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INTRODUCTION.
In less than a year's time three staunch de-
fenders and scholarly interi^reters of Calvinism
have passed into the great beyond. Kiiyper, War-
tield, and Bavinck have iinished tlieir earthly course
in rapid succession. Their noble work done, they
liave entered into their rest. Though the broad ex-
panse of waters separated the American theologian
from his esteemed colleagues on the continent, these
three Avere one in liope and doctriri(% one in charity.
Calvinism is not limited to any one nation or
tongue. In the death of those men, who were tilled
with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
Church has sustained a severe and almost irrepa-
rable loss. Wlien stars of tlie first magnitude cease
to shine, the heavens are less bright and it is but
natural that a dread of approaching dai'kness will
creep over us.
But this apprehension of gloom must not pre-
vail. We have the Word of God which shall not
pass away. We may depend on the abiding pres-
ence of the Holy Spirit in the Church of Jesus
Christ. And besides, the men of God who wrought
so mightily have left us a lieritage of unspeakable
9
10 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
value. They, though dead, still speak. Their
records produce the familiar sound of their own
voices and is music to all who love the faith of the
fathers.
The preservation of the priceless productions of
those intellectual giants is our first duty to God and
men. In the kind providence of God the works of
our great theologians are not only preserved, but
also translated. Tlie necessity of translatino: choice
Dutch literature into the English language is very
evident in view of tlie present generation of young
I)eople in our churches. Tlie present situation re-
veals the fact — in a way deplorable — that only a
small percentage of our youth can appreciate a
book written in our old mother tongue. It is im-
perative, however, that the fundamentals of the
Reformed Faith receive a permanent place in their
hearts and lives. Hence, the need of translating
the grand old truths into the language which they
do understand.
How gratifying it is to note that eminent theo-
logians have not confined themselves exclusively
to the production of technical books for the use of
the ministry, but have also left us little jewels
which appeal directly to the laymen of our congre-
gations. Kuyper's ''To Be Near Unto God" and
WarfiekVs "The Savior of the World'' have been
read by thousands of believers. In like manner
Dr. Ravinck's ''Tlie Sacrifice of Praise," as trans-
INTRODUCTION. 11
lated by the Rev. John Dolfin of the Christian Re-
formed Cliiirch, 111(4 Avith a favorable reception. It
does not surprise us that there is a demand just
now for a second edition. A book of this nature
will be needed so long- as young- people confess
Christ as their Lord and Savior.
It is our humble and liappy task to command
''The Sacrilice of Praise" in its second and care-
fully revised edition to our churches, especially to
tlie Reformed Church in America. We can do this
most cheerfully liecause it is our personal conviction
that Dr. H. Bavinck was, by the grace of God, tlu^
Prince of recent Reformed theologians. Among
the three, al)Ove named, lie easily holds first place
for depth of thought and accurate research. His
scholarly attainments were indeed rare, as abun-
dantly shown by the copious quotations and refer-
ences in his ''Reformed Dogmatics" and other
works.
This book is of an intensely practical nature.
The subject, as the headings of the twelve chapters
indicate, is "Confession." We do not hesitate to
say that in practical church life there is still con-
siderable misunderstanding as to confessing Christ.
Ministers and elders frequently hear such ques-
tions as these: Is it really necessary to make pub-
lic confession? Why should I take that step?
AVhat does it mean to confess Christ? What is the
relation between Holy Baptism and the Lord's
12 THE SACRIFICE OF PRALSE.
Supper? Doejs God demand that one should unite
with the Church? What rewards may the sincere
confessor expect? These and other questions are
answered by the author in plain and Scriptural lan-
guage. Throughout the book the fundamental sig-
nificance of the Covenant of Grace with its attend-
ant promises, conditions, and blessings is clearly
set forth. In a word, ''The Sacrifice of Praise'' is
a masterpiece on the subject of confessing Christ,
both for instruction and comfort to those who in-
tend to unite with tlie Church and to members in
full communion. Because of its unique character,
consistories would do well to ])rocure this book in
(|uantiti(\s and present a copy to every person who
appears before them to make confession of faith.
May the Holy Spirit accompany this book on
its journey to the intent that our baptized young
men and maidens may ''offer the sacrifice of praise
to God continually."
John Bovenkkrk,
Pfifitor of the FirHt Reformed Church
of Mnfilceffon^ Michigan.
Dec. 1?>, 1921.
CONTENTS.
I. The Basis or Foundation of Confession
II. The Training or Bringing up unto Con
fession ....
III. The Rule of Confession .
IV. The Essence of Confession
V. The Contents of Confession
V'l. The Diversity of Confession
VTI. The UniversaHty of Confession
VHI. The ObHgation to Confession
IX. The Opposition to Confession
X. The Strength for Confession .
XI. The Reward of Confession
XII. The Triumph of Confession .
PAGE
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27
35
46
59
66
75
85
94
102
109
116
13
Cf)e S>acrtftce of ^xmt
CHAPTER I.
Hie Basis or Foundation of Confession.
And I will estahlish my covenant
between me and thee and thy seed
after thee in their generations for
an everlasting covenant, to be a
• God unto thee, and to thy seed
after thee. Genesis 17:7.
The coveuant of grace lies immovably firm and
fast in God's eternal mercies.
In the first covenant which was established
prior to the fall, God came to man demanding and
requiring obedience, and promised him eternal life
and heavenly salvation only after perfect fulfill-
ment of the law. This first covenant therefore
reckoned witli the will and with the loork of man, it
rested for a part in his hand and hence was uncer-
tain- and breakable.
But the covenant of grace, which was an-
nounced for the first time in the maternal promise,
has its basis and security only in the divine counsel
of grace. Although the word covenant does not ap-
pear in this promise, still the matter represented by
this w^ord is fully contained in it. For, before
15
16 THE SACRIFICE OP PRAISE.
man through transgression has made a cov-
enant of friendship with Satan, God intervenes,
puts enmity in the room of the effected friendship
and in the seed of the Avoman once more brings man
over to his side. The covenant of grace therefore
has proceeded entirely from God, He himself brings
it about; therefore it does not rest in man nor is it
in any way dependent upon his will and work. It
is eternal, unchangeable, immovable, even as God
himself. For the mountains shall depart and the
liills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace
be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
In this covenant, God is the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the
Omega. In the most beautiful way it maintains
the absolute sovereignty of God in the whole work
of salvation. For from the very beginning to the
very end nothing of man is added or introduced.
Redemption is specifically a divine work, the work
of the Father, the Son, and tlie Holy Spirit. All
boasting is excluded, the honor and glory is entirely
and only due unto God, who is not only the Creator
but also the Recreator of all things.
On this account is it a covenant of grace, of
pure grace. In the divine virtue of grace this cov-
enant has its origin ; in the gifts of grace it finds its
contents; and in the glorification of grace lies its
end and purpose.
It is God, who has established this well ordered
and eternal covenant; who has accepted into it
man, separated from Him through sin ; who makes
man a participant of all tlie profits and benefits of
this covenant ; who makes man to walk in the ways
THE BASIS OR FOUNDATION OF CONFESSION. li
of this covenant and through this covenant leads
him to the heavenly glory.
The stability of this covenant is the reason why
in Holy Writ it is not a few times revealed nnto ns
as a will or testament. It is not a mutual con-
tract; it is not like unto au agreement between two
])ersons brought about by them upon mutual con-
sent, after much weighing and consideration. But
the covenant of grace is an institution, a gracious
disposition of God, a gift in Christ. As the Father
liath appointed the Kingdom unto me, even so 1
appoint it unto you.
As by will or testament, in the way of a last
free disposition, in the form of an inheritance tlu^
divine blessings of this covenant couu' unto us,
without our will. It is the most precious gift, the
most perfect gift which comes to us from abovo,
descending from the Father of Lights, with whoiii
there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning.
And behold now, what and wliat kind of bless-
ings form the contents of this free and eternal
covenant. Together they form a fullness of spirit-
ual and material, of heavenly and earthly, of eter-
nal and temporal blessings. In that covenant there
is opened and unlocked for man a fullness of
salvation; a fountain of blessedness; a spring of
life. The one grace makes room for another and
that one is again in turn relieved and substituted
by another. Indeed, out of the fullness of Christ
^^•e receive grace for grace.
Spiritual profits and benefits are the first things
of which man becomes a recipient in this covenant.
For before and above all things Christ came upon
earth to seek and to save that which was lost. He
PROPERTY OF ^
-TADCDu&TU I IRRARY
18 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
did not appear as a reformer of society, as a polit-
ical leader of the people, as an artist or phil-
osopher. But a. Savior; that was His name and
also His office. For that, the Father had anointed
Him with His Spirit, to preach good tidings unto
the meek; to bind up the broken hearted; to pro-
claim liberty to the captives and the opening of the
prison to them that are bound, to procUiim tin'
acceptable year of the Lord.
Spiritual blessings, therefore, above all, are
granted unto the church by the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ in heaven. In communion witli Christ,
forgiveness of sins and regeneration, faith and con-
version, sanctitication and perseverance become the
part and portion of believers. Both their con-
sciousness and their being, their state and attitude
are renewed by the Spirit of Christ. They have
becouie dilTerent people through the spirit tii;il
dwelleth in them ; they are not from below but from
above; they have been born of God, accepted by
Him as children and are destined for the heavenly
inheritance, l^or theui, old things have passed
away, behold, all things have become new.
But these spiritual and eternal blessings ;n'<'
also accompanied by those which are earthly and
temporal. Heaven and earth, spirit and matter,
soul and body are certainly too closely allied than
that an absolute separation could be possible. In
the glorious picture of the future revealed by the
l)rophecies of the Old Testament we do not only
see that Israel shall be a holy nation, that the
Lord has^ betrothed Himself in eternity, and that
Ele shall cleanse from all uncleanliness and grant
i\ new heart, but we also see in that picture, thai
THE KA8LS OK FOUNDATION OF CONFESSION. 19
under the Prince of Peace out of the House of
David, Israel shall live in peace and enjoy a pros-
perity beyond recollection, and an extraordinary
fruit fulness of the soil.
And thus also the New Testament unites the
corporal blessings with the spiritual. Certainly the
( uipliasis falls upon the latter. First, the Kingdom
of God with His righteousness must be sought, and
tliat Kingdom, already here upon earth, becomes
the part and portion of those who believe the gospel
of Christ and turn unto God with a true and con-
trite heart. For that Kingdom is, in the first
]>Iace, established within the heart and consists
jiot in food and drink but in righteousness, and joy,
and peace through the Holy Spirit.
But lie who has sought and found that King-
dom as a pearl of great price, receives thereafter
also all other things. Such need no longer take
thought of the morrow, as the Gentiles do, and
anxiously ask: What shall we eat? or, What shall
we drink? or. Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
for his heavenly Father knoweth that he hath need
of all these things. He who spared not His own
Son, but delivered Him up for the guilty, shall also
with Him grant us all tilings. The hairs of our
head are all told. Our bread is certain and our
water sure. To be sure, he who Avould follow Jesus
must forsake all. But even now, in this life, he
again receives fathers and mothers, brethren and
sisters, friends and fields, and in the coming day
^\9.n life fore\ermore. Godliness with content-
ment is therefore a great gain; it is useful unto all
things, having the promise of ])otli this and the
future life.
20 THE SACRIFICE OF PKAISE.
All these gifts, profits and benefits of the cov-
enant of grace are united in the one great promise,
that God will be our God and the God of our seed.
The proclamation of salvation begins with this
promise when God, after the fall of man, again
seeks him, breaks the contracted friendship with
Satan setting enmit}' in its place, and again re-
ceives man into His communion and fellowship.
This promise stands at the head of tlie covenant
which Avas estal)lished with Abraliam, shines above
the law given unto Israel, and forms the chief con-
tents of the dispensation of the covenant of gi'acc^
in the days of the Old Testament. In tluit promist^
the pious find, even in the midst of need and want,
distress and misery, their salvation and comfort;
besides God they have no one in heaven and none
upon earth that they desire but Him. He is the
strength of their heart and their portion forever.
When Israel forsakes Him, then this remains their
comfort, that God nevertheless remains their God,
again gathers them out of the dispersion and at
the end of days establishes with them a new cov-
enant wherein they shall be unto Him a people and
He unto them a God.
And this promise passes on into the New Testa
ment. It is fulfilled in Christ, who, in the most
fearful trials, in the severest temptations, in the
struggle of Gethsemane and in the suffering on the
cross, remained standing because God was His God
and He God's own well beloved Sou. It is being
fulfilled in the church, which has come in the room
of Israel, and glorying in the Immanuel, God with
us, is accepted as His people. And it shall be fully
realized, whou tli(» New Jerusalem shall descend
THE BASIS OK FOUNDATION OF CONFESSION. 21
from God out of Heaven, when His tabernacle shall
be with men, and He dwell with them as His people.
What gift is and can be greater than that of
Ood Himself? What can He give more than Him-
self; Himself with all His virtues and perfections,
Avith His grace and wisdom, with His right and
poAver, wath His unchangeableness and faith? For,
where God is for us, who dare, who can, who shall
be against us? What then can come unto, what
then can hinder us? He is and He remains ours,
in necessity and death, in living and dying, for
time and eternity. He is a God, not of the dead
but of the living. Blessed is the people whose God
is the Lord!
Moreover this promise becomes still richer when
we remember, that God binds Himself therein, not
only that He will be our God but also the God of
our seed. Great would it be already; if God had
granted His communion and fellowship unto a few
people standing in no relation whatsoever to each
other; if God working arbitrarily and reckoning
not with generations, had made His elect loose
from all historical connection with tlesh and with
blood. But the Lord does not work arbitrarily and
in this wav. He establishes His covenant oro^an-
icallv with man. in Christ as Head, first with
Adam and then wdth Abraham, who is a father of
all believers. With His grace God follows the line
of generations. In the recreation He follows and
joins Himself to the creation. He executes the
election in the way of the covenant. As Father of
all mercies He walks in the path which, as the
Father of all things He hath assigned. Therefore
the covenant of grace is also eternal in this sense.
22 Tin: sAcitiFK'K OF pUAisi:.
ibat iij liistorv it proceeds from generation to
generation and is never interrupted. (Iraee is :i
stream, which, taking a beginning after the fall, in
the history of mankind prepares for itself a bed
and only finds its mouth in eternity. As covenant
it may run through different dispensations and ap-
pear in several forms, but nevertheless, through the
almighty power of God it has become an inex-
terminable part of the world and an indestructible
good for mankind.
Just because it is a covenant it bears this in-
(!orruptible character. As we know, in all cov-
enants there are two parts. First, God therein
gives Himself unto us; but then we are thereby
also admonished of God and obliged unto a nev\'
o])edience, namely, that we cleave to this one God,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that we trust in Him,
and love Him with all our liearts, witli all (mr
souls, with all our minds, and with all our strength ;
that we forsake the world, crucify our old nature
and walk in a new and holy life. When God gives
Himself unto us, then He wills, that we thereafter
shall also give ourselves unto Mini, ourselves en-
tirely, undivided, unconditionally, ourselves with
our souls and our bodies, with. our strength and
talents, with our money and possessions, with our
children and grandchildren. Also and above all
with our childre]], who are legacies of the Lord,
iind the choicest of His earthly blessings. They
must be God's, because we are His.
But nevertheless, when God in that covenant
also witli our children requires and demands us
for His service, then He remains the First, who,
:iml unto us and unto our children glorifies the
THE 15A8IS OR FOUNDATION OF CONFESSION. 23
rk-hneBS of His grace. He is tlie First, when
He calls Adam and Noah, Abraham and Israel unto
His eomnuinion and fellowship but He also re-
mains this, when with them He also accepts their
cliildren into His covenant. I will be a God unto
thee and unto thy seed after thee. Thus is the
promise with which God binds Himself unto the
elect in their generations. And before our chil-
ren were born, before they had done either good or
evil ; He it is, that said in His free almighty power :
I will have mercy on whom 1 will have mercy, and
I will have compassion on whom I will have com-
passion.
Our children do not come into that covenant
because we give, because we consecrate them unto
the Lord. Much less do they come into it, because
they have or possess any merit or virtue of their
own, making them worthy of acceptance. But they
are in that covenant by virtue of the promise of
God, they are born in it and are therefore in it
from the very first beginning of their existence,
not of nature, but of grace, because God hath bound
Himself to be the God of believers and of their seed.
In the spiritual world, governs the same law
as in the natural. We are all participants of a
natural life, wliich we have received through our
parents from God, the Almighty, Creator of Heaven
and Earth. That we possess that life is not a mat-
ter of fact. We have not given it unto ourselves,
we have not merited it, we have by our guilt even
forfeited it; it is in an absolute sense a gift, to be
sure, not of God's particular but of God's general
grace. We become recipients of it by conception
and birth, in which we are entirely passive. With-
24 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
out our eonsoiousness and will we are placed in a
world, which is tilled with rich gifts, and we go in
unto the mighty inheritance of our ancestors and
forefathers; we stand upon their shoulders and
enjoy of that which they wTought and brought to-
gether in the sweat of their brow.
All this is true of, and in a still stronger way
applicable unto, the spiritual gifts of the covenant.
For instance it is not true, that we first for awhile
wander about outside of and without tlie covenant
and thereafter by faith and conversion as by deeds
of our own free wull come into that covenant, may
indeed, faitli and conversion are not conditions
without and unto the covenant of grace, but they
are profits and benefits in that covenant, revealing
participation in and communion and fellowship
with Christ and opening the access unto the en-
joyment of His merits.
All these gifts, viz., of forgiveness and renew-
ing, holiness and glory come unto us through
the Mediator, who hath earned and merited theiu
with the price of His l)lood. They can only be our
part and portion then, when we are participants
of Christ's person. The mystical union with Christ
precedes all merits and benefits and reveals itself
first in faith and conversion. Even as natural life
is granted unto us in birth and thereafter reveals
itself in deeds of mind and will, even so spiritual
life becomes our possession through regeneration
or the new birth, thereafter to bear fruits of faith
and conversion.
And again, it is only possible to be a participant
in Christ then, when the Father grants or gives us
that Christ. The offering and the gift of Christ
THE liASJS Oli FOUNDATION OF (X)NFESSION. 25
precedes all His beuetits and profits. It is God,
who grants us Christ, yea who gives Himself unto
us in Christ and who in communion and fellow-
ship with Him makes us recipients of all the suc-
cessive gifts of the covenant, yea, of complete
salvation.
And now of this unspeakable gift of God^s
grace, baptism is a sign and seal. For everyone,
who is in truth baptized, is as surely washed witli
Christ's blood and spirit of the uncleanness of the
soul, that is from all his sins, as he is externally
washed w4th water which is used to remove the
uncleanness of the body. Baptism is, is it not, a
})aptism in the name of the Triune God? For when
we are baptized in the name of the Father, God
the Father witnesseth and sealeth unto us, that he
cloth make an eternal covenant of grace with us,
and adopts us as His children and heirs, and there-
fore will provide us with every good thing, and
avert all evil, or turn it to our profit.
And when we are baptized in the name of the
Son, the Son sealeth unto us, that He doth wash
us in His blood from all our sins, incorporating
us into the fellowship of His death and resurrec-
tion, so that we are freed from all our sins and
accounted righteous before God.
In like manner, when we are baptized in the
name of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost assures
us, by this Holy Sacrament, that He will dw^ell in
us, and sanctify us to be members of Christ, apply-
ing unto us that which we have in Christ, namely,
the washing away of our sins, and the daily renew^-
ing of our lives, till we shall finally be presented
^t) TJIK SACKIFICi: OF FKAISK.
without spot or vvriiikle auiong the assembly of the
elect in life eternal.
Baptism is therefore unto us a sign, a witness,
that (iod, unto all eternity, will be our God, bein*;
unto us a gracious and merciful Father. For He
hatli commanded us to baptke all of those, who
are His, in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost.
In baptism God gives us the visible sign and
seal that in Christ He hath given Himself unto us
and hath accepted and adopted us as His children.
And that acceptance, that adoption is the basis
or foundation of our confession.
CHAPTER II.
The Training or Bringing Up Unto Confession.
Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every zvord that
proceedeth out of the mouth of
God. Matt. 4:4.
In the way of the covenant of grace God trains
or brings up all His children unto liberty and in-
dependence.
While election only includes who shall in-
fallibly inherit eternal salvation, the covenant of
grace describes the way in which these elect are
and shall be led to this, their destiny. Election
and covenant are therefore not distinguished as a
narrower and a wider circle, for they both consist
of and include the same persons; but while in elec-
tion they are considered by themselves, in the cov-
enant they are always considered as standing in
relation to the whole human race.
Although the covenant of grace, thus, in the
most beautiful way maintains the absolute sov-
ereignty of God in the whole work of salvation
and prohibits anything of man being added to or
introduced into it, it nevertheless also, at the same
time, does full justice to man's rational and moral
nature and to the fact that he was created in the
image of God. When God obtains His right, man
27
-JS THE SACRIFICE OF FKAISE.
alswj rei-eives the pltice iiiul the honor which belongs
to hira according to the will of God. God chooses
(hose who are His in Christ, that they should Ix*
lioly and hianieless before Him in love.
To be sure, Christ appears in the covenant of
grace as head of the church, but He does not efface
His believers neither does he force them from their
place. From the beginning to the end Christ is
surety for them, but, in such a way that they them-
selves, also taught and enabled by His spirit, con-
sciously and willingly begin to live and walk in the
covenant. True, the covenant of grace is estab-
lished with Christ but through and over Him it
propagates itself unto all tliose who are His and
adopts them wholly and entirely, with body and
soul, with mind and will and all strength.
Because God works in them both to will and to
do His good pleasure, He urges and compels them
to work out their oanu salvation with fear and
trembling. By the grace of God they are what they
are; and are enabled to do all things through
Christ who strengtheneth them. Because Christ
lives in them, they themselves live by the faith of
the Son of God. Now, therefore, because the chil-
dren of believers are accepted into this covenant
of grace even before their consciousness and will,
therefore we say, the calling particularly and
specifically comes to the parents that they shall
help and cause them to be instructed in the afore
said doctrine and shall bring and have them
brought up in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
Because in all covenants there are two parts, there-
fore the covenant of grace also admonishes and
obliges us into a new obedience. When God savs
THE TRAINING OR BRINOING UP, ETC. 29
unto us: I am your God; He also immediately
adds to it : Walk before my countenance and be
ye upright. Giving Himself unto us, He also wills
tliat we sliall give ourselves unto Him with all we
are and with all we have.
Children, however, are not able immediately to
confess for thems(dves and to Avalk in that confes-
sion. Tlie ])arents are responsible for them. They
are tljey Avho appear as witnesses at the baptism
(){' their cliildren and as sureties answer for their
Christian training. Upon the basis or foundation
of tlie acceptance or adoption from Cod's side the
parents are obliged to bi'ing and lead their chil-
dren to the full conscious, free and willing con-
fession of faith.
Here also, natunil tilings are symbols of things
s]>iritual. The natural life, Avhich becomes our
part and portion through conception and birth out
of our parents, is in an absolute sense a gift, un-
merited and even beforehand forfeited. But that
life, even from the very first beginning of its exist-
ence has need of all manner of sustenance and
protection. It must ])e nursed and fostered,
guarded and protected, fed and refreshed. Witli-
out feeding, without strengthening in tlie widest
sense of the word, it would soon succumb and
perish.
The first and highest cause of this preservation
is God. He is not only the Creator but also the
Preserver of all things. Tf He. did not sustain that
life, called into existenr-p by Himself, from moment
to moment, with His almightly and everywhere
present power it would immediately sink back into
non-existence. And now if it pleased the Almighty,
30 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
He could bring about this sustenance and preserva-
tion of life without using any mediums whatsoeverj
even as He sustained and preserved a Moses for
forty days on the mountain and Jesus for forty
days in tlie wilderness. Or He could bring it about
in an extraordinary manner, even as He send tlie
ravens to feed His servant Elijali at the brf)ok
Cherith, or as He fed the children of Israel for forty
3'ears in the wilderness with bread from Heaven.
But the common and general rule is, that God
brings about this preservation in a mediate way.
He uses food and drink to feed us, and He makes
use of th(^ parents as the natural guardians to pro-
\ide for the manifold and various needs of the
child. The parents are oidiged to collect, to lay up
treasures f(u^ the children. And of those treasures
the children live. They have not merited them,
they can lay no claim to them, they are pure de-
pendency and live by grace.
But even then, it is not really tlie bread that
feeds us, but the word, whicli proceedeth out of
the mouth of God. By bread alone, with notliing
more, man shall not live, but by the word, the com-
mand, the power, the blessing hiid therein and
communicated therethru by God. That and that
only feeds us, whicli it pleases (iod to provide with
strength.
And now what feeding is for the natural life
in the natural Avorld, that is training or bringing
up for the spiritual life in tlie spiritual world. It
v.ould not be a too wondrous <>r a too marvelous
thing for God to preserve and build up man in his
whole spiritual life without nny mediums whatso-
ever. But it pleases Him to have men brought up
THE TRAINING OR BRINGING UP, ETC. 31
and trained by man and especially to allow tliem
to labor with the word unto the forming and up-
building of the spirit. Mind and heart, conscience
and will, disposition and imagination are in this
way, from infancy formed in man tlirough the in-
fluence of others. And also in the feeding and
preservation of the spiritual life, brought into
existence by regeneration, God works in no other
^^'ay or manner.
Parents are in the first place, as instruments m
the hand of God, employed to nourish and foster
the spiritual life in tlieir children and bring it to
maturit3^ Nature itself already indicates this, for
it is in the circle of the family tliat tlie cliildreii
receive their existence and spend the first years of
their life. And God in His revelation is in con-
formity with this His teacliino' in nature. In Israel
the Lord inculcated in tlie parents the duty, that
tliey should declare unto their children and their
children's children the great works that God had
done in tlieir midst; that they should give them
an explanation of the solemn ceremonies in their
service, especially those of the Passover; and that
Ihey should instruct them in the laws, in the
statutes and judgments which God had given unto
His people. Even as the Lord Himself was the
Father and Provider of His people, so the parents
must be the corporeal and spiritual guardians of
their children.
Still stronger is this duty bound unto the hearts
<^»f the pai'ents in t]v^ days of the New Testament.
Jesus calls the children unto Him, by name,
blesses them and promises them the Kingdom of
Heaven. Not less than tlie parents, the children
32 THE SACRIFICE OF PKAISE.
participate in the blessing of Clirist. The Apostles
therefore considered them, even as the adults, ac-
cepted into the communion of Christ and exiiort
tliem to be obedient unto their parents /// the Lord :
and upon the parents they lav the duty not to pro-
voke their children to wrath, but to bring them up
in the nurture and admonition of tlie Lord.
^Mieu Christianity entered tlie world, it again
restored and sanctitied iho broken bands of family
life; it restored the huslmnd to the wife, the mother
to tho children, the cliildren again to tlu' parents.
And under the impression of that moral change a
Church Father wrote that beautiful word : ''Tiic
mother is the glory of the children, the wife the
glory of the husband and both are the glory of
the wife."
In this weighty and responsible task of training
and bringing up, the parents are in the present day
assisted by the school. Because the denmnds for
life, both in knowledge and ability, have become
so much higher and broader, the parents them-
selves are no longer personally able to fulfill the
whole task which rests upon them in the bringing
up of their children. They no longer have the time
neither the ability for it. Therefore next to the
family has come to stand the school; which to be
sure does not relieve the parents of their responsi-
bility and task but nevertheless comes to offer help
and assistance in the keeping and fulfillment of it.
The parents remain called to ])ring their rhildren
up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ;
they must see to it, that the instruction given in
the school is in conformity with this. But the
school continues the education in this line, brings
THE TRAINING OR BRINGING UP, ETC. 33
the Christian training into connection with the re-
quirements which state and society demand of its
future active members; and the purpose of the
school is to mould the children into men of God,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
The churcli also has a task to fulfill in this
training of the children of the covenant. But her
work is essentially distinguished from that of
family and school. It was especially the Reforma-
tion, and among the Reformers specifically, Calvin
who again laid stress and emphasis upon this ec-
clesiastical training of the youth. The catechetical
iustruction, which the church officially, in the name
of the Lord, gives to her youthful, minor members,
has this peculiar and specific purpose, that it leads
the baptized children, in full liberty of faith to
participate in the Holy Supper, and there, with the
whole church, in personal independence and liberty
show the death of the Lord. The instruction of the
church does not include tlie task which awaits the
children in their civil and social life, but it en-
forces the relation which God has laid between the
two signs and seals of his covenant, and purposes
to train and bring up tlie children of the covenant
unto mature, conscious confessing members of tlie
Church of Christ.
If it is thus carried out according to the rule
of the word of tlie Lord, then family, church and
school work together in a most beautiful way. They
do not stand disconnected, side by side, and much
less in opposition to each other; the one does not
break down what the other builds up, but together
they labor in the one great task, the reformation
of man after the image and likeness of God. One
34 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
faith and one baptism binds them together; it is
one confession upon which they all rest; it is one
view of Avorld and life which they impart to the
children for comfort and support in the arena of
this earthly life. Each in its own Avay and yet in
a mutual relation they warn and teach every man
in all wisdom, that they may present him perfect
in Christ Jesus.
i
CHAPTER III.
The Rule of Confession.
Thy word is a lamp unto my
feet, and a light unto my path.
Ps. 119:105.
In the trainiii<»- and briDgiug up unto confes8ion
of the name of the Lord, family and church and
school must use the word of God which comes unto
us in the Holy Scriptures. That word is the founda-
tion, the principle, the rule, and again, at the same
time, the purpose of all confession. We would
have nothing to confess, if God did not give us in
the scriptures His truth to confess. Out of tlie
word of God the spiritual life is fed, so that, grow-
ing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ, it may, in an independent w^ay, interpret
and confess tliat word in its own language Ix^fore
all men.
To be sure, it is not the parent, neither the
teacher, neither the minister of the word ; nor is it
that word in itself which gives and preserves this
spiritual life. For here also, is the saying of Jesus
applicable, that by bread alone, by that word with
nothing more, man shall not live but by all strength
and blessing which proceedeth out of the mouth
of God. It is not, Paul that planteth; neither,
Apollos that watereth; but, God only that giveth
the increase.
3.S
36 THE SACRIFICE OF PKAISE.
But nevertheless it is that word of Holy Writ
in the hand of the parents and of the teac-hers, with
the blessing of the Lord, which serves to feed the
spiritual life of the children. What food is for the
physical, that is tlie word of (lod for the spiritual
life. How sweet have been Thy words unto my
taste I O Lord, yea, sweeter than honey and honey
comb to my mouth I
That word of God c()nies unto us from the tirst
moments of our existence. That, is not tlie tirst
time that it comes unto us when the Bible lies open
before us and we read and search it ; neither do we
come in contact with it for the first time then, w^hen
in the public assembly of the saints it is proclaimed
unto us by a servant of the Most High and we listen
to it. But that word comes unto us from our most
tender infancy. It comes unto us, in the rebuking
of tlie father, in the admonition of the mother, in
the instruction of the teacher, in the fellowship of
our comrades, in the witnessing of our conscience,
in the experiences of life. It is with us upon all
our jiaths, it accompanies us from the cradle to the
grave, it never leaves us to ourselves. As a bene-
diction it is pronounced upon our heads, in psalm
and hymn it is sung unto us, in addresses it is
bound unto our hearts, in commandments or pro-
hibitions it is revealed unto our eyes. By and
through that Word we are always led and guided,
admonished and comforted, encouraged and morti-
fied, convinced of sin and referred to Christ. It is
Uie very atmosphere in which we live and breathe
from our birth, it is the food, the drink, the air, the
sunshine, the rain for our spiritual life, and that
all together and at once.
THE RULE OF CONFESSION. 37
And always is that Word a power. Without
wishing or being able to designate when it already
exerts its influence upon the conscience and heart of
man, it remains in itself always a powder of God
unto salvation. Never is it a vain sound, a dead
letter, a meaningless phrase. It is always quick
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit, and of the joints and marrow, a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart ; a hammer
which breaketh in pieces the hard and stony heart
of the sinner; a sword of the spirit that mortally
wounds the proud and self-righteous man; a testi-
mony and witness of God that awakeneth the con-
science; a seed of regeneration, a power unto sanc-
tification, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness, that
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all good works ; in a word, a means
of grace, preceding and highly exalted above the
sacraments.
Even there, where it does not bring and com-
mand a blessing, it nevertheless does its work and
exerts its influence. The devils believe and tremble.
For Atheists, unbelievers, it is a savour of deatli
unto death. It is a stone of stumbling, a rock of
offense over and against which the godless stumble
and are hurt. If it does not soften, it hardens. If
it does not warm, it scorches. A man coming in
contact witli it never remains the same ; he becomes
better or worse, but can never cover himself witli
the shield of neutrality. Even as the rain and the
snow cometh down from Heaven, and returneth
not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it
SH the sackifice uf praise.
bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the
sower, and bread to the eater : so shall my Word
be that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not
return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I sent it.
The cause of this power lies therein, that it is
God^s Word. All scripture was not only once given
by inspiration of God but it is also as such con-
tinually preserved by God with His Almighty and
everywhere present jDOwer. The Gospel, which
comes forth out of that Word unto man in mani-
fold forms and along various Avays, is always borne
and animated by God. It is and always remains
His Word. It is constantly accompanied by the
Holy Spirit, who lives and dwells in the churcli
and from out of her goes into the world and con-
vinces her of sin, righteousness and judgment. It
is a Word, that continually proceeds out of the
mouth of God, that comes unto us in Christ, and
that through the Spirit of Christ is declared unto
our heart or conscience.
Therefore, that Word can be and indeed is the
meat and drink of our spiritual lives. It is the
medium, not tlie fountain of grace. God is and
remains the giver and dispenser of all grace; no
man, no priest, no word, no sacrament has been
clothed by Him with the treasure of grace or com-
missioned to dispense her. Servants can give the
sign and seal, but God only grants the sealed and
sigTiified fact. This onlv has God done — and this
also is grace — He has in His free power and
pleasure bound Himself under oath to grant witli
His word, which is administered in full accord
THE RULE OF CONFESSION. 39
with the meaning of the Spirit, unto each and
every one, who believingly accepts it, Christ, who
is the meat and drink of our souls, the bread that
lias come down from Heaven, the w^ater of life,
drinking of w^hich we shall never again thirst.
But to be thus, that Word must be believed
with a child-like faith and accepted in humility.
Even as bread, however powerful and nourishing
it may be, can only be profitable for the preserva-
tion of our natural lives then, wiien it is eaten with
the mouth and received into the body — even so can
the Word of God be food for our souls only then,
when it is accepted by faith and is implanted in
our hearts.
Therefore hath the Lord also destined them the
one for the other. He, who created the food, also
created the mouth to eat it. He, who gave the
Word, also brought to light through regeneration
that new^ life which can only be fed and strength-
ened by the food of that Word.
They are related and by origin stand in a close
relation to each other. The Word works and
strengthens the spiritual life. And the spiritual
life, by virtue of its nature, is naturally drawn
toward and longs for this food, even, as an infant
for its mother's breast, as the hungry for bread and
the thirsty for water.
Furthermore they are both descended from one
Spirit. In the sphere of natural things there is a
possibility of knowledge only because the reason
in us and the thoughts in the creation, together
and in their mutual relation, have been made by
that Word which in the beginning w^as with God,
which w^as God, and by which all things have been
40 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
made. It is one aud the same light that enlightens
both the eye and the objects. One and the same
light of knowledge shines in the human reason and
in the works of God's hand. And then only, does
man see and know, when both of these streams of
light, coming from one fountain, meet each other.
With Thee, O Lord, is the fountain of life ; in Thy
light shall w^e see light!
Thus, also the spiritual man and the Word of
the Spirit belong together. It is the same Si)irit,
the Spirit of Christ namely, who brought the \Voi*(l
into existence and preserves it in existence, and
who made the spiritual man to be born in us. In
Holy Writ He has, as it were, pictured Christ unto
and before our eyes; and in our heart He makes
Him live by faith. In Holy Writ He has sketchcMl
for us the image of Christ and according to that
image He recreates the believer more and mon^
For we all, with open face beholding as in a glass
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Si)irit of
the Lord.
Therefore it is an infallible, undeceivable mark
of spiritual life, when our heart yearns after and
longs for that Word. Perfectly natural and as a
matter of fact the hungry longs for bread and the
thirsty for w^ater and the sick for medicine. And
just as naturally, the spiritual man longingly
reaches for the Word of God and for (/hrist who is
offered unto him in that Word. He never gi\)ws
beyond that Word, as the mystic dreams; he does
not use that Word as a ladder to ascend to a cer-
tain height, then to spread his own wings and sup-
port himself. Nay indeed, h(^ who does this will
THE RULE OF CONFESSION. 41
soon be humiliated and put to shame. He, who
refuses food will soon starve. He, who has no re-
spect for the Word of Christ does not love the
J^ord. He, who casts away the medicine has no
need of a physician.
But the spiritual man, as long as he lives and
with his whole soul, feels himself bound to that
Word as the medium unto the communion and fel-
lowship with Crod, because God, even God, has
bound Himself to that ^^'ord. The more he grows
and the stronger he becomes, the more he becomes
founded in that Word. He clings and cleaves to it
even as the ivy to the wall. He leans upon it as
upon the rod and staff of his pilgrimage. He be-
comes more and uiore attached to it, also more and
more bound to it. His love for it becomes stronger
and stronger. His estimation of its worthiness
continually becomes greater and he constantly
finds new and richer treasures in it for his heart
and life. More and more it becomes for him a
Word of God, a word that comes unto him from
the Almighty Lord, a letter from his Father sent
unto him from Heaven, to be a guide upon the way
to the Father's house with its many, many man-
sions. Th}^ Word is a light upon my path and a
lamp for my foot. How love I Thy law, O Lord, it
is my meditation all the day.
Therefore every child of the covenant, even from
his sleeping infancy, must and ought to be fed by
his parents with that word. We cannot, if it is
done with wisdom, begin too soon. Already the
respectful attitude of the older ones at the time of
prayer and the reading of God's Word awakens in
the heart of the child a feeling of the sacredness
42 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
of this service, a feeling which very often remains
with him unto the last years of his life. The short
prayer, before and after each meal, and at the time
of retiring and awakening, implanted in the child's
heart very often leaves impressions that are not to
be blotted out and even in after life make us still
remember the pious years of our youth. Certainly
we do not have to wait with teaching our little
children religious words and prayers until they
can understand the facts, as if otherwise we were
only making little hypocrites of them, for we learn
the facts by and through words even as we learn
words by and through facts; the one assists the
other. And in general there is a remarkable re-
semblance between the feeling of dependence and
humilitv which is a child's bv nature and the state
or spirit in which the Lord God loves to see us and
which is most pleasing unto Him. If we do not
become like unto little children we shall in no wise
enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
But then this bringing of God's Word unto the
children must, at the same time, be both instruc-
tion and training, at the same time working upon
mind and heart, and together influencing botli
knowledge and actions. We must watch against
the extremes, both of orthodoxy and pietism. Re-
ligion is not only knowledge but also life; man has
not only consciousness but also feeling and will.
In His law God requires that we shall serve Him
not with our whole mind only, but also with our
whole heart, and soul, and all power shall w^e love
Him.
Instruction therefore must take place — instruc-
tion in the doctrines of tli(^ truth, carefullv and
THE RULE OF CONFESSION. 43
exactly, !su that pure representations, clear ideas,
and correct judgments may be implanted in the
child, and an essential knowledge of the truth may
be formed in its consciousness or mind. The cul-
tivation of emotions and the awakening of affec-
tions without true and clear representations is even
dangerous; it is detrimental to the truth, opens the
door for falsehood and errors and is very often the
cause of great and gross excesses.
But nevertheless clear representations and pure
ideas are not sufficient. But indeed, hardly any-
where and especially in the religious sphere, it is
almost an utter impossibility to obtain and possess
these without being influenced in our disposition
and heart. For, a right understanding and an es-
sential knowledge is never obtained without the
heart. In all learning there must of necessity be
attention, interest, love; if we do not know a cer-
tain thing we do not love it, we really and in truth
only know that which we love in the deepest depths
of our souls.
The training, the ])ringing up of a child does
not, therefore, follow upon instruction. We are
not first to work upon the mind and then after-
wards turn to the heart. We are not to implant
pure and clear ideas of the truth into the mind,
hoping that tliey will afterwards be accepted with
a true faith of the heart, then to influence the life
and actions. Nay indeed, but from the very begin-
ning, training, bringing up and instruction must
go hand in hand. The instruction itself ought
always to bear a training, a pedagogical character.
The truth of God is of such a nature that it can-
not be understod rightly without a true and up-
44 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
right faitli of tlie heart. He, who impresses the
triitli np(3n his mind, witliout having his heart in it,
receives only the image of the things, while he re-
mains a stranger unto the things themselves.
Therefore the influencing of mind and will, the
preparing to know and do, the supptying of pure,
clear representations, and the awakening of atfec-
tions and emotions should always go together. We
may not separate the words from the facts, neither
the facts from the words. For God has united
these two. He binds Himself to give unto ever^^-
one, who in truth believes the Word, the thing sig-
nified thereby. He, who knows God in the face of
Christ, has eternal life. When we therefore speak
of God, of Christ, etc., then these names may not
])e mere sounds unto us, but we must think of Them
who are represented thereby. Then the Gospel be-
comes rich; then it is not an abstract system of
doctrines, but a world of invisible, eternal treas-
ures, which are signified and sealed, indicated and
granted unto us therein.
When in this way, in Itonic and .^cJiooI and
catechism, instruction and training united with
truth work together, then we may expect, that, with
the blessing of the Lord the spiritual life will come
1o development and maturity, l)looming forth into
faith and conversion, and finally manifest itself
externally in a confession with mouth and heart.
It alwavs remains true however, that the in-
crease must come from above. If the Lord does
not build the house, then the laborers work thereon
in vain. Parents and teachers and ministers are
nothing but instruments in His hand. He is the
(»nly, true Father and Trainer of His children, who
thp: rule of confession. 45
feeds and leads, preserves and protects, strengthens
and perfects them. Not needing to be served by the
hand of man, He Himself gives unto all, life, breath
and all things. He governs and regulates the'
power of the Word and the working of the Spirit.
Jesus is the vine, and the l)elievers are the
branches, and the Heavenly Father is the Hus-
bandman.
CHAPTER IV.
The Essence of Confession.
// thoti shall confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath
raised Him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For zvith the heart
man believeth unto righteousness
and zvith the mouth confession is
made unto salvation.
Romans lo : 9, 10.
Evervthiug- that lives and grows lias need of
lime. A machine can quickly, in a few moments,
be put together. But life and growth are not to be
forced. Artificial promotion of growth produces
or brings forth hot house plants which are not able
to withstand storm and tempest.
Also, our spiritual life is subject to this law of
development under w^hich all organical beings have
been created. Holy Writ admits of various and
manifold differences amongst the children of God.
It speaks of lambs and sucklings in the sheepfold
of Jesus ; it makes mention of children, of youths,
and of Fathers in the faith ; it makes a distinction
between those w^ho are still under age and those
^ ho have already attained their majority and in
connection herewith also between the milk and the
46
THE ESSENCE OF CONFESSION. 47
strong meat of the truth, which must be admin-
istered unto the believers. Again and again we are
admonished and exhorted, to grow in the knowl-
edge and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to put on
the new man created after God in true righteous-
ness and holiness, to become strengthened in the
inward man and renewed in the spirit of our minds.
Even as the natural, so also, must the spiritual
life be developed. It may not remain hid from man,
neither may it, as a treasure, be buried in the earth,
nor can it be consigned to inactivity. Life is a
stranger to all indolence and idleness. Life is exer-
tion, life is power, life is action, everything that
lives^ moves and develops itself. In its growth it
can be hindered and checked, but as long as life is
there, action is inseparable from it. In a still
greater measure is this true of the spiritual life,
which is implanted in regeneration through the
Holy Spirit and bears an eternal, indestructable
character. Wherever it is, it reveals itself, it ap-
pears in word and deed, it develops into activities
of faith and conversion and where faith is present,
confession is given therewith as a matter of fact.
Confession is an excellent word for a still more
excellent and glorious fact. But to a great extent
and in a great measure it has lost its beauty and
power for our minds. AVhen Ave use it or hear it
used by others, we generally, immediately think of
the confessional writings of this or that Christian
Church, or we think of the public confession, which
is made, once in their lives, by the youthful mem-
bers of the church before they are permitted to par-
take of the Lord's Supper!"
But these meanings of the word '^Confession''
48 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
are relative. The original meaning in Scripture is
much richer and deeper. According to this original
meaning, confessing is nothing else and nothing
less than one's openly and publicly testifying and
witnessing of personal faith in Jesus as tlie Christ.
Two things are then included in this. Fii\st, a
true, upright faith, a deep, firm conviction of heart.
In the true sense of the word no confessing is pos-
sible, if there is no faith in the heart. Confessing
is a thing of the heart. It is rooted in the heart.
It comes up out of the lieart. It is a fruit of the
faith of the heart. Without that faith, confessing
becomes a worthless work of the lips, an exterual
repetition with the mouth, an impersonal, untrue,
hypocritical work, which is not worthy of the beau-
tiful name, confession; an act refuted and con-
demned by Christ with holy wrath in the Phari-
saism of His day. All such dissemblers are like
unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beau-
tiful without, but within are full of dead men's
bones, and of all uncleanness.
But in the second place there is included in the
true confessing, the fact, that the faith of the heart
is not ashamed of itself but reveals itself in openly
and publicly testifying and witnessing. He, who
does not believe, cannot confess. But he, who does
believe in truth and uprightness, must confess; he
cannot remain silent; he must speak to the ear of
friend and enemy, before the face of God, of angels,
and of men. Whatever insult, disgrace, and scorn
may follow, whatever hatred, and persecution it
may awaken, He, who believes, spc^aks: loud, power-
ful, free. We believe, therefore we speak.
Jeremiah by his prophesying made himself a
THE ESSENCE OF CONFESSION. 49
mock and derision in the midst of his people, but
nevertheless he could not keep silent. The Lord
constrained him, was too strong for him and
triumphed over him. Although he said, I will not
make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His
name, tlie Word, which the Lord put in his heart,
became as a burning fire shut up in his bones.
When the lion roars, Avho will not fear? When tlie
I>ord speaks, who will not prophesy?
Believing witli the heart and confessing with
tlie mouth tlierefore accompany each other, and b<^-
long inseparably together. He, who believes aiidoes not confess, is just as mucli in contrawith the law of Ood as he, who confesses and do-"^
not believe. Botli are necessary, said a certain
church Father, a true, firm faith and a free confes-
sion, so that the lieart may be ornauu'uted with the
certainty of faith and the tongue may fearlesslx
confess the trutli. And anotlier hath witnessed : Tlu^
heart has need of the mouth, for wluit fruit can it
bring forth, to believe with the heart, without pub-
licly confessing before men? The faith of the heart
may justify, the perfect salvation nevertheless,
lieth in confession. Tiien only does faith sliine
when it reveals itself in confessing, and then only
are many benefited and profited by it. On the
other hand, the mouth has need of the heart, for
many there are wlio confess Christ but whose
hearts are far from Hiui.
Thus also s])eaks the Apostle Paul, when h(*
says, that the fnith of the heart grants righteous-
ness but that tlie confession of the mouth must a-c-
company it to obtain salvntiou. To be sure, it is
true that these two cannot be sei)arated in our
PROPERTY OF
ZAREPHATH LIBRARY
50 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
thoughts, no more than the confession of the Lord
Jesus can be separated from the faith in His resur-
rection. Faith and confession are as inseparably
bound together as the Lordship of Jesus and His
resurrection from the dead; as inseparably, as
righteousness and salvation. But nevertheless, is
it true — and that is what the Apostle Paul wishes
to make known — that, although the faith of the
heart justifies, nevertheless this faith is first known
and proves itself to be the true, justifying faith,
when it reveals itself in confession. Faith, not
confession, justifies. But that, this faith is the true
faitJi first becomes evident in the confessing. TIk*
true, justifying faith only leads unto salvation n\
the way of confession. AA'ithout holiness shall no
one see God. Without confession, as fruit of faitli,
shall no one enter Heaven. Confession is not tlic
meriting cause but it is the royal, the kingly way
unto salvation.
Faith and confession therefore also exert an in
fluence upon each other and are a mutual pro])
and support. The faith that does not confess be-
comes shy, timid, retracts, begins to pine away, or
is sometimes even discovered in its falseness and
unfaithfulness. And the confession without faitli
is nothing more than a flower without a stem, it
withers and falls to pieces. On the other hand,
by and through confessing, faith gains in strength,
power, and vitality, becomes more firmly founded,
and shoots its roots deeper and deeper into th(^
ground of the heart and by and through faith, con-
fessing receives its animation and fire, gains iu
courage and freeness, and as by a secret, invisible
flame it is constantly preserved and fed.
THE ESSENCE OF CONFESSION. 51
From this it then also follows, that the so-called
public confession of faith is not a loose, separated
fact, which takes place once and thereAvith is con-
cluded forever. Such an interpretation is still pos-
sessed and found witli many. A few weeks before-
liand they x>repare themselves for the solemn hour
of confession. Durino- this preparatory season
they withdraw and will hold themselves from pub-
lic amusements. More regularly they attend cliurch
and catechism. On the day of confession they ap-
pear in a new frock or suit. Probably after this,
they once partake of the Lord's Supper. But then
(everything is forgotten. Life resumes its former
old course and proceeds as if nothing whatever had
taken place.
Such confessing is not in any way worthy of
the name, confession. It does not stand higher
than this: A work, which was accepted, being
finished, is delivered. Such a confession is nothing
nu)re than an old custom, which is kept up and fol-
h)Aved unconsciously and thoughtlessly.
Such a work, such an action is not making con-
fession of faith. Confessing is much richer of
meaning and much greater in significance. Cer-
tainly it is an earnest matter and a solemn, im-
pressive hour when youthful members for the first
time in the midst of the congregation make con-
fession of their personal faith. It is a mile post
upon the way of life, the coming to majority of the
minor child, the entering in unto all the rights and
privileges granted by Christ to His believers. Uut<»
that affirmative answer, which aac then gi^•e we are
bound for time and eternity, (iod holds us firmly
unto that and will one day judge us according to it.
52 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
Christ keeps it in remembrance and will one day
call for an account of it. The Holy Spirit will keep
and preserve it in our minds and remembrance and
will refer and point us to it again and again, even
unto the hour of death, yea, even unto all eternity.
It shall one day, in the day of days, testify for us
and if not, then against us— it Avill fly up in our
face and make our condemnation the heavier.
But this confessing of our faith is not a matter,
an action, a work whicli stands by itself and wliicli
sustains no relation to our preceding and follow-
ing life. It is not a sacrament as the churcli of
Rome has made it. It bears in itself no special,
supernatural holiness. It is not, as it were by a
fence, separated from the sphere of unconsecrated
life. It does not incorporate us into a new com
pan3^, into a special rank and file amongst tlic
soldiers under Christ Jesus as King. However im-
portant and however earnest the making of public
confession may be it does not stand disconnected,
by itself, but is closely related to and in the closest
way it is connected with our preceding and follow-
ing confessions.
This one public confession is preceded by a daily
confession. All faith confesses, be it, according to
its own measure, in its own manner and in its own
language. The faith of the playing child, of the
happy and cheerful boy, of the lively youth also
confesses — in its own way and manner!! If faitli
is only of the true caliber, if there is only true,
childlike fear of God in the heart, it always^ comes
to light and makes its appearance. It reveals it-
self and we can see and behold it in the piousness
of desires, in the uprightness of mind, in the tender-
THE ESSENCE OF CONFESSION. t)3
ness of heart, in the respect for things holy antl
sacred, in the pleasure to pray, in the fear of what
is evil and wicked, in the holding back of them-
selves and others from what is not right but sinful.
Confessing! that is what our children do even from
their infancy and their confessions are pleasing
unto the ear of God.
Nevertheless, what saith the Scriptures? Let
the little children come unto Me and hinder them
not, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Because
the name of the Lord is excellent in all the eartli
He ordains strength out of tlie mouth of babes and
sucklings that He may still the enemy and the
avenger. The small and weak is chosen by the
Lord to put to shame thereby the great and mighty.
Children in their simplicity, in their uprightness,
in their guilelessness and humility are proclaimers
of the glory and excellency of God, which is shed
abroad throughout the whole earth and which 1ms
revealed itself the brightest in Christ.
And even as the making of public confession is
preceded by a confession from infancy, so also is
and must it be folloifed by a confession throughout
the whole life, even unto the hour of death.
It is true, the public confession in the midst of
the congregation is, in the first place, to obtain per-
mission unto the table of the Lord. It opens the
access unto the table of the covenant. And thus it
appears to separate Baptism and the Lord's Sup-
per from each other. But indeed and in truth this
is not so, it rather binds and holds them together.
And thus it also ought to be. Baptism and the
Lord's Supper are sacraments of the same worth
and worthiness. They have the same power and
r»l Tin: SACKIFK'K OF ['UAISl::.
signiticaiice. They are signs and seals of the same
covenant. Both of tlieni with the Word are ap-
pointed and ordained tliereto, that tliey direct our
faith to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross,
as to the one ground and foundation of our salva-
tion. These two sacraments are also given and
granted unto the same believers. In the New Testa-
ment baptism was mostly administered unto
adults ; confession therefore preceded baptism ; lu*
who was baptized liad access immediately unto th(^
Lord's table.
But when infant baptism became the general
practice there naturally and gradually came a
separation. To l)e sure, baptism can be admin-
istered unto children of the covenant for it is the
sacrament of regeneration and incorporation into
the Church of Christ. But tlie Lord's Supper sup-
poses, that we ourselves accept tlie broken bread
and eat, that we ourselves receive the cup and
drink. The right use of the Lord's Supper ought
to be and must be preceded tlierefore by the ability
to examine and prove ourselves and discern the
body of the Lord. It is the sacrament of the in-
creasing and upbuilding of the spiritual life in the
communion and fellowship of the Lord Jesus, and
is therefor also repeated from time to time.
Consequently confession gradually took in a
place between l)aptism and communion, not to sepa-
rate them but just the reverse, to hold them in their
mutual relation and to lead from baptism to com-
munion. Confession supposes baptism and pre-
pares for communion. In confession the baptized
child acce])ts its own baptism and desires to re-
c(Mve jK'cess to the second sign and seal of the cov-
THE ESSENCE OF CONFESSION. 5o
enant. Out of grace (lod accepted and adopted
him an His child, and now he, having come to year.s
of understanding and discretion and to conscious-
ness of his life and duty, humbly and childlike but
also believingiy and sure, confesses before all men
that God is His God. He puts his hand in the
hand of God. Freely and with clear consciousness
lie admits and accepts the covenant relation in
wliich he was accepted from his birth. Upon the
affirmation of the Lord : I am your (lOd. He now
answers: And I am Thy servant, a son of thine
handmaid, Thou hast loosed my bonds. God trains
and brings up all of His children unto liberty and
self-dependence. In the day of His power He de-
sires a willing people. We love Him because He
first loved us.
That is what the believer proclaims, when in
the solemn hour of his confession, he is given access
to the Supper of the Lord. Of that he also makes
confession, when with the congregation he sits at
the table of the Lord. In the sacrament the em-
phasis, in the first place, is certainly laid upon
what God does, upon His gift, upon His grace.
Therein, He offers unto us the Christ with all the
profits and benefits merited by Him. The Lord's
Supper was specifically instituted by our Savior
Jesus Christ for the purpose of feeding and pre-
serving those whom He had already regenerated
and incorporated into His family, which is His
Church. It is His flesh that w^e eat, and His blood
that we drink wdth the mouth of faith, for the
strengthening of our spiritual life.
But then, in the second place, the sacrament is
from our side a confession of faith. The Lord's
56 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
Supper is preceded by the true proving and ex-
amining of ourselves, whic'li consists in three
things.
First we are to consider by ourselves our sins
and the curse due unto us for them, to the end that
we may abhor and humble ourselves before God.
Secondly, we are to examine, our own hearts
^^'hether we do believe this faithful promise of God,
that all our sins are forgiven us, only for the sake
of the passion and death of Jesus Christ and that
the perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed and
freely given unto us as our own. Finally, we are
to examine our own conscience \\']»ether we pur
pose henceforth to show true thankfulness to God
in our whole life, and to walk uprightly before
Him.
\^liat a significant confession we therefore make
when we come to the Lord's Supper I AVe do not
come to it to testify that we are perfect and right-
eous in ourselves; Init on the ccmtrary, consider-
ing that we seek our life out of ourselves in Jesus
Christ, we acknowledge that we lie in the midst of
death. We confess in this sacrament that Jesus
Christ is the true meat and drink of our souls, and
that we are members of His bod}'. For it is one
bread, thus we, being many, are one body, for Ave
all are partakers of one bread.
However that Supper of the Lord does not
stand far without and highly exalted above our
life. Certainly it is extraordinary in this sense,
that every time and anew we are met in this sacra-
ment by God's specific grace, and it is revealed in
a particular way unto our eyes and assured unto
our hearts. Very often the Lord's Supper also
'VllK KSSEXCK OF CONFESSION. 5<
^:eems strange autl wondrous to us, because it is
only celebrated a few times in a year and then not
faithfully and not nejudy by all. But the grace
which is granted unto us in this sacrament is no
other than that which constanth' accompanies tlie
>\'ord of the Gospel and feeds us day by day. In
the first Christian congregations therefore tlie
Lord's 8ui3per was celebrated not only every Sab-
bath but also at the weekly meetings of the be-
lievers. It was tlie height of their service, the com-
munion of saints, the sustenance wliicli they re-
ceived every time for their pilgrimage.
In the Lord's Supper is signified and sealed the
communion and fellow ship of Christ, which we, at
all times, possess in the Word, and enjoy through
faitli. And of that faith we not only witness and
testify when we sit at the table of the covenant,
neither only on Sunday, wiien with the congrega-
tion we go up to the house of prayer.
But, as surely as we are true believers, w^e make
confession of that faith throughout our whole life.
I-'or faitJi cannot do otherw^ise, it must confess. It
does not ask whether good works ought to be and
must be done, but before the question can arise it
has already done them. Confession with moutli
and lieart, with word and deed, in life and walk is
inseparable from the faith of the heart. It is the
fruit of the tree, the scent of the flower, the light
of the sun, the sw^eetness of the honey. It is im-
possible, that anyone implanted into Christ by a
true faith should not bring forth fruits of grati-
tude.
He who believes, confesses, not only on Sunday
but also during the w^eek, not onh^ in the church
58 THE SACRIFICE OP PRAISE.
but also in tlie home and school, in shop and fac-
tory, in ofticc and store, in civil and social life, in
learning and science, ann)nnst friends and enemies,
before anoeis and mt^i.
He confesses in npholdino- and supporting the
public service of tlie church, in acts of Christian
assistance, in the supporting- of Christian instruc-
tion, in the caring for the poor, in the visiting of
llie bound and imprisoned, in the clothing of the
naked, in the feeding of the hungry, in the com-
forting of tlie weeping, in admonishing the unruly,
in exhorting the disputers and unbelievers, in
giving account of the hope which is in him, in keep-
ing himself unspotted from the world.
He who believes, confesses. His life itself be-
comes a confession, a living, holy, God-pleasing
sacrifice in Christ Jesus.
CHAPTER V.
The Contents of Confession.
And Philip said, If thou believ-
est zmth all thine heart, thou
mayest, and he ansivered and said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. Acts 8:37.
According to Holy Writ two things especially
constitute the contents of confession.
In the first place every true confession contains
an acknowledgment of our guilt and sin. In the
days of the Old Testament, upon the great day of
propitiation the High Priest was obliged to lay
both of his hands upon the head of the living goat,
confessing thereover all the unrighteousness of the
children of Israel and all their transgressions, of
whatever nature their sins might be, and therewith
laying them upon the head of the goat send him
away into the wilderness.
That was a common, a general confession made
by the High Priest, in the name of the whole nation.
But this common, general confession did not ex-
clude the persona], individual confession of sins.
For, this personal, individual confession is heard
again and again in the books of the old covenant,
especially in the so-called penitential psalms. It
also forms an important part of the prayers of the
59
00 Tin: SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
saints, of David aiul {Solomon, of Isaiah and Jere-
i.iiali and Daniel.
Tlieic is not a pc^oplo or nation in the world
tliat lias UAt so deeply, and has confessed so hnmbly
the liiiilt of sin as the children of Israel. Mine
iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am
not able to look up; the^^ are more than the hairs
(;f mine head. There is no rest in my bones be-
cause of my sin, for mine inicpiities are gone over
mine head; as an heavy burden they are too heavy
for me. Enter not into judgment with thy ser-
vant : for in tliy sight shall no man living be justi-
fied. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O
Lord, who shall stand.
And this confession of sins passes over into the
church of tlu^ New Testament. When John the
Baptist appeared witli the preaching of repentance,
nmuy were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing
their sins. Jesus granted unto the multitude of
sufferers who came unto Him, yery often not only
tlie healing of the diseases of the body but also a
still greater gift, namely, the forgiveness of their
sins and deliverance of their soul. Upon the lips
of His disciples He laid the prayer: Father, for-
give us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. In
the parable of the Publican He shows us the spirit,
in which it behooves us to be when we come before
(xod, the Righteousness and the Holy. The pub-
lican standing afar off would not lift up so much
as his eyes unto Heaven, but smote* upon his breast,
saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. Certainly,
if we confess our sins, God is true and faithful and
righteous and v.'ill forgive us our sins, and cleanse
ns from all unrighteousness.
THE CONTENTS OF CONFESSION. 01
But however significant and important, how-
ever necessary this confession of sins is, neverthe-
less in itself, it is not sufficient. The truth or doc-
trine of our misery does not stand by itself but it
prepares the way for the truths or doctrines of de-
liverance and gratitude. Yea, he who truly realizes
and confesses his sins and misery, is already a be-
liever. In the Lord's days of the Heidelberg Cate-
cliism which treat on the misery of man, it is not
tlie unbeliever but the Christian who speaks; on(?
wlio in tlje first division has already gloried in his
only comfort and confessed, that he, with body and
soul, botli in life and deatli, is no longer his own
but liis faithful Savior Jesus Christ's.
Tlu' true, upriglit confession of guilt is already
a fruit of saving faitli. For he, who in truth and
humility confesses his sins, has certainly already
sought tlie Lord, has placed himself before God's
countenance and finds himself in the presence of
the Almighty, and this he cannot do but in the
belief that the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow
to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
To be sure, there is a certain acknowledgement
of sins, which is without faith. Also children of
the world often come to consciousness of the great
miserableness of their existence. Cain said, ''Mv
punishment is greater than I can bear," and Judas
cried out, ^'I have sinned in that I have betraved
the innocent blood.'' There is a cry of despair
which is not born of a contrite heart, but which is
brought forth by the fearful consequences of sin.
There is a remorse and hopelessness, which does
not drive one toward God but whicli causes a flee-
ing away from and a rebelling against Him. There
G2 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
is a sorrow of the world which worketh not a re-
pentance to salvation not to be repented of, but
which worketh death.
But the true confession of sins is entirely dif-
ferent than this cry of despair and bears an en-
tirely different character. It comes up out of a
contrite spirit, which is not despised by God but
pleasing unto Him. It has respect not unto the
consequences but unto the essence, unto the guilt
of sin, because it displeases God and is in contra-
diction with His law. It consists in a liearty re-
pentance, that we have provoked CJod to anger with
our sins, that we have sinned against Plis right-
eousness, yea more, that we have so grossly sinned
against His love. For thus hath Jesus once said :
^^If I had not come and spoken unto them, tliey had
not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their
sin.''
Til is confession is accompanied with a sorrow
unto God and worketli a repentance to salvation
not to be repented of. It is made before God's
countenance and holds nothing back or secret from
Him. It is accompanied with and is born of a faitli
that recognizes God not only to be righteous but
also gracious and merciful. It is also, already a
confession of faith ; it is of and by or through and
unto faith. Faith does not first take a beginning
after the knowledge of misery but precedes this and
gives it its right form. Above tlie law shines the
word of grace: "I am the Lord, your God." The
true conversion is a part of thankfulness and
gratitude.
Therefore Holy \A'rit teaches us that confession,
in the second place, contains n confession of the
THE CONTENTS OF CONFESSION. 63
name of the Lord. Conversion and confession of
the Lord's name belong together. For confession
of that name signifies the hearty, believing acknowl-
edgment that the Lord, Jehovah, is the God of the
covenant, who has revealed Himself as the faith-
ful and merciful and who fulfills all of His
promises of grace in Christ. He who repents with
a true and upright heart, turns to God, the living
God, who in Christ is a reconciled Father.
Therefore, John the Baptist, appearing in the
days of the New Testament, calls not only to re-
pentance and confession of sins, but also points to
the Lamb of God that beareth awa}- the sin of the
world. He was not a preacher of the law and of
penitence only, but also a herald of the gospel and
a preacher of faith. The Kingdom of Heaven had
come nigh, had it not? And after him came He,
who \\'dH preferred before him, whose shoe latchet
he was not worthy to unloose. John administered
the baptism unto a sign and seal of the forgiveness
of sins, which is granted and obtained in the way
of repentance.
In the New Testament the whole contents of
the confession of faith is constantly taken together
or expressed in the few words, that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of the living God. He, who con-
fesses Him as such before man, will one day be
confessed bv Him before His Fatlier which is in
Heaven. In an earnest, solemn moment when many
of Jesus' disciples went back and no longer desired
to walk with Him, He masked the twelve: "Will ye
also go away?" But Simon Peter answered for
them all: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. And we believe and are
(U THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living
God." As soon as the Eunuch made this good con-
fession he was immediateh' baptized by Philip. By
tills confession, that Jesus Christ appeared in the
lies] I, are the spirits known. Therefore, whosoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abidetli
in him and he in God.
Jesus the promised Messiali, tiie divinely
anointed Propliet and Priest and Kini; — tliat is the
short, tlie brief contents of the whole Cliristian
faith. It is tlie pith of revelation, tlie heart of
Holy Writ, the bone and marrow of all confession,
the central dogma of all the truths of salvatiim,
the center of light from which all the streams and
rays of the knowledge of God proceed to the cir-
cumference. The Person of Christ determines the
essence of Christianity.
AVith this confession the Church of Christ ac-
cepted its own, independent place in the midst of
Jews and Gentiles. By it, she was distinguished
and separated from both. From out of it, she con-
stantly came to a richer development of her faith
and life. At first everyone was baptized who made
confession of the Lord Jesus. After a while this
confession was increased to that of the name of the
Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. In
the twelve articles of our Catholic, undoubted.
Christian faith, this confession receives a still
greater development. FimiUy in th(» different con-
fessions of the Christian Church all of these articles
have been more closely studied and better ex-
l)lained. The confessions are, as it were, branches
and leaves ))roceeding from tin* oue tree which, in
THE CONTENTS OF CONFESSION. 65
the belief that Jesus is the Christ, at the beginning
was planted in the ground of the church.
To be sure, we find supposed in this short, brief
confession, creation and fall, sin and misery. As
it were in a germ, the whole Person of Christ, with
His names and natures, Avith His offices and states,
lies comprehended in it. The whole order of salva-
tion, for the individual, for humanity, for the
world is intricately contained or included in it. In
the Cross of Christ Avhich is an offense unto the
Jews and foolishness unto the Greeks; sin and
grace, law and gospel, justice and mercy, guilt and
forgiveness are united and reconciled. At that
Cross, God and the world. Heaven and eartli,
angels and men, peoples and nations extend to one
another the hand of peace. For by the Cross of
Christ, God has reconciled the world unto Him-
self — not imputing her trespasses unto her, and,
triumphed over all authority and powers.
In the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we par-
ticipate in the love of the Father and enjoy the
communion of the Holy Spirit.
CHAPTER VI.
The Diversity of Confession.
We do hear them speak in our
tongues the wonderful works of
God. Acts 2:11.
In the first days, the short, brief confession,
that Jesns was the Christ, the son of the living
God, was sufficient for the church.
But this time of simple, child-like faith did not
and could not continue long. The opposition from
without as well as the awakening of thought within
her own circle compelled the church to give more
and more a clearer and plainer account of the con-
tents of her faith.
And from that moment all manner of differ-
ence and dispute revealed itself. The unity of con-
fession was soon and forever lost. Although the
church and state in all times, by all manner of com-
pulsion tried to retain the unity of confession, even
if it were but in appearance, the process of divid-
ing and separating has proceeded even unto the
present day. There is everywhere discord and con-
troversy amongst Christians. Churches and indi-
viduals in the name of Christ and calling upon His
Word stand in opposition and enmity to one an-
other. The multiformity of the Christian faith yet
66
THE DIVERSITY OF CONFESSION. 67
increases continually. A restoration of unity need
no longer be expected in this world.
In this division and separation of Christians
lies a great disappointment. We have, have we
not, only one God, the Father, out of whom are all
things and we unto Him, and only one Lord Jesus
Christ, by and through whom are all things and we
through Him? The Church is one body and one
spirit, even as she is called in one hope of her call-
ing, and possesses only one Lord, one faith, one
baptism. Jesus, Himself, prayed for the unity of
His disciples, that the world might believe that the
Father had sent Him. Thus we might also expect
that the confession which flows from the lips of
the Church should be one.
But even more than this, the existing division
and separation is not only a grievous disappoint-
ment, it is also a great sin before God. As Chris-
tians we cannot humble ourselves enough on ac-
count of it. It is a great and weighty accusation
against us, because it especially finds its cause in
the darkness of our understandings and the un-
charitableness of our hearts.
Neither may this division and separation be
alleviated by saying, that the confessions, which
have gradually come to stand side by side in the
Christian Church, are to be considered as different
expressions of one and the same truth. For these
confessions do not differ only in words and ex-
pressions, in language and style, but they often
stand in contradiction with each other respecting
the matter itself, so that one confirms what the
other denies. Election of grace or because of a
foreseen faith; justification by faith alone or be-
68 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
cause of the works of love; the spiritual or cor-
poreal presence of Christ in His suj)per are not
different names for the same fact, but they are
interpretations which contradict each other. The
diversity of confession must not and nisij not be
confused with the errors, whicli because of the
darkness of our understandings can creep in. We
cannot and we may not therefore be indifferent or
neutral with respect to the confessions which have
come up and now continue to exist side by side in
the Christian Church. We mav admire the oood
intentions of those Christians, who in former or in
latter times, have attempted to preserve or even
restore this yerj much desired unity in the Church
of Christ, be it either by compulsory or by arti-
ficial means.
But nevertheless we must remember and take
into consideration that all of tliese attempts, in
spite of the most excellent intentions, have had no
other result, than that the truth became falsified,
the liberty became suppressed and very often the
diversity was increased. For he, who out of im-
partiality separates himself from all parties, stands
in great danger of becoming tlie head of a new
party himself.
Furtliermore we must never forget that God
also has His hand in history and that He therein
executes His wise counsel and judgment. His
providence governs all things, so that nothing takes
place by chance, and especially not in the Christian
Church of which Christ has in a specific sense been
anointed Head and King by the Father. The ever
increasing divisions and separations in Christen-
dom is a fact whicli cannot take place without
THE DIVERSITY OF CONFESSION. G9
God's government — it is accepted and determined
in His counsel and with it He no doubt has His
own high and wise purposes.
Now, although because of this we may in no
way justify sin which appears and works in this
division, nevertheless on the other hand it is not
right to overlook the great good which has been
brought about by and through this diversity. What
man has thought evil, God has often meant for
good. Out of darkness He can bring forth light;
out of death, life; out of the shame of man honor
and glory for His name. So far is God from evil
and the Almighty from unrighteousness that He
can even suppress and use sin to labor to the glory
of His perfections and the establishment of His
Kingdom.
As soon as the truth, proclaimed by Christ and
His apostles, reflected itself in the human mind it
was, most likely immediately, robbed of its purity
and became adulterated with all manner of errors ;
heresy and schism began in the days of the apostles.
But thus the truth also became clearer and more
and better understood in her fullness and multi-
fariousness and the churcli was continually led
deeper into the mysteries of salvation which God
had laid down for her and revealed in His Word.
To be sure, in natural life the children of men
are already entirely different the one from the
other. Sex and age, talents and character, train-
ing and environment, land and people, time and
place, rank and station, diversity of gifts, of rea-
son, and heart, bring on the greatest differences in
the consideration and interpretation of things. In
not one respect are two persons perfectly alike.
70 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
And this diversity which exists by nature is not
effaced by grace. For grace does not suppress and
abolish nature but restores and renews her and yet
increases the natural diversity with the diversity
of spiritual gifts, which, to be sure, are all worked
by the one and the self-same si)irit, but neverthe-
less, distributed by that spirit severally as He will.
In unity God loves diversity. The whole
creation testifies thereof, nature with her moun-
tains and valleys, seas and islands; the earth with
her kingdoms of minerals and plants, of animals
and men ; the firmament with her planets and stars ;
the heaven of heavens with her thousands and ten
thousands of Holy Angels. The great glory of the
infinite, rich essence of God is reflected in the
works of His hands. In the creatures are revealed
God's perfections and attributes.
And still clearer and fuller is this diversity re-
vealed unto us in the recreation. There is first of
all, Christ the most beautiful of all the children of
men, upon whose lips is poured out grace and
truth. And then around Him, in great, close, com-
pact masses, the Patriarchs and Prophets, the
Apostles and Evangelists, the Martyrs and Re-
formers, the whole host of the redeemed, who are
bought with His blood and renewed by His Spirit.
Different are they in Heaven, different were they
upon earth. And all that diversity, even through
the sin, guilt and error of man, tends to the good
of the knowledge of truth, and to the honor of
grace. Christ takes it into service and ornaments
His Church with it. The Holy Spirit uses it, to
have everyone in his own language declare the
great works of God. One day, at the end of time,
THE DIVERSITY OF CONFESSION. 71
God will receive all honor and glory of the churcli
out of every tongue and people, kindred and nation.
For this reason it is not a matter of surprise,
that in all diversity of confession tlie different rela-
tion is reflected, in which grace is placed to nature.
The essence of the Christian religion consists
therein, that the creation of the Father, destroyed
by sin, is again restored in the death of the Son
of God and recreated by the grace of the Holy
Spirit to a Kingdom of God. The great question
therefore, which always and everywhere returns, is
this: In what relation does grace place itself to
nature. Practically every child of man must regu-
late that relation for himself in his thoughts and
life, in his will and actions. And in a larger field
it also continually makes its appearance, in church
and state, in family and society, in science and
education. What is the relation between the
creation and recreation, of the kingdoms of the
earth and the Kingdom of Heaven, of humanity
and Christianity, of tliat wiiich is from below^ and
that which is from above?
All in accordance witli his own personal pecu-
liarity or characteristics every man will designate
this relation differently and will also apply it dif-
ferently in his life. It makes a great difference
whether we think of grace as a doctrine or as life ;
whether we consider it as a supernatural addition
to nature or as a remedy against the sickness of
sin; whether it is designated for the heart and
closet only, or for the whole rich and full life of
man; whether it only serves to save the soul or has
the tendency to prepare honor for God out of all
His works. On account of this difference there
72 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
arises amongst believers — ^ even amongst members
of one and the same church, all manner of smaller
and greater differences in the confession. The
truth, to be sure, is one but it reflects itself in tlie
consciousness of man in very different ways. It is
true, only one sun shines in tlie firmament but
everyone sees it with his oavu eye.
But nevertheless, although the differences,
Avhich exist between the confessions of the Chris-
tian Churches, are ever so great, we must not over-
look the unity which is revealed in them clearly
and plainly; we are so prone to become one-sided.
It cannot be denied, that there is difference and
controversy upon each and ever^^ article of faith.
But staring at that wliich separates believers one
from the other, we too easily forget that which
unites and holds them together. Often, the har-
mony is too deeply veiled from our view by the dis-
cord which exists.
And yet, this harmony is also present. The be-
lievers are all one, not absolutely in the spiritual
sense, because they are all together ingrafted in
Christ and are therefore members of His bod}^ ; but
also in that external sense, that a visible band en-
circles all Christian Churches and confessions and
separates them from all non-Christians.
To be sure the diversity of confession in the
Christian Church does not absolutely consist in
these and kindred differences, whereby one or an-
other truth is grasped and placed upon the fore-
ground.
It is true, there is no Christendom above dis-
cord of faith. The differences between the in-
numerable Christian Churches and confessions are
THE DIVERSITY OF CONFESSION. 73
not mechanically joined to the points of nnity or
harmony. We cannot separate tlie first from the
last so that there remains a perfect equal sum.
Each and every confession is an organism, or, in
other words, an organical whole. The Roman is
liomish, also in the confession of the twelve articles
of faith, which are accepted by all churches. Re-
formed and Lutherans, Baptists and Arminians
are separated from each other not only in the doc-
trine of election, of the church, of the sacrament,
but also in those of God, of Christ, of creation and
providence, of redemption and justification.
But there is, nevertheless, a Christendom in the
discord of faith, a unity, which, looking at it aright,
is much greater and of infinitely more significance
than all that which divides and separate the be-
lievers from each other. Although it is not pos-
sible to separate that unity from the diversity,
nevertheless it is truly and really present in it and
also reveals itself clearly and plainly. And al-
though a written confession very often limits itself
especially to the exposition of the differences; in
the unwritten articles, in the prayers, in the fruits
of faith, in the works of mercy a striking harmony
is to be seen. The imperfect confession of the lips
does not very often do justice to the faith of the
heart.
Thus it appears to be the v\^ill and pleasure of
the Lord that the unity of faith and of the knowl
edge of the Son of God shall build itself a way
through the diversity — at the end of time to appear
in all its glory. When in the future the body of
Christ shall have attained the full growth, and
shall have come in the unity of faith, and of the
74 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ; then all the saints together shall fully un-
derstand what is the breadth and length and depth
and height of the love of Christ which surpasses all
understanding, so that they may be filled unto all
the fullness of God.
CHAPTER VII.
The Universality of Confession.
Therefore let no man glory in
men. For all things are yours;
whether Paul, or Apollos, or Ce-
phas, or the world, or life, or
death, or things present, or things
to come: all are yours: and ye are
Christ's; and Christ is God's.
I Cor. 3:21-23.
The diversity of confession does not encroach
upon its universality. Although tljere are many
churches, yet as Christians we altogether confess
one, Holy Catholic Church, whicli makes its ap-
pearance in the many and various churches of
Christendom, although it may be very often in a
very imperfect way.
Universal, Catholic, is the Christian confession
in this sense, that it spreads itself over the whole
earth, includes all true believers, is binding for all
people and has significance for the whole world.
Chritianity is a world religion, destined and suit-
able for every nation and century, for every rank
and station, for every place and time. And the
most Catholic is that church which has expressed
this international and cosmopolitan character of
the Christian religion in the purest way in her con-
fession and applied it the most liberally in practice.
75
76 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
This universality or Catholicity of the Chris-
tian reliction is directly coherent witli the unitv of
God, which is taught in it. God is one, and tliere
His words and works can never contradict each
other. All things have their relation and system
in His consciousness, in His will, in His counsel.
They all exist together in the Son, who is the image
of the invisible God, the first born of all creatures,
through whom and unto whom they are all created.
And this Son is at the same time the Christ; the
way, the truth and the life, without and outside of
whom no one can come to the Fatlier; the only
name given under Heaven, that sinners should
thereby be saved ; the Head of the Church, in whom
the Father has made to dwell all the fullness, that
He through Him, having made peace through the
blood of the cross, might reconcile all things unto
Himself, be it the tilings which are upon earth, be
it the things, which are in Heaven.
Christianity is therefore the absolute religion,
the only, essential, true religion. It tolerates no
other religions as of almost equal worth and
worthiness alongside of itself. It is, according to
its nature, intolerant, even as the truth at all times
is and 77iust be intolerant with respect to the un-
truth. It will not even be satisfied by being the
first of the religions, but it claims to be the only,
true, full religion, which has absorbed and fulfilled
all that is true and good in other religions. Christ
is not a man alongside of others, but He is the
Son of Man, who by the resurrection was declared
to be the Son of God witli power, according to the
Spirit of Holiness, and received of the Father a
name above every name, so that in that name every
T*?
THE UNIVERSALITY OP CONFESSION. 77
knee should bow and every tongue confess, that He
is the Lord, to the Glory of God the Father.
In this unity is of necessity implied the uni-
versality of the Christian religion. While there is
but one God, He is the Creator of all things. Be-
cause there is only one Mediator between God and
man. He is the Savior of the wliole world. And as
there is only one Spirit, proceeding from the Father
and the Son, He is the onl}^ Guide and Leader in
tlie truth, the exclusive Teacher of the Church, the
All-Sufficient Comforter of all believers.
The Holy Scriptures proclaim this universality
of Christianity in the clearest and most beautiful
way. The Father loved the world and therefore
sent His only-begotten Son, that whosoever be-
lie veth in Him should not perisli, but have ever-
lasting life. In that Son God has reconciled the
world unto Himself, not imputing unto her her
sins. Christ Himself came upon earth, not to con-
demn the world but to save her. He is the Light,
the Life, the Savior of the world, a reconciliation,
not alone for our sins but for the whole world. In
Him, all things in Heaven and on earth are recon-
ciled unto God and are also gathered together into
one. The world, Avhich was made by the Son, is
also destined for the Son as its heir. One dav all
Kingdoms become our Lord's and His Christ's
Tliis great and glorious truth has been very-
often denied and misappreciated. In the course of
centuries there have been Christians, and they are
still found, who, to be sure, ascribed unto the Gos-
pel a certain importance or significance for the re-
ligious-moral life, but who also limited its influence
to thaty and had no conception of its worth and
78 THE SACRIFICE OF, PRAISE.
worthiness for the natural life, for family and
society and state, for science and art. Yea, many
have thought that recreation was in opposition to,
in enmity Avith creation, that grace effaced nature
and that therefore, he was the best and most Chris-
tian who withdrew from the world and shut him-
self up in solitude.
And advocates of infidelity have eagerly made
use of this and proclaimed triumphantly that
Christianity was an enemy of all culture, and there-
fore in every respect no longer suitable for man-
kind in the present day. In former centuries it
may have fulfilled an excellent calling, and even
today it may prove to be for this or that melancholy
individual, a comfort in his sorrow; but for man-
kind as a whole, Christianity is antiquated and
nigh unto disappearance. Civilization, science, art,
commercialism, industry, there are the gods wliich
today go before the face of man and lead him out
of the house of bondage. But the Gospel of Christ
has served its purpose; His Kingdom is not of this
world and has nothing to say to this world. Yea,
the whole of religion may yet have a little right of
existence in the church and closet; but upon the
market of life there is no place for it. Religion
has nothing to do with politics. In the schools of
science, in the temples of art, in the counsel cham-
bers of the State the Almighty is excluded. The
liberation or emancipation of the world from God
and godly things is prosecuted even to the end.
In this reasoning there lies a truth, which may
not be denied. To be sure, Jesus came upon earth
and assumed the natural life, but He assumed it, to
deny it and. to lay it down again at the cross. He
THE UNIVERSALITY OF CONFESSION. 79
was not married, did not pursue any occupation or
profession in civil life, did not hold an office in the
State. He was neither a man of science, nor practi-
tioner of art. His whole life was a sacrifice, which
consummated itself in His surrendering unto
death. He came to die. Death was the end and
purpose of His life. Even as He Himself testified,
that He came not to be served, but to serve and to
give His soul as a ransom for many.
And thus, He did, not only for Himself; He de-
mands of His disciples, tliat they shall follow Him
and walk in His steps. Whosoever does not take
up his cross, cannot be His disciple. Whosoever
desires to save his life, shall lose it, but whosoever
shall lose it for His sake, shall find it. Whosoever
loves father or mother above Him, is not worthy
of Him, but whosoever forsakes all for His name's
sake, shall receive a liundredfold and inherit eter-
nal life. To enter into the Kingdom of Heaven,
the offending eye must be plucked out, and the
offending hand and foot cut off, for it is better to
enter into life maimed, than to have tw^o hands and
two feet and two eyes, and be cast into hell-fire.
Nothing may be derogated from this rigid demand
of the Gospel of the cross. The Gospel may be for
man, it is in no single instance after man. Whoso-
ever desires to fashion it after the spirit of the age,
according to the reasonings of the day, robs it of
its power, and experiences nothing but disappoint-
ment, if in this way he thinks to find an entrance
for it. For, to be sure, Christ has been neither a
political leader nor a civil reformer; His Gospel is
not suitable to serve as a social program; the
Scriptures are not a code of laws neither a hand-
PROPERTY OF
7ADCDUATU I IDDAOV
80 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
book for art or science; the admiiiistratioii of the
AA^ord is not a preaching' of human wisdom; the
government of the church is not a domination and
not an exercising of authority; tlie deaconry is not
an institution for the solution of the problem of
poverty.
For all this Christ did not come; neither for
this was His Word given unto us. Christ is Savior
— that is His name and His work; nothing else,
nothing more but also nothing less than tliat. His
sacrifice is a reconciliation for sins. His Gospel
is a glad tiding unto salvation. His Church is a
communion of saints. Christianity is religion, not
philosophy.
But that it is, then also, wholly and perfectly;
the true, pure, full religion, the restoration of the
right relation to God and therefore also of that to
all creatures. Savior is Christ, nothing else; but
that He is then also, so perfectly, that His Gospel
is a power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth.
And therefore He rejects no one or nothing.
The rich who think to have need of nothing. He
sends away empty, but the poor He fills with gifts.
Upon the Pharisees who think to have sufficient in
their own righteousness, He proclaims His thrice
repeated: woe. But publicans and sinners He in-
vites to come unto Him, the sick He heals, the lame
He makes to walk, the lepers He cleanses, the blind
He makes to see, the dead He raises, over the chil-
dren He lifts up His hands with blessings, unto
the poor He proclaims the Gospel of the Kingdom
of God, and doing good and scattering blessings
everywhere He goes through the whole land.
THE UNIVERSALITY OF CONFESSION. 81
And in it all He counts nothing strange that
is human. Different than John the Baptist, He
came eating and drinking, so that He was even
branded a glutton and a wine bibber. He was a
guest at the wedding in Can a, accepted invitations
to dine, forbade His disciples to fast, revealed the
joy of the future salvation by the parable of a mar-
riage feast, promised His disciples in the last night
of His life, that, although He would now drink no
more of the fruit of the vine with them, yet one
day He should drink it anew with them in the King-
dom of the Father.
The ordinances in every rank and station of
natural life are recognized and respected by Him,
for He has not come to break down the works of
the Father, but only those of the devil. He pays
the tribute, refuses to act as judge between two
brothers quarreling about an inheritance, com-
mands to give unto Caesar that which is his, re-
quires submission unto those who are seated upon
the seat of Moses, and forbids His disciples, even
in the most trying hour, to use the sword. Never
does He incite unto resistance; always and ever
words of love are heard from His lips. Love your
enemies; bless them who curse you; do well unto
those who hate you ; and pray for those who despite-
fully use and persecute you.
He also loves nature with a child-like joy. He
enjoys her hesiutj and refreshes Himself in her
glory. He has an open eye for the gTass of the
earth and the lilies of the field, for the birds of the
air and the fish of the sea. Vine and fig tree, the
mustard seed and tlie grain of wheat, grape and
thorn, fig and thistle, acre and flock, fishing and
82 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
commerce, are used by Him as symbols and para-
bles in His instruction concerning things Heavenly.
The whole of nature speaks unto Him of the Father^
Which is in Heaven and Who maketh His sun to
rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain
on the just and on the unjust. And so very little
does He disapprove of all luxury, that He, when
Mary once anointed Him with a very choice oint-
ment, does not complain with His disciples of the
waste but accepts readily and with gratitude this
very precious mark of honor.
And what silences everything — Jesus, to be
sure, laid down the natural life for our sakes, but
He also again assumed it and is risen from the dead.
When He had borne our sins in His flesh on the
tree and had thus delivered the natural life from
its guilt and curse and death, then He also again
accepted it as His possession, but now re-born,
spiritualized, sanctified. The corporeal resurrec-
tion of Christ from the dead is the decisive proof,
that Christianity does not stand in enmity to any-
thing human or natural but tliat it only desires to
deliver the creation of all things sinful and per-
fectly sanctify it unto God.
No other is the Avay in which the disciples of
Jesus have to walk. Wliosoever wishes to foUow
Jesus must, to be sure, forsake everything, but he
also receives everything in return, thirty and sixty
and hundredfold. AVhosoever has become one plant
with Him in the likeness of His death shall also be
this in tlie likeness of His resurrection. Wlioso-
ever suffers with Him, shall also be glorified with
Him, and that, not for the first time in Heaven, but
already in beginning here upim earth. For whoso-
THE UNIVERSALITY OF CONFESSION. 83
ever believes has eternal life and is renewed from
day to day. From cross to crown, through death to
life — that is the way for both Jesus and His dis-
ciples. Therefore everything also returns through
death unto them in the resurrection. Having died
and arisen with Christ, they live the remaining por-
tion of their life, in the flesh, in the faith of the Son
of God, who has loved them and has given Himself
for them. Although crucified unto the world, they
are not taken out of the world, but are protected in
the world from the evil one by the Father. They
remain in the calling, in which they are called. The
Jew, who is converted unto the Lord, is not required
to take on the foreskin, and the Greek, who comes
to faith, is not compelled to be circumcised. The
servant remains a servant, although he comes to
liberty in tlie Lord ; and the free-born remains free,
although he becomes a servant of Christ. The un-
believing husband is sanctified by the wife and the
unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband.
All natural ordinances remain; they are not
revolutionarily broken down but only recreated by
the new spirit. For the Kingdom of Heaven is not
meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and
joy through the Holy Spirit. Every creature of
God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be re-
ceived with thankgiving; for it is sanctified, by the
Word of God and prayer. Only, believers have to
think on whatsoever things are true; whatsoever
things are honest; whatsoever things are just;
Avhatsoever things are pure ; whatsoever things are
lovely; whatsoever things are of good report. As
for the rest everything is theirs, for they are
Christ's and Christ is God's.
84 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
Thus godliness is profitable uuto all things, hav-
ing promise of the life that now is, and of that
which is to come. Unto him, who has sought the
Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness, all other
things are added. The best Christian is the best
citizen. With his confession he neither stands out-
side of nor in opposition to the natural life. But
proudly and bravely he bears it into the world, and
plants everywhere the banner of the cross. The
Gospel of Christ is a good tiding of great joy for all
creatures, for mind and heart, for soul and body,
for family and society, for science and art. For it
delivers from guilt and redeems from death. It is
a power of God unto salvation for everyone that
believes.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Obligation to Confession.
For ye are bought with a price:
therefore glorify God in your body
and in your spirit, which are God's.
I Cor. 6:20.
Confessing, to be sure, lias its root and origin in
the heart, but is nevertheless in itself, according to
its nature and character, a thing of the mouth, a
work of the lips.
There are many of the opinion, however, that
this latter is only incidental to confession, an ar-
bitrary addition, at least, only a superfluous good
work. And they know how to ornament this, their
opinion, with many beautiful thoughts ; in personal
faith in Christ and for the salvation of the soul the
emphasis is laid upon the heart and not upon the
external work of the lips. Silently confessing, and
testifying in secret has more worth and worthiness
and bears richer fruit, than the speaking of gTeat
words and the using of pious terms. Jesus, Him-
self has said, not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he,
who does the will of My Father, which is in Heaven.
Better is it to confess before God in the closet, than
to sell the truth in public, and to cast pearls before
the swine. The Kingdom of Heaven is not of this
85
86 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
world, it comes not in outward form, but is within
us. Man sees what is before the e^^e, but (lod con-
siders the heart.
In opposition to the great untruth and lie, which
reigns in the confession of the mouth, this remind-
ing of the absolute necessity of the conversion of
the heart is perfectly in its place. A fearful hy-
pocrisy has crept into the work of the lips. There
is an unjustly-called orthodoxy, which seeks a
ground for justification before the face of God in
the outward and intellectual acceptance of the
truth. Confidence in the merit of outward works
of piety is a sin, but no less an evil is confidence in
the merit of outward learning and understanding,
which in addition makes one to look down in scorn
and pride of heart upon the multitude who know
not the law, and in the works of mercy and love it
is entirely unfruitful. Therefore, in opposition to
this false orthodoxy it is always our duty and call-
ing to lay emphasis upon the heart and to exhort
unto uprightness before the face of God. For false
lips are an abomination unto the Lord, but those
who act faithfully are His pleasure. He has no
pleasure in a peoi)le who draw near unto Him with
the mouth, and praise Him with the lips, but whose
hearts are held far from Him. The first thing that
God requires of each and everyone is the heart, for
out of it are the issues of life. To be a Christian
consists not therein that we speak great words, but
that, with God, we do great things.
But nevertheless this does not in the least take
away the fact tliat Holy Writ attaches a great
worth and worthiness to the testimony of the lips
and is especially pleased with a confession of the
THE OBLIGATION TO CONFESSION. 87
mouth. There is no other book that so fearlessly
unmasks all hypocrisy and at the same time values
so highly the significance of the word and the power
of testimony, as the Word of God.
Speaking is nothing more or nothing less than
an essential attribute of God, His eternal, un-
changeable work. Speaking, the Father generates
eternally out of His own essence the Son, who is the
Word, tlie spoken and at the same time the self-
speaking Word, which in the beginning was with
God and Ayhich was God. Speaking in and thru
that Word God brings all things into existence,
preserves and rules, recreates and renews them.
His speaking is doing. His Word is power. He
speaks and it is there, He commands and it stands
fast, He calls the things that are not as if they were.
Also in this respect is man created in the image
of God. He receives from His Creator not only an
understanding and a heart, but also a tongue and a
language and is therefore called, not only to think
and to feel, but also to speak and to testify. His
speaking must be a praising, a proclaiming of the
great works of God. Thus the Angels praise Him,
when they, standing before the throne, sing, one to
the other. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts,
the whole earth is full of His glory! Thus the
saints praise Him, when they sing the song of
Moses, the servant of God, and the Song of the
Lamb, saying : Great and wonderful are Thy works,
O Lord, Thou Almighty God, just and righteous are
Thy ways, Thou King of Saints; who would not
fear Thee, Lord, and who would not glorify Thy
name? Yea, again and again in Holy Writ, all
creatures are called upon to praise the name of the
88 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
Lord. Bless ye the Lord, all ye, His hosts ; ye min-
isters of His, that do His pleasure. Bless the Lord,
all His works in all places of His dominion; bless
the Lord, O my soul.
In the midst of all those speaking and praising
creatures, man, who has received the word for the
utterance of his thoughts, may not remain silent.
Indeed, he cannot remain silent. His silence is
even counted as acknowledgment. Neutrality is as
impossible for the mouth as for the heart. Who-
soever does not confess Christ, denies Him. Silence
soon passes over into doubt, unbelief, enmity. The
tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity ; it defileth the
whole body, and setteth on fire the course of na-
ture ; and it is set on fire of hell ; it is untameable,
an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. If we do not
bless God, even the Father, with it, then we curse
therewith men, which are made after the similitude
of God.
Therefore in recreation it is also the purpose of
God, that man shall again speak and praise, and
proclaim His virtues. God redeems the tongue no
less than the heart, the language as well as the
thoughts. He makes man free, both soul and body,
and also again loosens his tongue and opens his
lips. He fills the mouth with laughter and the lips
with rejoicing. Thoughts and words also belong to-
gether and may not be separated. The Word is the
full-grown thought, the thought which has come to
liberty and independence. The thoughts in the in-
ward man are as it were the branches, and tlie
words are the blossoms and fruit thereof, which
through the mouth and lips sprout forth and come
to maturity. And also of this fruit of the lips, con
THE OBLIGATION TO CONFESSION. 89
sisting in sacrifies of praise, God is the Creator and
Former.
Therefore the Saints of the Old Testament also
pray : Lord open my lips, then my mouth shall pro-
claim Thy praise. Let my mouth be filled with Thy
praise, with Thy glory all the day. When God
sends forth His spirit the prayer of Moses is an-
swered, that all the people ma}^ be prophets of God.
Then the sons and daughters, the youths and the
old men, man servants and maid servants begin to
projjhesy and everyone in his own language pro-
claims the wondrous works of God. Then silence
is impossible. The mouth overflows with that of
which the heart is filled : Of Thee, O Lord, shall be
my praise in a great congregation. I shall praise
Thee with all my heart. I will sing unto the name
of the Lord, the Most High; I will speak of His
wondrous works, each one; I will praise Him
among the nations; I will praise the Lord at all
times; His glory shall continually fill my mouth; I
will praise Him forever.
So highly does God value this fruit of the lips,
that in opposition to those who scorn and deride
Him, the Lord prepares Himself honor out of the
mouths of babes and sucklings. If the disciples
should keep silent then the stones would cry out.
God demands the whole man for His service. He
wills that man shall love Him, with mind and heart,
with mouth and tongue and all power. And when
man on account of sin holds back this love, then it
is He himself. Who, in and through Christ gathers
together out of the whole world a church, which
proclaims the virtues of Him Who called her out of
darkness unto His marvelous light. It is God, Him-
00 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
self, Who calls His people to this and requires it of
them, Who also makes them able and willing. He
drives them to it by His Spirit, for this Spirit,
leads them in the truth, makes them confess Jesus
as the Lord, witnesses in them of their childship,
and makes them cry aloud : x\bba Father. Because
they liave been bought with a price, the price of tlie
blood of the Son, they are called to glorify God in
tlieir body and spirit which are God's.
This obligation or duty of confessing the Lord's
name rests upon each and every believer. In the
confession of our mouth it appears whether we
mean it, if it is holy earnestness with us, if the love
of God is dearer unto us than the friendship of the
world. It is, the evidence of the truth, the verifica-
tion of the faith, the crown upon the work of God
within us. In the confession, returns unto God, by
way of the lips, what He Himself out of grace,
through His Spirit, has wrought of faith and love
in our hearts. It is not a hard duty, not a severe
command, but a service of love which never vexes,
a blessed privilege, a high honor. For a child of
man there is not a more glorious work than to be
allowed to confess God and to proclaim His honor.
Such a privilege is confessing for the individual
believer and that is it also for the church as a
whole. She believes, therefore she speaks.
Throughout all all centuries she confesses. To
friend and enemy she gives an account of the hope
til at is in her. Her testimony is as tlie voice of
inanj^ waters. She reveals her faith, in her meet
ings and religious services, in her prayers and
hymns, in her works of mercy and gifts of love. Al-
THE OBLIGATION TO CONFESSION. 01
waj^s and everywhere she confesses. She is and
cannot be otherwise — than a confessing church.
In speaking of the confession of tlie church, it is
very unilateral to think exclusively or even in the
first place of the written expression of her faith,
To be sure, this gradually became necessary for the
church because of errors and heresies. And when
the church appears in the midst of the world with
this, her Avritten confession, she also makes a glo-
rious profession of her faith.
Entirely without ground, the Church of Christ,
has, from different sides, been denied the right of
expressing her faith in writing and of being watch-
ful for its perfect maintenance. For, with such a
written confession she does not encroach upon the
word of God but only explains the contents of that
word according to the measure of faith and know-
ledge granted unto her in a given time. With it
she does not assail the authority of the Scriptures,
but just tries to maintain this, and with it she is
upon her guard that the Scriptures be not aban-
doned to the arbitrary will of the individual. She
does not bind the consciences with it, but delivers
these from the ever -recurring errors of man and
strives to lead all thoughts captive to the obedience
of Christ. With it she does not cut off development
but tries to retain this and to lead it in the right
path, in the path of building up and not breaking
down. The confession of the church does not stand
alongside of, much less above, but deeply below
Holy Writ. This is and remains the only, perfect,
sufficient rule of faith and life.
Even if a church should never express her faith
in print, still she would always, as long and in so
92 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
far as she is a church, have a confession. But when
she expresses her faith in writing, then she obtains
thereby this profit, that the truth, in so far as she
has acknowledged it, is handed down unaltered
from generation to generation and is also easier to
be maintained against all adversaries. Unto the
confession of the church belongs a great pedagogi-
cal worth and worthiness. The individual cominoj
to maturity grows into this confession and after
awhile accepts it freely and independently as his
own. Even as a child in every sphere goes in unto
the work of his ancestors so he also lives from year
to year into the spiritual inheritance of his fathers.
No one begins at the beginning. Everyone
stands upon the shoulders of those who were before
him. Everyone of us lives and spends of the treas-
ures which parents and gi'andparents brought to-
gether for us. Only, unto each and everyone of us
comes the requirement that, with the exertion of
all our powers we shall master and make our own
that which we have inherited of the fathers. Thus
a child also accepts the confession of the church, so
that this may afterwards become the free and in-
dependent expression of its personal faith.
But also on account of this, however high the
written confession may stand, it may never be sev-
ered from personal faith, neither may it ever be
torn out of its coherence with the testimonies and
deeds wherewith the church distinguishes herself
from and places herself in opposition to the world.
It is not a document which binds us because of its
honored antiquity. It bears no authority that is
laid upon us by the remote past. But it is, even as
all other acts, borne and animated from moment to
THE OBLIGATION TO CONFESSION. 93
moment by the faith of the church and thus pro-
ceeds from generation to generation. It is even in
the i)resent day, still our confession, not because it
was compiled by our fathers and by them delivered
upon us, but because it is for us to-day, even as it
was for them in former centuries, the purest ex-
pression of our faith, the clearest explanation of
the truth of God, the most beautiful exhibition of
the treasures of salvation, which are granted unto
us by God in Christ.
Trained from our youth in the confession of the
church, we now confess tlierein our own faith.
CHAPTER IX.
The Opposition to Confession.
But I certify you, brethren, that
the Gospel which was preached of
me is not after man.
Galatians i :ii.
Confessing is contrary to flesli and blood, con-
trary to world and satan.
B}^ nature, every man is in enmity with the
proclamation that Jesus is the Christ. To the su-
perficial thinker or observer it may seem strange
that the Gospel has at all times met with so great
an opposition. It is, is it not a good tiding of great
joy unto all creatures? It speaks of nothing but
grace and peace and salvation; it demands noth-
ing and gives everything. And nevertheless it
finds resistance and opposition everywliere ; for the
Jews it is an offense and to the Greeks foolishness.
It may be for man, but it is not after man. It is
not, as it would be, if man had planned and rea-
soned it out; it is of divine origin and therefore is
not in conformity with the thoughts and desires,
with the lusts and the passions of man. Mind and
lieart, desire and will, soul and body resist the
Gospel of Christ. And in that resistance man is
94
THE OPPOSITION TO CONFESSION. 95
externally strengtlieEed by the whole world, by the
whole kingdom of darkness.
Certainly there is a difference in the circum-
stances. In days of peace and rest the opposition
to the Gospel is not so intense as in times when the
church is oppressed and persecuted by the world.
Much more courage is necessary to stand up for
Christ in a godless community of sinners and scof-
fers than in a circle of relatives and friends who
altogether confess the truth. A stronger faith is
necessary not to be ashamed of the Cross of Christ
in a company of nobles and learned men than in
the midst of a common and simple people in some
isolated town or village.
But in principle the opposition is everywhere
the same. For flesh and world and satan are always
and everywhere the same, and the greatest and
strongest enemy, w^ho resists the Gospel of Christ
dwells in our own heart. The form in which the
enmity reveals itself may be diff'erent but always
and everywhere the confessing of the Lord's name
is accompanied with a denying of ourselves, and a
bearing of the cross. Scorn and derision become
the part and portion of everyone, in whatever
circle, who breaks with the world and follows
Jesus.
Even when faith has been worked in the heart
and has driven to confession, how much is there,
even then, that continually and constantly keeps
the lips closed and liolds us back from a free and
liappy acknowledgment of Jesus' name.
Behold it in a Peter, wlio, in tlie hour of danger
denies His Master and even afterwards in Antioch,
out of fear for the brotliers of circumcision makes
96 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
liimself guilty of hypocrisy. And nevertheless
Peter as the most prominent of the Apostles, who
for his glorious and free confession of Jesus' Mes-
siahship, received the name of Rock and who felt
himself b'ound with such a strong love to His Savior
that he would enter death with Him, and cast far
from him the possibility of denying the Lord. If
he could fall and did fall, who then can remain
standing? And for whom is the warning super-
fluous that he, who thinketh to stand, take heed
lest he fall?
The history of the Christian Church reveals
unto us many beautiful examples of steadfast,
unshakable martyrdoms, but it also contains the
sad stories of thousands upon thousands of those
who in the hour of temptation denied the faith or
in crooked ways drew back from the confession.
When persecution or tribulation ariseth because
of the Word, then is immediately offended he, who
at first heard the Word and received it with joy,
but had no root in himself and dureth only for a
while.
There are so msinj dangers to which a believer
stands exposed; so many cliffs upon which he is
tlireatened to strand. Lust of the eyes, lusts of the
flesh and pride of life; fear for loss of name and
honor, of possessions and life, exert themselves
alternately, singly or unitedly to draw the disciple
of Jesus from the steadfastness of his faith. And
under all these trials and temptations, the so-called
false shame probably exerts the greatest power.
For even when tlie tribulations and persecutions
are passed, this works on and makes thousands and
ten thousands to stumble and fall. In low and
THE OPPOaiTION TO CONFESSION. 97
liigh society, amongst the rich aud the poor, in the
midst of plebeians and patricians this false shame
throws her great hindrances in the way of the con-
fession of the Lord's Name.
There is something deeply humiliating in the
fact that in the depth of our heart we are ashamed
of Jesus. For He was a man, who went through
the country doing good and blessing; who was
gentle and tender of heart; and who, it is true,
died on a cross, but His enemies were His judges
and therefore condemned Him to this shameful
deatli, although He was entirely and perfectly in-
nocent. There must be something wrong with us,
we must be morally sick, if we are ashamed of such
a man and dare not take His name upon our lips.
Shame in general is an unpleasant feeling,
which comes upon us at a certain action or state
of ourselves which lowers us in the estimation of
others. Sometimes it is good. For instance, when
Adam is ashamed of himself after transgressing
God's commandment, he shows by it, that he feels
his action to have been evil and that he realizes his
fall. Shame is not always and absolutely a fruit
of faith, but it is also found with the natural man
and thus proves that man tl»rough sin has not be-
come an animal or devil but that he has still re-
mained mau, and that he has still retained a feel-
ing of his honor and worthiness.
Nevertheless, alongside of this tnie and goo<]
there also exists a wrong, a false shame. It is
found with us when we feel timid or embarrassed
about something which in itself is good, but which
nevertheless makes us descend in the estimation
of others. Thus we are often ashamed of the good
98 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
impressions which the proclamation of the Gospel
has had upon us; of the accusations of our con-
science; of the sorroAv which comes up in us after
committing an evil and wicked act; of the tender-
lieartedness and aft'ectiveness with which we are
affected under certain circumstances. We are
afraid, that others, noticing this will scorn and
deride us on account of it; that tliej will consider
us weak, simple, childish; that we wdll lose by it
dui' name as strong, brave, courageous persons.
Now this false shame also falls upon us witli
respect to the Gospel of the cross. We are ashamed
of tlie cliurcli wliich consists not of many wise and
nn'ghty and no])le. AVe are ashamed of the Bible,
\\ liich is Si) strange and wonderful, and wliich is
i-ejected iind dispu.ted ]>y the men of civilization
;iud science. AVe are ashamed of Ohrist, who
claiuied to ]>e tlie only begotten Son of God, the
anointed of tlie Father. We are ashamed of His
cross, whicli was an oft'ense to the Jews and foolish-
lU'ss unto the Greeks. AA'e are ashamed of the
whole sj)ecial revelation of (lod, which reveals us
iiiito ourselves and displays us in our spiritual
ifovcrty.
Aud we make ourselves fearful that we, choos-
ing the side of Christ will lose entireh' our name
and our honor as man, with ourselves and others
and will become an object of scorn and derision, of
iib'use and ])ersecutiou. We fear, that by the cou-
fessing of Ghrist, our dignity, personality, human-
ity will be injured and suffer loss. Even the false
shame has therefore for its basis a dark conscious-
iH^ss that we were once created in the image of
THE OPPOSITION TO CONFESSION. 99
(tocI and have still a certain rank and honor to
preserve. The respect and admiration of himsell
and of others is in short a matter of iuditfereuce
to no one, because in his deepest fall he remains
man and continues to bear the name of man, that
is, of God's image and likeness.
But this consciousness, under the influence of
sin, works now in the reverse direction. For it is
true, by giving ourselves entirely unto Christ for
salvation, we descend in our own estimation and
in that of others, and with man we lose our name,
and our honor. But this estimation rests upon a
fancy and that fancy and that honor is built upon
an imagination. For by nature Ave consider our-
selves rich and enriched and in need of nothing.
But when Ave embrace the Gospel, then AA^e learn to
realize that Ave are poor and blind and naked and
in need of eA^erything.
And thus also our honor Avith man is mostly
the fruit of ignorance and appearance. The art of
winning the hearts and praise of man consists
therein that Ave conceal our real, true nature and
ulloAv them to form an opinion of our person ac-
cording to our external learned appearance. God
is true and honest, but every man is a liar; he does
not always speak the untruth but he is untruth;
lie is false, deceitful in his existence itself. Reality
and appearance, essence and reAelation, inward
and outAvard man are in contradiction Avith each
other. {Sometimes Avhile the mouth overflows with
love, and the countenance reveals nothing but
friendship, then out of the h-'art of. man comes
forth evil thoughts, murders, jidulteries, fornica-
PROPERTY OF
ZAREPHATH LIBRARY
100 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
tion, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. The saint,
knowing man in his inward existence and looking
into the innermost depth of his heart, wonld flee
from him in horror. And therefore, incomparably
great has been the love of Christ, who knew what
was in man, and yet came, songht him, and gave
liimself into death for him.
Thus we really live for ourselves and for others
iu a fancy and imagination. AVhen we look at it
in the right light, we lose nothing essential when
we believe in Christ for we have nothing essential.
We only lose the imagination, that we live, that
we are rich, and enriched and in need of nothing
The most fearful misery of sin consists not therein,
that we are blind, but it consists in this: that we,
being blind, nevertheless imagine that we see. Sin
is guilt and pollution and shame, but above that,
also foolishness and ignorance.
And that imagination of ours is brought into
confusion by the Word of the Lord. We must deny
that imagination if we desire to be saveFor, to become a Christian — that means, to count
our own opinion and that of others as of no Avorth
and worthiness; to accept the judgment of (rod
concerning us and hope only for His grace and
mercy. The confessing of Christ includes, that we
lose ourselves and evei*y thing, our name and our
honor, our possessions and our blood, our soul and
our life. And it is exactly against this that the
false shame strives and struggles. The sigh for
self-preservation, in appearance, forces and drives
man, with the exertion of all his strength and
])ower, to oppose the Gospel.
The carnal mind is enmity against God : for it
THE OPPOSITION TO CONFIJSSION. 101
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. The natural man does not under.'^tand the
things of the Spirit of God. And neither does he
understand that losing ourselves is the only way to
true self-preservation.
CHAPTER X.
The Strength for Confession.
Wherefore I give you to under-
stand, that no man speaking by
the Spirit of God, calleth Jesus
accursed ; and that no man can say
that Jesus is the Lord, but by the
Holy Ghost. I Cor. 12:3.
What is impossible Avith man, is however, pos
sible with God. From Him is all our ability. All
true confessing comes forth out of the faith of th(^
heart, which is a gift of God, a fruit of tlie work
of the Holy Spirit.
Although Clirist had fulfilled everything, still
would it have been fruitless, if, after His ascension
to Heaven, He had not sent the Holy Spirit, \vh(»
leadeth in all truth. For the whole world of itself
stands in opjjosition to Christ and loves darkness
rather than light. But the Holy Spirit has come to
Avitness of Christ in the midst of the world. He is
the only but also the almighty witness of Chrisl.
All scorn Christ but the Holy Spirit glorifies Him.
All condemn Christ but the Holy Spirit justifies
Him. All reject Christ but the Holy Spirit stands
up for Him and pleads Hi'fe cause at the consciences
of men. All call Christ accursed, but the Holy
102
THE STRENGTH FOR CONFESSION. 103
Spirit says that He is the Lord, to the glory of God
the Father.
He witnesses of Christ in the Word, wliieli
through prophets and apostles He has written. He
Avitnesses of Christ in the world, which He con-
Aances of sin and righteousness and judgment. He
witnesses of Christ in the church who acknowl-
edges Him to be her I^ord and her God. He wit-
nesses of Christ in the heart of every believer, who
thereby knows that he is a child of God and cries
^'Abba Father.*' And against that testimony of the
IIolj^ Spirit, in short, no child of man can stand.
As soon as the Holy Spirit accompanies the proc-
lamation of the Word of God with His Almighty
power, tlien, the hardest heart is broken, the most
stubborn knee is bowed; the loudest mouth is
stopped. In the face of His testimony all our
thoughts and considerations are of no significance,
they burst as a bubble. No one speaking by tlie
Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and everyone
that has received that Spirit confesses Him as his
Lord and Savior.
But even then, when faith has been implanted
in the heart, in the face of tlie various temptations
to unfaithfulness, the working of the Spirit, vrlncli
makes faith to reveal itself in word and deed, al-
ways remains necessary. For it is God who work-
eth in us not only to will but also to do His good
pleasure. From Him we receive both the power ol*
faith and the boldness to confess.
Therefore David prayed that God might not
take his Holy Spirit from him, and might
strengthen him witli a free and bold spirit. Wlien
Peter and John once stood before tlie ^reat (^ounsel,
104 THE SACRIFICK OF PRAISE.
and afterwards, being released, told the brethren
their experiences, they all together lifted up theii'
voices to God saying : No\s Lord hjok upon tht^
threatenings of the adversaries and give unto Thy
servants to speak Thy Word with all boldness; and
when they had prayed, the place was shaken where
they were assembled together; and they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the
Word of God with boldness. Even a Paul request-
ed the prayers of the church that utterance might
be given unto him, that he might open his mouth
boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel.
For the minister of the Word in the first place,
but then also for ever}^ believer this boldness to
speak and testify is indispensable. It consists iii
the unembarrassment to give testimony to tlu^
truth of God in Christ, in a firm, trusting faith,
openly and freely before each and everyone. It is
founded in the blessed assurance of the remission
of guilt, in the liberty to approach the throne of
grace and to ask everything of Him in prayer.
And it is strengthened in us by the many examples
of brave and unshakable confessors of whom both
Holy Writ and history make mention.
There is, first of all, the example of Christ. H<'
was in Himself the Word, the Truth, the Perfect
Revelation of God. And He came into a world
lying in sin and in bondage unto deceit. His ap-
pearance alone, with nothing more, was a protest
that was bound to awaken the hatred and enmity
of the world. She could not tolerate Jesus. His
existence was her judgment. And therefore she
strained every muscle to banish this righteous one
from the earth. But Jesus remained faithful unto
THE STRENGTH FOR CONFESSION. tOo
His Father aud became obedient anto Hinij even
unto the death of the cross. He withstood every
temptation. He bore all enmity, before the Jewisli
Sanhedrin He venfied His divine Sonship, and be-
fore Pontius Pilate He made the good confession.
Thus He revealed Himself to be the true and faith-
ful witness, the Apostle and High Priest of our
profession, who has left us an example tliat Ave
should walk in His steps.
Then furthermore there are the many thousands
of angels unto whose communion the believers have
come in Christ Jesus. They also exhort us to per-
severance in the fight. For they accompanied
Christ upon all His ways, and ascended and de-
scended upon the Son of Man all the days of His
earthh^ sojourn. They follow the church upon
her way through the worhl and are sent out in the
service of them who shall inherit salvation. They
are desirous of looking into the mysteries of sal-
vation and rejoice over every sinner who repents.
Because of their perfect obedience, tliey are given
unto us for examples in the very i>erfect prayer
and through us they must be made acquainted with
the multifarious wisdom of God.
Then again we have the great cloud of wit-
nesses, with whom we are encompassed about, the
whole church triumphant, whose numbers, al-
though they do not behold our battles as eye wit-
nesses, nevertheless by their example as witnesses
of the faith encourage us and exhort us to imitate
them. They have, for a part at least, tasted of
scourging and derision, and also of bonds and im-
prisonment. But they were not ashamed of the
good confession and remained faithful unto the end.
UH> THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
And daily their number is being increased. A
multitude which no man can number is now al-
ready formed by the spirits of the perfect righteous.
\yho haye been taken into Heayen, and are become
our leaders and examples in the faithful confession
of Christ.
And finally there is also the church militant
upon earth, Ayhich, by holding fast to the unshak-
able confession of hope, strengthens us. In yery
truth, it has been said, that eyery Christian should
belieye so firmly that, although all others should
fall aAyay, he ^yould still remain standing firm and
unshakable. But notAyithstanding this is true, in
general, man is not set aside for neither able to en-
dure such a seclusion. To be sure, God is able to
grant such a strong faith that we, though forsaken
by all yet proceed upon our \yay with rejoicing.
But generally God keeps us standing in and
through the communion of saints. For eyen as we
in one body haye many members, and these mem-
l>ers haye not all the same work, so also are we
many, one body in Christ, but we are each others
members. And as such all belieyers haye com-
munion with the Lord Jesus and all of His
treasures and gifts, and each one must feel that h(^
is obliged to use, willingly and gladly his talents
and gifts for the benefit and to the salyation of the
other members.
Thus the confessors of Christ are hardly ever
alone. Sometimes in a certain place and at a giyen
time they may feel themselyes forsaken and alone.
But also then it is yery often revealed that there
are yet thousands who, with them, have not bowed
the knee to Baal. And whtm tliev ai-ise out of the
tHk strength ix)r confession. 107
anguish of their souls aud look about, over the
whole world and throughout the ages, they realize
that they are members of a communion, which from
the beginning to the end of the world is gathered,
in unity of faith, out of the whole human race, by
the Son of God and l)y Him likewise protected and
preserved. The Church of Christ is the kernel of
humanity, the salt of the earth, the light of the
world. AVhosoever is a living member of her counts
among his brothers and sisters, the best and great-
est and noblest of our generation; prophets and
apostles and church fathers and martyrs and re-
formers. And at their head stands the faithful wit-
ness, the first-born from the dead, the Sovereign of
the Kings of the earth.
Especially in our fatlierland (The Netherlands)
there is no reason whatever \y\\j we should de-
spondently withdraw and lock ourselves up into
obscurity. For, Christians are no where and never
a sect; although they are opposed and contradicted
everywhere, but they are this the least in the
Netherlands, whose national existence was born or
brought fortli by the Keformation. The Christian
character is, in this land, genuinely national, and
the confessors of the Reformed Faith are not
strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens and mem-
bers of the household, children of those fathers who,
with their possessions and blood, fought victo-
riously for truth and liverty against error and tht^
binding of their consciences.
When we remember all these things, what ex-
amples ought we not then to be in faithful con-
fessing and holy walk I To be sure, the power of
faith is necessary to roAv up against the stream and
108 THK SAORIFICK OF PRAtSK.
to bear that ail men speak evil of lis, although
it is deoeitfullv and for the Gospel's sake. From
the multitude there proceeds a magical influence
upon the individual. In every circle the danger
is so great that we submit to the number and ad-
just ourselves to the majority.
But in opposition to this, the believers can derive
encouragement for themselves from the thought,
that they all together are come unto Mount Ziou,
and unto the City of the living God, the Heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of
Angels, to the general assembly and Church of the
lirst-born, which are written in Heaven, and to Gothe Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men
made perfect, and to the Mediator of the new
covenant.
Therefore then, we have nothing to fear, foi-
thev who are with us, are more than thev which
are with them.
CHAPTER XL
The Reward of Confession.
Whosoever therefore shall con-
fess me before men, him will I
confess also before my Father
zvhich is in Heaven. Matt. 10:32.
Unto the faithful confession of the Lord's name
is hound a reward, which is great in the Heavens.
Continually Holy Writ speaks of a reward
\\ hi(^h shall be granted unto believers at the return
of C'lirist. It is granted as an indemnity, for that
of wljiclj the disciples of Jesus here upon earth
denied themselves for His sake, or for what they
suffered, or for the good works of mercy and love
which they fulfilled. And Holy Writ does not
Iresitate to encourage believers unto a faithful per-
severance in their confession by the promise of such
a reward. She is not afraid that she thereby shall
introduce a false principle into the practice of
godliness, that she shall give cause or reason to
exercise virtue to serve fortune and God for the
sake of the Heavenly salvation.
For although constantly speaking of a reward
Holy Writ is very strongly opposed to all service
for reward. The rew^ard that awaits the faithful
soldiers, is not obligatory, is not a. right which is
theirs by nature, is not an obligated remuneration
109
110 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
for accomplished labor. Such a reward is not
kno^n to scripture and she cuts it off in the root by
the relation in which she places man as creature to
God his Creator. Whosoever has done everj^thing
that was commanded him is even then only an un-
profitable servant. Man is, and has of himself
nothing and tlierefore can give nothing unto God
upon whom he is absolutely dependent. He can
give notliing because he has to receive everything.
He is not a party opposite to God, wlio, has his own,
inalienable rights, and in tlie form of a contract
can demand reward or wages for tlie laboi" to Ix'
(hdiA^ered.
But God, from His side, lias of His own free
will bound Himself to richlv crown all, who walk
in His ways, with the gifts of His grace. Unto that
He bound Himself in the first covenant, when in
the obedience unto His commandment He opened
the way to eternal life and heavenly salvation.
This was not a reward in the sense of a reward for
work performed, for what equality does tliere exist
between the very easy and in itself obligated keep-
ing of the Lord's commandment and the unobli-
gated gift of eternal, blessed life in communion
with God?
And just so in the covenant of grace He binds
Himself to give unto everyone that believes in
Christ, eternal life. But here there is still less
room to speak of a reward in the original sense of
the word. For believing is nothing else than ac-
<:epting the gift of grace which has been revealed
in Christ, and is therefore no more meritorious than
the grasping of the life line by a shipwTecked
mariner who is upon the verge of perishing and
THE REWARD OF CONFESSION. Ill
sinking in the deep. But God is so good that He
attaches unto faith, not for His own, but for
Christ's sake, the forgiveness of sins and life ever-
lastins', and bv the slorv which awaits believers He
encourages them in the fight. Thus it is, that both
are true, on the one hand the possession of all the
benefits of the covenant is placed before all works
and bound only to faith, and on the other hand
the believer is so earnestly exhorted to the doing
of good works, as if all of these benefits were only
to be obtained in this way. The believers are
chosen from eternity and yet they have to make
their calling and election sure. Thru faith they
possess eternal life and yet, one day the}^ shall re-
ceive it out of the hand of the Father as a reward
for their self-denial. Thev are branches of the vine,
who without Christ can do nothing and yet, they
are exhorted to abide, in Him, in His Word, in
His love. They are the handiwork of God created
in Clirist Jesus unto all good works, which God has
prepared, and still tliey must walk in the same.
They are lioly, and nevertheless must sanctify them-
selves from day to day. They have crucified their
fiesh with its lusts and yet they are called to
mortify their members which are upon earth.
They are sure of their ultimate salvation for God's
election is immutable. His calling irregrettable. His
covenant immovable. His promises yea and amen,
and yet they are constantly urged to work out their
own salvation with fear and trembling, to be faith-
ful unto death and to persevere unto the end.
Holy Writ does not encourage a passive but an
active Christianity. It desires that, the believers
shall constautlv and continuallv become more what
112 THE JSACKlFiOE OF PRAISE.
they ai*€; that they shall merit what they have m-
herited; that they shall more and more, make them-
selves possessors of what in Christ belongs to them.
Therefore the same thins: — that on tlie one hand is
an unmerited free gift, can on the other hand be
represented as a reward. It can be called a re-
ward because faith and perseverance in faith is the
only way, in which believers can perfectly come
into possession of those benefits which in Christ
are given unto them out of pure grace. Without
lioliness no one shall see God.
B}' that reward wc sometimes understand th(^
lieavenly salvation itself and tlien again the dif
ferent steps or grades in glorv wliicli shall ))e
granted unto the believers according to tlieir works
Even as it is upon earth so shall it be in- heaven.
There is diversity in unity. Another is the glory
of the sun, and another is the glory of the moon,
and another is the glory of the stars; for the one
star dilfereth in glory from the other star. In the
house of the Father, wherein dAvell all the children
of God, there are many mansions. According to
the measure of their faithfulness each church re-
ceives of the King of the church an own ornament
and crown. For we all must appear before the
judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive
the things done in His body, according to that he
hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Then the separation between man and man will
\)p perfected. At the first coming of Christ, yea,
already at His very first anuonncement in the
promise; this crisis, this judgment in the world
began. Christ came unto the resurrection and the
fall of many. He came not to bring peace upon the
THE liKVrAlil) OF CONFESSION. 113
earth but the sword, to set a man at vaiiaucc*
against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-
in-law. He compels all, to choose for or against
Him. His Word is a judge of the thoughts and
meditations of the heart. His Gospel is a savour
of life unto life or a savour of death unto deatli.
And that separation is perfected l)y Him in the day
of His future, wlien everytliing shall be revcnihMl
before His judgment seat. P^or the Father lias
given all judgment uuio tlie Son because He is tlic
Son of Man.
Everyone's fate shall tlieu be determined by tlie
fact, whether or not Christ acknowledges him to bp
His and confesses him before His Fatluu-, which is
in Heaven. Upon His public confession hangs our
acquittal, our salvation.
Christ Avas not ashamed of us at His incarna-
tion. To be sure He had uuuiy reasons to be. l-^oi*
He, Himself, was the only begotten of th(» Father,
of one essence and glory with God the Father and
the Holy Spirit, yea, the brightness of tlie Father's
glory and the express inuige of His person — who
thought it not robl)erv to be equal Avith God. And
Ave were laden Avith guilt, unclean from the crown
of our heads to the soles of our feet, and subject
to corruption. But still He Avas not ashamed to
call us brothers. He Avas ashamed of us neither
before God nor before the Holy Angels. He ac-
cepted our flesh and l)lood, went in unto our nature,
became like unto us in everything, sin only ex-
cepted. And even God Avas not ashamed lo be
called our God in Christ.
Therefore tlien He shall also not be ashamed
114 THE SACKIJ^ICE OF PRAISE.
of US iu the day of His future. To be sure, at that
time He comes again not as servant but as Lord,
not to suffer but to be glorified, not unto a croas
but with a crown. But nevertheless He shall not
be ashamed of us. For He that ascended up far
above all Heavens, is the same, that once descended
into the lower parts of the earth. He that judges,
is the Son of Man, Who once came to seek and to
save that which was lost. Our judge is our Savior.
He never forgets and never forsakes those that are
His. Whosoever confesses Me before men, thus He
witnesses, him will I also confess before My Father
which is in Heaven.
Publicly, in full view of tlie whole world, so
that every creature shall hear it. He will stand up
for His faithful confessors. However despised they
may have been in this world, Christ Avill take tlieir
name upon His lips and proclaim it unto every ear
tliat they are His, whom He has bought with His
own blood, and of whom no power in the world oi*
in hell shall be able to rob Him.
And as Christ says, so shall it be. His judg-
ment shall be effected in the whole creation. His
confession shall concern all creatures. No one shall
be able to criticise it. No one shall dare to oppose
it. His judgment shall be exalted above all
criticism and shall stand high above the judgment
of all men and devils. The heavens and the earth
and the hell and all creatures shall eternally sub-
mit to it.
And what is of greater importance than all
this. The Father shall rest in this work of His
Son. Even as God after the creation saw all that
He had made, and behold, it was very good, even
THE KEWAKl) OF CONFESSION. 115
SO at the end of days He shall look down witli
divine pleasure upon the great work of redemption
brought about by Christ. When the church with-
out spot or wrinkle shall be set before Him, and
the Kingdom perfected shall have been given unto
Him, then the Father shall accept all the redeemed
of the Son as His children, make them participate
in His communion and enjoy His presence.
The public confession of the believers by Christ
before His Father, which is in Heaven, shall be
the surety of their eternal salvation and glory.
CHAPTER XII.
The Triumph of Confession.
Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him and given him a name
zvhieJi is above every name: that at
the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in Heaven,
and things in earth, and things un-
der the earth; and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father. Phil. 2:9-11.
Deep in the heart of man lievS buried the hope
that truth shall one day gain the victory over un-
truth, and that good shall one day triumph over
evil.
All religions foster that expectation and speak
of a triumph that shall be gained at the end of time
by the Kingdom of Light over that of darkness. AH
systems of philosophy conclude by picturing an
ideal state, wherein man, surrounded by the pure
atmosphere and clear sunshine of the future, shall
dwell in i>eace and joy, true, free, and good. All
men long for a paradise, in wliich innocence shall
have returned and prosperity shall be the portion
of all. Even the greatest unbelievers surrender
themselves to this sweet hoi>e, and dream of a
116
THE TIUrMl'H OF (JONFESSION. Ill
kingdom of truth and goodness and beauty, that
shall after a shorter or longer period of time come
upon the whole earth.
But alsa! for that hope all ground is lacking.
For upon what ground can we believe in a triumph
of trutli, of righteousness, if there is no God of
truth and righteousness, and no Christ, anointed
of the Father, to raise that kingdom and to create
tiie new heavens and the new earth? The idols of
the heathen are the works of the hand of man ; the
future exiDcctations of philosophers are the inven-
tions of the human brain ; and tlie truth, the aood,
and the beautiful are pleasant sounds but no
powers which in themselves are able to usurp au-
thority over all the children of men.
Whosoever expects salvation from that, sees
himself compelled to build upon man and to ex-
pect of them that they shall slowly and gradually
acknowledge the truth and exercise virtue. But by
that it also appears immediately that that hope is
very weak. For, to be sure, there is progress in
material prosperity, a developing of man's autlior-
ity or power over nature, an ever-increasing servi-
tude of nature's powders to the making agreeable of
life.
But, according to all acknowledgment, the
moral progress does not keep step with the material
progress. In our century, which looks down from
on high upon all her predecessors, justice is
trampled under foot, righteousness stumbles upon
the streets, coveteousness and thirst for gold in-
creases, the glorification of power knows no bounds.
Civilization, knowledge, and science even become
subservient to brutal force. On the one hand.
118 TIIK SACRIFICE OF PKALSE.
tbei'e is au iusatiableness of cultinc, on the other,
misery and lamentation. And man appears to he
farther away from paradise than ever before.
At all events it is clearly proven hy history that
no salvation is to be expected, either from the
exertion of human strength and power, or from the
imminent self-development of the world. If there
is nothing else, there remains only room for dim
despondency and hopeless despair. Whosoever is
without God and without Christ, is also without
hope in the world. The Kingdom of Heaven was
not at one time established upon earth along th(*
lines of succession, neither shall it be completed in
the future in this way.
It is again in the spiritual realm even as in that
of the natural. Even as the earth must receive her
light and her air, her rain and her sunshine, her
growth and her fruitfulness from above, so also is
mankind dependent for its spiritual life upon the
world of invisible and eternal things, where Christ
is, seated on the right hand of God.
From on high therefore is descended He, who
is the Light, the Life, the Salvation of the world.
And from on high He gathers, preserves and pro-
tects the Church, which is His body. For He has
been exalted as Head at the Father's right hand,
that He should fulfill all things with Himself, and
as King must He reign until all enemies have been
brought under His foot.
And thus He shall one day descend from above.
His second coming is understood in the first and
in her time necessarily flows forth out of it. His
second coming is not an arbitrary addition to, but
is ins(>parably nnitod to His first appearance. For
THE TRIUMPH OF CONFESSION. 119
the work of Chriyt coiisists in jsaving ; uot Id the
opening of the possibility of salvation, but in the
granting of .salvation itself, perfectly and eternal.
His work was therefore not fliiished with the
meriting of salvation upon earth. Of what protit
and benefit to us would be a Christ, who would
only die for us but would not live and pray for us
and for our good appear before God's countenance?
But He that descended is the same also that
ascended far above all Heavens, that He should
fultill all things. What He merited. He also ap-
plies. What He began, He consummates. He does
not rest and may not rest, until He has perfectly
saved His people, and renewed Heaven and earth.
Maran-atha ! the Lord cometh. He comes again,
tirst of all for His own sake. His name. His office.
His honor is at stake. He comes again, to reveal
it unto the whole world, that He is the true, the
perfect Savior; that He saves not in name but in
deed and in truth ; that He grants eternal life unto
all, who have been given unto Him by the Father;
that no one has plucked or is able to pluck them
out of His hand; that He is the same yesterday,
today and forever.
He comes again, to take vengeance wdth a flam-
ing fire upon all those who do not know^ God and
who are disobedient unto His Gospel; but also to
be glorified in all His saints, and to be admired in
all, that believe ; to be acknoAvledged and to receive
homage as the Lord, the only and true Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.
The history of the world therefore ends in unity
of confession. One day, angels and devils, the
righteous and the godless shall agree in the ac-
120 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
knowledgmeiit, that Christ is the only begotten Sou
of the Father and therefore the Heir of all things.
Then every knee shall bow an.d every tongne nhall
confess, that Jesiis Christ is the Lord.
Today that confession can b(^ contradicted anopposed. For she has as contents a world of in-
visible things. To have an insight into her truth,
it is necessary to have faith, which is the substance
of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not
seen. AVe walk by faith and not by sight. The
world, that reckons only with things visible, can
contradict the Church, consider her faith foolish-
ness, and look upon her hope as an illusion. Even
the appearance is against us. For from the days,
that the fathers died, all things remain the same,
even as from the beginning of creation, so that th(^
mockers can ask: AVhere is the promise of his
future?
But a change is coming, Maran-atha! John saw,
in a vision, Heaven opened, and behold a white
horse; and He that sat upon him, was called faith-
ful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge
iind make war. His ej^es were as a tlanie of tire,
and upon His head were many croAvns; and He
had a name written, that no man knew but He
Himself. And He was clothed in a vesture dipped
in blood; and His name is called the Word of God.
And the armies which were in Heaven followed
Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white
and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp
sword, that with it He should smite the nations:
and He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and He
treadeth the wine-i)ress of the fierceness and wrath
of Almio'htv Cod. And He hath on His vesture
THE TKIUMPli OF CONFESSION. 121
aud on bib? thigh a name written, King of kings,
and Lord of lords.
When Christ appears thus in glory, no one shall
be able to ojjpose or withstand Him. xVll shall see
Him, also they that pierced Him. They shall see
Him with their own, corporeal eyes, and no unbe-
lief, no doubt shall any more be possible. Then all
creatures shall have to acknowledge that Christ is
the Lord. They shall have to acknowledge it, if
not freely, then compelled; if not willingly, then
unwillingly; if not with, then against their desire.
Even from the Throne in the midst of the Heavens,
throughout all the realms of creation, to the very
depth of the great abyss, only one voice shall be
lieard to sound and resound: Christ the Lord!
And all creatures together shall bow the knee be-
fore Him, who, to be sure, was deeply humiliated
and died on a cross, but who was also highly ex-
alted and seated upon the Throne of the Universe
at the Father's right hand.
What a future, what a scene I The whole crea-
tion upon its knees before Jesus! And upon all
lips the one, the brief, the returning to her point
of obeisance but nevertheless all including, the
now by many scorned but then by all acknowledged
confession, that Christ is the Lord to the glory of
God the Father!
Come, Lord Jesus come, yea come quickly!
He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed
in white raiment. And He, that hath the seven
spirits of God and the seven stars, shall in no w^ise
blot out his name out of the book of life, and He
shall confess liis name before the Father and before
His Angels.
INTRODUCTION.
In less than a year's time three staunch de-
fenders and scholarly interi^reters of Calvinism
have passed into the great beyond. Kiiyper, War-
tield, and Bavinck have iinished tlieir earthly course
in rapid succession. Their noble work done, they
liave entered into their rest. Though the broad ex-
panse of waters separated the American theologian
from his esteemed colleagues on the continent, these
three Avere one in liope and doctriri(% one in charity.
Calvinism is not limited to any one nation or
tongue. In the death of those men, who were tilled
with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
Church has sustained a severe and almost irrepa-
rable loss. Wlien stars of tlie first magnitude cease
to shine, the heavens are less bright and it is but
natural that a dread of approaching dai'kness will
creep over us.
But this apprehension of gloom must not pre-
vail. We have the Word of God which shall not
pass away. We may depend on the abiding pres-
ence of the Holy Spirit in the Church of Jesus
Christ. And besides, the men of God who wrought
so mightily have left us a lieritage of unspeakable
9
10 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
value. They, though dead, still speak. Their
records produce the familiar sound of their own
voices and is music to all who love the faith of the
fathers.
The preservation of the priceless productions of
those intellectual giants is our first duty to God and
men. In the kind providence of God the works of
our great theologians are not only preserved, but
also translated. Tlie necessity of translatino: choice
Dutch literature into the English language is very
evident in view of tlie present generation of young
I)eople in our churches. Tlie present situation re-
veals the fact — in a way deplorable — that only a
small percentage of our youth can appreciate a
book written in our old mother tongue. It is im-
perative, however, that the fundamentals of the
Reformed Faith receive a permanent place in their
hearts and lives. Hence, the need of translating
the grand old truths into the language which they
do understand.
How gratifying it is to note that eminent theo-
logians have not confined themselves exclusively
to the production of technical books for the use of
the ministry, but have also left us little jewels
which appeal directly to the laymen of our congre-
gations. Kuyper's ''To Be Near Unto God" and
WarfiekVs "The Savior of the World'' have been
read by thousands of believers. In like manner
Dr. Ravinck's ''Tlie Sacrifice of Praise," as trans-
INTRODUCTION. 11
lated by the Rev. John Dolfin of the Christian Re-
formed Cliiirch, 111(4 Avith a favorable reception. It
does not surprise us that there is a demand just
now for a second edition. A book of this nature
will be needed so long- as young- people confess
Christ as their Lord and Savior.
It is our humble and liappy task to command
''The Sacrilice of Praise" in its second and care-
fully revised edition to our churches, especially to
tlie Reformed Church in America. We can do this
most cheerfully liecause it is our personal conviction
that Dr. H. Bavinck was, by the grace of God, tlu^
Prince of recent Reformed theologians. Among
the three, al)Ove named, lie easily holds first place
for depth of thought and accurate research. His
scholarly attainments were indeed rare, as abun-
dantly shown by the copious quotations and refer-
ences in his ''Reformed Dogmatics" and other
works.
This book is of an intensely practical nature.
The subject, as the headings of the twelve chapters
indicate, is "Confession." We do not hesitate to
say that in practical church life there is still con-
siderable misunderstanding as to confessing Christ.
Ministers and elders frequently hear such ques-
tions as these: Is it really necessary to make pub-
lic confession? Why should I take that step?
AVhat does it mean to confess Christ? What is the
relation between Holy Baptism and the Lord's
12 THE SACRIFICE OF PRALSE.
Supper? Doejs God demand that one should unite
with the Church? What rewards may the sincere
confessor expect? These and other questions are
answered by the author in plain and Scriptural lan-
guage. Throughout the book the fundamental sig-
nificance of the Covenant of Grace with its attend-
ant promises, conditions, and blessings is clearly
set forth. In a word, ''The Sacrifice of Praise'' is
a masterpiece on the subject of confessing Christ,
both for instruction and comfort to those who in-
tend to unite with tlie Church and to members in
full communion. Because of its unique character,
consistories would do well to ])rocure this book in
(|uantiti(\s and present a copy to every person who
appears before them to make confession of faith.
May the Holy Spirit accompany this book on
its journey to the intent that our baptized young
men and maidens may ''offer the sacrifice of praise
to God continually."
John Bovenkkrk,
Pfifitor of the FirHt Reformed Church
of Mnfilceffon^ Michigan.
Dec. 1?>, 1921.
CONTENTS.
I. The Basis or Foundation of Confession
II. The Training or Bringing up unto Con
fession ....
III. The Rule of Confession .
IV. The Essence of Confession
V. The Contents of Confession
V'l. The Diversity of Confession
VTI. The UniversaHty of Confession
VHI. The ObHgation to Confession
IX. The Opposition to Confession
X. The Strength for Confession .
XI. The Reward of Confession
XII. The Triumph of Confession .
PAGE
15
27
35
46
59
66
75
85
94
102
109
116
13
Cf)e S>acrtftce of ^xmt
CHAPTER I.
Hie Basis or Foundation of Confession.
And I will estahlish my covenant
between me and thee and thy seed
after thee in their generations for
an everlasting covenant, to be a
• God unto thee, and to thy seed
after thee. Genesis 17:7.
The coveuant of grace lies immovably firm and
fast in God's eternal mercies.
In the first covenant which was established
prior to the fall, God came to man demanding and
requiring obedience, and promised him eternal life
and heavenly salvation only after perfect fulfill-
ment of the law. This first covenant therefore
reckoned witli the will and with the loork of man, it
rested for a part in his hand and hence was uncer-
tain- and breakable.
But the covenant of grace, which was an-
nounced for the first time in the maternal promise,
has its basis and security only in the divine counsel
of grace. Although the word covenant does not ap-
pear in this promise, still the matter represented by
this w^ord is fully contained in it. For, before
15
16 THE SACRIFICE OP PRAISE.
man through transgression has made a cov-
enant of friendship with Satan, God intervenes,
puts enmity in the room of the effected friendship
and in the seed of the Avoman once more brings man
over to his side. The covenant of grace therefore
has proceeded entirely from God, He himself brings
it about; therefore it does not rest in man nor is it
in any way dependent upon his will and work. It
is eternal, unchangeable, immovable, even as God
himself. For the mountains shall depart and the
liills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace
be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
In this covenant, God is the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the
Omega. In the most beautiful way it maintains
the absolute sovereignty of God in the whole work
of salvation. For from the very beginning to the
very end nothing of man is added or introduced.
Redemption is specifically a divine work, the work
of the Father, the Son, and tlie Holy Spirit. All
boasting is excluded, the honor and glory is entirely
and only due unto God, who is not only the Creator
but also the Recreator of all things.
On this account is it a covenant of grace, of
pure grace. In the divine virtue of grace this cov-
enant has its origin ; in the gifts of grace it finds its
contents; and in the glorification of grace lies its
end and purpose.
It is God, who has established this well ordered
and eternal covenant; who has accepted into it
man, separated from Him through sin ; who makes
man a participant of all tlie profits and benefits of
this covenant ; who makes man to walk in the ways
THE BASIS OR FOUNDATION OF CONFESSION. li
of this covenant and through this covenant leads
him to the heavenly glory.
The stability of this covenant is the reason why
in Holy Writ it is not a few times revealed nnto ns
as a will or testament. It is not a mutual con-
tract; it is not like unto au agreement between two
])ersons brought about by them upon mutual con-
sent, after much weighing and consideration. But
the covenant of grace is an institution, a gracious
disposition of God, a gift in Christ. As the Father
liath appointed the Kingdom unto me, even so 1
appoint it unto you.
As by will or testament, in the way of a last
free disposition, in the form of an inheritance tlu^
divine blessings of this covenant couu' unto us,
without our will. It is the most precious gift, the
most perfect gift which comes to us from abovo,
descending from the Father of Lights, with whoiii
there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning.
And behold now, what and wliat kind of bless-
ings form the contents of this free and eternal
covenant. Together they form a fullness of spirit-
ual and material, of heavenly and earthly, of eter-
nal and temporal blessings. In that covenant there
is opened and unlocked for man a fullness of
salvation; a fountain of blessedness; a spring of
life. The one grace makes room for another and
that one is again in turn relieved and substituted
by another. Indeed, out of the fullness of Christ
^^•e receive grace for grace.
Spiritual profits and benefits are the first things
of which man becomes a recipient in this covenant.
For before and above all things Christ came upon
earth to seek and to save that which was lost. He
PROPERTY OF ^
-TADCDu&TU I IRRARY
18 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
did not appear as a reformer of society, as a polit-
ical leader of the people, as an artist or phil-
osopher. But a. Savior; that was His name and
also His office. For that, the Father had anointed
Him with His Spirit, to preach good tidings unto
the meek; to bind up the broken hearted; to pro-
claim liberty to the captives and the opening of the
prison to them that are bound, to procUiim tin'
acceptable year of the Lord.
Spiritual blessings, therefore, above all, are
granted unto the church by the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ in heaven. In communion witli Christ,
forgiveness of sins and regeneration, faith and con-
version, sanctitication and perseverance become the
part and portion of believers. Both their con-
sciousness and their being, their state and attitude
are renewed by the Spirit of Christ. They have
becouie dilTerent people through the spirit tii;il
dwelleth in them ; they are not from below but from
above; they have been born of God, accepted by
Him as children and are destined for the heavenly
inheritance, l^or theui, old things have passed
away, behold, all things have become new.
But these spiritual and eternal blessings ;n'<'
also accompanied by those which are earthly and
temporal. Heaven and earth, spirit and matter,
soul and body are certainly too closely allied than
that an absolute separation could be possible. In
the glorious picture of the future revealed by the
l)rophecies of the Old Testament we do not only
see that Israel shall be a holy nation, that the
Lord has^ betrothed Himself in eternity, and that
Ele shall cleanse from all uncleanliness and grant
i\ new heart, but we also see in that picture, thai
THE KA8LS OK FOUNDATION OF CONFESSION. 19
under the Prince of Peace out of the House of
David, Israel shall live in peace and enjoy a pros-
perity beyond recollection, and an extraordinary
fruit fulness of the soil.
And thus also the New Testament unites the
corporal blessings with the spiritual. Certainly the
( uipliasis falls upon the latter. First, the Kingdom
of God with His righteousness must be sought, and
tliat Kingdom, already here upon earth, becomes
the part and portion of those who believe the gospel
of Christ and turn unto God with a true and con-
trite heart. For that Kingdom is, in the first
]>Iace, established within the heart and consists
jiot in food and drink but in righteousness, and joy,
and peace through the Holy Spirit.
But lie who has sought and found that King-
dom as a pearl of great price, receives thereafter
also all other things. Such need no longer take
thought of the morrow, as the Gentiles do, and
anxiously ask: What shall we eat? or, What shall
we drink? or. Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
for his heavenly Father knoweth that he hath need
of all these things. He who spared not His own
Son, but delivered Him up for the guilty, shall also
with Him grant us all tilings. The hairs of our
head are all told. Our bread is certain and our
water sure. To be sure, he who Avould follow Jesus
must forsake all. But even now, in this life, he
again receives fathers and mothers, brethren and
sisters, friends and fields, and in the coming day
^\9.n life fore\ermore. Godliness with content-
ment is therefore a great gain; it is useful unto all
things, having the promise of ])otli this and the
future life.
20 THE SACRIFICE OF PKAISE.
All these gifts, profits and benefits of the cov-
enant of grace are united in the one great promise,
that God will be our God and the God of our seed.
The proclamation of salvation begins with this
promise when God, after the fall of man, again
seeks him, breaks the contracted friendship with
Satan setting enmit}' in its place, and again re-
ceives man into His communion and fellowship.
This promise stands at the head of tlie covenant
which Avas estal)lished with Abraliam, shines above
the law given unto Israel, and forms the chief con-
tents of the dispensation of the covenant of gi'acc^
in the days of the Old Testament. In tluit promist^
the pious find, even in the midst of need and want,
distress and misery, their salvation and comfort;
besides God they have no one in heaven and none
upon earth that they desire but Him. He is the
strength of their heart and their portion forever.
When Israel forsakes Him, then this remains their
comfort, that God nevertheless remains their God,
again gathers them out of the dispersion and at
the end of days establishes with them a new cov-
enant wherein they shall be unto Him a people and
He unto them a God.
And this promise passes on into the New Testa
ment. It is fulfilled in Christ, who, in the most
fearful trials, in the severest temptations, in the
struggle of Gethsemane and in the suffering on the
cross, remained standing because God was His God
and He God's own well beloved Sou. It is being
fulfilled in the church, which has come in the room
of Israel, and glorying in the Immanuel, God with
us, is accepted as His people. And it shall be fully
realized, whou tli(» New Jerusalem shall descend
THE BASIS OK FOUNDATION OF CONFESSION. 21
from God out of Heaven, when His tabernacle shall
be with men, and He dwell with them as His people.
What gift is and can be greater than that of
Ood Himself? What can He give more than Him-
self; Himself with all His virtues and perfections,
Avith His grace and wisdom, with His right and
poAver, wath His unchangeableness and faith? For,
where God is for us, who dare, who can, who shall
be against us? What then can come unto, what
then can hinder us? He is and He remains ours,
in necessity and death, in living and dying, for
time and eternity. He is a God, not of the dead
but of the living. Blessed is the people whose God
is the Lord!
Moreover this promise becomes still richer when
we remember, that God binds Himself therein, not
only that He will be our God but also the God of
our seed. Great would it be already; if God had
granted His communion and fellowship unto a few
people standing in no relation whatsoever to each
other; if God working arbitrarily and reckoning
not with generations, had made His elect loose
from all historical connection with tlesh and with
blood. But the Lord does not work arbitrarily and
in this wav. He establishes His covenant oro^an-
icallv with man. in Christ as Head, first with
Adam and then wdth Abraham, who is a father of
all believers. With His grace God follows the line
of generations. In the recreation He follows and
joins Himself to the creation. He executes the
election in the way of the covenant. As Father of
all mercies He walks in the path which, as the
Father of all things He hath assigned. Therefore
the covenant of grace is also eternal in this sense.
22 Tin: sAcitiFK'K OF pUAisi:.
ibat iij liistorv it proceeds from generation to
generation and is never interrupted. (Iraee is :i
stream, which, taking a beginning after the fall, in
the history of mankind prepares for itself a bed
and only finds its mouth in eternity. As covenant
it may run through different dispensations and ap-
pear in several forms, but nevertheless, through the
almighty power of God it has become an inex-
terminable part of the world and an indestructible
good for mankind.
Just because it is a covenant it bears this in-
(!orruptible character. As we know, in all cov-
enants there are two parts. First, God therein
gives Himself unto us; but then we are thereby
also admonished of God and obliged unto a nev\'
o])edience, namely, that we cleave to this one God,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that we trust in Him,
and love Him with all our liearts, witli all (mr
souls, with all our minds, and with all our strength ;
that we forsake the world, crucify our old nature
and walk in a new and holy life. When God gives
Himself unto us, then He wills, that we thereafter
shall also give ourselves unto Mini, ourselves en-
tirely, undivided, unconditionally, ourselves with
our souls and our bodies, with. our strength and
talents, with our money and possessions, with our
children and grandchildren. Also and above all
with our childre]], who are legacies of the Lord,
iind the choicest of His earthly blessings. They
must be God's, because we are His.
But nevertheless, when God in that covenant
also witli our children requires and demands us
for His service, then He remains the First, who,
:iml unto us and unto our children glorifies the
THE 15A8IS OR FOUNDATION OF CONFESSION. 23
rk-hneBS of His grace. He is tlie First, when
He calls Adam and Noah, Abraham and Israel unto
His eomnuinion and fellowship but He also re-
mains this, when with them He also accepts their
cliildren into His covenant. I will be a God unto
thee and unto thy seed after thee. Thus is the
promise with which God binds Himself unto the
elect in their generations. And before our chil-
ren were born, before they had done either good or
evil ; He it is, that said in His free almighty power :
I will have mercy on whom 1 will have mercy, and
I will have compassion on whom I will have com-
passion.
Our children do not come into that covenant
because we give, because we consecrate them unto
the Lord. Much less do they come into it, because
they have or possess any merit or virtue of their
own, making them worthy of acceptance. But they
are in that covenant by virtue of the promise of
God, they are born in it and are therefore in it
from the very first beginning of their existence,
not of nature, but of grace, because God hath bound
Himself to be the God of believers and of their seed.
In the spiritual world, governs the same law
as in the natural. We are all participants of a
natural life, wliich we have received through our
parents from God, the Almighty, Creator of Heaven
and Earth. That we possess that life is not a mat-
ter of fact. We have not given it unto ourselves,
we have not merited it, we have by our guilt even
forfeited it; it is in an absolute sense a gift, to be
sure, not of God's particular but of God's general
grace. We become recipients of it by conception
and birth, in which we are entirely passive. With-
24 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
out our eonsoiousness and will we are placed in a
world, which is tilled with rich gifts, and we go in
unto the mighty inheritance of our ancestors and
forefathers; we stand upon their shoulders and
enjoy of that which they wTought and brought to-
gether in the sweat of their brow.
All this is true of, and in a still stronger way
applicable unto, the spiritual gifts of the covenant.
For instance it is not true, that we first for awhile
wander about outside of and without tlie covenant
and thereafter by faith and conversion as by deeds
of our own free wull come into that covenant, may
indeed, faitli and conversion are not conditions
without and unto the covenant of grace, but they
are profits and benefits in that covenant, revealing
participation in and communion and fellowship
with Christ and opening the access unto the en-
joyment of His merits.
All these gifts, viz., of forgiveness and renew-
ing, holiness and glory come unto us through
the Mediator, who hath earned and merited theiu
with the price of His l)lood. They can only be our
part and portion then, when we are participants
of Christ's person. The mystical union with Christ
precedes all merits and benefits and reveals itself
first in faith and conversion. Even as natural life
is granted unto us in birth and thereafter reveals
itself in deeds of mind and will, even so spiritual
life becomes our possession through regeneration
or the new birth, thereafter to bear fruits of faith
and conversion.
And again, it is only possible to be a participant
in Christ then, when the Father grants or gives us
that Christ. The offering and the gift of Christ
THE liASJS Oli FOUNDATION OF (X)NFESSION. 25
precedes all His beuetits and profits. It is God,
who grants us Christ, yea who gives Himself unto
us in Christ and who in communion and fellow-
ship with Him makes us recipients of all the suc-
cessive gifts of the covenant, yea, of complete
salvation.
And now of this unspeakable gift of God^s
grace, baptism is a sign and seal. For everyone,
who is in truth baptized, is as surely washed witli
Christ's blood and spirit of the uncleanness of the
soul, that is from all his sins, as he is externally
washed w4th water which is used to remove the
uncleanness of the body. Baptism is, is it not, a
})aptism in the name of the Triune God? For when
we are baptized in the name of the Father, God
the Father witnesseth and sealeth unto us, that he
cloth make an eternal covenant of grace with us,
and adopts us as His children and heirs, and there-
fore will provide us with every good thing, and
avert all evil, or turn it to our profit.
And when we are baptized in the name of the
Son, the Son sealeth unto us, that He doth wash
us in His blood from all our sins, incorporating
us into the fellowship of His death and resurrec-
tion, so that we are freed from all our sins and
accounted righteous before God.
In like manner, when we are baptized in the
name of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost assures
us, by this Holy Sacrament, that He will dw^ell in
us, and sanctify us to be members of Christ, apply-
ing unto us that which we have in Christ, namely,
the washing away of our sins, and the daily renew^-
ing of our lives, till we shall finally be presented
^t) TJIK SACKIFICi: OF FKAISK.
without spot or vvriiikle auiong the assembly of the
elect in life eternal.
Baptism is therefore unto us a sign, a witness,
that (iod, unto all eternity, will be our God, bein*;
unto us a gracious and merciful Father. For He
hatli commanded us to baptke all of those, who
are His, in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost.
In baptism God gives us the visible sign and
seal that in Christ He hath given Himself unto us
and hath accepted and adopted us as His children.
And that acceptance, that adoption is the basis
or foundation of our confession.
CHAPTER II.
The Training or Bringing Up Unto Confession.
Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every zvord that
proceedeth out of the mouth of
God. Matt. 4:4.
In the way of the covenant of grace God trains
or brings up all His children unto liberty and in-
dependence.
While election only includes who shall in-
fallibly inherit eternal salvation, the covenant of
grace describes the way in which these elect are
and shall be led to this, their destiny. Election
and covenant are therefore not distinguished as a
narrower and a wider circle, for they both consist
of and include the same persons; but while in elec-
tion they are considered by themselves, in the cov-
enant they are always considered as standing in
relation to the whole human race.
Although the covenant of grace, thus, in the
most beautiful way maintains the absolute sov-
ereignty of God in the whole work of salvation
and prohibits anything of man being added to or
introduced into it, it nevertheless also, at the same
time, does full justice to man's rational and moral
nature and to the fact that he was created in the
image of God. When God obtains His right, man
27
-JS THE SACRIFICE OF FKAISE.
alswj rei-eives the pltice iiiul the honor which belongs
to hira according to the will of God. God chooses
(hose who are His in Christ, that they should Ix*
lioly and hianieless before Him in love.
To be sure, Christ appears in the covenant of
grace as head of the church, but He does not efface
His believers neither does he force them from their
place. From the beginning to the end Christ is
surety for them, but, in such a way that they them-
selves, also taught and enabled by His spirit, con-
sciously and willingly begin to live and walk in the
covenant. True, the covenant of grace is estab-
lished with Christ but through and over Him it
propagates itself unto all tliose who are His and
adopts them wholly and entirely, with body and
soul, with mind and will and all strength.
Because God works in them both to will and to
do His good pleasure, He urges and compels them
to work out their oanu salvation with fear and
trembling. By the grace of God they are what they
are; and are enabled to do all things through
Christ who strengtheneth them. Because Christ
lives in them, they themselves live by the faith of
the Son of God. Now, therefore, because the chil-
dren of believers are accepted into this covenant
of grace even before their consciousness and will,
therefore we say, the calling particularly and
specifically comes to the parents that they shall
help and cause them to be instructed in the afore
said doctrine and shall bring and have them
brought up in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
Because in all covenants there are two parts, there-
fore the covenant of grace also admonishes and
obliges us into a new obedience. When God savs
THE TRAINING OR BRINOING UP, ETC. 29
unto us: I am your God; He also immediately
adds to it : Walk before my countenance and be
ye upright. Giving Himself unto us, He also wills
tliat we sliall give ourselves unto Him with all we
are and with all we have.
Children, however, are not able immediately to
confess for thems(dves and to Avalk in that confes-
sion. Tlie ])arents are responsible for them. They
are tljey Avho appear as witnesses at the baptism
(){' their cliildren and as sureties answer for their
Christian training. Upon the basis or foundation
of tlie acceptance or adoption from Cod's side the
parents are obliged to bi'ing and lead their chil-
dren to the full conscious, free and willing con-
fession of faith.
Here also, natunil tilings are symbols of things
s]>iritual. The natural life, Avhich becomes our
part and portion through conception and birth out
of our parents, is in an absolute sense a gift, un-
merited and even beforehand forfeited. But that
life, even from the very first beginning of its exist-
ence has need of all manner of sustenance and
protection. It must ])e nursed and fostered,
guarded and protected, fed and refreshed. Witli-
out feeding, without strengthening in tlie widest
sense of the word, it would soon succumb and
perish.
The first and highest cause of this preservation
is God. He is not only the Creator but also the
Preserver of all things. Tf He. did not sustain that
life, called into existenr-p by Himself, from moment
to moment, with His almightly and everywhere
present power it would immediately sink back into
non-existence. And now if it pleased the Almighty,
30 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
He could bring about this sustenance and preserva-
tion of life without using any mediums whatsoeverj
even as He sustained and preserved a Moses for
forty days on the mountain and Jesus for forty
days in tlie wilderness. Or He could bring it about
in an extraordinary manner, even as He send tlie
ravens to feed His servant Elijali at the brf)ok
Cherith, or as He fed the children of Israel for forty
3'ears in the wilderness with bread from Heaven.
But the common and general rule is, that God
brings about this preservation in a mediate way.
He uses food and drink to feed us, and He makes
use of th(^ parents as the natural guardians to pro-
\ide for the manifold and various needs of the
child. The parents are oidiged to collect, to lay up
treasures f(u^ the children. And of those treasures
the children live. They have not merited them,
they can lay no claim to them, they are pure de-
pendency and live by grace.
But even then, it is not really tlie bread that
feeds us, but the word, whicli proceedeth out of
the mouth of God. By bread alone, with notliing
more, man shall not live, but by the word, the com-
mand, the power, the blessing hiid therein and
communicated therethru by God. That and that
only feeds us, whicli it pleases (iod to provide with
strength.
And now what feeding is for the natural life
in the natural Avorld, that is training or bringing
up for the spiritual life in tlie spiritual world. It
v.ould not be a too wondrous <>r a too marvelous
thing for God to preserve and build up man in his
whole spiritual life without nny mediums whatso-
ever. But it pleases Him to have men brought up
THE TRAINING OR BRINGING UP, ETC. 31
and trained by man and especially to allow tliem
to labor with the word unto the forming and up-
building of the spirit. Mind and heart, conscience
and will, disposition and imagination are in this
way, from infancy formed in man tlirough the in-
fluence of others. And also in the feeding and
preservation of the spiritual life, brought into
existence by regeneration, God works in no other
^^'ay or manner.
Parents are in the first place, as instruments m
the hand of God, employed to nourish and foster
the spiritual life in tlieir children and bring it to
maturit3^ Nature itself already indicates this, for
it is in the circle of the family tliat tlie cliildreii
receive their existence and spend the first years of
their life. And God in His revelation is in con-
formity with this His teacliino' in nature. In Israel
the Lord inculcated in tlie parents the duty, that
tliey should declare unto their children and their
children's children the great works that God had
done in tlieir midst; that they should give them
an explanation of the solemn ceremonies in their
service, especially those of the Passover; and that
Ihey should instruct them in the laws, in the
statutes and judgments which God had given unto
His people. Even as the Lord Himself was the
Father and Provider of His people, so the parents
must be the corporeal and spiritual guardians of
their children.
Still stronger is this duty bound unto the hearts
<^»f the pai'ents in t]v^ days of the New Testament.
Jesus calls the children unto Him, by name,
blesses them and promises them the Kingdom of
Heaven. Not less than tlie parents, the children
32 THE SACRIFICE OF PKAISE.
participate in the blessing of Clirist. The Apostles
therefore considered them, even as the adults, ac-
cepted into the communion of Christ and exiiort
tliem to be obedient unto their parents /// the Lord :
and upon the parents they lav the duty not to pro-
voke their children to wrath, but to bring them up
in the nurture and admonition of tlie Lord.
^Mieu Christianity entered tlie world, it again
restored and sanctitied iho broken bands of family
life; it restored the huslmnd to the wife, the mother
to tho children, the cliildren again to tlu' parents.
And under the impression of that moral change a
Church Father wrote that beautiful word : ''Tiic
mother is the glory of the children, the wife the
glory of the husband and both are the glory of
the wife."
In this weighty and responsible task of training
and bringing up, the parents are in the present day
assisted by the school. Because the denmnds for
life, both in knowledge and ability, have become
so much higher and broader, the parents them-
selves are no longer personally able to fulfill the
whole task which rests upon them in the bringing
up of their children. They no longer have the time
neither the ability for it. Therefore next to the
family has come to stand the school; which to be
sure does not relieve the parents of their responsi-
bility and task but nevertheless comes to offer help
and assistance in the keeping and fulfillment of it.
The parents remain called to ])ring their rhildren
up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ;
they must see to it, that the instruction given in
the school is in conformity with this. But the
school continues the education in this line, brings
THE TRAINING OR BRINGING UP, ETC. 33
the Christian training into connection with the re-
quirements which state and society demand of its
future active members; and the purpose of the
school is to mould the children into men of God,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
The churcli also has a task to fulfill in this
training of the children of the covenant. But her
work is essentially distinguished from that of
family and school. It was especially the Reforma-
tion, and among the Reformers specifically, Calvin
who again laid stress and emphasis upon this ec-
clesiastical training of the youth. The catechetical
iustruction, which the church officially, in the name
of the Lord, gives to her youthful, minor members,
has this peculiar and specific purpose, that it leads
the baptized children, in full liberty of faith to
participate in the Holy Supper, and there, with the
whole church, in personal independence and liberty
show the death of the Lord. The instruction of the
church does not include tlie task which awaits the
children in their civil and social life, but it en-
forces the relation which God has laid between the
two signs and seals of his covenant, and purposes
to train and bring up tlie children of the covenant
unto mature, conscious confessing members of tlie
Church of Christ.
If it is thus carried out according to the rule
of the word of tlie Lord, then family, church and
school work together in a most beautiful way. They
do not stand disconnected, side by side, and much
less in opposition to each other; the one does not
break down what the other builds up, but together
they labor in the one great task, the reformation
of man after the image and likeness of God. One
34 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
faith and one baptism binds them together; it is
one confession upon which they all rest; it is one
view of Avorld and life which they impart to the
children for comfort and support in the arena of
this earthly life. Each in its own Avay and yet in
a mutual relation they warn and teach every man
in all wisdom, that they may present him perfect
in Christ Jesus.
i
CHAPTER III.
The Rule of Confession.
Thy word is a lamp unto my
feet, and a light unto my path.
Ps. 119:105.
In the trainiii<»- and briDgiug up unto confes8ion
of the name of the Lord, family and church and
school must use the word of God which comes unto
us in the Holy Scriptures. That word is the founda-
tion, the principle, the rule, and again, at the same
time, the purpose of all confession. We would
have nothing to confess, if God did not give us in
the scriptures His truth to confess. Out of tlie
word of God the spiritual life is fed, so that, grow-
ing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ, it may, in an independent w^ay, interpret
and confess tliat word in its own language Ix^fore
all men.
To be sure, it is not the parent, neither the
teacher, neither the minister of the word ; nor is it
that word in itself which gives and preserves this
spiritual life. For here also, is the saying of Jesus
applicable, that by bread alone, by that word with
nothing more, man shall not live but by all strength
and blessing which proceedeth out of the mouth
of God. It is not, Paul that planteth; neither,
Apollos that watereth; but, God only that giveth
the increase.
3.S
36 THE SACRIFICE OF PKAISE.
But nevertheless it is that word of Holy Writ
in the hand of the parents and of the teac-hers, with
the blessing of the Lord, which serves to feed the
spiritual life of the children. What food is for the
physical, that is tlie word of (lod for the spiritual
life. How sweet have been Thy words unto my
taste I O Lord, yea, sweeter than honey and honey
comb to my mouth I
That word of God c()nies unto us from the tirst
moments of our existence. That, is not tlie tirst
time that it comes unto us when the Bible lies open
before us and we read and search it ; neither do we
come in contact with it for the first time then, w^hen
in the public assembly of the saints it is proclaimed
unto us by a servant of the Most High and we listen
to it. But that word comes unto us from our most
tender infancy. It comes unto us, in the rebuking
of tlie father, in the admonition of the mother, in
the instruction of the teacher, in the fellowship of
our comrades, in the witnessing of our conscience,
in the experiences of life. It is with us upon all
our jiaths, it accompanies us from the cradle to the
grave, it never leaves us to ourselves. As a bene-
diction it is pronounced upon our heads, in psalm
and hymn it is sung unto us, in addresses it is
bound unto our hearts, in commandments or pro-
hibitions it is revealed unto our eyes. By and
through that Word we are always led and guided,
admonished and comforted, encouraged and morti-
fied, convinced of sin and referred to Christ. It is
Uie very atmosphere in which we live and breathe
from our birth, it is the food, the drink, the air, the
sunshine, the rain for our spiritual life, and that
all together and at once.
THE RULE OF CONFESSION. 37
And always is that Word a power. Without
wishing or being able to designate when it already
exerts its influence upon the conscience and heart of
man, it remains in itself always a powder of God
unto salvation. Never is it a vain sound, a dead
letter, a meaningless phrase. It is always quick
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit, and of the joints and marrow, a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart ; a hammer
which breaketh in pieces the hard and stony heart
of the sinner; a sword of the spirit that mortally
wounds the proud and self-righteous man; a testi-
mony and witness of God that awakeneth the con-
science; a seed of regeneration, a power unto sanc-
tification, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness, that
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all good works ; in a word, a means
of grace, preceding and highly exalted above the
sacraments.
Even there, where it does not bring and com-
mand a blessing, it nevertheless does its work and
exerts its influence. The devils believe and tremble.
For Atheists, unbelievers, it is a savour of deatli
unto death. It is a stone of stumbling, a rock of
offense over and against which the godless stumble
and are hurt. If it does not soften, it hardens. If
it does not warm, it scorches. A man coming in
contact witli it never remains the same ; he becomes
better or worse, but can never cover himself witli
the shield of neutrality. Even as the rain and the
snow cometh down from Heaven, and returneth
not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it
SH the sackifice uf praise.
bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the
sower, and bread to the eater : so shall my Word
be that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not
return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I sent it.
The cause of this power lies therein, that it is
God^s Word. All scripture was not only once given
by inspiration of God but it is also as such con-
tinually preserved by God with His Almighty and
everywhere present jDOwer. The Gospel, which
comes forth out of that Word unto man in mani-
fold forms and along various Avays, is always borne
and animated by God. It is and always remains
His Word. It is constantly accompanied by the
Holy Spirit, who lives and dwells in the churcli
and from out of her goes into the world and con-
vinces her of sin, righteousness and judgment. It
is a Word, that continually proceeds out of the
mouth of God, that comes unto us in Christ, and
that through the Spirit of Christ is declared unto
our heart or conscience.
Therefore, that Word can be and indeed is the
meat and drink of our spiritual lives. It is the
medium, not tlie fountain of grace. God is and
remains the giver and dispenser of all grace; no
man, no priest, no word, no sacrament has been
clothed by Him with the treasure of grace or com-
missioned to dispense her. Servants can give the
sign and seal, but God only grants the sealed and
sigTiified fact. This onlv has God done — and this
also is grace — He has in His free power and
pleasure bound Himself under oath to grant witli
His word, which is administered in full accord
THE RULE OF CONFESSION. 39
with the meaning of the Spirit, unto each and
every one, who believingly accepts it, Christ, who
is the meat and drink of our souls, the bread that
lias come down from Heaven, the w^ater of life,
drinking of w^hich we shall never again thirst.
But to be thus, that Word must be believed
with a child-like faith and accepted in humility.
Even as bread, however powerful and nourishing
it may be, can only be profitable for the preserva-
tion of our natural lives then, wiien it is eaten with
the mouth and received into the body — even so can
the Word of God be food for our souls only then,
when it is accepted by faith and is implanted in
our hearts.
Therefore hath the Lord also destined them the
one for the other. He, who created the food, also
created the mouth to eat it. He, who gave the
Word, also brought to light through regeneration
that new^ life which can only be fed and strength-
ened by the food of that Word.
They are related and by origin stand in a close
relation to each other. The Word works and
strengthens the spiritual life. And the spiritual
life, by virtue of its nature, is naturally drawn
toward and longs for this food, even, as an infant
for its mother's breast, as the hungry for bread and
the thirsty for water.
Furthermore they are both descended from one
Spirit. In the sphere of natural things there is a
possibility of knowledge only because the reason
in us and the thoughts in the creation, together
and in their mutual relation, have been made by
that Word which in the beginning w^as with God,
which w^as God, and by which all things have been
40 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
made. It is one aud the same light that enlightens
both the eye and the objects. One and the same
light of knowledge shines in the human reason and
in the works of God's hand. And then only, does
man see and know, when both of these streams of
light, coming from one fountain, meet each other.
With Thee, O Lord, is the fountain of life ; in Thy
light shall w^e see light!
Thus, also the spiritual man and the Word of
the Spirit belong together. It is the same Si)irit,
the Spirit of Christ namely, who brought the \Voi*(l
into existence and preserves it in existence, and
who made the spiritual man to be born in us. In
Holy Writ He has, as it were, pictured Christ unto
and before our eyes; and in our heart He makes
Him live by faith. In Holy Writ He has sketchcMl
for us the image of Christ and according to that
image He recreates the believer more and mon^
For we all, with open face beholding as in a glass
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Si)irit of
the Lord.
Therefore it is an infallible, undeceivable mark
of spiritual life, when our heart yearns after and
longs for that Word. Perfectly natural and as a
matter of fact the hungry longs for bread and the
thirsty for w^ater and the sick for medicine. And
just as naturally, the spiritual man longingly
reaches for the Word of God and for (/hrist who is
offered unto him in that Word. He never gi\)ws
beyond that Word, as the mystic dreams; he does
not use that Word as a ladder to ascend to a cer-
tain height, then to spread his own wings and sup-
port himself. Nay indeed, h(^ who does this will
THE RULE OF CONFESSION. 41
soon be humiliated and put to shame. He, who
refuses food will soon starve. He, who has no re-
spect for the Word of Christ does not love the
J^ord. He, who casts away the medicine has no
need of a physician.
But the spiritual man, as long as he lives and
with his whole soul, feels himself bound to that
Word as the medium unto the communion and fel-
lowship with Crod, because God, even God, has
bound Himself to that ^^'ord. The more he grows
and the stronger he becomes, the more he becomes
founded in that Word. He clings and cleaves to it
even as the ivy to the wall. He leans upon it as
upon the rod and staff of his pilgrimage. He be-
comes more and uiore attached to it, also more and
more bound to it. His love for it becomes stronger
and stronger. His estimation of its worthiness
continually becomes greater and he constantly
finds new and richer treasures in it for his heart
and life. More and more it becomes for him a
Word of God, a word that comes unto him from
the Almighty Lord, a letter from his Father sent
unto him from Heaven, to be a guide upon the way
to the Father's house with its many, many man-
sions. Th}^ Word is a light upon my path and a
lamp for my foot. How love I Thy law, O Lord, it
is my meditation all the day.
Therefore every child of the covenant, even from
his sleeping infancy, must and ought to be fed by
his parents with that word. We cannot, if it is
done with wisdom, begin too soon. Already the
respectful attitude of the older ones at the time of
prayer and the reading of God's Word awakens in
the heart of the child a feeling of the sacredness
42 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
of this service, a feeling which very often remains
with him unto the last years of his life. The short
prayer, before and after each meal, and at the time
of retiring and awakening, implanted in the child's
heart very often leaves impressions that are not to
be blotted out and even in after life make us still
remember the pious years of our youth. Certainly
we do not have to wait with teaching our little
children religious words and prayers until they
can understand the facts, as if otherwise we were
only making little hypocrites of them, for we learn
the facts by and through words even as we learn
words by and through facts; the one assists the
other. And in general there is a remarkable re-
semblance between the feeling of dependence and
humilitv which is a child's bv nature and the state
or spirit in which the Lord God loves to see us and
which is most pleasing unto Him. If we do not
become like unto little children we shall in no wise
enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
But then this bringing of God's Word unto the
children must, at the same time, be both instruc-
tion and training, at the same time working upon
mind and heart, and together influencing botli
knowledge and actions. We must watch against
the extremes, both of orthodoxy and pietism. Re-
ligion is not only knowledge but also life; man has
not only consciousness but also feeling and will.
In His law God requires that we shall serve Him
not with our whole mind only, but also with our
whole heart, and soul, and all power shall w^e love
Him.
Instruction therefore must take place — instruc-
tion in the doctrines of tli(^ truth, carefullv and
THE RULE OF CONFESSION. 43
exactly, !su that pure representations, clear ideas,
and correct judgments may be implanted in the
child, and an essential knowledge of the truth may
be formed in its consciousness or mind. The cul-
tivation of emotions and the awakening of affec-
tions without true and clear representations is even
dangerous; it is detrimental to the truth, opens the
door for falsehood and errors and is very often the
cause of great and gross excesses.
But nevertheless clear representations and pure
ideas are not sufficient. But indeed, hardly any-
where and especially in the religious sphere, it is
almost an utter impossibility to obtain and possess
these without being influenced in our disposition
and heart. For, a right understanding and an es-
sential knowledge is never obtained without the
heart. In all learning there must of necessity be
attention, interest, love; if we do not know a cer-
tain thing we do not love it, we really and in truth
only know that which we love in the deepest depths
of our souls.
The training, the ])ringing up of a child does
not, therefore, follow upon instruction. We are
not first to work upon the mind and then after-
wards turn to the heart. We are not to implant
pure and clear ideas of the truth into the mind,
hoping that tliey will afterwards be accepted with
a true faith of the heart, then to influence the life
and actions. Nay indeed, but from the very begin-
ning, training, bringing up and instruction must
go hand in hand. The instruction itself ought
always to bear a training, a pedagogical character.
The truth of God is of such a nature that it can-
not be understod rightly without a true and up-
44 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
right faitli of tlie heart. He, who impresses the
triitli np(3n his mind, witliout having his heart in it,
receives only the image of the things, while he re-
mains a stranger unto the things themselves.
Therefore the influencing of mind and will, the
preparing to know and do, the supptying of pure,
clear representations, and the awakening of atfec-
tions and emotions should always go together. We
may not separate the words from the facts, neither
the facts from the words. For God has united
these two. He binds Himself to give unto ever^^-
one, who in truth believes the Word, the thing sig-
nified thereby. He, who knows God in the face of
Christ, has eternal life. When we therefore speak
of God, of Christ, etc., then these names may not
])e mere sounds unto us, but we must think of Them
who are represented thereby. Then the Gospel be-
comes rich; then it is not an abstract system of
doctrines, but a world of invisible, eternal treas-
ures, which are signified and sealed, indicated and
granted unto us therein.
When in this way, in Itonic and .^cJiooI and
catechism, instruction and training united with
truth work together, then we may expect, that, with
the blessing of the Lord the spiritual life will come
1o development and maturity, l)looming forth into
faith and conversion, and finally manifest itself
externally in a confession with mouth and heart.
It alwavs remains true however, that the in-
crease must come from above. If the Lord does
not build the house, then the laborers work thereon
in vain. Parents and teachers and ministers are
nothing but instruments in His hand. He is the
(»nly, true Father and Trainer of His children, who
thp: rule of confession. 45
feeds and leads, preserves and protects, strengthens
and perfects them. Not needing to be served by the
hand of man, He Himself gives unto all, life, breath
and all things. He governs and regulates the'
power of the Word and the working of the Spirit.
Jesus is the vine, and the l)elievers are the
branches, and the Heavenly Father is the Hus-
bandman.
CHAPTER IV.
The Essence of Confession.
// thoti shall confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath
raised Him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For zvith the heart
man believeth unto righteousness
and zvith the mouth confession is
made unto salvation.
Romans lo : 9, 10.
Evervthiug- that lives and grows lias need of
lime. A machine can quickly, in a few moments,
be put together. But life and growth are not to be
forced. Artificial promotion of growth produces
or brings forth hot house plants which are not able
to withstand storm and tempest.
Also, our spiritual life is subject to this law of
development under w^hich all organical beings have
been created. Holy Writ admits of various and
manifold differences amongst the children of God.
It speaks of lambs and sucklings in the sheepfold
of Jesus ; it makes mention of children, of youths,
and of Fathers in the faith ; it makes a distinction
between those w^ho are still under age and those
^ ho have already attained their majority and in
connection herewith also between the milk and the
46
THE ESSENCE OF CONFESSION. 47
strong meat of the truth, which must be admin-
istered unto the believers. Again and again we are
admonished and exhorted, to grow in the knowl-
edge and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to put on
the new man created after God in true righteous-
ness and holiness, to become strengthened in the
inward man and renewed in the spirit of our minds.
Even as the natural, so also, must the spiritual
life be developed. It may not remain hid from man,
neither may it, as a treasure, be buried in the earth,
nor can it be consigned to inactivity. Life is a
stranger to all indolence and idleness. Life is exer-
tion, life is power, life is action, everything that
lives^ moves and develops itself. In its growth it
can be hindered and checked, but as long as life is
there, action is inseparable from it. In a still
greater measure is this true of the spiritual life,
which is implanted in regeneration through the
Holy Spirit and bears an eternal, indestructable
character. Wherever it is, it reveals itself, it ap-
pears in word and deed, it develops into activities
of faith and conversion and where faith is present,
confession is given therewith as a matter of fact.
Confession is an excellent word for a still more
excellent and glorious fact. But to a great extent
and in a great measure it has lost its beauty and
power for our minds. AVhen Ave use it or hear it
used by others, we generally, immediately think of
the confessional writings of this or that Christian
Church, or we think of the public confession, which
is made, once in their lives, by the youthful mem-
bers of the church before they are permitted to par-
take of the Lord's Supper!"
But these meanings of the word '^Confession''
48 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
are relative. The original meaning in Scripture is
much richer and deeper. According to this original
meaning, confessing is nothing else and nothing
less than one's openly and publicly testifying and
witnessing of personal faith in Jesus as tlie Christ.
Two things are then included in this. Fii\st, a
true, upright faith, a deep, firm conviction of heart.
In the true sense of the word no confessing is pos-
sible, if there is no faith in the heart. Confessing
is a thing of the heart. It is rooted in the heart.
It comes up out of the lieart. It is a fruit of the
faith of the heart. Without that faith, confessing
becomes a worthless work of the lips, an exterual
repetition with the mouth, an impersonal, untrue,
hypocritical work, which is not worthy of the beau-
tiful name, confession; an act refuted and con-
demned by Christ with holy wrath in the Phari-
saism of His day. All such dissemblers are like
unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beau-
tiful without, but within are full of dead men's
bones, and of all uncleanness.
But in the second place there is included in the
true confessing, the fact, that the faith of the heart
is not ashamed of itself but reveals itself in openly
and publicly testifying and witnessing. He, who
does not believe, cannot confess. But he, who does
believe in truth and uprightness, must confess; he
cannot remain silent; he must speak to the ear of
friend and enemy, before the face of God, of angels,
and of men. Whatever insult, disgrace, and scorn
may follow, whatever hatred, and persecution it
may awaken, He, who believes, spc^aks: loud, power-
ful, free. We believe, therefore we speak.
Jeremiah by his prophesying made himself a
THE ESSENCE OF CONFESSION. 49
mock and derision in the midst of his people, but
nevertheless he could not keep silent. The Lord
constrained him, was too strong for him and
triumphed over him. Although he said, I will not
make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His
name, tlie Word, which the Lord put in his heart,
became as a burning fire shut up in his bones.
When the lion roars, Avho will not fear? When tlie
I>ord speaks, who will not prophesy?
Believing witli the heart and confessing with
tlie mouth tlierefore accompany each other, and b<^-
long inseparably together. He, who believes aii
not believe. Botli are necessary, said a certain
church Father, a true, firm faith and a free confes-
sion, so that the lieart may be ornauu'uted with the
certainty of faith and the tongue may fearlesslx
confess the trutli. And anotlier hath witnessed : Tlu^
heart has need of the mouth, for wluit fruit can it
bring forth, to believe with the heart, without pub-
licly confessing before men? The faith of the heart
may justify, the perfect salvation nevertheless,
lieth in confession. Tiien only does faith sliine
when it reveals itself in confessing, and then only
are many benefited and profited by it. On the
other hand, the mouth has need of the heart, for
many there are wlio confess Christ but whose
hearts are far from Hiui.
Thus also s])eaks the Apostle Paul, when h(*
says, that the fnith of the heart grants righteous-
ness but that tlie confession of the mouth must a-c-
company it to obtain salvntiou. To be sure, it is
true that these two cannot be sei)arated in our
PROPERTY OF
ZAREPHATH LIBRARY
50 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
thoughts, no more than the confession of the Lord
Jesus can be separated from the faith in His resur-
rection. Faith and confession are as inseparably
bound together as the Lordship of Jesus and His
resurrection from the dead; as inseparably, as
righteousness and salvation. But nevertheless, is
it true — and that is what the Apostle Paul wishes
to make known — that, although the faith of the
heart justifies, nevertheless this faith is first known
and proves itself to be the true, justifying faith,
when it reveals itself in confession. Faith, not
confession, justifies. But that, this faith is the true
faitJi first becomes evident in the confessing. TIk*
true, justifying faith only leads unto salvation n\
the way of confession. AA'ithout holiness shall no
one see God. Without confession, as fruit of faitli,
shall no one enter Heaven. Confession is not tlic
meriting cause but it is the royal, the kingly way
unto salvation.
Faith and confession therefore also exert an in
fluence upon each other and are a mutual pro])
and support. The faith that does not confess be-
comes shy, timid, retracts, begins to pine away, or
is sometimes even discovered in its falseness and
unfaithfulness. And the confession without faitli
is nothing more than a flower without a stem, it
withers and falls to pieces. On the other hand,
by and through confessing, faith gains in strength,
power, and vitality, becomes more firmly founded,
and shoots its roots deeper and deeper into th(^
ground of the heart and by and through faith, con-
fessing receives its animation and fire, gains iu
courage and freeness, and as by a secret, invisible
flame it is constantly preserved and fed.
THE ESSENCE OF CONFESSION. 51
From this it then also follows, that the so-called
public confession of faith is not a loose, separated
fact, which takes place once and thereAvith is con-
cluded forever. Such an interpretation is still pos-
sessed and found witli many. A few weeks before-
liand they x>repare themselves for the solemn hour
of confession. Durino- this preparatory season
they withdraw and will hold themselves from pub-
lic amusements. More regularly they attend cliurch
and catechism. On the day of confession they ap-
pear in a new frock or suit. Probably after this,
they once partake of the Lord's Supper. But then
(everything is forgotten. Life resumes its former
old course and proceeds as if nothing whatever had
taken place.
Such confessing is not in any way worthy of
the name, confession. It does not stand higher
than this: A work, which was accepted, being
finished, is delivered. Such a confession is nothing
nu)re than an old custom, which is kept up and fol-
h)Aved unconsciously and thoughtlessly.
Such a work, such an action is not making con-
fession of faith. Confessing is much richer of
meaning and much greater in significance. Cer-
tainly it is an earnest matter and a solemn, im-
pressive hour when youthful members for the first
time in the midst of the congregation make con-
fession of their personal faith. It is a mile post
upon the way of life, the coming to majority of the
minor child, the entering in unto all the rights and
privileges granted by Christ to His believers. Uut<»
that affirmative answer, which aac then gi^•e we are
bound for time and eternity, (iod holds us firmly
unto that and will one day judge us according to it.
52 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
Christ keeps it in remembrance and will one day
call for an account of it. The Holy Spirit will keep
and preserve it in our minds and remembrance and
will refer and point us to it again and again, even
unto the hour of death, yea, even unto all eternity.
It shall one day, in the day of days, testify for us
and if not, then against us— it Avill fly up in our
face and make our condemnation the heavier.
But this confessing of our faith is not a matter,
an action, a work whicli stands by itself and wliicli
sustains no relation to our preceding and follow-
ing life. It is not a sacrament as the churcli of
Rome has made it. It bears in itself no special,
supernatural holiness. It is not, as it were by a
fence, separated from the sphere of unconsecrated
life. It does not incorporate us into a new com
pan3^, into a special rank and file amongst tlic
soldiers under Christ Jesus as King. However im-
portant and however earnest the making of public
confession may be it does not stand disconnected,
by itself, but is closely related to and in the closest
way it is connected with our preceding and follow-
ing confessions.
This one public confession is preceded by a daily
confession. All faith confesses, be it, according to
its own measure, in its own manner and in its own
language. The faith of the playing child, of the
happy and cheerful boy, of the lively youth also
confesses — in its own way and manner!! If faitli
is only of the true caliber, if there is only true,
childlike fear of God in the heart, it always^ comes
to light and makes its appearance. It reveals it-
self and we can see and behold it in the piousness
of desires, in the uprightness of mind, in the tender-
THE ESSENCE OF CONFESSION. t)3
ness of heart, in the respect for things holy antl
sacred, in the pleasure to pray, in the fear of what
is evil and wicked, in the holding back of them-
selves and others from what is not right but sinful.
Confessing! that is what our children do even from
their infancy and their confessions are pleasing
unto the ear of God.
Nevertheless, what saith the Scriptures? Let
the little children come unto Me and hinder them
not, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Because
the name of the Lord is excellent in all the eartli
He ordains strength out of tlie mouth of babes and
sucklings that He may still the enemy and the
avenger. The small and weak is chosen by the
Lord to put to shame thereby the great and mighty.
Children in their simplicity, in their uprightness,
in their guilelessness and humility are proclaimers
of the glory and excellency of God, which is shed
abroad throughout the whole earth and which 1ms
revealed itself the brightest in Christ.
And even as the making of public confession is
preceded by a confession from infancy, so also is
and must it be folloifed by a confession throughout
the whole life, even unto the hour of death.
It is true, the public confession in the midst of
the congregation is, in the first place, to obtain per-
mission unto the table of the Lord. It opens the
access unto the table of the covenant. And thus it
appears to separate Baptism and the Lord's Sup-
per from each other. But indeed and in truth this
is not so, it rather binds and holds them together.
And thus it also ought to be. Baptism and the
Lord's Supper are sacraments of the same worth
and worthiness. They have the same power and
r»l Tin: SACKIFK'K OF ['UAISl::.
signiticaiice. They are signs and seals of the same
covenant. Both of tlieni with the Word are ap-
pointed and ordained tliereto, that tliey direct our
faith to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross,
as to the one ground and foundation of our salva-
tion. These two sacraments are also given and
granted unto the same believers. In the New Testa-
ment baptism was mostly administered unto
adults ; confession therefore preceded baptism ; lu*
who was baptized liad access immediately unto th(^
Lord's table.
But when infant baptism became the general
practice there naturally and gradually came a
separation. To l)e sure, baptism can be admin-
istered unto children of the covenant for it is the
sacrament of regeneration and incorporation into
the Church of Christ. But tlie Lord's Supper sup-
poses, that we ourselves accept tlie broken bread
and eat, that we ourselves receive the cup and
drink. The right use of the Lord's Supper ought
to be and must be preceded tlierefore by the ability
to examine and prove ourselves and discern the
body of the Lord. It is the sacrament of the in-
creasing and upbuilding of the spiritual life in the
communion and fellowship of the Lord Jesus, and
is therefor also repeated from time to time.
Consequently confession gradually took in a
place between l)aptism and communion, not to sepa-
rate them but just the reverse, to hold them in their
mutual relation and to lead from baptism to com-
munion. Confession supposes baptism and pre-
pares for communion. In confession the baptized
child acce])ts its own baptism and desires to re-
c(Mve jK'cess to the second sign and seal of the cov-
THE ESSENCE OF CONFESSION. 5o
enant. Out of grace (lod accepted and adopted
him an His child, and now he, having come to year.s
of understanding and discretion and to conscious-
ness of his life and duty, humbly and childlike but
also believingiy and sure, confesses before all men
that God is His God. He puts his hand in the
hand of God. Freely and with clear consciousness
lie admits and accepts the covenant relation in
wliich he was accepted from his birth. Upon the
affirmation of the Lord : I am your (lOd. He now
answers: And I am Thy servant, a son of thine
handmaid, Thou hast loosed my bonds. God trains
and brings up all of His children unto liberty and
self-dependence. In the day of His power He de-
sires a willing people. We love Him because He
first loved us.
That is what the believer proclaims, when in
the solemn hour of his confession, he is given access
to the Supper of the Lord. Of that he also makes
confession, when with the congregation he sits at
the table of the Lord. In the sacrament the em-
phasis, in the first place, is certainly laid upon
what God does, upon His gift, upon His grace.
Therein, He offers unto us the Christ with all the
profits and benefits merited by Him. The Lord's
Supper was specifically instituted by our Savior
Jesus Christ for the purpose of feeding and pre-
serving those whom He had already regenerated
and incorporated into His family, which is His
Church. It is His flesh that w^e eat, and His blood
that we drink wdth the mouth of faith, for the
strengthening of our spiritual life.
But then, in the second place, the sacrament is
from our side a confession of faith. The Lord's
56 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
Supper is preceded by the true proving and ex-
amining of ourselves, whic'li consists in three
things.
First we are to consider by ourselves our sins
and the curse due unto us for them, to the end that
we may abhor and humble ourselves before God.
Secondly, we are to examine, our own hearts
^^'hether we do believe this faithful promise of God,
that all our sins are forgiven us, only for the sake
of the passion and death of Jesus Christ and that
the perfect righteousness of Christ is imputed and
freely given unto us as our own. Finally, we are
to examine our own conscience \\']»ether we pur
pose henceforth to show true thankfulness to God
in our whole life, and to walk uprightly before
Him.
\^liat a significant confession we therefore make
when we come to the Lord's Supper I AVe do not
come to it to testify that we are perfect and right-
eous in ourselves; Init on the ccmtrary, consider-
ing that we seek our life out of ourselves in Jesus
Christ, we acknowledge that we lie in the midst of
death. We confess in this sacrament that Jesus
Christ is the true meat and drink of our souls, and
that we are members of His bod}'. For it is one
bread, thus we, being many, are one body, for Ave
all are partakers of one bread.
However that Supper of the Lord does not
stand far without and highly exalted above our
life. Certainly it is extraordinary in this sense,
that every time and anew we are met in this sacra-
ment by God's specific grace, and it is revealed in
a particular way unto our eyes and assured unto
our hearts. Very often the Lord's Supper also
'VllK KSSEXCK OF CONFESSION. 5<
^:eems strange autl wondrous to us, because it is
only celebrated a few times in a year and then not
faithfully and not nejudy by all. But the grace
which is granted unto us in this sacrament is no
other than that which constanth' accompanies tlie
>\'ord of the Gospel and feeds us day by day. In
the first Christian congregations therefore tlie
Lord's 8ui3per was celebrated not only every Sab-
bath but also at the weekly meetings of the be-
lievers. It was tlie height of their service, the com-
munion of saints, the sustenance wliicli they re-
ceived every time for their pilgrimage.
In the Lord's Supper is signified and sealed the
communion and fellow ship of Christ, which we, at
all times, possess in the Word, and enjoy through
faitli. And of that faith we not only witness and
testify when we sit at the table of the covenant,
neither only on Sunday, wiien with the congrega-
tion we go up to the house of prayer.
But, as surely as we are true believers, w^e make
confession of that faith throughout our whole life.
I-'or faitJi cannot do otherw^ise, it must confess. It
does not ask whether good works ought to be and
must be done, but before the question can arise it
has already done them. Confession with moutli
and lieart, with word and deed, in life and walk is
inseparable from the faith of the heart. It is the
fruit of the tree, the scent of the flower, the light
of the sun, the sw^eetness of the honey. It is im-
possible, that anyone implanted into Christ by a
true faith should not bring forth fruits of grati-
tude.
He who believes, confesses, not only on Sunday
but also during the w^eek, not onh^ in the church
58 THE SACRIFICE OP PRAISE.
but also in tlie home and school, in shop and fac-
tory, in ofticc and store, in civil and social life, in
learning and science, ann)nnst friends and enemies,
before anoeis and mt^i.
He confesses in npholdino- and supporting the
public service of tlie church, in acts of Christian
assistance, in the supporting- of Christian instruc-
tion, in the caring for the poor, in the visiting of
llie bound and imprisoned, in the clothing of the
naked, in the feeding of the hungry, in the com-
forting of tlie weeping, in admonishing the unruly,
in exhorting the disputers and unbelievers, in
giving account of the hope which is in him, in keep-
ing himself unspotted from the world.
He who believes, confesses. His life itself be-
comes a confession, a living, holy, God-pleasing
sacrifice in Christ Jesus.
CHAPTER V.
The Contents of Confession.
And Philip said, If thou believ-
est zmth all thine heart, thou
mayest, and he ansivered and said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. Acts 8:37.
According to Holy Writ two things especially
constitute the contents of confession.
In the first place every true confession contains
an acknowledgment of our guilt and sin. In the
days of the Old Testament, upon the great day of
propitiation the High Priest was obliged to lay
both of his hands upon the head of the living goat,
confessing thereover all the unrighteousness of the
children of Israel and all their transgressions, of
whatever nature their sins might be, and therewith
laying them upon the head of the goat send him
away into the wilderness.
That was a common, a general confession made
by the High Priest, in the name of the whole nation.
But this common, general confession did not ex-
clude the persona], individual confession of sins.
For, this personal, individual confession is heard
again and again in the books of the old covenant,
especially in the so-called penitential psalms. It
also forms an important part of the prayers of the
59
00 Tin: SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
saints, of David aiul {Solomon, of Isaiah and Jere-
i.iiali and Daniel.
Tlieic is not a pc^oplo or nation in the world
tliat lias UAt so deeply, and has confessed so hnmbly
the liiiilt of sin as the children of Israel. Mine
iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am
not able to look up; the^^ are more than the hairs
(;f mine head. There is no rest in my bones be-
cause of my sin, for mine inicpiities are gone over
mine head; as an heavy burden they are too heavy
for me. Enter not into judgment with thy ser-
vant : for in tliy sight shall no man living be justi-
fied. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O
Lord, who shall stand.
And this confession of sins passes over into the
church of tlu^ New Testament. When John the
Baptist appeared witli the preaching of repentance,
nmuy were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing
their sins. Jesus granted unto the multitude of
sufferers who came unto Him, yery often not only
tlie healing of the diseases of the body but also a
still greater gift, namely, the forgiveness of their
sins and deliverance of their soul. Upon the lips
of His disciples He laid the prayer: Father, for-
give us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. In
the parable of the Publican He shows us the spirit,
in which it behooves us to be when we come before
(xod, the Righteousness and the Holy. The pub-
lican standing afar off would not lift up so much
as his eyes unto Heaven, but smote* upon his breast,
saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. Certainly,
if we confess our sins, God is true and faithful and
righteous and v.'ill forgive us our sins, and cleanse
ns from all unrighteousness.
THE CONTENTS OF CONFESSION. 01
But however significant and important, how-
ever necessary this confession of sins is, neverthe-
less in itself, it is not sufficient. The truth or doc-
trine of our misery does not stand by itself but it
prepares the way for the truths or doctrines of de-
liverance and gratitude. Yea, he who truly realizes
and confesses his sins and misery, is already a be-
liever. In the Lord's days of the Heidelberg Cate-
cliism which treat on the misery of man, it is not
tlie unbeliever but the Christian who speaks; on(?
wlio in tlje first division has already gloried in his
only comfort and confessed, that he, with body and
soul, botli in life and deatli, is no longer his own
but liis faithful Savior Jesus Christ's.
Tlu' true, upriglit confession of guilt is already
a fruit of saving faitli. For he, who in truth and
humility confesses his sins, has certainly already
sought tlie Lord, has placed himself before God's
countenance and finds himself in the presence of
the Almighty, and this he cannot do but in the
belief that the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow
to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
To be sure, there is a certain acknowledgement
of sins, which is without faith. Also children of
the world often come to consciousness of the great
miserableness of their existence. Cain said, ''Mv
punishment is greater than I can bear," and Judas
cried out, ^'I have sinned in that I have betraved
the innocent blood.'' There is a cry of despair
which is not born of a contrite heart, but which is
brought forth by the fearful consequences of sin.
There is a remorse and hopelessness, which does
not drive one toward God but whicli causes a flee-
ing away from and a rebelling against Him. There
G2 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
is a sorrow of the world which worketh not a re-
pentance to salvation not to be repented of, but
which worketh death.
But the true confession of sins is entirely dif-
ferent than this cry of despair and bears an en-
tirely different character. It comes up out of a
contrite spirit, which is not despised by God but
pleasing unto Him. It has respect not unto the
consequences but unto the essence, unto the guilt
of sin, because it displeases God and is in contra-
diction with His law. It consists in a liearty re-
pentance, that we have provoked CJod to anger with
our sins, that we have sinned against Plis right-
eousness, yea more, that we have so grossly sinned
against His love. For thus hath Jesus once said :
^^If I had not come and spoken unto them, tliey had
not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their
sin.''
Til is confession is accompanied with a sorrow
unto God and worketli a repentance to salvation
not to be repented of. It is made before God's
countenance and holds nothing back or secret from
Him. It is accompanied with and is born of a faitli
that recognizes God not only to be righteous but
also gracious and merciful. It is also, already a
confession of faith ; it is of and by or through and
unto faith. Faith does not first take a beginning
after the knowledge of misery but precedes this and
gives it its right form. Above tlie law shines the
word of grace: "I am the Lord, your God." The
true conversion is a part of thankfulness and
gratitude.
Therefore Holy \A'rit teaches us that confession,
in the second place, contains n confession of the
THE CONTENTS OF CONFESSION. 63
name of the Lord. Conversion and confession of
the Lord's name belong together. For confession
of that name signifies the hearty, believing acknowl-
edgment that the Lord, Jehovah, is the God of the
covenant, who has revealed Himself as the faith-
ful and merciful and who fulfills all of His
promises of grace in Christ. He who repents with
a true and upright heart, turns to God, the living
God, who in Christ is a reconciled Father.
Therefore, John the Baptist, appearing in the
days of the New Testament, calls not only to re-
pentance and confession of sins, but also points to
the Lamb of God that beareth awa}- the sin of the
world. He was not a preacher of the law and of
penitence only, but also a herald of the gospel and
a preacher of faith. The Kingdom of Heaven had
come nigh, had it not? And after him came He,
who \\'dH preferred before him, whose shoe latchet
he was not worthy to unloose. John administered
the baptism unto a sign and seal of the forgiveness
of sins, which is granted and obtained in the way
of repentance.
In the New Testament the whole contents of
the confession of faith is constantly taken together
or expressed in the few words, that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of the living God. He, who con-
fesses Him as such before man, will one day be
confessed bv Him before His Fatlier which is in
Heaven. In an earnest, solemn moment when many
of Jesus' disciples went back and no longer desired
to walk with Him, He masked the twelve: "Will ye
also go away?" But Simon Peter answered for
them all: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. And we believe and are
(U THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living
God." As soon as the Eunuch made this good con-
fession he was immediateh' baptized by Philip. By
tills confession, that Jesus Christ appeared in the
lies] I, are the spirits known. Therefore, whosoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abidetli
in him and he in God.
Jesus the promised Messiali, tiie divinely
anointed Propliet and Priest and Kini; — tliat is the
short, tlie brief contents of the whole Cliristian
faith. It is tlie pith of revelation, tlie heart of
Holy Writ, the bone and marrow of all confession,
the central dogma of all the truths of salvatiim,
the center of light from which all the streams and
rays of the knowledge of God proceed to the cir-
cumference. The Person of Christ determines the
essence of Christianity.
AVith this confession the Church of Christ ac-
cepted its own, independent place in the midst of
Jews and Gentiles. By it, she was distinguished
and separated from both. From out of it, she con-
stantly came to a richer development of her faith
and life. At first everyone was baptized who made
confession of the Lord Jesus. After a while this
confession was increased to that of the name of the
Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. In
the twelve articles of our Catholic, undoubted.
Christian faith, this confession receives a still
greater development. FimiUy in th(» different con-
fessions of the Christian Church all of these articles
have been more closely studied and better ex-
l)lained. The confessions are, as it were, branches
and leaves ))roceeding from tin* oue tree which, in
THE CONTENTS OF CONFESSION. 65
the belief that Jesus is the Christ, at the beginning
was planted in the ground of the church.
To be sure, we find supposed in this short, brief
confession, creation and fall, sin and misery. As
it were in a germ, the whole Person of Christ, with
His names and natures, Avith His offices and states,
lies comprehended in it. The whole order of salva-
tion, for the individual, for humanity, for the
world is intricately contained or included in it. In
the Cross of Christ Avhich is an offense unto the
Jews and foolishness unto the Greeks; sin and
grace, law and gospel, justice and mercy, guilt and
forgiveness are united and reconciled. At that
Cross, God and the world. Heaven and eartli,
angels and men, peoples and nations extend to one
another the hand of peace. For by the Cross of
Christ, God has reconciled the world unto Him-
self — not imputing her trespasses unto her, and,
triumphed over all authority and powers.
In the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we par-
ticipate in the love of the Father and enjoy the
communion of the Holy Spirit.
CHAPTER VI.
The Diversity of Confession.
We do hear them speak in our
tongues the wonderful works of
God. Acts 2:11.
In the first days, the short, brief confession,
that Jesns was the Christ, the son of the living
God, was sufficient for the church.
But this time of simple, child-like faith did not
and could not continue long. The opposition from
without as well as the awakening of thought within
her own circle compelled the church to give more
and more a clearer and plainer account of the con-
tents of her faith.
And from that moment all manner of differ-
ence and dispute revealed itself. The unity of con-
fession was soon and forever lost. Although the
church and state in all times, by all manner of com-
pulsion tried to retain the unity of confession, even
if it were but in appearance, the process of divid-
ing and separating has proceeded even unto the
present day. There is everywhere discord and con-
troversy amongst Christians. Churches and indi-
viduals in the name of Christ and calling upon His
Word stand in opposition and enmity to one an-
other. The multiformity of the Christian faith yet
66
THE DIVERSITY OF CONFESSION. 67
increases continually. A restoration of unity need
no longer be expected in this world.
In this division and separation of Christians
lies a great disappointment. We have, have we
not, only one God, the Father, out of whom are all
things and we unto Him, and only one Lord Jesus
Christ, by and through whom are all things and we
through Him? The Church is one body and one
spirit, even as she is called in one hope of her call-
ing, and possesses only one Lord, one faith, one
baptism. Jesus, Himself, prayed for the unity of
His disciples, that the world might believe that the
Father had sent Him. Thus we might also expect
that the confession which flows from the lips of
the Church should be one.
But even more than this, the existing division
and separation is not only a grievous disappoint-
ment, it is also a great sin before God. As Chris-
tians we cannot humble ourselves enough on ac-
count of it. It is a great and weighty accusation
against us, because it especially finds its cause in
the darkness of our understandings and the un-
charitableness of our hearts.
Neither may this division and separation be
alleviated by saying, that the confessions, which
have gradually come to stand side by side in the
Christian Church, are to be considered as different
expressions of one and the same truth. For these
confessions do not differ only in words and ex-
pressions, in language and style, but they often
stand in contradiction with each other respecting
the matter itself, so that one confirms what the
other denies. Election of grace or because of a
foreseen faith; justification by faith alone or be-
68 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
cause of the works of love; the spiritual or cor-
poreal presence of Christ in His suj)per are not
different names for the same fact, but they are
interpretations which contradict each other. The
diversity of confession must not and nisij not be
confused with the errors, whicli because of the
darkness of our understandings can creep in. We
cannot and we may not therefore be indifferent or
neutral with respect to the confessions which have
come up and now continue to exist side by side in
the Christian Church. We mav admire the oood
intentions of those Christians, who in former or in
latter times, have attempted to preserve or even
restore this yerj much desired unity in the Church
of Christ, be it either by compulsory or by arti-
ficial means.
But nevertheless we must remember and take
into consideration that all of tliese attempts, in
spite of the most excellent intentions, have had no
other result, than that the truth became falsified,
the liberty became suppressed and very often the
diversity was increased. For he, who out of im-
partiality separates himself from all parties, stands
in great danger of becoming tlie head of a new
party himself.
Furtliermore we must never forget that God
also has His hand in history and that He therein
executes His wise counsel and judgment. His
providence governs all things, so that nothing takes
place by chance, and especially not in the Christian
Church of which Christ has in a specific sense been
anointed Head and King by the Father. The ever
increasing divisions and separations in Christen-
dom is a fact whicli cannot take place without
THE DIVERSITY OF CONFESSION. G9
God's government — it is accepted and determined
in His counsel and with it He no doubt has His
own high and wise purposes.
Now, although because of this we may in no
way justify sin which appears and works in this
division, nevertheless on the other hand it is not
right to overlook the great good which has been
brought about by and through this diversity. What
man has thought evil, God has often meant for
good. Out of darkness He can bring forth light;
out of death, life; out of the shame of man honor
and glory for His name. So far is God from evil
and the Almighty from unrighteousness that He
can even suppress and use sin to labor to the glory
of His perfections and the establishment of His
Kingdom.
As soon as the truth, proclaimed by Christ and
His apostles, reflected itself in the human mind it
was, most likely immediately, robbed of its purity
and became adulterated with all manner of errors ;
heresy and schism began in the days of the apostles.
But thus the truth also became clearer and more
and better understood in her fullness and multi-
fariousness and the churcli was continually led
deeper into the mysteries of salvation which God
had laid down for her and revealed in His Word.
To be sure, in natural life the children of men
are already entirely different the one from the
other. Sex and age, talents and character, train-
ing and environment, land and people, time and
place, rank and station, diversity of gifts, of rea-
son, and heart, bring on the greatest differences in
the consideration and interpretation of things. In
not one respect are two persons perfectly alike.
70 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
And this diversity which exists by nature is not
effaced by grace. For grace does not suppress and
abolish nature but restores and renews her and yet
increases the natural diversity with the diversity
of spiritual gifts, which, to be sure, are all worked
by the one and the self-same si)irit, but neverthe-
less, distributed by that spirit severally as He will.
In unity God loves diversity. The whole
creation testifies thereof, nature with her moun-
tains and valleys, seas and islands; the earth with
her kingdoms of minerals and plants, of animals
and men ; the firmament with her planets and stars ;
the heaven of heavens with her thousands and ten
thousands of Holy Angels. The great glory of the
infinite, rich essence of God is reflected in the
works of His hands. In the creatures are revealed
God's perfections and attributes.
And still clearer and fuller is this diversity re-
vealed unto us in the recreation. There is first of
all, Christ the most beautiful of all the children of
men, upon whose lips is poured out grace and
truth. And then around Him, in great, close, com-
pact masses, the Patriarchs and Prophets, the
Apostles and Evangelists, the Martyrs and Re-
formers, the whole host of the redeemed, who are
bought with His blood and renewed by His Spirit.
Different are they in Heaven, different were they
upon earth. And all that diversity, even through
the sin, guilt and error of man, tends to the good
of the knowledge of truth, and to the honor of
grace. Christ takes it into service and ornaments
His Church with it. The Holy Spirit uses it, to
have everyone in his own language declare the
great works of God. One day, at the end of time,
THE DIVERSITY OF CONFESSION. 71
God will receive all honor and glory of the churcli
out of every tongue and people, kindred and nation.
For this reason it is not a matter of surprise,
that in all diversity of confession tlie different rela-
tion is reflected, in which grace is placed to nature.
The essence of the Christian religion consists
therein, that the creation of the Father, destroyed
by sin, is again restored in the death of the Son
of God and recreated by the grace of the Holy
Spirit to a Kingdom of God. The great question
therefore, which always and everywhere returns, is
this: In what relation does grace place itself to
nature. Practically every child of man must regu-
late that relation for himself in his thoughts and
life, in his will and actions. And in a larger field
it also continually makes its appearance, in church
and state, in family and society, in science and
education. What is the relation between the
creation and recreation, of the kingdoms of the
earth and the Kingdom of Heaven, of humanity
and Christianity, of tliat wiiich is from below^ and
that which is from above?
All in accordance witli his own personal pecu-
liarity or characteristics every man will designate
this relation differently and will also apply it dif-
ferently in his life. It makes a great difference
whether we think of grace as a doctrine or as life ;
whether we consider it as a supernatural addition
to nature or as a remedy against the sickness of
sin; whether it is designated for the heart and
closet only, or for the whole rich and full life of
man; whether it only serves to save the soul or has
the tendency to prepare honor for God out of all
His works. On account of this difference there
72 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
arises amongst believers — ^ even amongst members
of one and the same church, all manner of smaller
and greater differences in the confession. The
truth, to be sure, is one but it reflects itself in tlie
consciousness of man in very different ways. It is
true, only one sun shines in tlie firmament but
everyone sees it with his oavu eye.
But nevertheless, although the differences,
Avhich exist between the confessions of the Chris-
tian Churches, are ever so great, we must not over-
look the unity which is revealed in them clearly
and plainly; we are so prone to become one-sided.
It cannot be denied, that there is difference and
controversy upon each and ever^^ article of faith.
But staring at that wliich separates believers one
from the other, we too easily forget that which
unites and holds them together. Often, the har-
mony is too deeply veiled from our view by the dis-
cord which exists.
And yet, this harmony is also present. The be-
lievers are all one, not absolutely in the spiritual
sense, because they are all together ingrafted in
Christ and are therefore members of His bod}^ ; but
also in that external sense, that a visible band en-
circles all Christian Churches and confessions and
separates them from all non-Christians.
To be sure the diversity of confession in the
Christian Church does not absolutely consist in
these and kindred differences, whereby one or an-
other truth is grasped and placed upon the fore-
ground.
It is true, there is no Christendom above dis-
cord of faith. The differences between the in-
numerable Christian Churches and confessions are
THE DIVERSITY OF CONFESSION. 73
not mechanically joined to the points of nnity or
harmony. We cannot separate tlie first from the
last so that there remains a perfect equal sum.
Each and every confession is an organism, or, in
other words, an organical whole. The Roman is
liomish, also in the confession of the twelve articles
of faith, which are accepted by all churches. Re-
formed and Lutherans, Baptists and Arminians
are separated from each other not only in the doc-
trine of election, of the church, of the sacrament,
but also in those of God, of Christ, of creation and
providence, of redemption and justification.
But there is, nevertheless, a Christendom in the
discord of faith, a unity, which, looking at it aright,
is much greater and of infinitely more significance
than all that which divides and separate the be-
lievers from each other. Although it is not pos-
sible to separate that unity from the diversity,
nevertheless it is truly and really present in it and
also reveals itself clearly and plainly. And al-
though a written confession very often limits itself
especially to the exposition of the differences; in
the unwritten articles, in the prayers, in the fruits
of faith, in the works of mercy a striking harmony
is to be seen. The imperfect confession of the lips
does not very often do justice to the faith of the
heart.
Thus it appears to be the v\^ill and pleasure of
the Lord that the unity of faith and of the knowl
edge of the Son of God shall build itself a way
through the diversity — at the end of time to appear
in all its glory. When in the future the body of
Christ shall have attained the full growth, and
shall have come in the unity of faith, and of the
74 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ; then all the saints together shall fully un-
derstand what is the breadth and length and depth
and height of the love of Christ which surpasses all
understanding, so that they may be filled unto all
the fullness of God.
CHAPTER VII.
The Universality of Confession.
Therefore let no man glory in
men. For all things are yours;
whether Paul, or Apollos, or Ce-
phas, or the world, or life, or
death, or things present, or things
to come: all are yours: and ye are
Christ's; and Christ is God's.
I Cor. 3:21-23.
The diversity of confession does not encroach
upon its universality. Although tljere are many
churches, yet as Christians we altogether confess
one, Holy Catholic Church, whicli makes its ap-
pearance in the many and various churches of
Christendom, although it may be very often in a
very imperfect way.
Universal, Catholic, is the Christian confession
in this sense, that it spreads itself over the whole
earth, includes all true believers, is binding for all
people and has significance for the whole world.
Chritianity is a world religion, destined and suit-
able for every nation and century, for every rank
and station, for every place and time. And the
most Catholic is that church which has expressed
this international and cosmopolitan character of
the Christian religion in the purest way in her con-
fession and applied it the most liberally in practice.
75
76 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
This universality or Catholicity of the Chris-
tian reliction is directly coherent witli the unitv of
God, which is taught in it. God is one, and tliere
His words and works can never contradict each
other. All things have their relation and system
in His consciousness, in His will, in His counsel.
They all exist together in the Son, who is the image
of the invisible God, the first born of all creatures,
through whom and unto whom they are all created.
And this Son is at the same time the Christ; the
way, the truth and the life, without and outside of
whom no one can come to the Fatlier; the only
name given under Heaven, that sinners should
thereby be saved ; the Head of the Church, in whom
the Father has made to dwell all the fullness, that
He through Him, having made peace through the
blood of the cross, might reconcile all things unto
Himself, be it the tilings which are upon earth, be
it the things, which are in Heaven.
Christianity is therefore the absolute religion,
the only, essential, true religion. It tolerates no
other religions as of almost equal worth and
worthiness alongside of itself. It is, according to
its nature, intolerant, even as the truth at all times
is and 77iust be intolerant with respect to the un-
truth. It will not even be satisfied by being the
first of the religions, but it claims to be the only,
true, full religion, which has absorbed and fulfilled
all that is true and good in other religions. Christ
is not a man alongside of others, but He is the
Son of Man, who by the resurrection was declared
to be the Son of God witli power, according to the
Spirit of Holiness, and received of the Father a
name above every name, so that in that name every
T*?
THE UNIVERSALITY OP CONFESSION. 77
knee should bow and every tongue confess, that He
is the Lord, to the Glory of God the Father.
In this unity is of necessity implied the uni-
versality of the Christian religion. While there is
but one God, He is the Creator of all things. Be-
cause there is only one Mediator between God and
man. He is the Savior of the wliole world. And as
there is only one Spirit, proceeding from the Father
and the Son, He is the onl}^ Guide and Leader in
tlie truth, the exclusive Teacher of the Church, the
All-Sufficient Comforter of all believers.
The Holy Scriptures proclaim this universality
of Christianity in the clearest and most beautiful
way. The Father loved the world and therefore
sent His only-begotten Son, that whosoever be-
lie veth in Him should not perisli, but have ever-
lasting life. In that Son God has reconciled the
world unto Himself, not imputing unto her her
sins. Christ Himself came upon earth, not to con-
demn the world but to save her. He is the Light,
the Life, the Savior of the world, a reconciliation,
not alone for our sins but for the whole world. In
Him, all things in Heaven and on earth are recon-
ciled unto God and are also gathered together into
one. The world, Avhich was made by the Son, is
also destined for the Son as its heir. One dav all
Kingdoms become our Lord's and His Christ's
Tliis great and glorious truth has been very-
often denied and misappreciated. In the course of
centuries there have been Christians, and they are
still found, who, to be sure, ascribed unto the Gos-
pel a certain importance or significance for the re-
ligious-moral life, but who also limited its influence
to thaty and had no conception of its worth and
78 THE SACRIFICE OF, PRAISE.
worthiness for the natural life, for family and
society and state, for science and art. Yea, many
have thought that recreation was in opposition to,
in enmity Avith creation, that grace effaced nature
and that therefore, he was the best and most Chris-
tian who withdrew from the world and shut him-
self up in solitude.
And advocates of infidelity have eagerly made
use of this and proclaimed triumphantly that
Christianity was an enemy of all culture, and there-
fore in every respect no longer suitable for man-
kind in the present day. In former centuries it
may have fulfilled an excellent calling, and even
today it may prove to be for this or that melancholy
individual, a comfort in his sorrow; but for man-
kind as a whole, Christianity is antiquated and
nigh unto disappearance. Civilization, science, art,
commercialism, industry, there are the gods wliich
today go before the face of man and lead him out
of the house of bondage. But the Gospel of Christ
has served its purpose; His Kingdom is not of this
world and has nothing to say to this world. Yea,
the whole of religion may yet have a little right of
existence in the church and closet; but upon the
market of life there is no place for it. Religion
has nothing to do with politics. In the schools of
science, in the temples of art, in the counsel cham-
bers of the State the Almighty is excluded. The
liberation or emancipation of the world from God
and godly things is prosecuted even to the end.
In this reasoning there lies a truth, which may
not be denied. To be sure, Jesus came upon earth
and assumed the natural life, but He assumed it, to
deny it and. to lay it down again at the cross. He
THE UNIVERSALITY OF CONFESSION. 79
was not married, did not pursue any occupation or
profession in civil life, did not hold an office in the
State. He was neither a man of science, nor practi-
tioner of art. His whole life was a sacrifice, which
consummated itself in His surrendering unto
death. He came to die. Death was the end and
purpose of His life. Even as He Himself testified,
that He came not to be served, but to serve and to
give His soul as a ransom for many.
And thus, He did, not only for Himself; He de-
mands of His disciples, tliat they shall follow Him
and walk in His steps. Whosoever does not take
up his cross, cannot be His disciple. Whosoever
desires to save his life, shall lose it, but whosoever
shall lose it for His sake, shall find it. Whosoever
loves father or mother above Him, is not worthy
of Him, but whosoever forsakes all for His name's
sake, shall receive a liundredfold and inherit eter-
nal life. To enter into the Kingdom of Heaven,
the offending eye must be plucked out, and the
offending hand and foot cut off, for it is better to
enter into life maimed, than to have tw^o hands and
two feet and two eyes, and be cast into hell-fire.
Nothing may be derogated from this rigid demand
of the Gospel of the cross. The Gospel may be for
man, it is in no single instance after man. Whoso-
ever desires to fashion it after the spirit of the age,
according to the reasonings of the day, robs it of
its power, and experiences nothing but disappoint-
ment, if in this way he thinks to find an entrance
for it. For, to be sure, Christ has been neither a
political leader nor a civil reformer; His Gospel is
not suitable to serve as a social program; the
Scriptures are not a code of laws neither a hand-
PROPERTY OF
7ADCDUATU I IDDAOV
80 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
book for art or science; the admiiiistratioii of the
AA^ord is not a preaching' of human wisdom; the
government of the church is not a domination and
not an exercising of authority; tlie deaconry is not
an institution for the solution of the problem of
poverty.
For all this Christ did not come; neither for
this was His Word given unto us. Christ is Savior
— that is His name and His work; nothing else,
nothing more but also nothing less than tliat. His
sacrifice is a reconciliation for sins. His Gospel
is a glad tiding unto salvation. His Church is a
communion of saints. Christianity is religion, not
philosophy.
But that it is, then also, wholly and perfectly;
the true, pure, full religion, the restoration of the
right relation to God and therefore also of that to
all creatures. Savior is Christ, nothing else; but
that He is then also, so perfectly, that His Gospel
is a power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth.
And therefore He rejects no one or nothing.
The rich who think to have need of nothing. He
sends away empty, but the poor He fills with gifts.
Upon the Pharisees who think to have sufficient in
their own righteousness, He proclaims His thrice
repeated: woe. But publicans and sinners He in-
vites to come unto Him, the sick He heals, the lame
He makes to walk, the lepers He cleanses, the blind
He makes to see, the dead He raises, over the chil-
dren He lifts up His hands with blessings, unto
the poor He proclaims the Gospel of the Kingdom
of God, and doing good and scattering blessings
everywhere He goes through the whole land.
THE UNIVERSALITY OF CONFESSION. 81
And in it all He counts nothing strange that
is human. Different than John the Baptist, He
came eating and drinking, so that He was even
branded a glutton and a wine bibber. He was a
guest at the wedding in Can a, accepted invitations
to dine, forbade His disciples to fast, revealed the
joy of the future salvation by the parable of a mar-
riage feast, promised His disciples in the last night
of His life, that, although He would now drink no
more of the fruit of the vine with them, yet one
day He should drink it anew with them in the King-
dom of the Father.
The ordinances in every rank and station of
natural life are recognized and respected by Him,
for He has not come to break down the works of
the Father, but only those of the devil. He pays
the tribute, refuses to act as judge between two
brothers quarreling about an inheritance, com-
mands to give unto Caesar that which is his, re-
quires submission unto those who are seated upon
the seat of Moses, and forbids His disciples, even
in the most trying hour, to use the sword. Never
does He incite unto resistance; always and ever
words of love are heard from His lips. Love your
enemies; bless them who curse you; do well unto
those who hate you ; and pray for those who despite-
fully use and persecute you.
He also loves nature with a child-like joy. He
enjoys her hesiutj and refreshes Himself in her
glory. He has an open eye for the gTass of the
earth and the lilies of the field, for the birds of the
air and the fish of the sea. Vine and fig tree, the
mustard seed and tlie grain of wheat, grape and
thorn, fig and thistle, acre and flock, fishing and
82 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
commerce, are used by Him as symbols and para-
bles in His instruction concerning things Heavenly.
The whole of nature speaks unto Him of the Father^
Which is in Heaven and Who maketh His sun to
rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain
on the just and on the unjust. And so very little
does He disapprove of all luxury, that He, when
Mary once anointed Him with a very choice oint-
ment, does not complain with His disciples of the
waste but accepts readily and with gratitude this
very precious mark of honor.
And what silences everything — Jesus, to be
sure, laid down the natural life for our sakes, but
He also again assumed it and is risen from the dead.
When He had borne our sins in His flesh on the
tree and had thus delivered the natural life from
its guilt and curse and death, then He also again
accepted it as His possession, but now re-born,
spiritualized, sanctified. The corporeal resurrec-
tion of Christ from the dead is the decisive proof,
that Christianity does not stand in enmity to any-
thing human or natural but tliat it only desires to
deliver the creation of all things sinful and per-
fectly sanctify it unto God.
No other is the Avay in which the disciples of
Jesus have to walk. Wliosoever wishes to foUow
Jesus must, to be sure, forsake everything, but he
also receives everything in return, thirty and sixty
and hundredfold. AVhosoever has become one plant
with Him in the likeness of His death shall also be
this in tlie likeness of His resurrection. Wlioso-
ever suffers with Him, shall also be glorified with
Him, and that, not for the first time in Heaven, but
already in beginning here upim earth. For whoso-
THE UNIVERSALITY OF CONFESSION. 83
ever believes has eternal life and is renewed from
day to day. From cross to crown, through death to
life — that is the way for both Jesus and His dis-
ciples. Therefore everything also returns through
death unto them in the resurrection. Having died
and arisen with Christ, they live the remaining por-
tion of their life, in the flesh, in the faith of the Son
of God, who has loved them and has given Himself
for them. Although crucified unto the world, they
are not taken out of the world, but are protected in
the world from the evil one by the Father. They
remain in the calling, in which they are called. The
Jew, who is converted unto the Lord, is not required
to take on the foreskin, and the Greek, who comes
to faith, is not compelled to be circumcised. The
servant remains a servant, although he comes to
liberty in tlie Lord ; and the free-born remains free,
although he becomes a servant of Christ. The un-
believing husband is sanctified by the wife and the
unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband.
All natural ordinances remain; they are not
revolutionarily broken down but only recreated by
the new spirit. For the Kingdom of Heaven is not
meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and
joy through the Holy Spirit. Every creature of
God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be re-
ceived with thankgiving; for it is sanctified, by the
Word of God and prayer. Only, believers have to
think on whatsoever things are true; whatsoever
things are honest; whatsoever things are just;
Avhatsoever things are pure ; whatsoever things are
lovely; whatsoever things are of good report. As
for the rest everything is theirs, for they are
Christ's and Christ is God's.
84 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
Thus godliness is profitable uuto all things, hav-
ing promise of the life that now is, and of that
which is to come. Unto him, who has sought the
Kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness, all other
things are added. The best Christian is the best
citizen. With his confession he neither stands out-
side of nor in opposition to the natural life. But
proudly and bravely he bears it into the world, and
plants everywhere the banner of the cross. The
Gospel of Christ is a good tiding of great joy for all
creatures, for mind and heart, for soul and body,
for family and society, for science and art. For it
delivers from guilt and redeems from death. It is
a power of God unto salvation for everyone that
believes.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Obligation to Confession.
For ye are bought with a price:
therefore glorify God in your body
and in your spirit, which are God's.
I Cor. 6:20.
Confessing, to be sure, lias its root and origin in
the heart, but is nevertheless in itself, according to
its nature and character, a thing of the mouth, a
work of the lips.
There are many of the opinion, however, that
this latter is only incidental to confession, an ar-
bitrary addition, at least, only a superfluous good
work. And they know how to ornament this, their
opinion, with many beautiful thoughts ; in personal
faith in Christ and for the salvation of the soul the
emphasis is laid upon the heart and not upon the
external work of the lips. Silently confessing, and
testifying in secret has more worth and worthiness
and bears richer fruit, than the speaking of gTeat
words and the using of pious terms. Jesus, Him-
self has said, not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he,
who does the will of My Father, which is in Heaven.
Better is it to confess before God in the closet, than
to sell the truth in public, and to cast pearls before
the swine. The Kingdom of Heaven is not of this
85
86 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
world, it comes not in outward form, but is within
us. Man sees what is before the e^^e, but (lod con-
siders the heart.
In opposition to the great untruth and lie, which
reigns in the confession of the mouth, this remind-
ing of the absolute necessity of the conversion of
the heart is perfectly in its place. A fearful hy-
pocrisy has crept into the work of the lips. There
is an unjustly-called orthodoxy, which seeks a
ground for justification before the face of God in
the outward and intellectual acceptance of the
truth. Confidence in the merit of outward works
of piety is a sin, but no less an evil is confidence in
the merit of outward learning and understanding,
which in addition makes one to look down in scorn
and pride of heart upon the multitude who know
not the law, and in the works of mercy and love it
is entirely unfruitful. Therefore, in opposition to
this false orthodoxy it is always our duty and call-
ing to lay emphasis upon the heart and to exhort
unto uprightness before the face of God. For false
lips are an abomination unto the Lord, but those
who act faithfully are His pleasure. He has no
pleasure in a peoi)le who draw near unto Him with
the mouth, and praise Him with the lips, but whose
hearts are held far from Him. The first thing that
God requires of each and everyone is the heart, for
out of it are the issues of life. To be a Christian
consists not therein that we speak great words, but
that, with God, we do great things.
But nevertheless this does not in the least take
away the fact tliat Holy Writ attaches a great
worth and worthiness to the testimony of the lips
and is especially pleased with a confession of the
THE OBLIGATION TO CONFESSION. 87
mouth. There is no other book that so fearlessly
unmasks all hypocrisy and at the same time values
so highly the significance of the word and the power
of testimony, as the Word of God.
Speaking is nothing more or nothing less than
an essential attribute of God, His eternal, un-
changeable work. Speaking, the Father generates
eternally out of His own essence the Son, who is the
Word, tlie spoken and at the same time the self-
speaking Word, which in the beginning was with
God and Ayhich was God. Speaking in and thru
that Word God brings all things into existence,
preserves and rules, recreates and renews them.
His speaking is doing. His Word is power. He
speaks and it is there, He commands and it stands
fast, He calls the things that are not as if they were.
Also in this respect is man created in the image
of God. He receives from His Creator not only an
understanding and a heart, but also a tongue and a
language and is therefore called, not only to think
and to feel, but also to speak and to testify. His
speaking must be a praising, a proclaiming of the
great works of God. Thus the Angels praise Him,
when they, standing before the throne, sing, one to
the other. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts,
the whole earth is full of His glory! Thus the
saints praise Him, when they sing the song of
Moses, the servant of God, and the Song of the
Lamb, saying : Great and wonderful are Thy works,
O Lord, Thou Almighty God, just and righteous are
Thy ways, Thou King of Saints; who would not
fear Thee, Lord, and who would not glorify Thy
name? Yea, again and again in Holy Writ, all
creatures are called upon to praise the name of the
88 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
Lord. Bless ye the Lord, all ye, His hosts ; ye min-
isters of His, that do His pleasure. Bless the Lord,
all His works in all places of His dominion; bless
the Lord, O my soul.
In the midst of all those speaking and praising
creatures, man, who has received the word for the
utterance of his thoughts, may not remain silent.
Indeed, he cannot remain silent. His silence is
even counted as acknowledgment. Neutrality is as
impossible for the mouth as for the heart. Who-
soever does not confess Christ, denies Him. Silence
soon passes over into doubt, unbelief, enmity. The
tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity ; it defileth the
whole body, and setteth on fire the course of na-
ture ; and it is set on fire of hell ; it is untameable,
an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. If we do not
bless God, even the Father, with it, then we curse
therewith men, which are made after the similitude
of God.
Therefore in recreation it is also the purpose of
God, that man shall again speak and praise, and
proclaim His virtues. God redeems the tongue no
less than the heart, the language as well as the
thoughts. He makes man free, both soul and body,
and also again loosens his tongue and opens his
lips. He fills the mouth with laughter and the lips
with rejoicing. Thoughts and words also belong to-
gether and may not be separated. The Word is the
full-grown thought, the thought which has come to
liberty and independence. The thoughts in the in-
ward man are as it were the branches, and tlie
words are the blossoms and fruit thereof, which
through the mouth and lips sprout forth and come
to maturity. And also of this fruit of the lips, con
THE OBLIGATION TO CONFESSION. 89
sisting in sacrifies of praise, God is the Creator and
Former.
Therefore the Saints of the Old Testament also
pray : Lord open my lips, then my mouth shall pro-
claim Thy praise. Let my mouth be filled with Thy
praise, with Thy glory all the day. When God
sends forth His spirit the prayer of Moses is an-
swered, that all the people ma}^ be prophets of God.
Then the sons and daughters, the youths and the
old men, man servants and maid servants begin to
projjhesy and everyone in his own language pro-
claims the wondrous works of God. Then silence
is impossible. The mouth overflows with that of
which the heart is filled : Of Thee, O Lord, shall be
my praise in a great congregation. I shall praise
Thee with all my heart. I will sing unto the name
of the Lord, the Most High; I will speak of His
wondrous works, each one; I will praise Him
among the nations; I will praise the Lord at all
times; His glory shall continually fill my mouth; I
will praise Him forever.
So highly does God value this fruit of the lips,
that in opposition to those who scorn and deride
Him, the Lord prepares Himself honor out of the
mouths of babes and sucklings. If the disciples
should keep silent then the stones would cry out.
God demands the whole man for His service. He
wills that man shall love Him, with mind and heart,
with mouth and tongue and all power. And when
man on account of sin holds back this love, then it
is He himself. Who, in and through Christ gathers
together out of the whole world a church, which
proclaims the virtues of Him Who called her out of
darkness unto His marvelous light. It is God, Him-
00 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
self, Who calls His people to this and requires it of
them, Who also makes them able and willing. He
drives them to it by His Spirit, for this Spirit,
leads them in the truth, makes them confess Jesus
as the Lord, witnesses in them of their childship,
and makes them cry aloud : x\bba Father. Because
they liave been bought with a price, the price of tlie
blood of the Son, they are called to glorify God in
tlieir body and spirit which are God's.
This obligation or duty of confessing the Lord's
name rests upon each and every believer. In the
confession of our mouth it appears whether we
mean it, if it is holy earnestness with us, if the love
of God is dearer unto us than the friendship of the
world. It is, the evidence of the truth, the verifica-
tion of the faith, the crown upon the work of God
within us. In the confession, returns unto God, by
way of the lips, what He Himself out of grace,
through His Spirit, has wrought of faith and love
in our hearts. It is not a hard duty, not a severe
command, but a service of love which never vexes,
a blessed privilege, a high honor. For a child of
man there is not a more glorious work than to be
allowed to confess God and to proclaim His honor.
Such a privilege is confessing for the individual
believer and that is it also for the church as a
whole. She believes, therefore she speaks.
Throughout all all centuries she confesses. To
friend and enemy she gives an account of the hope
til at is in her. Her testimony is as tlie voice of
inanj^ waters. She reveals her faith, in her meet
ings and religious services, in her prayers and
hymns, in her works of mercy and gifts of love. Al-
THE OBLIGATION TO CONFESSION. 01
waj^s and everywhere she confesses. She is and
cannot be otherwise — than a confessing church.
In speaking of the confession of tlie church, it is
very unilateral to think exclusively or even in the
first place of the written expression of her faith,
To be sure, this gradually became necessary for the
church because of errors and heresies. And when
the church appears in the midst of the world with
this, her Avritten confession, she also makes a glo-
rious profession of her faith.
Entirely without ground, the Church of Christ,
has, from different sides, been denied the right of
expressing her faith in writing and of being watch-
ful for its perfect maintenance. For, with such a
written confession she does not encroach upon the
word of God but only explains the contents of that
word according to the measure of faith and know-
ledge granted unto her in a given time. With it
she does not assail the authority of the Scriptures,
but just tries to maintain this, and with it she is
upon her guard that the Scriptures be not aban-
doned to the arbitrary will of the individual. She
does not bind the consciences with it, but delivers
these from the ever -recurring errors of man and
strives to lead all thoughts captive to the obedience
of Christ. With it she does not cut off development
but tries to retain this and to lead it in the right
path, in the path of building up and not breaking
down. The confession of the church does not stand
alongside of, much less above, but deeply below
Holy Writ. This is and remains the only, perfect,
sufficient rule of faith and life.
Even if a church should never express her faith
in print, still she would always, as long and in so
92 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
far as she is a church, have a confession. But when
she expresses her faith in writing, then she obtains
thereby this profit, that the truth, in so far as she
has acknowledged it, is handed down unaltered
from generation to generation and is also easier to
be maintained against all adversaries. Unto the
confession of the church belongs a great pedagogi-
cal worth and worthiness. The individual cominoj
to maturity grows into this confession and after
awhile accepts it freely and independently as his
own. Even as a child in every sphere goes in unto
the work of his ancestors so he also lives from year
to year into the spiritual inheritance of his fathers.
No one begins at the beginning. Everyone
stands upon the shoulders of those who were before
him. Everyone of us lives and spends of the treas-
ures which parents and gi'andparents brought to-
gether for us. Only, unto each and everyone of us
comes the requirement that, with the exertion of
all our powers we shall master and make our own
that which we have inherited of the fathers. Thus
a child also accepts the confession of the church, so
that this may afterwards become the free and in-
dependent expression of its personal faith.
But also on account of this, however high the
written confession may stand, it may never be sev-
ered from personal faith, neither may it ever be
torn out of its coherence with the testimonies and
deeds wherewith the church distinguishes herself
from and places herself in opposition to the world.
It is not a document which binds us because of its
honored antiquity. It bears no authority that is
laid upon us by the remote past. But it is, even as
all other acts, borne and animated from moment to
THE OBLIGATION TO CONFESSION. 93
moment by the faith of the church and thus pro-
ceeds from generation to generation. It is even in
the i)resent day, still our confession, not because it
was compiled by our fathers and by them delivered
upon us, but because it is for us to-day, even as it
was for them in former centuries, the purest ex-
pression of our faith, the clearest explanation of
the truth of God, the most beautiful exhibition of
the treasures of salvation, which are granted unto
us by God in Christ.
Trained from our youth in the confession of the
church, we now confess tlierein our own faith.
CHAPTER IX.
The Opposition to Confession.
But I certify you, brethren, that
the Gospel which was preached of
me is not after man.
Galatians i :ii.
Confessing is contrary to flesli and blood, con-
trary to world and satan.
B}^ nature, every man is in enmity with the
proclamation that Jesus is the Christ. To the su-
perficial thinker or observer it may seem strange
that the Gospel has at all times met with so great
an opposition. It is, is it not a good tiding of great
joy unto all creatures? It speaks of nothing but
grace and peace and salvation; it demands noth-
ing and gives everything. And nevertheless it
finds resistance and opposition everywliere ; for the
Jews it is an offense and to the Greeks foolishness.
It may be for man, but it is not after man. It is
not, as it would be, if man had planned and rea-
soned it out; it is of divine origin and therefore is
not in conformity with the thoughts and desires,
with the lusts and the passions of man. Mind and
lieart, desire and will, soul and body resist the
Gospel of Christ. And in that resistance man is
94
THE OPPOSITION TO CONFESSION. 95
externally strengtlieEed by the whole world, by the
whole kingdom of darkness.
Certainly there is a difference in the circum-
stances. In days of peace and rest the opposition
to the Gospel is not so intense as in times when the
church is oppressed and persecuted by the world.
Much more courage is necessary to stand up for
Christ in a godless community of sinners and scof-
fers than in a circle of relatives and friends who
altogether confess the truth. A stronger faith is
necessary not to be ashamed of the Cross of Christ
in a company of nobles and learned men than in
the midst of a common and simple people in some
isolated town or village.
But in principle the opposition is everywhere
the same. For flesh and world and satan are always
and everywhere the same, and the greatest and
strongest enemy, w^ho resists the Gospel of Christ
dwells in our own heart. The form in which the
enmity reveals itself may be diff'erent but always
and everywhere the confessing of the Lord's name
is accompanied with a denying of ourselves, and a
bearing of the cross. Scorn and derision become
the part and portion of everyone, in whatever
circle, who breaks with the world and follows
Jesus.
Even when faith has been worked in the heart
and has driven to confession, how much is there,
even then, that continually and constantly keeps
the lips closed and liolds us back from a free and
liappy acknowledgment of Jesus' name.
Behold it in a Peter, wlio, in tlie hour of danger
denies His Master and even afterwards in Antioch,
out of fear for the brotliers of circumcision makes
96 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
liimself guilty of hypocrisy. And nevertheless
Peter as the most prominent of the Apostles, who
for his glorious and free confession of Jesus' Mes-
siahship, received the name of Rock and who felt
himself b'ound with such a strong love to His Savior
that he would enter death with Him, and cast far
from him the possibility of denying the Lord. If
he could fall and did fall, who then can remain
standing? And for whom is the warning super-
fluous that he, who thinketh to stand, take heed
lest he fall?
The history of the Christian Church reveals
unto us many beautiful examples of steadfast,
unshakable martyrdoms, but it also contains the
sad stories of thousands upon thousands of those
who in the hour of temptation denied the faith or
in crooked ways drew back from the confession.
When persecution or tribulation ariseth because
of the Word, then is immediately offended he, who
at first heard the Word and received it with joy,
but had no root in himself and dureth only for a
while.
There are so msinj dangers to which a believer
stands exposed; so many cliffs upon which he is
tlireatened to strand. Lust of the eyes, lusts of the
flesh and pride of life; fear for loss of name and
honor, of possessions and life, exert themselves
alternately, singly or unitedly to draw the disciple
of Jesus from the steadfastness of his faith. And
under all these trials and temptations, the so-called
false shame probably exerts the greatest power.
For even when tlie tribulations and persecutions
are passed, this works on and makes thousands and
ten thousands to stumble and fall. In low and
THE OPPOaiTION TO CONFESSION. 97
liigh society, amongst the rich aud the poor, in the
midst of plebeians and patricians this false shame
throws her great hindrances in the way of the con-
fession of the Lord's Name.
There is something deeply humiliating in the
fact that in the depth of our heart we are ashamed
of Jesus. For He was a man, who went through
the country doing good and blessing; who was
gentle and tender of heart; and who, it is true,
died on a cross, but His enemies were His judges
and therefore condemned Him to this shameful
deatli, although He was entirely and perfectly in-
nocent. There must be something wrong with us,
we must be morally sick, if we are ashamed of such
a man and dare not take His name upon our lips.
Shame in general is an unpleasant feeling,
which comes upon us at a certain action or state
of ourselves which lowers us in the estimation of
others. Sometimes it is good. For instance, when
Adam is ashamed of himself after transgressing
God's commandment, he shows by it, that he feels
his action to have been evil and that he realizes his
fall. Shame is not always and absolutely a fruit
of faith, but it is also found with the natural man
and thus proves that man tl»rough sin has not be-
come an animal or devil but that he has still re-
mained mau, and that he has still retained a feel-
ing of his honor and worthiness.
Nevertheless, alongside of this tnie and goo<]
there also exists a wrong, a false shame. It is
found with us when we feel timid or embarrassed
about something which in itself is good, but which
nevertheless makes us descend in the estimation
of others. Thus we are often ashamed of the good
98 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
impressions which the proclamation of the Gospel
has had upon us; of the accusations of our con-
science; of the sorroAv which comes up in us after
committing an evil and wicked act; of the tender-
lieartedness and aft'ectiveness with which we are
affected under certain circumstances. We are
afraid, that others, noticing this will scorn and
deride us on account of it; that tliej will consider
us weak, simple, childish; that we wdll lose by it
dui' name as strong, brave, courageous persons.
Now this false shame also falls upon us witli
respect to the Gospel of the cross. We are ashamed
of tlie cliurcli wliich consists not of many wise and
nn'ghty and no])le. AVe are ashamed of the Bible,
\\ liich is Si) strange and wonderful, and wliich is
i-ejected iind dispu.ted ]>y the men of civilization
;iud science. AVe are ashamed of Ohrist, who
claiuied to ]>e tlie only begotten Son of God, the
anointed of tlie Father. We are ashamed of His
cross, whicli was an oft'ense to the Jews and foolish-
lU'ss unto the Greeks. AA'e are ashamed of the
whole sj)ecial revelation of (lod, which reveals us
iiiito ourselves and displays us in our spiritual
ifovcrty.
Aud we make ourselves fearful that we, choos-
ing the side of Christ will lose entireh' our name
and our honor as man, with ourselves and others
and will become an object of scorn and derision, of
iib'use and ])ersecutiou. We fear, that by the cou-
fessing of Ghrist, our dignity, personality, human-
ity will be injured and suffer loss. Even the false
shame has therefore for its basis a dark conscious-
iH^ss that we were once created in the image of
THE OPPOSITION TO CONFESSION. 99
(tocI and have still a certain rank and honor to
preserve. The respect and admiration of himsell
and of others is in short a matter of iuditfereuce
to no one, because in his deepest fall he remains
man and continues to bear the name of man, that
is, of God's image and likeness.
But this consciousness, under the influence of
sin, works now in the reverse direction. For it is
true, by giving ourselves entirely unto Christ for
salvation, we descend in our own estimation and
in that of others, and with man we lose our name,
and our honor. But this estimation rests upon a
fancy and that fancy and that honor is built upon
an imagination. For by nature Ave consider our-
selves rich and enriched and in need of nothing.
But when Ave embrace the Gospel, then AA^e learn to
realize that Ave are poor and blind and naked and
in need of eA^erything.
And thus also our honor Avith man is mostly
the fruit of ignorance and appearance. The art of
winning the hearts and praise of man consists
therein that Ave conceal our real, true nature and
ulloAv them to form an opinion of our person ac-
cording to our external learned appearance. God
is true and honest, but every man is a liar; he does
not always speak the untruth but he is untruth;
lie is false, deceitful in his existence itself. Reality
and appearance, essence and reAelation, inward
and outAvard man are in contradiction Avith each
other. {Sometimes Avhile the mouth overflows with
love, and the countenance reveals nothing but
friendship, then out of the h-'art of. man comes
forth evil thoughts, murders, jidulteries, fornica-
PROPERTY OF
ZAREPHATH LIBRARY
100 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
tion, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. The saint,
knowing man in his inward existence and looking
into the innermost depth of his heart, wonld flee
from him in horror. And therefore, incomparably
great has been the love of Christ, who knew what
was in man, and yet came, songht him, and gave
liimself into death for him.
Thus we really live for ourselves and for others
iu a fancy and imagination. AVhen we look at it
in the right light, we lose nothing essential when
we believe in Christ for we have nothing essential.
We only lose the imagination, that we live, that
we are rich, and enriched and in need of nothing
The most fearful misery of sin consists not therein,
that we are blind, but it consists in this: that we,
being blind, nevertheless imagine that we see. Sin
is guilt and pollution and shame, but above that,
also foolishness and ignorance.
And that imagination of ours is brought into
confusion by the Word of the Lord. We must deny
that imagination if we desire to be save
our own opinion and that of others as of no Avorth
and worthiness; to accept the judgment of (rod
concerning us and hope only for His grace and
mercy. The confessing of Christ includes, that we
lose ourselves and evei*y thing, our name and our
honor, our possessions and our blood, our soul and
our life. And it is exactly against this that the
false shame strives and struggles. The sigh for
self-preservation, in appearance, forces and drives
man, with the exertion of all his strength and
])ower, to oppose the Gospel.
The carnal mind is enmity against God : for it
THE OPPOSITION TO CONFIJSSION. 101
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. The natural man does not under.'^tand the
things of the Spirit of God. And neither does he
understand that losing ourselves is the only way to
true self-preservation.
CHAPTER X.
The Strength for Confession.
Wherefore I give you to under-
stand, that no man speaking by
the Spirit of God, calleth Jesus
accursed ; and that no man can say
that Jesus is the Lord, but by the
Holy Ghost. I Cor. 12:3.
What is impossible Avith man, is however, pos
sible with God. From Him is all our ability. All
true confessing comes forth out of the faith of th(^
heart, which is a gift of God, a fruit of tlie work
of the Holy Spirit.
Although Clirist had fulfilled everything, still
would it have been fruitless, if, after His ascension
to Heaven, He had not sent the Holy Spirit, \vh(»
leadeth in all truth. For the whole world of itself
stands in opjjosition to Christ and loves darkness
rather than light. But the Holy Spirit has come to
Avitness of Christ in the midst of the world. He is
the only but also the almighty witness of Chrisl.
All scorn Christ but the Holy Spirit glorifies Him.
All condemn Christ but the Holy Spirit justifies
Him. All reject Christ but the Holy Spirit stands
up for Him and pleads Hi'fe cause at the consciences
of men. All call Christ accursed, but the Holy
102
THE STRENGTH FOR CONFESSION. 103
Spirit says that He is the Lord, to the glory of God
the Father.
He witnesses of Christ in the Word, wliieli
through prophets and apostles He has written. He
Avitnesses of Christ in the world, which He con-
Aances of sin and righteousness and judgment. He
witnesses of Christ in the church who acknowl-
edges Him to be her I^ord and her God. He wit-
nesses of Christ in the heart of every believer, who
thereby knows that he is a child of God and cries
^'Abba Father.*' And against that testimony of the
IIolj^ Spirit, in short, no child of man can stand.
As soon as the Holy Spirit accompanies the proc-
lamation of the Word of God with His Almighty
power, tlien, the hardest heart is broken, the most
stubborn knee is bowed; the loudest mouth is
stopped. In the face of His testimony all our
thoughts and considerations are of no significance,
they burst as a bubble. No one speaking by tlie
Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and everyone
that has received that Spirit confesses Him as his
Lord and Savior.
But even then, when faith has been implanted
in the heart, in the face of tlie various temptations
to unfaithfulness, the working of the Spirit, vrlncli
makes faith to reveal itself in word and deed, al-
ways remains necessary. For it is God who work-
eth in us not only to will but also to do His good
pleasure. From Him we receive both the power ol*
faith and the boldness to confess.
Therefore David prayed that God might not
take his Holy Spirit from him, and might
strengthen him witli a free and bold spirit. Wlien
Peter and John once stood before tlie ^reat (^ounsel,
104 THE SACRIFICK OF PRAISE.
and afterwards, being released, told the brethren
their experiences, they all together lifted up theii'
voices to God saying : No\s Lord hjok upon tht^
threatenings of the adversaries and give unto Thy
servants to speak Thy Word with all boldness; and
when they had prayed, the place was shaken where
they were assembled together; and they were all
filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the
Word of God with boldness. Even a Paul request-
ed the prayers of the church that utterance might
be given unto him, that he might open his mouth
boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel.
For the minister of the Word in the first place,
but then also for ever}^ believer this boldness to
speak and testify is indispensable. It consists iii
the unembarrassment to give testimony to tlu^
truth of God in Christ, in a firm, trusting faith,
openly and freely before each and everyone. It is
founded in the blessed assurance of the remission
of guilt, in the liberty to approach the throne of
grace and to ask everything of Him in prayer.
And it is strengthened in us by the many examples
of brave and unshakable confessors of whom both
Holy Writ and history make mention.
There is, first of all, the example of Christ. H<'
was in Himself the Word, the Truth, the Perfect
Revelation of God. And He came into a world
lying in sin and in bondage unto deceit. His ap-
pearance alone, with nothing more, was a protest
that was bound to awaken the hatred and enmity
of the world. She could not tolerate Jesus. His
existence was her judgment. And therefore she
strained every muscle to banish this righteous one
from the earth. But Jesus remained faithful unto
THE STRENGTH FOR CONFESSION. tOo
His Father aud became obedient anto Hinij even
unto the death of the cross. He withstood every
temptation. He bore all enmity, before the Jewisli
Sanhedrin He venfied His divine Sonship, and be-
fore Pontius Pilate He made the good confession.
Thus He revealed Himself to be the true and faith-
ful witness, the Apostle and High Priest of our
profession, who has left us an example tliat Ave
should walk in His steps.
Then furthermore there are the many thousands
of angels unto whose communion the believers have
come in Christ Jesus. They also exhort us to per-
severance in the fight. For they accompanied
Christ upon all His ways, and ascended and de-
scended upon the Son of Man all the days of His
earthh^ sojourn. They follow the church upon
her way through the worhl and are sent out in the
service of them who shall inherit salvation. They
are desirous of looking into the mysteries of sal-
vation and rejoice over every sinner who repents.
Because of their perfect obedience, tliey are given
unto us for examples in the very i>erfect prayer
and through us they must be made acquainted with
the multifarious wisdom of God.
Then again we have the great cloud of wit-
nesses, with whom we are encompassed about, the
whole church triumphant, whose numbers, al-
though they do not behold our battles as eye wit-
nesses, nevertheless by their example as witnesses
of the faith encourage us and exhort us to imitate
them. They have, for a part at least, tasted of
scourging and derision, and also of bonds and im-
prisonment. But they were not ashamed of the
good confession and remained faithful unto the end.
UH> THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
And daily their number is being increased. A
multitude which no man can number is now al-
ready formed by the spirits of the perfect righteous.
\yho haye been taken into Heayen, and are become
our leaders and examples in the faithful confession
of Christ.
And finally there is also the church militant
upon earth, Ayhich, by holding fast to the unshak-
able confession of hope, strengthens us. In yery
truth, it has been said, that eyery Christian should
belieye so firmly that, although all others should
fall aAyay, he ^yould still remain standing firm and
unshakable. But notAyithstanding this is true, in
general, man is not set aside for neither able to en-
dure such a seclusion. To be sure, God is able to
grant such a strong faith that we, though forsaken
by all yet proceed upon our \yay with rejoicing.
But generally God keeps us standing in and
through the communion of saints. For eyen as we
in one body haye many members, and these mem-
l>ers haye not all the same work, so also are we
many, one body in Christ, but we are each others
members. And as such all belieyers haye com-
munion with the Lord Jesus and all of His
treasures and gifts, and each one must feel that h(^
is obliged to use, willingly and gladly his talents
and gifts for the benefit and to the salyation of the
other members.
Thus the confessors of Christ are hardly ever
alone. Sometimes in a certain place and at a giyen
time they may feel themselyes forsaken and alone.
But also then it is yery often revealed that there
are yet thousands who, with them, have not bowed
the knee to Baal. And whtm tliev ai-ise out of the
tHk strength ix)r confession. 107
anguish of their souls aud look about, over the
whole world and throughout the ages, they realize
that they are members of a communion, which from
the beginning to the end of the world is gathered,
in unity of faith, out of the whole human race, by
the Son of God and l)y Him likewise protected and
preserved. The Church of Christ is the kernel of
humanity, the salt of the earth, the light of the
world. AVhosoever is a living member of her counts
among his brothers and sisters, the best and great-
est and noblest of our generation; prophets and
apostles and church fathers and martyrs and re-
formers. And at their head stands the faithful wit-
ness, the first-born from the dead, the Sovereign of
the Kings of the earth.
Especially in our fatlierland (The Netherlands)
there is no reason whatever \y\\j we should de-
spondently withdraw and lock ourselves up into
obscurity. For, Christians are no where and never
a sect; although they are opposed and contradicted
everywhere, but they are this the least in the
Netherlands, whose national existence was born or
brought fortli by the Keformation. The Christian
character is, in this land, genuinely national, and
the confessors of the Reformed Faith are not
strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens and mem-
bers of the household, children of those fathers who,
with their possessions and blood, fought victo-
riously for truth and liverty against error and tht^
binding of their consciences.
When we remember all these things, what ex-
amples ought we not then to be in faithful con-
fessing and holy walk I To be sure, the power of
faith is necessary to roAv up against the stream and
108 THK SAORIFICK OF PRAtSK.
to bear that ail men speak evil of lis, although
it is deoeitfullv and for the Gospel's sake. From
the multitude there proceeds a magical influence
upon the individual. In every circle the danger
is so great that we submit to the number and ad-
just ourselves to the majority.
But in opposition to this, the believers can derive
encouragement for themselves from the thought,
that they all together are come unto Mount Ziou,
and unto the City of the living God, the Heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of
Angels, to the general assembly and Church of the
lirst-born, which are written in Heaven, and to Go
made perfect, and to the Mediator of the new
covenant.
Therefore then, we have nothing to fear, foi-
thev who are with us, are more than thev which
are with them.
CHAPTER XL
The Reward of Confession.
Whosoever therefore shall con-
fess me before men, him will I
confess also before my Father
zvhich is in Heaven. Matt. 10:32.
Unto the faithful confession of the Lord's name
is hound a reward, which is great in the Heavens.
Continually Holy Writ speaks of a reward
\\ hi(^h shall be granted unto believers at the return
of C'lirist. It is granted as an indemnity, for that
of wljiclj the disciples of Jesus here upon earth
denied themselves for His sake, or for what they
suffered, or for the good works of mercy and love
which they fulfilled. And Holy Writ does not
Iresitate to encourage believers unto a faithful per-
severance in their confession by the promise of such
a reward. She is not afraid that she thereby shall
introduce a false principle into the practice of
godliness, that she shall give cause or reason to
exercise virtue to serve fortune and God for the
sake of the Heavenly salvation.
For although constantly speaking of a reward
Holy Writ is very strongly opposed to all service
for reward. The rew^ard that awaits the faithful
soldiers, is not obligatory, is not a. right which is
theirs by nature, is not an obligated remuneration
109
110 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
for accomplished labor. Such a reward is not
kno^n to scripture and she cuts it off in the root by
the relation in which she places man as creature to
God his Creator. Whosoever has done everj^thing
that was commanded him is even then only an un-
profitable servant. Man is, and has of himself
nothing and tlierefore can give nothing unto God
upon whom he is absolutely dependent. He can
give notliing because he has to receive everything.
He is not a party opposite to God, wlio, has his own,
inalienable rights, and in tlie form of a contract
can demand reward or wages for tlie laboi" to Ix'
(hdiA^ered.
But God, from His side, lias of His own free
will bound Himself to richlv crown all, who walk
in His ways, with the gifts of His grace. Unto that
He bound Himself in the first covenant, when in
the obedience unto His commandment He opened
the way to eternal life and heavenly salvation.
This was not a reward in the sense of a reward for
work performed, for what equality does tliere exist
between the very easy and in itself obligated keep-
ing of the Lord's commandment and the unobli-
gated gift of eternal, blessed life in communion
with God?
And just so in the covenant of grace He binds
Himself to give unto everyone that believes in
Christ, eternal life. But here there is still less
room to speak of a reward in the original sense of
the word. For believing is nothing else than ac-
<:epting the gift of grace which has been revealed
in Christ, and is therefore no more meritorious than
the grasping of the life line by a shipwTecked
mariner who is upon the verge of perishing and
THE REWARD OF CONFESSION. Ill
sinking in the deep. But God is so good that He
attaches unto faith, not for His own, but for
Christ's sake, the forgiveness of sins and life ever-
lastins', and bv the slorv which awaits believers He
encourages them in the fight. Thus it is, that both
are true, on the one hand the possession of all the
benefits of the covenant is placed before all works
and bound only to faith, and on the other hand
the believer is so earnestly exhorted to the doing
of good works, as if all of these benefits were only
to be obtained in this way. The believers are
chosen from eternity and yet they have to make
their calling and election sure. Thru faith they
possess eternal life and yet, one day the}^ shall re-
ceive it out of the hand of the Father as a reward
for their self-denial. Thev are branches of the vine,
who without Christ can do nothing and yet, they
are exhorted to abide, in Him, in His Word, in
His love. They are the handiwork of God created
in Clirist Jesus unto all good works, which God has
prepared, and still tliey must walk in the same.
They are lioly, and nevertheless must sanctify them-
selves from day to day. They have crucified their
fiesh with its lusts and yet they are called to
mortify their members which are upon earth.
They are sure of their ultimate salvation for God's
election is immutable. His calling irregrettable. His
covenant immovable. His promises yea and amen,
and yet they are constantly urged to work out their
own salvation with fear and trembling, to be faith-
ful unto death and to persevere unto the end.
Holy Writ does not encourage a passive but an
active Christianity. It desires that, the believers
shall constautlv and continuallv become more what
112 THE JSACKlFiOE OF PRAISE.
they ai*€; that they shall merit what they have m-
herited; that they shall more and more, make them-
selves possessors of what in Christ belongs to them.
Therefore the same thins: — that on tlie one hand is
an unmerited free gift, can on the other hand be
represented as a reward. It can be called a re-
ward because faith and perseverance in faith is the
only way, in which believers can perfectly come
into possession of those benefits which in Christ
are given unto them out of pure grace. Without
lioliness no one shall see God.
B}' that reward wc sometimes understand th(^
lieavenly salvation itself and tlien again the dif
ferent steps or grades in glorv wliicli shall ))e
granted unto the believers according to tlieir works
Even as it is upon earth so shall it be in- heaven.
There is diversity in unity. Another is the glory
of the sun, and another is the glory of the moon,
and another is the glory of the stars; for the one
star dilfereth in glory from the other star. In the
house of the Father, wherein dAvell all the children
of God, there are many mansions. According to
the measure of their faithfulness each church re-
ceives of the King of the church an own ornament
and crown. For we all must appear before the
judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive
the things done in His body, according to that he
hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Then the separation between man and man will
\)p perfected. At the first coming of Christ, yea,
already at His very first anuonncement in the
promise; this crisis, this judgment in the world
began. Christ came unto the resurrection and the
fall of many. He came not to bring peace upon the
THE liKVrAlil) OF CONFESSION. 113
earth but the sword, to set a man at vaiiaucc*
against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-
in-law. He compels all, to choose for or against
Him. His Word is a judge of the thoughts and
meditations of the heart. His Gospel is a savour
of life unto life or a savour of death unto deatli.
And that separation is perfected l)y Him in the day
of His future, wlien everytliing shall be revcnihMl
before His judgment seat. P^or the Father lias
given all judgment uuio tlie Son because He is tlic
Son of Man.
Everyone's fate shall tlieu be determined by tlie
fact, whether or not Christ acknowledges him to bp
His and confesses him before His Fatluu-, which is
in Heaven. Upon His public confession hangs our
acquittal, our salvation.
Christ Avas not ashamed of us at His incarna-
tion. To be sure He had uuuiy reasons to be. l-^oi*
He, Himself, was the only begotten of th(» Father,
of one essence and glory with God the Father and
the Holy Spirit, yea, the brightness of tlie Father's
glory and the express inuige of His person — who
thought it not robl)erv to be equal Avith God. And
Ave were laden Avith guilt, unclean from the crown
of our heads to the soles of our feet, and subject
to corruption. But still He Avas not ashamed to
call us brothers. He Avas ashamed of us neither
before God nor before the Holy Angels. He ac-
cepted our flesh and l)lood, went in unto our nature,
became like unto us in everything, sin only ex-
cepted. And even God Avas not ashamed lo be
called our God in Christ.
Therefore tlien He shall also not be ashamed
114 THE SACKIJ^ICE OF PRAISE.
of US iu the day of His future. To be sure, at that
time He comes again not as servant but as Lord,
not to suffer but to be glorified, not unto a croas
but with a crown. But nevertheless He shall not
be ashamed of us. For He that ascended up far
above all Heavens, is the same, that once descended
into the lower parts of the earth. He that judges,
is the Son of Man, Who once came to seek and to
save that which was lost. Our judge is our Savior.
He never forgets and never forsakes those that are
His. Whosoever confesses Me before men, thus He
witnesses, him will I also confess before My Father
which is in Heaven.
Publicly, in full view of tlie whole world, so
that every creature shall hear it. He will stand up
for His faithful confessors. However despised they
may have been in this world, Christ Avill take tlieir
name upon His lips and proclaim it unto every ear
tliat they are His, whom He has bought with His
own blood, and of whom no power in the world oi*
in hell shall be able to rob Him.
And as Christ says, so shall it be. His judg-
ment shall be effected in the whole creation. His
confession shall concern all creatures. No one shall
be able to criticise it. No one shall dare to oppose
it. His judgment shall be exalted above all
criticism and shall stand high above the judgment
of all men and devils. The heavens and the earth
and the hell and all creatures shall eternally sub-
mit to it.
And what is of greater importance than all
this. The Father shall rest in this work of His
Son. Even as God after the creation saw all that
He had made, and behold, it was very good, even
THE KEWAKl) OF CONFESSION. 115
SO at the end of days He shall look down witli
divine pleasure upon the great work of redemption
brought about by Christ. When the church with-
out spot or wrinkle shall be set before Him, and
the Kingdom perfected shall have been given unto
Him, then the Father shall accept all the redeemed
of the Son as His children, make them participate
in His communion and enjoy His presence.
The public confession of the believers by Christ
before His Father, which is in Heaven, shall be
the surety of their eternal salvation and glory.
CHAPTER XII.
The Triumph of Confession.
Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him and given him a name
zvhieJi is above every name: that at
the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, of things in Heaven,
and things in earth, and things un-
der the earth; and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father. Phil. 2:9-11.
Deep in the heart of man lievS buried the hope
that truth shall one day gain the victory over un-
truth, and that good shall one day triumph over
evil.
All religions foster that expectation and speak
of a triumph that shall be gained at the end of time
by the Kingdom of Light over that of darkness. AH
systems of philosophy conclude by picturing an
ideal state, wherein man, surrounded by the pure
atmosphere and clear sunshine of the future, shall
dwell in i>eace and joy, true, free, and good. All
men long for a paradise, in wliich innocence shall
have returned and prosperity shall be the portion
of all. Even the greatest unbelievers surrender
themselves to this sweet hoi>e, and dream of a
116
THE TIUrMl'H OF (JONFESSION. Ill
kingdom of truth and goodness and beauty, that
shall after a shorter or longer period of time come
upon the whole earth.
But alsa! for that hope all ground is lacking.
For upon what ground can we believe in a triumph
of trutli, of righteousness, if there is no God of
truth and righteousness, and no Christ, anointed
of the Father, to raise that kingdom and to create
tiie new heavens and the new earth? The idols of
the heathen are the works of the hand of man ; the
future exiDcctations of philosophers are the inven-
tions of the human brain ; and tlie truth, the aood,
and the beautiful are pleasant sounds but no
powers which in themselves are able to usurp au-
thority over all the children of men.
Whosoever expects salvation from that, sees
himself compelled to build upon man and to ex-
pect of them that they shall slowly and gradually
acknowledge the truth and exercise virtue. But by
that it also appears immediately that that hope is
very weak. For, to be sure, there is progress in
material prosperity, a developing of man's autlior-
ity or power over nature, an ever-increasing servi-
tude of nature's powders to the making agreeable of
life.
But, according to all acknowledgment, the
moral progress does not keep step with the material
progress. In our century, which looks down from
on high upon all her predecessors, justice is
trampled under foot, righteousness stumbles upon
the streets, coveteousness and thirst for gold in-
creases, the glorification of power knows no bounds.
Civilization, knowledge, and science even become
subservient to brutal force. On the one hand.
118 TIIK SACRIFICE OF PKALSE.
tbei'e is au iusatiableness of cultinc, on the other,
misery and lamentation. And man appears to he
farther away from paradise than ever before.
At all events it is clearly proven hy history that
no salvation is to be expected, either from the
exertion of human strength and power, or from the
imminent self-development of the world. If there
is nothing else, there remains only room for dim
despondency and hopeless despair. Whosoever is
without God and without Christ, is also without
hope in the world. The Kingdom of Heaven was
not at one time established upon earth along th(*
lines of succession, neither shall it be completed in
the future in this way.
It is again in the spiritual realm even as in that
of the natural. Even as the earth must receive her
light and her air, her rain and her sunshine, her
growth and her fruitfulness from above, so also is
mankind dependent for its spiritual life upon the
world of invisible and eternal things, where Christ
is, seated on the right hand of God.
From on high therefore is descended He, who
is the Light, the Life, the Salvation of the world.
And from on high He gathers, preserves and pro-
tects the Church, which is His body. For He has
been exalted as Head at the Father's right hand,
that He should fulfill all things with Himself, and
as King must He reign until all enemies have been
brought under His foot.
And thus He shall one day descend from above.
His second coming is understood in the first and
in her time necessarily flows forth out of it. His
second coming is not an arbitrary addition to, but
is ins(>parably nnitod to His first appearance. For
THE TRIUMPH OF CONFESSION. 119
the work of Chriyt coiisists in jsaving ; uot Id the
opening of the possibility of salvation, but in the
granting of .salvation itself, perfectly and eternal.
His work was therefore not fliiished with the
meriting of salvation upon earth. Of what protit
and benefit to us would be a Christ, who would
only die for us but would not live and pray for us
and for our good appear before God's countenance?
But He that descended is the same also that
ascended far above all Heavens, that He should
fultill all things. What He merited. He also ap-
plies. What He began, He consummates. He does
not rest and may not rest, until He has perfectly
saved His people, and renewed Heaven and earth.
Maran-atha ! the Lord cometh. He comes again,
tirst of all for His own sake. His name. His office.
His honor is at stake. He comes again, to reveal
it unto the whole world, that He is the true, the
perfect Savior; that He saves not in name but in
deed and in truth ; that He grants eternal life unto
all, who have been given unto Him by the Father;
that no one has plucked or is able to pluck them
out of His hand; that He is the same yesterday,
today and forever.
He comes again, to take vengeance wdth a flam-
ing fire upon all those who do not know^ God and
who are disobedient unto His Gospel; but also to
be glorified in all His saints, and to be admired in
all, that believe ; to be acknoAvledged and to receive
homage as the Lord, the only and true Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.
The history of the world therefore ends in unity
of confession. One day, angels and devils, the
righteous and the godless shall agree in the ac-
120 THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE.
knowledgmeiit, that Christ is the only begotten Sou
of the Father and therefore the Heir of all things.
Then every knee shall bow an.d every tongne nhall
confess, that Jesiis Christ is the Lord.
Today that confession can b(^ contradicted an
visible things. To have an insight into her truth,
it is necessary to have faith, which is the substance
of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not
seen. AVe walk by faith and not by sight. The
world, that reckons only with things visible, can
contradict the Church, consider her faith foolish-
ness, and look upon her hope as an illusion. Even
the appearance is against us. For from the days,
that the fathers died, all things remain the same,
even as from the beginning of creation, so that th(^
mockers can ask: AVhere is the promise of his
future?
But a change is coming, Maran-atha! John saw,
in a vision, Heaven opened, and behold a white
horse; and He that sat upon him, was called faith-
ful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge
iind make war. His ej^es were as a tlanie of tire,
and upon His head were many croAvns; and He
had a name written, that no man knew but He
Himself. And He was clothed in a vesture dipped
in blood; and His name is called the Word of God.
And the armies which were in Heaven followed
Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white
and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp
sword, that with it He should smite the nations:
and He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and He
treadeth the wine-i)ress of the fierceness and wrath
of Almio'htv Cod. And He hath on His vesture
THE TKIUMPli OF CONFESSION. 121
aud on bib? thigh a name written, King of kings,
and Lord of lords.
When Christ appears thus in glory, no one shall
be able to ojjpose or withstand Him. xVll shall see
Him, also they that pierced Him. They shall see
Him with their own, corporeal eyes, and no unbe-
lief, no doubt shall any more be possible. Then all
creatures shall have to acknowledge that Christ is
the Lord. They shall have to acknowledge it, if
not freely, then compelled; if not willingly, then
unwillingly; if not with, then against their desire.
Even from the Throne in the midst of the Heavens,
throughout all the realms of creation, to the very
depth of the great abyss, only one voice shall be
lieard to sound and resound: Christ the Lord!
And all creatures together shall bow the knee be-
fore Him, who, to be sure, was deeply humiliated
and died on a cross, but who was also highly ex-
alted and seated upon the Throne of the Universe
at the Father's right hand.
What a future, what a scene I The whole crea-
tion upon its knees before Jesus! And upon all
lips the one, the brief, the returning to her point
of obeisance but nevertheless all including, the
now by many scorned but then by all acknowledged
confession, that Christ is the Lord to the glory of
God the Father!
Come, Lord Jesus come, yea come quickly!
He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed
in white raiment. And He, that hath the seven
spirits of God and the seven stars, shall in no w^ise
blot out his name out of the book of life, and He
shall confess liis name before the Father and before
His Angels.
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