# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_December 1859_S367
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Comparison of Luther with Arndt and August H. Francke in Respect, etc. 367

full comfort. He always presents it as the worst thing when one does not believe the Gospel of forgiveness, when one hears it and does not accept it for oneself, so that people are so terrified by it that, while the hypocrite hears therein his own damnation, the timid soul thereby gains courage to appropriate the glorious evangelical promises to himself.

Luther begins, for example, his first sermon at once with the words: "This Gospel, my friends of Christ, as we have it and hear it every year, I hope you also understand it and know it, what is portrayed to us in it. Would to God that life would follow such knowledge accordingly; for we hear the greater part of the Gospel only with our ears, so that we know it, but not so that one lives accordingly, though it should indeed be directed to this end, that there be few words but pure life resulting from it. But how shall we manage this? We can do no more than preach it, we can neither lift nor carry it any further, we must preach it and keep on doing so until God himself at last comes and gives us his grace for this, that words grow few and life goes forward and increases." First of all, Luther here understands by "life," without doubt, not so much good works and improvement of conduct as rather true heartfelt faith, the accepting and applying of the sermon to oneself; and then he explains that, as a preacher, when this is lacking on the part of the hearers, he is nevertheless not compelled to fall silent about the Gospel and to press first upon life, upon repentance, upon remorse, upon struggle and zealous living, but rather to continue with the evangelical preaching and to leave it to God whether and when he will give to the Word the deed, that is, the deed of faith. For now he goes on to describe the kingdom of Christ as a kingdom full of pure grace, and to condemn as false prophets to be fled those who say: "If you do this, then you are a Christian; if you do not do it, then you are not one." But in the middle of this comforting sermon Luther raises his finger and says: "Note here now how narrow and how wide the kingdom of Christ is. Few are they who grasp the word in such a way that it tastes good to them, who can judge themselves by it, and who understand what is said there: Your sins are forgiven you. When we are then in the kingdom of Christ, what does he think of sins? Are there always sins present? No one belongs to the kingdom unless his sin has been opened to him through the Gospel; otherwise these words meet no one: your sins are forgiven you. All indeed hear the Gospel, but it does not go to all their hearts, for not all of them feel their sin; but the Gospel preaches that everything that is in us is sin. Therefore it also offers comfort; the forgiveness of sins is there; if forgiveness is to come to me, there must first be the knowledge of sin," and so forth. After this digression Luther now returns again to his subject and praises, unconcerned about the scorners and hypocrites, the treasure of the forgiveness of sin that is to be found in Christ's kingdom. But in the midst of this praise he turns again to the work-righteous and portrays them so aptly and so hideously that they might well come to repentance