Ashur. You shall have no rest from my name until you better yourselves or go to wreck."* Luther did use hard words against the pope and his clergy, but to be just and fair in our judgment we should never forget what Melancthon says: "The malady of the age required so sharp a physician." What wise general would take a shotgun to assail a fort of a thousand years building? Only by the heaviest kind of cannonading could the stronghold of Rome be broken.

On the other hand, Luther preached the Gospel of salvation. by grace most freely. For a quarter of a century I have studied Luther's works, comprising twenty-four large quarto volumes, ' extensively, and I must testify that I know of no man in old time or new who could speak so lovingly, kindly, comfortingly with troubled and disconsolate hearts as Dr. Martin Luther. I have never found another book, besides the Bible, in which the streams of free grace flowed so abundantly, as in Luther's sermons and commentaries. Samples of his writings I have off and on read from the pulpit. Let me to-day transcribe what another man of God, who for a number of years had to swelter in the oven of spiritual temptations, says of one of Luther's commentaries. It is John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress. In his book "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners" Bunyan writes:

"God in whose hands are all our days and ways, did cast into my hands, one day, a book of Martin Luther's; it was his comment on the Galatians; it also was so old, that it was ready to fall from piece to piece if I did but turn it over. Now I was pleased much that such an old book had fallen into my hands, the which when I had but a little way perused, I found my condition in his experience, so largely and profoundly handled, as if his book had been written out of my heart. Besides, he doth most gravely in that book, debate of the rise of these temptations, namely, blasphemy, desperation, and the like; shewing that the law of Moses, as well as the devil, death, and hell, hath a very great hand therein; the which at first, was very strange to me, but considering and watching, I found

*See: Exhortation to the Clergy convened at Augsburg anno 1530, § 76.

it so indeed. But of particulars here I intend nothing; only this methinks I must let fall before all men, I do prefer this book of Martin Luther upon the Galatians (excepting the holy Bible) before all the books that ever I have seen, as most fit for a wounded conscience."

Luther knew how to comfort an afflicted heart, because he had himself experienced the siftings of Satan in so high a measure. It is a true picture of Luther when he is repres ented as a lusty knight dealing heavy blows on an iron gate, but it is even a truer picture of him when the poet describes him as the "Nightingale of Wittenberg."

The

And of what else did he sing but the forgiveness of sin in Jesus Christ. Virtually the controversy between him and the pope was the same as between John and the Pharisees. pope put people to work, to work their way into the kingdom, but Luther pointed to Christ, and cried out: This is the Door which the Father hath set in the world that sinners should enter in. Behold the entrance is free; come one, come all. O give hecd to the words of the Lord at the end of this text saying: "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Have you heard the Gospel which Luther brought to light again? Have you heard it with the ears of the heart, and have you laid hold on the promise in Jesus Christ? If not yet, O then do it to-day. Let neither sin nor morality prevent you to embrace Christ and to say: Thou, and Thou alone art the Door; by Thee I will enter in, and Thou shalt bring me unto the Father. AMEN.

MISSION FESTIVAL.

TEXT: Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leaven.Matt. 13, 31-33.

A prominent characteristic of the Christian Church at the present time is zeal for missions, a zeal which is manifest in all parts of Christendom, and a zeal greater than it had been known among Christians for many centuries. The time when zeal for missions, that is zeal for the conversion of the unbelievers, was greatest, were the days of the apostles and in general the three first centuries of the Christian era. Even before John, the last of the apostles, had closed his eyes in death, Christian congregations were scattered over the Roman provinces from Babylon to the extreme west of Europe. This rapid spread of the Gospel was promoted by the fact that almost the whole civilized world was united in one vast empire, which had only two acknowledged languages, the Greek and the Latin. But the chief cause for the quick spread of Christianity was the zeal of the apostolic Christians for the conversion of the heathen. Every one of them counted himself a missionary, and did active mission work among his relatives, friends and neighbors.

When the Roman empire had become Christianized, or rather when Christianity had become the state religion, the zeal for missions soon began to flag, only the Christians in Syria and Persia continued very active and carried the Gospel to India, Tartary and China. In the seventh and eighth centuries the Western or Roman Church again put forth greater activity for the conversion of the heathen. In these and the following

centuries the Anglo-Saxons, Germans and Scandinavians were won for Christianity.

Under the rule of popery the interest of the Christian Church for missions became less and less, until it had almost entirely died out. The popes and prelates showed far greater eal in persecuting the true followers of Christ than in converting the heathen. In the centuries which we are accustomed to call the Dark Ages, heathenism in fact greatly encroached on Christianity, because heathenish ignorance spread over Christendom, and the saints with their images and relics were worshipped with the Christians similar as the idols with the heathen. Finally God had compassion on His poor, oppressed and downtrodden Church and in the sixteenth century He awakened Martin Luther who again began to teach and to preach the old, apostolic doctrine, and by his labors the reformation of the Church was brought about.

But in the time of the reformation no missionaries were sent to heathen lands by the Protestants. This is in no way surprising, because the cleansing of the Church at home required their whole attention, and in the terrible wars which followed after the reformation the opulence of Germany and other Protestant countries was so thoroughly ruined that the very means to send out missionaries would have been lacking. But where the light of the Gospel shines, it will create a desire for mission work. When the nations of northern Europe had somewhat recuperated from the ravages of the thirty years' war, they began to turn their attention to missions in foreign lands. In the year 1705, the first Lutheran mission in East India, the first of all Protestant missions, was started under the auspices of Frederick IV., king of Denmark. Since that time the interest for missions, both domestic and foreign, has been steadily growing, and now many millions of dollars are annually spent for missions. It is true that this zeal is not always of the right kind, yet it is a zeal for the spreading of Christianity, and as it was a pious Lutheran monarch who sent the first Protestant missionary to the heathen, we Lutherans should certainly be marching in the front ranks in the prosecution of this precious

work. There is a vast and promising field for home missions open to our Church, and the voice of Lutheran missionaries ought to be heard in every heathen land. To promote a lively interest in us for this blessed work let me to-day speak on the question:

WHY SHOULD CHRISTIANS CHEERFULLY CONTRIBUTE TOWARD THE SUPPORT OF MISSIONS?

From the text read we gather the twofold answer:

I. Because it is the Nature of Christ's Kingdom to expand and to enlarge its Bounds; and

II. Because Missions in the Distance are a Blessing to the Church at Home.

I.

The two parables contained in our text both refer to the growth of the kingdom of God, but in different ways. The first, the parable of the mustard seed, describes the outward growth of the Church. The Gospel of Christ conquers heart after heart, invades city after city, and nation after nation, and so the Church is continually spreading abroad over the face of the earth. The second, the parable of the leaven, refers more to the growth of the inner man in the individual Christian, and hence also to the growth of spiritual life in any local church or congregation. Purposely did I read both parables together. The first is this:

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The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."

If we place a grain of corn and a mustard seed side by side it shows what a diminutive little thing the mustard seed is, and judging by the size of both grains one would think that the grain of corn would produce a plant many times larger than the mustard seed. But in fact it is not so. All things being favorable, the mustard seed will bring forth a plant taller than a tall man, and it will put out branches and will spread like a