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

cherishes his memory as one of her most precious possessions. The
Lutheran Church is very rich in devotional works for the people. It is more
in affinity with high aesthetic culture than other Protestant Churches. It is
less open than others to excessive tendencies to voluntary (especially to
secret) association not under the control of the Church. It may be claimed
for it that it is the most healthfully cautious of Churches, and, therefore,
most sure to make the most permanent, if not the most rapid progress.
Goebel, a Reformed writer, says: "That charming, frank good-humor, and
that beneficence which rise from the very depth of the soul, and which so
advantageously distinguish the German nation from others, are wanting
among the Reformed--even among the Germans of the Reformed Church.
The piety of the Lutherans is deep, fervent, heartfelt." And a far greater
theological scholar, (Dr. Schaff,) also of another communion, has said:
"The Lutheran piety has also its peculiar charm--the charm of Mary, who
sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word....It excels in honesty, kindness,
affection, cheerfulness, and that gemüthlichkeit for which other nations
have not even a name. The Lutheran Church meditated over the deepest
mysteries of divine grace, and brought to light many treasures of
knowledge from the mines of revelation. She can point to an unbroken
succession of learned divines who devoted their whole lives to the
investigation of saving truth. She numbers her mystics who bathed in the
ocean of infinite love. She has sung the most fervent hymns to the Saviour,
and holds sweet, child-like intercourse with the Heavenly Father."
A fair construction of the whole history of the past will inspire faith
in the character of the people whom God has given to our Church to be
gathered under her banners and to fight her battles. Not all the havoc
which state-meddling, war, and infidelity have made with the true German
character in Europe can efface the evidence of the past and the present, that
of all nations the German is the most simply and profoundly religious, that
the Germans are what Dr. Arnold calls them: "the regenerating race--the
most moral race of men,"