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

Importance of the Confessions.
The tone which is imparted to the mind and heart, by the theology of
the Reformation, is just what we now most need. But where are we to
commence, it may be asked, in the infinite variety of works that have been
written about the Reformation and its theology? "Art is long and life is
fleeting." And how is the clergyman to find the books, or buy them when
found, or read them when bought, destitute, as he is too wont to be, alike of
money and time? We reply, that an immense treasure lies in a narrow
compass, and within the reach of every minister in our land. By a careful
study of the symbolical books of our Church, commencing with the
Augsburg Confession and its Apology, a more thorough understanding of
the history, difficulties, true genius, and triumphs of the Reformation will
be attained, than by reading everything that can be got, or that has ever
been written about that memorable movement. It is, indeed, too much the
fashion now to read about things, to the neglect of the great original
sources themselves. In general literature much is written and read about
Homer and Shakspeare, until these great poets attract less attention than
their critics. In theology it is the prevailing practice to have students read
introductions to the Bible, and essays on various features of it, to such a
degree that the Bible itself, except in an indirect form, is hardly studied at
all, and the student, though often introduced to it, never fairly makes its
acquaintance. All these illustrative works, if well executed, have their value;
but that value presupposes such a general acquaintance with the books to
which they serve as a guide, as is formed by every man for himself who
carefully examines them. The greatest value of every work of the human
mind, after all, generally lies in that which needs no guide, no critic, no
commentator. Their labors may display more clearly, and thus enhance,
this value, and are not to be despised; but their subject is greater than
themselves, and they are useful only when they lead to an accurate and
critical knowledge of that with which a general acquaintance has been
formed by personal examination. It is now conceded, for example, that in
the order of nature the general knowledge of language must precede an
accurate, grammatical acquaintance