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Page 60
It is to assist them to such an understanding and appreciation of
the truth as it is in Jesus, and is confessed by our Church, that we
have written these pages. If they have strengthened any who are weak
in the faith, removed any doubts and perplexities, established any who
wavered and made any love the Church and her great Head more, we are
more than repaid.
Whatever may have been the effect of reading these chapters, the
writing of them has made the Church of the Reformation, her faith and
practices, more precious than ever to the writer. He has become more
and more convinced that what Rome stigmatized as "Lutheranism" is
nothing else than the pure and simple Gospel of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.
Let us take a rapid backward glance. We see that the Lutheran
Church grasps fully and accepts unreservedly the whole sad and
unwelcome doctrine of _sin_. She believes all that is written as
to the deep-going and far-reaching consequences of sin--that every
soul comes into this world infected with this fearful malady, and,
therefore, unfit for the kingdom of God, and under condemnation. She
believes therefore that every human being, down to the youngest
infant, must have its nature changed before it can be saved. The
necessity of this change is absolute and without exception.
In the very beginning, therefore, we see that no Church places
the necessity of personal renewal and salvation on higher ground than
does the Lutheran Church. She believes that our blessed Saviour has
appointed a means, a channel, a vehicle, by and through which His Holy
Spirit conveys renewing Grace to the heart of the tender infant, and
makes it a lamb of His flock. She believes that where Christ's
Sacrament of holy Baptism--which is the means referred to--does not
reach a child, His Spirit can and will reach and renew it in some way
not made known to us.
She believes that the beginning of the new life in a child is a
spiritual _birth_; that this young and feeble life needs
nourishment and fostering care for its healthy development; that it is
the duty of Christian parents to see to this; that the Sunday-school
and catechetical class are helps offered to the parents by the Church.
She believes that by this nourishing of the divine life in the family
and Church, "_with the sincere milk of God's Word_," the
baptismal covenant can be kept unbroken, and the divine life developed
and increased more and more.
After careful instruction in the home and Church, if there is due
evidence that there is Grace in the heart, that penitence and faith,
which are the elements of the new life, are really present, she admits
her children to the communion of the body and blood of Christ, by the
beautiful and significant rite of confirmation.
The scriptural doctrine of Christ's holy sacrament, which our
Church holds and sets forth, and the solemn, searching preparatory
service which she connects with it, make it truly calculated to
strengthen the child of God, and unite him closer to Christ.
Our Church insists that the whole life of the believer, in the
fellowship of the Saviour and His people, is to be a "growth in Grace and
in knowledge." In this, also the believer is wonderfully assisted by our
teachings concerning the efficacy of the Word of God as a means of Grace,
a vehicle and instrument of the Holy Spirit. He is further comforted and
quickened by that precious doctrine of justification--alone by faith
in Jesus Christ. He is encouraged to press forward to the mark, to
purify himself more and more, to become more and more active, earnest
and consecrated by what the Church teaches of sanctification.
Nor does the Church overlook or forget the sad fact that
many--often through the fault of those who ought to be their spiritual
guides in the home and Church--lapse from their baptismal covenant, or
forget their confirmation vows, and thus fall back into an unconverted
state. She insists on the absolute necessity of conversion or turning
back, for all such. She does not, however, expend all her energies in
proclaiming its necessity, but also sets forth and makes plain the
nature of conversion, and the means and methods of bringing it about.
While the Church would, first of all, use every endeavor to
preclude the necessity of conversion, by bringing the children to
Jesus that He may receive and bless them through His own sacrament;
and while she would use all diligence and watchfulness to keep them
true to Christ in their baptismal covenant, yet, when they do fall
away, she solemnly assures them that except they repent and be
converted, they will eternally perish.
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