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

the Reformed doctrine, and regards it as its characteristic that its line of
thought is adverse to the recognition of mysteries. 104 "The entire structure
of the Reformed Church is determined, on the one side, by a motive of
opposition to the mysterious, (no actual dispensation by the means of
grace,) which was imparted to it by Zwingle; and on the other side, by the
evangelical theocratic impulse, (the glorification of God in the
congregation,) which was derived from Calvin." 105 How far these
estimates may be accepted as well-grounded, our readers can judge with
the facts more fully before them.
Claims and character of the Lutheran Church.
The Lutheran Church has peculiar claims upon the interest of the
thoughtful reader of history, as she is the oldest, the most clearly legitimate,
the most extensive of Protestant Churches, and in a certain sense the
mother of them all. Embracing the North of Europe, the Scandinavian
kingdoms, the German States, with millions of her children in Russia,
hungary, Poland, France, Holland, and in almost every part of the globe
where Protestantism is tolerated, she speaks in more tongues, and ministers
in more nationalities than all the others together. She is the most
conservative of them all, though she bore the first and greatest part in the
most daring aggression on established error. No church has so vigorously
protested against the abuses of human reason, and none has done so much
for the highest culture of the human mind--she has made Germany the
educator of the world. No church has been so deeply rooted in the verities
of the ancient faith, and none has been marked by so much theological
progression: in none has independent religious thought gone forth in such
matchless ornature of learning, and under such constant control of a
genuine moderation. No church has enunciated more boldly the principles
of Christian liberty, and none has been so free from a tendency to pervert
it to licentiousness. No church has more reverently bowed to the authority
of God's Word, and none has been more free from the tendency to sect
and schism. More than forty millions of the human race acknowledge her
as their spiritual mother; and she gives
104 Luthardt, Dogm., ~ 13, 1.
105 Stahl, Die Luth. Kirch., 65.