Newspapers / Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.) / Dec. 6, 1934, edition 1 / Page 1
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AND YE SHALL KNOW THETRUTH. AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKEYOU FREE"-*** vilL ' OL. LV. REDEEMED FROM ECCLESIASTICAL BONDAGE By Rev. E. W. Carpenter (The Rev. Edward W. Car-i penter, of New York City, preached Sunday, Dec. 9th, at 11 A. M., in the Thirteenth Avenue Presbyterian churchy Newark, N. J., the Rev. Law rence B. Ellerson, D. D., pastor. The church observed the Four Hundredth Anniversary of Lu ther’s translation of the Bible. The sermon is given here.) MARTIN LUTHER 1. Few men have ever lived during whose lifetime such mo mentous changes occurred as those which took place during the days of Martin Luther. One great revolution is suffi cient to make notable the cen tury of its occurrence. Yet dur ing the lifetime of Luther (1483-1546) three stupendous revolutions are recorded: the conclusion of the Renaissance, the beginning of the Reforma tion, and the rise of Capitalism. Rapid strides were also made in the direction of Individual ism and Nationalism. Only four decades before Luther’s birth came the notable invention pf printing by Gutenberg, thus making possible the spread of popular education and the rise of modern democracy. During this period new universities and institutions of higher learning were springing up throughout Europe. Many not able men of science and art were laying the foundations of the new learning. Copernicus and Servetus, Machiavelli end Renchlin, Erasmus ana HUl v- Ht^/l3eooaid»4a -Vinci 4nid .Ti tian, Holbein and Durer, Ra phael and Michael Angelo, all ware Luther's contemporaries. Luther was a boy of nine when Columbus discovered America, and before he died Vasco de Gama and Magellan had com pleted their voyages of circum navigation, thus opening up a whole new world. From the beginning of the sixteenth century the opposi tion within Germany to Roman rule began to assume formida ble proportions. Without the continuous support of powerful German nobles, Luther could never have achieved his work. The Church conrtolled the ed ucation, the amusements, and the worship of the people everywhere; spiritual and tem poral blessings in this world and salvation in the world to come had their sole origin in the Church. Baptism at the hands of a representative of the Church was the only means of gaining salvation. Those persons, including infants, who had not been baptized, at the time of death, were consigned to the flames of hell through out eternity. The Church alone could interpret the Scripture and all truth was in its infalli ble keeping. It spoke with ab solute authority and insisted upon implicit obedience to ev ery doctrine and command. Dissent was heresy and wa3 punished with the utmost rig cr. The Inquisition In the thirteenth century a special institution known as *he Inouisition was inaugurat ed to hunt out and restrain heretics. Since heretics were regarded as lost souls who "•onId burn endlessly in hell if they died unrepentant, extreme bodily and mental torture was inflicted bv the Church in the endeavor to restore the guilty one to orthodoxv and salvation. Th» r’ost violent punishment at the hands of the Church was regarded as an act of mercy to a vile sinner, far better-than fhat the soul should be . damned. Especially so since the guilty one, if left unrestrained, would drag many of the faith ful with him to the depths of perdition. To grasp the real significance of the limitless power wielded by the Inquisition, it is neces sary to remember that it was regarded as heresy to deny the truth of any doctrine} of the Church or to refuse in any w^y to jbfoejy jthe ecclesiastical, |ui thorities, whether the doctrines dealt with astronomy, physics, geography or geology, medicine or chemistry, education or goy eminent. For extent, dura tion and intensity the reign of terror which everywhere ac companied the Inquisition is unparalleled in human history. Germany, however, escaped its worst horrors. It never did take root there as in Italy, 'Spain, France and elsewhere. While lit still maintalhed a nominal ex istence in Germany at the time of Luther’s revolt, it retained so little actual power that it was helpless to silence or de stroy even such an arch heret ic as Luther, and thus the course of history was changed. The Degeneracy of the Church It is extremely painful to call attention to the condition of Christendom at the time Lu ther began his work. The Church had fallen on evil days. Graft and corruption1 A were widespread. High ecclesiastical offices . were openly purchased. Simony, the" buying and selling of the things of God, was al most universal. Every function of. the- pri#8t tieGaine 4* rapqrae t f reverse. Marriage and fun eral ceremonies were refused unless the fees demanded were paid in advance, and the Eu charist was withheld from the communicant unless he offered an oblation. In most realms of thought and activity the human spirit was shackled and bound. Hu man progress was conditioned upon bursting asunder the chains of ecqlesiastical tyran ny. It was into such a world and at such an hour that Mar tin Luther was born. 2. What Did Luther Do? Few great men of history be gan life under . such obscure and humble circumstances as did Martin Luther. He was born on November 10, 1482, in the vjlage of Eisleben in Central Germany. His father was a peasant miner, with only mea ger natural gifts, with no ad vantages. His mother was a quiet, austere woman, a most rigid disciplinarian. Martin was the oldest child. Shortly after his birth the family moved to the mining town of Mansfield where they lived in abject pov erty. In the village school Lat in was the chief subject and *he pupilft wei^ required not only to read it but to speak it as well. Ignorance and brutali ty was a marked characteristic of the teachers of those days. In referring to his painful ex perience in school Luther later said: The examination was like a trial for murder. The teacher once beat him sixteen times on a single morning. At the age of thirteen Martin was sent away to a religious school at Mar burg where he earned his wav by begging on the streets. The following year he .was trans ferred to Eisenback. Here he was taken into the home of a very devout and wealthy family named Cattas. In 1501 his, fath er, by great effort and priva tion. sent him to the famous old University of Erfurt. The studies which he pursued while here would seem unbearably dry and barren to a modem stu dent. The next year he received the bachelor of arts degree, and three years later he was awarded the master’s degree. In accordance with the wishes of his father he then began to study law, One of the easiest roads to fame and fortune, Within two months he abrupt ly abandoned the study of law and entered a monastery. Va rious explanations have been advanced for this precipitous action. It seems that Jhe had become disgusted with the stu dy of law and went home to se cure his father’s permission to change his course. On his way back to the university he was overtaken by a terrible thun der storm and in his fright vowed to St. Anna to be a monk if his life was spared. The peo ple of that day were exceeding ly superstitious and regarded storms as a direct interposi tion of the devil. On July 17, 1506, at the age of twenty-two, he entered the Augustinian Convent at Erfutt as a noviciate. Here the bril liant university scholar began to scrub floors and to beg upon the strqjet. Shortly afterward through the efforts of Vicar John Van Stanpity, he was re lieved of his servile labora and sent back to his studies. He now began to specialize in the study of the Bible and to read speculative theology. On May 2, 1507, Luther was admitted to the priesthood; and continued as an inmate of the Convent at Erfurt until the end of 1508. During these years he devoted himself with great zeal to the monastic meth od of reaching perfection* praying industriously night and day, practicing long fasitings and sleepless vigil. But he found ljttle spiritual satisfac tion. Later he wrote: “When I was tlie~most devout, doubter to the altar; a doubter 1 came away from it; if I had confessed my penitence, I still doubted; had I not, 1 was in de spair.” Stanpity seemed to un derstand him and finally helped him to overcome his doubts and to regain his faith. From 1512 to 1517 Luther was a professor ♦a't .the University of Witten berg, of which his old friend Stanpity had become dean. He now began to lecture on the Bible, a practice which he nev er abandoned throughout his lifetime. At this period Lu ther’s growing revolt against Scholasticism came to a climax. In September, 1517. a month before he issued his renounced ninety-five theses, he published ninety-seven theses, denying the value of Aristotle’s works as a text bood. In his lectures he poured contempt on the meth ods of Aristotle. He was so suc cessful in his protects that a completer refonn of the univer sity curriculum was carried through. Luther devoted him self to the study of the Bible, and to the Fathers, especially to Augustine. He was not yet prepared to make the Bible his ultimate authority, but he was moving rapidly in that direc tion. From the very beginning of his work Luther was an ex traordinarily prolific writer. A" steady stream of books and pamphlets poured from his pen. His greatest monument, says one of his biographers, is the German Bible. The New Testa ment was completed during the year he was in seclusion in the Warstburg in 1521. The Old Testament appeared in sec tions, the last part being pub lished in (1532) 1534. It seems almost incredible that this man, in addition fo his regular work of preaching, teaching and vis itation of the churches should | have produced 420 separate ! works, many of them of great length. 3. What Did Luther Say? ' Three of Luther’s writings, known in Gerihany as the i Three Great Reformation 1 Treatises, contain the heart of bis message: They are: ‘The Libertydof a Christian Man,” ‘To tW Christian ffobmty of line German Nation/’ and “On th# Babylonian Captivity) of the Church.” They were all pOhUshift in 1520, when Lu ther WB" thirty-seven years uw. u^ |tue one tiuwer uuer very small book so far is concerned, but one the whole sum of life." Its main the priesthood of all as a consequence of by faith. If a man t he has all; if he has he has nothing, Re-f ceremonies may be they are not essen tial. AX best they are merely means o an end; if they prove to be . hindrance they ought to be ( vept away. Upon this ideal he Reformation was foundet. Its implications were 1 It undermined the doetrine of exclusive at the hands of the mud broke the bonds ,, lesiastical authority. Few ideas in history have pro duced.Vjgreater changes in hu-( man society than this one, which mow appears so obvious to millions of Christians. In his ninety-five theses on Indul gences he attacked the ceremo nial system and declared that the Christian who has truly repented has already been for given by God and has no need of all indulgence. Christ de mands only true repentance and ns intermediary is required in arcing pardon from God. From the beginning Luther wished reformation, not revo lution. Luther believed that soma parts of the Bible were more inspired than others, for examide, the Gospels and the First Epistle of John, the M ters ’Sb t-Be Romans^to the lati&nand to the Ephesians, and the First Epistle of St. Pe ter, and the Psalms. On the other hand, he rejected the Epistle of James as an Epistle of straw. He denied the Mosaic authority of part of the Penta teuch ; he declared Job to be an allegory, Jonah was so childish that he was almost inclined to laugh at it; the Book of Kings was a thousand paces ahead of Chronicles and more to be be lieved. “Ecclesiastes has neither boots nor spurs, but rides in\ socks, as I did when I was in cloister.” 4. What Happened to Lu ther? It is exceedingly difficult for Modem Protestants to under stand the intensity with which Luther was hated by the eccle siastical leaders of his day. From their point of view he was not only a vile heretic, doomed to eternal damnation, but was also an open rebel and was doing his utmost to destroy the holy Church. Thousands of I men and women had been j j burned at the stake for here sies whic^i were inconsequent t.ial as compared with those of T.uther. That he was not im mediately reduced to ashes following his excommunication by the Pope was due entirely to the protection. lie. received from the German princes. His life would have been snuffed cut before his work was well started if it had not been for the rise of Nationalism in Ger many and the growing resent ment against the domination of Rome. During the last twen ty-six vears of his life he was an outlaw and fugitive (from justice. It was only the refusal of the German princes to carry out the edict that enabled him to avoid execution.. Few men have ever been subjected to such severe abuse as was heaped upon Luther. 5. What Kind of a Man Was Luther? Concerning almost no other man in history are there such violently divergent estimates 1 (Continued on page 4} NEW OFFICERS OF THE FEDERAL COUNCIL At the Biennial. Meeting of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America* held in Dayton, Ohio, Decem ber 4-7, Dr. Ivan Lee Holt, minister of St. John’s Method ist Episcopal Church; South, St. Louis, Mo., was elected Presidtiit, and Dr. George W. Richaras, President of the Gen eral Conference of the Evangel ical ana Reformed Church, was elected Vice-President. Dr. Holt is one of the out standing pastors of the South, being the minister of what is often called “The Cathedral Church of Southern Method ism.” It is widely known oe cause of its remarkable con tacts with the whole life of the city, social civic, educational and philanthropic. It maintains a hospital, a social settlement, an extensive program of reli gious education, and an impor tant ministry on the foreign missionary field. Dr. Holt is still in his forties, having beer bom in DeWitt, Ark., in 1886. After graduating from Vander bilt University, he took his Ph. D. in ancient J&nguag<£ in the University of Chicago. Of fered a scholarship in Egyptol goy at a leading university in the East, he found the personal interests of men’s souls more challenging than the intrica cies of hieroglyphics, and en tered the pastorate. Later he was chaplain and professor of pld Testament Literature at Southern Methodist University. Dallas, Texas. As a preacher, Dr. Holt's in fluence reaches far beyond the United States. He has been a visiting minister in England on several ‘rteeaafons. On.. January fifteenth he leaves for the Orient where he will fill a three months’ visiting pastorate in the Community Church in Shanghai, confer with represen tatives of the National Chris tian Council in Japan and serve as a special messenger at the Centennial of the founding of Methodism in Australia. Dr. Richards, who has been elected Vice-President of the Council, is one of the foremost church historians of the coun try, now President Of the The ological Seminary of the Re formed Church at Lancaster. Pa. After graduating froip Franklin and Marshall College in 1887, he studied at the Uni versities of Berlin, Erlangen ^d Heidelberg in Germany. He received the degree of Dr of Theology from Heidelberg and also holds the honorary de gree of D. D., from Edinburgh University. Dr. Richards has had wide contacts with the churches of other lands, especially as Pres idoot of the Alliance of Re formed ChuisHes Holding the Presbyterian System Through nut tho World. He is a member of the Continuation Committer of the World Conference on Faith and Order. He is' widelv Vrtowri j»n advocate of church unions having been a Iffcdiny factor in bringing about the recent union of the Reformed Church in the U. S. and the Evangelical Synod of North America in what is now known as the Evangelical and Re formed Church At the merger of the two bodies last June he elected the first President. Dr. Richards is one of the closest American friends I of Karl Barth, the distinguished German-Swiss theologian, who w*q recent!” removed from his chair at Bonne by the'Naz? Government as a result of hie unwillingness to take an un qualified oath of loyalty to Hit ler. Dr. Richards is the trans lator of one of Barth’s volumes entity. “Come, Holy Snirtt.* Dr. Richard's most recent vol ume, “Beyond Fundamentalism and Modernism,” was published only a few months ago. / . Dr. Rivington D. Lord; minis ter of the First Baptist church, of Brooklyn, N. Y., was reelect ed Recording Secretary. He has held this office since the Coun cil was first organized in 1908. Mr. Frank H. Mann, a business man of New York, was re-elect ed Treasurer; The preliminary report on the relation of the churches to the liquor problem* presented by the Department of Social Service, analyzed frankly the new situation which the churches face in the light of the twelve months experience with repeal. The report pointed Out .that a reorganization i$ taking place in the temperance agencies, responsibility now be ing chiefly located in the educa tional boards of the churches. Candidly recognizing that on many points there is little agreement and that there is no unanimous judgment support ing prohibition as the immedi ate major policy of the nation, the report insists that on one point at least there is agree ment, namely, that the first need is for a more educational or r>r0ach to the problem. The statement, which was present ed as a report for information, was received and its recom mendations adopted. The re commendations express satis faction with the new education al approach which is now being made to the liquor problem and authorize further study of ma ior problems of liquor control. The emphasis upon evangel ism was perhaps the outstand ing note of the meeting as a whole. An address by Dr. But terick on “The Minister as Evangelist,” was heart-search ing and kindling. Hie simple and direct narrative of wayOft • • which as pastor and preacher he has been led to a new sense of the possibilities of really changing the lives of men and women inspired many to a new rtommitment on their own part. The proposal made by Dr. Wil liam Hiram Foulkes, the Chair man of the Federal Council's Department of Evangelism, for a National Preaching Mission to be held about a year hence after the most careful prepara tion has been made, was re ceiyed with much enthusiasm. It is expected that some of the foremost preachers . in the world, including those of other countries, will be called into service for a great united effort in interpreting the significance of the Christian Gospel in the leading cities of the country. The noon-day periods of wor ship, led by Dr. Richard Rob erts, of Toronto, Moderator of the United Church of Canada, provided an atmosphere 01 spiritual warmth for the whole sessions. His heart-to-heart talks upon the Church, the Evangel, and the Cross, were Ominous interpretations of the Christian witness to the world. The “Message” adopted by the Council was a bugle call to a spiritual advance. Beginning with a recognition of the great historic evangelical convictions in which the churches a. c unit ed in the Council, the Message srives frank recognition to the “difficulty of this age, its per plexity, futility and wrongness in many areas of life,’’passes on to a frank confession of short comings even in the Church itself, calls for a renewed faith in God, a reaffirmed loyalty to Christ, a new commitment both to Christian social ideals and to personal devotion of life. It ends with an emphasis upon the present as “a day of rebirth for the Chri&tiap Church,” em phasizing the necessity for a greater unity, a more convinc ing presentation of the Gosrel and a more courageous dealing with the great social and in (Continued on page 4)
Africo-American Presbyterian (Wilmington, N.C.)
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Dec. 6, 1934, edition 1
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