Page 76 {German Writing} Page 77 {German Writing} Page 78 {German Writing} The best thing we got out of the war was getting out of the war. They hatched in secret a treaty of alliance which morally binds the country to go to war whenever the "rights of either of the high contracting parties in the Pacific are threatened." It was his one overmastering object in life. Page 79 "Lighted to Lighten" The love-gifts of the Father and the son. They are the "profiteers", the "shovers" {German Writing}, as the expressive German phrase goes. They profit by the dire necessity of their fellow men. The Serb and the Bulgar still nourish their old animosities. The legend of the Kaiser's guilt is the corner stone of the whole towering structure of lies. The wrath of a disillusioned people will take vengeance on the political tricksters who deluged the world in blood. There are forces at work which would de-Americanize America. Page 80 These truths have been woven in the warp and woof of our social, economical and political fabric. The poisonous virus of foreign propaganda which picks to belittle illustrious American patriots. It proved to be a hydra-headed monster. Alas, it was a jump from the morass to the mire. We are not too proud to fight, neither are we too cowardly to fight. America must and shall stand first, now and for all time, second to none, subservient to none, stalwart and alone against the world! Page 81 Britain wishes to be exalted to world leadership, while America trails behind like one of the colonies. A little group today has the country in its thrall. Mr. H asked us to make a treaty with the treaty-breakers of Versailles. Mr. Wilson's slogan apparently was: America last. Mr. Hughes's seems to be: America second. Our slogan is and must be: America first, last and always. The one overshadowing question is the preservation of American liberty. {German Writing} The best way to get rid of your duties is to discharge them. Page 82 {German Writing} Man works to live, while the animal lives to work. Sin-darkened reason. The sheep's-clothing hangs pretty loose on these wolves. And still there are Lutherans who fall a prey to their blandishment! [Matthew 7:15] {German Writing} Page 83 {German Writing} Page 84 The optimist reads "no" from right to left: "on" Man gave Christ the very lowest place on earth; God gave Him the very highest place in heaven in brightest majesty. There can be nothing higher than the bosom of God [John 1:18], the external dwelling-place of the son; and there can be nothing lower than the cross and the grave; but, amazing truth! I find Christ in both. I find Him in the bosom, and I find Him in the grave. [Matthew 27:35] [Mark 15:24] [Luke 23:33] [John 19:25] Grace and righteousness shone forth in all their respective brightness and beauty when the father went out and fell on the prodigal's neck; but yet did not give him a seat at the table until he was clad and decked… Page 85 … in a mariner suited to that elevated and happy position. [Luke 15:11-32] The father could not have the prodigal at his table with the rags of the far country upon him. He could go forth to meet him in those rags. He could fall upon his neck and kiss him [Luke 15:20], in those rags. It was worthy, and beautifully characteristic of his grace so to do; but then to seat him at his table in the rags would never do. It would be out of character to tell us not to let sin reign, if it were not actually dwelling in us. There is a great difference between dwelling and reigning. It dwells in a believer, but it reigns in an unbeliever. [Romans 7:14-25] Christ died for us [Romans 5:8], and now He lives in us [1 John 3:24, 4:13]. The former gives us peace, the latter gives us power [Acts 1:8]. Page 86 The same waters which formed a wall for God's redeemed, formed a grave for Pharaoh and his host. [Exodus 14:21] They know that there is no other way of being saved but by the blood of the cross - but the devils know this, yet it avails them nought. What is so much needed is to know that we are saved [Acts 15:11]. The Israelite not merely knew that there was safety in the blood; he knew that he was safe. [Ephesians 2:13] [Hebrews 10:19] [1 John 1:7] [Revelation 7:14] Faith can take those bold and hefty flights into regions far removed from this land of death and wide-spread desolation. Its eagle gaze can pierce the gloomy clouds which gather around the tomb, and behold the God of resurrection displaying the results of His everlasting counsels, in the midst of a sphere which no arrow of death can reach. It … Page 87 … can take its stand upon the top of the Rock of ages [Psalm 18:2], and listen, in holy triumph, while the surges of death are lashing its base. Nothing but perfect righteousness could suit God; and nothing but perfect grace could suit the sinner. But where could these attributes meet in one point? Only in the cross. There it is that mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. In Christ, God has come down, in perfect grace, to the sinner, in Him the sinner is bought up, in perfect righteousness, to God. Rom. 7,7 He does not say that He could not have had "lust." No, but merely that "He had not known it." The "lust" was there; but He was in the dark about it until the law, as… Page 88 … "the candle of the Almighty," [Proverbs 20:27] shone in upon the dark chambers of his heart and revealed the evil that was there. Like a man in a dark room , who may be surrounded with dust and confusion, but he cannot see ought thereof by reason of the darkness. Let the beam of the sun dart in upon him, and he quickly perceives all. Do the sunbeams create the dust? Surely not. The dust is there and they only detect and reveal it. This is a simple illustration of the effect of the law. It judges man's character and condition. It proves him to be a sinner and shuts him up under the curse. The law does not create evil nor remove it, but simply reveals it. [Romans 3:20] There is peculiar force and beauty in the expression "see the salvation of God." The very fact of our… [ Exodus 14:13] [2 Chronicles 20:17] [Isaiah 52:10] [Luke 3:6] Page 89 … being called to "see" God's salvation proves that the salvation is a complete one. It teaches that salvation is a thing wrought out and revealed by God, to be seen and enjoyed by us. It is not a thing made up partly of God's doing and partly of man's. Were it so, it could not be called God's salvation. In order to be His it must be wholly divested of everything pertaining to man. The only possible effect of human effort is to raise a dust which obscures the view of God's salvation. The straight and narrow path is wide enough for its traffic. [Matthew 7:14] There can be no possible use in tioo{sp??} acting, when one is so perfectly competent to do all. No one would think of bringing a lighted candle to add brightness to the sun at… Page 90 … mid-day; and yet the man who would do so might well be accounted wise, in comparison with him who attempts to assist God by him bustling officiousness. What is the mark of a sect? The mark of a sect is some distinctive doctrine by which it separates itself from the general body of Christians. Being a cause of division [Matthew 12:25][Mark 3:24][Luke 11:17], such doctrines are false doctrines; the truth of God does not divide Christianity, but unifies it, false doctrine separates. The Lutheran church is a denomination, but it is not a sect. When we contend for the ancient faith, we are fighting the battle of all Christianity. We are contending for unity as over against division and sectarianism. Speed-crazed autoists. Page 91 the inerrancy of the Bible. {German Writing} All the people who think they're paid what they're worth could hold a convention in an upper berth. The Organist at Princess Mary's wedding will get $2500. Mary must have sold her lamb to our butcher. {German Writing} {German Writing} Page 92 Stirring up the dying embers of hatred. This should make us hang our heads in shame. They seek to deliver us into a compact of world bondage. The Disarmament Conference, a nefarious measure which out Wilsonizes Wilson and his League of Nations, would create a new Delilah who would sheer the modern Samson, "Uncle Sam," and leave him weak and helpless, to the scorn and scoffs of his world enemies. "Lies have short legs" a German phrase says. Every effort should be bent to attain unity. Page 93 It tends only to emphasize and deepen the rift between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans. The war is over, - a hideous nightmare, never to be erased from the memory of any one of us. Let us fling to the winds all our silly reasonings and ignorant arguments [2 Timothy 2:16-17, 2:23][Titus 3:9-11]. The finite cannot grasp the infinite. This is where so many go wrong. They reason upon the acting of God's government, not considering that those actings lie as far beyond the range of human reason as the Creator is beyond the creature. What human reason can unravel the profound mysteries of divine providence? Stupid folly. Unsparing judgement. The people fell into the snare. Page 94 Satan's wiles are more to be dreaded than his power. "Put on the whole armor of God etc." [Ephesians 6:11] The enemy is vanquished with the Word of God. The devil can do nothing with a man who is perfectly obedient and perfectly dependent on God. Reason is no guide for the people of God; we must be, absolutely and completely governed and guided by the Word of God. This lies within the reach of the simplest and most unlettered child of God. Not only the deep-thinking and far-seeing are capable of meeting the wiles of the adversary. Nothing can ever afford a warrant for lowering, the breadth of a hair, the standard of obedience to the Word of God. Fine-spun theories will never awaken a soul asleep in sin: the lost… Page 95 … sinner must be brought face to face with the plain Word of God and the solemn realities of eternity. Our eye must be anointed with heavenly eye-salve. puny efforts The exhaustless mine of God's Word. This is an admitted principle on all hands. Man is no more competent to judge Scripture than he is to judge God. The Scriptures judge man; not man the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit gives us the certainty that the Bible is the Word of God. [Hebrews 10:15-16] The Scriptures speak of themselves and carry their credentials with them. We must hate and loathe sin. Page 96 If human opinion be allowed at all, then, as a matter of course one man has a good a right to think as another; and thus it has come to pass that the professing church has become a proverb and a by-word for division. [Psalm 119:60] [Romans 3:3-4] It is not men going to Scripture to get their opinions and their views confirmed; but going to Scripture to get the mind of God as to everything, and bowing down their whole moral being to divine authority. We constantly deceive ourselves with the notion that we are living by faith [2 Corinthians 5:7], when in reality we are leaning on some human prop, which sooner or later is sure to give away. Are we not constantly prone to forsake the Fountain of living waters, and hew… Page 97 … out for ourselves broken cisterns, which can hold no water. [Jeremiah 2:13] From the starting-post to the goal of the Christian course it is all by faith. They shall suffer unexampled tribulation. Scripture is all-sufficient. "Let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches." This voice is heard in the Scriptures. [Revelation 2:7,11,17,29, 3:6,13,22] A mirage of the desert. You find unmortified self to be the fruitful source of strife and schism in the Church of all ages and on the other hand, you will find that to sink self and its… Page 98 … interests is the true secret of peace, harmony, and brotherly love. Let us learn to set self aside, and seek earnestly the glory of Christ. The most egregious folly. A lot of us wouldn't be content with our lot even if it was a lot. The poor man was to have the same even-handed justice meted out to him as the rich. Then all efforts to tranquilize the world and stabilize peace must be flung to the winds. Beneath the cruel lash of Pharaoh's taskmaters. There is nothing beneath the canopy so stupidly irrational as unbelief. Perish of boredom. Page 99 And on the other hand, there is nothing so sound, clear, and logical as the simple argument of a childlike faith. [Mark 10:15] [Luke 18:17] Unbelief neither gets to the right side of things nor the bright side of things. It always is the dark, always in the wrong, simply because it shuts out God, and looks only to circumstances. They said: "The people is greater and taller than we" but they were not greater than Jehovah "and the cities are great and walled up to heaven", the gross exaggerations of unbelief. [Deuteronomy 1:28] Faith says: "My soul wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock." [Psalm 62:5] Israel's wilderness-life. Page 100 inimitable skill "Said I not unto thee that If thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" [John 11:40] Such is divine order. Men will tell you that seeing is believing, but in the kingdom of God, believing is seeing. Why was it that not a man of that evil generation was allowed to see the good land? [Deuteronomy 1:35-36] Simply because they did not believe in the Lord heir God. On the other hand, why was Caleb allowed to see and take possession? Simply because he believed. Unbelief is ever the great hindrance in the way of our seeing the glory of God. Our love of ease. Though in the world the believer is not of the world; he moves right athwart its current. [John 15:19] |