“The need of a more adequate exegetical-homiletical treatment of the ancient gospel and epistle selections has long been felt. The manager of the Lutheran Book Concern has commissioned the writer of these lines to meet this need.
“What the Catholic Church is hoping and working for… is the reestablishment… of the ‘Real State,’ a rigid hierarchical system wherein inferiors are subject to superiors. In this system each individual, like a cell in a body, must humbly submit to his fate and occupy his “natural place” which is allotted to him from birth and have no desire to get away from it.
“The Letters of Hus have long been recognized by the best judges as one of the world’s spiritual treasures. The discovery of Hus, if we may so express it, forms more than once a landmark in the spiritual development of Luther.
“The conception of the Evangelical Lutheran church proceeds from the inward spiritual essence of the church, as a communion of faith, love, the Holy Ghost, knit together by means of the word of God and the sacraments, but which also forms itself into a body in an outward manifestation.
“The Church needs to restudy, to re-accept, to reaffirm, to re-experience justification by faith… Has not a large part of the Protestant Church practically lost this Reformation doctrine? …Is she not unconsciously drifting back into the old Romish heresy of justification by works, by service, by doing?
“This little volume of sermons has been prepared in response to repeated appeals from the people who heard them from the pulpit… they have been chosen from a cabinet of upwards of two thousand discourses.
“Another quality that strikes us… is Luther’s unfailing sense of humor. Reformers are usually deficient in humor. Their earnestness seldom permits them to laugh. Luther was the most earnest man of his century, and lived in more earnest times than any Europe had witnessed since the close of the first century.
Frank Erskine is just at the start of his career when he is given less than a year to live. He moves from London to the Cornish coast in an effort to find peace before the end.
“There has always been a secret prejudice against miracles…there is still a reluctance in many minds to admit these departures from the order of nature predicated in miracles… A modified form of this feeling may be seen in many honest believers in their disposition to overlook the miracles as the wonders of a distant age, answering an important purpose in the first introduction of Christianity, but of little use now as evidences of their religion.
This volume contains the three part series, “The Nature of the Will,” “The Liberty of the Will,” and “The Bondage of the Will,” all by Prof. Matthias Loy. Other articles include, “He Shall Baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with Fire,” and “The Power Of God’s Word, According To The Lutheran And The Reformed Systems”.
“This Magazine is designed to supply the want, long since felt, of a Lutheran periodical devoted to theological discussion. Its aim will be the exposition and defense of the doctrines of the Church as confessed in the Book of Concord.
“…there are many people today who are wandering in doctrinal fogland, and do not know what they believe; or, if they think they have any real convictions, they have pared them down to what they call ‘the irreducible minimum.
“The history of the Church confirms and illustrates the teachings of the Bible, that yielding little by little leads to yielding more and more, until all is in danger; and the tempter is never satisfied until all is lost.
“The aim of the author is to present a clear, concise, and yet as comprehensive a view as possible, of the way of salvation as taught in the Scriptures, and held by the Lutheran Church.
“Lutheranism clings to God’s Written Word. Her motto is the Word of God, the whole Word of God, and nothing but the Word of God, not as a prescriptive letter, but as the power of God unto salvation.
“Suffice it to say that faith is faith, and not obedience, or love or delight in God, or any other distinct grace or virtue. Nor does the Bible say being justified by obedience, or love, or delight, or good works, but ‘being justified by faith, we have peace with God.
“When you feel your burden of sin weighing heavily upon you, only go to Him… Only those who will not acknowledge their sin and feel no need of a Savior — only these are rejected.
“I received my first call into the largest mission field of the Northwest, in the State of South Dakota, far away from good old home. In September, 1892, I left home for my long journey.
Timothy East’s practical book is intended to, “disturb the false peace of the criminally indifferent… impart consolation to the conscientiously fearful, (and to) excite to higher degrees of gratitude the comparatively few, who know that they are safe for eternity.
“…A good selection of Scripture passages well suited for reading at family worship…chosen to furnish a reading for every day and to complete the bible in a year.
Level of Difficulty: Primer: No subject matter knowledge needed.