# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1872_S28
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 28 —

now whom we believe in: then they have the best part for time and eternity; then they also no longer regard churches and synods as priestly institutions that consume much but benefit no one, but they know then that it is always a matter of bringing to them and to the whole world the glad tidings: You are redeemed and saved! Only believe it, only accept it! And willingly they then help with their gifts toward the spread of this message. As exceedingly important as this doctrine is, it can nevertheless be preached in its fullness and whole power, in its brightness and its wealth of comfort, even by the less gifted. When the Reformation began, what sort of preachers did they have then? That is, what sort of troops to set against the devil and his kingdom? Things looked poor enough in that respect, so that by human reckoning one would have had to say: You poor Luther, go into your cell and hide yourself, for with your poor bankrupt little priests you will accomplish nothing. But behold, they had the article pure, that man is made righteous by grace alone through faith, and with that they were an invincible and victorious power. It is similar with us now. However many poor young students go out from our institutions who are so weak that, if one compares them with those who were dismissed 200 years ago, one might despair, yet we need not despair; for even the weakest of all, if he has only grasped the doctrine that the grace of God in Christ Jesus has appeared to all men and is laid hold of through faith, can preach to people so that they become sure of their salvation; and that outweighs all wisdom and all gifts and all the treasures of the world. Such preachers will never lack material. They will always know what to say of what God has done for us out of grace, and that will always give them new joyfulness. What is all learning, necessary as it is in its place, against the wisdom of God, which is proclaimed when even only the text is expounded: "God so loved the world," etc.? At that the poor sinners rejoice, at that all the holy angels marvel, before that the whole world should sink on its knees and cry Gloria and Hallelujah. When our future ministers preach that, then they are the people who can begin a reformation in this country too; as indeed a small beginning has already been made on this road. For this is what makes truly living congregations, not those which make a great outcry about their life and their deeds, but those which, living in this doctrine, willingly offer to God in holy adornment. In sum: let us learn from Luther that we can set up no reformation here unless we firmly believe this doctrine, proclaim it with divine certainty and hold it fast and preserve it.

In the third thesis attention is directed chiefly to three points: 1. to the doctrine of the universal redemption of the world, 2. to the doctrine of the means of grace, and 3. to the doctrine of faith.