# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S27
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 27 —

to St. Paul truly the right gate of Paradise." (XIV, 460 to 462.) Also with the words: "In my heart there reigns alone, and shall reign, this one article" (VIII, 1529.), Luther has stated clearly enough that nothing other than this doctrine guided him in the Reformation. In other countries and at other times too it has been this doctrine that renewed the church. Dr. Luther had indeed very soon recognized many abominations of the papacy, but he still had the false doctrine of the church and therefore thought: who was he, that he should venture to rise up against the holy church? That he could never do; he must rather keep his head down. Only when it became clear to him that the righteousness that is revealed in the Gospel is that which God gives and by which He makes the sinner righteous, then the gates of Paradise opened to him, and now he could also, like a hero, confront the papacy and all its seductions. But what happens when one no longer has this doctrine pure, we see with our own eyes here in this land. What dreadful and senseless errors come up here and find adherents! Why? Because when someone no longer has the right standard for truth and error, he will often at first think: the passages on which the false teachers base themselves surely cannot say what is imputed to them; but if he falls into the hands of a cunning fox who knows how to make the matter plausible to him, he falls to the error after all. We must therefore have a standard that, if we go by it, makes it impossible for us to accept an error; and this standard is the doctrine of justification. Whoever has recognized it laughs at all learned half-believing and unbelieving professors with all their eloquence and learning when they teach falsely; if what they set forth and say does not agree with his little child's verse: "The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin," then, however great an appearance of wisdom or holiness it may have, even the simplest tramples it underfoot and calls it devil's d . . ck. That was the reason why Luther became so invincible a reformer. Had it been lacking there, a man like Erasmus could of course have overturned him. But since he stood on this rock, he laughed at the pope's scholars and at Zwingli besides. When ever new seductive spirits confronted him, he tested them by this article, and if they did not agree with it, he said: Get you away to him who sent you. But this doctrine must be so received by us that it becomes the principle of our faith, of our life and of our whole conduct of office; then our congregations too will become confident and cheerful. For when they notice that we make them sure of their salvation, then we are their best friends. What good is it to them if we are very eloquent people, very popular preachers, very dignified pastors? Certainly very little. But if they can say: Our pastor has made us sure of our salvation, we know