The Irish standard., 1917-12-29

emphasis that has been placed on the
personal immoralities of Martin Lu
Their and rightly says that if a church
is to be judged by the personal life
OF one member, however high his DO
sition, no single religion could stand
The gentleman is correct in his ar
gument but hardly in his comparison
Martin Luther was not merely a prom
lnent leader of his church. He was
its founder. He did not act on the
| assumption that he was a duly accred.
! tied and enthusiastically recognized
leader but that he enjoyed a particu-
| lar and personal commission, given to
him directly by Almighty God; he was
chosen vessel. One would rightly
expect to find virtue Of an eXtraord-
mary character in such a man. There
lies the real objection to the bias
phemous assumptions of Luther. We
are perfectly willing to eliminate all
consideration of Martin Luther's per-
sonal character. The charge that we
immortality of his private life as the
positive immortality of his gospel.
1t may seem harsh and even OK
aggerated statement to attribute pres
ent day immortality solely to the teach
ings Of Luther. We do not mean that
more men are personally immoral
than were prior to the apostasy of
Luther. Before his day there were sin
ners, many of them great sinners, in
all stations of life. Some repented;
some wallowed in their sins; no
doubt many died impenitcnt and are
now in hell. But all who protested to
be Christians, saints and sinners alike,
were of one opinion-that there was a
moral law which the sinner had vio-
lated. No one questioned the force
of the Divine command, Thou shalt
not, though some refused to heed ii.
None made excuse for his immortality.
Sin was committed in defiance of God,
because men made Il free choice be-
tween their passions and the laws of
God. In our day immortality is excused
and condOned by the claims that the
prOmptings OF our animal nature are
irresistible. 1t may be going a little
too far to say that the moral law is
denied altogether, but it may he truth
fully said that its universal binding
force is openly denied. The double
standard of morals is discussed as
seriously as if a double standard act
ually existed. Morals are considered
mere conventionalitics. and to sin is
only to be unconventional. One who
is in a social position to be unconven-
tional may be immoral with impunity
These opinions and ideas which char
acterze the immortality of the present
day are found in the teachings of Mar
tin Luther, many of them only in their
germ, but many in their full growth,
and put into practical effect by Mar
tin Luther himself
We have space to quote only few
extracts from the authenticated writ
ings of Luther. They are sufficient
to make good our charge that Luther
taught positive immortality. In the
second of L,lther's Reform Pamphlets
con the Babylonian Captivity of the
published in October 1920,
he attacks the Sacramento character
Of marriage. He makes several d.
gressions, in one of which is the
proposal that woman mar
ried to an impotent man may be al
lowed to cOhabit with another In
this work, as in several others. Luther
does not seem to favor divorce, but
he says: 81 SO detest divorce that
prefer bigamy but whether divorce is
ever allowed or not | dare not say"
In his liable Talks" we find Martin
Luther on several occasions defending
bigamy. That he was serious in his
opinion on the morality of bigamy is
proven from the fact that he advised
two sovereigns to take second wives
In the Address to the German No
bility' delivered in August, 1920, Lu-
Their opposes the cclbacy of the cler-
gy, taking the position that it is i'm
possible for man to live a chaste
celibate life. The principals in recent
affinity cases use almost
the identical words of Luther in re-
referring to illicit unions: 81 advise
marry or not, as he chooses. Those
who live together as husband and wife
are surely married before God. Cath
Ole Register, Kansas City
BUSINESS WAS DULL.