The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

Gospel," "Pure Bible Christians Church," or something of the kind.
Had the Lutheran Church chosen her own name, therefore, it would
have furnished no presumption against her--it would have only shown that,
as sectarianism may take the names which point to a general catholicity,
so, on the other hand, the most truly catholic of Christian bodies might be
willing to submit to the historical necessity of assuming a name which
seemed to point to a human originator. There was a time when the true
Catholics were tauntingly called Athanasians, and could not repudiate the
name of Athanasius without faithlessness to the triune God himself. But
our Church is not responsible for this portion of her name.
Evangelical.
She has been known by various titles, but her own earliest and
strongest preference was for the name EVANGELICAL, (1525,) and
many of her most devoted sons have insisted on giving her this title
without any addition. No title could more strongly express her character,
for pre-eminently is her system one which announces the glad tidings of
salvation, which excites a joyous trust in Christ as a Saviour, which makes
the word and sacraments bearers of saving grace. In no system is Christ so
much as in the Lutheran; none exalts so much the glory of his person, of
his office, and of his work. The very errors with which her enemies charge
the Lutheran Church are those which would arise from, an excess in this
direction. If she believed in a local ubiquity of Christ's whole person, (as
she does not,) this would be the excess of faith in his presence; if she
believed in consubstantiation, (as she does not,) this would show that
though her faith in Christ was blind, yet it hesitated at nothing which
seemed to rest on his word; if she denied the obligation of the Church to
keep the Christian Sabbath, (as she does not,) it would show that she had
carried to excess her disposition to see in Christ the substance of all
shadows. Happy is the Church whose failings bear in the direction of
safety, which, if it err, errs not in a legalistic direction, but in an excess of
evangelism. The heart of unbelief works only too surely in reducing an
excess; but how shall a Church be revived, which, in its very constitution,
is