Introduction from the Webmaster

This is from a PDF file I found on LutheranLibrary.Org

About this series of quotes from Martin Luther, one of my friends, Steve, commented: “Sometimes the reformers like Martin Luther, can be “dated” to those of us several centuries on. Many of them were challenging Roman Catholicism for the first time and might have carried over teachings you and I certainly don’t agree with. But in the main, I’ll take their faith and belief in God’s plain Word compared to many of the newer and very misleading “experts” (so called) of the past 150 years!”

I agree! Though I find much of what Martin Luther had to say inspiring, we must not take his words all as Gospel truth. He had come out of the Catholic Church and was still was somewhat under its influence. That’s no surprise. We can try to cut ourselves off from the world, but past experiences in the world may continue to influence us apart from the grace of God. It’s good to pray the prayer of Psalms 139:23-24:

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“The selections in this volume have all been freshly translated from Luther’s own German or Latin, with the exception of the extracts taken from the sixteenth century translation of the Commentary on the Galatians.” -from the introduction.

I. THE COMMANDER.

We must strive, for we are under one Lord of armies and Prince of warriors. Therefore, with one hand we must build, and iN the other bear the sword.

It must not be “Sic ego Philippus.” The “ego” is too small. The word is, “I am that I am.”

LOVE is an image of God, and not a lifeless image, nor one painted on paper, but the living essence of the Divine Nature, which beams full of all goodness.

He is not harsh, as we are to those who have injured us. We withdraw our hand and close our purse; but He is kind to the unthankful and the evil.

He sees thee in thy poverty and wretchedness, and knows thou hast nothing to pay; therefore He freely forgives and gives thee all.

“GOD’S love gives in such a way, that it flows from a Father’s heart, the well-spring of all good. The heart of the giver makes the gift dear and precious; as among ourselves we say of even a trifling gift, ‘It comes from a hand we love,’ and look not so much at the gift as at the heart.”

“IF we will only consider Him in His works, we shall learn that God is nothing else but pure, unutterable love, greater and more than any one can think. The shameful thing is, that the world does not regard this, nor thank Him for it, although every day it sees before it such countless benefits from Him; and it deserves for its ingratitude that the sun should not shine another moment longer, nor the grass grow; yet He ceases not, for one moment’s interval, to love us and to do us good. Language must fail me to speak of His spiritual gifts. Here He pours forth for us, not sun and moon, nor heaven and earth, but His own heart, His beloved Son, so that He suffered His blood to be shed, and the most shameful death to be inflicted on Him, for us wretched, wicked, thankless creatures. How, then, can we say anything but that God is an abyss of endless, unfathomable love?”

“THE whole Bible is full of this—that we should not doubt, but be absolutely certain, that God is merciful, gracious, patient, faithful, and true; who not only will keep His promises, but already has kept and done abundantly beyond what He promised, since He has given His own Son for our sins on the cross, that all who believe on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

“WHOEVER believes, and embraces this, that God has given His only Son to die for us poor sinners, to him it is no longer any doubt, but the most certain truth, that God reconciles us to Himself, and is favorable and heartily gracious to us.”

“SINCE the gospel shows us Christ the Son of God, who, according to the will of the Father, has offered Himself for us, and has satisfied for sin, the heart can no more doubt God’s goodness and grace—is no more affrighted, nor flies from God, but sets all its hope in His goodness and mercy.”

THE apostles are always exhorting us to continue in the love of God—that is, that each one should entirely conclude in his heart that he is loved by God; and they set before our eyes a certain proof of it, in that God has not spared His Son, but given Him for the world, that through His death the world might again have life.

It is God’s honor and glory to give liberally. His nature is all pure love, so that if any one would describe or picture God, he must describe One who is pure love, the Divine Nature being nothing else than a furnace and glow of such love that it fills heaven and earth.

IT is not to be borne that Christian people should say, We cannot know whether God is favorable to us or not. On the contrary, we should learn to say, I know that I believe in Christ, and therefore that God is my gracious Father.

WHAT is the reason that God gives? What moves Him to it ? Nothing but unutterable love, because He delights to give and to bless. What does He give? Not empires merely, not a world full of silver and gold, not heaven and earth only; but His Son, who is as great as Himself —that is, eternal and incomprehensible, a Gift as infinite as the Giver, the very spring and fountain of all grace; yea, the possession and property of all the riches and treasures of God.

Omnipresence.

GOD is limited to no place. He is also excluded from none. He is in all places, and in the least of His creatures, in the petal of the flower, in a blade of grass; and yet He is in no place. Nowhere, comprehensively and exclusively; everywhere, because everywhere He is creating and upholding everything.

The Creation not Left to Itself.

GOD has not so created the creatures that after creating He abandons them. He loves them, delights in them, is with them; moves and sustains each creature according to its kind.

We Christians know that with God creating and sustaining are one thing.

The Creator.

TO Magister Holflein, Doctor Martin Luther said, “Dear Master, where were you, sixty years ago? Where was I? Whence came I hither? Whence came you hither? We did not create ourselves, and yet, now, we want to go to our Lord God and bargain with Him, and sell Him our works! He must, forsooth, give us His heaven for them! Is not this a shameful thing, that a creature should lift itself up thus and desire to traffic with its Creator?

“We do not really believe that God is our Creator. If we believed it, we should act far otherwise. But no one believes that God is the Creator. Even when we say it, and our con- science convinces us, it is not genuine earnest with us.

“We virtually go up to God and say, ‘Lord God, look on me for my works’ sake! I come to Thee. Thou hast not created me.’ Shame on us.”

The Living God.

THE chief thing that God requireth of man is that he giveth unto Him the glory of His Divinity—that is to say, that he taketh Him not for an idol, but for God, who looketh on him, listeneth to him, showeth mercy on him, and helpeth.

“True Christian Divinity.”

TRUE Christian Divinity setteth not God forth unto us in His Majesty. It commandeth us not to search out the nature of God, but to know His will set forth to us in Christ.

Therefore begin thou where Christ began— namely, in the womb of the Virgin, in the manger, and at His mother’s breast. It is to this end He came down, was born, was conversant among men; suffered, was crucified and died, that by all means He might set Himself forth plainly before us, and fasten the eyes of our heart upon Himself, that He might thereby keep us from climbing up into heaven, and from the curious searching of the Divine Majesty.

Christ Revealing the Father.

CHRIST, according to His office, calleth us back unto the Father’s will, that in His words and works we should not so much look on Him, but on the Father. For Christ came into this world, and took man’s nature on Him, that He might be a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and so reconcile us to God the Father; that He alone might declare unto us how this was done through the good pleasure of the Father, that we, by fastening our eyes on Christ, might be drawn and carried straight unto the Father.

Theology Beginning at Bethlehem.

CHRISTIAN religion beginneth not at the highest, as other religions do, but at the lowest. It will have us to climb up by Jacob’s ladder, whereupon God Himself leaneth, whose feet touch the very earth, hard by the head of Jacob.

Run straight to the manger, and embrace this infant, the Virgin’s little babe, in thine arms; and behold Him as He was born, nursed, grew up, was conversant amongst men; teaching; dying; rising again; ascending up above all the heavens, and having power over all things.

This sight and contemplation will keep thee in the right way, that thou mayest follow whither Christ hath gone.

God Stooping to Man.

THE Gospel is the Revelation of the Son of God.

With our reason we can never comprehend what God the Creator is. And for this cause He has taught, “It is in vain; human reason cannot comprehend Me. I am too great and too high. I will make Myself little, that man may understand Me; I will give him My Son, and so give Him, that for man He shall become a sacrifice, sin and a curse, and be obedient to Me the Father, even to the death of the cross.”

This is indeed to become little and comprehensible. But who believes it? Novem ubi sunt? “Where are the nine?”

The Incarnation.

IN deep spiritual temptations nothing has helped me better, with nothing have I heartened myself and driven away the devil better than with this, that Christ, the true Eternal Son of God, is “bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh,” and that he sits on the right hand of God, and pleads for us. When I can grasp this shield of faith, I have already chased away the evil one with his fiery darts.

ANNO Domini 1538, on the 25th of December, on Christmas Day, Doctor Martin Luther was very joyous, and all his sayings, songs, and thoughts were about the Incarnation of Christ our Saviour. And he said, with a deep sigh,—

“Ah, we poor human creatures, how coldly and tamely we greet this great joy which has come to bless us! This is the great act of beneficence which far excels all other works of creation. And shall we so feebly believe it, when it has been announced to us, preached, and sung by the angels? (heavenly theologians and preachers, indeed!) And they have rejoiced on our account, and their song is verily a glorious.song, wherein is briefly enfolded the sum of the whole Christian religion. For the Gloria in excelsis Deo, ‘Glory to God in the highest,’ is the high- est worship, and this they bring to us in this Christ.

“For the world since Adam’s fall knows neither God nor His creatures; lives without regarding God’s glory; praises, honors, glorifies Him not. Oh, what choice, joyous thoughts man would have had; seeing even in the lowliest flowers that our Lord God is an Artist and Master whom none can imitate!

“Wherefore the dear angels call us, fallen creatures, to faith in Christ, and to love; that we, giving glory to God alone, may have peace in this life, both with God and with one another.”

THE Feast of the Annunciation may well be called the Feast of the Incarnation. Then our Redemption began. Thus the French and the English date the beginning of the year from this Feast. For this mystery no one can explain, nor fathom with his reason, that God, the Highest Majesty, has humbled Himself to take on Him our flesh.

On this day we preachers should diligently picture to the people the History of the Festival, as Luke describes it, circumstantially and in order; and we should, all together, have joy and delight in the comforting, blessed story that, as on this day, Christ our Lord and Saviour, conceived by the Holy Ghost, took our human nature upon Him, of the pure chaste Virgin Mary; became our Brother; lifted up our condemned and corrupted humanity to this highest glory, that we should be children of God, and His fellow-heirs, at which, indeed, we should rejoice more than over all the treasures of this earth.

It is true we cannot enough praise Mary, that high, noble creature; but when the Creator Himself comes and gives Himself for us, to redeem us from the power of the devil, for this inexpressible grace, neither we nor the angels can praise and bless Him enough to eternity.

The Childhood and Youth of our Lord.

ALL the wisdom of the world is mere child’s play, yes, folly, compared with the knowledge of Christ. For what is more wonderful than to know and acknowledge the great, unspeakable mystery that the Son of God, the express Image of the Eternal Father, has taken our nature on Him, and become in fashion as a man?

At Nazareth He must have helped His father build houses; for Joseph was a carpenter. Therefore Christ was called “the carpenter’s son;” yes, Himself “the carpenter.”

What will the people of Nazareth think at the Last Day, when they shall see Christ sitting in Divine Majesty, and may say to Him, “Lord, didst Thou not help build my house? How then comest Thou to this high glory?”

Many fables have been imaged, by many, of what Jesus did in His childhood and youth, as can be seen in the book with the title, “De Infanti a Salvatoris,” and “De Vita Fesu.” But because in this book stands many a foolish, ridiculous thing, it has never been esteemed by Christians.

This, however, is the needful thing, that we Christians should with all diligence learn and know that the Son of God did so deeply humble Himself, was born so poor and in such a low estate, all on account of our sins; and that for our sakes He hid His Majesty so long.

When He was born, He wept and wailed like another babe. Mary had to wait on Him and tend Him, and feed Him at her breast (as the Church sings, “A little milk was once His food”), to cherish, clothe, lift, and carry Him, lay Him to rest, as any other mother her babe.

Soon afterwards Joseph, with the mother and the babe, in distress, had to flee into Egypt, from Herod.

When, after Herod’s death, they came back to Nazareth, He was subject to His parents, and no doubt often brought them bread, drink, and other things. Mary may have said to Him, “Jesus, where hast Thou been? Canst Thou not stay at home!” And when He grew up, He must have helped Joseph at the carpentering, &c. Not to stumble nor to be offended at this feeble, lowly form, this despised mode of life, which was seen in Christ, is great, high art and wisdom, yea, God’s gift, and the Holy Ghost’s own work.

Some are offended because we sometimes say in the pulpit that Christ was a carpenter (Zimmergescell), But it is a far greater offense that He was nailed to the cross, as one guilty of blasphemy and insurrection, between two malefactors.

IT is written that there was once a pious godly bishop who had often earnestly prayed that God would manifest to him what Jesus had done in His youth. Once the bishop had a dream to this effect. He seemed, in his sleep, to see a carpenter working at his trade, and beside him a little boy, who was gathering up chips. Then came in a maiden, clothed in green, who called them both to come to the meal, and set porridge (Brei) before them. All this the bishop seemed to see in his dream, himself standing behind the door that he might not be perceived. Then the little boy began and said, “ Why does that man stand there? Shall not he also eat with us?” And this so frightened the bishop that he awoke.

Let this be what it may, a true history or a fable, I none the less believe that Christ in His childhood and youth looked and acted like other children, “yet without sin,” “in fashion like a man.”

Often (so I think, I assert it not for truth), when His parents had need, by His Divine power He may have created and brought them what they needed, without money. For when His mother saw at the marriage-feast at Cana that they wanted wine, from her motherly heart she said to Him with confidence, “They have no wine,” as if often before she had seen how He could help in need.

Whosoever, therefore, will rightly comprehend this child, must think that there is no higher wisdom than to acknowledge Christ, and not to be offended or turned aside, because the world holds all this for the greatest foolishness. For to us who believe it is the “wisdom of God and the power of God” whereby we are saved, and wherein the dear angels have delight and joy.

Therefore it pleases me very well, when in the churches they sing aloud, and with a solemn slowness, Et homo factus est and Verbum caro factum est. To these words the devil cannot listen, but must flee many miles from them, for he feels well what there is in them.

If we rejoiced from our hearts over those words, as the devil trembles at them, it would be well for us.

Christ at the Judgment-Seat.

IS it not a wonderful thing that the Son of God should sit there and suffer himself to be so piteously tormented, scorned, and mocked? —He whom all angels adore, before whom the earth trembles?—Whom all the creatures acknowledge as their Creator, in His face they spit, strike Him on the lips with a reed, say in mockery, “Ah, if He is a king He must have a crown and sceptre!”

Oh, our sufferings are nothing! When I think of them, I am ashamed to death. Yet we are to be conformed to the image of the Son of God; and if our sufferings could be as great as His, it would still be nothing in comparison. For He is the Son of God, and we are poor creatures. If we suffered eternal death, it were nothing in comparison.

The Last Supper.

THE supper which Christ held with His disciples when He gave them His farewell must have been full of friendly heart-intercourse; for Christ spoke just as tenderly and cordially to them as a father to his dear little children when he is obliged to part from them, He made the best of their infirmities, and had patience with them, although all the while they were so slow to understand, and still lisped like babes.

Yet that must indeed have been choice, friendly, and delightful converse when Philip said, “Show us the Father;” and Thomas, “We know not the way;” and Peter, “I will go with Thee to prison and to death.”

It was simple, quiet table-talk; every one opening his heart and showing his thoughts freely and fearlessly, and without restraint.

Never since the world began was there a more delightful meal than that.

The Agony tn the Garden.

DR. LUTHER was once questioned at table concerning the “bloody sweat,” and the other deep spiritual sufferings which Christ endured in the garden. Then he said—”No man can know or conceive what that anguish must have been. If any man began even to experience such suffering, he must die. You know many do die of sickness of heart; for heart- anguish is indeed death. If a man could feel such anguish and distress as Christ felt, it would be impossible for him to endure it and for his soul to remain in his body. Soul and body would part. To Christ alone was this agony possible, and it wrung from Him ‘sweat which was as great drops of blood.’”

The Ascension of Christ.

A WONDERFUL thing it must have been to see, when Christ vanished before the disciples’ eyes, and went up into heaven. The good disciples must have thought, “We have eaten and drunk with Him, and now, whilst looking at us, He is taken from us into heaven.” I know Dr. Justus Jonas very intimately, and if he were now raised up into heaven, and were to vanish before our eyes, it would give us many strange and wonderful thoughts.

“NO man hath ascended into heaven save He who came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, who is in heaven.”

In these three sayings are briefly comprehended His almightiness. “To come down from heaven,” means that He appeared on earth, became man (in all things like us, save in sin), let His glory be seen in his words and wondrous works, and at last accomplished the redemption of the human race.

“To ascend to heaven,” means that henceforth He appears no more on earth in bodily form.

“Is in heaven,” means that in His Godhead He has never left the right hand of the Father, and moreover that He has never relinquished, and will never relinquish, the human nature which He has taken on Him.

The Holy Spirit.

ON the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit began the New Testament. Then He openly established his office and work, as Christ proclaimed Him, “the Comforter, and the Spirit of Truth.”

For He gave to the apostles and disciples a true, sure consolation in their hearts, and an assured, joyful mind, so that they did not ask if the world and the devil were favorable or unfavorable, raged or laughed, but went through the streets of the city, and thought, “Here neither Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate, or Herod are anything. We Christians are all. All are our subjects and servants, and we their lords and rulers.”

That these poor beggars and fishermen, the apostles, should step forth and preach as they did, enraging the whole government at Jerusalem, bringing on themselves the wrath of the priests also, and of the whole Roman empire, opening their mouths and crying, “Ye are traitors and murderers,” knowing that they would in consequence be smitten on the mouth; all this could not have been but through the Holy Spirit.

THE Holy Ghost is called the Comforter, not one who makes sad; for where melancholy and depression are, there the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, is not at home. The devil is a spirit of terror and sadness. But the Holy Ghost is the Comforter.

THE Holy Ghost, who is called a Witness and a Comforter, preaches and testifies throughout Christendom, to comfort and strengthen all the sorrowful, of none save only of Christ.

THE Holy Scriptures give to the Holy Spirit a very choice name, calling Him an Advocate, Paraclete, who conducts our cause and does the best for us, speaks for us, makes intercession for us, and helps us up again when we are fallen. Thus we obtain the victory through faith, and overcome the devil and the world, not by our own means and powers, but by the power and working of the Holy Spirit and of faith.

The Love of God.

THE slender capacity of man’s heart cannot comprehend, much less utter, that unsearchable depth and burning zeal of God’s love towards us.

God is gracious and merciful, as the Scriptures show. He loves even real sinners (bosen Buben). Yea, to the blind, hard world which lieth in the wicked one, He has sent as a Saviour His own Son. I could not have done that, and yet I am a real sin- ner (bose Bube) myself.

“True Definition of Christ.”

FOR, indeed, Christ is no cruel exactor, but a forgiver of the sins of the whole world. Wherefore, if thou be a sinner (as indeed are we all), set not Christ down upon the rainbow as a judge, but take hold of His true definition—namely, that Christ the Son of God and of the Virgin is a Person not that terrifieth, not that afflicteth, not that condemneth us of sin, not that demandeth an account of us for our life of evil passed, but hath given Himself for our sins, and with one oblation hath put away the sins of the whole world, hath fastened them upon the cross, and put them clean out by Himself.

CHRIST, then, is no Moses, no exactor, no giver of laws, but a giver of grace; a Saviour, and one that is full of mercy. Briefly, He is nothing else but infinite mercy and goodness, freely given, and bountifully giving unto us.

Now, as it is the greatest knowledge and cunning that Christians can have thus to define Christ, so of all things it is the hardest.

I speak not this without cause, for I know what moveth me to be so earnest that we should learn to define Christ out of the words of Paul.

Ye young men, therefore, are in this case much more happy than we that are old. For ye are not infected with these pernicious errors where in I have been so nustled (cherished, nursed) and drowned from my youth, that at the very hearing of the name of Christ my heart hath trembled and quaked for fear.

Christ, when He cometh, is nothing else but joy and sweetness to a trembling, broken heart, as Paul here witnesseth, who setteth Him out with this most sweet and comfortable title when he saith, “Which loved me and gave Himself for me.” Christ, therefore, in very deed is a lover of those which are in trouble and anguish, in sin and death, and such a lover as gave Himself for us, who is also our High Priest.

He saith not, “Which hath received our works at our hands,” nor “Which hath received the sacrifices of Moses’ law, worshippings, religions, masses, vows and pilgrimages;” but hath “given.” What? Not gold nor silver, nor beasts, nor paschal lambs, nor an angel, but Himself. For what? Not for a crown, not for a kingdom, not for our holiness and righteousness, but for our sins. Not for feigned or counterfeit sins, nor yet for small sins, nor for vanquished sins, but for great and huge sins; not for one or two, but for all.

Christ the Center.

IN my heart,” he said, “this article reigns alone, and shall reign—namely, faith in my dear Lord Christ, who is the only Beginning, Middle, and End of all my spiritual and divine thoughts which I have by day or night.”

Yet at the same time I feel that I only attain to a little feeble lifting up before others of the height, depth, and breadth, of this immeasurable and endless wisdom, and have scarcely been able to bring to light more than a few little fragments and broken pieces from this most rich and precious mine.

Christ the Priest.

ONCE, when his servant read in the Psalms the verse, “I have sworn and will not re- pent, Thou art a Priest for ever,” Doctor Martin said, “That is the most beautiful and glorious verse in the whole Psalter; for herein God holds forth this Christ alone as our Bishop and High Priest, who Himself and no other, without ceasing, makes intercession for His own with the Father. Not Caiaphas, nor Annas, nor Peter, nor Paul, nor the Pope; He, He alone shall be the Priest. This I affirm with an oath.”

“Thou art a Priest for ever.” In that saying every syllable is greater than the whole Tower of Babel.

To this Priest let us cling and cleave. For He is faithful; He has given Himself for us to God, and holds us dearer than His own life. When we stand firm to Christ, there is no other god in heaven or on earth but One who makes just and blessed. On the other hand, if we lose Him from our heart and eyes, there is no other help, comfort, or rest.

Christ our Sacrifice.

IN His death He is a Sacrifice, satisfying for our sins; in the resurrection, a Conqueror; in the ascension, a King; in the intercession, a High Priest.

Christ made One with Man.

GOD sent His only Son into the world, and laid upon Him the sins of all men, saying, “Be Thou Peter, that denier; Paul, that persecutor, blasphemer, and cruel oppressor; David, that adulterer; that sinner which did eat the apple in Paradise; that thief which hanged upon the cross; and briefly, be Thou the person which hath committed the sins of all men.”

Christ Obedient to the Law.

CHRIST is not a Teacher of the law, like Moses, but a disciple who would be obedient to the law, that through such subjection and obedience He might redeem those who were under the law.

Christ Conquering by Suffering.

CHRIST is made the law of the law, the sin of sin, the death of death, that He might redeem from the curse of the law, justify me and quicken me. While He is the law, He is also liberty; while He is sin, He is righteousness; while He is death, He is life. For in that He suffered the law to accuse Him, sin to condemn Him, and death to devour Him, He abolished the law, He condemned sin, He destroyed death, He justified and saved me.

Christ our Life.

THIS life that I have now in the flesh, in very deed is no true life, but a shadow of life, under which another liveth; that is to say, Christ. Who is my true life, indeed; which life thou seest not, but only hearest, and I feel.

Christ Cleansing Us.

AS if He would say (in washing the disciples’ feet), I am the true Laver and Bath. Therefore, if I wash thee not, thou remainest unclean, and dead in thy sins.

Christ the Conqueror of Sin, Death, and the Curse.

NOT only my sins and thine, but the sins of the whole world, either past, present, or to come, take hold of Him, go about to condemn Him, and do indeed condemn Him.

But because in the self-same Person—which is thus the highest, the greatest, and the only sinner—there is also an everlasting and invincible righteousness, therefore these two do encounter together; the highest, the greatest, and the only sin; and the highest, the greatest, and the only righteousness,

Sin is a mighty and cruel tyrant, ruling and reigning over the whole world, bringing all men into bondage. This tyrant flieth upon Christ, and will needs swallow Him up, as he doth all other, But he seeth not that He is a person of invincible and everlasting righteousness. In this combat what is done? Righteousness is everlasting, immortal, invincible.

In like manner, Death, which is an invincible queen and empress of the whole world, killing kings, princes, and, generally, all men, doth mightily encounter with Life, thinking utterly to overcome it; and that which it undertaketh, it bringeth to pass indeed. But because Life was immortal, therefore, when it was overcome, yet did it truly overcome, and get the victory, vanquishing and killing death. Death, therefore, through Christ is vanquished and abolished throughout the whole world; so that now it is but a painted death, which, losing its sting, can no more hurt those that believe in Christ, who is become the death of death.

So, the curse fighteth against the blessing, and would condemn it and bring it to naught; but it cannot do so. For the blessing is divine, everlasting, and therefore the curse must needs give place. For if the blessing in Christ could be overcome, then should God Himself also be overcome,

The Name of Jesus.

IF God takes me this hour, or to-morrow, out of this life, I will leave it behind me, that I confess Jesus Christ to be my God and Lord. This I have learned, not from the Scriptures only, but in many great and hard experiences. I have resisted well-nigh unto blood, and endured many a sore conflict on this account; but it has been very good and profitable for me.

The Gospel in the Crucifix.

I BELIEVE that many have been saved under the Papacy, although they never heard the gospel as now, thank God, it is preached and taught, to whom, as they were in the agony of death, and about to depart, the crucifix was held up, and it was said, “Fix thy hope on Him who hath redeemed thee.”

Continued in II. Rules of the Service

All sections of Watchwords for the Warfare of Life