EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH.

BY S. S. SCHMUCKER, D. D.,

GETTYSBURG, PA.

THE name of Martin Luther, now familiar to almost every schoolboy, forms one of the most prominent waymarks in the history both of the world and the church. It has immortalized his age among the generations gone by; and one can hardly hear it pronounced without being at the same moment transported back to the scenes and events of that ecclesiastical revolution which shook Europe to its very centre, and from the cell of a monastery opened upon the world that dawning of science and truth which shall shine on, with unwaning brightness, to its perfect day.

But while all recognise the name of the Reformer, and its connexion with the past and present condition of Christendom in the general: few, comparatively, are well acquainted with the history of his peculiar opinions and those of the past and present generations of his followers. In reviving our own and our readers' acquaintance with our Lutheran brethren, we introduce to the friends of the Redeemer of lost men, an ancient, honoured, and most efficient branch of that church which he ransomed with blood, and which he employs in carrying forward the triumphs of his grace over sin and the powers of darkness.†

"The Lutheran Church is indebted for her name to the derision of the Catholics. The distinguished Papal theologian, Dr. Eckius, the opponent of Luther and Carlstadt, in the celebrated disputation at Leipsic, in the year 1519, wishing to show his contempt for Luther

The following sketch of the Lutheran Church is compiled almost entirely from several publications of the Rev. Dr. S. S. Schmucker, Professor of Theology in the Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, from an excellent article in the American Quarterly Register, by the Rev. Mr. Harris of Boston, which is derived principally from the same source, and from the Lutheran Almanac of 1843.

+ Quarterly Register, of 1843, p. 378.

and his cause, and not dreaming whereunto this matter of the Reformation would grow, first stigmatized the friends of the reformer as Lutherans, with the same feelings with which we speak of the Owenites and Fanny Wright men of our day. The term being regarded as a happy conceit, was soon spread among the enemies of the cause; and its friends, though opposed to it in principle, responded to the name, because they were not ashamed of their leader. But the name officially adopted by the Lutheran reformers was that of the Evangelical Church, that is, the gospel church, in antithesis to the legal ritual of the Old Testament, the very name recently adopted by the united Lutheran and Reformed Church in Prussia. Luther himself, like the great apostle of the gentiles, protested most decidedly against the use of his name as the Shibbolet of a sect, and it is to be regretted that his advice was disregarded."*

"The Lutheran Church in this country has, in common with that of the German Reformed, also been distinctively termed the German church. This designation must not be understood as implying the limitation of the worship of either of these churches to the German language. It is known to the intelligent reader, that in different countries the services of the Lutheran Church are conducted in the Swedish, the Norwegian, the Danish, the Icelandic, the Russian and the French, as well as in the English and German languages. Yet it is true, that as Germany was the cradle of the Reformation, she was also the primitive seat of that church, which grew out of the Reformation in the land of Luther. Germany is still the most extensive seat of Lutheranism. No other foreign country is therefore fraught with such interesting and hallowed associations to the great mass of American Lutherans as Germany, the mother of the Reformation, the cradle of Lutheranism, the land where our fathers proclaimed the gospel of salvation, where Spener sowed the seed of truth, where Arndt preached and wrote and lived his 'True Christianity,' where Franke wrought his works of love, and where believing Luther poured his prayer of faith into the lap of God! But it is not only to Lutheran minds that Germany is encircled with interesting associations. Although the populace are too little acquainted with the fact, yet what intelligent scholar does not know that the Germans constitute one of the most distinguished branches of the human family, and that at different periods throughout the two thousand years of their national history, they have excelled in all that is truly noble and praiseworthy in heathen virtue,

* Schmucker's Portraiture of Lutheranism, pp. 8, 9.

or interesting in the fruits of an enlightened and active Christian piety? Germany was originally inhabited by a heroic and martial people, whose origin is enveloped in some obscurity. Their language and religion point us to Asia. They certainly proceeded from the north of the Euxine Sea, and, known by the names of Scythians, Teutones, Franks, &c., overspread all western Europe. The English are, both as to language and population, in part descended from one of these German tribes, the Saxons, who at an early day conquered Britain and formed the Anglo-Saxon race, from whom a portion of our citizens are descended. When first visited by the Romans, about the time of our Saviour, the Germans had already for ages inhabited the country, and had lost all traces of their earliest history. Divided into many independent tribes, and often engaged in intestine wars, each tribe acknowledged no laws but those enacted by the majority at a general council. Far removed from the refinement and literary character of the Romans, they were alike free from their licentiousness and effeminacy. Hospitality and conjugal fidelity were prominent characteristics of the Germans; and a promise, given to friend or foe, they held inviolable, even at the risk of life. They cherished a firm belief of the immortality of the soul, and of future retribution. They were indeed polytheists, but their religion was of the sublimer cast. They neither bowed down to idols, nor worshipped in temples made with hands, but offered their devotions in open groves, under the broad canopy of heaven; for, says the Roman historian, they regarded their gods as too sacred and great to be confined in temples, or represented by idols of wood or stone."*

In the time of Julius Cæsar the Romans marked them out for conquest; but after repeated attempts to subdue them, they were defeated, and they relinquished the object about the thirteenth year of the Christian era. Subsequently, after numerous internal dissensions and external wars between their different tribes and the Romans, the latter, with the Saxons, under the Emperor Probus, succeeded in conquering the Franks and the Alemanni, two of the principal German nations, about A. D. 270. This conquest, however, the last of a political character which Rome achieved, was not permanent. In the fifth century, the Roman empire was assaulted on all sides by the northern and eastern barbarians, who rapidly spread their ravages and conquests over all Europe.

"Of the different tribes of this numerous family which overspread

* Schmucker's Portraiture, pp. 10, 11.

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all western Europe, those only retain the name of Germans, in modern history, who reside in the territory denominated Germany. Their martial spirit rendered difficult the introduction of Christianity among them, which was however effected, at least in name, successively among the different tribes, from the third to the eighth century. The forgiving and submissive spirit of the gospel gained a tardy victory over their warlike minds; as was strikingly illustrated in the instance of Clovis,* King of the Franks, a tribe that settled in Gaul. On one occasion, whilst Remigius was preaching to them, and depicting in glowing colours the sufferings of the Saviour when suspended on the cross, the king, no longer able to restrain his spirit, cried out in the midst of the congregation, Ah, if I had been there with my Franks, the Jews should not have crucified the Lord!" Unhappily the Christianity first introduced among them was strongly tinctured with the corruptions of Rome, and in the progress of ages, the Germans participated extensively in the increasing superstitions and degeneracy which reigned at the fountain head. But in the providence of God it was reserved for this heroic and undaunted people, to take the lead in breaking the bonds by which Europe had for ages been held in subjection. Whilst,' says the distinguished Lutheran historian, Dr. Mosheim, the Roman pontiff slumbered in security at the head of the church, and saw nothing throughout the vast extent of his dominion but tranquillity and submission, and while the worthy and pious professors of genuine Christianity almost despaired of seeing that reformation, on which their ardent desires and expectations were bent: an obscure and inconsiderable person arose, on a sudden, in the year 1517, and laid the foundation of this longexpected change, by opposing with undaunted resolution his single force to the torrent of Papal ambition and despotism. This remarkable man was Martin Luther, of Eisleben, in Saxony,† an Augustinian monk, and professor of theology in the university which had been erected at Wittenberg a few years before.' It was this interesting people, after they had thrown off the yoke of Rome, and, through the instrumentality of their countryman Luther and others, received the pure and unadulterated word of God, that constituted themselves a reformed, an evangelical church, which has been denominated Lutheran."

"In the year 1507, at the age of twenty-four years, in the seclusion of monastic life, Luther, by what we call accident, but, in reality, by

* Clovis belonged to the German, Salian tribe; Henke, vol. i. p. 387. + Mosheim, vol. iii. p. 25.

+ Schmucker's Portraiture, pp. 12–14.

the ordering of Him whose empire is universal, found among the musty tomes of the convent library a long-neglected Latin Bible. This immediately became his daily counsellor. The light of inspired truth soon disclosed to him the errors and deficiency of the Romish creed, even before he could plainly discern the more excellent way. His attainments placed him, the following year, in a situation which compelled him to acquire a knowledge of the Hebrew language. In the year 1517, while engaged in the performance of his duties of a professor and ecclesiastic, particularly at the confessional, he discovered the influence of Rome's corrupt system of indulgences. He refused absolution to those who pleaded them as a substitute for penance. This of course led them to complain to the friar from whom they had procured them. A violent controversy ensued between the friar and Luther, which ultimately brought the Reformer to an open rupture with the See of Rome. At two of the principal universities, as well as at the Papal court, the indignation of the church was expressed by a public conflagration of his published writings. And in return, Luther, after previous notice, and in the presence of an immense concourse of spectators, committed the authoritative books of the Roman hierarchy, together with the condemnatory bull of the pontiff, to the flames. The Papal bull was renewed, accompanied by a sentence of excommunication; but its reception served only to show its diminished power against the advancing public sentiment. Recourse was now had to the civil authorities; and the assembled princes and nobles of Germany were urged to bring the Reformer to their bar for trial. A summons was issued accordingly; and Luther, notwithstanding the remonstrance of influential and powerful friends, fearlessly placed himself at their tribunal. Here again the public sympathies were with him. His reception was marked with a higher degree of enthusiastic attention and favour, than that of the emperor himself. When confronted with his prosecutors, he respectfully but firmly maintained the stand he had taken; avowed himself the author of the writings which bore his name; boldly vindicated the truth of his opinions; and refused to recant, unless convinced and refuted from the scriptures themselves. He left the council unmolested, but was followed by a royal edict of condemnation. And though placed for a time in confinement for his security, by the hand of friendship, he did not cease his labours to expose and refute the corruptions and heresies of Papal Rome, and in defence of the doctrines which he had espoused and promulgated. In the mean time, almost every city of Saxony embraced his doctrines, and the principles of the Reformation spread and prevailed. On his return to Wittenberg, the place of his resi