Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1921-04-27
How LutheranS In
New York City Cele-
brated the Anniversary

brated the Anniversary
| New York, April Is, 1921-That the
American Constitution is direct result
of Martin Luthers words and works.
before the Imperial Diet at Worms 400
years ago, was the statement made
yesterday afternoon (Sunday, April
17th) by Rev. Abdel Ross Wentz, PHI
D., Professor Church history at Gettys-
burg Theological Seminary before a.
large mass meeting of Lutherans in the
Hippodrome, New York City. Dr.
Wentz further declared:
"The Declaration Of Independence isl
as old as the race. It was hoary with
age long before our Liberty Bell was
cast in it's mold, long before Martin
Luther ever wrote a thesis or Christ
opher Columbus ever sailed ship
The spirit of freedom is like hope; it i
springs eternal in the human breast.
And every succeeding moment of time
some miniature Statute of Liberty is j
| erected in some newly emancipated
heart
! "But in the course of human events
there have been several outstanding in
cldents and several heroic personali-
!
birth of freedom for wide circles of
people and for long ages. of time Such !
an event was the Diet of Worms, four
hundred years ago today and such a |
towering personality was Martin Luz
Their. the herald of modern liberty, both !
religious and secular, Is,
| '"The Protestant Reformation was
the important movement in history
| hn low Of
Luthers appearance before the imper-
ial Diet at Worms in 1921 was the most
dramatic scene and the most memoir
able event in human history since the
Son of. Man Himself appeared before
the representatives of the Caesar in his
day and received the sentence of death
on his sacred head"
After briefly tracing the events lead
ing up to the crisis before the Diet in
1921 Professor Wentz further remark
ed:
Before the Diet met at Worms there
/ was combination of authority that
everyone thought to be immovable.
But since that Diet we all know tina t
| there is force in the world that is
absolutely irresistible it is the trinity
Of Scripture, Conscience and Reason.
i In Martin Luther that irresistible force
found mouthpiece and at Worms it
spoke the word that dissipated forever
| that old trinity of medieval stagna-
ton and called the Modern World into
being.
''Hellceforth religion is no longer a
tedious and fearsome complex of ex-
ternal means and mediatOrs, binding
the piety OF the believer to acts and
! ceremonies. places and buildings. Gus
toms and formulas, doctrines and in
| situations. and threatening to suffocate
| the life Of faith beneath the weight Of
| it's ancient trappings.
I'm the Diet of Worms Luther con-
tended for two principles that have
been vitality helpful in creating the
! modern theory of state. One is the
right Of the individual citizen, and the
other is the separation of Church and
State OF course many generations
were wrought out in practice and en-
bodied in the Written constitutions Of
! States
'"The Declaration in 1776 was Only.|
f, the echo Of the Declaration in 1921 and
! the re-echo of the Declaration in the
), life of Christ. ~
1T is not too much therefore to say
! that the spirit of modern liberty was
| conceived in the first quarter of the
sixteenth century in the rugged soul of
a medieval monk in Germany, was
born in the last quarter of the
eighteenth century on the Atlantic Sea-
board of the North American continent,
and today in the first quarter of the
twentieth century is coming to full ma
turity all over the world.
DR.. John A. MOrehead, European
Commissioner of the National Lutheran
Council, spoke on "The Eastern Front
describing the conditions in. East Cen
trail Europe, and pleading for larger
and more continued interest on the
part Of the American Lutheran church
in behalf of the needs of fellow-believ-
ers in Europe. He said:
Being nearer to America geopraph-
ically, the Western Front has received
at least it's full share of consideration
in the thought of America, No doubt
the destruction suffered in Belgium and
France through the hand Of war was
in total greater than is any other part
Of Europe Of the same limits of terri
tory. The work of relief and recon
Istruction having begun more promptly
here in the stronger nations Of France,
Belgium and Germany, the need Of
philanthropic work is gradually de-
creasing, although for some years con-
tinued cooperation will be needed.
i However,, the American public has
heard far less Of the Eastern Front,
that long line extending from Finland
on the north down through the Baltic
1 Provinces and Poland to the Ukraine.
on the south, where like ruthless de-
Instruction has been suffered. The most
successful point Of view from which at
4 the present moment truly to estimate
7 the claims for European relief and re-