The Lutheran manual

Preface

THIS volume appears in answer to the question, frequently asked, for a book setting forth in simple style the main characteristics of the Lutheran Church. It aims to promote the interests and progress of the whole Church, without regard to divisions or parties. Accordingly, the doctrines, usages, spirit, and life, of the Lutheran Church, are here set forth in such large outline, as are common to all synods, branches, and sections. Never was there a time so full of promise and opportunity for our Church as the present. And on every side she is rising to the occasion. This great Lutheran awakening extends to all classes. Our young people have caught it, and are moving forward with enthusiasm. How timely and important, then, that every member be intelligently informed as to the distinctive glories of the Church of his love and pride!

To this end we send forth this little volume, trusting that it may contribute toward one, greats undivided Evangelical Lutheran Church — that the Ecclesiastical Mother of Protestantism may be for America what she has been and is for the world.

j. B. R.

New York, June 28th, i8gj.

Introduction

THE Lutheran Church, like Christianity itself, of which it is a true and faithful exponent, needs no apology. It is its own best evidence of its right to existence. To know it thoroughly, is to know the purest and fullest truth of God, given for human enlightenment, guidance and salvation. If the way of spiritual safety and eternal life cannot be found in its confessions and teachings, men will seek in vain for it. Protestant Christendom lives upon the principles of faith which the Lutherans first enunciated, and must die without them. Even the Roman Catholic communion has been largely reformed and refashioned by the testimony of the Lutheran Reformers, and is the better to-day by reason of the Lutheran Reformation, which effectually revoiced the teachings of Apostles and Prophets for our modern world, and started the springs of freedom for mankind.

It has been the habit of some to look upon the Lutheran Church as a Church of foreigners. Though in this country contemporaneously with the oldest denominations in America, there has

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been a strange slowness of English speaking people to take in what the Lutheran Church is, or to recognize the Rock whence they were hewn. Hence the necessity for the multiplication of books of the kind here presented, that false impressions may be done away, and facts brought out for more intelligent appreciation. Even many Lutherans themselves do not half realize what a cause they represent, and what a heritage they have. It is, therefore, a matter of congratulation that so many pens of late years have been employed in the popular setting forth of the history, faith, and cultus, of this firstborn of the great Reformation, which is now so rapidly coming to the front among the religious denominations in this country. Nor will this Manual be the least in worth for the giving of important information on the topics to which it is devoted. Without assuming responsibility for every detail of statement contained in it, we take pleasure in commending it to the attention of all who are in search of a brief exhibition of the main features and spirit of our Evangelical Lutheran Church, all so irenically given, that few Lutherans, of whatever party, will find occasion for serious dissent.

JOSEPH A. SEISS.

CONTENTS,

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Name Lutheran, ...... I

II. The Lutheran an Historical Church, ... 8

III. The Lutheran Church the Source of the other

Protestant Churches, . . . . . 14

IV. The Lutheran Church and the Word of God, . . 21 V. Justification by Faith, the Central Lutheran Doctrine, 28

VI. The Sacraments, ....... 37

VII. Baptism, 44

VIII. The Lord's Supper, . 53

IX. Polity, or Government, ...... 62

X. Worship, 70

XL Rites and Festivals, 87

XII. The Lutheran an Orthodox Church, . . . 100

XIII. Lutherans ancLthe Church, . . . . . 113

XIV. Lutheran Piety, 127

XV. Christian Nurture, or Children in the Lutheran

XVI. Our Young People, . . . . . . 149

XVII. Culture, 156

XVIII. Sacred Art, . . . . . . . . 164

XIX. Unity, .179

XX. English and Foreign-speaking Lutherans, . 193

XXL A World-wide, or truly Catholic Church, . . 202

XXII. Unparalleled Growth in the United States, . . 207

XXIII. Loyalty to the Lutheran Church, . . . . 214

XXIV. Our Future in America, . . . . • . 220

THE LUTHERAN MANUAL.

Chapter I The Name Lutheran

AS the name Christian was first given the disciples of Christ in derision, so those who adhered to the pure gospel in the era of the Reformation were derisively styled "Lutherans." As Luther was the hero of the Reformation — the Providential agent of that blessed work — it was natural that those who clung to his doctrines should be associated with his name. Hence, as the Reformation spread throughout distant quarters of the world, wherever one would espouse the restored faith, the scornful remark would be made : " He is a Lutheran," and not only was it a mark of obloquy, but also a badge of danger.

As the truth advanced however, and gained larger conquests, history repeated the lesson of old. For, just as had occurred with the term Christian, so it issued with Lutheran. That which had been applied as an epithet of scorn, became a synonym of honor. Thus, while the Reformers used the official title : "The Evangelical (from Evangelion, the Greek word for gospel) Church,"* in common parlance it was called "The Lutheran Church," and this popular title in practice has virtually supplanted the official one. This has been sometimes urged as objectionable. It is said by opponents that the Church of Christ should not be called after any human and imperfect person, no matter how illustrious. This would be true if it at all were meant to supplant the name Christian. But this it is not. It is first of all, as termed in the Scripture : "The Church of Christ;" "The Church of God;" or as called in the Apostles' and Nicene Creed: "The Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church." In this primary and generic sense none other than a divine name dare be applied to it. But for practical uses, that the diverse phases of Christianity may

*"Its usual title is 'Evangelical Lutheran Church;' 'Evangelical' being the name ; 'Lutheran' the surname :" Schaff-Herzg Encyclopedia, Vol. II, p. 1370.

be distinguished from one another, it becomes necessary to employ particular descriptive titles. Such secondary appellatives, attached to the generic christian name have accordingly become universal. Thus we speak of the Romanist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregationalism etc. churches, all of which secondary names are based upon merely human forms of government and administration. The name Lutheran is no more objectionable on the ground of finite limitations than any of these. But on the other hand, it has this incomparable advantage over all others, that it emphasizes and keeps in conspicuous view the pure evangelical doctrine which Luther confessed, and for fidelity to which he stood. This was illustrated in the noble response made by the Margrave of Brandenburg, who challenged for calling himself a Lutheran Christian, answered: "I was not baptized in the name of Luther: he is not my God and Savior; I do not rest my faith in him, and am not saved by him ; and therefore, in this sense I am no Lutheran. But if I be asked, whether with my heart and lips, I profess the doctrines which God restored to light by the instrumentality of His blessed servant Luther, I neither hesitate, nor am ashamed to call myself a Lutheran, In this sense I am, and, as long as I live, will remain a Lutheran!'

Another benefit of using this name arises from Luther's unique and marvelous personality. "Luther," said the great Melanchthon, "is all in all, a miracle among men." Wrote Calvin: "Luther is the trumpet which has roused the world from its lethargy — it is not as much Luther who speaks as God whose lightnings burst from his lips." Says the great theologian, Dr. Dorner: "Luther was the first christian of the modern world — one of those rare historical figures in which whole nations recognize their type." The eminent old Catholic, Dr. Dollinger, testifies : "It was Luther's over-powering greatness and wonderful manysidedness that made him the man of his age and his people. His opponents were colorless and feeble by the side of his transporting eloquence. They stammered, he spoke." The secular historian, Froude, says of him: "Luther's eyes were literally world-wide. Reading his Table-Talk, one ceases to wonder that this remarkable man changed the face of the world." The distinguished church historian, Dr. Schaff, writes of him: "No man — save the apostles — deserves so much to be held in grateful remembrance as Martin Luther, remarkable alike as a man, as a christian, as a theologian, as a Bible translator, catechist and hymnist, as the bold champion of the freedom of conscience, and as the chief leader of the Reformation"* Wrote Carlyle: "I will call this Luther a true Great Man : Great, not as a hewn obelisk ; but as an Alpine mountain. A right spiritual Hero and Prophet, for whom these centuries and many that are to come, will be thankful to Heaven "f The great critic Lessing uttered this high eulogy : "In such reverence do I hold Luther, that I rejoice in having been able to find some defects in him, for I have been, in fact, in imminent danger of making him an object of idolatrous veneration;" and even the Roman Catholic Count Stolberg feels compelled to bear this testimony to him: "Against Luther's person I would not cast a stone. In him, I honor, not alone one of the grandest spirits that have ever lived, but a great religiousness also, which never forsook him."

When Elijah was caught away in a chariot of fire to heaven, Elisha implored that a double portion of the mighty prophet's spirit might fall upon him, and so it is of incalculable benefit to the Church of Christ militant that the spirit of so

* Symposiac on Martin Luther, p. 21. f Heroes and Hero Worship, p. 127.

unique a hero of the Lord as this should still inspire her columns. The faith, the reverence, the courage, and the keen spiritual vision of Luther, are what Christendom needs at all times, and what are specially required to meet the crises and perils of our day. And experience shows that the name Luther, attached to our Church, has kept his commanding figure at our head, and that its influence has been a constant and beneficial inspiration. Much of the unswerving loyalty of the Lutheran Church to the scriptures, and to the pure gospel of the Reformation, is owing to the manner in which the rare personality of Luther has perpetually been held up before her.

Whether then, we consider the name Lutheran, in its origin, or in the light of the history and achievements which three-and-a-half centuries have gathered about it, there is nothing in it to be defended, or apologized for, but it is a name to be proud of, and to inscribe boldly on our ecclesiastical banners. Other distinctive denominational names are empty and colorless by the side of it. No title is so fitted to awaken spiritual enthusiasm as that of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and every worthy member of this great communion can say with a just pride : "I glory in the name Lutheran; so rich a heritage of spiritual blessing has this title bequeathed to our Church, that we cannot but believe that its selection was the handiwork of Providence."

Chapter II. The Lutheran An Historical Church

THAT the purpose of God to bring salvation to the world might be carried out, He established the Church. Under the Old Testament dispensation this existed as the Jewish Church. At the coming of Christ it was transformed into the Christian Church. This Christian Church has undergone many vicissitudes, but never has it been destroyed. For about three centuries, during the era of the Roman persecutions, we speak of it as the Early or Primitive Church. Thence from the era of Constantine it gradually assumes the Mediaeval form, the Church of the Middle Ages. About the tenth century occurred the great schism between the Greek and Roman wings of the Church.

When the Roman Catholics contend that theirs alone is the one old historic Church, the answer is that the "Greek or Oriental Church is the oldest in Christendom, and for several centuries was the chief Nearer of our religion. She still occupies the sacred territory of primitive Christianity, and claims most of the Apostolic Sees, as Jerusalem, Antioch, and the Churches founded by Paul and John."* She produced the first christian literature and used the language spoken by Christ and His apostles. Did any branch of Christianity possess the exclusive claim to the descent from the original historic tree, it would then be the Greek rather than the Romish branch.

The great Reformation of the sixteenth century from which issued the Lutheran Church, did not originate any new thing. It was a Re-formation, not a creation. It only restored the old. It tore away the heap of Mediaeval rubbish of superstition and ceremonial under which the pure faith and simple ritual of the Church had been buried. It was by the study of the writings of the early Church fathers, as Augustine, etc., that Luther was largely led to break free from Romish error. And therefore his aim was to return to the purity of the Primitive and Apostolic Age. He simply built upon the old "foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone." "That is exactly what we mean by

*Schaff-Herzg Encyclopedia — Greek Church, Vol. II, p. 900.

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the German Reformation, which was not a new development of Christianity, but simply the process of scraping off the barnacles that had been accumulating for fifteen hundred years, and more and more obstructing Christianity's progress through the midst of this storm-tossed world that it was set here to sail on."*

Had Luther been a destructive radical, recklessly going on a career of innovation, he would not have been followed and supported by millions of the best and wisest of christians. But he was a judicious conservative, who revered the past. He knew that there had always been, and always would be, a true visible Church of Christ. Therefore he did not by any means break with the historical continuity of the Christian Church. When he renounced the Pope this was not renouncing the true Church, but only declaring the more truly and loyally for it. So he and his followers never severed themselves from the ancient Christian tree, but the decayed and corrupt branches severed from them, and left them the representatives of pure historic Christianity. ''Whilst Luther emended the gravest errors and vices of the Church of Rome, and restored the

♦Orthodoxy— C. H. Parkhurst, D.D.

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Church to a happier condition, he did not frame a new Church," says Budeus. "When the Lutherans renounced the Papacy and its abominations, they took with them the same Bible, the same Catholic Confessions, the same Holy Faith, and the same Apostolic Ministry and Sacraments, which distinguished the Church in the beginning, and hence the same historic Church-life, which took its rise in the incarnation of the Son of God, which trickled feebly through the rubbish and darkness of the middle ag-es, and which never was, or could be, entirely lost."*

Had the Lutherans rejected anything simply because Rome held or used it — the position of some ultra- Protestants — they would thereby, to that extent have cut themselves off from the true visible Church. But whatever of ancient Christianity, both in faith and usage, had come down through the middle ages, pure and incorrupt, they reverently and lovingly retained. And only that which was unscriptural and a perversion of the Gospel, did they reject. "The sacred treasure of true Catholicity, which the Church of early times had nurtured in the form of Greek- Roman culture, is taken over — freed from excrescences,

*Dr. Seiss. in Ecclesia Lutherana, p. 34.

and enriched by those acquisitions of the Middle Ages that had stood the proof. Its vocation was to set forth the happy mean."* This left the Lutheran not only a living branch, but the main trunk of the historical Christian Tree. It was not the Lutheran, but the Romish phase, which severed itself from pure primitive Christianity. If there was an apostacy, a falling away, from the Church of Christ in the Reformation, it was Rome, and not the Lutherans who were guilty of it.

And as, then, the Evangelical Lutheran Church is built upon the pure Word of God and Sacraments of the Lord Jesus Christ and his holy Apostles ; and as her Ministry is descended in unbroken line from apostolic ordination ; and as she retains the devout usages of the Church in her primitive purity ; she is without doubt a true historical Christian Church. It is a fact capable of demonstration that no Church in Faith, Worship, and Order, is in such accord with the Church framed by Christ and the Apostles, as the Lutheran. With all charity and fraternal feeling toward christians of other households we may yet truly say that to no other communion applies so fitly as to the Lutheran, the title: "The Holy Catholic

*Church History, Kurtz, Vol. Ill, p. 144.

and Apostolic Church."

In her we see in its most glorious and perfect form the visible kingdom of God — the gate to the holy Jerusalem and heavenly temple above. And he who adds himself to her membership may do so in the full confidence that in her is fulfilled this great investiture of the Lord Jesus Christ: "Upon this rock I will build My Church : and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matt, xvi: 18.

Chapter III. The Lutheran Church The Source Of The Other Protestant Churches

PROTESTANT and Lutheran were originally synonyms. It was the Lutherans alone who made the famous protest at Spire in 1529 from which they were called Lutherans. And the indelible connection of this title Protestant with all the non-Romish Churches, serves to stamp them all as generically of Lutheran origin. When Luther on the 31st of October, 1 5 1 7, nailed his 95 theses to the doors of the Castle- Church at Wittenberg, the act aroused the civilized world. Says a writer of that time : "The theses were transmitted to all parts of the earth as if the angels were their messengers." Luther's hammer awoke the slumbering nations. From his first stroke, the great Reformatory movement is

was begun, and Popes, Councils, and Princes, might as well have sought to turn the earth backward on its axis, as to attempt to retard its course. Everywhere Luther's books were in men's hands, and people were eagerly studying the new and yet old doctrines. In Switzerland, in France, and in England, these influences were most powerfully felt. The great Swiss Reformer, Zwingli, and the great French Reformer, Calvin, both thankfully acknowledged their indebtedness to Luther.

In England, especially, the movement made itself felt. "Luther's writings were eagerly read in England.""' Indeed as early as 1521 official complaint was made to Cardinal Wolsey "that the University of Oxford is infected with the heresies of Luther, divers students having a great number of books of the said perverse doctrine." The same year Cardinal Wolsey issued a rescript condemning Luther's writings and ordering all copies to be delivered up within 1 5 days. Notwithstanding these sharp measures, a noted writer of that time says: " Lutheranism increased daily in the University of Oxford." In 1526 appeared Tyndale's translation of the New Testament, evidently inspired by Luther's trans-

*Church History, Kurtz, Vol. II, p. 313.

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lation of 1522. An Episcopal writer admits of it that Tyndale "had Luther's translation before him and constantly consulted, and often adopted it." The same is true of the first authorized version of the whole English Bible by Coverdale in 1535. "The Origin of the English Bible is therefore," says Dr. Jacobs in his recent learned volume, "to be traced to German soil and Lutheran influences."*

Protestantism, however, as an organized ecclesiastical movement, dates its origin from the adoption of the Augsburg Confession, June 25th, 1530. From this time, it was no longer the individual work of Luther, but a purified phase of Christendom viz: the Lutheran Church. And this Augsburg Confession, which was wholly and distinctively Lutheran, laid the doctrinal foundation of all the other Protestant Churches. Says D'Aubigne, the Reformed historian, of it: "The Augsburg Confession will ever remain one of the master-pieces of the human mind, enlightened by the spirit of God. "f Writes the Presbyterian, Dr. Schaff: "The Augsburg Confession will ever be cherished as one of the noblest monuments of faith from the Pentecostal period of Protestantism.

*'The Lutheran Movement in England." Jacobs, p. 219. f History of the Reformation, p. 497.

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Its influence extends far beyond the Lutheran Church. It struck the key note to the other evangelical confessions! 1 And says Gieseler, the great Reformed Church historian: "If the question be, which among all Protestant Confessions, is best adapted for forming a union among Protestant Churches, we declare ourselves unreservedly for the Augsburg Confession." Dr. Krauth writes: "In it the very heart of the gospel beat again. To it, under God, more than to any other cause, the whole Protestant world owes civil and religious freedom."* And the scholarly Bishop Whittingham, of Maryland, speaking for the Protestant Episcopal Church, says : "The Augsburg Confession is the source of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England and America — their prototype in form, their model in doctrine, and the very foundation of many of their expressions, "f This is most natural, since the Thirty-nine Articles (Episcopal) were not adopted until the year 1563, when the Reformation had already been fought and won under the Augsburg Confession, which appeared 33 years, or a whole generation earlier. The Westminster Confession (Presbyterian) was

♦Conservative Reformation, p. 258.

fLutheran Origin of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Anglican Church — Dr. J. G. Morris. * i8

not adopted until 1648, a full century later, and some of the confessions of the other leading Protestant Churches are quite modern. It was inevitable, therefore, that all these should have been substantially drawn from the Augsburg Confession, i. e. were Lutheran in their origin.

History, moreover, shows that the English Reformation was not only due directly to Luther and Lutheranism, but was on the very point of ecclesiastically joining the new movement. Soon after the adoption of the Augsburg Confession, viz. in 1535, an official English commission was sent to Wittenberg, where after lengthy conferences with Luther and Melanchthon, thirteen doctrinal articles were mutually adopted in which the King of England "agrees to promote the gospel of Christ and the pure doctrine of faith according to the mode in which it was confessed in the Diet of Augsburg." These negotiations after continuing for years, finally failed, and the Church of England was not amalgamated with the Lutheran Church. But not only did the essential identity of their confession remain, but their forms of worship were chietly taken from Luther's service, and in America the Episcopal ChurdF officially styles herself, Protestant, which as we have shown, etymologically signifies Lutheran. "Lutheranism was, in fact, the exact shade which colored the minds of Queen Elizabeth, and of the divines who held to her. Her altar was precisely the Lutheran altar : her opinions were represented in almost a continuous line by one divine after another clown to our time."* The Lutheran belief of Elizabeth is shown by her noted words :

Christ was the Word that spake it, He took the bread and brake it, And what that Word did make it, That I receive and take it.

In the face of these indubitable historical facts, how utterly groundless is the claim sometimes put forth that the Episcopal Church of England and America stands alone in this respect, that it is independent of the Lutheran Reformation, and has had a continuous existence from the apostolic time apart alike from the Romish Church, and from the great religious awakening of the XVI century! When Luther appeared, and the Lutheran Church arose, there was but one great ecclesiastical system dominating Christendom, and holding the civilized world in its grasp viz : the Roman Catholic Church. To Luther and the Lutheran Church, therefore, all the now existing

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non-Romish Churches owe their origin and

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*Christian Institutions. Dean Stanley, p. 89.

their general character. And of all these Churches not one has been so directly dependent upon the Lutheran, and has so nearly reproduced it in doctrine and worship as the Episcopal.

The Lutheran Church then is without exception the source of the other Reformed churches. To her belongs the proud title : '' Mother of Protestantism." "The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century is the mother or grandmother of at least half a dozen families of evangelical denominations not counting the subdivisions."* And as daughters should venerate their mother, so affectionately should the various Protestant churches regard and venerate her as "the rock whence they were hewn." "It is the truism of history that the Lutheran is the parent Evangelical Church. She is the mother of Protestantism. Historically all other Evangelical churches have sprung from her."f

♦Schaff's Church History, Vol. VII, p. 9. tThe Lutherans in America, Wolf, p. 505.

Chapter IV. The Lutheran Church And The Word Of God

THE corner stone of the Lutheran Church is Holy Scripture. From the day that Luther found the Bible in the University at Erfurt, the Reformation was born. In that sacred volume lay the germ of the mighty movement that was about to recreate the world. It was by the study of the Word of God that Luther became enlightened as to the errors of Romanism, and it was with this sword of the spirit that he led forth the Church from her bondage, to the liberty and progress of the modern era. It was on the rock of the Holy Scriptures as over against the edicts of Popes and the decrees of Councils that Luther planted himself at Worms — that "scene" which Froude calls "the finest in modern history," — when he uttered the memorable words : " Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise ; God help me, Amen!"

Accordingly, Luther's first great work was to translate the Bible and place it, in the simplest language, in the hands of the people. Preaching, too, at once resumed the chief place from which it had been supplanted in the Mediaeval services. From Luther's own pulpit in Wittenberg and from Lutheran pulpits everywhere the Word of God resounded, as it did of old when Christ and his Apostles "came preaching the kingdom of God." And when the Augsburg confession was set forth as the chief symbol of the Lutheran faith, it was a mere republication of the teaching of Holy Scripture. Accordingly when the Roman Catholic Duke of Bavaria said to the theologian Eck : "Can you refute by sound reasons, this their confession?" "With the writings of the Apostles and Prophets — no," replied Eck; "but with those of the Fathers and Councils — yes." " I understand," replied the Duke, " the Lutherans according to you, are in the Scripture ; and we are outside."

And this peculiarity still characterizes the Lutheran Church, not only as over against the Roman, but even measurably the Reformed Churches. The position of Lutheranism in respect to the Word of God is unique. In no christian communion does it hold so unequivocably the place of absolute authority. Such was the reverence of Luther for the Bible that he does not scruple to say that we must look upon the Scripture as " if God himself had spoken therein," and he calls the Holy Spirit "the most clear and simple writer there is in heaven and on earth."* And this same reverence has passed into the Church holding his name. For, while we gladly concede the prominence which all christian Churches, Greek, Roman, and Reformed, give to the Scripture, yet the Bible does hold a special pre-eminence in the Lutheran Church, such as it has not elsewhere.

With it the Word of God is the chief Means of Grace. It is the source of the efficacy of the Sacraments. It is the seed of the spiritual life. It is the organ of our personal relation to Christ by which He lives in the believer. It is the instrument of sanctification, the formative power of growth in grace, "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy Word is truth" (John xvii; 17). And it is the only infallible rule of faith and practice. The Word, therefore, in the Lutheran Church is the supreme and all sufficient spiritual agent. Nor is it held as necessary to its effect that it be attended with concomitant agencies and appliances of human wisdom and "human machinery." But rather do these supplant and enfeeble it, even as Oetinger complained that the followers of Zinzendorf placed more reliance upon the singing of his emotional hymns than they did upon the Word of God. For when simply and purely preached it exerts its utmost spiritual influence: "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God" (I. Cor. ii ; 5). It therefore, is the staple of Lutheran preaching, and the centre of every Lutheran service.

No Church so closely moulds its confessions, its theology, its liturgical services, its hymnology, its devotional literature, and its simple christian life after the Scriptures, as does the Lutheran.