# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 07 05_S194
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

experience, in a way that is humanly impossible to believe, and to be felt in a way that one does not feel; so that precisely in this, that the devil, as far as feeling goes, is my lord, he must be my servant, and when I lie underneath, and the whole world is superior to me, then I lie on top. How can that be? If it is to be true, must not experience come and be felt? Yes, indeed; but it means this: feeling is to come afterward, but faith must be there beforehand, without and above feeling. Thus my conscience, in that it feels sin and is afraid and fainthearted because of it, must nevertheless become a lord and conqueror over sin — not in feeling or thought, but in faith in the Word, and thereby comfort and sustain itself against and above sin, until sin must be entirely gone, and is no longer felt at all.

So too death is indeed among us, so that it cannot devour or hold us; yet it nevertheless clings to our necks with pestilence, sword, and all sorts of plagues, and casts us down beneath it into the grave, so that we must rot there, and yet do not remain in it in the end, but shall break through and burst forth from it, brighter than the heavens with sun and stars. So it also had to happen with Christ: when he was dead and buried, there was likewise no feeling nor expectation of life, and it was so hard for the disciples to believe that Christ, under the grave and the sealed stone, should be Lord over death and the grave; as they themselves said, Luke 24:21: We had hoped that he would redeem Israel.

For this reason everything depends on this, as St. Paul here admonishes, that one hold fast to the Word which we have received, and always remember it, and thereby ward off all questioning, cleverness, and disputing, and not give in to the devil's suggestions, whether from outside through his factions, or from within in our own heart; and thus learn the power and might of God in this same Word, namely, that through it we become blessed, and through it alone stand firm against the devil's power and all errors.

For that I should stand firm in faith that I am a Christian, a child of God and blessed, even while I feel sin and an evil conscience, and shall live eternally, with a beautiful, glorious body, even while I lie beneath the earth — for that a divine, heavenly power and wisdom is needed, one that is guided by no feeling or sight, but can look beyond it, certain that such a thing is no human chatter or dream, but is God's Word, who can do still more than we understand or grasp (Eph. 3:20), since he has already raised up our Lord Christ, though no one was ever so shamefully and blasphemously executed, nor fell into so desperate and (according to the Law) accursed a death, so that his name stank far more disgracefully than that of any man on earth; yet he has proven that Scripture is more than the thoughts, feelings, and experience of all men. For no one could have grasped or imagined that Christ would be alive on the third day, and in the wisdom of the whole world there was not one spark that knew anything of it; yet the Word was there which pronounced him alive while he still lay in the grave. And as it says, so it must come to pass, even though the senses and understanding of the whole world, and all things, are against it.

So it is with us too. There the dead lie beneath the earth, long since rotted away, or eaten by maggots and all kinds of vermin, or scattered and blown to dust; but in the Word which we believe and confess, they are certainly alive and risen. The world does not have this and cannot do it; but the Word has it and can do it, and so it must come to pass; for it is God's own power and might.

To this we should now hold fast and comfort ourselves, even though we do not believe it as powerfully as we should, and it will not let itself be felt so strongly in our hearts as we would like: only let us hold to it, and keep pressing on, and simply not let it go from our hearts. Just as we also believe only weakly that through Christ we are lords over the world and the devil, but rather feel the opposite. But we comfort ourselves with this, as much as we can, that we have the Word, which is above all power and wisdom. So too, even though I feel my sin, and cannot have a secure, joyful heart as I would like, I should nevertheless let the Word prevail, so that I say accordingly: I am a lord over sin, and will know no sin. Ah yes (you say), just let your own conscience tell you that, which feels and experiences quite differently. That is indeed true — if it depended on feeling, I would be lost; but the Word should count and remain above my feeling and that of the whole world, however small it may seem, and however weakly we believe it. For we all see and experience the fact that sin simply condemns us and sentences us to hell; that death devours us and the whole world, so that no one can escape it; and yet you speak to me of life and righteousness, though I do not see a single spark of it, and it must indeed be a very weak life. Yes, truly, a weak life, so far as our faith goes. But however weak it is, if only the Word and the little spark of faith remain in the heart, then such a fire of life shall come from it as fills heaven and earth, and shall consume both death and all misfortune like a little drop of water, and the weak faith shall break through, so that one shall see and feel neither sin nor death any longer. But that requires a strong struggle, to hold fast to the Word against our own feeling and sight.

Therefore faith is not so small a thing as people think, but a splendid hero, in that it holds fast to the Word which seems so small and worthless that the whole world would not give a farthing for it, and yet does so great a thing, and is so mighty, that it will tear apart heaven and earth and open all graves in a single moment. And if you only remain in it, you shall thereby live forever, and become a lord over all things, even though your faith is now weak and your feeling strong; and you shall henceforth live, however weakly you live, so long as you do not live according to your own thoughts and reason, but according to Scripture. For the devil has so long now been gnawing at Scripture and the Word, but has never yet been able to overcome it or overthrow it. This much he does manage: that he creeps around us on every side (1 Pet. 5:8), so as to tear us away from it; but he does not attack the Word itself. And because you carry that same Word in your heart, he cannot come squarely before your eyes; he may make you flounder, but he gains nothing against you.

So too Scripture speaks of the patriarch Jacob (Wisd. 10:12): he let him hold a hard, chivalrous combat, so that he might learn from the struggle and the victory how mighty the Word was. For otherwise one would never come to perceive what power lies beneath the letter, until it comes to the actual encounter, where one learns that it can prevail against all errors, sin, death, and the devil. The world does not believe this, nor do all those who wish to judge by their own feeling, and torment themselves with heavy thoughts of sin and death, until they get rid of their thoughts and would gladly obtain others. But nothing comes of that; no other comfort will do but that one hold to the Word, which says: Do you not hear that Christ has risen for you, and has destroyed your sin and death, etc.? In sum, we cannot stand fast against sin, death, or hell, except through this Gospel, of which (here) St. Paul speaks, saying that through it we stand and are saved. If he had known any other means of comfort and preservation, he would without doubt have given that to them as well.

Now he shows the easiest art for it, one that requires neither cost nor effort: it costs nothing more than a word, and by that we are to stand against death and all our enemies; though we may feel otherwise and be weak, it makes no difference, so long as one only remains with the Word. For a mother does not throw away her child because it is weak and scabby. It is indeed weak and cannot help itself; but because it remains in the mother's lap and arms, it is in no danger; but if it should fall out of the mother's care, it is lost. So do likewise: if you wish to be saved, see to it that you remain only in the Word, by which God carries and will preserve you, so that you may not be lost."

(Submitted.)

Johannes Bugenhagen.

(From the Portrait-Gallery of Witnesses and Heroes of the Reformation Era. Dresden 1845; communicated in extract.)

Johannes Bugenhagen, the evangelist of Denmark, Pomerania, Hamburg, Brunswick, Lübeck, and several other northern German cities, Luther's faithful friend, confessor, and fellow combatant for the Gospel, was born on the 24th of June, 1485, at Wollin, formerly a mighty city on the island of the same name. Dark and scanty are the reports concerning his origin, as well as his childhood; of his upbringing it is only affirmed, in general, that it was a good one for the time, place, and circumstances. But the best thing that at once casts a cheerful light on his parents and their efforts we know from Bugenhagen's own mouth: he says that he loved Holy Scripture from his childhood youth onward. Thus he came to the University of Greifswald in 1502. There he formed a close friendship with the Svaven, three young Pomeranians of aspiring spirit, among whom one brother, Peter, later immersed himself with his whole soul in the first stirrings of the Reformation; this friendship was a light of his life; the two chiefly named, Petrus Svave and our Bugenhagen, often met again later in friendship. His stay at the university was but brief; already in 1503 we find him at Treptow on the Rega occupied with teaching children; it is probable that the straitened circumstances that accompanied his early life had their part in this. Yet the divine guidance was unmistakable in this changeable sojourn; for not only could Bugenhagen boast that the people of Treptow treated him well for many long years, but Treptow became the cradle of the Reformation in Pomerania, and the place where, thirty years later — in 1534 — the whole Pomeranian territory, with Dukes Barnim and Philip at its head, embraced the Gospel in unity. Through the abbot of the monastery of Belbuck, Johann Boldewan, Bugenhagen was called in 1505 to be rector of the school