The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1880, Page 14

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

14

The Lutheran Pioneer.

a summary of the apostolic doctrine and is be-
lieved to have been drawn up during the time
of the Apostles.

The Nicene Creed. It has its name from the
city of Nice, in.Asia, where a church-council
was held in the year 325, in order to restore
the peace of the Church, which had been dis-
turbed by the heretic Arius, who denied the di-
vinity of Christ. It-is a clear statement of the
divinity of Christ and of the personality of the
Holy Ghost. or

The Athanasian Creed. It has its name from
the great defender of the divinity of Christ,
Athanasius, who died in the year 373. Itisa
clear statement of the three persons in one God
and of the two natures in one Christ.—These
three Creeds are called the general Creeds, and
by adopting them the Lutheran Church shows
that she is no new church, but that she holds
fast to the doctrines of the true Church of the
first centuries.

The Augsburg Confession. It has its name
from the city of Augsburg, where it was pre-
sented at the Diet, on the 25th of June, 1530.

The Apology, or Defence of the Augsburg
Confession. It was written in the same year
as a defence of the Augsburg Confession against
the attacks of the Romish theologians.

The Smalcald Articles. They were drawn up
by Dr. Luther as a clear statement of evan-
gelical doctrine to be presented at a council,
which was to be called in 1537. They have
their name from the city of Smalcald, where
they were adopted by a large number of theo-
logians in 1537.

The Smaller and the Larger Catechisms of Dr.
Luther, written by him in the year 1529.

The Formula of Concord. It was drawn up in
the year 1577. It put an end to the sad contro-
versies which, after Luther’s death, were created
in the Lutheran Church by false teachers, who
had sneaked into the Church and were trying
to spread all kinds of false doctrines.

These are the Confessions which were pub-
lished complete in one book, called the Book of
Concord, in the year 1580. They are all taken
from the Bible and are therefore in perfect
harmony with the Bible and with each other.
They are the sparkling gems of Gospel truth in
the flashing diadem of our Book of Concord.
They are the banners around which true Lu-

~ therans rally and march on to victory. Let the
banners. wave and the drums beat, marching
under the banners of our Confessions we know
that the God of eternal truth is with us in the
field. With joy and thanksgiving we celebrate
the third Centennial of our Book of Concord.

. On Creeds.

Why do Lutherans hold fast to their creeds or
confessions? Not because they place their con-
fessions above the Bible or at the side of the
Bible. No; athousand timesno! The Bible is
the only source of Christian knowledge. But Lu-
therans are convinced that their confessions are
in perfect harmony with the Bible, and that by

holding fast to their confessions, they hold fast
to the truths of the Bible. The Bible-is the
fountain, and the Lutheran confessions are the
streams flowing out of this fountain. Through
the Bible God tells us the truths which we are
to believe, and in our creeds we confess our be-
lief in those truths of the Bible.—The Confes-
sions were drawn up by men, yes. And men
may. err, yes. But have those men erred who
drew up our confessions? That is the question.
It has not been proven, and we defy the world
to prove it. If it could be proven that any
doctrine of our confessions is not taken from the
Bible, we would drop that doctrine immediately;
for the Bible is the only rule by which every
doctrine must be tested. The pastors and
teachers of our Church must therefore, on
entering upon their duties, affirm, in the pres-
ence of the congregation, that they are- con-
vinced that the confessions are in perfect harmony
with the Bible, and must vow, that they will
preach and teach according to those confessions.
The members of the congregation then cannot
demand of the pastor to preach according to
the itching of their ears. The pastor, on the
other hand, cannot preach his own views and
opinions and notions to the congregation. How
often is this done in other churches! Take upa
Monday’s paper in which a summary is given of
the sermons held on Sunday. One Romish
bishop or priest preaches this opinion, another
preaches an entirely different opinion on the
same subject. One so-called Protestant preaches
this notion, another preaches a quite different
notion. This cannot be done in the Lutheran
Church. 2

But is not this a free country? And how
can we bind men to these confessions? This is
a free country, yes. And a man can become a
Mormon if he likes to. No one forces him to
be a Lutheran pastor or.teacher. But if he
wants to be a Lutheran, that is, a true Bible-
Christian, he must hold fast to the Bible-truths
laid down in our Confessions. If he cannot do
this, he has no right to call himself a Lutheran.
If a man is a shoemaker, he has no right to put
out a barber's sign; and if he isa barber, he
has no right to put out a shoemaker’s sign.
Let me tell you a story. The English, you
know, lately waged war with the Zulus down
in South Africa. The people read about the
Zulus in the papers.and took great interest in
them. Some speculator, anxious to make
money, travelled about in Germany with some
colored people who pretended to be genuine
Zulus from South Africa. The people came in
crowds to see them, and in Berlin a professor
examined the heads of those so-called Zulus.
Now it happened that some one, who could speak
the Zulu language, came to speak with them;
but they could not speak that Janguage, and it
was then found out that they were colored
people from Louisiana. Now, you know, Loui-
siana is not in South Africa, and the colored
people of Louisiana are no Zulus. Thus the
people had been cheated. So we say a man
has no right to cheat the people by merely call-

ing himself a Lutheran. If he wants to bea
Lutheran, he must speak the Lutheran language,
that is, he must hold fast to the Bible-truths
which are laid down in our confessions. If he
is a true Lutheran, he will gladly bind himself
to these confessions which are hallowed by the
tears and: prayers of our fathers, and sealed by
the blood of our Lutheran martyrs.

<2 -
(For the ‘‘Lutheran Pioneer.’’)

How to read the Bible.

When reading the Bible, we ought always to
remember that it is the Word of God. Hence
we should read it with reverence and devotion.
We should read it carefully, for every word is
gold. We should understand what we read
therein, we should let it sink deeply into our
hearts and keep it.

For special occasions and wants you may
select special passages of scriptures to read,
such as your special needs or the occasion may
require. But in general, and for your daily
reading, you may observe the following bits of
advice, which were tried and proven valuable
by many men of God:

First, do not read here and there, at random,
choosing the passages by chance; but begin at
the first verse of the Bible and continue in
your daily reading till you arrive at the last
verse of the Revelations. One or more chap-
ters ought to be read every day. After you
have perused the whole Bible once, then re-read
the New Testament entire. This done, begin
to read the Old Testament and continue to the
end of the Bible. “The New Testament ought
to be read twice, while the Old Testament is
read once.

Secondly, underline and mark all such pas-
sages that strike you as very important or con-
taining much comfort or which you may want
to use some time in argument or conversation
with others.

Thirdly, commit to memory as many of those
passages as your time and memory will allow.

Fourthly, always use, if possible, the same
copy of the Bible. Besides endearing that
copy to you as your daily companion and hand-
book, the practice of the same Bible at all times
will enable you to find favorite and other pas-
sages easily, though you may not exactly re-
member chapter and verse. Simply by recol-
lecting the position in which you found the
passage, or the marks you made there, the
connection the passage has with foregoing or
following words, in your Bible, it will not take
you long before you have found it. This a per-
son cannot do as readily in a Bible altogether.
different in size, print etc. from the one he
usually reads.

Lastly, do not read simply in order to know
what is in the Bible or to fill the mind with its
words, but read for’ the heart. Do not read
the Bible to show how well you are informed
concerning its contents, to parade your Bible-
learning; but read for your own benefit, 80
that you may grow in understanding, increase

TT