# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 05 30_S154
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Pietism. What the Roman church does crudely and outwardly — indeed even teaches, that one can merit for oneself the grace of God and the merit of Christ through love and good works, as though the grace of God and the merit of man were not things that cancel each other out — that very thing the Methodists and Pietists do and carry on in that refined and inward manner; and they are in fact the secret confederates of the Roman party against the pure doctrine and worship of the Lutheran Church, even though for the most part still unwittingly so, however zealously they may also contend against the Roman and papal false doctrines and abuses.

2.) The other ill, if you will, is really only the consequence of this one; for by placing such value on their individual feelings of repentance and faith, and by their craving for ever-new and spicier inward spiritual pleasures, they cannot attain to the firm state of repentance and faith of the true, healthy, and full-grown evangelical Lutheran Christian — even though such Christians are as rare nowadays as white sparrows. For such a one always has God's written Word before him and examines his heart by it: namely, he examines his repentance and his new obedience according to the Law and its curse-fulfillment in the Crucified One, and his faith according to the promises of the Gospel and their grace-fulfillment in him who was crucified and raised again for us.

In the former case, he examines himself carefully in the sight of the Ten Commandments, which the Holy Spirit interprets to him quite carefully: a) whether, and which, former favorite and habitual sins — be it anger, lust, greed, pride, and so forth — still stir within him, or even at times break out in word and deed against his purpose and will; b) whether, by virtue of the grace of Baptism received, he drowns and buries the old Adam through daily contrition and repentance in the death of Christ, and whether the new man comes forth daily through the power of Christ's resurrection; c) whether he, moreover, brings forth ever more and more the fruits proper to repentance and to the Holy Spirit, and puts his faith increasingly into action, presses after evangelical sanctification, and puts to death the works of the flesh by the Spirit.

Now it may be that, in this self-examination in the mirror of the Ten Commandments and other words of the Law of Holy Scripture, he feels no especially sharp and keen pain of repentance; but he will not place the chief value on that, any more than he will excuse the lack of it — rather, he will ascribe it precisely to the original hardness and original sin of his heart, and at the same time recognize it as his own sin.

But he will direct his careful attention, during and after this self-examination, to the following three main points: namely, whether he no longer at all consents to the subtler enticements of his former besetting sins, and soberly and carefully avoids the outward occasions for them; further, whether the godly walk in faith and in love shines forth from him more and more; and finally, even if others should also find this to be so, whether he always recognizes himself to be that same poor sinner in Adam that he was before he had, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, the first conscious stirring of repentance and faith.

Likewise, the true Lutheran Christian of the Scriptures also takes up, for the testing and strengthening of his faith, the written Gospel of the Old and New Testament — namely, the promises concerning Christ and their fulfillment in Christ — and stands firm and unmoved on the rock of this faithful and true promise of God, whether he feels full or empty, joyful or downcast. To this firm, unchangeable Word — as, for example, Rom. 8:31–39, 5:1–15, and other such passages — his faith clings and holds fast, even when he is not in the mood to leap over the wall with his God, but rather when he feels desolate, cold, and dry as a skin in the smoke, or when sickness and troubles of various kinds come upon him, or when conscience and the Law seem again to raise up the old curse against him, and the devil presses hard upon him with his cunning assaults and shoots his fiery darts at him. Even here, where everything within and without him seems to have turned into his enemy and to be serving the consuming fiery zeal of the holy and righteous God, whom his sins have angered — even here, where the feeling of being a child of God has long since vanished from the heart, and a mere feeling-faith would long since have melted away like wax, where darkness and gloom break in upon the soul and the terrors of the Almighty roar around it — even here, by God's grace (according to 1 Cor. 10:13), the churchly minded and believing Christian of the Scriptures is able, through Ephesians 6:10–17, to be victorious, and, for example, through Rom. 8:31–34, as the true Israel, to overcome God. — Taken together, this and that constitute the right state of repentance and faith of a genuine evangelical Lutheran Christian of the Scriptures, who takes God literally at his Word and, like Asaph (Ps. 73:23), is not despondent in the evil time, but rather comforts himself joyfully, precisely then, in Word and Sacrament with him who was crucified for him; while in the good time, mindful of the fall of David and Solomon, he faithfully watches and prays against pride and false security. This is the blessed and joyful state of a true child of God, who in good times and in evil times says humbly and joyfully to the Lord Jesus Christ: "Lord, I am your sin, but you are my righteousness!" "Lord, my guilt is yours, but your merit is mine!" —

You see, dear Philip, that is the manner of a faithful Lutheran, who walks in the footsteps of the believing fathers of his Church; and even if at times he feels nothing at all of individual sin — indeed, even if he tastes the gracious Word of God in the Gospel, the love of Christ, and the powers of the world to come more strongly than usual, so that pure joy and sweetness are in him — he is nevertheless always mindful that in himself he is still only the sinner in Adam. Conversely, on the other hand, if he feels within himself nothing but poverty, dryness, sorrow, fear, terror, distress, and misery, and the natural unbelief of the flesh, he nevertheless holds fast, with the hand of faith and through the grace of the Holy Spirit, to the comfort of Scripture and the firm prophetic word: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine," Isa. 43:1 (compare Gal. 3:13, 2 Cor. 5:21, and similar passages). And so he remains constantly, despite all temptation and tribulation, in his righteousness in Christ. Here, to be sure, is where it counts to have the "finger-faith" that the Methodists often reproach us with — that is, to cling fast with finger and eye to the written word of comfort; for it could easily happen that not a single passage would come to the mind of a frightened heart and head.

But that the Methodists still seem to know so little of this "finger-faith" (which is truly not the dead faith of head and mouth that James rebukes), and make it a laughingstock, is precisely a clear proof that they still know, from their own experience, very little of the true nature of justifying faith and of the genuine liberty of the children of God from the curse of the Law — despite all their chatter and scribbling about it. Otherwise they would have respect for this finger-faith, since it is, contrary to all feeling, reason, and power of the natural man, exclusively a work of the Holy Spirit; whereas in their feeble, effeminate, and immature feeling-faith the refined, work-righteous old Adam has his good share.

Philip: You have given me a clear description there of the nature and character of true faith, and thus I also find it described and experienced in the sermons and writings of Luther, H. Müller, Chr. Scriver, Joh. Gerhard, and others. But should there not also be Methodists who have this faith? Among the Moravian congregations (Herrnhuters) in Germany at least, from whom Wesley borrowed almost all his forms of worship and much of Methodist church discipline, I know several decided children of God who live and move in that faith, however much various defects and sickness may also be found there.

Martin: Who would deny that there can be, and indeed are, individual Methodists of this kind? But in that case it is a special guidance of grace by the Holy Spirit, where a soul is in real earnest about a thorough conversion and a true life in Christ. These, however, are not the natural fruits of Methodist doctrine and manner as such, which at most jolt the secure sinner out of his sleep and give him a salutary fright, and then, in the best case, bring to his heart, by way of feeling, the first-fruits of God's grace in Christ and of faith in him — but cannot