El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-10-30

OF St. PauTs words flashed through his
mind. He grasped il completely. With
divine clearuess and certainty it was
now written in his soul that the right
eOusness Of God which Paul so often
mentions in his letters was the right
ccusness Of Christ which God reclzons
unto righteousness unto all who be-
Ieve- In Wittenberg he continued IN
tiringlv his Investigations. and found,
TO his unspeakable JOY. the newly dis
covered truth confirmed in the Bible
Then" he says. the entire scriptures,
yea heaven itself were opened unto me
] felt as though born again Il seemed
10 me as If I had found the portals
OF heaven wide open And as I had be
fore hated the word righteousness OF
Cod so so I now began TO esteem IL
very highly as the most sacred and
comforting of all words This pas
sage in St Paul was now unto me
verita0le gate Of heaven"
Ged became Desirable.
God had by faith. become TO him an
~Objectum amsbie.' exceedingly desir-
able. while previously he had been har-
boring a feeling Of enmity against him,
as We can readily recognize from the
words which before his conversion he
spoke TO his cOufessor- our God deals
abominably with people. Who can
serve him while he strikes about him
self in this fashion Nobody eXper-
fenced more cOnvincingly than Luther
the truth Of the word by the works
OF the law shall no flesh be justified"
He so very earnestly endeavored 10
1ultil the laws demands that he could
uruthfuly say OF himself. IF ever man
reached heaven by his own works. 7
should have also reached IL by that
route" He took all the legalistic re-
Quirements murde-Ously serious. BY
watching, fasting, praying and other
almost to death Once his friends.
missing him. broke into his room. and
found him unconscious To satisfy the
demands Of the church and Of his own
conscience, he so afflicted himself that
he suffered from insomnia for a period
or i've weeks, and came near the verge
OF insanity Peace entered his soul
the wonderful peace OF God. only with
the comprehension OF the central truth
OF the scriptures that a man is justi-
fled for Christ's sake. by faith. without
the deeds of the law
Living Faith.
Luther's faith was a faith which
worked. a living faith The reforma-
ton was the great fruit Of his faith
lie undertook this great work and
carried IL through in the strength OF
an Elijah. After his conversion he
taught the scriptures more enthustas-
ucally and efficiently than ever. , He
was formally created a doctor of holy
writ, and on that occasion he made
oath that he would follow the Bible
alone and combat everything contrary
thereto Unconsciously he had thereby
assumed an attitude Of irreconciIable
opposition to the powers which then
were He did. however, not come into
general publicity. until TetZel by the
authority and the sanction Of a great
church dignitary. sold certificates OF
IorglF eness OF sins for money and a
good price This commodity proved to
be very good seller Even some of
iutherS practitioners bought such GER
ttflcates, and on the streugt Of them
declared that they had no need for
repentance. and would not repenr
Luther. for conscience sake. could not
let such fraud 90 unchallenged and
unopposed- He drew up % theses in
which he attacked the abuse, and layed
down the scriptural teachings on the
points involved His sentences spread
like Wildfire Throughout Germany. and
within a few weeks were known
abroad Everywhere they were talked
about When the pious monk. DIT.
I Ieck' read them. he exclaimed joy
Iuly- He viii do it He has arrived
for whom we have so long waited"
But famous doctor I'm Hamburg took
a different view. saying, Go into your
cell good brother. and pray; lord
have mercy on me
No Ambition.
When Luther struck at the heart of
papal domination he was actuated by
no mean or fleshly motives. How little
ambition drew him into the struggle
we can Judge from MS own words
Who was 7 q poor and lowly brother.
resembling at the time a corpse more
than q human being. that I should op-
pose the majesty Of the pope. before
whom not only kings and the whole
earth Guaked. but so to speak heaven
and hell itself on whose nod all things
depended What my heart endured and
suffered that first and second year. in
what sort Of humility. should like to
say despair 7 then lived. Of this alas;
the proud spirits know little who after
wards attacked the pope's majesty
with such great pride and imupdence."
He believed, therefore he spoke. Like
the APOSTLES. he could not but speak
the things which he had seen and
heard.
Loved Bible.
Luther was a great lover Of the
Bible. He studied 1t night and day.
He labOred TO have il read and owned
by the common people. He therefore
translated it into the language of the Z
common people, and took infinite pains
in doing so. Great difficulties cost !
him much nerspiratiou- He in some
cases thought for weeks how TO render
in good German Luther's version. a
single word is in general use to this
day and has so far not found a rival !
in the German language Luther also I
wrote a small cctcchism. n brief eN-
position OF the fundamentals Of Christ
ian doctrine. which the Lutheran