Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-31
LUTHERAN OBSERVANCE
LOCAL CHURCH CELEBRATES
FEAST OF REFORMATION.
DR.. Butler breaches Special Sermon
DR.. Heffelbower Speaks-Rededi-
cation Exercises Postponed.

In whatever part of the world where
there is Lutheran church or society their
members united yesterday in celebrating
the feast of the reformation, which is re-
garded as most imp ortant event in that
pioneer Protestant denomination At the
District churches there were large congre-
cations at both forenoon and evening serv-
ices. The ministers generally devoted their
sermons to an historical review of the
causes which led up to the Protestant
reformation of the sixteenth century. The
life and teachings of Martin Luther were
also discussed, and the effects of the prin-
ciples of Professionalism upon civil and re-
ligious freedom were expounded
Justification by Faith" was the subject
or sermon by Rev. j. G. Butler at the
Luther Place Memorial Church. He spoke
of Luther the ''liberator of modern
thought" and of Protestant Christianity as
, the 'outgrowth of Luther's work. 1T is
not only Lutherans who celebrate this
day. he declared, but the Protestant
world marks it the birthday of Prot
estantism
The Work of Luther.
But for the work of Luther, the Ameri-
can republic had not been born. Thomas
Carlyle said: The whole world and it's
history was waiting for this man. There
was born here once more a Mighty Man,
all centuries and epochs of the world. What
were all popes emperors and potentates in
comparison"
DIR. Butler asserted that the culmina ting
point of the reformation was the Diet at
Worms, April II. 1921 "Of this Carlyle
said that Luther's appearance there may
be consider ed the greatest scene in modern
European history; the point, indeed, from
which the whole subsequent history of civil
lization takes it's rise. The worlds pomp
and power sit there on one hand on the
other stands IN for Gods truth one man,
the poor miner, Hans Luther's son. Our
petit1on-the petition of the whole world
to him was: Free us; ii rests with thee;
desert us not. Luther did not desert us. 1t
Is, as we say the greatest moment in the
modern history Of men-EngliSh, Puritan
ism: England and its parliaments Amer-
cas- vast work these two centuries: French
revolution; Europe and its work everywhere
at present-the germ of it all lay there.
Had Luther in that moment done other it
had all been otherwise
Was Not Infallible.
Luther was not infallible, and the
church of Luther today, in it's purest form,
stands for progressive, twentieth century
Christianity in contradistincton to nom
progressive sixteenth and seventeenth CEN
fury dogmatism."
Continuing, DR.. Butler spoke Of the inf1u-
ence of the reformation in "liberalizing the
Roman Catholic Church of our own coun-
try, multitudes of whose people are among
our best American citizens. While the old
church is not the friend of our public school
system, yet thousands of her children are
being educated for coming citizenship side
by side with our American children" he
quoted from Archbishop Elder, as reported
in the Outlook Magazine. who, he said, de-
clared that 1t is 1.-The doctrine Of the church
that to attend non-Catholic school constl-
tutes usually grave and permanent DAN
ger to the faith, and that therefore it is
81 cir, nr1y no
children to such schools except where there
Is no other or suitable school, and unless
such precautions are taken as to make the
danger remote" The archbishop says.
stated DIR. Butler, that the decision as to
whether parents shall send their children to
non-Catholic schools or not rests not with
the parents, but with the bishops
In places where there is a Catholic School
1t Is declared to be mortal sin for parents
to send their children to non-Catholic
school, and confessors are forbidden to give
dissolution to parents who, without permits
sion of the archbishop, send their chldren
to nom Catholic schools.
Rehabilitation Exercises.
In conclusion DIR. Butler stated that the
rededication of the Memorial Church, which
was to have taken place November 70, would
be necessarily deferred until the first Sun
day In December. The feast of rededica-
ton, he added. will continue several days.
An historical sermon was preached by
Dr. j. S. Heffelbower at the forenoon serv-
ice yesterday at ST. Pauis evangelical
Lutheran Church. The speaker is president
of the Gettysburg College, and preceding
his sermon he stated that Gettysburg Col
lege had supplied the Evangelical Lutheran
Church with more clergymen than any
other school in the United States. He COM
planned that the school had been in the past
poorly patronized by the Evangelical Luth-
eran Church of the District of Columbia,
and stated that the names of Gettysburg
College alumnae could be found in the list
of professors in the catalogues of nearly
all the larger educational institutions of
the east. DIR. Heffebower cited this fact
as proof of the practical work accomplished
by that institution. He made a special plea
for patronage of the college on the ground
that the institution served to keep the young
men who attend it within the Evangelical
I lutheran Church