“This convulsion will be the work of the three frogs; that is, the Popish ultramontanes, the political reactionaries, and the atheistic revolutionists. Each party has its own cherished project, which it will strive to the utmost to realize.
“Why did I leave the ministry when I left the Congregational church? Because, in the first place, my New Theology and Higher Criticism had destroyed my faith in the perfect, divine authority of the Bible; and in the second place, they had destroyed my faith in the perfect deity of Christ.
“Popery, age after age, retires deeper and deeper into the darkness. In proportion as the light increases, the Papacy drops thicker and yet thicker veils betwixt itself and the world. Whenever its designs are in danger of being discovered, it folds over them the skirts of its sable mantle.
“I always revered Dr. Morris as one of God’s chosen men. His great age seemed phenomenal; his exuberant spirit, ready wit and natural humor made him popular, and drew men to him… He was possessed of good sound common sense, and well calculated to be a leader and a counselor.
“The Ministers of the temple of truth, it has been said, are of three kinds: first, those stationed at the gate of the temple to constrain the passers-by to come in; secondly, those whose function is to accompany inside all who have been persuaded to enter, and display and explain to them the treasures and secrets of the place; and, thirdly, those whose duty is to patrol round the temple, keeping watch and ward and defending the shrine from the attacks of enemies.
“America does not realize what an inheritance she has received from Luther and the Lutheran Reformation. The best way to understand Luther is to have Luther himself speak. His writings are so extensive that there is no trouble in finding something profitable for almost every occasion and condition in life.
“For nearly [three] hundred years Starck’s Daily Handbook has been a standard book of devotion; and it is not likely to be superseded by anything superior for many years to come.
“This introduction business is seldom a satisfactory affair. Once when I was introduced as the main speaker, it was not much of an occasion, I was wondering what a remarkable man the chairman was talking about.
“If ever any man was competent to write on true Christianity, that man was John Arndt. It had become his very life; it entered into the very center of his own experience; it was an essential part of his being, and hence it was only necessary to let the mouth utter that, of which the heart was full.
“These sermons were preached in the Church of the Holy Communion, Philadelphia, to a congregation consisting in part of University and college students. In preaching it was impossible to disassociate from my mind the struggles through which many of these young people were passing and the battles which I was asked to help them fight during the week.
“The first book of Moses, called Genesis, tells us whence we come; the last book of the Bible, the Revelation of St. John, shows us whither we go. It is true, men who have considered themselves wise above that which is written, have tried in every way to gainsay this divine answer; and a false reasoning at the present day proclaims from the housetops that science has done away with the former belief concerning the origin of man, and that we are not created by God, but descended from the monkey.
“One evening when a company of children and older people were looking at funny cat-pictures and telling cat-stories, a little ten year-old girl asked: ‘Why can there not be a Cats’ Arabian Nights Story Book?
Edward Bishop Elliott (1793-1875) “graduated from Cambridge in 1816 and he served in various positions as a minister for the Church of England. He ultimately settled at St. Marks Church in Brighton.
“The ‘Brief History of the Lutheran Church in America,’ …has been kindly admitted as a textbook in almost all theological seminaries of the Lutheran Church in this country… As in the previous edition, so in this one, it has been our aim to furnish a textbook that would serve as a guide for instruction in theological seminaries.
“Twice we heard Henry Watterson deliver his classical lecture on Abraham Lincoln. At the most dramatic point in the address the speaker discussed the problem, how to account adequately for the great president.
“Hitler’s Mein Kampf embodies all the aims and principles against liberal democratic processes reiterated in all the important papal encyclicals of post-Reformation Catholicism. It should not be surprising that the Vatican in our time, in exchange for benefits promised to the Catholic church, betrayed the forces of democracy, both inside and outside the church, and used its influence and power to foster allegiance to Fascism and Nazism throughout the world.
“…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.
Hutter’s Compend has been a beloved handbook of the Christian Faith for many Christians over many years. It’s well suited for people at all levels of knowledge.
The translator, Henry Eyster Jacobs, has this to say about it:
“Criticism has reached certain conclusions regarding various Books of Scripture. The older narratives are declared to be mere legends, and the history generally is described as tradition tinctured by the time when it was put into writing.
“We have certainly great reason to be wide awake and watchful, if we would preserve the inheritance of the Lutheran Church Reformation. Strong are the delusions and temptations of these latter days, and you children and youthful Christians will doubtless see still more perilous times for the Church of Jesus Christ before you have grown old.