"God Grant It" by C.F.W. Walther

Just to mention, my husband and I have been faithfully reading C.F.W. Walther's devotional this year, mostly on my husbands initiative--which means something.

C.F.W. Walther has so much to give and everything he says rings true also about our time, if not about ourselves.  My husband has become dependent on his daily dose of Walther before bedtime.  It calms him down and sets things right with the world.  The clarity of it all soothes his soul and the forward looking to heaven puts him on the straight and narrow in thought and feeling.  (Happy husband.) Some of the sections can be a little long and the translation seems a bit convoluted at times.  So we have taken to each reading it and then talking about it. ( Happy wife.)  There is so much meat, here, that Walther's book is a real essential part of the home library. --  Five stars.  :)

Find it at Amazon.
Find it at CPH.

This week / shallowness

It was a rough week weather-wise.  The roads were a disaster with ice and snow and hardly anyone we know did not do some damage this week.  My husband, for one, ended up in the ditch with his truck as it spun around on ice.  I've been crawling around in my new four-wheel drive at super-slow speeds and managed to get to places without harm.  But it seems the wrong thing to do.  One should be able to stay home when it is this bad.

What is on my mind is a conversation I had with a young person, well not as young as that person used to be--still pretty young to me--and it seemed strange to me.  This person is well educated, talented and in some respects brilliant.  And he (ok--it's a "he") is very aware of himself, feels old and complex beyond his years and feels other people are "shallow."  

This whole line of thinking reminds me of someone else I've known in recent times, also a "he", educated, talent and in some respects brilliant.  He thought other people "profane".  Then there are famous people like Goethe and Emerson who always talk about "genius", as opposed to "imbecile."

This all drives me fairly rank.  I'm not really stupid myself and intelligent people have called me intellectual.  But there is so much I don't know and so much I don't understand, and there are things other people know and understand which I want to know more about.  I have never called any other person "shallow", "profane" or "imbecilic".

Well, I call some people selfish, egomaniac and my favorite -- "malignant narcicissistic".  Yes, I see them behind every bush.  Well, no not really.  I only know a couple in real life and then there are the famous, historic ones:  Stalin, Joseph Smith, Hitler, and so on.  Probably Swedenborg, too.  Well, yes, no doubt, I shall call him malignatly narcissitic, also. -- There, I've done it again.

What about the shallow and profane?  People who are quite artistic seem to call this people who are not so artistic.  Of all the human abilities and strengths and tasks--why is the artistic the most defining one for "genius", "profanity" or "shallow-ness"?  It seems rather arbitrary and self-congratulatory (or narcissistic).

I suppose a genius, perhaps, needs to invent something, create something new.  But some of our famous geniuses don't seem that genius-like when one gets beyond the glitz and accolades.  And come to think of it, I have called gifted people geniuses who have not invented things, they have simply spoken the bon mot into the situation.  It was nothing new.  It was only the right thing at the right time.

Walther was a genius, he applied Law and Gospel the right way and wrote a fantastic book about it, even though he is accused of only ever quoting people.

Law and Gospel / Walther

A long time ago I read Walther's Law and Gospel;   now, I have the new version in hand and will have a look at it.

Right in the introduction, I want to note something:

Walther is often criticized as being a "citation theologian."  A glance at Law and Gospel and almost any other work by Walther other than sermons would seem to support this view.  Walther readily acknowledged that it was true, and he made no apology for it.  He was content to sit at the feet or stand on the shoulders of those who defended biblical teaching.  Walther always began with proof from the Word of God (Beweis aus Gottes Wort).  Then followed the witness of the Church in its official confessions (Zeugnisse der Kirche in ihren offentlichen Bekenntnissen).  Then followed the witness of the Church in the private writing of its teachers (Zeugnisse der Kirche in den Privatschriften ihrer Lehrer).
Of the teachers of the Church, no one outranks Martin Luther.  Walther was convinced that a knowledge of Luther was necessary for both pastors and laity in the Church.  (p. ix)

I am greatly comforted by this man's fidelity.  He worked tirelessly and accomplished to most solid and enduring results.   This is really the main thing I strive for in my own life:  fidelity.

"God Grant It" / Walther / On Hardening Hearts

With my last purchase of books from CPH, we also got C.F.W. Walther's "God Grant It",  daily devotions translated by Gerhard Grabenhofer.




It has so far turned out to be one of my husband's favorites.  He is not the one who reads the theological books in this house, but he feels he is getting great instruction from this one.  I quite like it myself and read to him at random as he asks for a devotion to be read.

This is one we had the other day, that he found helpful.  Now, I don't know how much I can paste here without copyright, so I will not post the entire devotion.  It starts on page 638.  This devotion also relates to the discussion with Reformed friends.  So I might refer to it.

"Read Exodus 10:20.
The large church fellowship known as the Calvinist Reformed maintains that all who become hardened come into this condition according to an eternal, absolute decree of God.  They base this view on Holy Scripture, which says, "So then He has mercy on whomever He wills, and He hardens whomever He wills"  (Romans 9:18), and notes that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so he would not let the Israelites go.  But this is a blasphemous use of these biblical remarks.  We cannot attempt to make God the author of a person's sin and damnation.  Indeed, Scripture expressly testifies, "For You are not a God who delights in wickedness, "  (Psalm 5:4), and  "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one" (James 1:13).  Moreover, the Bible testifies clearly that God neither wants nor has decreed the destruction of any person:  "As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?"  (Ezekiel 33:11), and "He destroys you, O Israel, for you are against me, against your helper"  (Hosea 13:9)
But doesn't the Bible also clearly say that God had really hardened many people?  Yes, but it also emphasizes that God hardens only those who have already hardened themselves by despising grace.  Christ says that the citizens of Jerusalem had finally fallen into the judgment of obduracy, not because God had decreed it from eternity, but "because you did not know the time of your visitiation"  (Luke 19:44).  If God ever visited any people in great grace, it was the citizens of Jerusalem.
The Son of God Himself, together with His twelve apostles, preached the Gospel among them and invited them a thousand times into the kingdom of His grace.  Faithfully, as a Good Shepherd, He followed them for three years with words, works and tears, admonishing and imploring them to turn from their wicked ways.  But when they all despised this grace, declined His kind invitation, and ultimately murdered Him, God finally withdrew His hand of grace and gave them up to the judgment of total hardness.
God always acts in this way.  No one who becomes hardened did not first experience a time of gracious visitation.  God's Word may be preached to him for a long time.  He may be exhorted countless times by teachers, pastors, parents, and fellow believers.  His own conscience and the Holy Ghost may often admonish and chastise him.  But if he wantonly and stubbornly resists all of this and remains in his sin, his pride, and his love of the world, God finally tires of extending him mercy and says,  "why will you still be struck down?  Why will you continue to rebel?  The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint"  (Isaiah 1:5).  At that point , he removes His hand of grace from such a person.  Holy Scripture calls this a hardening.  For when God no longer works in a person, he is left to his own devices..."

Ok, the end is missing.  Go buy the book.  :)

And more importantly, while we can only believe in Christ and God's favorable disposition towards us by the preaching of his word, we are also able to refuse this word.  Let this not be so for us.  Today is the day of salvation and mercy.  Thy kingdom come.

Subscribing unconditionally.../5/Conclusion

Walther concludes.

If our Church, which is now [1858] lying in the dust, shall rise again and not gradually degenerate into a body that is Lutheran in name only, without any characteristics of the Church of the Reformation, then all the fine words about ecclesiastical propriety, about the reintroduction of ancient rites and ceremonies, all attempts to invest the Office of the Ministry with special glory and authority, all this with be utterly in vain.  The only help for resurrecting our church lies in a renewed acceptance of its old orthodox confessions and in a renewed unconditional subscription to its Symbols.

To which adds the Editorial Committee of 1947:

That our Synod in its centennial year still holds high the banner of "God's Word and Luther's doctrine pure" is due to Walther's indefatigable efforts in the classroom, at pastoral conferences and synodical conventions, and through the printed word to exalt the priceless treasure contained in our symbolical Books.  One way in which we, the heirs of God's grace, can show our gratitude is a renewed study of the Book of Concord.

Subscribing unconditionally.../4

This will mostly finish the document, p. 131-137.  Guebert has most of it covered.  Just some things he does not have.

IV
Before we conclude, it is necessary to discuss two questions.
The first is this:  Is it fully in accord with the spirit of our Symbols to demand an unconditional subscription of the servants of our Church?  I respond:  There can be absolutely no doubt about this.

... We intend also, by the grace of the Almighty, faithfully to abide until our end by this Christian Confession, mentioned several times, as it was delivered in the year 1530 to the Emperor Charles V;  and it is our purpose, neither in this nor in any other writing, to recede in the least (from the oft-cited Confession, nor to propose another or new confession (Triglotta, 847;  "Introduction to the Formula of Concord").  (In the Latin original it says, "vel transversu, ut ajunt, ungue," that is, not to depart even a finger's breadth.)  The same thing is expressed in the Preface to the Book of Concord also of the other previous Symbols, regarding the Ecumenical Creeds, the Augsburg Confession, its Apology, the Smalcald Articles, and both catechisms, when it says there:  "Therefore we also have determined not to depart even a finger's breadth... either from the subjects themselves or from the phrases which are found in them (Latin:  vel a rebus ipsis vel a phrasibus;  neither in the content of the matter taught, nor in the form and manner of speaking of it) but, the Spirit of the Lord aiding us, to persevere constantly, with the greatest harmony, in this godly agreement, and we intend to examine all controversies according to this true norm and declaration of the pure doctrine...

Finally, the Formula of Concord designates all the previous Lutheran Confessions as "a unanimously accepted, definite, common form of doctrine, which all our evangelical churches together and in common confess, from and according to which, because [not insofar as] it has been derived from God's Word, all other writings should be judged and adjusted as to how far they are to be approved and accepted" (Triglotta, 855;  FC SD Rule and Norm 10).

The second question that remains, which is herewith drawn into consideration is this:  Is our assertion that the Symbols of our Church are to be subscribed unconditionally  by our teachers confirmed by the practice of our Church?  To answer this question, let us make a few historical points.

... After the Formula of Concord had been introduced in Saxony, all the servants of those churches and schools since 1602 were asked to take the following oath:

     'You shall vow and swear that you will continue and remain steadfastly and without guile in the pure, Christian understanding of the Gospel current in this territory as it is recorded in the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, repeated and explained in the Christian Book of Concord, and preserved against all falsifications, and will neither secretly nor openly practice anything against it, but will at once fearlessly reveal anyone who departs from, or practices against, that understanding.  If God should decree--May He graciously prevent it!--that you follow the dreams and vagaries of men, depart from this pure doctrine and understanding of God's Word, and turn to the Papists or Calvinists or other sects that are described and rejected in the  religious peace because they are not in sympathy with our pure Confession, you shall swear that because of your oath you will without fear immediately report your change of mind to the proper authorities and await further regulations and resolutions.  May you do all this faithfully and without deceit!'

A Leipzig licentiate of theology had to swear:

   'I, N.N., swear to you, the Deacon and the Theological Faculty, that I intend to follow the holy doctrine of Christ, conveyed in the writing of the apostles and prophets, and explicated in the received creeds and in the Augsburg Confession delivered to Emperor Charles V in 1530, as also its Apology, in the Smalcald Articles, both Catechisms of Luther, and in the Book of Concord, and without any false intent I will fight as much as I can any godless, dark, heretical, and unionistic [religionsmengerischen] views and remain faithful to the statutes of the faculty.  God help me through his holy Gospel!'

Osiander was the first to protest against this.

Parents should well consider whether or not to let their sons to to Wittenberg to become doctors or masters [of theology].  For there their money is taken from them, and if the parents think their son could become a first-rate man, well-rounded in the Holy Scriptures, able to oppose all fanatics and heretics, instead he becomes a poor captive whose conscience is hemmed in and confused.  For he has to foreswear the Word of God and swear adherence to the doctrine of Phillipp.  He has to permit himself to be muzzled in matters of faith.  He is not to come to any conclusions until he has conferred with his elders who maintain the Confession.  He must remain in harmony with he Confession because of his oath even though Scripture says something else.  He is therefore a member of a secret society, a conspiracy which has a higher regard for the word of men than the Word of God, and Christianity is certainly the worse for it.

Against these accusation, Melanchthon responded in an address published in 1553.  There he says, among other things;

   He (Osiander)boasts of his vaunted freedom and refusal to tolerate these bonds.  Many today have fallen prey to this cry, in a time of great licentiousness and anarchy, claiming unlimited freedom to spouse opinions and, like the skpetic philosopher Pyrrho, render all things handed over as doubtful.  But pious and wise people see this happen not without great pain and recognize where it leads, namely, that the youth and the upright are not once reminded of discretion.  Then wild, impudent men who are full of themselves can neither through such promises nor through other bonds be held in check.... First let me speak with us.  it was introduced by this faculty at Wittenberg some twenty years ago, by Luther, Jonas and the pastor of this congregation, Dr. Pomeranus... Osiander does a great disservice to these upright men when he suggests that these men wanted to establish a tyranny.  It is quite clear that they had the most honorable cause and intent. Also at that time there were many fanatics flying about who soon were spreading about new stupidities:  Anabaptist, Servetus, Campanus, Stenkfeld, etc.  so much as human diligence could accomplish it, the purpose of the Wittenberg symbolical pledge was two-fold:  to admonish talented men to observe in humility proper bounds, and to check restless spirits as much as possible.  This was also the custom of the Ancient church, in which as yet no tyranny ruled and the source of doctrine remained pure.  ... In the Nicene Synod not only the bishops subscribed the decrees, but also the Emperor Constantine, all with their own hands.  And no one was admitted to the office of the gospel, unless he were examined beforehand and expressly affirmed that the confession rendered the doctrine of the gospel unfalsified and he would not depart from it.

Subscribing unconditionally to the symbols of our church/ 3

There is quite a bit in the Guebert translation in the section that follows, which I won't copy again.  Mostly these points deal with a number of objections to demanding unconditional subscription.

I will just pick out the point Guebert does not pick up on and that I find quite interestingly put:  Walther calls "indifferentism" not a confession of a faith but a denial.

Again, some say:  "If the Union Church swears itself as much to the Symbols of the Lutheran and of the Reformed Church, so far as both agree with the other, but in points of difference goes back to the Scriptures, thus the Union Church thereby is at least justified against the accusation that it is confessionless and therefore is no church, or no heretical church, rather only a body held together by the bond of indifferentism.  I answer:  The commonality of several mutually contradictory and mutually condemning Symbols, which only theologians can find so deeply grounded therein, to declare for the confession of a churchly fellowship is so completely contrary to the nature and goal of an ecclesiastical confession that it requires no proof.  Such a declaration salvages only the appearance of a confession, but builds only a covering for Gallionism (Acts 18:12-17) [i.e., indifference to doctrine'.  There is no doubt that a Lutheran (or even a Reformed person), who in this manner accepts both he Lutheran and Reformed confessions, instead of confessing his faith, disgracefully denies it.  Those of the Union Church have appeared to sense this, therefore they have partly tired of finding and establishing the consensus of both Symbols...

..And whoever permits such doctrines to be treated as open questions surrenders the fortress of the Confession of our Church and is in reality no loyal Lutheran.

... Only a skeptic, who is always learning and never coming to the truth, despairs of ever finding the truth and will maintain "Men have written this and therefore it must contain error."  But if error should really be found in our Symbols, we would be the first to pass the death sentence on them.  But we defy the whole world to point out an error in doctrine in our Book of Concord.  for the past three hundred years all the enemies of our Church have tried in vain to find an error, but have failed.  They have shown, and we admit it, that our Symbols contain points that are contrary to their blind reason;  but they have failed to prove that our Symbols contradict Scripture in the smallest point.   Now, just as vain and scandalous, a similar attempt has begun by persons who wish to be viewed as nothing less than the most faithful sons of our Church.  they seek to point out that the voice of our spiritual mother in her public Confessions is in part the voice of error.  But they will demonstrate nothing more than that they are bastards who, because they do not believe the holy divine Scriptures, besmirch the church as a temptress who confesses what she has found in the Scriptures as her heart's faith.

Strong words on a subject of vital importance.  

Subscribing unconditionally to the symbolical writings of our church/ 2

This is all from Walther in Harrison's book.  We are now on page 126.

III
Since all divisions within Christendom appeal to Scripture--papists, Schwaermer, and Rationalists, as much as orthodox Christians, who all say that their doctrine is based on the Scriptures, if only they are rightly understood and explicated--the mere confession that one believes what is in Scripture is not a confession that clearly distinguishes the confessor from the false believer.  For, in spite of this confession, no one knows whether one accepts Scripture in the true sense or not or whether one is a papist or a Schwaermer or a Rationalist or an orthodox Christian.  Therefore an unconditional subscription is indispensable.  For the sake of clarity it is necessary to declare how one understands and interprets Scripture and the articles of faith that are contained in it.  [Harrison's emphasis] It is essential to keep in mind that the purpose of our Symbols is a) that our Church clearly and unequivocally confess its faith and its doctrine before the world;  b) that it distinguish itself [H] from all heterodox bodies and sects; c) that it may possess a united, certain, general form and norm of doctrine for all its teachers, on the basis of which all other writings and teachings can be judged and regulated.  But if the Church demands only a conditional acceptance of its symbols, it virtually retracts the faith and the doctrine that it had set forth in the Symbols.  Then the document that the Church had offered as its Confession is after all not its real confession, and the charge can be raised that the Church is double-tongued and is deceiving the world with its Symbols.

By demanding only a conditional subscription to its Symbols, the church forfeits its distinctively Lutheran characteristics, and by admitting that is Symbols contain errors, it places itself on the same level with the heterodox bodies.  In this case, the church is without a united, certain, general form and norm of doctrine, on the basis of which each one is able to judge his own teaching as well as all other writing and teachings.

...Finally, the purpose of binding the teachers of the Church to its public confessions is to remove the long controversies that have been thoroughly discussed and settled, at least in the orthodox Church.  A mere conditional subscription, however, opens the door for a renewal of controversies that have already been settled and paves the way for everlasting discord.

... The declaration that one accepts the Symbols "insofar as" and not "because"' they agree with Scripture is not a pledge to teach according to the Symbols, but according to his conscience and opinion.

...Again, some say that there can be no better interpretation of the Symbols than that which is according to Scripture.  That is a fallacious proposition.  Only that can be interpreted according to Scripture which is essentially the same as Scripture.  No human writing can therefore be interpreted according to Scripture;  this applies only to Scripture.  As Scripture must be interpreted by Scripture, so every human document must be interpreted according to is own content.  If one interprets a man made document according to Scripture, he equates the two an declares a priori that any dark statement in the Symbols must agree with Scripture, a fact that would be true only of a new immediate revelation.  No, a human document must be tested and, if necessary, improved, but not interpreted, according to Scriptures.  A subscription to the Confession is the Church's assurance that its teachers have recognized the interpretation and understanding of Scripture that is embodied in the Symbols as correct and will therefore interpret Scripture as the Church interprets it.   If the Church therefore would permit its teachers to interpret the Symbols according to the Scriptures, and not the Scriptures according to its symbols, the subscription would be no guarantee that the respective teacher understands and interprets Scripture as the Church does.  It would only tell the Church what he himself holds for correct.  Thus each personal conviction of its teachers of that moment would become the Symbol to which they are sworn!

I am still chewing on that.-- One can then interpret Scripture according to Scripture, Symbol according to Symbol, even Scripture according to Symbol, but not Symbol according to Scripture, as that is bringing your own opinion to where better people than yourself have hashed this out in incredible labors and difficulties and you are supposed to be teaching what they taught, which is scriptural to begin with. 

And you are supposed to be convinced of that otherwise don't bother teaching in the church (or "Church", as it is capitalized throughout.)

But what of some honest, upright men who either lack the ability to test the whole Book of Concord according to the Word of God and therefore are not convinced that the Symbols agree with Scripture in every point, or who have conscientious scruples about certain points?  In either case, such are not fit to become teachers in the Church, for a bishop must, above all things, be "apt to teach" and "be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:9)..."

Walther 2

The trip report and related documents goes from page 15 to 118. One learns a few things regarding conditions in Germany, but not enough to think one understands anything. Need another book.

I will share here only a couple of paragraphs about how Walther describes the people whom he met. These introductions are marvelously done, I think. It must be a little bit like blogging for Walther: you want to be frank and informative, but not let it all hang out and be rude. Still, I think, he seems to have a nature that is mostly grateful and kind, while extremely determined. I do wonder why he did not see Loehe more while he was there, as Loehe complains.

There is a little nostalgia for me when he talks about Loehe, Neudettelsau and Gunzenhausen. Hailing from lower Franconia (North West Bavaria) myself, Neudettelsau is where I went for my confimation retreat. Gunzenhausen is where our deaconesses came from and I believe I was there for a Pentecost youth conference.

I won't go into issues in this post, though the people he met with where obviously pivot-ally involved in the various struggles.

Before he went he became seriously ill. He describes this personal episode in a deep and eloquent way:

However, it pleased God to throw me into a serious illness at this time, and thus berfore the trip to lead me into the loving school of His holy cross. Yet, as I pondered my whole life, which I would have gladly given back into the hands of my dear heavenly Father, my precious congregation pleaded before God for the preservation of my poor life. God answered their prayer and mercifully lifted me up again after a few weeks. Although I was still rather weak, I was able to leave from here... (p.32)

When he and Wyneken first arrived in Germany he mentions this illness again and the first people he met.

"We went on our way via Harburg toward Verden, a suburb of Hannover situated a few miles south of Bremen, where Pastor Wyneken's very aged mother, a pastor's widow, still lived. We thought we might rest here from the stresses of the ocean voyage and gather strength for our work, because this author especially was still suffering from the painful aftermath of his last serious illness. We stayed overnight in Harburg. Here we found the warmest brotherly reception with Mr.
Stuerje, the harbormaster. He was a former captain of a ship and one those few people in every region who, already a number of years ago, untangled themselves from the net of the Union Church. By the grace of God, such people have come to the living consciousness of what they have in their old Evangelical Lutheran Church." 38,39)

Walther met here with "brother reception" in other places he had to carry on a lot of disputes. Overall, he complains gently how much battling over doctrine needed to be done while he was in Germany. Personally, I still know so little about this business with the Union Church vs. the Confessions, I don't know how it is possible for me to be so clueless.

On page 40, he meets with Wyneken's mother and we learn that Walther just lost his own mother and he might have met her one last time if the timing had been a little different. I can just feel for him. All my grandparents were buried while a was in Canada. I had known them all very well. In those days, one did not phone and travel so readily, not to mention e-mail, skype and other things we do. A separation across the ocean was like a final good-bye, a heavy loss. And then there had been a possibility to see each other again. What a disappointment. It almost makes me cry.

"On the next day, around noon on the 13th, we hurried toward Verden. Indeed, this moving scene of the reunion of mother and son after a separation of many years, of which I was a witness, awakened in me a deep nostalgia. It had pleased God to take away this joy for which I had also hoped through the sudden and unexpected calling home of my elderly mother, who up until a few months ago was still alive in Germany. I was taken in not as a stranger but as a second son and brother. In the old house of this pastor's widow, I soon felt so at home that I could take part in the joy of my dear friend Wyneken, as if I had come once again to the beloved place of my childhood, with its sweet memories." p. 40

A few times in the report we hear about Dr. Harless (Gottlieb Christoph Adolf, 1806-1879). I think this is where he comes up for the first time.

"On Saturday, the 20th of September, early in the evening, we arrived in Leipzig, as was already mentioned. Soon, to his great joy, the author could see for himself that a great change had taken place in the time since his last stay in this city, a change for the better at that. The traces of great mercy can be seen everywhere. In these blessed workings we think especially of Dr. Harless, who, during the short time that he was active here as a professor at the university and as pastor at the St. Nicholas church, contributed a great deal.

Dr. Harless' successor at the university, Dr. Kahnis, is now making an effort to continue the blessed work that has begun. among other things, the numerous student groups founded under Dr. Harless's initiative, who bear the name Philadelphia, remain intact under Dr. Kahnis' direction. These groups named "Philadelphia" seek to build an inner fellowship among those students (including those who aren't studying theology) who hold fast to the ground of faith of our Evangelical Lutheran church amid the currents of human opinion and wish to preserve themselves from the same. Another important aspect and further ground for joy in regard to this student group is that as the young ken mutually assist one another spiritually, they have their eye more to the practical than to the academic. However, great earnestness and zeal for study show themselves among these students...

We hear about these student groups several times more. Walther must have really enjoyed them. It reminds me of the work of some of the more influential professors I know or have heard about. They develop student groups and take a great interest in these students. One of them them is Dr. John Patrick from from Augustine College who speaks for the Love Life conference on occasion and the CMDS in Edmonton (Christian Medical Dental Society). He takes groups of students to Africa regularly and started groups of Agnostics 101 at the University of Ottawa, when students challenged him to do something other than complaining about the lack of formation for students at University. I also think of our confessional president at the local college, after whom a few students are called Krispinites (maybe a better name could be found). It also makes me think of Bror who cites Dr. Rosenblatt as a mentor. These really strike me as the great people, who can nurture well the generation coming up behind them. It also makes me think of Jesus taking on the twelve disciples--what skill, what depth, what patience and time required! What faith for the future.

Anyways, Dr. Harless, seems to be this kind of man. Later Walther meets Harless in Dresden, but did not hear him preach in his role as the High Court Preacher.

"The next day we traveled from here to Dresden. We hoped that the next day, Sunday, we would be able to hear Dr. Harless, the High Court Preacher, preach. Customarily he preaches only every second Sunday. Much to our chagrin, we came ton a Sunday when Harless was not to be found in the pulpit. Indeed, in the whole of this large capital city with is many churches, no preaching of the pure divine Word was to be heard on this day. The only exception was in the hall of a hospital, but we got word of this too late. Thus we had to be content to speak in private with the High Court Preacher, who already when we were in Leipzig, sent us an inviation to come to Dresden. This we did. And although Dr. Harless is overloaded with extremely i8mportant duties, which he can only manage with a great deal of effort (he is Hight Court Preacher, vice president of the High Consistory, advisor to the Department of Worship abnd Chruch order, Examiner, and responsible for church visitations), nonetheless, he devoted numerous hours to us every day of our stay... In the High court Preacher we made the acquaintance of a man whose entire appearance filled us as much with the most heartfelt reverence as with full and unreserved trust. In him we found paired with his exhaustive erudition (it does not even cross our minds to think that we could testify to it) true Christian simple-mindedness, with the urbanity necessary for his high and unique position. We found German integrity and a true sense of unswerving duty. With his great strength and energy there is an astounding gentleness and patience. He has an utterly unprejudiced appreciation of everything new that is truly good, and yet he has a decidedly assiduous faithfulness to the old and ever new Confession of our Church and humble submission to our old teachers. This last characteristic especially filled us with great joy... As Bavaria is now the place in Germany where an interest in American Lutheran affairs has been awakened, Dr. Harless presented us first with a letter of recommendation to Her Majesty, Queen Marie of Bavaria, and to her confessor, Deacon Lord von Burger in Munich, to take with us." p. 57-59.

Dr. Harless seems to be a singular shining light in Dresden. But everywhere matters seem to be very complicated. I don't want to get into the stuff with Queen Marie, and Loehe and the State church of Bavaria. It gets too convoluted. Well, how I understood it, Loehe is in trouble himself over the unionistic practices of the Lord's Supper, which he rejects, so Walther with his even stricter approach to the confessions, really can't accept support from the church that gives Loehe troubles. So, no go with Queen Marie. In the end, then, Dr. Harless' intervention was therefore useless, as well.

I'll quit here for today. Going for a walk with my neighbor at 1:15 and 20 below Celsius, for our New Year's Day refreshment. In other years we went to New Year's services together at the Catholic church in Gibbons, which actually held such things, at the time.

If this is too much quoting from his book for Rev. Harrison, he will have to complain. :) The book is easily obtainable on the internet. I recommend it.
Blessed New Year. Brigitte.

House of my Fathers/Harrison/Walther

I have exactly 265 pages left (from page 212 to 477).

Reading Walther makes me think about how gentle and generous he is always trying to be, as much as is possible--unyielding as iron and gentle as a dove. We sometimes chafe that since the Gospel is the power, not we, we don't like to use the word "winsome". Since most of all the speech needs to be honest, authentic, humble, straight, un-syrupy..., we may forget that there is this gentleness that is very, very good and helpful. By God's grace the right combination always needs to be found.

He is also very descriptive but kind in introducing persons in his trip report. Maybe next time, we'll quote him on that several times.

This is how Walther corrects a Pastor Otteson, who had come up with some theses (now lost), presumably sounding too rigid and legalistic, regarding parish boundaries. Walther wrote a number of corrections hurriedly and he does not want to offend.

"It is quite right that you especially posit and claim Luke 10:16 and Matthew 18:15-17. But if you want to develop everything from that, then it gives the appearance that you are urging and pressing these passages in order to subvert all objections. Then your argumentation is somewhat brief, and the whole thing gets a legalistic taint. The mind is captured, but the heart easily remains unwilling and remains discontent and unconvinced [literally, "rattles in its cage"].

In my humble opinion, especially the following sentences need further exposition or development [and I am hereby providing it]. I obviously do not present these to you because I think your solid essay has to be reworked, but only to put before you my opinion in a very concrete way." (p. 156-157)

Then follow several pages of suggestions (corrections, mostly to make things more palatable, evangelical, for the congregation members).

Then he addresses himself again to Otteson.

"I implore you now, finally, that you would not see what I have written as proof of my hypercritical nature (Kritikasterei) or learned conceit (Besserwisserei), but as a demonstration that I happily desire at your request to serve you with what I have, poor wretch that I am. If you can find something therein which is usable, that will please me. Where not, still you will not be angry with me that I at least would acknowledge my good will to you. The matter is certainly important enough for everyone to come to a deeper understanding." p. 161

In the Post Script we see again, how unyielding he is:

"I note with distress what problems Pastor Clausen is causing. I must admit, as positive an impression as he made upon me personally, so problematic did the wobbly basis appear to me upon which his understanding appeared to stand. God will assist you, not only to remain steadfast in the truth, which is God's foolishness, in these times of improving civilization, but also see you through. In war, a few of the brave always fall.

"Hope"

The other day I copied this from Elephant's Child's blog and put it on my fridge where it has me done good service. I think one could almost say it is "the hope that we confess in a nutshell", through Christ our Lord, of course.

C.F.W. Walther, God Grant It! p. 93.

Know that whatever the path on which God will lead you--up the mountain or down the valley, through flowers or over thorns, on rocky terrain or on level ground, through darkness or through light, for a long time or a short time--that path leads through the kingdom of grace, and its end is salvation.