actions to the sensible, man stands prominently forth by rising superior to the sen¬ sible, by his attainment to the supersensible. It is this superior power of soul which fits him for and allies him with the supersensible world, and in this divine endowment we find the image of God (Gen. 1:27). And Still Preserves. As the source of my being and that of all crea¬ tures is found in God, so also is their and my con¬ tinuance. To my creation Luther does not fail to add my preservation, for the one is not without the other. Indeed, my creation presupposes my preservation, for that without this would be sense¬ less and useless. " We Christians know," Luther says, " that with God to create and to preserve is one thing" (See Ps. 121:1-8). As, then, I believe that I have been created by God, so I be¬ lieve that He has supported and sustained me in life; that it is^His power and grace which has kept my body and soul together; that I cannot preserve myself by my own prudence and skill, but that behind all the means which I employ is the mighty hand of my faithful Creator, who sustains all things, both great and small (Acts 14:17). To Luther's view this preservation presents a twofold aspect, namely, that God gives me what is necessary to life, and that He wards off from me what is destructive to life. First, Also clothing and shoes, meat and drink, honse and home, wife and child, land, cattle, and all my goods. Attention is called to all that we have for the purpose of our subsistence. It may indeed be that we do not have everything which is here enu¬ merated, for Luther, it will be remembered, wrote this Catechism " in the plain form in which the head of the family should teach it to his house¬ hold," the " head of the family" being the far¬ mer. The above list, therefore, comprises the things which a family in the country would nat¬ urally possess; but each one may draw up his own list. The meaning is that all we have for the support of our life is always the gift of God. We ourselves can unfailingly supply and preserve these necessary things no more than we can, in the first place, create them. This thought Luther further expands: That He richly and daily provides me with all that I need for this body and life. God gives us such necessaries because our life — 81 — is lived in the body and is mediated through the body. Daily He has done this. Were it not so, we who now confess it would not be here to-day to declare it to be so. And richly. God gave as a man both rich and generous from His plenteous store. Abundant it was—so often more than was needed; and when occasionally we lacked, there were special reasons and purposes which God had in thus dealing with us men who are so prone to place our love on and put our trust in the things of this world. Take we all our days together, as we do here, and we cannot but confess with Lu¬ ther (who was not the child of rich parents) that God provides for us abundantly. Especially should it be noted that it is God who has done this. We can observe all sorts of forces at work to effect it, and some laud and magnify the might of fertile and genial nature and the wisdom of the social and economic order; but nature and ordered hu¬ man industry only seemed to be the giver. The products of nature are the gifts of Him who cre¬ ated the earth and causes His sun to shine upon it and His rain to fall upon it, and they are not less His provision because we have sowed and reaped in obedience to His command. "Back of the loaf is the snowy flonr, And back of the flour the mill; And back of the mill is the wheat, and the shower, And the sun, and the Father's will." It is His will that we diligently work (lands and 6 • cattle are mentioned as the means through which a livelihood is earned and obtained), each.one ac¬ cording to his calling and occupation; but it is God who gives the skill and strength to labor, who prospers our plans and rewards our industry (Jer. 5: 24). It is, in truth, the living God who has provided for us richly and daily to this hour. And if so, then we are to trust Him for the future, come fat years, come lean^ whether we can work or not (Ps. 145:15 and 16; Matt. 6: 25-34). But God not only gives what we need to pre¬ serve our body and life, He also wards off what would injure and destroy it. Protects me against all danger, and guards and keeps me from all evil. We are in danger when an evil impends over us. With such perils, seen and unseen, we are beset on every hand. That we need daily food in order to preserve our life is well known; but it is not so well known that we are daily surrounded with many kinds of dangers, and that we stand in as constant need of God's protection as we do of His provision. This is nevertheless true. We are to-day sound and strong in life and limb because Grod has protected us against all danger. In whatever ways we were imperiled, God held His shield between the dan¬ ger and ourselves. Thus, too, H^protects us when He "guards and keeps (us) from all evil," L e.. He does not let the evil come upon us, or, when evil has befallen us, has so guarded us that it did not destroy us (Gen. 50:20; Acts 27:23-26), For it must not be thought that evil shall not and can not enter into our life. That has not been and it will not be our experience. But whatever may happen, it cannot happen without God's knowledge and consent. We are in His hands. We abide un¬ der the shadow of His wings. We know that ^^all things work together for good to them that love" Him; and thus arises that blessed freedom from anxiety and care in the hearts of God's children, in which the thought of danger is changed into praise of the all-ruling and over-ruling God, the Father Almighty. This living and loving God, therefore, who so abundantly provides for us and so vigilantly pro¬ tects us, is He whose paternal Providence Luther extols when he explains: And all this, purely out of fatherly, divine good¬ ness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. "All this" is the gift of our body and soul, the rich supply of our daily need, and the divine de¬ fense from every danger and deliverance from every ill. These are now referred to the Father's love. By "goodness" we understand this love showing itself in benevolence and good-will, i, e,, in the will to benefit and do good (Matt. 20:15). That God gives us life, which He supports and protects, this proceeds from the infinite kindness which is characteristic of His very nature. But this is also of His divine mercy. If we imagine that because God has created us He must also sustain and preserve us, and thereon base claims on His provisiop and power, such claims fall and are forfeit in the face of our sinful heart and life. That He still provides for us and delivers us is mercy, pure mercy, and therefore "without any merit or worthiness in me," such as would pre¬ tend to constrain Him, Not only have we not de¬ served these manifestations of God's love, but we are not once worthy of them. In the presence of all that we are and do, and of all that God is and does, we must exclaim with Jacob, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast shewed unto Thy ser¬ vant" (Gen. 32:10). The more, then, I become conscious of His fatherly, divine goodness and mercy and of my own demerit, the stronger will be my sense of the debt and duty which I owe to Him. This Luther thus expresses: For all which I am in duty bound to thank and praise, to serve and obey Him. To do this I am surely obligated. The least that I can do is to thank Him, i. e., to recognize and acknowledge these great blessings as His unmer¬ ited gifts. But in this respect we too often fail. A man should, as Luther says, "as often as he eats, drinks, sees, hears, breathes, goes, stands, or uses his limbs, body, property or any creature, there¬ with think on this, that if God Jj^d not given him such to use and preserved them against the devil, he would be bereft and bare of them. Then do so! Bethink thyself, thou haddest no eyesight, thy daily bread would fail, etc., and thou wouldest then well learn to thank God for the fulness of the gifts "wherein thou delightest thyself/' The grate¬ ful thought, moreover, should proceed to praise Ilim, i, e., to declare one's thanks to God and cele¬ brate His goodness and mercy (Ps. 100 and 103). Such thanksgiving and praise will then lead on to the third act which Luther mentions, serve Him, whether it he a divine service of worship or the Christian service of our neighbor. Our whole life should be a service of God (Luke 1:74), each one serving Him according to his several ability (Mark 14:8). This is the reasonable service of which the apostle speaks (Rom. 12:1); and this unselfish service will not fail to be rendered if we observe to do what is said in the fourth place, obey Him (Joshua 24: 24), L e., perform His holy will as He has made it known in His holy Word (Micah 6:8). This is Most Certainly True. These words may be said to be a translation of the word Amen. Standing at this place, their significance is that we sum up and affirm as in¬ dubitably true the particulars which we have but just confessed. More admirably a confession of faith could not be ended than by this seal set to its truth. 86 The Second Article Of Redemption. And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin hiary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. ^Y^lat is meant hy this? I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, bom of the Virgfin Mary, is my Lord; who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood, and with His innocent sufferings and death; in order that I might be His own, live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness, even as He is risen from the dead, lives and reig;ns to all eternity. This is most certainly true. And in Jesus Christ. The second article of the Creed treats of Re¬ demption, or of the Redeemer, who is the Son of God. Jesus Christ is His full name. Jesus is — 87 — His personal name, by which He was known as a man among men. This name was announced by the angel before His birth (Luke 1: 31) and was given Him by His parents at His circumcision (Luke 2:21). It is a Hebrew word and means Jehovah (is) Saviour. The choice and conferring of this name was at once a prophecy, a promise and a pledge of the salvation from sin which He came to bring (Matt. 1: 21). Christ is His olEcial name. It is a Greek word meaning "Anointed," and is the same as the Hebrew "Messiah," Among the Jews men were solemnly anointed to three oflSces, those of priest (Aaron), prophet (Elisha) and king (Saul). These offices were received from God and were ad¬ ministered in His fear and service. He therefore equipped and qualified His chosen servants, and the oil of unction, by its reviving, strengthening and illuminating properties (the oil of the olive was used), was a symbol of His enabling Spirit. Jesus Himself was anointed (Luke 4:18; Acts 10: 38), and at His baptism received the Spirit in fullest measure (Matt. 3:16). In this way He v/as set apart and empowered to do the work and fulfil the office of Redeemer, which included the offices of prophet, priest and king, all three of which were never conjoined in any other. He was anointed as Priest to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, as Prophet to reveal and declare God's will to men, as King to govern all things in heaven and in earth. 88 His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, bom of the Virgin Mary. I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, bom of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord. It is not so much our Lord's true humanity as His true divinity which is here presented and em¬ phasized. His true humanity is not questioned. It is conceded almost as a matter of course. For He is a historical person, and as such we find Him having a human hirth and growth, subject to hu¬ man needs, tasting human sorrow and joy, and en¬ during human suffering and death. The only proof which Luther here adduces in support of the claim that He is "true man" is His human birth: "born of the Virgin Mary." This fixes His place in human history. Mary was of the house of David (Kom. 1:3), from whom the promised Messiah was to proceed (Is. 11:1). This line of descent connects itself with the tribe of Judah (Gren. 49:10), with the family of Abra¬ ham (Gen. 12: 3) and with the promised seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15). It is as the Promised One of God, historically prepared and long ex¬ pected, that Jesus Christ is characterized through His birth of the Virgin Mary. But His human birth is not tl\g only thing set forth by this phrase. It is furthermore said that He was "conceived by the Holy Ghost, horn of the Virgin Mary." Thus His hirth was altogether unique. In the beginning of the world the Spirit of God had been at work in the creation (Gten. 1:2) and in the making of man (Gen, 2:7): and so it is again by His operation and power that this "true man" is conceived and born in a manner quite different from our own conception and birth. This uniqueness of His conception and birth leads us to consider the uniqueness of His Person; for this "true man" is also "true God, begotten of His Father from eternity." If His true humanity may be taken for granted, his true divinity is something altogether exceptional and extraordi¬ nary. That it should be said of a man that He is God's only Son is something so strange and won¬ derful, that we cannot but ask how men ever came to believe and confess such a thing. This faith and its confession originated with Christ's disciples. Peter speaks for all of them when he declares, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16), and John the aged records their impression of Him to have been, "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only be¬ gotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). If we inquire how they came by this faith, the answer can only be this: that Jesus Himself, through His words and works, through His aspect and conduct, through His life and whole personality, had wrought this faith in the souls of His disciples. Never did they discover in Him what each of us knows to be in himself—the presence of sin. He had no sin of origin when He came into the world, and He went out of the world as sinless and stainless as at^His birth, making no confession of sin, asking for no forgiveness of sin, although He Himself rebuked sin in others and pronounced the forgiveness of their sin. Even His enemies could not convict Him of sin, nor could He con¬ vict Himself (John 8:46). His disciples testify of Him that He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth (1 Pet. 2:22). What they heard Him speak were words of life. What they saw Him do were works of divine power put forth to heal and bless. But all these things He Him¬ self referred to God who spake and wrought in Him—^His teaching (John 7:16), His work (John 5: 36), Himself (John 8:42). In His re¬ lation to God He is conscious of the difference be¬ tween Him and other men. He calls God "My Father" and "your Father," never "our Father." He testifies to the oneness of His life with God (John 5:26), of His knowledge (John 16:15), of Himself (John 10: 30). To have seen Him is to have seen the Father (John 14: 9). He takes His stand with God over against all other men (Matt. 11:27), calling Himself the Son of God over against the words of His mother (Luke 2 : 49), over against the hostile Jews (John 10: 32 and 33), and finally before the high priest (Matt. 26: 63 and 64)—a self-witness with which every word and act of His were in co^pletest accord. It was the collective force of this grand harmony which His disciples, who observed it best, were not able to resist. It is true that all men did not receive this wit¬ ness. Therefore they rejected and crucified Him, — 91 — the faith of His own disciples being staggered by His death. But what men doubted and denied God has confirmed. He has proved Jesus Christ to be His Son by raising Him from the dead (Kom. 1:4); and by His repeated appearances to His disciples after His resurrection, the risen Re¬ deemer established in their souls an unwavering and indestructible faith. It is this faith which they confess in Gospel and Epistle, and it is this faith which becomes our own when we believe and' confess that Jesus Christ is God's only Son. Christ is, therefore, both God and man in one Person—^the God-man. It was necessary that the Redeemer should be both God and man (Heb. 1:1-4 and 2:14-18). "If He had not been God, but only man, He could not have paid a sufficient ransom for our deliverance from sin, nor have acquired any merit to bestow upon us. Even a sinless man could have saved no one but himself. On the other hand, if Christ had not become man, but remained God only, He could not have put Himself in our place under the law, nor have suf¬ fered and died in our stead. But as the God-man Christ was able to accomplish, and did perfectly accomplish, our redemption." His Only Son. Of all men it is said that they are the offspring of God (Acts 17:28). Believers are said to be born of God (1 John 3:9) and to be the sons of God (1 John 3:1), but they are such children of God only derivatively and by adoption. Of Jesus — 92 — CLribt alone it can be said tbat He is originally, truly and eternally the Son of God. He is God of God, very God of very God, Being of one sub¬ stance with the Father. Begotten of the Father from Eternity. Into the depths of this sacred mystery it is not given to us to enter. Into the inner relation of the Son to the Father, and of the Father to the Son, it is beyond our power to penetrate. But this in¬ ability should cause us no trouble and concern. We cannot expect to understand, here and now, all the mysteries of God, and should be content with what God has revealed. "God manifest in the flesh" is a mystery manifestly "great." It is enough to know that in Jesus Christ we have God. His words are God's words. His works are God's works. He is God. This is the fundamental arti¬ cle of the Christian religion, the foundation on which the whole structure rests. But the doctrine becomes of .profit to us only when we apply it to ourselves and say that this Son of man and Son of God is: Our Lord. I believe that Tesns Christ ... is my lord. In this way we Christians confess what Jesus Christ is to us. He is our Lord. ife is, it is true, also our Redeemer, but precisely thereby has He become our Lord. For if He is ours and we are His, it is through His redemption and the costly ransom which He paid that He has made us His and that He now exercises over us not so much, perhaps, the office of the prophet or the priest as of His Kingly rule (Phil. 2:9-11). It is as our rightful Lord and King, reigning over us from His heavenly throne and requiring our obedience and service, that we here confess Him; for He has won us for His holy dominion and rules over us in His kingdom. But if this be the title which He has obtained through His redeeming work, it is that work itself which is brought before us in this second article and its explanation. We have, therefore, to con¬ sider His work of redemption as it is described in the words next following; and first, He Suffered under Pontius Pilate. In the Creed we find our Lord's life set forth in two states—^the state of humiliation and the state of exaltation, each consisting of five steps or grades. In the former state our Lord laid aside the full use of His divine glory—(although glimpses of it were seen in the authority with which He taught (Matt. 7:28 and 29), in the holy life which He led (John 8:46) and in the miracles which He did (John 2: 11)—and was content to dwell among men in the form of a ser¬ vant (Phil- 2:5-7). The first step of His humiliation we have already considered, namely, His conception by the Holy Ghost and birth of the Virgin Mary, whereby He subjected Himself to the conditions and limi¬ tations of oiy human existence. Having been bronglit up in despised I^azareth, He entered at the age of thirty on His public ministry of wis¬ dom and love, which lasted for three years. Though He went about doing good, His humble birth and obscure upbringing caused Him to be despised, and, because of His pure and lofty teach¬ ing, the religious leaders of the nation opposed Him, hated Him and sought to kill Him. One of His own disciples betrayed Him, and at length He was brought as a prisoner before Pontius Pilate, under whom He suffered, and thus under¬ went the second step of His humiliation. The name of Pontius Pilate is mentioned (1 Tim. 6:13) in order to fix the time when the Saviour suffered, L e., its point in history, ("That we may not fail of the right Christ," Luther says) ; for we know from the records of history that Pontius Pilate was procurator of Judea from 26 to 36 A.D. When it is said that He "suffered" under this Roman governor, it is not meant that He had theretofore experienced no suffering. His whole life was a continual act of suffering through His contact with human wickedness and woe, as when He Himself was assailed by temptation (Matt. 4:1-11), when He endured the contradic¬ tion of sinners (John 8:48), the opposition of the people, the enmity of the ruler|, the misunder¬ standing and desertion of His own disciples. But His sufferings reached their climax under Pontius Pilate—^beginning with the agony in Gethsemane, continued in His betrayal, arrest, trial, scourging, scorn, and culminating when He was Crucified. The prophets had already foretold the inno¬ cence and harmlessness of the Messiah, and also that He should be afflicted and killed (Is. 53). Pilate thrice declared Him to be an innocent man, but yielding to the clamor of His accusers deliv¬ ered Him to be crucified—the most painful and lingering form of putting to death, which the Romans reserved for slaves and the worst crim¬ inals. Between two such malefactors—robbers— Jesus w^as nailed to the cross and crucified on a hill called Golgotha or Calvary without the city walls. Dead. ChrisPs crucifixion ended in a real and not an apparent death. This is proved by His committing His spirit into His Father's hands and giving up the ghost; by the fact that the soldiers sent by Pilate to dispatch the three and hasten their death by breaking their legs found Jesus dead already; by the fact that one of the soldiers, to make assurance doubly sure, thrust his spear into Jesus' side, making so deep a wound that blood and water flowed forth, and so wide that a hand could be thrust in; and by the fact that Pilate would not deliver the body to Joseph for burial until he was certified that Jesus was dead. And Buried. Like His brethren of mankind, the dead body of Jesus was laid away in the tomb. His grave was a sepulchre hewn out of the rock and belonging to Joseph of Arimathaea, who, together with Nico- demus, embalmed and buried Him in the presence of Mary Magdalene and the other women. Then they rolled a great stone to the entrance and de¬ parted. With His burial our Lord's state of humiliatioi^ ended. Nor is it long before His state of exalta¬ tion begins. "After the work of redemption was completed, Christ assumed the full use of the glory and majesty which had belonged to Him as the Son of God from eternity; His human nature was exalted to a full share in the glory of His divine nature. He had humbled Himself as a man, and He was exalted as a man" (Phil, 2: 9-11). In His exaltation we likewise remark five steps, the first of which is set forth in the words: He Descended into Hell, This clause follows that which announces His burial. The burial is to be connected with the body; the descent into hell with the spirit or soul. By "hell" is meant not Grehenna, the place of tor¬ ment, but Hades, the place of departed spirits, the realm of the dead. Where this place was and is we do not know; nor is there need. It is enough to know that our Lord, while His sacred body was resting in the tomb, descended thither in order that upon the strong man armed the stronger might come (Luke 11: 21), that He might triumph over the powers of hell openly (Col. 2:15) and show — 97 — to the lost the righteousness of faith in its victory, which faith they had mocked and despised (1 Pet. 3: 18-20). The Third Day He Rose Again from the Dead. On the first day of the week—the third day from His death and burial according to the Jewish reckoning. Just as His death had consisted in the separation of soul and body, so did His resurrec¬ tion consist in the reunion of soul and body. But it was not tlie same appearance which He pre¬ sented, for His was now the glorified body of which we read in 1 Cor. 15:44 and Phil. 3:21. Nevertheless, He was repeatedly seen and recog¬ nized (ten times in all) by His disciples during a period of forty days, separately and together, by night and by day, and they were permitted to touch Him, converse with Him, eat with Him, examine Him and assure themselves that He had truly risen again and had come forth the Conqueror of death and the grave. He Himself had predicted His resurrection on this day (Matt. 16: 21), and the fact was attested by His apostles (Acts 1:3), by His enemies (Matt. 28:11-15), and by angels from heaven (Luke 24: 4-7). The reality of His resurrection is established beyond all doubt. ^Trom the earliest times (it) has formed one of the articles of the Creed, for it is the keystone of our Christian faith. It is one of the plainest proofs of His Godhead (Rom. 1:4); it is the sign and seal of the acceptance of the sacrifice which He offered on tie cross (Rom. 4:25); it is the 7 — 98 — earnest and pledge of our resurrection (1 Cor. 15: 20-22) ; it is the fount and source of all our means of grace in this life, of all our hopes and assurances as regards the next.'^ He Ascended into Heaven. The ascension was made on the fortieth day after His resurrection. During this period He had manifested Himself from time to time to His disciples, whom He instructed in the things per¬ taining to His kingdom and gave the great missionary commission as His last command (Matt. 28:19 and 20). However, His presence with them must come to an end. His kingdom in this world was to develop not as a kingdom of sight but of faith. This required that the King should be unseen. On the one hand. He must cease to be visible; on the other. He must ascend up and reassume His proper and eternal power and glory. Both of these objects are secured by His ascension into heaven, which was witnessed by His disciples. He Himself did not need that this should be a visible act: for Him a simple disap¬ pearance would have been sufficient. But the visible act satisfied a need of His disciples, who derived from it both comfort and courage (Luke 24: 52 and 53). Moreover, the act of the ascen¬ sion is fulfilled in this, that He Sitteth on the Eight Hand of God the Father Almighty. This expression, which grows out of the Lord's own language (Matt, 26:64), is, of course, a figurative one. God is Spirit (John 4:24) and has not hands like a man. Therefore we should understand by His session at God's "right hand" that in heaven our exalted Lord now occupies the place of highest honor and power and majesty, and that, as it is said in the explanation. He lives and reigns to all eternity. There He lives and reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords over all men and nations of men, over the world and the des¬ tiny of the world (it is significant that it is at the right hand of "God the Father Almighty" that He is declared to be, L e., at His right hand whom in the first article of the Creed we found to be "Maker of heaven and earth"), and especially over His kingdom which He is extending through His Church (Eph. 1:20-23), and is preserving and directing to its final victory and glorious con¬ summation (Eph. 5: 27). But there He not only reigns as King: He also lives as our great High- priest to carry out the work of our redemption. Into that true Holy of holies He has entered with His own blood (Heb. 9; 12) and pleads before God the merits of His atoning sacrifice (Rom. 8:34). As our Advocate He also intercedes for us, and through His intercession our prayers as¬ cend to and are accepted at the throne of grace (Heb. 4:14-16; 7:25). rrom Thence He Shall Come to Judge the Quick and the Dead. The day of His coming no man knows, the Father having 4)ut it in His own power. But on the last day, at the end of the world, He shall come, as He Himself declared—figuratively (Matt. 24:45-51; 25:1-13), and expressly (Matt, 26:64; John 14:2 and 3), And He shall come to judge. This also is His express dec¬ laration (John 5:22 and 27) and that of His disciples (Acts 17:31). This act of judgment will embrace both the quick and the dead, t. e,, those who are alive at that day and who will be suddenly changed, and those who have died ere then and sleep in the dust of the earth (2 Tim, 4:1; 1 Cor, 15:51). It will extend to the thoughts (1 Cor, 4:5), the words (Matt. 12:36) and actions (2 Cor, 5:10). The righteous shall enter into everlasting life, but the wicked into everlasting punishment (Matt. 25:34, 41, 46), With this revelation of Christ as Judge, and the separation of all men, living and dead, into the lost and the blest, the redeeming work of Christ will be consummated and closed (1 Cor. 15: 25-28). We must now return to our Lord's state of hu¬ miliation with its five acts of self-humbling, whereby He was made in the likeness of men and became obedient unto the death of the cross. For these—His conception and birth, mffering, cruci¬ fixion, death and burial—are not to be considered simply as so many historical events, but according to their inner and true meaning, which is the ac¬ complishment of our redemption. It was thus that He obtained eternal redemption for us, and it is — 101 — this which Luther sets forth in his explanation, declaring what manner of persons we who are re¬ deemed formerly were, what we have been re¬ deemed from, what we have been redeemed with, and finally, what we have been redeemed to. He who is not redeemed is described in the words: A Lost and Condemned Creature. From this description the redeemed may learn how much they have to thank Christ for what they have now become; and the unredeemed may learn by the same means how it fares with them so far as redemption is concerned. Luther is here speaking of the natural man, i. e., what man is by nature. He describes him as a "lost creature," for it is such that the Gospel accounts him to be, although he is not aware of it and does not admit it. The Master is here the teacher, and the lesson is that of the prodigal son—who was lost. This son asked for the portion of goods that would be his, and straightway took his journey into a far country. This, then, is the image of the natural man, whose chief characteristic is separation from God, afar from God, without God, Godless. This is true of all men by nature. They have received the por¬ tion of goods which belongs to them, namely, the good things which this world and life provide. On these they fix their thought; these fill their heart; these they covet and to these they cleave. Of God they know little and care less (1 Cor. 2:14). What we have learned to be the sum of religion—to fear, love and trust in God above all things—stands outside their conception and scheme of life. They fear men, not God. They love the world, not God. They put their trust in material things, in themselves, in other men, not in God. God does not exist for them: to them He is a fable, a phantom. This is the first feature of being "lost." Of the lost son it is said that he wasted his goods in riotous living. For just this purpose he had forsaken his father and his father's house. He wished to be free from all restraint, free to do as he chose, and hence arose a life of sin. It is this sinful life of the natural man which is portrayed in the parable. We have already spoken of the evil lust within us, which, because it is handed down from parent to child, is called inherited or original sin. We have already seen how the evil heart is the seat and source of all actual sin, and how the several commandments are directed against the harboring of the evil lust and the sin which it brings to birth. But the natural man either is ignorant of these commandments or he ignores them; and so, these being out of the way, he yields himself to a sinful life. It is true that we find great differences in this respect. We must not forget that even in the heathen remains of the image of God—however defaced and dim it may be—are still to be found (Rom. 2:14 and 15), and that the heathen among ourselves are more or less under the unconscious influence of Chris¬ tianity; but the rule holds good that the life of the natural man is a life of sin (Rom. 10:18-32) : the seeking of carnal pleasure and the satisfying of carnal desire is his first and strongest impulse. Then it goes from bad to worse, to lower depths and more excessive forms of self-indulgence, until he is swallowed up in a life of sin. This is the second feature of being "lost." Afterwards it is said of the lost son that he be¬ gan to be in want. First lustful, then sinful, and then miserable. Thus it fares with the son who takes his journey from his father's house to the far country. This wretchedness the natural man experiences in many ways. Is the world, with all its riches and pleasures, truly happy and in peace ? Are persons who live without God happy and peaceful in their sins? Has sin ever made us happy? Has it brought us inward peace? (Is. 48: 22). And when we pass to the outward life, what a mass of misery and sickness and suffering and need comes before us in the lives of men! For even into this present life the consequences of sin extend; already here the wages of sin begin to be paid. All this, however, only prepares the way for the opening of that widest breach and final rupture with which the natural life ends—death (Rom. 8:6), and we remember that the prodigal son was ready to perish. And after death ? After death the judgment, the second death, the ever¬ lasting separation from the presence of God (2 Thess. 1: 8 and 9), which has been preferred here and is perpetuated there. This is what Luther means when to "lost" he adds "con- — 104 — demned." The lost creature is a condemned creature under the wrath and condemnation of God (John 3:18 and 19), separated through sin from God and from life with God and given over to outer darkness and enduring death. This we are by nature—^without redemption. We have, therefore, to consider what Christ has redeemed us from, Luther explains: From all Sins, from Death, and from the Power of the Devil. Three words are here employed by Luther— redeemed, purchased, and won. "Redeemed'' is connected with wherefrom Christ has delivered us; "purchased" with wherewith, and "won" with whereto. All of this comprises our redemption, whose accomplishment now claims our attention in its details. And first, Christ has Redeemed . . . Me from all Sins. We are here again instructed by the parable of the prodigal son, who, we remember, at length came to himself. When his need became great, he thought of his father, repented and returned to him. There was, however, something in the way of his return, something which stood between his father and himself. This was his sin, his many sins; and as the root of them all this one—^that he had forsaken his father. When the thought of returning was lively in his soul, then he knew his ~ 105 — sins to be sins, knew tbem as an offence against his father. "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." So it is still. As long as men do not think upon God, be they ever so wicked and wretched, they know nothing of sin. But let the thought of God arise and live in their sinful hearts; let the longing for God and His favor awake, and that which was long thrust from sight is perceived and known, sins are recognized and confessed as transgressions against God, and conscious guilt now becomes the chief evil to afflict the soul. Then and therefore the desire and need above all others is to become free from guilt, from the crushing debt for which the sinner is liable. But a debt must either be paid or forgiven (Matt. 18:23-35). Pay it the prodigal son can¬ not : but to ask that it be forgiven, he comes and confesses it: "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight." Upon this confession and humble prayer, his father fully and freely remits his sins; and this,—to obtain the full and free forgiveness of all sins,—is to be redeemed from all sins. Furthermore Christ has I Redeemed , . . Me from Death. What is meant by this we again learn from the parable of the prodigal son. He was near to die ' in the fields of that far country, to die afar from his father and doomed never again to behold his face. But when he had'returned to his father; % when he had received his father's forgiveness and was home again in his father's house, then all suffering and danger were over. Thenceforth his portion was plenteousness and peace and a fulness of joy. The lost was found, and the dead was alive again. This is how Christ, who has re¬ deemed us from all sins, has also redeemed us from their wages of death. Our sins having been for¬ given for Christ's sake, we are restored and recon¬ ciled to our heavenly Father; we are again His be¬ loved children; we are in fellowship with Him and at home with Him. Heath and judgment and the outer darkness no longer have any power over us. We shall not be touched by them (John 5: 24) : we shall not even see them (John 8: 51). It is true that we shall undergo bodily death; but when we die, we die unto the Lord, even as while we live we live unto Him. There is not an instant's sep¬ aration from Him. So that death becomes at once the gate of exit out of this partial life, and the gate of entrance upon the perfect life. The bitter cup is transformed and becomes the cup of salva¬ tion which we take, and call upon the name of the Lord (Ps. 116:13). Once more, Christ has Eedeemed ... Me from the Power of the Devil. There are not only particular sin? in the world, there is also an organized kingdom of sin. This kingdom is described in Scripture as the kingdom of darkness. The devil is called the prince of this kingdom and of this fallen world (John 14: 30), 107 and is described as a fallen spiritual being who deceives and destroys men by his lies and snares. But while Scripture stops short of a full descrip¬ tion, we have ample knowledge from observation and experience of the kingdom of sin and of the devil's malice and malign power. It is he whom Christ has in mind when He says, "Whosoever committeth sin is the bondservant of sin" (John 8: 34). One would not do evil and yet one does it. The natural man cannot help but do it. This is servitude, and this servitude is due to the power of the devil, to his power over men. But where sin thus rules, there death also rules; for sin when it is finished brings forth death (Jas. 1:15). Therefore those who are under this wicked rule are subject to bondage, while to the devil is ascribed the power of death (Heb. 2:14 and 15). The devil's power, therefore, consists in sin and death. From this power we are redeemed by Christ. On the one hand, through the forgive¬ ness of our sins and consequent deliverance from death, the power of the devil is made null and void and taken away; and on the other hand, through the victory of Christ over death and the devil and by the sanctifying power of His Word and Spirit, our bondage is broken and we are set free from the shameful servitude of sin (John 8:36), But while we have been delivered from the power of the devil, to the end that he may not prevail against us, his kingdom of sin has not been utterly destroyed. It is still present in the world and the devil is by no means powerless. We are — 108 — threatened and assailed by hiiu as long as we live, especially through the lusts of our own flesh (Jas. 1:14 and 15). Therefore we should be ever on our guard against him (1 Pet. 5: 8), following our Lord's example and taking our stand on God's Word (Matt. 4: 3-11). If we abide in Christ the devil can harm us none, for He has redeemed us from his dominion and power. We have now considered wherefrom Christ has redeemed us. He has paid all our debt. In Him we have the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. We learn how this is done when we next « consider Wherewith Christ has redeemed us, or, to use the appropriate word, has purchased us. Not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood, and with His innocent sufferings and death. In these words we have the very heart of Christ's redemptive work. The words themselves are taken almost verbatim from Scripture (1 Pet. 1:18 and 19). Not with Gold or Silver. These are treasures highly prized among men. It seldom happens that one is willing to give up all his gold and silver for anyone (Matt. 19: 22), but here even this were not enough: the perishable does not suffice to purchase an eternal redemp¬ tion. A debt of money can he paid with money, not a debt of sin and guilt. Release from bodily bondage may be bought with money, not from spiritual bondage and the power of the devil. For — 109 — this something more and something else is re¬ quired ; and this Christ has provided and paid both in the ministry of His holy life, and also and especially in the ministry of His atoning death. He paid this debt of ours, this price of our remis¬ sion and release. With His Holy Precious Blood. Ilis blood is called holy and precious because it is the blood of the innocent Son of man and the incarnate Son of God. Holy it indeed is, the blood of Him who fulfilled for us the whole will and law of God; and precious it indeed is, the blood of Him who alone could furnish the price of our ransom (1 Pet. 1:18 and 19). But the price is paid and redemption is purchased only in the shedding of this holy and precious blood. Now, to shed one's blood is to give one's life (Lev. 17:11) ; and that this is here intended Luther indicates when he further declares: And with His Innocent Sufferings and Death. This, as we have seen, is said in explanation of the ^^holy, precious blood," i. e., how it becomes the means and price of our redemption. Gregory of Nazianzus has written that even a few drops of the Saviour's blood were enough for the atone¬ ment of the whole world; how much more, then, the copious stream which flowed from His wounded side. yhe Roman Church of to-day also — 110 — fosters such thoughts; but they are not Scriptural. The blood is not in any way to be thought of in its physical nature as a magical means whereby our redemption is secured. The blood is a means in that it is shed, in that it presents the giving up of the life. Christ gave His life, and this surrender commenced in His sufferings and was completed in His death. With His bloody L e., through His sufferings and death, His innocent sufferings and death—in distinction from our own—or, most narrowly of all, through His death, Christ has re¬ deemed us. In thus ascribing our redemption to Christ's giving up of His life, we are not only in harmony with what His disciples declared (Kom. 3:24 and 25; cf. John 11:49-52), bxit also with what He Himself said (Mark 10:45; John 10:11, 16, 17 and 18). In the institution of the Holy Sup¬ per, moreover, the giving of His body and the shedding of His blood is "for us," for the "remis¬ sion of our sins." The death of Christ is the spring and source of our redemption, and in the Scriptures the preaching of the Gospel is expressly called the preaching of the cross (1 Cor. 1:17 and 18 ; 2: 2). A reference to the Old Testament will help us to understand how this should be. In 1 Pet. 1:19, the passage which Luther quotes, the precious blood of Christ is likened to that of "a Iamb without blemish and without spot" (cf. John 1: 29 ; 1 Cor. 5:7). In the Old Testa¬ ment we read that such lambs were selected and • killed as sacrifices by God's appointment and command. As sin is unto death, there must be a vicarious death before the sinful soul can live (without the shedding of blood there is no re¬ mission) ; and it pleased God to accept the death of the sacrificial victim in the stead of that of the sinful man who offered it. These animal sacrifices were therefore the divinely appointed means of atonement and the remission of sins; not, indeed, because they had any efficacy in and of themselves, but because they pointed forward to and received virtue and value from )he true sacrifice for sin with whose promise they were connected—the offering of the Lamb of God upon the altar of the cross in expiation of the sins of all the world. His death, as theirs was, is a truly vicarious and sacrificial one; and as theirs was, so is His the divinely appointed means whereby we should have the forgiveness of sins. On Him as the true Passover Lamb all our sins and guilt were laid (1 Pet. 2:24), and He paid their penalty and endured their death that in Him we might have redemption through His blood, t. e., that we might be free from sin and death and the devil's power, and reconciled and restored to God and His loving favor. Unlike such sacrifice of beasts, however, His is a voluntary sacrifice, a self- sacrifice in willing obedience and with conscious purpose (Matt. 16:22 and 23; 26: 53; John 10:18). It is the sacrifice of all sacrifices, the antitypical sacrifice, the substance of which all former sacrifices*were only the shadow, the reality — 112 — of which they were only the type. It is the di¬ vinely appointed means of the forgiveness of sins finally and forever fulfilled, as is seen in the rend¬ ing of the curtain in the temple in the hour of His death (Matt. 27:51; cf. Heb. 9:12). It is through His blood, through His death, through the giving up of His holy, precious and innocent life for our sinful, condemned and forfeited life, that we are redeemed from sin and death. This is the heart and soul of the 'New Testament and of our holy religion. It is in this way, then, that we confess how Jesus Christ has become our Redeemer. But He has not only redeemed and purchased us. He has also won us. He has won us for Himself. Luther therefore continues the explanation with the state¬ ment, Whereto Christ has redeemed us. In Order that I Might be His Own. It is only when we understand this to be the aim and end of Christ's redemption that we understand rightly and fully His redemptive work. To be His own includes everything—to live under Him in His kingdom, and to serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness. In this our redemption is perfected, Withaut this our re¬ demption is not perfected. If we are truly re¬ deemed we are Christ's own. This stands in direct contrast and opposition to the "own" which describes and belongs to us by nature. We were then the "own" of another, un- der the power of the devil. To be sure we had no knowledge of this possession and allegiance. We intended and considered ourselves to be our own; but now we see that this self-ownership, which we gloried in and accounted our freedom, was in re¬ ality servitude—a freedom only to do evil and to do evil alone, L e., a bondage to evil. To speak of being Christ's own sounds like servitude again, but it is the only true freedom. Christ has made us free (John 8: 36) and has reversed our former lot (Rom. 6:22). This is the blessed change which He has brought about and herein consists our truest freedom; for the evil is the strange and alien thing which has come upon us subsequently: the good is the thing corresponding to our nature in the beginning. To be Christ's and God's own is to be restored to what we were originally made and meant to be, to the full and free enjoyment of that which was ours before we were brought into bondage. Life in and with Him is what sunlight is to the flower, what the spacious air is to the bird: it is place and means for the free unfolding of the man created by God and for God. But Luther is not content thus briefly to state the object to which Christ has redeemed us. He continues: live Under Him in His Kingdom, and Serve Him. Our Lord, who sitteth on the right hand of God, hath a kingdom. His kingdom is in this world, but not of it (Jobn 18: 36). It is not, therefore, 8 an external, but an internal kingdom (Luke 17: 21). It does not consist in eating and drinking, i. e,, in outward ordinances and observances, but in ^'righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Kom. 14:17). For the present it is hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:3), although its ex¬ istence is perceived through its due and proper effects, and it shall one day be manifested in glory (Col. 3:4). We who have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness have been translated into this kingdom of God's dear Son (Col. 1:13). In this kingdom, of which Christ is King and in which He bears rule, we live under Him. By this is meant not only that we live in obedience to Him, but also that He is the source of our life. Our Christian life is rooted in His life. Because He lives we live also. There is this real, vital relation between Christ and the Christian. Just as our light is enkindled by and from Him who is the true Light, so do we derive our life from Him who is the Truth and the Life, and derive it daily and constantly as long as we live under Him in His kingdom (John 15:1-7). When we thus live under Him in His kingdom it further follows that we serve Him. As we live under Him because He lives, so we serve under Him because He reigns. He rei^s as the Head of His Church. The object of His reign is the en¬ largement and growth of His Church, for He is the Saviour of the world and would multiply the number of believing men. It is this saving rule of His and this purpose of His rule which we Chris- — 115 — tians serve, as when we keep His word and pro¬ mote His kingdom. We shall bring Him to men and thus lead to His lordship in and over their souls—^through pastoral care of those committed to our charge, through witnessing to Him in the family and community, through works of mercy done in His name whereby men are drawn and won to Him, through the relief of our needy fel¬ low-members and the support we send to our dis¬ persed fellow-believers and to the missions estab¬ lished among the heathen (if, that is, we do not carry His Gospel to them ourselves), that to them also His kingdom may come. All this manifold activity is the service which He would have us do and which it should be our delight as it is our duty to render. Luther, however, is not satisfied with speaking of living and serving under Him. He would further unfold the richness and joyousness of the Christian life and service. In Christ^s kingdom believers live under Him and serve Him: In Everlasting Righteousness, Innocence and Blessedness, Righteousness. This is not our own righteous¬ ness. We are redeemed by Christ "from all sins," i. e., we have the forgiveness of all sins, which is not an offer made but once, but a standing offer and one of which we must repeatedly and con¬ stantly avail ourselves. We live spiritually by just this forgiveness of sins. But when our sins are forgiven we are accounted righteous. It is this righteousness which is one of the glories of His kingdom and it is in this righteousness that we live under Him in His kingdom (Is. 61:10). Innocence. To live in innocence is to live blame¬ lessly, to do no sin. In the members of Christ's kingdom Ezekiel's prophecy is fulfilled (Ez. 36: 25-27). Can this, however, be truly said even of the Lord's saints who are still in the flesh ? Does not an apostle say, including himself in the num¬ ber: ^Tf we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us?" (1 John 1:8). But the same apostle can say of the chil¬ dren of God, ^Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not" (1 John 3:6); and again, ^'Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed re- maineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God (v. 9). How, then, is this seeming contradiction to be explained—^between the two statements of the apostle on the one hand, and on the other hand between the statement of the Cate¬ chism and our own conviction of daily trespass and fault? This is the solution: it is true that we sin in so far as we are the children of Adam, but not as members of Christ's kingdom. In so far as we live under Him in His kingdom, we do not and we cannot sin: we live in innocence. It is the old man in us (or what remains of him), corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, that lives outside of it: the new man (or what we have at¬ tained of him), created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth, that lives within it (Eph. 4: 22-24). Blessedness. As we have seen, they who are re¬ deemed by Christ and are the members of His kingdom have been delivered from the condemna¬ tion of sin and death, i. e., from the worst of all evils. To be delivered from so great an evil is so great a blessing as itself to constitute blessedness. The suffering and dissolution of the body, it is true, are not taken away (corruption doth not in¬ herit incorruption), but death itself has become transformed: it is no longer a punishment banish¬ ing us from God, but a help against our sin and guilt, and even the door of entrance into His pres¬ ence (Phil. 1:23). The redeemed are no longer bondservants through the fear of death (Heb. 2:15). Eor them the sting of death is plucked and the bitterness of death is passed (1 Cor. 15: 55-57). To them, therefore, death is not a loss, but a gain (Phil. 1: 21). This deep inward abid¬ ing peace of heart, this steadfast confidence and unspeakable joy in the Lord, which no evil, which not death itself can diminish or destroy, is the blessedness which they experience and possess already in this world who live under Christ and serve Him in His kingdom. Everlasting. Thus does Luther exult of Chris¬ tians and their Christian life, and the loudest note of his exultation is this, that these inestimable blessings are theirs everlastingly. Just as Christ's kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, so also are its — 118 — gifts indestructible and eternal. Or, as Luther expresses it: Even as He is Bisen from the Dead, and Lives and Beigns to all Eternity. In His eternal life and reign is grounded our everlasting life and the everlasting possession of righteousness, innocence and blessedness. As Luther has elsewhere said: "Christ has not con¬ quered death and risen again from the dead for Himself alone, but we must so connect it together that it pertains also to us. We, too, stand and are included in His resurrection, and by and through the same must rise again and eternally live with Him. Already our resurrection and life in Christ is begun, as surely as if it has already really hap¬ pened, although it is not yet manifest." This is most certainly true. In these words (cf. 1 Tim. 1: 15) we close also the second article of the Creed, in which we con¬ fess our faith in the Person and work of the divine Kedeemer. In this faith we live; in this faith, by the grace of God, we shall die; and in this faith be raised up from the dead to behold His glory. Then again shall we exclaim, wh«n faith has be¬ come sight and fruition has crowned our hope, "This is most certainly true." The Third Article. Of Sanctification. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy Christian Churchy the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen. What is meant hy this? I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, and sancti¬ fied and preserved me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He daily and richly for¬ gives me and all believers all our sins, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will grant me and all believers in Christ ever¬ lasting life. This is most certainly true. In the explanation of the second article we have learned of the redemption wrought by Christ. We have seen that it is the redemption which all men need, and that, in so far as it has been received and realized, the redeemed live in righteousness, innocence and blessedness. They who are Christ's — 120 — are reconciled with God and stand in a community of life with Him for time and eternity. But the question remains, How do men become Christ's and the members of His kingdom ? How is His redemption apprehended and applied ? Christ the Lord is invisible, hidden from the nat¬ ural man. Either He is not known at all, or He is not known and acknowledged as Redeemer and Lord. How, then, are men to accept Him, to par¬ take of His redemption and become His own? This question is answered in the third article, which treats of Sanctification. The word sanctification has different meanings. Here it is used in its widest sense and denotes the process by which Christ and His saving merits are laid hold upon, i. e., by which a man is made holy and becomes a member of the "Communion of saints." "The Holy Spirit," Luther says, "sanc¬ tifies me, i. e., He leads me to holiness or salva¬ tion, which is the same as to lead me to Christ by whom I am saved;" and again he says: "Sancti¬ fication is nothing else but bringing us to Christ to receive this good" (L. C.). In other words, by sanctification is meant the manner in which a man becomes a Christian, a saint, a child and heir of God. I believe that I cannot by my^wn reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my lord, or come to Him. To become a Christian consists in precisely this, that we "believe in Jesus Christ (our) Lord, or — 121 — come to Him" (John 6: 35). We who are Chris¬ tians here confess that we have done this "not by (our) own reason and strength." In the former statement, "believe in Him, or come to Him," the one phrase explains the other. Christ has passed into the heavens and is no longer visible to the eyes; therefore the coming to Him is not an out¬ ward but an inward one, i. e,, a believing in Him, a coming to Him in faith. To believe in Him is, in this sense, to come to Him; and this I cannot do ^ and have not done by my own reason and strength, L e., not of and by myself. As a natural man by and from birth I cannot believe in Him by my own reason. As such I can indeed perceive and know many things—I can ex¬ plore the whole realm of sublunary knowledge; but of the Spirit of God and things heavenly and divine the natural man understands nothing, being blind to them and unable to receive them (Matt. 6:22 and 23; John 8:43; 1 Cor. 2:14). Of Jesus, it is true, of the history of His life and land and times, I can, as a natural man, acquaint myself with many facts; but by my own reason I cannot recognize in Him my divine Redeemer and Lord. Pharisees and scribes surrounded Him in the days of His earthly life and closely observed JHm, but they knew Him not. Only His disciples knew Him as He was in truth, and even they only gradually and by the help of the Spirit that was in Him. When Simon Peter confesses Him to be "the Christ, the Son of the living God," the Lord replies: "Flesh and blood {L e., the natural m — 122 — reason) hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven (Matt. 16:17; cf. 11:25). As no one can believe in Christ by his own reason, so also no one can come to Him by his own strength. To come to Christ is the most decisive and momentous act in a man^s life. It involves a total change in his relation to God (reconciliation) and to the world (renunciation). For this act there is required strength; but strength is lacking to the natural man, who is carnal, sold under sin (Rom. 7:14, 18 and 19). Being dead in tres¬ passes and sins, he is as powerless as the dead. In spiritual things he has no freedom of will, no choice in the exercise of his own volition whether he shall accept Christ and come to Him or not (Augsburg Confession, Article 18). As it is God who has given him faith (Eph. 2:8), so also it is God who works in him both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). This truth is being constantly verified. A knowledge and ac¬ knowledgment of Christ may arise in the hearts of men, and yet they do not come to Him and follow I Him. Why not ? Because they have not the strength. The case of the rich young ruler illus¬ trates this (Matt. 19:16-22). In him arose the desire to become one of ChrisPs disciples, but when it came to the decisive "folldlv me", he re¬ fused. Just so many refuse to take the decisive step because they have not the strength; and no one has taken this momentous step who has not been empowered by the Spirit of God. Every Christian from his own experience must bear wit¬ ness to the truth that, "No man can come to Me except the Father draw him" (John 6:44), and that, "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost" (1 Cor. 12: 3). From the negative side—how we do not, we now proceed to the positive side—^how we can and do become Christians. This requires that we speak here of the Holy Ghost. I Believe in the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit is the Spirit that is in God and that is God. We have already heard of God's Spirit, and that more than once. The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters at the creation of the world (Gen. 1:2). The image of God in which man was made consisted in his receiving his spirit from this divine Spirit (Gen. 2:7). God's Spirit also wrought and spoke in the Old Testament prophets. In a unique man¬ ner He was operative and creative in the birth of Christ, who was "conceived by the Holy Ghost." He descended upon Christ at His baptism and was in Him not by measure (John 3:34). Christ's Person, words and works were full of the Spirit; and He promised His disciples to send to them after His departure the Spirit of God that was in Himself. This he did at Pentecost (Whitsunday). The Holy Spirit was then poured out on the assembled disciples, and ever since then He has been in and with the Holy Christian Church, the Communion o4 Saints. — 124 — It should be observed, therefore, that the Holy Spirit is not a force or an influence, not an energy of God, but properly a Person. He is said to come to men (John 16:7), to speak to men (Acts 13: 2 and 4), to give gifts to men (1 Cor. 12: 8-11), to intercede for men (Rom. 8:26), to love men (Rom. 15:30), to be grieved by the actions of men (Eph. 4: 30). All these expressions set Hira forth as a personal Spirit. And He is also a divine Spirit. The Holy Ghost is God. He proceedeth and has always pro¬ ceeded from the Father and the Son, with Whom He is coequal and coeternal. The Scriptures ascribe to Him the attributes of Deity. He is eternal (Heb. 9:14), omniscient (1 Cor. 2:10), omnipotent (Luke 1:35); to sin against Him is to sin against God (Acts 5: 3 and 4), and into His name we are baptized, together with that of God the Father and that of God the Son (Matt. 28: 19; cf. 2 Cor. 13:14). We believe, therefore, and confess of Him in the Nicene Creed that "with the Father and the Son together (He) is worshiped and glorified." By "together" is not meant that along with a first and a second God a third is named. Ho. The God who is revealed to us in Jesus Christ, Him we worship and glorify also in the Holy Ghost. He is one God in three Persons. * The name which He bears—^Holy Spirit—is significant. God the Father also is Spirit, like¬ wise God the Son; but He is called the Spirit in a special sense, namely: as God the Creator of all things came to us and dwelt among us in the eternal Son (John 1: 1 and 14), so in the eternal Spirit does He come into us and make His abode with us (John 14:17 and 23). God can do this only in so far as He is Spirit; and therefore the God who thus communicates Himself to us is called the Spirit in distinction from God the Father Almighty and God the incarnate Son. But He is further called the Iloly Spirit. The Father also is holy, likewise the Son. So also is the Spirit, who is Himself eternal holiness and the fountain of holiness. As the Source of holi¬ ness, therefore, He is called the Holy Spirit, i. e., from the nature of His work; for it is His partic¬ ular office to make us holy by making us partakers of the fruits of our Lord's redemption. This, then, is the Holy Spirit to whom we owe our faith in Christ and the fact that we are Chris¬ tians. But how does He accomplish this work? The spirit which is in ourselves is not without its work on others and the spirit which is in others works on us. So also of the Holy Spirit and His work. But as the spirit in man does not work im¬ mediately, but mediately, especially by means of words, so likewise the Spirit of holiness. He also works through certain means, throtigh the Word of God and the Holy Sacraments, which we call the "means of grace" because they make known and bring to us the grace of God in Christ. This Word is proclaimed and these Sacraments are ad¬ ministered in the Christian Church. It is in the Christian Churgja, which is both the Spirit's work — 126 — and workshop, that He is accomplishing, by these means, His sanctifying work. We come, therefore, to the order of salvation as it is brought before us in the explanation. Four steps are indicated: 1. Calling. 2. Enlightenr ment 3. Sanctification in the true faith, and 4. Preservation in the true faith. This is the positive side of sanctification or the way in which we have become Christians. In the explanation it is thus expressed: But the Holy Ghost has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with His g^fts, and sanctified and preserved me in the true faith. Has Called Me Through the Gospel. In the parable of the marriage of the king^s son (Matt. 22:1-10), it is said of the many who were bidden to the marriage that they were "called." To call means to summon. The invited guests are now summoned to come to the marriage, forasmuch as all things are now ready. The king's son is Christ. The "all things" are the things of salva¬ tion provided by Christ. The call is the summons to come to Christ and partake of the Gospel feast which God has made. He calls us tc^Himself—^to give up the sinful world and come to the Saviour of sinners. He calls us away from the bondage of sin and the kingdom of Satan to the liberty of God's children and the blessedness of His king¬ dom. If, then, this call is to be made, communication must be opened between Christ and men. In the parable it is the king's servants who receive their message from his lips and convey it to them that were bidden. In the Church the message is that of the Gospel of Christ (2 Thess. 2:14), and the messengers are His servants and ministers (Mark 16:15; Luke 10:16) who communicate the Gos¬ pel call to all men, whether they will hear or for¬ bear. It is through the gracious offers, the loving invitations, the blessed promises of this Gospel or good tidings of the grace and goodness of God our Saviour (Titus 3:4), that we, having been convicted of sin by the law, are called and at¬ tracted and won by the Holy Ghost. We were, it is true, thus called already in our Baptism, for Baptism is a visible form of the Gos¬ pel. It was, moreover, a personal, individual call, and we responded to it and came. Since then the voice of the Spirit in the Gospel has constantly called us to cleave unto the Lord with steadfastness of faith (Acts 11: 23) ; and if we proved faithless at any time and relapsed into the world, it was His gentle voice which recalled us to ourselves, and moved us to repent and return to our God and Father (Luke 15:17-21). Such calling, in one way or another, comes to all in Christendom, whether it be heeded or not. The same gracious offer is made to all, but all do not accept it. Some reject it, resist the Holy Spirit and condemn them¬ selves (Matt. 22:1-14). Others obey the call and are the "chosen" or "elect." To some the call 128 comes in infancy, to some in youth, to some in middle life, to some in old age. It may come in a variety of ways—^through the hearing of a sermon or hymn or prayer, or through the reading of a tract or book or the Book: but whatever be the period or place, it will be the voice of the Spirit in the accents of Jesus which reaches the heart, saying, "Come unto 3^^e, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28-30). Enlightened Me with His Gifts. Even the heart of him who has heard and hearkened to the call is yet dark and in doubt. But the Holy Ghost has also enlightened me by His gifts, L e., He has made His heavenly light to shine into my mind and heart so that I may rightly see and truly know my Saviour in the Gospel. It is in this light that I see Him as He is and understand His words of grace (2 Cor. 4:6). He enlightens me concerning myself, my wicked heart, my countless sins—^that I am "a lost and condemned creature;" and He enlightens me con¬ cerning my Redeemer and the redemption He has obtained for me—^that He is "true God, begotten of the Father from eternity; and aiso true man bom of the Virgin Mary;" that He has "redeemed me . . . with His holy, precious blood, and with His innocent sufFerings and death," It is just this perception and conviction, this acceptance and un¬ derstanding of the truth as it is in Jesus, which — 129 — are the "gifts'' of the Holy Spirit, whereby He enlightens me. Sanctified . . . Me in the True Faith. To sanctify is to make holy. We are made holy when we are separated from this sinful world and heart and life unto Christ and His kingdom of righteousness, innocence and blessedness. In other words, the Holy Ghost has sanctified me by bringing me to Christ and to faith in Him—^to that faith which is set forth in the second article and its explanation. But it is essential to my sanctification that I do really come out from the sinful world and the kingdom of darkness, and be separate in truth and in fact. As we have seen, it is a part of true faith not only that I wish to be with Christ, not only that I long to be like Christ, but that I actually come to Christ. As called and enlightened I have learned to know myself as a lost and condemned creature and to know Him as my divine Redeemer, but to know Him is not the same thing as to come to Him. When the prodigal son came to himself and knew and viewed his conduct in its true light, he was not yet returned to his father. But he said, "I will arise and go to my father," and thereupon arose and went. And just so faith is not a mere matter of knowledge and assent, but also of decision, of action. This points to the will, to whose decisive significance the Lord refers in Matt. 23:37 and John 5:40). To knowledge 9 • 130 the will must come, and take hold of it and apply it and carry it out. Where the knowledge is there is the form of the letter i; there is lacking to it, however, the dot which makes it to be an i—and that is the effectual working of the consenting will. It is little and yet it is everything. It is only when the will decides favorably and acts accord¬ ingly that a man forsakes his sins and comes to Christ and lives under Him as a saint and servant in His Church and kingdom. And this decisive step he takes, as we have said before, not by his own strength, but in the power of the Holy Ghost. Preserves Me in the True Faith. As my coming to Christ must be ascribed to the Holy Ghost, so also must be my continuance with Him. All is not said and done when we come: it is necessary that we remain. Therefore the apostle exhorts: "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him: rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith" (Col. 2:6 and Y) ; and the Lord Himself has de¬ clared and promised, "He that endureth to the end shall be saved" (Matt. 10: 22). I^ot that we be¬ gin our course, but that we finish it faithfully, brings to us the crown of everlasting life (Rev. 2:10; 2 Tim. 4:7 and 8). • As coming to Christ demands a strength superior to our own, so also does our abiding with Him; for we are thus placed in a new position and re¬ lation in which, without the Spirit's help, we are not able to maintain ourselves. (See fourth Litany Collect). This position or relation is a heart and life turned toward God and away from sin. It embraces the whole moral and religiotis life of the Christian, who is exposed to and beset by manifold trials and temptations arising from the world without, from the flesh within and from the devil on every hand. (Trials are related to the religious, temptations to the moral side of abiding in the true faith.) For this one's own strength is far from equal. We abide in the faith only in the power in which we came to the faith. But we will be thus preserved by the Holy Spirit only if we desire and seek Him, submit to Him and remain in His sphere, i. e., apply and keep ourselves to the Word and Sacraments through which He works, and improve the spiritual disci¬ pline which in various ways He imposes- Indeed, we are so deeply sensible of the strength of our temptations and enemies, and of our own infirmity and insufficiency to meet and overcome them, that we willingly confess that it has not been our own walking and working which has sustained us and enabled us to overcome, but the gracious presence and powerful aid of the Spirit of God! Our thanks and praise are due to Him; for it is He who has preserved us in the true faith. Besides our faith in the Holy Ghost we also confess in the third article that there is a holy Christian Church, which is His workmanship and in which He Himself dwells and works. — 132 — The Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints. Even as He calls, g:athers, enlig^htens and sancti¬ fies the whole Christian Church on earth and pre¬ serves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. The question arises, Is the Church properly an object of faith? It presents itself to our eyes as a multitude of men, women and children gathered by the Holy Ghost through the Word and Sacra¬ ments in every age and every land. Its members are ascertained by everyone (through baptism). They possess visible and substantial property (church buildings, chapels, schools, etc.). They are served by certain officers (pastors, teachers, deacons, et al.). Can anyone confess faith con¬ cerning all this? For what we see and know is not and cannot be an object of faith. The Church which we grasp in faith and here confess is not the Church as it stands before our eyes as a visible society. It is not the bodily Church, but the spiritual Church, not the congre¬ gation of all the baptized, but the congregation of all true believers. It is "the Holy Christian Church" which is "the Communion of Saints," t. e., all those whom the Holy Ghos^ has indeed called, gathered, enlightened, sanctified and pre¬ served in the one true faith. It could also be called the fellowship of Christians or the brother¬ hood of believers, for it is composed of those who believe in Christ and have come to Him, There- fore they are called "Saints," not because they are without sin (Rom. 3:23), but because they are sanctified or made holy through the atoning and cleansing blood of Christ, whose they are and in whose kingdom they live. So then this Communion of Saints is the holy Christian Church, which is at once the work of the Holy Spirit and the sphere in which He works. Moreover, what is true of the calling, enlighten¬ ing, sanctifying and preserving of the individual believer is true also of the Christian Church, which is all individual believers taken together. It is in the gathering of these individuals that the Church is constituted. When it is said, however, that the Holy Ghost gathers the whole Christian Church on earth, an activity is ascribed to Him which was not men¬ tioned in the case of the individual Christian. Just as one would not speak of "gathering" when bringing home a single stalk of grain, but only when one gathers many hundreds of stalks, so we may say of the whole Christian Church (but not of a separate soul) that the Holy Ghost "gathers" it. It is in this way that the separate and sep¬ arated saints, scattered throughout the world, are collected and united into one holy Christian Church. Both they and the Church are there found and bound to be found where the Word of God is purely preached and the Sacraments are rightly administered, for this Word shall not re¬ turn to God void and the Sacraments are received not in vain. Oit the day of Pentecost the gathering of this Church by these means began (the birthday of the Church). When the Holy Spirit had been poured out He promptly began, through the preaching of the Gospel by Simon Peter, to call, enlighten, sanctify and gather. The first Christian congregation arose, in number about 3,000 souls, and in them the beginning of the Christian Church. From this begiiming there grew a wider gathering through all countries and centuries, as the Lord had commanded (Mark 16:15): first among the Jews and then among the Gentiles, as we read in the Acts; among nation after nation, as church history records; among all the people of the earth to-day, as contemporary missions show: a gathering which is renewed from generation to generation, as we ourselves who have been gath¬ ered in our turn should very well know. Thus does Luther speak of the inception of the Christian Church. Of its preservation and per¬ manence he proceeds to speak when he confesses of the Holy Ghost that He: Preserves it in Union with Jesus Christ in the One True Faith. He who gathers it also preserved it and will evermore preserve it (Matt. 16:18). He pre¬ serves it, moreover, in like manner as He preserves the individual believer. There is here, however, something additional to be said. The true faith in which the Communion of Saints is preserved in union with Jesus Christ is characterized as one. Human frailty is such that there have arisen, and from time to time there arise, differences and con¬ troversies in matters of belief, in consequence of which we have the various denominational bodies into which the visible Church is divided. But in the spiritual Church there is no such thing. The holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints, is one in the faith, in the one true faith in Jesus Christ, as Paul writes in Eph. 4; 3-6. In this in¬ visible, spiritual assembly of believers, in contrast to the lack of unity in the visible Christendom, there is realized the Lord's saying concerning the one flock under the one Shepherd (John 10:16; cf. 17:20 and 21). "I believe," says Luther, ^Hhat there is a holy flock and Church on earth of pure saints under one Head, Christ; called to¬ gether by the Holy Spirit in one faith, mind and spirit, with manifold gifts, but united in love." With this holy Christian Church are numbered also the saints of our Evangelical Lutheran Church. It is called "Lutheran" after the great reformer, Martin Luther, the reformation which he effected being a return to the truth of the Gos¬ pel, or restoration of the true Christian faith and Christian Church. It is also called "Evangelical" because of its adherence and devotion to the Gos¬ pel and the whole Word of God, on which it is founded and to which it makes its appeal, as may be seen by a comparison of its Liturgies and Con¬ fessions of Eaith with Scripture itself. These Confessions ate, in addition to the three ancient — 136 — Creeds of the Universal Church (the Apostles/ Nicene and Athanasian) : the Augsburg Confess¬ ion and its Apology, the Snialcald Articles, Lu- ther^s Large and Small Catechisms, and the For¬ mula of Concord. Lutheran doctrine rests on two Scriptural pillars which cannot be overthrown: (1) The Holy Scriptures are the only rule and standard of faith and practice (2 Tim. 3:15-17) ; and (2) we are justified before God without the works of the law, for Christ's sake, by faith alone (Rom. 3:28). It should be further observed that this Church which is the Communion of Saints is also de¬ scribed as holy and Christian. It is a holy Church. This, the bodily, visible Church, composed of all who have been baptized, cannot be said to be. In it the tares are mingled with the wheat (Matt. 13: 24-30), the chaff with the grain (Matt. 3:12). In it are deceivers, hypocrites and pretenders. But the true Church of Christ is a holy Church, a real Communion of Saints, because it is made up of His holy ones; of those who are called, gathered, enlightened, sanctified and preserved in union with Him who is the Holy One (Acts 3:14), with whom they are vitally united (Eph. 5:29-32), from whom they derive their life (John 15:5)f and whose body they are and are said to be (Eph. 1: 22 and 23). It is a Christian Church. It bears the name of Christ, who is its living Head and who is also the one foundation and chief cornerstone on which it is based and is built up a spiritual temple and habitation of God (Eph. 2:19-22). This is said in distinction from the Greek, Roman and Pro1> estant Churches, the Lutheran and Reformed Churches, and every other particular division of the visible Church of whatever name. This word "Christian" (also "Catholic," or Universal) is the broad comprehensive name which embraces all who truly believe in Christ and love Him in sin¬ cerity, those within our own and any other com¬ munion, for it is of them, known to God alone, that the Church of Christ consists. Such, then, is the holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints. Although invisible it is none the less a reality—invisible and real as the soul in the body. "We do not speak," says Me- lanchthon in the Apology, "of an imaginary Church, which is to be found nowhere; but we say and know certainly that this Church, wherein saints live, is and abides truly upon earth: namely, that some of God's children are here and there in all the world, in various kingdoms, islands, lands and cities, from the rising of the sun to its setting, who have truly learned to know Christ and His Gospel." It is of this holy Christian Church that Luther also in the Large Catechism declares: "And I also am a part and member of the same, a participant and joint owner of all the good it possesses, brought to it and incorporated in it by the Holy Ghost, in that I have heard and continue to hear the Word of God, which is the means of — 138 — entrance." With equal confidence every true Christian should not hesitate to speak. We proceed now to the consideration of the blessings of salvation which this holy Christian Church possesses, L e,, which belong to the Com¬ munion of Saints. The Foi^iveness of Sins; the Resurrection of the Body; and the Life Everlasting. In which Christian Church He daily and richly forgives me and all believers all our sins, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will grant me and all believers in Christ ever¬ lasting life. The Forgiveness of Sins. What is here called the holy Christian Church corresponds to what, in the explanation of the second article, was called the kingdom of Christ. To live under Him in His kingdom and to be a member of His Church and numbered with His Saints, is the same thing. The life under Him in His kingdom we have found to be a life lived in righteousness, which consists in the forgiveness of sins. It is this daily forgiveness of our sins which now invites our further attention. Even Christians sin (1 John 1:8 and 10). '^On account of our flesh which we bear about with us we are never without sin" (L. C.). While it is a sign of a spurious profession when the over¬ coming of sin and the doing of God's will are not evident, no one can claim entire exemption from sin as long as he inhabits this mortal body (Rom. 7:14-25). Moreover, the sins of Christians, even as those of others, are transgressions of God's holy law and separate from Him (Is, 59:2; Ps. 51:11). If they would remain in communion with God and in His Church and kingdom, there is need once and again of the removal of these sins, which can he effected only through their re¬ mission and forgiveness. This forgiveness is provided and promised in and through Christ. When believers fall into sin they have in Him reconciliation and redemption. In His Cross the Communion of Saints has an ever-flowing foun¬ tain of forgiveness for sin (Zech. 13:1). Luther states that the forgiveness of sins is the daily work and gift of the Holy Ghost. God's mercies are new unto us every morning (Lam. 3: 22 and 23). We daily need forgiveness because we daily commit much sin; hence we are directed daily to pray, "And forgive us our trespasses." All our sins. Hone is so great that it cannot be forgiven (instance the sin of David, Peter, Paul, the penitent thief) when we truly repent and earnestly pray (Is. 1:18; Ps. 130:7 and 8). It is true that we read in Scripture of a sin which shall not be forgiven (Matt. 12: 31 and 32). This is the sin against the Holy Ghost. It consists in a wilful and obstinate hardening of the heart against the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit. But he who still desires and prays for forgiveness is not guilty of this unpardonable sin. On the other hand, no sin is so small that it does not need forgiveness (Matt. 12:36). The little sins also separate from God. Unforgiven and unforsaken sins of apparently trivial import are often the re¬ sult and sign of a lukewarm spiritual condition, which they perpetuate (Ps. 19:12 and 13; Song of Solomon 2:15). Therefore, because all sins are daily forgiven, great and small, of omission and commission, Luther declares that the Holy Ghost richly forgives them. It is to be remarked that it is in the Christian Church that sins are thus richly forgiven. Chris¬ tians live in the sphere of the forgiveness of sins, and this sphere is Christ's Church and kingdom. Baptism, which is the Sacrament of admission, works such forgiveness; and again and again is forgiveness offered in the Gospel to all believers, and is declared to all and to each in the Absolution and especially in the Sacrament of the Altar. So "rich" is the forgiveness of sins in the Christian Church. The "daily" and ^^richly" of this article remind us of the "richly" and "daily" of the first article. There we considered whereby the body lives; here whereby the spirit lives; for He who provides daily food richly for the body does not fail to provide daily food richly for the soul. It is, indeed, by the forgiveness of th«ir sins that Christians live; and therefore Luther says in the Large Catechism: "Everything in the Christian Church is so ordered that we shall daily obtain full and free forgiveness of sin through the Word and Signs appointed to comfort and encourage our — 141 — consciences as long as we live here. But outside of this Christian Church, where the Gospel is not, there is no forgiveness, as also there can be no sanctification." The forgiveness of sins, be it noted, is granted to all who are members of this holy Christian Church: to me and to all believers. Believers are expressly named in order to emphasize the fact that it is faith which receives the blessing. The ! faith is that which we confessed in the second ' article. It is the faith that "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin," and that, "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:7 and 9). This is simple and yet it is difficult. It is not easy for an earnest man to believe that his sins are for¬ given so freely, without any effort or contribution of his own. It takes a great faith so to believe, to accept this article and apply it to one's self. For this also there is need of the help of the Holy Spirit, to beget in our hearts a joyful confidence and steadfast trust that God does daily and richly forgive all our sins and the sins of all believers. The Eesnrrection of the Body; and the Life Everlasting. And at the last day will raise np me and all the dead, and will grant me and all believers in Christ everlasting life. Hot all the blessings of salvation are set forth in this third article, but only the three, or rather the two principal blessings (two rather than three, for the Kesurrection of the body is properly the beginning of the Life everlasting) which answer to the two principal evils—sin and death, i, e., the forgiveness of sins which separate from God and the victory over death whose issue is endless life in communion with God. In the Resurrection of the body and the Life everlasting, faith reaches its highest mark and the Holy Ghost the comple¬ tion and consummation of His work. There is nothing higher, nothing more. It is the victorious and heavenly ending. The Resurrection of the Body. It belongs to the Holy Spirit's work—as the Redeemer's Executor, as it were—^to administer and apply His redemption in its fullest extent. Hence it includes the Resurrection of the body and does not cease until all believers have entered upon the life everlasting. It will be observed, however, that Luther does not say here that the Holy Ghost will raise up "me and all believers," but, "me and all the dead," The Resurrection will be universal in its scope (man is immortal, not immortable), embracing both the righteous and the wicked, the just and the unji^st (Dan. 12: 2 ; John 5: 28 and 29). The wicked shall be ban¬ ished into outer darkness, forever separated from the light and life of God (eternal death), being clothed with bodies answering to their dreadful destiny: while the righteous shall be summoned into the presence of God and partake forever of His light and life, being clothed with bodies answering to their exalted destiny. What the resurrection bodies of the pious dead shall be, and what appearance they shall present, we do not know. They will not be entirely new bodies, for it will be a resurrection and not a re¬ creation. Neither will they be these same bodies— no more than the stalk which springs from the planted and decayed grain of wheat is the same as the seed which was sown (1 Cor. 15 : 37 and 38; 42-44). According to this description the resur¬ rection body will be a body exactly adapted to the heavenly world and life, as our present, body is adapted to this lower world and life. It will re¬ semble our Lord's glorified body (Phil. 3:21), whose resurrection is the earnest and pledge of our own (1 Cor. 15: 23 ; 1 Thess. 4:14). The Resurrection itself will take place "at the last day," L e., the day on which Christ shall come in His glory to judge both the quick and the dead. No one knows how early or how late this day will dawn (Matt. 24:3 and 4, 23 and 24). It will come suddenly, unexpectedly (2 Pet- 3:10). It may long delay, but at last it will come (2 Pet. 3: 5-9). It may come in our own lifetime, and we should, therefore, watch and pray and be always ready (Matt. 24:42-51). But believers need not await the Lord's second coming before they enter upon the life of the blest. Death is the separation of soul and body. The body returns to the dust from which it Ayas taken: the soul ascends to God — 144 — who gave it (Luke 23: 43; 2 Cor. 5: 6-9). It is. however, only when the glorified soul has been re¬ united with its glorified body that the complete man enters on the full blessedness of the life ever¬ lasting. The Life Everlasting. Believers possess this life, indeed, here and now, but their possession of it is only initial and partial. To be in communion with God, the Source of life, and to receive His Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life—^this is already to have and en¬ joy eternal life. The future eternal life is not a new and strange life for the child of God, only then begun, but is his present partial life con¬ tinued and consummated. Hence eternal life is sometimes spoken of as a present, and sometimes as a future possession (John 5: 24; 17: 2). It is, however, as something still in the future that it is considered here, as it shall be perfectly re¬ alized by the whole being of man, body, soul and spirit, in the day of his complete redemption. Respecting the nature of this future and heavenly life, revelation gives no particular ac¬ count, and it is probable that our finite faculties would not be capable of receiving it (2 Cor. 12: 4; 1 Cor. 2:9). Still, Scripture has .vouchsafed to us some knowledge of it: (1.) N^egatively; that there shall be there no hunger, no thirst, no night, no pain, no sorrow, no sin, no death (Rev. 21: 4, 27; 22:5) ; and (2.) Positively; that it will be a state of endless rest and perfect peace and fade- less joy (Heb. 4:9; Matt. 25:21; John 17:24; 1 John 3:2). It is, indeed, a life of such glorious and nnimagined blessedness as passes human un¬ derstanding. This is Most Certainly True. It will be observed that in his explanation of this article Luther speaks of what the Holy Ghost has done for us in time past, what He is doing for us in the present time, and what he shall do for us in the time to come. We here announce our firm conviction of the truth of all this with the same confidence with which the apostle declares that no created thing shall be able to separate him from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38 and 39; cf. 2 Tim. 1:12). "God give His Holy Spirit, that we may believe it and die perfect Christians: to this may Christ our Lord and Redeemer help you and me. Amen" (Luther). Conclusion. In these three brief articles of the Creed we I have beheld the works of God from the beginning of the world to the end of the world and beyond (from Creation to Glorification), with Redemp¬ tion, as the middle term, at the heart of all. We have also confessed our belief that God is Triune, that He is God the Rather, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost—^not three Gods, but one God in three Persons. How this can be is a mystery of faith which we cannot comprehend. Nevertheless, 10 God has thus revealed Himself (Matt. 3:13-17; 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14), and our need corresponds to this revelation. We need the Triune God— the one eternal God who has created us and still preserves us; who has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ for our Redemption, and who communi¬ cates Himself to us in the Holy Ghost unto our sanctification. Him, the Triune God, we acknowl¬ edge and magnify—seeing Him now, it is true, through a glass darkly, but then face to face. And when, in heaven above, with angels and arch¬ angels we behold His face, with them we shall also unite our voices and acclaim Him "Holy, Holy, Holy (Is. 6:3). Meanwhile the words of the saintly Bernard should be our rule: "To seek to investigate the Trinity is presumption; to believe in the Trinity is piety; to know the Trinity is eternal life." PART m. The Lord's Prayer. Introduction. The third part of the Catechism treats of the Lord's Prayer. It follows the Commandments and the Creed. From the Commandments we leam our need to pray: in the Creed we learn whom to ask for the* supply of our need. In the Large Catechism Luther closely connects Com¬ mandments, Creed and Prayer. "For since," he says, "we are so situated that no man can perfectly keep the Ten Commandments, even though he have begun to believe, and since the devil with all his power, together with the world and our own flesh, resists our endeavors to keep them, nothing is so necessary as that we should resort to the ear of God and call upon Him and pray to Him, that He would give, preserve and increase in us faith and the fulfilment of the Ten Commandments, and that He would remove everything that is in our way and opposes us therein." Our human need, therefore, is the first reason why we should pray (Matt. 26:41). A second reason is found in God's command (1 Thess. 5:17). ^Tor this we learned in the Second Com¬ mandment: 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God i|i vain,' which requires that we 148 praise that holy name, and call upon it in every time of need. For to call upon the name of God is nothing else than to pray" (L. C.). Prayer is therefore as much an act of obedience on the part of the child of God as not to kill, not to steal, etc. '^The work is a work of obedience," Luther de¬ clares ; "this is the first and most important point, that all our prayers are based and rest upon obedi¬ ence, irrespective of our person, whether we be sinners or saints, worthy or unworthy. . . There¬ fore thou shouldst say: ^My prayer is as precious, holy and pleasing to God as that of St. Paul or of the most holy saints.' And this is the reason: 'For I will gladly grant that he is holier in his person, but not on account of the commandment; since God does not regard prayer on account of the person, but on account of His Word and obedience thereto. (For this reason) I rest my prayer upon the same commandment with all the saints, and besides I pray for the same thing and for the same reason for which they pray and have ever prayed; and therefore it is as precious to me, as well as much more needful, as to those great saints." (Luke 18:13; Matt. 9: 2-7). A third reason is found in God's promise; for prayer is nothing else than the claiming of the divine promise (Gen. 32:9-12, the first recorded prayer; Ps. 50:15; Matt. 7:7; Mark 11:24). This promise of God that our prayer shall assur¬ edly be heard, "You can hold up to Him and say: 'Here I come, dear Father, and pray, not of my own purpose or upon my own worthiness, but ac- 149 cording to Thj commandment and promise, which cannot fail or deceive me'" (L. C.)- It is this confidence in prayer which we shall meet again when we come to the meaning of the word "Amen." Prayer, then, is the communion of the heart with God, whether silent or expressed; whether in the form of request (asking a gift) or of thanksgiving (thanks for a gift) or of praise (glorifying God as the giver of every good and perfect gift). Prayer may he made at any time and in any place, but there should be fixed times of prayer and two special places, the closet and the sanctuary (private and public prayer). Acceptable prayer must be earnest and sincere, humble and believing. It must rely on God's faithful promise, and since our access to Him and His throne of grace is only through the redemp¬ tion and mediation of Christ, it must be offered through Him, i. e., in Christ's name. But no prayer will be heard unless it be fervent and heart¬ felt, The formal prayer will no more be heard than the faithless prayer. "Let the heart," said John Bunyan on his deathbed, "be without words, rather than the words without heart." We require, however, not only to be invited and encouraged to pray, but also to be taught how and for what to pray. This need, felt by our Lord's disciples. He graciously satisfied. In the "Lord's Prayer" (rather the Disciples' prayer, for the Lord said, "After this manner pray ye," and He Himself could nof have prayed the fifth petition) Christ has given to His disciples a model prayer. It is very brief—purposely so—in contrast with the ^Vain repetitions'^ of the heathen (Matt. 6: 7-9), but in its brevity it comprehends in general all the things for which we should pray. It is this which makes it so complete and satisfying. Men never weary of it. The more they pray it, the more they find in it. At all times they fill in its general outline with their individual and par¬ ticular needs. Much has been said in praise of the Lord's Prayer. Luther called it "the Prayer of prayers." Bossuet said of it, "It is the true prayer of Chris¬ tians, and the most perfect, for it contains all." A French countess read this prayer to her unbe¬ lieving husband in a dangerous illness. "Say that again," he said; "it is a beautiful prayer. Who made it ?" It is the prayer of all who name the name of Christ. For almost 1900 years it has ascended to God from the lips of countless thou¬ sands every hour of the day. In the sound of this prayer all the history of the world goes on. It can never be exhausted, and in the hour of death no other prayer is more able to sustain and comfort the departing soul. In its structure the Lord's Prayer contains: 1. An Introduction or Invocation? 2. Seven Pe¬ titions. 3, A Conclusion or Doxology. Of the seven petitions the first three are positive, desiring God's kingdom and glory and a spiritual blessing for ourselves: the last three are negative, depre¬ cating the greatest evils of body and soul—^the 151 guilt and consequences of sin. Between these two sets of petitions and held firmly in place is one which seeks the supply of our bodily needs. All the petitions are intercessions, because in each every one prays for all. Our Father, who art in heaven. What is meant hy this? God would thereby tenderly invite us to believe that He is truly our Father, and we are truly His children, so that we may ask of Him with all cheer¬ fulness and confidence, as dear children ask of their dear father. Father. It is with this word that our Lord bids us ad¬ dress "the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God" (1 Tim. 1:17). We might have ex¬ pected some other title which would fitly express God's greatness or sovereignty or majesty, but such a title the Lord does not use, and for this reason: To venture to speak with God is itself a very great thing. Abraham, when he did so, deeply felt that he was but dust and ashes (Gen. 18 : 27). So also the publican, painfully conscious of his sin (Luke 18:13). Like him we are all and altogether sin¬ ners, and in our hearts we secretly fear and shrink from God instead of drawing near to Him with love and confidence. Hence, as Luther so beauti¬ fully explains, Christ has bidden us address God as 'Tather," that we may be encouraged to come into His presence with boldness (Luke 15:21; Heb. 4:16), The Saviour^s choice of the word, moreover, is founded in fact. God is not here designated as the Father and Creator of all, nor as the Father of the people of Israel whom He had chosen and raised up, but as the Father of Christian believers. They are His new creation in Christ Jesus, the new and true Israel of God. It is upon God as the Father of His Son Jesus Christ and therefore our Father as the brethren of Christ through bap¬ tism and faith, upon whom we call. He is our heavenly Father and we are His dear children through redemption and adoption; and therefore in the Invocation, ^^Our Father," we come to Him through Christ and in Christ's name. This is not anybody's prayer, but the Christian's prayer. It was the precise mission of Christ at once to secure our adoption into the great family of God and to reveal Him to us as our loving Father in heaven. This is the most human, personal, en¬ dearing term that can be framed in speaking of God. It is also a word of faith. Sinners though we be, we are repentant sinners, whose sins are forgiven through the blood of Christ; and there¬ fore Luther profoundly says that God would thereby tenderly invite us to believe that He is truly our Father and we are truly His children, in spite of our sinfulness and unworthiness; and to this end, that we may come and ask of Him with all cheerfulness and confidence, as dear chil¬ dren—^who well know that they are dear to the — 153 — human father who is so dear to them—do not hesi¬ tate to come and ask of him (Matt. 7:11). Our Father. In the Creed, as we have seen, it is said "I"— "I believein the Lord's Prayer we say "Our"— "Our Pather." In faith no one can appear for another; hut in prayer no one shall stand by him¬ self, but all with and for one another. In the nat¬ ural life the rule is, everyone for himself and against everyone else. This is true of all activities and classes of men, and often alas! of members of the same family. But where the spirit of Christ reigns, all this is changed. They who once selfishly strove against one another are united into a com¬ munion of saints, whose prayers and endeavors are all for each other's welfare. As the children of one Father, all are brethren. The brotherhood of Christians is grounded in the fact that God is the Father of them all. Hence "our" is a word of love. It is the assurance that we love as brethren. Therefore St. Augustine has called the Lord's Prayer "the fraternal prayer." "Who art in heaven. This is a word of hope. God is present every¬ where on earth; but heaven is His sanctuary, whither our hope turns, whither we direct our hearts and thoughts and confidently pray (Col. 3: 1 and 2). Three lessons niay be drawn from this clause: 1. Although God is our Father—^the most human, personal and endearing of names—we are not to become undulj intimate and familiar with Him. AVe are reminded of the humility and rev¬ erence with which we should draw near to Him, He is in heaven and we upon earth (Ec. 5:2). 2. The words "Our Father," so human, per¬ sonal and endearing, and the words "Who art in heaven," so spiritual and exalted and sublime— are here brought together and conjoined in a sin¬ gle thought. Christ, says Heander, has bidden us so to pray, "that the soul may soar from earth to heaven, with the living and lasting consciousness that earth and heaven are no more kept asunder, To this the substance of the whole prayer tends." 3. The Father to whom we pray is thus distin¬ guished from human fathers: He is the heavenly Father. But the heavenly Father is God the Father Almighty, who knows all things and can work whatever He will. Herein lies the confidence of prayer. Earthly fathers would often hear and help us if they could, hut they cannot; whereas the Heavenly Father can always do for us what we ask. It is true that He does not grant our every request, hut not without reason. It is just for this that He is here called the Father in heaven and not the Father Almighty, as in the Creed. We are thus reminded that while His is the power. He pursues in all His work a heavenly and eternal aim. Hot temporal happiness hut eternal blessedness (1 Pet. 1: 3-9; 5:10) is the end of the way along which He leads us, the goal to which He conducts us. In His wisdom and love He denies us many things, but He witholds from us no good thing. Otherwise, in our ignorance in asking, we might well hesitate to pray. Tlie First Petition. Hallowed be Thy name. What is meant hy tins? The name of God is indeed holy in itself; but we pray in this petition that it may be hallowed also among ns. How is this done? When the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we as the children of God lead holy lives in accordance with it; this grant us, dear Father in heaven! But he that teaches and lives otherwise than the Word of God teaches, profanes the name of God among us; from this preserve us, heavenly Father! Thy Name. This petition treats of the name of God, i, e,. His name of Father. In the explanation of the second commandment we learned that as in the case of our fellow-men and their names, the name of God represents Him and is His representative. Whatever has to do with His name has to do also with Him. Hence, in the first petition the sup¬ pliant turns to God's holy Person apprehended — 156 — through His name. God Himself no man hath seen or can see. He dwells in light which no man can approach unto. We do not, so to speak, oome into contact with Him as He is in Himself, but only as He has manifested Himself to us. This He has done especially in and through His name, this selfsame name of Father (Matt. 6:6; John 17:6, 26). It is the children of this heavenly Father who offer this petition. Hallowed. The word "hallow" means both to make holy and to keepJioly. The former meaning does not apply here. God^s name is holy in itself (Ps. Ill: 9), and can no more be made holy than the sun must first be given its brightness and light. But it can be kept holy, so that its sacred splendor may be undimmed and undiminished. "It is holy," says Luther, "in its natrire, but not in its use" (L. C.). Therefore, "We pray fa this petition that it may be hallowed also among us," i. e,, among ua who are the children of God and know and bear His name. How is this done? It is done, Luther explains, in t^o ways—in our words and in our works. 1. When the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity. The name and being of God, as He has revealed Himself, is not to be made out other than He is. — 157 — With Grod Himself we can do nothing, but we can with His name and the Word which reveals Him, as when we teach falsely of Him. We afre to let Him remain the almighty and heavenly Father that He is and as He is in His W6rd. To keep His name holy is therefore to teach His Word in its truth and purity, L e., unadulterated and un¬ changed, without subtraction or addition. But he that teaches otherwise than the Word of God teaches—otherwise and out of correspondence with Him as found in His Word—as does he who pro¬ claims Him as an unmerciful judge, or as a fond and weak father such as Eli was, or as an imper¬ sonal force, or as a first cause ruling by natural law—^thereby does violence to the revealed God; he does not leave God and His name as He is, but, as it were, deposes and dethrones Him, de¬ prives Him of His unique divine honor and glory, and so profanes the name of God among us by cheap¬ ening it and making it common. This is so great a sin that we do well to pray. From this preserve us, heavenly Father. 2. When we, as children of God, lead holy lives in accordance with it. This holy life which we Christians are to live is described by the phrase, ^'in accordance with it," L e.y with the Word of God, It is a life which answers to the will of God as expressed in the Ten Commandments and the Christian law, and which is to characterize all His children. They are to live worthy of their heavenly Father; and in so far as they are truly begotten and born of Him, they can and will do this (Eom. 8:1-4; 1 John 5:18). Thus the name of God is hallowed and honored. Just as children of a good life honor the name of an earthly parent, so does the holy life of a child of God honor the name of his heavenly Father (Matt. 5:16). But he that lives otherwise than the Word of God teaches, that lives not in accord¬ ance with it but contrary to it, he, too, "profanes the name of God among us." This life which transgresses God's will and brings reproach on His name recalls the second commandment.* But the transgression of all the commandments is a profan¬ ing of the name of God. Whether it be by cursing or swearing, stealing or slandering, the name of God is dishonored and brought to shame. "For just as it is a shame and disgrace to a natural father to have a bad, ruined child that opposes him in words and deeds, so that on its account he suffers reproach and contempt; so also it brings dishonor upon God if we who are called by His name . . . teach, speak and live in any other manner except as godly and heavenly children" (L. C.). Thus it actually is. Already in the Qld Testament it is said of the Israelites who lived otherwise than God's Word taught and behaved like the heathen, that they profaned His name among the nations (Is. 52: 5; Ezek. 36: 20). This is^till more true in the case of Christians. If they live an unholy life, the name of God is thereby discredited and disgraced before the world—as we read so often in the history of missions, where His holy name is profaned by nominal Christians who lead a — 159 — heathenish life. But we find this also in the Christianity at home where many who confess and call upon the name of God fail to live a sober, righteous and godly life. Bad as this is, when they become a stumbling block to others, it is so much worse that it were good for them if they had never been born. The Second Petition. Thy Eingdom come. What is meant by this? The kingdom of God comes indeed of itself with¬ out our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come also to us. How is this done? When our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word, and live godly here in time, and in heaven forever. Thy Kingdom. By the kingdom of God is meant that blessed state of the forgiveness of sins into which we are introduced by baptism and faith and in which Christ the Lord is King. It is a spiritual king¬ dom in which He bears His holy rule. They who obey and serve the King know the righteousness and peace and joy of the kingdom (Kom. 14:17). This kingdom came in with Christ (Matt. 3:2), and in it flourish holiness and peace and truth. Opposed to it, in this lower world, is the kingdom of Satan (Matt. 12:26). Wherever sin and Satan reign, there are darkness and crime and misery and death. Wherever Christ and His Spirit reign, there are light and peace and joy and life. Of this kingdom of God we distinguish two phases or forms. 1. The Kingdom of Grace is the kingdom now existing in the world. It is not, however, of the world. It is represented in the Holy Christian Church, and is the kingdom which Christ the Lord brought in and established. He described it in various parables—its slight and despised be¬ ginning, its hidden and mysterious working and its gradual spread and final triumph (Matt. 13: 31-33; Mark 4:26-29). In this sense the king¬ dom of God has come and is still coming into the world; and in this sense we pray that it be ex¬ tended to the uttermost parts of the earth (Heb. 2:14; Matt. 9: 37 and 38). We should, however, not only pray, but also labor for the promotion of God's kingdom by sending forth missionaries and supporting missions, by disseminating the Word of God (Bible Societies) and devotional tracts and books; by the establishment of Churches (Home Missions) and Sunday-schools; by our individual effort and edifying example, and by all other ap¬ proved means. 2. The Kingdom of Glory. The kingdom of — 161 — grace as foxmd upon earth is marred and obscured by human infirmity; but the kingdom of glory is the consummation of this present kingdom, as it shall be established in the end of days and exist throughout eternity (1 Cor. 15:24). Respecting this kingdom we pray that it may please God shortly to accomplish the number of His elect and hasten its coming (Rev. 11:15; 22:17 and 20). We may also speak, in the third place, of the Jcingdom of God in the heart; for this heavenly kingdom is not only a general, it is also an indiv¬ idual thing (Matt. 13:44-46). It is the per¬ sonal reign of Christ in the hearts of believers, and is described as being within us (Eph. 3:17). In reference to the kingdom of God in this sense we pray that we and all who profess themselves Christians may be such not only in name, but also in reality; that we may drink more deeply at the fountain of God's grace, receive more fully the powers of the world to come, and serve our King more faithfully and zealously. As Luther has said: "Just as the name of God is in itself holy, and we pray nevertheless that it be holy among us, so also His kingdom comes of itself without our prayer, yet we pray nevertheless that it may come to us; that is, that it prevail among us and be with us, so that we may be a part of those among whom His name is hallowed and His kingdom prospers" (L. C.). How is this done? Luther's answer points us to the now well-known 11 162 4 means, viz.: when our heavenly Father gives us natural men, who by our own reason and strength cannot believe in Jesus Christ our Lord or come to Him, His Holy Spirit, through whose gifts and agency (calling, enlightening, sanctifying) we believe His holy Word and live a godly life in time (in the kingdom of grace) and are prepared and kept for the kingdom of glory in heaven for¬ ever. All this has already been considered and explained in connection with the second and third articles of the Creed. The Third Petition. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. What is meant hy this ? The good and gracious will of Ood is done indeed without our prayer; but we pray in this petition that it may be done also among us. How is this done? When God defeats and hinders eivery evil counsel and purpose, which would not let us hallow God's name nor let His kingdom come, such as the will of the devil, the world, and our own flesh; but strengfth- ens and keeps us steadfast in His Word and in faith unto our end. This is His gracious and good will. Thy Will. Luther rightly calls this will of God a good and gracious one. For what is its aim ? Just this, that His kingdom come—extensively into the world, and intensively into our hearts—and be finally perfected and consummated in heaven above. It is, therefore, our everlasting salvation which His will intends; and a will which pursues such an aim is in the highest sense good. And what in¬ duces God thus to will ? Nothing else than the in¬ finite love which His good will reveals. Have we deserved it ? Are we worthy of it ? Our own con¬ science must answer, No. The love which is revealed in this will is pure grace. It is His good and gracious will. Thy Will Be Done. Luther says of this will that it is done indeed without our prayer. God is able to do whatever may please Him, and none can stay His hand (Dan. 4:35). Just as His kingdom comes of itself without our prayer, so does He perform His will. God brings to pass what He decides and de¬ crees. Unfailingly and inevitably His will is done. But we pray in this petition that it may he done also among us. It is true that His will is done among xis; but the great question is hoiv it is done. God is love, but He is also a consuming fire. He is not willing that any should perish (2 Pet. 3:9), but He will — 164 — by no means clear the guilty (Ex. 34:7). The question of supreme moment therefore is whether His will is so done that we are crushed by it as those who oppose it, or whether it is so done that we obtain a part in its goodness and grace as those who obey it. We pray in this petition that it be done among us in the latter sense, and by our very prayer we express our desire and purpose to do His will. This appears more clearly when we remark how the entire petition reads: On Earth as it is in Heaven. How is it done in heaven? In heaven are the angels, who stand in the presence of God and ren¬ der to Him perfect, willing and constant service (Ps. 103: 20). They too have each his own will; but their will is subordinated to God's, their will¬ ing is the response to His. As, therefore, in heaven there is instant and entire obedience, so we pray that on earth the same obedience be ren¬ dered by us, that here as there the one divine will may be done. But this is far from being the actual case. Lu¬ ther explains why it is not when, in answer to the question, "How is this done?" i^e points to the evil counsel and purpose, w^hich would not let us hallow God's will nor let His kingdom come, such as the will of the devil, the world, and our own flesh. By coimsel is meant the secret debate which ffoes on in the mind and bv which the will comes — 1G5 — to its decisions. Under purpose, a project, plan, procedure is to be understood. It is the outcome of the counsel and forms the transition to the deed. Whether it be good or bad (as may be the counsel, as well) depends on the temper and quality of the determining will. Here, however, an evil counsel and purpose are treated of, proceeding from an evil will; and they show themselves to be evil in this, that they would not let us hallow God's name nor let His kingdom come. God's honor is in¬ volved in the hallowing of His name; our salva¬ tion is involved in the coming to us of His king¬ dom : that both be done, therein consists our highest blessedness. When, therefore, a Counsel and purpose are opposed to this and are arrayed against what is so gracious and good, they are only and altogether evil. Luther further describes the source and course of this evil counsel and purpose when he says: Such as the will of the devil, the world, and our own flesh. The will alone is here mentioned, and that is enough. Where the spring is, there is also the stream. The devil is named first. Of him we have already spoken as the enemy of God and man. The Lord calls him "a strong man," and Peter "a roaring lion." But not only as powerful is he de¬ picted; also as artful and deceitful (Matt. 13: 24-28; Eph. 6:11; 2 Cor. 2:11). "Deep guile and great might are his dread arms in fight," He is the tempter and destroyer from the beginning, the fountain-head of all evil. His evil will, which is bent on our destruction, is opposed to God's good and gracious will, and all his efforts are to prevent us from doing it and receiving the blessing. The devil is also called the prince of this world. By the world is not to be understood here the world which God made and saw to be very good, but the world which sin entered. It is the fallen world, with all its lusts, whose will is Satan's and opposed to God's (1 John 2:15). This world is sufficient unto itself, indulges its own lusts, goes its own way and does not care and concern itself about God and His name and kingdom. When, however, these things of God become too inconvenient to its in¬ terest and life, it contends against them with lies, ridicule, force. It is this evil world which would allure and capture us. Finally Luther names our flesh, L e., our old cor¬ rupt and corrupting nature which we have from Adam, which still inheres in us Christians and is in secret accord with the will of the world and of the devil. "Our flesh," says Luther, "is in itself indolent and inclined to evil, even though we have accepted and believed the Word of God" (L. C.). In this, that the flesh still "hangs about the neck" of Christians, the devil and the world have a foot- hold and an ally for the performance of their work. Through his flesh there arises even in the Christian a contrary will which would not let him hallow God's name nor let His kingdom come. This is why God's will is not done—^not even in Christen¬ dom—on earth, as it is in heaven (Rom. 7: 23)- — 1G7 — But we Christians pray in the power of the new will, which in spite of our carnal will has become alive in us through a new birth, that God's good and gracious will may be so done on earth as it is in heaven. This is effected when, in answer to our prayer, God first of all defeats and hinders every evil counsel and purpose, such as the will of the devil, the world and our own flesh. It is, how¬ ever, we ourselves, our own carnal will, that are here especially meant. Our prayer is directed first of all to this and narrows down to this, that all our own will, in so far as it is at variance with God's will, i. our self-will be defeated and hin¬ dered. But if the will of God is to be done by us on earth as it is in heaven, it is not enough, negatively, that the evil counsel and purpose be defeated and hin¬ dered ; it is needed, positively, that the good will wrought in us be strong to submit and obey. There is set forth here not only a will arrayed or not ar¬ rayed against God, but also a will enlisted and zealous for God. This, too, is necessary, for our salvation (Matt- 7:21); and this includes full submission to whatever God's will may appoint. This is seldom easy. The will of God is undoubt¬ edly always good and gracious, but the blessing which it conveys to us is often covered with a bit¬ ter coating. Then it may be very hard to be so promptly and completely reconciled and resigned to God's will that our will coincides with His, as it was hard for the Saviour in Gethsemane. But it is true also of him who surrenders his own will to God, that God loves a cheerful giver; and besides, special promises of later and larger good are made to those who patiently endure whatever God in His infinite love and wisdom may ordain for them (1 Pet. 5:6; Heb. 12:11). We ask, therefore, how such a will, conformed and consenting to God's will, is brought about. Luther answers that it is the work of God, and that it is done when He strengthens and keeps us stead¬ fast in His Word and in faith unto our end. A man's own will consents to that of another when he is sure that such other will is wise and salutary. God's will is this preeminently, for it is a good and gracious one. It is only necessary that it be clearly and certainly known to be this, and then His heavenly light illumines even the darkest clouds. Luther says: "When now this also is done (namely, when all sorts of adversity and suffering befall us), the man is in great dis¬ tress and anguish, and considers nothing so little as this, that his condition means the doing of God's will; but he thinks that he is forsaken and handed over to the devil and evil men, that there is no longer any God in heaven who knows him or will hear him." How, in such a case, shall a clear and certain knowledge of the good and gracious will of God come into the soul and*remain? Here nothing else helps but God's Word. Howhere else than in His Word is His good and gracious will revealed. But it is necessary to believe the same; and therefore Luther points to the Word and faith as the means whereby our self-will shall be sub- 169 dued and made one with. God's will. God must strengthen us, i. e., make us strong in His Word and in faith, or, more briefly, in faith in His Word. But there is here considered not simply a solitary and passing instance, but an enduring condition which is to be preserved and maintained against all the adversities and vicissitudes of life. There¬ fore the powers proceeding from the Word and faith must effectually abide in us. There needs not only that God make us strong, but also that lie keep ns steadfast in His Word and in faith unto our end. Only through such gracious and en¬ abling help of God is it possible to endure in this long protracted struggle, at all times to unite our will with that of God, and let it be done and borne at whatever cost to ourselves. And this, we repeat, is not easy, but hard. Again Luther says: "How mark that in this petition God calls on us to pray against ourselves. Thereby He teaches us that we have no greater enemy than ourselves. For our will is the greatest thing in us, and against the same we must pray, Father, let me not fall into this, that it goes according to my will; let it go with me as it may, that it only go not according to my will, but only according to Thy will. For so it is in heaven; there there is no self-will; that the same may also be on earth.' Such prayer, when it is made, is very grievous to nature; for the self- will is the very deepest and greatest thing in us, and there is nothing dearer to us than our own will," It is in this wdy that the self-will is brought un- ~ 170 — der God's will; that rest amid the turmoil of the world is obtained, joy in sorrow, peace in strife. It is the Christian's secret of a happy life—to reflect and believe that each event is ordered by God's good and gracious will, that He doeth all things well, that all things work together for good to those who love Him. The Fourth Petition. Give US this day our daily bread. What is meant by this? God gives daily bread indeed without our prayer even to all the wicked; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to acknowledge and receive our daily bread with tbanksgfiving. What is meant by "daily bread?" All that belongs to the wants and support of the body, such as meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace and health, order, honor, good friends, trusty neighbors and the like. The first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer pertain, as we have seen, to the glory and sover¬ eignty of God. Therefore "Thy" is the personal pronoun employed. The four remaining petitions relate to our own wants. Therefore we say in them "our" and "us." The "Thy" petitions, how¬ ever, should be made as heartily and earnestly as the "our" petitions. "Our Pater Noster," an old writer has said, "for the most part begins at Give ns this day our daily bread, and our prayers are much like Jaeob's vow. If God will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, then shall He be my God; but the Lord bids us seek first the kingdom of God and His righteoumess, and assures us that all things necessary shall be added unto us" If we are to live and do God's will our life must be preserved; and for its preservation there is needed a due supply of food. Hence, in the Large Catechism, Luther declares: "Here we are re¬ minded of our poor breadbasket, namely, of our body and the necessities of the temporal life. It is a brief and simple word (^daily bread'), but it is also very broad and comprehensive." Already in the Third Petition our attention was directed incidentally to our life on earth, but here the earthly life itself is treated of and is only now rightly apprehended. He who has prayed the Third Petition aright is now ready to pray the Pourth. Our Daily Bread. Bread, the "staff of life," is that by which the bodily life is chiefly supported. Here, however, the word is used in a figurative sense, the part being put for the whole. The adjective "daily" — 172 — denotes the quantity (as bread the quality—not luxurious provision, but simple fare), and the whole phrase denotes "all that belongs to the wants and support of the body," or, as it is said in the Large Catechism, "Everything that belongs to our entire life in this world." What we ask for does not exceed what is nec¬ essary. We do not ask for a superfluity, but for a sufficiency (Provs. 30: 8; 1 Tim. 6:6-8). In such moderation of desires and demands true con¬ tentment consists. But the bread is to be our bread, honestly earned and come by, and not that of a beggar or idler or cheat. "Eor if you speak of and pray for daily bread," says Luther, "you pray for everything that is necessary in order to have and enjoy the same, and also against every¬ thing which interferes with it" (L. C.). Eor ex¬ ample, to pray for employment, when unemployed, is to pray for daily bread. In his answer to the question, What is meant by "daily bread?" Luther summarizes the things which are necessary: Meat and drink—food; clothing and shoes—raiment; house and home— shelter: these are the three fundamental needs. Land, cattle, money, goods—it is by these means that those needs are supplied. A pious spouse, children and servants—these represent a God¬ fearing household. Then the view is extended to the community and the state. This, in turn, is dependent on national and natural conditions, such as good weather, rain and sunshine in their seasons, and a prevailing peace. The character- — 173 — istics of such a desirable life are then named— health, order, honor, good friends, trusty neigh¬ bors and the like. Such is the daily bread for which we are here taught to pray. It reminds us of the ^'richly provides me with all I need for this body and life" of the first article of the Creed. Give TTs. That is, to me when I pray, and to all whom I in¬ clude in my prayer. If I thus sincerely pray, there is involved also the wish and will that each one may have his daily bread and also my readi¬ ness to supply his lack (Eph. 4: 28). Still, we are taught to pray for daily bread, to ask it as a gift; and that although the charge was laid upon the man to wrest his living from the ground (Gen. 3:19). Both in the Old Testament and in the K'ew we read of ^^labor and sorrow" and of "the works of our hands" (Ps, 90:10; 2 Thess. 3: 10-12). Thus labor is the divinely appointed means of acquiring our daily bread; and in the "land, cattle, money, goods," we are given inci¬ dentally the same direction. If, then, we are to labor for our daily bread, is not the prayer superfluous? We hold with Lu¬ ther, "These things come from God and must be prayed for by us." That we work for it does not make the object any less God's gift (Jas. 1:17). God is the author, owner and giver of all things. From Him proceed the power and skill of the worker and the* rewards of his industry. When — 174 — we do what God ordains in order to obtain them- / then that is the way in which we become partakers of His good gifts. Everything still remains the gift of God. All must come from Him and all must be prayed for by us. "Therefore you must enlarge your thoughts and extend them afar, not only to the oven or the flour-barrel, but to the dis¬ tant field and the entire land, which bears and brings to us daily bread and every sort of suste¬ nance. For if God did not cause it to grow, and bless and preserve it in the field, we could never take bread from the oven or have any to set upon the table" (L. C.). God, it is true, gives daily bread indeed without our prayer. How often have we neglected to ask, and yet have received! Yea, Luther includes even the wicked who do not pray (Matt. 5:45), who "gorge and swill, feed and feast with the gifts, as swine at the trough, or heap up, rake and scrape, and do not otherwise than if they were indebted in nothing to God, and had it all of themselves." I7evertheless we pray. True children ask, even if they know that the father gives without being asked. So do God's true children. And this is necessary if we would receive aright. Those who do not ask receive indeed all sorjs of things, per¬ haps even richly, but they do not receive the gifts in the right manner and spirit. Therefore we pray in this petition that God would: Lead us to acknowledge and receive our daily bread with thanksgiving. - - — 175 — Two things belong to right receiving. The first is that we recognize the daily bread to be the gift of God. To this recognition prayer helps as noth¬ ing else. When I receive what I have asked for, I perceive it to be a gift. But where there is this recognition, there follows also thanksgiving. The latter is so often lacking because the former is so often lacking (Deut. 8: 6-18; Hos. 13: 6). Only when the gift is acknowledged and received with I thanksgiving is the blessing complete. "There is the widest difference whether one only takes the bread from Him or thanks Him for it. Without the thanks we do not have the greatest good with it, the blessing of the Giver. Otherwise the be¬ neficence of the Creator will be a snare to us: we become absorbed in the earthly life, be it in luxury and feasting, be it in avarice and heathen anxiety.'^ The custom of saying grace at table is a salutary one and should be faithfully observed. Where it has fallen into disuse it should be revived. This Day. Or day by day. For this day we ask our daily bread, not for to-morrow. When to-morrow comes we ask again. Here we are warned against allow¬ ing ourselves, in anxious and distracting cares about the morrow, to distrust God and unfit our¬ selves for the duties of the present day (Matt. 6: 34). This is the characteristic of anxiety that it is fearful of tl:if future and faithless toward God. This anxiety the Lord would rebuke and prevent. The Fifth Petition. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. What is meant by this? We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look upon our sins, nor, on account of them, deny our prayer; for we are not worthy of anything we ask, neither have we deserved it; but that He would grant us all through grace; for we sin much every day, and deserve nothing but punish¬ ment. And we on our part will heartily forgive and readily do good to those who sin against us. Having prayed to our heavenly Father for all the things necessary to this life, we could be truly happy were it not for one thing—our trespasses against the bountiful Giver of all good gifts. "This point now pertains," says Luther, "to our poor miserable life, which, although we have and believe the Word of God, and do and suffer His will, and are supported by His gifts and blessings, is nevertheless not without sin. For we stumble daily and transgress" (L. C.). This fact, of which we are deeply sensible, that "we sin much every day," keeps us from being the joyful chil¬ dren of God that we otherwise would be. Hence the connection between the goodness of God, as seen in the Fourth Petition, and our guilt and ill- 177 desert, as seen in the daily sin of the Fifth, is so close as to justify the connective "and." We pray that God would give us our daily bread, and for¬ give us our daily trespasses. Our Trespasses. Various words are employed in Scripture to de¬ scribe our state of sinfulness and the offences which we daily commit. Several of these occur in connection with the Lord's Prayer. "Forgive us our debts," we read in St. Matthew; "Forgive us our sins," in St. Luke; and again in St. Matthew (6:14) the Lord uses the word "trespasses." By the term "sin" is denoted the idea of missing a mark or aim; by "debts," that we have made our¬ selves liable for that which we cannot repay; by "trespasses," that we have wandered from the nar¬ row way which leadeth unto life and have strayed into forbidden paths and places. All of these terms simply signify transgression—^that we have daily and deeply transgressed God's holy law in thought and word and deed. Therefore we pray: Forgive TTs, This prayer is addressed to our heavenly Father, which He is and remains in spite of our sins against Him; "for He has given us the Gospel, in which is pure forgiveness, before we prayed or ever thought about it" (L. C.). We therefore pray in this pelition that our Father in heaven 12 178 would not look upon our sins, nor, on account of them, deny our prayer. There are two things here specified which to¬ gether constitute the divine forgiveness. The first is that God "would not look upon our sins." What one does not look upon one does not seri¬ ously consider and regard. We ask, therefore, that God would not pay regard to our sins, that He would not consider them and count them against us. Hence, in the second place, we ask that He would not deny our prayer on account of them, i. e., this prayer, the Lord's Prayer with all its petitions. Were He to do so, we might well despair of an answer; for we are not worthy of anything we ask (Luke 15t 19), neither have we deserved a single gift which we received (Gen. 32:10). On the contrary, we sin much every day and deserve nothing hut punishment. So that when our petitions are heard, it can only be that He grants us all through grace; and if this be done it is proof that our sins are forgiven, that God is our dear heavenly Father still and that we are His dear children, who may and should be joyful in the Lord. For "a confident and joyful heart is im¬ possible except in the assurance of the forgiveness of sin" (L. C.). ^ As we Forgive those who Trespass Against TTs. As we so often sin against God, so also Ave tres¬ pass in many ways against our fellow-men among whom we live, and they against us. {Note. Often a man injures his neighbor and is angry with him as though he were at fault. In such a ease there is owing not forgiveness but an apology.) When it is we who are injured and offended, we shall forgive—^we who pray God to forgive us our trespasses against Him. And we shall forgive in a twofold manner. First, heartily. Our forgiveness is to be not from the lips with a mental reservation about forgiving but not forget¬ ting, but unreservedly from the heart (Matt. 18:35). We on our part shall not look upon their sins. But furthermore, we shall readily do good to them, as the Lord commands (Matt. 5: 44 and 45 ; cf. Rom. 12: 20). As the divine forgive¬ ness is manifested and completed in the granting of our prayer and the bestowing of the desired gifts, so should be our forgiveness of our fellow- men in returning good for evil. As we forgive: not because. "ITot on account of our forgiving, for God forgives freely and with¬ out condition, out of pure grace, because He has so promised as the Gospel teaches" (L. C.). "As" here denotes "like as we also," implying in the two actions a similarity of mode and not a com¬ parison of degree. We may forgive each other a hundred pence, but God forgives us ten thousand talents (Matt. 18:23-24). In this parable of the unmerciful servant we learn that God's forgive¬ ness and man's forgiveness belong and must go together. This ^forgiving spirit is absolutely necessary if we may hope for the forgiveness of 180 our own sins, for peace of mind in our dying moments and for divine mercy in that day when we shall stand most in need of it. {Note. '^The founder of Georgia once said to the founder of Methodism, never forgive.' John Wesley answered, ^Sir, I trust you never sin/ ") IsTot to forgive shows that we understand not our own sins against God and the goodness and grace of His forgiveness. But if we realize what is the plenteous stream of His forgiveness descending upon us, we will let the overflow of our grateful hearts pour down upon our enemies as a due thankoffering on our part. And precisely this, that we forgive those who trespass against us, is a sign and seal of God's forgiveness of our sins against Him. Luther does not hesitate to compare it with the external signs of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, and to say that "this sign can also produce as great effects to comfort our consciences and cause them to rejoice. And it is especially given for this purpose, viz.: that we might prac¬ tice and make use of it every hour, as that which we have with us at all times" (L. C.). The Sixth Petition. And lead ns not into temptation. What is meant by this ? God indeed tempts no one, but we pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us, that the — 181 — devil, the world and our own flesh may not deceive US, nor lead ns into misbelief, despair and other shameful sin and vice; and, though we be thus tempted, that we may still in the end overcome, and hold the victory. As we have just prayed that God would forgive us our past sins, so we now pray that He would keep us from future sins. For, "although we have received forgiveness and a good conscience and are entirely acquitted, yet is our life of such a nature that one stands to-day and to-morrow falls" (L. C.). Hence the connecting "and" which unites the two petitions. Lead us not into Temptation, This petition, as the other petitions are, is ad¬ dressed to God. This has always appeared strange. It implies that God does lead into temptation. Does He ? "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil" (Matt. 4:1). God does not tempt (Jas. 1:13)—■ it is the devil who tempts^—^but God leads into temptation. What is stated in reference to Jesus is true of us all. While God Himself does not tempt, it is His will that we be tempted, L e., that we be tried and tested. Into this trial or test evil enters; but God cannot be its author and agent because He cannot deny Himself. This appears from our Lord's temptation in which the devil would incite Him to go other ways and do other things than those enjoined on Him by His Father. So also in paradifee the serpent incited Eve to act contrary to God's commandment. But to trans¬ gress God's commandment is to do evil; and since there is in every temptation such an incitement to transgress, it is clear that the temptation cannot proceed from God. Luther says truly, "God in¬ deed tempts no one;" but the force of the "in¬ deed" is just this, that although God does not tempt, He leads into temptation. Hor should it seem strange that God should suffer and even order us to be tempted. Without temptation there is no moral good and no moral growth. Moral good is first effected when it is freely chosen in the re¬ jection of evil. God leads into temptation that the moral good may be produced and increased. The end which He purposes is our approvedness and growth in faith and virtue and every grace. Temptation is necessary to true moral development (Job 1:10-12; Deut. 8: 2; 2 Cor. 12: Y-9). But why, then, do we pray, Lead us not into temptation? Because of the consciousness of our weakness. We pray out of a deep sense of our infirmity and our fear least we fall under the power of temptation. We pray that He "who knows us to be set in the midst of so manv and t/ great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright, will grant to us such strength and protectidh as may support us in all dangers and carry us through all tempt¬ ations." The Lord Jesus who prayed for Simon Peter and yet permitted him to be tempted, and who so well knew His disciples' weakness as to bid — 183 — them watch and pray that they enter not into temptation—it is He who teaches ns thus to pray. This appears at length in the explanation. We pray in this petition that God would guard and keep usj that the devil, the world and our own flesh may not deceive us, nor lead us into misbelief, despair, and other shameful sin and vice. We have here a description of temptation—^whence it comes, how it proceeds, and when consented to, in what it results. Its author or source is the devil, the world and our own flesh. These we have already met in the explanation of the Third Petition as the opponents of God's holy will. Here they reappear as the tempters and instigators to evil. In the Large Catechism Luther rightly considers the flesh first, for it is from our flesh that temptation comes first of all and most of all (Jas. 1:14). "For," he says, "we all dwell in the flesh and carry the old Adam on our shoulders; he exerts himself and daily incites us to wantonness, indolence, excess in eating and drinking, avarice and deception . . . and, in short, to all manner of evil lusts," By the "flesh," however, is by no means meant only the sins which find place in the body. Also spiritual sins—such as anger, envy, idolatry and the like—are the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21). Indeed, the flesh (the corrupt nature) is the me¬ dium of all temptations. As a further agent of temptation Luther names the world, i, e., the fallen sinful world which is op¬ posed to God and without God. From this world —from its life of ambition and competition, its attractions and pleasures—arise manifold tempta¬ tions to manifold sin, to hatred and envy, violence and wrong, pride and pleasure and power and fame, "where no one is willing to be the least, but everyone desires to sit at the head, and to be seen of all" (L. C.). Then appears the third member of this evil trinity, who, however, has all along been on the scene. "Then comes the devil, inciting and pro¬ voking in all directions, but especially exerting himself in spiritual matters and such as pertain to conscience, to induce us to despise and disre¬ gard the works and Word of God, to tear us from our faith, from hope and from love" (L. C.). As the result of such temptation to evil, when yielded to, Luther mentions misbelief, despair and other shameful sin and vice. This reference is to the twofold province in which the Christian lives and moves, first the true faith and then the right life growing out of it. The sin in the province of faith is, before all, misbelief, a perverted appre¬ hension of the Word of truth, as when it is set aside and false security arises, i, e,, a confidence in oneself and not in the power and grace of God. Where such false confidence exists there arises, when the evil days come, blank despair, which not seldom leads to self-destruction (Judas). In the province of life there spring from such misbelief and unbelief many different sins. These are the sins of which we learned in the second table of the Law—anger and murder, lust and adultery, rob- bery and theft, lies and slander, covetousness and avarice, and all such sin and vice as are properly called shameful, for they shame and degrade the man created in the image of God. Finally, how temptation proceeds. This is worthy of careful notice, for we here leam the pro¬ cedure of the enemy and are better prepared to give him battle. Luther mentions two stages of temptation—deceive and lead. Of these we leam j in the story of the first temptation. First of all the serpent deceived the woman, persuading her that God's commandment was not for her happi¬ ness, but that it would be to her advantage to transgress it. Thus it awoke misbelief—as hap¬ pens still. God's Word to us intends our highest good. Then the voice of the tempter counsels us not to believe it, to disregard and disobey it, and find in transgressing it a superior good. This is the lie of the tempter and the deceitfulness of sin. Then hard on this follows the being led to do the deed. When the woman had let herself be de¬ ceived and when she saw that the tree was fair to the eyes and good for food, she took and ate. The leading into the actual sin was then accomplished. So it has always been. Whoever has become mis¬ believing and has suffered himself to be deceived as to God's Word, enjoys looking at the forbidden fruit, at the pleasures and profits of sin; and the lust strengthens in his heart and at length leads him to commit the sin. It is in this way that temptation succeeds and evil triumphs. It is because of this subtle and only too success¬ ful power of temptation that we pray God to guard us against it. Moved by a sense of our in¬ sufficiency to cope with it, we pray that we be spared and exempted from it. But this is not all. We also pray that God would keep us, would keep us, i. e., when we run or fall into temptation. Temptations surround us on every side, and it is impossible to shun and escape all of them. We therefore pray not so much that there be none as that we be overcome by none. "For since we live in the flesh and have the devil about us, no one can escape temptation and allurements; yea, it can¬ not be otherwise than that we must endure trials" (L. C.). There not only are temptations, but there must be. There is in them an educational value; and Luther once said that for himself he did not wish especially to be free from all of them. They exist, as we said, for a purpose—^that we may have our spiritual growth amid and by means of them. It is this thought which is expressed more fully in the conclusion; and, though we be thus tempted, that we may still in the end overcome and hold the victory. It is presupposed that when we are tempted we will take up the battle against sin. With regard to this struggle we ask God that we may overcome and hold the victory. Of God we ask it because we know that in our own strength we cannot achieve it. "If you venture to help yourself by your own thoughts and counsel, you will only make the mat- ter worse and give the devil more space" (L. C.). How do we obtain from God the requisite power to resist and prevail ? Through prayer. To a habit of watchfulness and humility must be added a habit of prayer. An absence of watchfulness lays us open to the snares and wiles of the wicked one and renders us ready victims to his assaults. An absence of humility betrays us into self-confidence, which, as in the case of Peter (Matt. 26:33-35), brings about many a defeat and fall. An ab¬ sence of prayer sends us to the conflict unarmed and unprepared. Prayer is the key to the arsenal in which are stored the Christian's weapons (Eph. 6:10-18). But being equipped by prayer with the arms and armor by which we are enabled to overcome, it is further necessary to learn how the enemy at¬ tacks and is to be conquered. This we are taught by our Lord (who was tempted as we are), and His temptation is the lesson. It presents (Matt. 4:1-11) the essential features which are found in the first temptation, with which it may be com¬ pared. Him also the devil endeavored to deceive, to make Him misbelieve God's will and word, and lead Him into sin. But throughout Jesus stead¬ fastly held Himself to that revealed will and writ¬ ten Word of God. This shows to us the way in which the tempter and his temptation is to be overcome, namely, by taking our stand on God's clear Word and standing fast. Moreover, when Jesus was showed all the kingdoms of the world and the glory •of them, He did not let His eyes dwell on them, as Eve had beheld with desire the forbidden fruit, but He answered at once, "Get thee hence, Satan!" So also should we, -when ap¬ proached and allured hj these evil three, the devil, the world and our flesh, respond with an instant, "Get thee hence!" It is the swift, effectual answer of a will fixed in God and a heart set on serving Him alone. In it lies the power success¬ fully to resist temptation and overcome. That we may still in the end overcome and hold the victory. This sounds as if only one battle and one victory were meant. But we know that the good fight of faith and a faithful life is not a single conflict or campaign, but a protracted war. Temptation follows temptation after longer or shorter intervals of exemption and reprieve (Luke 4:13) as long as life lasts. What is here meant is that in every new temptation we are ever anew to resist and withstand the tempter and, with God's help, to prevail. !N"ot, however, that we shall always be able to stand. In this series of battles that make up our warfare there is not always victory; there is sometimes disastrous de¬ feat. Hence the though we be thus tempted, we may still in the end overcome. We shall rise when we fall, renew the conflict and more earnestly pray. Then each new victory will confer new power; and what Luther declares of temptations will come to pass: "They must desist and finally yield" (L. C.). The Seventh Petition. But deliver us from evil. What is meant hy thief We pray in this petition, as the sum of all, that our Father in heaven would deliver us from all man¬ ner of evil—in body and soul, property and honor—. and at last, when the hour of death shall come, grant us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this vale of sorrow to Himself in heaven. But deliver us from evil. 'No petition is con¬ nected so closely with the preceding one as the Seventh with the Sixth. Although the "but" is dis¬ junctive and not conjunctive, it makes the petitions the two parts of a single whole. In the Sixth we prayed to be kept from sin: here we pray to be de¬ livered from evil, which is the consequence of sin. That evil is the result of sin Scripture plaiiJy teaches. It is these wages of sin which are now considered, and not sin itself. The greatest of them is death. But human life is full of evils of much less severity—"poverty, shame, and, in short, all misery and sorrow which is so without limit on the earth" (L. C.). Not seldom it is these which first drive men to prayer. This is not right. There can be no deliverance from the evil unless there be first deliverance from the sin (Matt. 9: 1-7). Hence th« prayer which so many make first, — 190 — the Lord makes last. "For if we are to be pre¬ served and delivered from all evil, the name of God must be sanctified in us, His kingdom must be with us, and His will done among us. After that He will preserve us from sin and shame, and from everything besides which might harm and injure us" (L. C.). We pray, then, that our heavenly Father: Would deliver us from all manner of evil—in body and soul, property and honor. "All manner of evil" denotes all possible evils, whether they are present or imminent, whether they pertain to the body—such as hunger and thirst, sickness and pain; or to the soul—such as guilt and remorse, sorrow and care; or to our property—such as its loss by thieves or fire or flood; or to our honor—such as slander or disgrace or being misjudged. From all such evils we pray God to deliver us. Does He ? It is our Father in heaven of whom we ask this, and He the Father Almighty. He is good and gracious, willing and able; and life is full of ex¬ amples of evil being removed or prevented. But this is not the only mode of deliverance. Suffer¬ ing and sorrow still remain even in the case of Christians. It were untrue to say that Christ¬ ianity bestows exemption from evils. Christians also and severely suffer (Acts 14:22). Is the prayer therefore denied? 'No. There is not only a bodily, there is also a mental and spiritual deliverance which is not less blessed and real. Evils are the consequence of sin, and as such they are divine punishments. But they are more than that. The Sovereign Judge who decreed them is also the loving heavenly Father. Punishments by human fathers do not find their last significance in the fact that they are punishments. They are not an end in them¬ selves, but a means to an end. They are corrective and remedial in their purpose and effect. So also of God's punishments of men in general, and His chastisements of us in particular who pray "Our Father" (Heb. 12: 5-15). To the children of God, for example, worldliness still adheres. God lets us taste the bitterness and deceitfulness of the world that He may kill worldliness in us, that He may direct us from the temporal to the eternal. When there is such a blessed discipline and result from the enduring of evil, the soul wins through to the height on which the apostle (who had and kept his thorn in the flesh) stands and speaks in Rom. 5:3-5. We also glory in our tribulations when we understand that they are a salutary cross, a blessing in disguise, working for our good in an exalted and eternal way. They are evils and they are not evils. From them as evils we are deliv¬ ered ; for God has overruled them to our spiritual and everlasting good. But this deliverance is not yet complete. Our¬ selves also shall be delivered (Rom. 8:23). The time of our deliverance we learn in 2 Tim. 4:18, where the apostle is thinking of his death. Then is deliverance indeed consummated from all man¬ ner of evil. Hdhce Luther continues: And at last^ when the hour of death shall come^ grant us a blessed end. The end comes, to be sure, inevitably; but there is need that it be a blessed one, such as is promised to those who die in the Lord (Eev. 14:13). The blessedness of this, end is more fully described in the words: And graciously take us from this vale of sorrow to Himself in heaven. Graciously; as there is still need. Grace is needed up to our last hour. By the "vale of sor¬ row" is meant the earth. 'Not that the earth is not full of the goodness of the Lord and that we who enjoy His good gifts should not acknowledge them with thanksgiving. But this is the Seventh and not the Fourth Petition. The evils of life and not its gifts and goods are now before us, whether they be the "labor and sorrow" of Ps. 90:10, or the "tribulation" of John 16:33. In a full survey the phrase which the optimistic Luther selected is the right one: "Vale of sor¬ row." And precisely herein consists the blessed end, when the Lord graciously takes us from it to Himself in heaven. Where is heaven? Where He is. He takes us to heaven when He takes us to Himself. Geographers and astronomers know it not; but Christians know^it (Phil. 1:23). Veiled from their eyes, they do not lift the veil; but its secret is disclosed in the light of the words: "I believe . . . the Kesurrection of the dead and the Life everlasting." [For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever.] Amen. What is meant hy this? That I should he sure that these petitions are acceptable to our Father in heaven, and are heard by Him; for He Himself has commanded us so to pray, and has promised to hear us. Amen, Amen, that is. Yea, Yea; it shall he so. With this Doxology the Lord's Prayer is brought to a close. It was not originally a part of the Prayer, but was added at a later date. Hence Luther confines his explanation to the word "Amen." However, ascriptions of praise form a suitable conclusion to all prayers and are war¬ ranted by Scripture (1 Chr. 29:11; 1 Tim. 1: 17; Jude 25; Rev. 6:12-14). This Doxology, therefore, is in the spirit of Scripture, and ex¬ presses several attributes of God which are "so many props to our faith, so many assurances that we shall be heard." Thine is the Kingdom. When we thus affirm that to God belongs the kingdom, we mean that to Him belongs dominion over all creation, and that though there be a king¬ dom of Satan and divers kingdoms of men, yet the kingdom belongeth unto Him (1 Tim. 6:15). Therefore what w# ask we ask of Him. 13 — 194 — And the Power. He has not only the power and supremacy, bu also the power and ability to grant our petitions He is Almighty—"able to do exceeding abun dantly above all that we ask or think" (Eph 3: 20) and is "always more ready to hear than w< to pray, and wont to give more than either we de sire or deserve." On Him we may therefore relj to help us in our need. And the Glory, God's glory is what all our praying has in vievi (Luke 2:14; John 12: 28). When we desire and seek the glory of God, our prayers will indubitably be heard and our petitions granted. For Ever and Ever. The kingdom and power and glory belong to God eternally (Ps. 145:13). He changeth not (Jas. 1:17). He ever lives and reigns to fulfil His faithful promises and to do for us, if not always according to our Avill, yet as it shall pro¬ mote our salvation and His glory (Rom. 8:32, 38 and 39). Amen. • This is a foreign, if a familiar word. What it means at the end of a creed we have already seen. Its meaning at the end of a prayer Luther thus explains: — 195 — An len, Amen^ that is. Yea, Yea; it shall he so. The thought is this: How small am I, and He how great! How sinful am I, and He how holy! Yet He hears and answers my prayer. And what reason have I to he sure of it? He Himself has commanded ns so to pray, and has promised to hear ns. His command and promise are our security and assurance. If it were not so He would have told us (John 14:2). Having told us we rely with the utmost confidence upon His Word. "Whenever," Luther says, "a godly Christian prays: ^Dear Father, let Thy will he done,' God speaks from on high and says: Wes, dear child, it shall he so, in spite of the devil and all the world" and again he says, speaking of prayers offered in uncertainty whether they will he heard: "That is staking prayer on a risk, and murmuring it on a venture; and therefore it is a lost prayer." "All depends upon this," he declares in the Large Catechism, "that we leam to say 'Amen* i. e,, that we do not douht that our prayer will surely he heard, and that what we pray shall he done. For this is nothing else than the word of undouhting faith, not of one praying at a venture, hut of one who knows that God does not lie to him, since He has promised to grant it. Where, therefore, there is no such faith, there also there can he no true prayer. It is, therefore, a pernicious delusion of those who thus pray that they cannot from the heart say 'Amen' thereto, and positively conclude that God will aaswer their prayer, hut that they remain in doubt and say, ^How should I be so bold? as to boast that God will answer my prayer? Since I am nothing but a poor sinner,' etc. The reason for this is, they regard not the promise of God, but their own worth and worthiness, whereby they despise God and reproach Him with lying, and therefore they receive nothing, as St. James says" (Jas. 1: 6 and Y). PART IV. The Sacrament of Holy Baptism. Introduction. Luther's Small Catechism is composed of five principal parts. Of these, two remain to be con¬ sidered, namely, the Sacrament of Holy Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar. In the Large Catechism Luther introduces the subject of the Sacraments with the following statement: ^^We have now finished the three chief parts of common Christian doctrine. Besides these we have yet to speak of our two Sacraments instituted by Christ, of which also every Christian ought to have at least some short elementary instruction, because without them there can be no Christian." The word Sacrament is not found in Scripture. It is derived from the Latin and it refers to the oath by which the newly enlisted soldier bound himself to be loyal to the emperor. Just so the Christian convert bound himself by a great oath, pledging his allegiance and obedience to his heavenly Commander. Inasmuch, therefore, as in the Sacrament of Baptism the Christian enlists under Christ's banner and solemnly vows to be His loyal soldier, it is to this Sacrament that the word originally applied, rather than to the Sacra¬ ment of the Lord's Supper. (Indeed, as applied to the Lord's Si"^per, the word Sacrament rather translates the Greek word "mystery, i.e., some — m — especially solemn truth or act of the Christian re¬ ligion. It is the mysterious character of the Lord's Supper which mainly earned for it this name.) Whereas, moreover, the Christian soldier who enlists on the side of his great Captain en¬ gages to fight against all His enemies, and whereas His arch-enemy is the devil, the first vow made by the Baptismal candidate is that he will re¬ nounce the devil, and all his works, and all his ways. It is in this Sacrament, therefore, that the believer is received from the ranks of the world, introduced into Christ's Church militant, and en¬ rolled among those who follow and fight under the standard of His cross. But the Sacrament of Holy Baptism means more than this. The Holy Christian Church is the Communion of Saints, L e,, those who believe in Christ and have been redeemed from all sins with His holy, precious blood. To become a member of His Church, therefore, and live under Him in His kingdom demands the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God, and this—the fruits of His redemption—^the Sacrament of Baptism be¬ stows. It is to be noted, also, that Christ Himself instituted these two Sacraments, and in them com¬ municates His redeeming grace through outward, visible means (water, bread an(f wine). Hence a Sacrament may be defined as a holy act, instituted by Christ, in which, under earthly visible ele¬ ments, invisible heavenly gifts of grace are com¬ municated. Our two Sacraments answer to this definition: — 199 — Holy Baptism, through which we become regen¬ erate and are received into the kingdom of God; and the Lord's Supper, through which we are pre¬ served and strengthened in His kingdom; or, to put it another way, Baptism is the means of the new birth and life of the child of God; the Lord's Supper is the means by which he is nourished and sustained. The Roman Catholic Church enumer¬ ates five additional Sacraments, namely, Confirma¬ tion, Penitence, Marriage, Ordination and Ex¬ treme Unction. These fail, however, in one or more of three particulars: either they are without the express institution of Christ; or they have no earthly visible sign, or they impart no special gift of New Testament grace. It will be seen, then, that the Sacraments, to¬ gether with the Word of God, are Means of Grace, i. e., they make known and communicate the grace of God in Christ—^with this difference: The Sac¬ raments offer and convey the heavenly grace (the forgiveness of sins and acceptance with God) to each one separately, thus individualizing the bless¬ ing baptize thee''—"Given for thee'^—"Shed for thy sins") to the worthy recipient in a manner in which it is not done in the ordinary proclama¬ tion of the Gospel, which holds forth the promised blessings to all in general. It should furthermore be remarked that the visi¬ ble earthly signs are not in themselves the offered grace, neither do they in themselves contain it. But in their sacramental 7/se they do mediate, in a mysterious and inscrutable manner, the gracious gift. The connection between the earthly element and the divine gift takes place only in the sacra¬ mental act, and only by virtue of Christ's original words of institution, which are at once a command that such and such be done and a promise that He will faithfully fulfil His part. Christ's Word is the principal thing. "The Word comes to the ele¬ ment, and it becomes a Sacrament" (St. Augus¬ tine). Luther divides the Fourth Part into four sec¬ tions, each consisting of a question, an answer and a text from Scripture. By this method he shows: 1. What Baptism is. 2. What blessings it be¬ stows. 3. In what way the blessings are secured. 4. What is the consequent duty of the baptized. I. What is Baptism? Baptism is not simply water, but it is the water comprehended in God's command, and connected with God's Word. What is that Word of God? That which Christ our Lord says in the last chap¬ ter of Matthew: "Go ye and teach all nations, bap¬ tizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." Luther first of all describes what baptism is not: it is not simply water. This he says chiefly in opposition to the fanatics and anabaptists who were disposed to make of baptism a mere symbol and outward rite. Still, while not simply water, baptism is water, and without water there woxild be no baptism. But this water is not ordinarily employed. It is the water camprehended in God's command and connected with God's Word. Three things, according to this statement, are necessary to this Sacrament. 1. Water. As has been said, while baptism is not simply water, the water is simple, natural water. In itself it is not different from any other water, and apart from the divine word of command with which it is united it is, as Luther says, "the same as that with which the ser¬ vant cooks, and may indeed be called a bath- keeper's baptism" (L. C.). But this water which is not better than any other, is bound up with God's Word (for the word "baptize," meaning to "wash," involves and demands the use of water) and thereby becomes in a sense a ^^divine water"— "not simply natural water, but a divine, heavenly, holy and blessed water ... all on account of the Word" (L. C.), 2. God's command. This water is comprehended in God's command, t. c., it is ordered and or¬ dained by God. Its use is not "devised or in¬ vented by men," but rests solely on the divine command. Otherwise baptism were a work of man and not of God, a human performance and not an act of divine power and grace. The command of 202 God makes baptism what it is; and in his expla¬ nation Luther gives this fact prominence by men¬ tioning it even before be has said that in baptism water and Word are connected. 3. God's Word. This Word of God with which the water is connected is the same as the divine command. God's command and God's Word are here one—^the former instituting baptism, the lat¬ ter effecting it. Hence the essence of baptism con¬ sists in this: that water be applied in accordance with God's command and in connection with God's Word contained in that command, as when it is said, "I baptize thee 'in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.' " This command and Word of God (i. e., of Christ the Lord) is found in the last chapter of St. Matthew. On account of the abuse of the passage by the so-called Baptists, who try to infer from it, in the interests of their doctrine of the baptism of adult persons only, that instruction must always precede baptism, it is important to remark the cor¬ rect translation as given in the Revised Version, viz.: "Go ye therefore, and maTce disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you." We find her?, however, some¬ thing more than the mere command to baptize. It is this word which is the great missionary com¬ mand of Christ. Baptism, as we have said, is the Sacrament of introduction into the Church and kingdom of God. When, therefore, in the mis- sions established abroad, converts from heathenism are received into the Church, their reception is effected through the Sacrament of Baptism in obedience to Christ's command. For our present purpose, however, this should rather be said and emphasized, that baptism is in (really into) the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. The name stands for the Person, and the Person is the Triune God. Into Him we are bap¬ tized, L e., into fellowship with Him, into com¬ munion with Him, so that we become, and more and more become, partakers of His nature and the pureness and fulness of His life. (Compare "I believe 'into' God the Father Almighty," as set forth in the first article of the Creed.) II. What benefits does Baptism confer? It worketh forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives everlasting salvation to all who believe what the words and promises of God declare. What are these words and promises of God ? Those which Christ onr Lord says in the last chapter of Mark: *'He that believeth and is bap¬ tized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." This is the great practical question concerning baptism. In ita very statement the question char- — 204 — acterizes the true Scriptural teaching of our Church and Catechism respecting the Sacrament. In the Reformed confessions this form would be impossible, for they allow only a significance of baptism and not the actual conferring of any bene¬ fits or gifts. As we have seen, it is in and through baptism that we are received into communion with the Triune God and into membership in His kingdom. It is the blessings which flow from such an act of reception that Luther here enumerates as the benefits of baptism. These he divides into two parts. The first part is negative, namely, the for¬ giveness of sins and deliverance from death and the devil; the second part is positive, namely, the bestowal of everlasting salvation. However, the first part is descriptive of the second, showing wherein the salvation consists. When it is said that in baptism we are received into communion with God and are accepted of Him, it is presupposed that by nature we are es¬ tranged and separated from Him. So it is. Our sin and guilt alienate us from God, and that from birth. How, then, does God act in regard to our sins, when, in spite of them, He restores us to fel¬ lowship with Him? He does not "look upon them" (cf. explanation of the ^ifth Petition), He forgives them. Therefore Luther says of bap¬ tism first of all: It "Works Forgiveness of Sins. This is the first and greatest benefit that bap- tism confers. It is figuratively expressed by the outward rite as a washing with water. Water is a means of cleansing and purifying. In Israel the spiritual purifying was familiarly represented through frequent washing. But here we have the substance and reality of what in Israel was only shadow and type: to the outward purification of the water-baptism there corresponds an actual in¬ ward purification—precisely that which is con- j tained in the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). This forgiveness of sins, moreover, is not for the occasion and ceremony of baptism alone, as though sins were once forgiven and the baptismal grace were thereupon quite exhausted. This is to over¬ look the fact that the divine forgiveness is con¬ tinued in the divine acceptance. Through bap¬ tism we are introduced into a sphere in which there is forgiveness of sins, into a holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints, in which the ^o\j Ghost "daily and richly forgives me and all believers all our sins" (explanation of the Third Article). "At baptism the heavenly Bather ex¬ tends His opened arms toward us and ever after keeps them open for us, so that after every sin we may return to them in contrition and faith and always be reassured of forgiveness." But where sin is removed, there also is removed death, which is the wages of sin. Hence it is fur¬ ther declared of baptism that it: Delivers from Death and the Devil. The exclusioit from the light and life of God is II at an end when the separating sins are out of the way. The sting of bodily death is plucked and eternal death shall be neither tasted nor seen. "We are no longer liable to it, neither are we left in bondage and servitude to sin. Therefore Luther adds that baptism delivers from the devil, who has the power of death because of sin. It is in baptism, wherein we become the children of God and enjoy their glorious liberty, that we are freed from the deviTs dominion and tyranny, that we receive the grace and strength to "renounce the devil, and all his works, and all his ways." Thus negatively are the benefits of baptism set forth. However, a positive benefit is set forth in the words, that it: Gives Everlasting Salvation. Salvation, as we have seen, is restoration to a living communion with God. This is "the power, work, profit, fruit and end of baptism, viz.: to save. . . But to be saved, we know, is nothing else than to be delivered from sin, death and the devil, and to enter into the kingdom of Christ, and to live with Him forever" (L. C.). In other words, salvation is nothing else than to be His own, and live under Him in His kingdom in righteousness, innocence and bltssedness (expla¬ nation of Second Article). And this salvation— as also this life—is everlasting. It is received and experienced already here and now. He who does not have it in these years of time shall not have it in the eternity to come. It begins with baptism, — 207 — extends throughout our earthly life and is con¬ summated when our heavenly Father graciously takes us to Himself in heaven. Thus great and precious is the benefit which baptism confers. But it is necessary that this gift be actually appropriated. Every proffered gift becomes our own only when we accept and hold it fast. The same is true of heavenly gifts. The hand into which we receive this divine gift of grace is faith. Therefore it is further said: To all who Believe what the Words and Promises of God Declare. Not any faith at all is meant, but the definite faith in what is here affirmed of baptism and its benefits, corresponding, as Luther shows, to God's Word and promises regarding it. TJnless we be¬ lieve that baptism is indeed the work of God and that His Word is true and faithful, we do not have and hold its gifts and benefits. "Thus we see plainly that this is no work of our doing, but a treasure which He gives us, and which faith ap¬ prehends; just as the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross is ... a treasure comprehended in the Word, and offered to us and received in faith" (L. C.). Without this faith in the Word and work of God, the "transcendant divine treasure" of baptism is of no avail. Such words and promises of God are briefly found in what Christ our Lord says in the last chapter of Mark: — 208 — He that Believeth and is Baptized shall be Saved. This is the Scriptural warrant for what has already been stated. When it is added, "he that believeth not shall be damned," baptism is not again mentioned. This omission does not set bap¬ tism aside as something unnecessary. What is emphasized is this: that baptism without faith does not profit to the salvation of the soul, because baptism without faith would not be a salutary and effectual baptism, its gracious content not be¬ ing appropriated. III. How can water do such gpreat thing^s? It is not water indeed that does it, but the Word of God, which is in and with the water, and faith which trusts this Word of God in the water. For without the Word of God, the water is simply water, and no baptism. But with the Word of God, it is a baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and a wash¬ ing of regeneration in the Holy Ghost; as St. Paul says, Titus 3:5-8: "According to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renew¬ ing of the Holy Ghost; which He shed on us abund¬ antly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs ac¬ cording to the hope of eternal life. This is a faith¬ ful saying." — 209 — The "great things'* here referred to are the for¬ giveness of sins, deliverance from death and the devil, and everlasting salvation. The question how water can do them sounds somewhat ironical, as if it were put in the form of an objection by those who were unable or unwilling to imderstand and accept the objective sacramental character of baptism. Such is the case. The objectors were "our would-be wise, new spirits," who "mock at baptism, separate it from God's Word and insti¬ tution, and regard nothing but the water which is taken from the well, and then they prate and say: "How is a handful of water to save souls V" (L. C.). The objection has already been answered in the answers to the first two questions. That baptism is not simply water, but the water comprehended in God's command and connected with God's Word, has been distinctly stated in the reply to the first question; and that the benefits of baptism do not rest on the water as such, but on God's Word and on faith in it, has been distinctly stated in the re¬ ply to the second question. But here we note that a distinction is made. When the question was as to the salutary effects of baptism, both the Word of God in and with the water, and faith which trusts this Word of God, were named. But when the question is as to the reality of baptism, the Word of God alone is named. Without the Word of God there is no baptism. With the Word of God it is a baptism. That is, baptism is baptism, even though, at ^e time, faith is lacking. In 14 such a case the benefit also is lacking. The treas¬ ure of grace is there, but it is not received by the baptized person who is without faith. "This now," says Luther in the Large Catechism, "is perhaps somewhat acute, but it rests entirely on what I have said, that baptism is nothing else but water and the Word of God in and with each other, i. e., when the Word is added to the water, baptism is genuine, even though faith be wanting. For my faith does not make baptism, but receives it; and baptism does not therefore become spurious if it be wrongly received or employed, as it is not bound to our faith, but to the Word." This question and answer, indeed, would be su¬ perfluous were it not for the fuller description now following. For baptism is further defined as: A Gracious Water of Life and a Washing of Eegen- oration in the Holy Ghost. The reference in this definition is to the "great things" which baptism does. Along with the for¬ giveness of sins, deliverance from death and the devil, and everlasting salvation, it mediates the true spiritual life hid with Christ in God, and is therefore called a water of life. This proceeds from pure grace and not our o\m deserving; hence it is also called a gracious water of life. When baptism is further said to be a washing of regeneration in the Holy Ghost, its full and final work has been described. Regeneration means a new (spiritual) birth and a new life. By nature 211 we are bom in sin and are under God's wrath; we cannot please Him and enter into His kingdom. But in this baptismal washing, wherein our sins and guilt are washed away, we receive a new, a second birth; we are begotten from above by the Spirit of God and become His dear children. Over against our natural birth after the flesh, we receive a heavenly birth after the spirit: we no longer live unto self and the world and sin, but we begin to live unto God. We enter into living, loving communion with Him and serve Him in His kingdom of grace here, as also we shall serve Him in the kingdom of His glory hereafter. As St. Paul says, Titus 3:5-8: ^'According to His mercy," etc. As we have seen, baptism saves us, and this sal¬ vation is due to God's mercy. We have also seen wherehy He saves us, by the washing of regener¬ ation in the Holy Ghost. By the constant renewal of the Holy Ghost, we are strengthened and en¬ abled to continue the life with God which we have begun. These gifts—divine sonship, a holy life and daily renewal—^the Holy Ghost has shed on us abundantly through the Mediator of divine grace, Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by His grace, i. e., declared free from sin, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Already we have title to eternal life, and we hold it in steadfast hope of the future consummation and everlasting possession. This is a faithful say¬ ing and the purest Gospel. — 212 — IV. What does such baptizing with water signify? It signifies that the old Adam in us should, b; daily sorrow and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts; and again a new mai daily come forth and arise, who shall live befon God in righteousness and purity forever. Where is it so written? St. Paul says, Eom. G: 4: "We are buried witi Christ by baptism into death; that like as He wai raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life. Luther does not ask here what baptism signifies but what such baptizing with water signifies There is evidently a strong emphasis laid on the outward form of the act, i. e., the manner or mod( in which the baptism is administered. This modt is supposed by the answer to the question to b« that of immersion. Luther, as we know, preferred that baptism be performed, in keeping with the significance of the sign, by entirely immersing the subject. This, he says, is ne4 necessary, but i1 would be becoming and appropriate- Referring, then, to this mode, Luther asks what such baptizing with water signifies; or, when we consider the answer which he gives, what oui duty is in consequence of it, what obligation it imposes. *'The act or form is this," he says in the Large Catechism, "that we are sunk under the water which passes over us, and afterwards are drawn out again. These two parts, sunk under the water and drawn out again, signify the power and efficacy of baptism, which is nothing else than putting to death the old Adam, and after that the resurrection of the new man, both of which must take place in us all our lives." The first of these actions therefore signifies: That the old Adam in us should, hy daily sorrow and repentance, be drowned and die, with all sins and evil lusts. The old Adam in us is our old heart, our cor¬ rupt nature. "He is so called," Luther says, "not with a view to years, but being in the sin which came down from Adam. This refers to the infant of one day as well as to the man of eighty years; for we are all thus called from our mother's womb." Elsewhere he says that the old Adam is not alone the body and the gross sins which the body commits with the five senses, but the whole tree with all its fruits, L e., the whole man as sprung from Adam with body and soul, intellect and will, whose sins are inward as well as out¬ ward, such as pride, envy, disobedience and unbe¬ lief. This old man in us is now, by virtue of our baptism—for in our baptism he received his sen¬ tence of death and is more and more to be cast out, the grace and power received in baptism helping us thereto—^to be drowned (referring to the im¬ mersion in the water) and die (increasingly denied and destroyed), with all sins (the acts of the old man) and evil lusts (incitements to sin. Gal. 5: 24; Eph, 4:22). This old man, however, is not killed except through sorrow (pain instead of pleasure in sinning) and repentance (a change of mind with regard to sin by which we hate and forsake it.) The second of these actions—^being dra^m out again—signifies: And again a new man daily come forth and arise, who shall live before &od in righteousness and purity forever. By a new man, says Luther, is meant "he who now through repentance is converted to God and has another heart and understanding than for¬ merly, believes otherwise, and lives according to God's Word and will through the Holy Ghost," This new man is he who is born again in baptism and in whom God's likeness is restored and again realized (Eph. 4:24). He shall come forth and arise. The death of the old man and the quicken¬ ing of the new correspond the one to the other and occur simultaneously. This is effected through the putting on of Christ in baptism through faith. To follow His example and to be conformed to His likeness, is ^he Christian pro¬ fession and lifelong endeavor. Consequently, the life of the new man before God shall be in righteousness (justified from his sins) and purity (sanctified from his sins) now in this present time and hereafter forever. 215 These are the two particulars which such bap¬ tizing with water signifies. And these two, the death of the old man and the rising again of the new, are to be done daily. On this the emphasis rests; "for this must be practiced without ceasing, that we ever keep purging away whatever is of the old Adam, and that that which belongs to the new man may come forth" (L. C.). This is rooted in our baptism and is the outgrowth of it. "So that a truly Christian life is nothing else than a daily baptism, once begun and ever to be continued" (L. C.). "For this reason let every one esteem his baptism as a daily dress in which he shall constantly walk, that he may ever be found in the faith and its fruits, that he suppress the old man and grow up in the new" (L. C.). It is for this reason also, because baptism abides, that "even though some one should fall from it and sin, we nevertheless always have access thereto, that we may again subdue the old man. But we must not again be sprinkled with water; for though we were a hundred times put under the water, it would nevertheless be only one baptism, although the act and significance continue and remain. Repentance, therefore, is nothing else than a return and approach to baptism, that we return to and practice what had been begun and had been abandoned. . . For just as Christ the mercy-seat does not abolish Himself or forbid us again to come to Him, even though we sin, so all His treasure and gifts also remain" (L, C.), Such teaching is Scriptural. Luther asks where it is written, and answers: St. Paul says, Bom. 6:4, "We are buried with Christ," etc. Through baptism we are planted In Christ. He, however, died and was buried. In His death and burial He was removed from these earthly scenes. Planted in Him, we too are to he no more of this sinful world: it has nothing in us and we have nothing in it—^we are done with it (Rom. 6:6, 12 and 13). But Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. From a life in this world He passed to a life unto God (Rom. 6:10). Even so, i. e., in our burial with Christ and rising again with Him, we also should walk in newness of life: having died to sin, we should live a new life like to that of Him who died and rose again. It is this life which we receive from Him, and, in so far as we attain to it, live with Him in His kingdom. PART V. The Sacrament of the Altar. Introduction. It is usual to characterize the relation between the Sacrament of Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar in this wise: in the former we have re¬ ceived our new birth as the children of God; in the latter our new life is nourished and sustained. But while it is true that the Sacrament of Holy Baptism is one of regeneration, and that of the Lord's Supper is one of sustentation, it is equally true that the Lord's Supper is a congregational feast, i. e,, a sacramental feast of the Church into which we have been received through the rite of Baptism. Having been baptized and become the children of God and of His Church, we are in¬ structed in Christian truth and faith, (as now in the Catechism), and so prepared to take our place with our fellow-believers at the Lord's Table and join with them in the Communion. As part of this instruction it is highly import¬ ant that we should be taught concerning this sacrament itself. In his introduction to this Fifth Part Luther, in the Large Catechism, therefore says: "As we have heard of Holy Baptism, so must we speak also concerning the other Sacra¬ ment, namely, concerning these three points: What it is, what are its benefits, and who shall re- ceive it And all these are established by the words whereby Christ has instituted it. This every one who desires to be a Christian and go to the Sacrament should know. For we do not think that they who know not what they seek, or why they come, should be admitted or should have it administered to them." The Lord's Supper was instituted by Christ on the night in which He was betrayed. In that same evening He ate the last Passover meal with His disciples. This meal was instituted on the day of the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt. It consisted in the eating, according to an ap¬ pointed use, by each Israelitic household, of the lamb with whose blood the door posts had been sprinkled as a protection against the death-stroke which slew every first-bom of the Egyptians. Afterward in the promised land this meal was annually celebrated as a commemoration of that deliverance and of the kindred deliverance from Egyptian slavery and suffering. To this Pass¬ over meal the Lord's Supper bears certain points of resemblance. The Lord Himself invites us to consider these, since He instituted His Supper in the hour of the Passover supper, which it su¬ perceded and replaced. Indeed, the resemblance between the Lord's Supper and that of the Pass¬ over is a closer one than that between Holy Bap¬ tism and the Old Testament rite of circumcision. This thought will be developed more fully in the explanation. 219 What is thd Sacrament of the Altar? It is the true Body and Blood of our Lord Tesus Christ, under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink. Where is this written? The holy Evangelists, Matthew, Mark and Luke, together with St. Paul, write thus: "Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the night in which He was betrayed, took bread; and when He had given thanks. He brake it and gave it to His disciples, saying. Take, eat; this is My Body, which is given for you; this do in remembrance of Me. "After the same manner, also, when He had supped. He took the cup, and when He had given thanks. He gave it to them, sa3ring. Brink ye all of it; this cup is the New Testament in My Blood, which is shed for you, and for many, for the re¬ mission of sins; this do, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me." In order to arrive at a better understanding of the Lord's Supper (in so far as this great mystery can be understood), it will be well to consider first of all this account of its institution, as Luther has gathered it from Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14: 22-24; Luke 22:19 and 20, and 1 Cor. 11: 23-25. Our Lord Jesus Christ in the night in which He was betrayed (the night before His death and the hour in which He was keeping the Passover with His disciples) took bread (the thin, unleavened bread used at the Passover, lying there on the table), aud when He had given thanks (a prayer of thanksgiving, especially with reference to the new use) He brake it (into smaller pieces) and gave it to His disciples (who received the broken pieces in the hand), saying, Take, eat; this (this bread which was taken and is now eaten) is My Body, which is given for yon (given to death for you, for your highest benefit.—The Lord thus identifies the bread which they eat with His Body which is given to death for them; this identifica¬ tion, however, being connected with the eating of the bread and not apart from it: when they par¬ take of the bread, they partake also of His Body.) This (namely, to take and eat bread) do in remem- hrance of Me. In these last words, repeated at the close of the second part of the act of institution, is found the f,rst reference to the Passover. After tEe same manner, also, when He had supped (when the Passover meal was ended). He took the cup (the cup of wine which, used at the Pass¬ over, stood on the table), and when He had given thanks (as before). He gave it to them (to His dis- ' ciples, to be handed around), saying, Drink ye all of it ("all" is specified because the cup had to go from hand to hand). This cup is the Hew Testa¬ ment in My Blood (i. e., by virtue f>f the fact that it contains the wine, in receiving which you re¬ ceive My Blood), which is shed for you, and for many (for as many as "do this") for the remission of sins. This last phrase, it will be noted, more fully explains the "for you" of the first part, where it is used of His Body: as His Blood is slied, so His Body is given "for the remission of sins." But the cup which contains the wine and with whose drinking He connects His Blood, He fur¬ ther designates as that of the New Testament, or rather the New Covenant; and this phrase is the second reference to the Passover. This, He again commands, L e., take and thus drink of a cup of wine, do, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. In Bemembrance of Me. As has been said, the Passover meal was held in remembrance of the deliverance which God wrought when He spared IsraePs first-bom and rescued the people from the slavery and misery of Egypt (Ex. 12:14; Deut. 16:3). This remem¬ brance consisted in the Passover meal itself, and in this sense the Lord's own words are to be un¬ derstood, Just as in the Old Testament Israel the Passover supper was the commemoration from the bondage and bloodshed of Egypt, so in the New Testament Israel the Lord's Supper is the com¬ memoration of the deliverance from the bondage and deadliness of sin obtained through the death of Christ. (Second Article of the Creed.) In the Lord's Supper itself, in the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine, this remembrance of Christ and of His Passion is effected; as St. Paul writes in immediate connection with this phrase, as though to explain it: "For as often as ye eat this bre^d and drink this cup, ye do shew — 222 — (R. v., proclaim) the Lord's death, till He come'' (1 Cor. 11; 26). Luther also has rightly ex¬ plained it and has written: "This word ^remem¬ ber/ remark and consider well. It will teach you much and encourage you very strongly. I speak now, however, not of our advantage and need which we may seek in the Sacrament; hut of the advantage which comes to Christ and God Him¬ self from it, and how necessary it is to His divine honor and service that we use and honor it dili¬ gently." Well, therefore, may the Lord's Supper be called the Holy Eucharist and be accompanied with praise and thanksgiving; and that not only for the great blessing which we receive, but also for the glory of Christ which it sets forth and celebrates (John 17:1 and 4). The New Testament in My Blood. This phrase likewise places the Lord's Supper in relation to the Passover meal. If, so to speak, the first reference shows what the Holy Supper is for Christj this second reference shows what it is to us^ There is here to be considered not so much how the Passover was celebrated, as what it celebrated. This, as has been said, was the gr^t act of divine deliverance whereby the people of Israel were rescued from the servitude of Egypt and became the servants of God, a people for His own pos¬ session, bound to render to Him their obedient service. The Passover meal was therefore a cove- — 223 — naut meal, obligating them to this very thing; and as in the case of every covenant, so also of this one —it was made not without the shedding of blood (the Passover lamb). The entire Old or Mosaic Covenant, made between God and His people at Mt. Sinai, was ratified by the shedding of the blood of beasts (Ex. 24:5-8), which God was pleased to accept as an expiation for sins and M^hich was called the blood of the covenant. Con¬ sequently, it is to be understood that when the Lord Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of Himself as the true Passover Lamb, is about to shed His own Blood, the covenant which He makes is the New Covenant, the Xew Covenant in His Blood for the forgiveness of sins (Mark 14:24). The cup which mediates this Blood of the !N^ew Covenant represents and stands for it; and the entire Sup¬ per, in which He gives His Body to eat and His Blood to drink, is the 'New Covenant meal, the meal in which every gathering or congregation of believers commemorate and celebrate the institu¬ tion and permanent validity of their New Cove¬ nant with God through Christ for the remission of their sins. But the Lord's Supper, according to Christ's words, is a peculiar covenant, namely, a sacramen¬ tal one. It is more than merely commemorative. In the Large Catechism Luther rightly declares: "As we have said of Baptism that it is not simply water, so also here we say the Sacrament is bread and wine, but not mere bread and wine as are ordinarily served at table, but bread and wine — 224 — comprehended in and connected with the Word of God.'' In the fact, therefore, that in the Lord's Supper the eating of the bread and the drinking of the wine are comprehended in the Lord's com¬ mand "this do," and that with the doing of this there is connected the Lord's Word of power and promise, "This is My Body," "This cup is the New Testament in My Blood,"—in this fact consists its Sacramental character, L e., the reality con¬ tained in the mystery. What is the Sacrament of the Altarf It is, Luther answers, the true Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus clearly and em¬ phatically does he assert, in accordance with the words of institution, the real presence of the Lord's Body and Blood, as over against the Re¬ formed who teach that the bread and wine are mere symbols and signs of the Body which was given and the Blood which was shed. So also when he declares of this true Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it is mediated xinder the bread and wine (elsewhere it is said, "in and with"), he has in mind the Roman Catholic dogma of transubstantiation, according to which the bread and wine become the \ery Body and Blood of Christ; while in the additional words, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink, he indicates the moment of the sacramental act and testifies against the Romish sacrifice of the mass^ the adoration of the host, and the withholding of the cup from the laity, as well as against the Calvinistic view of a purely spiritual fruition by faith. Over against these false doctrines our Cate¬ chism adheres simply and strictly to the words of institution and to the words of St. Paul (1 Cor. 10:16). These words were Luther's impregna¬ ble defence when pressed by his opponents. On these he stood and from these he could not be moved. Therefore it was his doctrine as it is ours, that in the Lord's Supper there are bread and wine present and present throughout—^real bread and wine, not substantially different from ordinary bread and wine. But with and under this bread and wine there is also in the Sacra¬ ment the true Body and Blood of Christ in sacra¬ mental communion; so that whoever receives the bread receives also the Body of Christ, and who¬ ever receives the wine receives also the Blood of Christ. This presence of Christ's Body and Blood in and with the earthly elements takes place only in the act of communion and solely in the power of Christ's words of institution. As Luther has said: '^The true and omnipotent words of Jesus Christ which He spoke at the first institu¬ tion of the Supper, had their power not only at that first communion, but they are still valid and efficacious wherever the Lord's Supper is cele¬ brated according to the institution of Christ and the use of His words, by the power and strength of those same wtrds which Christ spake at the 15 first Supper." The act of the Church, therefore, in the celebration of the Lord's Supper, is simply a repetition and continuation of what Christ the Lord said and did at the institution of the Sacra¬ ment. The Supper is His. He is present to pre¬ side over it and communicate Himself. What use is such eating and drinking? It is shown ns by these words: "Given and shed for yon, for the remission of sins;" namely, that in the Sacrament forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are given us through these words. For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. The blessings here enumerated are essentially the same as those received in Baptism, viz.: re¬ mission of sins, life and salvation. But since we were baptized we have often fallen into sin (we daily commit much sin) and offended against God. For our comfort and peace, therefore, we stand in need of the forgiveness of our sins and of the assurance of their forgiveness. This assurance we obtain in the Lord's Supper, where the remission of our sins is declared and sealed by the reception of the very means of their remission. With the bread and wine of the Sacrament we receive the Body and Blood of Christ; with the Body and Blood of Christ, given and shed for us, we receive the remission of our sins; with the remission of our sins, we receive life and salvation. ^ 227 — How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things f It is not the eating and drinking, indeed, that does it, but the words which stand here; ^'Given and shed for you, for the remission of sins." These words, together with the bodily eating and drinking, are the chief thing in the Sacrament; and he that believes these words, has what they say and mean, namely, the forgiveness of sins. It is not the eating and drinking in itself that does this, as little as it is the water that does it in Baptism. Here as well as there (see the third question) everything depends on the faithfulness of God's Word and on our faith in His Word. "The words," says Luther, "are the principal thing. For without these words the bread and the cup would be nothing; and without the bread and the cup the Body and Blood of Christ would not be there; and without the Body and Blood of Christ the Hew Testament would not be there; and without the Hew Testament the remission of sins, life and salvation would not be there." It should further be remarked that when we speak of the gifts or benefits of the Sacrament, the words to be believed are chiefly these: "Given and shed for you, for the remission of sins," and not simply the words of institution, "This is My Body . . . This cup is the Hew Testament in My Blood." It is possible to have the right faith so far as the real presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Saftrament is concerned, and yet not — 228 — receive the benefits from such eating and drinking because we do not rightly believe the Lord's words which declare that His Body is given and His Blood is shed for the remission of our sins. Given and shed for you—Yea, Lord, for me, for the re¬ mission of my sins. This is the act of personal faith and individual appropriation. Who then receives thisf Sacrament worthily? Fasting and bodily preparations are indeed a good outward discipline; but he is truly worthy and well prepared who has faith in these words: "Given and shed for you, for the remission of sins." But he who believes not these words, or doubts, is unworthy and unprepared; for the words, FOE YOTT, require truly believing hearts. Luther means fasting in its literal sense, as it was commonly practiced in his day, i. e., as absti¬ nence from food for a longer or shorter period. With this he joins bodily preparations, such as were practiced in the mediaeval church, and says of them that they are indeed a good outward dis¬ cipline. He thus assigns to them their proper place, both as to their results and their necessity. They do not accomplish a true inward preparation, neither are they to be elevated into a law. That preparation is needed we learn from 1 Cor. 11:28 and 29. It consists first of all in the discernment of the Lord's Supper to be that which it really is, and then also a careful and con¬ scientious self-examination into our heart and life. a penitent spirit, reconciliation with God and man, and a firm faith in the Lord and in His Word. (Hence the Church has provided for communi¬ cants the Preparatory Service, or Service of Con¬ fession and Absolution.) It is this personal faith, or the lack of it, which at the last distinguishes the worthy or unworthy. Nor should it be overlooked that even a weak faith may be a true faith, which needs just this Sacrament for its strengthening; that even doubts may be due to natural infirmity and may need just this Sacrament for their ex¬ tinguishing. But the wilfully sceptical and un¬ believing, who derive pleasure from or take pride in their scepticism or unbelief, are unworthy and unfit; as are also they who are living in open and unrepented sin. Such, when known, are to be ex¬ cluded, lest they eat and drink condemnation to themselves; for of the Lord's Supper it is pre¬ eminently true, that it is a savor of death unto death, when it is not a savor of life unto life. 3 5556 001 550 151 Anna* m