Saturday, January 31, 2015

A P.S. to Preceding Post




        Just happened to recall some thrilling words in a book I got from the Farragut Public Library that are causing me to pray more for this Cause of ours.  I immediately thought of Jesus' declaration, "Without me, ye can do nothing."  (John 15:5)

        "One of the principles most firmly maintained by Luther was that there should be  no resort to secular power in support of the Reformation.  He declared that 'doctrine of the gospel should be defended by God alone.  The less man meddled in the work, the more striking would be God's intervention in its behalf.'"

       "During the struggle at Augsburg, Luther did not pass a day without devoting three hours at least to prayer.  In the privacy of his chamber he was heard to pour out his heart before God in words 'full of adoration, reverence, and hope, as when one speaks to a friend  'I know that thou art our Father and our God' he said, 'and that Thou wilt scatter the persecutors of Thy children:  for all this matter is Thine, and it is only by Thy constraint that we have put our hands to it.  Defend us, then, O Father!'"

        "To Melanchton, who was crushed under the burden of anxiety and fear, he wrote:  'Grace and peace in Christ--in Christ, I say, and not in the world.  Amen.  I hate with exceeding hatred those extreme cares which consume you.  If the cause is unjust, abandon it; if the cause is just, why should we belie the promises of Him who commands us to sleep without fear?  Christ will not be wanting to the work of justice and truth.  He lives.  He reigns: what fear, then, can we have?'"