This Walther Reformation sermon was delivered in 1853....From "Casual
Predigten Und Reden pp. 54ff: and entitled:











Why Should We and Will We Faithfully and Steadfastly Hold Onto Our Precious
Evangelical Church Unto Death?















Reformation Sermon on Psalm 137.5-6











_______







LORD JESUS! The gates of hell themselves shall not overcome your church. So
you promised eighteen hundred years ago. And your Word is fulfilled. Your
church still stands as a rock in the sea, a fortress upon the mountains that
reach to heaven. Indeed, how hell has raged against your Zion, bereft of all
human aid! How the world has stormed against your trembling little flock!
How often have her foes sung songs of triumph over her! How often hasn't it
appeared that you had already abandoned your church and forgotten her in
your wrath! But behold! The foes of your church have received terror in the
end, they have been eaten by moths and all of their ponderous, glowing works
have fallen into the dust. But your divinely constructed pillars stand fast,
yes, again and again with ever renewed magnificence your orthodox church
follows a fresh path of victory under the banner of your Word and the cross
out of the ruins of the mighty works of her opponents unto the day of their
utter defeat. - Indeed we see your church even now once again as a defeated
fortress with toppled walls; within her, internal divisions and infighting
and outside of her walls, grim foes; shrinking away from a few battles she
would not take up and besieged by countless battle hardened hosts of the
world and hell. Yes, already the people of the fortress are making a treaty
with those besieging her, in order to hand over this and our every security.
Already her foes are shouting everywhere: She's done, she's done! She shall
never rise again! But LORD why should we be disheartened? You have up until
now helped your church, you can and will help her again. You, her head and
protection, dwell in heaven and laugh over all your foes and you mock them.
With a ready scepter you will slay them, like pottery you will shatter them,
but you will lead your church through every battle to eternal triumph. Oh,
so help us, that we, as we observe today's Easter Festival of your church,
to be strengthened, to be preserved by you unto death, faithfully being with
you, engaged here in battle, that there we triumph with you forever. Amen.







Precious fellow believers and warriors!







There are some who are of the opinion, that the religion and the church into
which one is first born and at one time promised in confirmation to remain
in, is the one that he must retain. Whoever would leave his church and
religion and convert to another is undependable, a fair weather believer. He
must have a character defect, lacking any integrity.







But that is obviously erroneous. Were this reasoning correct, then the
heathen must remain heathen, the Islamic believer must remain in Islam, a
Jew must remain a Jew, and Protestants would have had to remain in the
papacy for the past three hundred years. Yes, Christ himself should not,
then, have come into the world. But who would assert that?







No, it is clear. Just because a person is born into a religion or church and
had promised to remain in it is in no way a reason that he must remain in
the same!







What person born into poverty would think that because that is the case he
has a duty to remain poor? So does it somehow follow that whoever is born
into a false religion or church is duty bound for that reason to stay in
this false religion and church? Is not our religion infinitely more
important than any earthly circumstances? - Whoever promises something
sinful, must he, yes, is he even permitted to keep his promise, even when it
is sealed with his oath? Does he not much more have the holy duty to break
his oath which he made against God? Does it then follow that who promises to
remain in a false religion must keep his promise? What can be a greater sin
than to knowingly join in a false religion and so to intentionally serve a
false god and aid those who deny God's Word.







Yes, my beloved, whether a person must remain in or leave a religion or
church depends upon whether the religion or church, in whose pale he was
born and in which he also freely promised to remain, is a true or a false
religion or church. If it is true, then he must certainly remain and indeed,
he should do that whether he was born in it or not. On the other hand if it
is false, then he must leave it even if he had bound himself to it with a
thousand oaths! But now every religion has a distinctive faith and a
distinctive doctrine about God, about the disposition of man to God and how
man is able to approach God and each church is a congregation of people who
are bound together in a distinctive common faith and through one distinctive
doctrine of faith. So this begs the question, considering whether a person
should remain or leave his religion or church, above anything else, whether
or not the true faith and true doctrine is in his religion. It is sure that
if the church in which I was born has the true, pure and the genuine
doctrine of God and of the way to God, that is of the way of man unto
salvation, then I must be careful, so much as I love my salvation, to remain
with it and rather suffer anything rather than fall away from it. So it is
also sure that if my church does not have the true doctrine of God and of
the way of salvation, but rather its doctrine is not genuine, then for the
sake of my salvation I must leave her and rather suffer poverty, being
despised, mockery, shame, exile from house, home and native land, yes, even
the most painful death, than to remain in such a false church. Would it not
be foolish to remain in an association by which one would travel to a
strange land if this association were pursuing a false way, which can never
get to its destination? How much more foolish and suicidal would it be to
remain with an association and to follow one that is traveling a false way
to heaven, that is, which instead of leading to heaven, leads away from it?







So now, today, on the day of the Lutheran Reformation of the church, simply
ask: Will we and should we remain steadfast with the evangelical Lutheran
church? Considering what was just said, shouldn't we have good answers to
these questions? Some might ask: Were we born, raised and confirmed in the
evangelical Luther church? But that's not enough! If the evangelical
Lutheran church had a false faith, a tainted doctrine, then we must leave
it, even if we were born in her womb and confirmed in her. Then we would
celebrate today's feast in the most God-pleasing way if we solemnly
denounced our church and wrote a request for release from our congregation.
The true faith, the pure doctrine, that is the one and only thing that
matters here. But God be praised! This mark of the true church of JESUS
Christ belongs to our precious evangelical Lutheran Zion. Now, how this
compels us unto the necessity to remain true to this church until death is
what we will consider in this hour.







Text: Psalm 137.5-6







Should I forget you, Jerusalem, so I would have to forget my right hand. My
tongue would have to cling to the roof of my mouth were I not to remember
you, if Jerusalem were not my highest joy.







The Words just read, my beloved, contain a solemn vow by the believers in
the Old Testament, not to forget Jerusalem and to let the same be eternally
their joy and dwelling place. They swore that if they did not do so, that
their right hand should rot away and their parched and thirsty tongues
should cling to the roof of their mouths. Jerusalem was the very place which
the LORD had appointed. There alone should sacrifices be made and there
alone, that is, in the most holy place of the Temple of Jerusalem is where
the LORD desired to appear to his people. Jerusalem should be the means and
the gathering point for all worshipers of the true God and be an established
witness that there was only one true God and only one true church. Jerusalem
was therefore also a foreshadowing of the one true church of the New
Testament. What the believing Israelites sang once concerning Jerusalem, is
what the believing Christians must now sing of the true believing church of
the New Testament: "If I were to forget you, you Jerusalem of the New
Testament, so I would have to forget my right hand. My tongue would have to
cling to the roof of my mouth, were I not to remember you, if Jerusalem were
not my highest joy." So what? Can we apply this also to our evangelical
Lutheran church? Yes, my dears, and that we be most clear about this, let me
now answer the question:











Why Should We and Will We Faithfully and Steadfastly Hold Onto Our Precious
Evangelical Church Unto Death?











In answer, because she teaches:







1. pure faith,







2. true life and finally







3. a comforted and blessed death.















I.







Pure Faith







That our evangelical Lutheran Church, friends, first of all believes pure
doctrine is so sure and indisputable, as certain as the fact that the holy
Scriptures contain true faith. So that which has given our evangelical
Lutheran church her foundation and the reason why other so called Protestant
churches have separated from her, is only this; because our church will not
depart from the letter of the holy Scriptures.







The life of the priests and laity prior to the Reformation was so ruinous,
yet Luther and the Church that came to be named after him did not separate
from the Roman Church on that account. Luther and the whole Lutheran Church
proceeded much more upon the principle: The more ruined a Church may be in
life, if they still have the true doctrine, the more certain you must be to
retain her and the more diligent you must be to set yourself against the
assaulting storms of ruin. A Church which has the true doctrine, but whose
outward members live badly was always seen by our Lutheran Church as a good
ship that was badly manned which one should not abandon, but rather it only
had better be brought to the harbor, not as a dead body which must be
buried, but as a living, though sick, body for which you must seek healing.
Luther writes of this already in the year 1519: "And even if it is the
unfortunate situation in Rome that its virtue could be much better, yet,
that being true, it is not a great enough reason, nor does it give one
permission, that one should sever from or depart from that church. Yes, the
more evilly it proceeds, the more you should believe and retain it... Yes,
you should not take away your love and divide spiritual unity for the sake
of any kind of sin or evil which man could imagine or name."







Even the perverted polity and the many troublesome ceremonies in the Roman
Church did not move our Church to separate from the same. Her principle in
this regard was and has much more always been the one explained in the
fifteenth article of the Augsburg Confession: "Of usages in the Church they
teach that those ought to be observed which may be observed without sin, and
which are profitable unto the tranquility and good order in the Church."







Luther did not want at once to separate from the Roman Church, yes, he did
not at first have the goal even to reform the church. So how did the
Reformation and the separation come about? One day Luther discovered the
Bible and this was actually the day on which the Reformation was conceived,
which is why this day, when Luther first nailed the ninety-five theses
against the Roman Church on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, is
its birthday. From the moment that Luther found the Bible, it was the sun
which enlightened him, the source from which he created, the touchstone of
doctrine, against which he tested it, the weapon by which he fought, the
fortress which he proclaimed, the jewel for which he contended. In short,
this was the motivation of the witness, the work and the battle of his whole
life. What spoke in one voice with his Bible he received and held it fast,
even if the whole world with all its wise and holy people disagreed. What
did not in the least conflict with the Bible he allowed. But what
contradicted the Bible he discarded and in that he paid no attention to any
intrusion of human wisdom and the heart of man, no wisdom or might of the
world, no consideration of the Emperor, no ban of the Pope, no freedom of
the world and the church, no approval of man: He remained with his Bible and
let God manage the rest.







When Luther was summoned to Worms to recant what he had taught up til then
in opposition to the doctrine of the Roman Church, he spoke the words that
are worthy to be remembered forever: "Unless I am subdued and convinced by
the witness of the Holy Scriptures or with obvious, clear and sure grounds
and reasons (for I believe neither popes nor councils in themselves, since
it is obvious that at times they have often erred and contradicted
themselves) and since I am conquered and taken captive by the passages that
I have raised and brought forth, then I cannot and will not recant anything.
For it is neither safe nor sane to act against conscience. Here I stand. I
can do no other, God help me. Amen!" As Luther thereupon left Worms, here
was his last declaration: "He would do and suffer everything: Life and
death, honor and shame, and would let nothing hinder him, if only he could
confess and witness but a single Word of God."







When Luther allowed the first portion of his Church Postils to be published
he added the following words as a capstone: "Oh, that, God willing, my
commentaries and those of other teachers would be destroyed and every
Christian take up for himself the naked Scriptures and the pure Word of
God!... Go in, go in, dear Christian, and only let my commentaries and those
of other teachers be a scaffold around the true tree so that we cling to and
taste the naked pure Word of God itself and remain there. Only then will God
dwell in Zion!" But the fact that Luther was fully committed to this we see,
among other places, when Luther was asked in 1527 what all he had written.
He gave this answer: "I myself don't have a register of my books, or even
the books themselves. For I would much rather see the Bible alone read than
all my things."







When it came to treating matters of faith, Luther tread reason, feelings of
the heart, specious decrees of the church, decisions of councils, traditions
or things handed down, new revelations, appearances of angels and everything
else that contended against his Bible, under foot. He explained that he
would not listen to or believe God himself if he spoke something contrary to
Scriptures, for he knew that by that God would only be testing him. So when
Zwingli demanded a more foundational Reformation by proceeding with reason,
proposing that the Roman Church could not be dealt a more devastating blow
than that faith in the presence of Christ in the sacrament be taken away
from the hearts of the people, there Luther engaged him: "I saw well that I
would have given the papacy its greatest thump by that. But, unfortunately,
I am all too disinclined to also do that so much as I smell a trace of the
old Adam involved. But I was taken captive and could not escape the text:
"This is my body." These Words were all too mighty here and would not allow
themselves to be ripped out of my thoughts."







See there, my beloved, that Luther lay in the chains of these Words and he
was grounded upon this rock. And upon this rock also stand those named after
him, our evangelical Lutheran Church. The symbolic books or the public
confessions of our church contain no human insights or new thoughts, but
rather nothing but the confession of the written Word of God, as it sounds,
and a solemn united protestation against all those things that depart from
the sound of the Holy Bible.







"The Bible, nothing but the Bible and the whole Bible," is the highest
principle of our church, not as only a shingle over our doors as in other
so-called protestant churches, but rather in deed and in truth. Christ says:
"This is my body." The reformed say, "No, it represents your body." But the
Lutheran church says, "Yes, it is your body."







We eat this bread and drink this cup,







Thy precious Word believing







That Thy true body and Thy blood







Our lips are here receiving.







This word remains forever true,







And there is naught Thou canst not do;







For Thou, Lord, art almighty.







The Word of God says: "By his mercy God has saved us through the washing of
rebirth and renewing of the Holy Ghost." The reformed, the Methodists, the
Anabaptists say: No, baptism is no washing of rebirth, but rather only a
sign of rebirth. But the Lutheran Church says: Yes, LORD JESUS! Your word is
truth, you birth us again, as you have said, through water and the Spirit.
The Word of God says: "God desires that all people be helped and come to the
knowledge of the truth." The Calvinist shouts, No! Paul, you are lying. God
does not want all people to be helped. God only wants to save the elect. But
the Lutheran church says: Yes, LORD JESUS, you are truthful, we believe your
Word that God has "loved the whole world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that those who believe in him will not be lost, but have eternal life."
The Word of God says: "He who does not work, but believes on him who
justifies the godless, his faith will be reckoned to him as righteousness."
The papists add to this and say: No, works also are necessary to be
justified and saved. But the Lutheran Church says: Yes, God, you are right.
Only through faith do you save. We believe that and give you thanks and
praise for it eternally.







See, my precious, as surely as the Holy Scriptures teach pure faith, so
surely our evangelical Lutheran church teaches this, for our whole doctrinal
confession is nothing but a faith filled "yes" and "amen" to the whole Word
of God from Genesis to the last Chapter of the Revelation of Saint John. But
we must remain with this church if we desire to remain with the Bible, if we
want to remain with the Word of God, if we want to remain with CHRIST JESUS,
if we want to remain with the triune God who has revealed to us his truth in
the written Word. And with the believers in the Old Testament we must then
cry out: "Should I forget you, oh, my Lutheran Zion, so I would have to
forget my right hand; My tongue would have to cling to the roof of my mouth
were I not to remember you, if you were not my highest joy!"











II.







True Life







Yet, my beloved, we should and will not only remain true to our precious
evangelical Lutheran Church until death because she teaches the pure faith,
but rather also, secondly, because she teaches true life.







Indeed, it is just at the point of the life of many Lutherans, that many now
consider that the Lutheran Church should be abandoned. Looking to Germany,
how would they tell us our lay-governed Lutheran churches look to them.
There is a drunkard, there is a curser, there is a greedy man, there is a
despiser of the Sabbath, there is a harlot, there is a divorcee, there are
all kinds of sinners and criminals who go about doing these things freely
and openly. And how many are there among you yourselves who can pay abundant
lip service in praise of pure doctrine, but there is little or no trace of a
pure life to be seen! How many among you, who are considered among the best,
employ the same foolishness in your affairs as the unbelieving children of
this world and do not distinguish yourselves from them in any other way but
that you go to church and receive the Lord's Supper! In all this let us not
even consider those among you who occasionally fall into coarse sin and
shame. And you want to be the single true pure Church and to have the single
right, true religion?







But, my beloved, everyone who wants to hold these things against us do not
know what they are saying or what they are doing. If it were really true
that a church and religion must be judged by the way those live who
externally avow it, then we must immediately forsake our church as a false
church. But if this assumption were true could we even want to be Christians
any longer? Don't many of the heathen exhibit better breeding than millions
of those who call themselves Christians? So, you say, should all of
Christianity be a lie for this reason, since many so called Christians live
as if they were unbelievers? Such Christians aren't even Christians, but
rather unbelievers running under the name of "Christian." So the same
principle applies to the Lutheran Church and religion. These same Lutherans,
who live as the godless, are not even Lutherans, but rather foes and
blemishes in the Lutheran Church merely wearing the Lutheran name. A true
Lutheran is also a true pious Christian.







It is clear. A church cannot be judged by the life and walk and works of
those how avow that church but rather by the kind of life, walk and works
that a church commands, in short, whether a church teaches rightly
concerning life.







Now if we also lay this measuring stick upon our precious evangelical church
and we test her by this measure, then we truly have no reason to be ashamed,
but rather much more reason to boast of her in joy.







The first thesis, by which Luther began the Reformation of the Church three
hundred and thirty years ago today, was this: "When our Master and LORD,
JESUS CHRIST, said: Repent, etc., he desired that the whole life of a
believer on earth should be one of constant and unceasing repentance." The
whole Lutheran Reformation of the church is constructed from out of this
foundation. Our Reformation of the church began with the Reformation of the
heart. The Lutheran Church teaches well that faith alone justifies us before
God, freely and apart from anything else without any works, without any
service and worthiness. But she also teaches that when one stands in that
grace, through it he becomes a new and holy man, who reveals himself as a
child of grace through good works. Further, the Lutheran Church also teaches
well that we are cleansed of our sins and born again and renewed in Holy
Baptism by the Holy Ghost. But she also teaches that whoever is baptized
must then through daily contrition and repentance drown the old Adam so that
daily a new man come forth and arise who walks before God in righteousness
and purity forever, and that whoever lives in sins after his baptism has
again lost the grace of baptism. Further, our Lutheran Church teaches well
that the Lord's Supper is not just a sign of grace, but rather that it is
also a means of grace unto the forgiveness of sins. But she does not
distribute this meal as do other Churches, to everyone who comes, but rather
she tests the guests and only invites those who want to come to this table
of grace with a humble and authentic penance and repentance.







So, my dear friends, there are three chief ways in which our church makes it
apparent that she is the true church in the presence of all the other
churches also in the doctrine of life. First to be stated, our evangelical
Lutheran Church not only says: You must also live as a Christian, but rather
she also lays in addition to that the right foundation and also reveals the
true way of doing so. She explains that it is not enough to live a true
Christian life that one merely do good works that can be seen. She teaches
no pagan morals and fables. She doesn't say, if you want to be better act
better. Rather, first become a better person, and then you will do better
works without being commanded. She does not teach that good works make a
Christian good, but a good Christian does good works. She teaches, first the
tree must become good and then can it first make good fruit. In brief, she
shows this path to good works: Man, if you want to live as a Christian, then
first take God's Word before you and first learn from out of it that you are
a poor, lost, powerless sinner and by your own powers you cannot live a
Christian life. So deny yourself and first seek grace in Christ's blood,
seek first forgiveness for your sins. If you have found that, if you have
grasped that in faith, then you will receive a new heart that acts to please
God out of love for his mercy and in thankfulness for his grace. See, our
Church reveals this golden foundation for a Christian life and this sure
path to receive it and by this immediately sets itself apart from church of
the papacy with their miserably doctrine of outward works, penance and works
of satisfaction.







But the second way in which our Church reveals itself as the true church in
the doctrine concerning life is that she shows what works are truly pleasing
to God. She discards all self chosen works of service and every false
spirituality and humility by which one seeks to justify himself. She
explains that the first condition of a good work is that it has been
commanded by God. She teaches, then, that if you want to do good works, then
do those things which are commanded in the Ten Commandments and everything
else is just wasted effort. By this she declares herself separate not only
from the Church of the papists, but also from every false spiritual sect.







But finally, our Church also presents how the Christian comes to completion.
And whereupon does our Church affix this true completion? She says: So have
you done something good, but should you like to set a crown upon your work
as if all is complete, then give God the glory and say with the Holy
Apostle: "Not that I have already attained it or am already completed."
Acknowledge that even your best works are yet always contaminated by sin and
also say in your pious life: "LORD, do not deal in justice with your
servant, for before you no one living is righteous." In the confession of
your being less than complete our church seeks your completion. And by this,
finally, our Church separates herself from all the sects who through their
false doctrine on complete sanctification themselves ruin even the best
works of their members with the poison of pride, wandering before God in
sins and offence.







See, that is how our precious evangelical Lutheran Church is made. First she
teaches her children pure faith and then she takes them by the hand and
leads them in her motherly hand on the holy road to the heavenly Zion. Must
we then, again, not cry out: "Should I forget you, oh, my Lutheran Zion, so
I would have to forget my right hand. My tongue would have to stick to the
roof of my mouth were I not to remember you, if you were not my highest
joy!" -







Yet, my dear friends, there is just one more thing that we cannot forget
which compels upon us the duty to remain with our precious evangelical
Lutheran Church until death. It is, namely, this. Finally, she also teaches
a comforted and blessed death.















III.







A Blessed Death











The last reason that I am making all this incumbent upon you, why God sent
his dear Son into the world, that he gave the Gospel, his Word and Sacrament
and has established a church upon earth is: by this when out poor short,
miserable, trouble-filled life comes to an end, we can finally yet die
comforted and blessed. A church which does not teach this or which makes
this difficult or hinders it through her doctrine cannot possibly be the
true church of God on earth. What good is it if a Church exhorts its people
so strenuously to holiness, or so strictly practices chastity and gives such
sweet comforts concerning the needs of this life: what good is it, if the
church leave people in the lurch in the end, in the highest need, in the
hour of death? Whether or not a person can die comforted and blessed in a
Church is the true test by which it can be acknowledged to be a true or
false Church.







But a comforted and blessed death obviously goes along with being certain of
salvation. But now which Church is it that gives this certainty? - Is it,
perhaps, the Roman Church? - This church gives this certainty so little that
they curse such a thought as heresy if it is asserted that every Christian
should be sure of his salvation. She praises doubt over salvation as
something good and teaches even more than that, that all good people before
they can be accepted into heaven, must first spend time in the fires of
Purgatory. Who could die in comfort and blessing with such a doctrine? - Or
perhaps does the Calvinist Church give this true assurance? - Oh, no, they
don't. Their horrible doctrine of the absolute gracious will or
predestination, according to which God out of his irresistible judgment had
elected only a few to salvation, while from eternity he had discarded the
majority of people, who he in no way wants to save, this doctrine robs
millions of the necessary sweet comfort in death. For who can die in comfort
and blessing if he must first ask himself: Are you also one of those whom
the Holy Ghost wants to save? - But, finally, do the other sects give the
right assurance? - Unfortunately, they also do not, for all the other sects
assert that the Word of God is a dead letter and the sacraments are
ineffectual signs, upon which no souls can depend. How do you feel? Do you
feel Christ in your heart? Good for you! But do you only feel trouble,
anxiety, doubt, the power of sin, then woe to you! Then you must immediately
pray, struggle, lament, for so long until your heart is filled with sweet
peace and the voice in there rings out: You have found grace. But how can
one die comforted and blessed when the feeling of grace forsakes him and his
own heart condemns him in the hour of death, if he cannot depend upon the
eternally abiding written Word and upon his Holy Baptism?







So? Is there no Church which finally also teaches a comforted and blessed
death? - Yes, my dear friends, there is one. And that is none other than our
precious, yet despised, evangelical Lutheran Zion. Yes, this our church is
the one, which alone has the whole, unshrunken, full Gospel. She is the one
in whom all the divine fountains of comfort for poor sinners are wide open
and flow in rich streams, as the prophets have foretold of the New
Testament. She teaches that God hates no man, that he loves all men and
wants to save them all. She teaches further that the Son of God has redeemed
and atoned all men with God, taken away the sins of all men and has won for
all men forgiveness of their sins and a completed righteousness. She
teaches, that God passes no man by, but rather seriously calls every man to
receive his grace. She teaches that the Gospel is a great general
absolution, which God has already promised to every man, which draws each
one to himself and upon which every man, even the greatest sinner, can
depend so surely as God is truthful. She teaches that even those who fall
again and again can again come and find grace. She teaches that it does not
depend upon a person's feeling and experiencing the grace, the peace with
God, the forgiveness of his sins, but rather if he believes the promise of
grace and forgiveness which is announced and given to all people in Word and
Sacrament. For what man believes from the heart concerning God, whether he
is wrathful or gracious, so he is. She teaches that there are only two
classes of people that are not saved, that is, those who want to help
themselves out of their sins and those who want to remain in their sins. But
that all, who desire Christ's service against their sins with their heart,
also have grace.







Oh, how comforting that you can lay down upon your death bead with this
doctrine! And how many millions have already fallen asleep in this great
comfort, quiet and blessed! Yes, and how many thousands are there in the
sects, after they had considered this Lutheran Gospel suspect in their lives
finally grasped it in the hour of death and departed this world full of the
heavenly hope of salvation!







Oh, my dear friends, should we and will we not faithfully remain in such a
church as is our precious Evangelical Lutheran Church until death? What
could ever move us to leave her and to seek another? What is there that a
sinner could need for this life or the one to come, that our church does not
richly have and give out? And where is there another church in which we can
find, I will not say more, but only even so much as what is offered by this,
our church? Where is there another church who could be such a true mother
for our soul? Where is there a second church which teaches the pure faith,
true life and a comforted and blessed death? We know of no other. Well then,
let us remain with her. Let us believe with her, confess with her, live with
her to the LORD in every circumstance, with her suffer trials, with her
contend and finally with her die comforted and blessed. What favors could
any church give you that you do not have in the Lutheran Church?







Let us today, on the day of her resurrection, vow to Christ, the founder of
our church, and say with right hands raised: "Should I forget you, oh, my
Lutheran Zion, so I would have to forget my right hand. My tongue would have
to stick to the roof of my mouth were I not to remember you, if you were not
my highest joy." Amen. Amen.







<http://www.covenant-counseling.com <http://www.covenant-counseling.com/> >




VERBUM DEI MANET IN AETERNUM <http://www.covenant-counseling.com
<http://www.covenant-counseling.com/> >







The Rev. Christopher Hershman, MA, STM, DMin Licensed Psychologist, LMFT,
LPC



The Marriage & Family Institute

923 North Brookside Road

PO Box 3303

Allentown, PA 18106 <http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py?Pyt=Tmap
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610-366-1960

484-695-5638







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<http://www.covenant-counseling.com>

<http://www.covenant-counseling.com> VERBUM DEI MANET IN AETERNUM





The Rev. Christopher Hershman, MA, STM, DMin
Licensed Psychologist, LMFT, LPC

The Marriage & Family Institute

<http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py?Pyt=Tmap&addr=923+North+Brookside+Road&csz
=Allentown%2C+PA+18106&country=us> 923 North Brookside Road
PO Box 3303
Allentown, PA 18106


<mailto:vdmiae@...> vdmiae@...


tel:
fax:
mobile:

610-366-7880
610-366-1960
484-695-5638





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