Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-12-03

pretation-differing from Luther's-and back
of the church, ''from which, he
wrote, ''we have received t'e Scriptures
with the principle which they all adopted, each
ore prepared a creed, the result of his own read
ing, and sought to impose it upon his followers;
each one provided for his sect ministry whose
Office was to be to interpret the Bible for the
people.
The principle of private Interpretation de-
stroys ell dogmatic faith. The principles of
the servitude of the will, of the total depravity
of fallen man and Of justification by faith alone
annihilate morality.
sERvITUDE OF THE WILL.
Luther wrote whole book-De Servo Arbi-
trixor-or Slave Will. This is the doctrine he
advocates Since Adams fall human nature is
totally depraved. ALI spiritual insight, all
power in spiritual things is totally lost Man
is all sin. The infant in the mothers womb is
of sin; the child grows into manhood,
the innate element of corruption increases, be-
comes developed and bears fruit and the fruit is
all sin and every act man GOES is a
sin. An evil tree bears necessarily bad
fruit, dunghill exhales necessarily infectious
odors. The act outwardly may appear good; it
is Sin. Unregeperate man is altogether wicked
before God, although he were decked up and
trimmed with all the virtues of the heather
and had all their works What doctrine of
despair 1t blasts all the beauty OF human life
it blasts all hope and love in the human
heart. Furthermore, according to Lu-
ther, all liberty for good is
lost to man. There is in him
no free will for good or evil. If heper forms
an act morally good or evil, it is not by his own
will, for he has none, but because God or the
devil guides him. ''Do not speak to me,'' he
says, ''of free will. To investaman with it is to
invest him with divinity He compares man
to a horse in the doing of works. ''Does God
leap into the saddle? The horse is OBJ dent, ac-
commodities itself to every movement of the
rider, goes whittier he wills it. Does God
throw down the reins? The devil leaps upon
the back of the animal, which bends, goes, SUBJ
mits to the Ca prices of the new rider.' ssThe
will cannot choose its rider. 1t must get on,
and its very docility is disobedience or sin.''
In his Leipsic desputation with Eek, Luther
compared man to saw that passively lets it
| self be moved in the hand of the workman.
Melanchton drew the full inference from those
| words, sand made God the author of good and
| evil which happens here below, OF David's sin
or the treacherY of Judas as well as of Paul's
| apostleship," although afterwards in the Augs-
burg compromise he sought to soften his teach
ing. Luthers fatalism puts an end in men to
all efforts to struggle against their passions, and
when resistance to temptation ceases the bar
| riers against vice in whatever form are broken
| down.
The doctrine of justification by faith follows
from that on total depraEity and slave
will. Man born corrupt remains corrupt. He
is never purified. Christ simply throws over
the sinner the mantle of his own justice which
| but covers the hideous mass. This mantle of
Christ is brought down by faith alone, not that
faith which is an of the intellect to revealed
| truths, but faith which means the certain conf
| dence that God has justified us. Luther's dec
larations on Qualifications by faith alone with
out good works are brutal In his book ssThe
Captivity of the hurch in Babylon he says:
THUS you should see how rich the Christian
man is who cannot lose his salvation, o en- when
he would by all manner of sins, excepting al
ways that he refuses 10 believe, for with the ex-
ceptiQns of sins against fail h, nothing can lose
the gates of heaven against him." he wrote to
Melanchton ''Ba sinner and SIN boldly, still
believe and rejoice in Christ. Sin is our lot
here below. 1t is sufficient that by the riches
OF Gods glory may know the lamb who
takes away the sins of the world. Sin cannot
deprive of him, even If in the same day we
were to commit thousand murders or a thou
sand adulteries.'' In his able Talk 10 Bohn's
extracts, we read: ''Some one may say, the
sins which we daily commit offend and anger
God; how then can we be holy? Answer: A
mothers love to her child is stronger than the
dlstaste of the scurf upon the child's head. Even
SO Gods love towards us is far stronger than
ners, yet we lose not thereby our childhood,
neither do we fall from grace
by reason of our sins.'' Accord
ing to this teaching, if we but have faith,
our works. good or bad, matter not. Why then,
be troubled by our sins? Why make efforts to
pray, to give aims, to do works of any kind, il
whatever We do, or do not do, Gods love still
envelopes us: Luther's doctrine is the death
kneu to virtue; to moral self-improvement, to
all aspirat.ons to better and holier life. I am
aware that at times Luther sought to obviate
the fearful consequences of his teaching upon
practical morals and asserted that good works
would follow from faith. His teaching re
mained that alone was the justfying principle il
man, that faith was all man had to regard
Since with it Christ's love was bestowed upon
him good works we're left to follow of themseIve.
from faith and if they did not, faith still JUST
fed him. HIS constant doctrine was that NJ
evil acts would destroy Gods love for us, Do1
would good acts make US dearer to m, o.
, place us higher in heaven. A long life friend o.
Luther, Won Amsdorf, wrote work to prov,
, that good works were even hurtfui t, salvation
Now Luthers doctrines on justification by faitl
bore fruit among his immediste disciples il
CO..,