Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-10-03

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different crackers and cheese of the
cross-road store, or the uncertain
plumber of the country spring house
ADDITIONAL LOC.4LS.
Communication from Main Street,
MIFFLISrowS, Pa, Sept. 9th, 1888.
| The Lutheran Synod that met in this towr
| this week, WAS in high feather, and why
shouldn't I all Lutherans be in high feather
in this the 4th Centennial year of the greal
reformerl 1t will be 400 years at /
O'Clock in the evening of the 10th day oi
! November, 1893, since Martin Luther was
born at Eisleben, in Germany. Fourteen
hundred years previous to that eventful pc
| Rod, Christ had come and proclaimed TO a
| lost and ruined world, that obedience Ia
Gods will, and belief in Christ and the
resurrection and the life to come, were the
things Of great price for this aud all future
time. Christ's own people, the Jews re-
jected him, and the orthodox church OF
| that people had him executed on the cross.
| Fontius Plate was almost ready to sccep!
! him as correct in his teaching, on the day
| of his trial when he declared TO the Jews,
81 find in him no iault at ALL" Doubtless
the Romans would have accepted the doc
trine of the resurrection and the life ia
come through Christ long before they did
/ if the Jews had not constantly put forward
/ the thought that the Christians intended to
I set up kingship to overthrow the Roman
government. But with all the hindering
1 causes in the way, Rome adopted Chris
tianity in 324, A d. From that time to
| Luther, was 1859 years, au ample period OF
time TO change the Christian religion into
some other system OF religion. The way
! to the future happy state was no longer an
easily comprehended faith in Christ. In its
stead was a system of religion with the
Pope and Priest, standing in the way be-
tween God and heaven, and man. The
| Pope and Priests, with their machinery OF
church government controlled all Europe.
/ There had been reformers but their points
of doctrine were not clear enough to enlist
the people against the perverted Christian
/ ity of the Roman church. Calvin came
/ about the time of Luther, but if il had not
been for Lutheranism, Calvinism would
have fallen, still born among the people of
Europe as n reform doctrine against Roman
Catholic Christianity. With due respect
for Calvin and his teaching, what was there
| in his central point of doctrine to use as an
instrument against Rome What was
there to move the people against Rome, in
the doctrine
ssThat God hath chosen unto eternal
glory a certain number of the fallen race of
! ADAM"
The Calvinis.s might have preached that
doctrine from the days of Calvin 20 this
day, and Roman Christianity would still be
ruling Europe, and America would be under
a government ruled by kings and princes
and priestcraft instead of under Republi-
can form of government. Admit if you
please, that every word that Calvin dcclar-
ed in his doctrine is true, there still was
nothing in it to undo the grip that Rome
held on the church and state of Europe. 1t
was different with Luther. When he nail
ed his doctrine on the door of the church
at wittenbcrg, on the 3lst day of October,
l5I7, everybody understood it. at was
justification by faith in our Lord Jesus
Christi The people understood him when
he proclaimed it, that Pope or Priest could
not stand between God and man to con-
denim or save him. When he taught, be-
lieve in God and Christ, and obey, they un-
derstood. They understood that was not
Popery and Priestcraft. The Germans un-
derstood Luther. People of other tongues
understood him, and proclaimed themselves
as against the temporal and spiritual pre-
tensions of the Pope and Priests. Many
of Luthcr's friends were in favor OF a resort
to war TO break the power of Roman
Christianity. But he relied on the preach
antagonisms that the clear teachings OF
Luther awakened all the different shades OF
opposition to Rome combined, under the
name of Professionalism. l: was the begin
ming of new and better civilization with
Lutheranism, and the Germans at its head
Rome said crush 1t, and in 1913, the work
of closing and destroying the churches OF
the German reformers was begun. The
Protestants had recourse to arms and thus
began the so years war. In 1880, the Luth-
eran King, Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden,
came to the rescue and turned the tide OF
the struggle. In l6iS, the war came to an
end with the Catholic power broken. Out
of that Lutheran fight has come liberty OF
conscience, individual freedom and the
present modern civilization. De you Won
der, that the Lutheran preachers of the
goth session of the Lutheran Synod of Gen.
trail Pennsylvania, that convened here yes
terday have satisfactory look about them
do not. The wonder to me is that they
do not blow their own horn. They have
the religious pedigree on which to talk. II
the New England Christians, or the Con-
gregationalists, or the Presbyterians, or
the Meihodists had such Il record they
would talk about il every Sunday | was