Means of Grace

“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.

“This weightiest chapter ever penned by Inspiration yields up its lessons best when literally understood, and when explained by the laws of common sense. “The secret of recent assaults upon the Bible is the restiveness of the modern spirit… so eager is the desire for anything new, that even the destruction of all that is precious and venerable is hailed on account of the morbid excitement thereby aroused.

“The doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, was the turning point of the Reformation; it was the experience of its necessity and efficacy in the heart of Martin Luther that constituted his best qualification for the work of the Reformation; and as it distinguished the Lutheran Church from the Church of Rome, so it has come to be regarded as the distinguishing mark of separation between Protestantism and Romanism.

“In these godless and worldly times we must earnestly and diligently preach conversion. We must insist on its necessity. We must reason, exhort, convince, beseech, and plead; ‘Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die?

“It is one of the most striking, and most valuable characteristics of the Bible, that it is the Book of mankind. It is both designed, and prepared, for all people, and for all classes of people.

“In approaching this subject, the first thing to be done is to answer unreasonable objections, produce the Scriptural authority for the Baptism of Infants, and show how history sustains the usage.

“There are but two developed systems in the world that claim with any show of probability to be purely Biblical. These systems are the Lutheran and the Calvinistic. They possess a common basis in their recognition of the same rule of faith; their profession of the Old Catholic faith as set forth in the three General Creeds; in their acknowledgment of the doctrine of justification by faith and of its great associated doctrines; and they have vast interests, great stakes, mighty bonds of sympathy in common.

“Without the Holy Scriptures nothing certain would be known concerning the future destiny of man and the world. No book gives us such assurance as the Bible does. In the light of the Bible the riddle of the universe is solved.

“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.

“The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, is one of the most solemn, impressive, and important ordinances of our holy religion, instituted by Christ himself. It is intimately interwoven with the very existence and life of the church, and with the spiritual life of the individual Christian…”

Anderson’s Annals of the English Bible is a full history of the Bible in the English language. Level of Difficulty: Intermediate: Some subject matter knowledge helpful. Book Contents Introduction. Brief survey of the ages which preceded any printing of the Scriptures in the English tongue — Including the revival and triumph of classical learning and the arts, contrasted with the times of Wickliffe, with his version of the entire Sacred Volume, and its effects — The invention of printing, its rapid progress to perfection, and the point to which the European nations, but more especially England and Scotland had been brought, before ever this invaluable art was applied to any version of the Sacred Scriptures in the language Spoken by the peeple,

What were the personal qualifications of the King James’ Translators of the Bible? Alexander McClure researched for more than 20 years to gather information on all 47 of the men under the King’s Commission.

How To Understand Scripture “The sin of man not seldom works as a barrier, obscuring what is clear per se. That is the reason why we mentioned also progress in sanctification as one means that might accelerate the process.

“Those who read the Bible most, love it best. They find something new in it at every fresh perusal. They prefer it to all other books, and can say with David, ‘O how I love thy law!

“The word of God is… inspired, for it comes from God; it is human, for it comes through man. But remember, we do not say that the human is without the divine.

“There is a strait gait of knowledge through which [everyone] must pass on entering the kingdom, and many of the results of his reasonings must be abandoned at that entrance, while he confesses himself a mere disciple all the way in his progress.

“The Bible to the early church was not a book merely; it was a grand zoön, a living creature, a thing instinct in every part with a mysterious, manifold and superabundant life.

Rev. Greenwald was born near Frederick, Maryland, Jan. 13, 1811, and was, like the prophet Samuel of old, dedicated by his pious parents to the holy office from his earliest infancy.