# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 03 07_S55
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want. (St. L. Table Talk, cap. 46 and 66, §§60 and 61.)

Also very remarkable are Luther's words which an eager pupil of his relates in his tract against the country-lies of the Heidelberg theologians in the year 1565, as though Luther had changed his opinion on the Holy Supper before his end. Luther is said to have spoken these words at table, among others, a few days before his end, in the presence of many trustworthy and respectable people: that before his end (should God grant him a little more time to live, etc.) he wished to accomplish three things, after which he would lay himself down on his bed of rest and fall asleep in Christ. The first was that he wished to write against the University of Louvain and answer their propositions. (This answer, as he had begun it and as it was also printed, was found in his pocket after his death; the manuscript came into the possession of Dr. Caspar Creutziger.) Secondly, as soon as God should help him home again to Wittenberg, he wished to write against the "silver jurists," who did nothing but set princes and lords against one another and cause all manner of misfortune. Thirdly, he also wished, by way of farewell, to write once more against the Sacramentarians, and then to conclude.

Although in all his weakness he was nevertheless always cheerful, he would at times let himself be heard saying such things as: "Dr. Jonas and Master Michael, I was baptized here in Eisleben — what if I were to remain here?" He also said several times, and especially on February 16, at table: "If I can reconcile my dear territorial lords, the counts, and, God willing, carry out the journey, then I will go home and lay myself down to sleep in my coffin, and give my body to the worms to consume." (L. W. XXI, 276 f.)

(To be continued.)

(From the Lutheran Church Journal.)
What Are the Guiding Principles for the Formation of Orthodox Synods of the Lutheran Church in These Lands?

A brotherly word offered for discussion and consideration to those of like mind and disposition.

§3. The Essence of the Lutheran Church.

Since Lutheran synods, as governing bodies, have as the object of their governance the Lutheran Church and its welfare and prosperity, the essence of the Lutheran Church must also be present to their minds and known to them.

Just as Holy Scripture has only one and the same "truth unto salvation," so among the various particular churches now existing there must also be one which, in all articles of saving doctrine, is thoroughly in accord with the Word of God, and which, without any admixture of error contrary to Scripture and destructive to souls, is "a pillar and ground of the truth." This church is none other than the one which nowadays, to distinguish it from others, is called "Evangelical Lutheran"; for no other church is able to demonstrate that every part of its confession and doctrine is unconditionally subject to the divine Word as it stands, and that it is therefore, as bearer and keeper of the pure and unadulterated saving truth, essentially one with the evangelical-apostolic and catholic Church of the pre-papal age. Every other church, as its confessions show, is more or less mixed with error; no other church possesses the two infallible marks of the orthodox Church, namely, pure doctrine and pure sacrament. For that these two — and not some particular order or constitution — are the essential marks of the orthodox Church follows undeniably from the fact that they are the only means of grace of the Holy Spirit through which the Church is founded and preserved. For by what else did the first New Testament church at Jerusalem arise, if not through Peter's preaching and through the baptism of those three thousand whose hearts were pierced by God's Word? (Acts 2:37-38, 41.) And of these it is said in verse 42 that they also continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and in the breaking of bread. Nevertheless, we grant two things:

1. Not all who outwardly belong to our orthodox Church are orthodox Christians; and just as, for example, in Ananias and Sapphira the weeds among the wheat and the rotten fish in the net were already present in the glorious Pentecost congregation, so we too confess with heartfelt sorrow that there are hundreds and thousands among us who prove, indeed, by word and deed, that they have to this day fallen from the grace of their baptismal covenant and are held captive in unbelief or in dead lip-service, and do not confess the true faith of the Church as a living faith of their own hearts, with mouth and deed.

2. Individual Christians who, according to the particular confessional names, do not belong to us, nevertheless belong to us inwardly, insofar as they submit themselves without guile to the whole Word of God and, through a special guidance of grace by the Holy Spirit, are not perilously pervaded by the particular false doctrines of their ecclesiastical communions and parties of belief.

Nevertheless, we say:

Ad 1. That the purity of the confession and the error-free truth of the doctrine of our Church, which we believe, confess, and teach in our Symbols, is diminished not one whit by the fact that thousands upon thousands within the outward extent of her membership do not believe accordingly. For just as the sun shines with the same brightness and illuminates with the same power, even though many close their eyes, so too the pure, Scripture-faithful doctrine loses nothing of its light and worth, even though many do not believe it and do not live according to it; for it does not stand upon the faith of many, nor does it fall with the unbelief of many (Romans 3:3), but stands and is grounded solely upon God's Word, and is therefore just as rock-firm and unchangeable as that Word is, whether many outward confessors also believe it inwardly to their salvation, or fail to believe it to their own ruin. Pure doctrine does not become purer or stronger through the faith of many, nor does it become dimmer or weaker through the unbelief of many; rather, as it is contained, in its simple obedience to Scripture, in the confessional writings of our Church, so it is and remains firm and certain, whether three, or three million, truly believe it. But by God's grace our Church also, even in the times of her deepest apostasy and decline (toward the end of the last century and the beginning of this one), has had her seven thousand who did not bow the knee to any Baal of reason. And praised be the Lord our God, that he lets a Baal of the nineteenth century — namely, the so-called love-union between Lutherans and Reformed, this wretched contrivance of men at the expense of biblical truth — serve, according to his love and truth, precisely to shake our Church out of her sleep, so that she may once again take up the office of watchman and witness over the pure Word and Sacrament, which is so especially entrusted to her, and fight anew the old fight for the treasure of pure and unadulterated doctrine. —

Ad 2. That the doctrine of other ecclesiastical communions and parties of belief, mixed more or less with error, does not become purer merely because this or that one of their members, through God's wondrous guidance of grace, is less pervaded by such error, and lays hold of and appropriates "the truth unto salvation" — so far as it is still taught and practiced within their congregations — with a penitent and believing heart, for the salvation of their soul. For even though we gladly admit that such individuals exist even within the Roman Church, not a single hair's breadth is thereby made different or better in any of the unscriptural decrees of the Tridentine Council (which, in the very face of the clear evangelical truth, with dreadful blindness and hardness of heart, not only sanctioned as church doctrine the earlier errors of the schools, but also now established former abuses as ecclesiastical teaching, and cursed those who rejected such false doctrine).

Just as God thus demonstrates, in these individuals, his almighty grace, by which he rescues and preserves — that is, brings to true faith in Christ — souls desirous of salvation and sincere, even in the midst of the terrible, soul-destroying errors of their church that arose through the lies of the devil and of men: so he demonstrates, in those within the bosom of our own orthodox Church who nevertheless do not share her faith, his holy earnestness; and should they persist in unbelief, their judgment would naturally be all the more terrible, the greater the light they had received. At the same time, however, such members of our Church who are still dead ought to be a natural chastisement for us and a spur for the believers within her, especially also for the ministers of the Word, to hum-