The Lutherans of New York | Page 4

does not require us to explain the significance of these movements. Students of Church History are familiar with them.
The revival of spiritual life at the beginning of the nineteenth century brought with it also a revival of church consciousness and a restoration of the confession of the church. Both in Europe and in America the attempt has been made to secure the unity of the church on the basis of subscription to the various Symbols included in the Book of Concord. These Symbols, besides the Ecumenical Creeds and the Augsburg Confession, are Melanchthon's Apology, that is Defence of the Augsburg Confession, Luther's two Catechisms, the Smalcald Articles and the Formula of Concord. The later Confessions supplement and explain the statements of the Augsburg Confession. As such they are valuable exponents of Lutheran teaching. Many of our churches in Europe as well as in America require of their ministers subscription to these Confessions. At the same time it is also true that many churches, whose Lutheranism cannot be impugned, find in the Augsburg Confession an adequate expression of their doctrinal position.
According to the Confessors of Augsburg: "For the true unity of the church it is sufficient to agree concerning the doctrines of the Gospel."
It would seem, therefore, to be in harmony with the spirit of Lutheranism to make "the confession of the churches" rather than "the Confessions of the Church" the bond of union. Underneath the Confessions there are distinctive principles differentiating us from the sacerdotal churches on the one hand and from the Reformed churches on the other hand.
The soul of the Confessions is the confession, and this soul we may recognize amid all the changes that take place in the course of time and the progress of thought. It reveals itself in innumerable forms, in sermons and in sacred song, and above all in the sanctified lives of those who confess the faith.
In conversation with an eminent teacher in one of our most conservative schools, the author not long ago requested a definition of Lutheranism from the standpoint of the school which the Professor represented. Of course, it was suggested, the acceptance of the Symbolical books must be presumed, sine qua non.
The reply was: "The Symbolical Books are valuable, but their obligatory acceptance is not essential: The same is true even of the Augsburg Confession. Any one who accepts the teachings of Luther's Small Catechism is a Lutheran. The heart of the Lutheran faith may be expressed in the following words: "Man is a sinner who can be saved by grace alone."
In view of this statement it would seem to be a legitimate inference that even in the straitest sect of Lutherans in America the ultimate doctrine of Lutheranism, reduced to a single word, is GRACE.
Churches, however, have their distinguishing marks. In the Lutheran Church these are more difficult to find because of her catholic origin and spirit. While forms and ceremonies are retained, they play only a minor part in the expression of her churchliness. Bishops and presbyters, robes and chasubles, liturgies and orders, "helps, governments and divers kinds of tongues," in the providence of God all of these things have been "set in the church." Lutherans in many lands make use of them. An inexperienced observer, taking note only of crucifixes and candles sometimes fails to distinguish between Lutherans and Catholics. Yet none of these heirlooms of our ancient family belong to the essential marks of the church. Their observance or non-observance has nothing to do with the substance of Lutheranism.
Lutheranism aimed at reformation and not at revolution. Its initial purpose was to bring back the Church to the common faith of Christendom. Hence the Lutheran Confession is in its large outlines that of universal Christendom. Nevertheless, it received a distinctive trend from the problems of soteriology. The ancient Church had developed the doctrines of God and of Christ. A beginning, too, had been made in the doctrines of sin and grace and the way of salvation. But the development had been hindered by hierarchical traditionalism and by the spirit of legalism. These were the obstacles that stood in the way. The cry that went up to God from the hearts of the people in the days of the Reformation was "What must I do to be saved?" This cry found a voice in the experience of Luther himself. This is what drove him into the monastery, and this was the underlying quest of his life as a monk and as a teacher in the university, through monasticism to get to heaven. It was only when he had found Christ, and realized that his sins had been taken away through the atoning work of the Son of God, that he found peace. It is His person and work upon which the doctrine of our Church primarily rests.*