Happy 500th Anniversary of the Reformation!

In celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, which began (in a sense) with the posting of Martin Luther's 95 Theses on the church door of Wittenburg, Germany, Log College Press has posted select works by 19th century American Presbyterians which study the Reformation from a variety of angles. Be sure to check out our latest blog post here. Happy Reformation Day! 

Oratio, Meditatio, Tentatio

Martin Luther, Preface to the Wittenberg Edition of Luther's Works, WA 34:

Moreover, I want to point out to you a correct way of studying theology, for I have had practice in that. If you keep to it, you will become so learned that you yourself could (if it were necessary) write books just as good as those of the fathers and councils, even as I (in God) dare to presume and boast, without arrogance and lying, that in the matter of writing books I do not stand much behind some of the fathers. Of my life I can by no means make the same boast. This is the way taught by holy King David (and doubtlessly used also by all the patriarchs and prophets) in the one hundred nineteenth Psalm. There you will find three rules, amply presented throughout the whole Psalm. They are Oratio [prayer], Meditatio [meditation], Tentatio ["Anfechtung," that is, affliction, confliction, temptation, experience, trial].

Firstly, you should know that the Holy Scriptures constitute a book which turns the wisdom of all other books into foolishness, because not one teaches about eternal life except this one alone. Therefore you should straightway despair of your reason and understanding. With them you will not attain eternal life, but, on the contrary, your presumptuousness will plunge you and others with you out of heaven (as happened to Lucifer) into the abyss of hell. But kneel down in your little room [Matt. 6:6] and pray to God with real humility and earnestness, that he through his dear Son may give you his Holy Spirit, who will enlighten you, lead you, and give you understanding.

Thus you see how David keeps praying in the above-mentioned Psalm, "Teach me, Lord, instruct me, lead me, show me," [Ps. 119:26] and many more words like these. Although he well knew and daily heard and read the text of Moses and other books besides, still he wants to lay hold of the real teacher of the Scriptures himself, so that he may not seize upon them pell-mell with his reason and become his own teacher. For such practice gives rise to factious spirits who allow themselves to nurture the delusion that the Scriptures are subject to them and can be easily grasped with their reason, as if they were Markolf or Aesop's Fables, for which no Holy Spirit and no prayers are needed.

Secondly, you should meditate, that is, not only in your heart, but also externally, by actually repeating and comparing oral speech and literal words of the book, reading and rereading them with diligent attention and reflection, so that you may see what the Holy Spirit means by them. And take care that you do not grow weary or think that you have done enough when you have read, heard, and spoken them once or twice, and that you then have complete understanding. You will never be a particularly good theologian if you do that, for you will be like untimely fruit which falls to the ground before it is half ripe.

Thus you see in this same Psalm how David constantly boasts that he will talk, meditate, speak, sing, hear, read, by day and night always, about nothing except God's Word and commandments. For God will not give you his Spirit with the external Word; so take your cue from that. His command to write, preach, read, hear, sing, speak, etc., outwardly was not given in vain.

Thirdly, there is tentatio, Anfechtung. This is the touchstone which teaches you not only to know and understand, but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting God's Word is, wisdom beyond all wisdom.

Thus you see how David, in the Psalm mentioned, complains so often about all kinds of enemies, arrogant princes or tyrants, false spirits and factions, whom he must tolerate because he meditates, that is, because he is occupied with God's Word (as has been said) in all manner of ways. For as soon as God's Word takes root and grows in you, the devil will harry you, and will make a real doctor of you, and by his assaults will teach you to see and love God's Word. I myself (if you will permit me, mere mouse-dirt, to be mingled with pepper) am deeply indebted to my papists that through the devil's raging they have beaten, oppressed, and distressed me so much. That is to say, they have made a fairly good theologian of me, which I would not have become otherwise. And I heartily grant them what they have won in return for making this of me, honor, victory, and triumph, for that's the way they wanted it.

There now, with that you have David's rules. If you study hard in accord with his example, then you will also sing and boast with him in the Psalm, "The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces" [Ps. 119:72]. Also, "Thy commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep thy precepts," etc. [Ps. 119:98-100]. And it will be your experience that the books of the fathers will taste stale and putrid to you in comparison. You will not only despise the books written by adversaries, but the longer you write and teach the less you will be pleased with yourself. When you have reached this point, then do not be afraid to hope that you have begun to become a real theologian, who can teach not only the young and imperfect Christians, but also the maturing and perfect ones. For indeed, Christ's church has all kinds of Christians in it who are young, old, weak, sick, healthy, strong, energetic, lazy, simple, wise, etc.

If, however, you feel and are inclined to think you have made it, flattering yourself with your own little books, teaching, or writing, because you have done it beautifully and preached excellently; if you are highly pleased when someone praises you in the presence of others; if you perhaps look for praise, and would sulk or quit what you are doing if you did not get it-if you are of that stripe, dear friend, then take yourself by the ears, and if you do this in the right way you will find a beautiful pair of big, long, shaggy donkey ears. Then do not spare any expense! Decorate them with golden bells, so that people will be able to hear you wherever you go, point their fingers at you, and say, "See, See! There goes that clever beast, who can write such exquisite books and preach so remarkably well." That very moment you will be blessed and blessed beyond measure in the kingdom of heaven. Yes, in that heaven where hellfire is ready for the devil and his angels. To sum up: Let us be proud and seek honor in the places where we can. But in this book the honor is God's alone, as it is said, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble" [I Pet. 5:5]; to whom be glory, world without end, Amen.

Turmerlebnis

As we consider at this time of year, the mercy of God in bringing about the Reformation, which many date to the October 31, 1517 posting of the 95 Theses on the church door at Wittenburg, Germany, by Martin Luther, it is worthwhile to note that his own account traces his personal "born-again" conversion experience to an event that occurred two years later in 1519 known as "Turmerlebnis," or, "The Tower Experience." He was studying Romans 1:17 in his study in the tower of the Black Cloister in Wittenberg at the time and wrestling with a text of Scripture: Romans 1.17. In his own words, Dr. Luther explains.

Martin Luther (trans. by Bro. Andrew Thornton, OSB in from the "Vorrede zu Band I der Opera Latina der Wittenberger Ausgabe. 1545" in vol. 4 of Luthers Werke in Auswahl, ed. Otto Clemen, 6th ed., (Berlin: de Gruyter. 1967). pp. 421-428), Preface to the Complete Edition of Luther's Latin Works (1545) by Dr. Martin Luther, 1483-1546 (c)1983 by Saint Anselm Abbey:

Meanwhile in that same year, 1519, I had begun interpreting the Psalms once again. I felt confident that I was now more experienced, since I had dealt in university courses with St. Paul's Letters to the Romans, to the Galatians, and the Letter to the Hebrews. I had conceived a burning desire to understand what Paul meant in his Letter to the Romans, but thus far there had stood in my way, not the cold blood around my heart, but that one word which is in chapter one: "The justice of God is revealed in it." I hated that word, "justice of God," which, by the use and custom of all my teachers, I had been taught to understand philosophically as referring to formal or active justice, as they call it, i.e., that justice by which God is just and by which he punishes sinners and the unjust. 

But I, blameless monk that I was, felt that before God I was a sinner with an extremely troubled conscience. I couldn't be sure that God was appeased by my satisfaction. I did not love, no, rather I hated the just God who punishes sinners. In silence, if I did not blaspheme, then certainly I grumbled vehemently and got angry at God. I said, "Isn't it enough that we miserable sinners, lost for all eternity because of original sin, are oppressed by every kind of calamity through the Ten Commandments? Why does God heap sorrow upon sorrow through the Gospel and through the Gospel threaten us with his justice and his wrath?" This was how I was raging with wild and disturbed conscience. I constantly badgered St. Paul about that spot in Romans 1 and anxiously wanted to know what he meant.

I meditated night and day on those words until at last, by the mercy of God, I paid attention to their context: "The justice of God is revealed in it, as it is written: 'The just person lives by faith.'" I began to understand that in this verse the justice of God is that by which the just person lives by a gift of God, that is by faith. I began to understand that this verse means that the justice of God is revealed through the Gospel, but it is a passive justice, i.e. that by which the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: "The just person lives by faith." All at once I felt that I had been born again and entered into paradise itself through open gates. Immediately I saw the whole of Scripture in a different light. I ran through the Scriptures from memory and found that other terms had analogous meanings, e.g., the work of God, that is, what God works in us; the power of God, by which he makes us powerful; the wisdom of God, by which he makes us wise; the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God.

I exalted this sweetest word of mine, "the justice of God," with as much love as before I had hated it with hate. This phrase of Paul was for me the very gate of paradise. Afterward I read Augustine's "On the Spirit and the Letter," in which I found what I had not dared hope for. I discovered that he too interpreted "the justice of God" in a similar way, namely, as that with which God clothes us when he justifies us. Although Augustine had said it imperfectly and did not explain in detail how God imputes justice to us, still it pleased me that he taught the justice of God by which we are justified.

Remember Your Baptism

John Willison, A Sacramental Catechism, pp. 56-59:

Q. How is it, that we ought to improve our baptism?

A. 1. Be sensible of the greatness of the privilege and dignity conferred upon you, in being baptized in the name of Christ, and sacramentally sprinkled with his blood for the remission of sin; and think much upon it. Alas, there are many who never think on Christ, or his blood, and put no value upon their baptism. I have read of Lucian a scoffing Atheist, when he apostasized from the profession of Christianity, he mocked at his baptism, saying, 'He got nothing by it, but a syllable to his name; he was Lucian before, and at baptism was called Lucianus.' And what do many get by their baptism, but a name? Why, they undervalue their baptism, never think on it, nor study any way to improve it.

2. You ought personally and explicitly to renew your covenant and solemn dedication to God sealed at baptism. It is not enough that you are Christians by your parents dedication, but you must be so by your own also, by ratifying your parents deed, when ye are of age; otherwise your baptism will profit you nothing; nay, instead of profiting you, it will be a witness against you, if you do not personally transact with God in Christ, and give away yourselves to the Lord in truth and sincerity.

3. Improve your baptism, by labouring to secure and clear up your interest in the pardon of sin, adoption, sanctifying grace, and other blessings sealed to you in that sacrament. Remember, that these blessings were only sealed to you conditionally, upon your believing in Christ; and that they are not actually conferred, till you be sensible of sin, and close with Christ and his righteousness. Go then, O penitent sinner, apply to the blood of Christ by faith, which was sacraementally applied to you at baptism as a strong argument for it, say, "Lord, have I not thy seal, as well as thy promise for my pardon? God I not a pledge of it from thee at my baptism? Behold thy ring and thy bracelets; are they not thine? Lord, make good thy word, thy sealed promise;" I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.

4. Press also for the joyful sense of this benefit of pardon sealed to you in baptism; the having whereof, is the most comfortable thing in the world. We see the Eunuch, when he had got this seal of baptism, "went on his way rejoicing: O now (thought he) my case is blessed, I am a pardoned man, God hath received me into his family, and taken me into covenant with himself, and implanted me a member of his mystical body: I that was the plant of a strange vine, am now ingrafted into a noble stock: and shall I not be glad and rejoice in his salvation?" Thus, O believer, improve the seal of baptism, in order to your growing up to the comfortable assurance of your pardon of sin, and adoption into God's family: seeing these blessings are irreversibly promised and sealed to you in that sacrament.

5. Improve your baptism as a spur to holiness and diligence in Christ's service; forget not him whose name you bear, whose livery you wear, and whose colours you are sworn to. Seeing you are solemnly dedicated to God, and all you have is consecrated to him at baptism; O then live as these who are not your own; spend your strength and time, not in serving sin and the world, but in worshipping of God, in loving, praising and glorifying him, whose you are, and whom you ought to serve. Alas, there are many, who lift themselves into God's service by baptism, and yet turn deserters, and go over to the devil's camp, taking on to fight against their King and Lord to whom they are sworn. They live as if they had been solemnly devoted to, and baptized in the name of the cursed trinity of hell, the devil, the world, and the flesh, instead of the ever blessed and glorious Trinity of heaven: Alas, they live as if they had renounced that, and not the other; which is certainly a most fearful guilt, and cannot miss to be attended with a severe doom.

6. Be humbled for your manifold pollutions, your falling so much short of the grace of baptism, and walking unsuitably to your solemn engagements. Have you not cause to lament before God, for forgetting and slighting the free love of God manifested to you in baptism; and for having so little recourse to the fountain that was opened to you therein, for sin, and for uncleanness; and that you feel so little of the efficacy of the precious blood of your Redeemer (which was represented and applied to you in that ordinance) for melting of your hearts, cleansing you from sin, and quickening you to holiness.

7. Improve your baptism as a shield against Satan's temptations; 1. Are you tempted to despairing thoughts of mercy, or troubled with perplexing doubts and fears? Then remember the seal of free love you got in baptism. Christ himself was tempted after his baptism, to doubt of his filiation and sonship; but gave Satan a peremptory repulse; teaching us thereby to do the same. Luther saith, that all his answer to the devil, when he tempted him to despair, was, baptizatus sum, et credo in Christum, I am baptized into the belief of Christ. 2. Are you at any time tempted to sin? Then remember your baptism: Luther also tells of a holy virgin, that when she was tempted to sin, replied, baptizata sum, I am baptized. And indeed this is a sufficient answer to all Satan's temptations, "I am baptized and dedicate[d] solemnly to God; I am not my own but the Lord's; I am sworn to Christ, and how shall I serve the devil?" Profanity in a Christian is apostacy from Christ, and on the matter a renouncing of his baptism, which is a fearful, nay, a devilish sin.

8. Improve it as an argument to courage and resolution in time of danger or persecution. Stedfastly adhere to the doctrine of the Trinity, in whose name you are baptized; be not ashamed of Christ or his truths, seeing his name is called upon you, and you solemnly owned him before the whole congregation. "He that is ashamed of me (saith Christ) and of my words, in this sinful and adulterous generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels," Mark viii. 38. Dionysia, encouraged Majoricus her son, an African martyr, when he was going to die, with these words, "Remember, son, that thou was baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

Lastly, Do not trust to your baptism, and your having the name of Christ called upon you: an empty name and profession of Christianity will not save you; Simon Magus was baptized, and yet perished: many go with baptismal water on their faces, and sacramental bread in their mouths to hell at last. Kings have both their common and privy seals. Rest not in the outward seal, but seek the inward seal of God's Spirit, changing your natures, and applying the blood of Christ for cleansing your souls.

America's Oldest Art Galleries

The New England Primer:

In the burying place may see,
Graves shorter there than I,
From death's arrest no age is free,
Young children too must die.
My God may such an awful sight, Awakening be to me!
Oh! that by early grace I might
For death prepared be.

There is a word for the appreciation that some have for final resting places which is not morbid: taphophilia. Cemeteries offer many reasons to stop, consider and remember, one of which is that, in New England, they served as colonial America's earliest form of public art displays. The ornate carvings on tombstones were the first works of sculpture by European hands on our shores, a skill that was transported from England, particularly.

The earliest colonial American graves were marked with whatever rocks and wood happened to be nearby. When survival was paramount, initially, little effort was made to create lasting remembrances of those laid to rest. But as colonial settlements became more established, in the later 17th century, and those skilled in the art of sculpting and engraving became more numerous, tombstones became a vehicle for creative expression that some have viewed as America's first art galleries.

It is believed that one particular tombstone served as the inspiration for that of Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Elizabeth Pain (d. 1704) was a settler who was laid to rest in King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston. There was no scandal attached to her life, but Hawthorne writes as if describing Pain's marker, upon which some today still see an 'A' engraved, p. 238:

And, after many, many years, a new grave was delved, near an old and sunken one, in that burial ground beside which King's Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both. All around, there were monuments carved with armorial bearings; and on this simple slab of slate—as the curious investigator may still discern, and perplex himself with the purport—there appeared the semblance of an engraved escutcheon. It bore a device, a herald's wording of which might serve for a motto and brief description of our now concluded legend; so sombre is it, and relieved only by one ever glowing point of light gloomier than the shadow:

"On a field, sable, the letter A, gules."

New England gravestones today are famous for their intricate and often mysterious symbolic carvings. The folk art on the headstones themselves has even spawned a new art form: gravestone rubbings. By affixing paper to the designs on a tombstone, and using charcoal or crayon, one may replicate the images below and take away copy of the memorial. As historical, genealogical and artistic interest in early American gravestones grew in the late 19th century, gravestone rubbings became a fad. Photography serves a similar purpose today, documenting the names, dates, and images associated with people otherwise to-be-forgotten. Gravestone rubbings may still be done at some locations, but there are often rules to be followed to prevent damage to these monuments. As a boy, I recall making my own gravestone rubbings at the Old Burying Point Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts. Much credit for generating the early interest in American gravestones goes to "Harriette Merrifield Forbes (1856-1951) ... an historian, photographer and author. Her book" Gravestones of Early New England And the Men Who Made Them, 1653-1800, "published in 1927, was the first to treat early American gravemarkers as art objects, the country's oldest sculpture." She was the the mother of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Esther Forbes. Having spent her days exploring the local cemeteries around her, Harriette took great pains to research, document and explain the significance of colonial tombstones. Of particular interest is her research into the symbolism of the carvings, p. 114:

The thoughts suggested by the carving of the gravestones can be divided roughly into five classes:

I. A recognition of the flight of time.
II. The certainty of death and warnings to the living.
III. The occupation of the deceased or his station in life.
IV. The Christian life.
V. The resurrection of the body and the activities of the redeemed soul.

To give examples of each, the flight of time is most often represented by an hour-glass. Also employed were figures of Father Time, sometimes holding a scythe or an hour-glass. The certainty of death is represented prominently by a skull and crossbones, or variations thereof. The crowing cock (Matthew 26.75), lines from The New England Primer ('In Adam's fall/We sinned all'), and coffins all served as images to warn the living of impending death and the reckoning to follow. Military symbols and coats-of-arms denoted a person's station in life. "A very humble symbol, conceived in quite a different spirit from the coat-of-arms, military trappings, or even the minister's gown, is the scallop shell emblematic of our earthy pilgrimage. The scallop shell, abounding on the shores of the eastern seas, was use by the Pilgrims for cup, spoon, and dish; later it symbolized for them their crusade and was even adopted on their coat armor, an honorable and dignified device" (p. 120). The Christian life was often symbolized by the grapevine. "When bunches of grapes are combined with ears of corn, they symbolize the blood and body of Christ. Other vines besides the grapevine were employed. Sometimes a bird was placed in the vine, which, they tell us, signifies the soul partaking of celestial food...The dove, which may be the bird on at least some of our gravestones, is typical of Christian constancy and devotion. A squirrel cracking a nut is said to be a symbol of religious meditation" (p. 121). Mermaids were sometimes used, which are harder to explain. The trumpet and the rising soon speak to us as symbols of the resurrection. Likewise employed were images of the world, moon, and stars, the redeemed spirit emerging from a tomb or "making heavenly music," as well as the peacock. In one case, we can see a mother stepping out of her tomb holding her baby in her arms, an image of hope.

Many a tombstone tourist has been inspired to take a closer look at the gravestone symbols and the messages they convey. What is it that the person entombed, or his gravestone engraver, has to say to us even now? What can we take away from a tour of those old Puritan cemeteries besides a remembrance of that hearty generation that served the Lord and endured so much? The New England Primer, quoted at the beginning of this post, gives us a clue. Consider that you are made of clay and dust, and to the dust you shall return. Thomas Watson wrote: "O meditate on death! It is reported of Zeleucus, that the first piece of household stuff he brought to Babylon, was a tombstone: think often of your tombstone. The meditation on death would work these admirable effects...There is no stronger antidote, saith [Augustine], than frequent meditation upon death... " (A Christian on the Mount, p. 60). While walking through a cemetery, one might recall the words of the Book of Common Prayer funeral collect, "In the midst of life we are in death." Or we might hearken to the words of Martin Luther: "We say, 'In the midst of life we die.' God answers, 'Nay, in the midst of death we live'" (quoted by Roland Bainton, Here I Stand, p. 384).

The Force of Pronouns

To follow up on an earlier post quoting Martin Luther that "[t]the life of Christianity consists in possessive pronouns," considers these "watchwords" from the great Reformer:

Martin Luther, Watchwords For the Warfare of Life, pp. 57-58:

The Reflex Action of Faith.

The Force of Pronouns.

But weigh diligently every word of Paul, and especially mark well this pronoun "our;" for the effect altogether consisteth in the well-applying of pronouns, which we find very often in the Scriptures; wherein also there is ever some vehemency and power.

Therefore, generally it is an easy matter to magnify and amplify the benefit of Christ, namely that Christ was given for sins, but for other men's sins, which are worthy. But when it cometh to the putting to of this pronoun "our," there our weak nature and reason starteth back, and dare not come nigh unto God, nor promise to herself that so great a treasure shall be freely given unto her.

Wherefore these words, "Which loveth Me," are full of faith. And he who can utter this word "me," and apply it unto himself with a true and constant faith as Paul did, shall be a good disputer with Paul against the law.

For He delivered neither sheep, ox, gold nor silver, but even God Himself entirely and wholly "for me," even "for me," I say, a miserable and wretched sinner.

Stündelein

Gustaf Wingren, Luther on Vocation, pp. 213-214:

Luther's expressions of "the time" and "the hour" are part of his general view of God's sovereignty and of man as "fellow-worker" with God. In brief, they mean that man cannot determine the moment for an action, since everything happens according to God's will (this is one side, an expression of man's bondage before God). In the hour God wills the action to be effected, man receives from God a creative freedom to carry the action through against all opposition (this is the other side, an expression of his freedom in outward matters, the down-reaching, form-giving freedom as God's coworker on earth). Man is free in his outward action when he is bound in God, as a veil for God's creative action, which, when the hour has come, breaks forth in an unpredictable way. What Luther says about "the time" is related to his concept of freedom and bondage, and sheds further light on his view of creation. This may clarify the role played by him who is faithful to his vocation as the point where God's action breaks through.

A prime reference, in this connection, is Luther's 1532 treatment of Ecclesiastes, specifically his interpretation of 3:1-17 and 9:11. From the very beginning, as he exposits 3:1 ("For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven"), Luther declares that this affirmation is in direct contradiction to the free will. All human labors and efforts have their fixed time to be started, to be effected, and to be concluded. That time cannot be known in advance by man. The moment of all happenings is in God's power. Therefore all anticipatory anxieties and all precise planning for the future are fruitless and meaningless. Man cannot escape that which is to be. But there is no power on earth which can prevent us in the hour when we carry out a work which God wants done, i.e. in the hour when we do that hour's work. "Here, as has been said before, Solomon is speaking about the works of men, i.e. works started by human counsels...Therefore know this: All human works and endeavors have certain and definite time for their doing, their beginning and ending; and this lies beyond the power of man, as has been said against freedom of will -- that it is not for us to prescribe time, manner, and operation of things to be done. Here our desires and efforts are plainly frustrated, since God has determine all things that are to go or come [referring to Ecclesiastes 3:2-8]. That he clearly shows by examples of men's works the times of which are beyond human choice, so that he concludes: It is vain for men to be tortured by their desires, and not to accomplish anything -- even they are broken thereby -- unless that time and hour are fixed by God has come...Thus the power of God embraces all definite times, so that they can be impeded by nothing."91

When a man makes up his mind to do as simple a thing as seeking amusement, he finds that joy is not won this way. Joy has its hour, which is not at man's command: habet ergo laeticia suam horam. From that we might learn that we cannot control matters by our own decisions. Man is not to rack his brain about the future, but live in the hour that has come.92 That is the same as living in faith, receptive to God, who is present now and has something he will do now.

91 WA 20, 58.
92 WA 20, 61 (Annotationes in Ecclesiasten, 1532). Concerning the time of misfortune see WA 51, 212f (Exposition of Psalm 101, 1534-35); cf. WA 15, 300 (On Trading and Usury, 1524), where the fact is stressed that man must live in constant uncertainty about the future, praying for his daily bread, but not reaching beyond that.

The Forgotten 97 Theses

W. Robert Godfrey, Insights Into Luther, Calvin, and the Confessions: Reformation Sketches, pp. 35-38:

The year 1992 was the 475th anniversary of Luther's nailing of the 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg. The posting of those theses on October 31, 1517, is usually looked to as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Luther's attack on aspects of the sale of indulgences captured the attention of many people -- common and noble -- who were tired of the greed and corruption in the church of their day. Through the 95 Theses Luther became a public figure and the leader of the Reformation.

The 95 Theses, however, were not the only theses that Luther wrote in 1517. In September of that year Luther wrote 97 theses that are largely forgotten but are known to historians as the Disputations Against Scholastic Theology. These 97 theses are much more interesting and important from a theological point of view than the 95 Theses.

In his 97 theses Luther shows how critical he had become of central aspects of medieval theology and how he had become convinced that the church needed more of Augustine's theology and less of Aristotle's.

Luther's first thesis must have stunned many who heard it: "To say that Augustine exaggerates in speaking against heretics is to say that Augustine tells lies almost everywhere." Augustine's teaching on sin, grace, and predestination was so clear and uncompromising and Augustine's authority as a theologian was so great that the only way that medieval theologians could disagree with him was to declare that he had exaggerated some of his teachings in confronting heretics. This softening of Augustine had been widely accepted in the Middle Ages. For Luther to attack this approach was remarkable.

This attack reflected the extent to which Luther's theology had become Augustinian. As we read on in the theses, we see Luther's specific concerns to maintain the pure Augustinian heritage. His first concern was with the nature of the will in fallen people. Luther stresses that the human will is in bondage to a corrupt nature and can do only evil. "4. It is therefore true that man, being a bad tree, can only will and do evil." The desperate condition of man is summarized: "17. Man is by nature unable to want God to be God. Indeed, he himself wants to be God."

Luther stresses that only grace can rescue humanity from its fallen condition. Man can do nothing to prepare himself for grace. Only God's electing love can prepare man for grace. "29. The best and infallible preparation for grace and the sole disposition toward grace is the eternal election and predestination of God." Luther had recovered from Augustine not only the biblical picture of man's lost-ness but also the biblical truth of predestination as the source of redemption. Man cannot merit grace. All goodness comes from God: "40. We do not become righteous by righteous deeds, but, having been made righteous, we do righteous deeds."

Luther sees Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher, as the prime destructive influence that undermined Augustinian theology in the Middle Ages. "50. Briefly, the whole Aristotle is to theology as darkness is to light." Luther attacks the method of Aristotle as relying too much on reason....But even more he attacks the impact of Aristotle on the content of theology. From Aristotle flowed ideas about the goodness of man, the ability of his will to choose the good, about freedom and merit.

Goodness and freedom were key theological concepts in the medieval church. The Reformation began when Christians like Martin Luther came to see the goodness and freedom of man as teaching opposed to biblical religion.

Landmarks in Theology

John M. Brentnall, 'Just a Talker': Sayings of John ('Rabbi') Duncan, p. 264:

A good way of determining the progressive landmarks of theology might be by selecting typical texts to describe the points made emphatic by the principal teachers of the church. Thus, to take only six. I would connect the name of Athanasius with the word, 'Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost'; Augustine, with the words, 'By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God'; 'Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly'; Anselm, with the words, 'Christ suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God'; Remigius: 'I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. My sheep hear my voice'; etc.; Luther: 'Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified'; and Calvin: 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who...hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.'

Religion and the Arts

Increase Mather (Discourse Concerning the Danger of Apostasy, an election sermon preached before the Massachusetts General Assembly in 1677, published in A Call From Heaven (1679)):

Some have well and truly observed that the interest of religion and good literature hath risen and fallen together.

Martin Luther, Letter No. 580 to Eobanus Hessus (March 29, 1523), in Preserved Smith and Charles M. Jacobs, trans. and ed., Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters, Vol. 2, pp. 175-176:

I am convinced that without knowledge of literature pure theology cannot at all endure, just as heretofore, when letters have declined and lain prostrate, theology, too, has wretchedly fallen and lain prostrate; nay, I see that there has never been a great revelation of the Word of God unless he has first prepared the way by the rise and prosperity of languages and letters, as though they were John the Baptists. There is, indeed, nothing that I have less wish to see done against our young people than that they should omit to study poetry and music. Certainly it is my desire that there shall be as many poets and rhetoricians as possible, because I see that by these studies, as by no other means, people are wonderfully fitted for the grasping of sacred truth and for handling it skillfully and happily. To be sure, "Wisdom maketh the tongues of those who cannot speak eloquent," but the gift of tongues is not be despised. Therefore I beg of you that at my request (if that has any weight) you will urge your young people to be diligent in the study of poetry and rhetoric. As Christ lives, I am often angry with myself that my age and my manner of life do not leave me any time to busy myself with the poets and orators. I had bought me a Homer that I might become a Greek. But I have worried you enough with these little things.

Adversity, The Teacher

Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes. (Psalm 119.67, 71)

Jeremiah Burroughs, Moses His Choice, With His Eye Fixed Upon Heaven, p. 53:

They that are afflicted, do better understand Scripture, says Luther, but those who are secure in their prosperity, read them as a verse in Ovid.

Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, p. 90:

They that are in adversity, saith Luther, do best understand the Scriptures; but those that in prosperity, read them as a verse in Ovid.

Mary Rowlandson, British-born settler in colonial Massachusetts, was taken captive during the King Philip's War. Her account is told in the autobiogaphical The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. During one period of her experience, the "Fifteenth Remove," she wrote about her hunger during the forced march, and takes note of how affliction enables us to take special note of the Scriptures.

And after I was thoroughly hungry, I was never again satisfied. For though sometimes it fell out, that I got enough, and did eat till I could eat no more, yet I was as unsatisfied as I was when I began. And now could I see that Scripture verified (there being many Scriptures which we do not take notice of, or understand till we are afflicted) "Thou shalt eat and not be satisfied" (Micah 6.14). Now might I see more than ever before, the miseries that sin hath brought upon us. Many times I should be ready to run against the heathen, but the Scripture would quiet me again, "Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it?" (Amos 3.6). The Lord help me to make a right improvement of His word, and that I might learn that great lesson: "He hath showed thee (Oh Man) what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God? Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it" (Micah 6.8-9).

The Art of Edwin White

Edwin D. White (1817-1877) was one of America's most gifted historical painters. He took up painting as a boy and, after studying abroad in Paris, Rome, Florence and Dusseldorf, returned home to achieve great success, notably in painting the iconic Signing of the Mayflower Compact (which later inspired the 5 cent 1920 Pilgrim Tercentenary stamp, part of the only series of U.S. stamps not to reference "United States," "U.S.," or "America" on account of the event's importance in world history); Washington Resigning His Commission (which is displayed at the Maryland State Legislature in Annapolis); and Pocahontas Informing John Smith of the Conspiracy of the Indians. Among his other works are Leonardo Da Vinci and His Pupils; Van Dyck in the Studio of Rubens; View of the Arno from the Ponte Trinita; Milton's Visit to Galileo in Prison; and The Old Age of Milton.

A descendant of Elder John White, one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut, Edwin White had a particular interest in historical paintings of religious significance; besides the Pilgrim scenes referenced above, he also painted the Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving and Separation of the Pilgrims at Delft Haven; Bunyan's Dream; The First Printing of the Bible; The Emigrants' Sabbath; The Sacred Lesson; A Morning With Luther; Luther's Vow; The Death-Bed of Luther; Landing of the Huguenots at the Mouth of the St. John's River, 1564; and Evening Hymn of the Huguenot Refugees (which has been reproduced on notecards by the National Huguenot Society).

White's paintings bring alive some of the most significant moments of history, and combining an interest in our Protestant heritage, with his exquisite skill, his legacy is worthy of remembrance.

A Shepherd's Life

Have we lost something in our society by our removal from the agricultural life? Some of us do live on or near farms, and see the animals nearby, and know what it means when God's Word says that "all we like sheep have gone astray" (Isa. 53.6) or that the Lord is our shepherd (Ps. 23; John 10; 1 Pet. 5.4; Heb. 13.20) and we are his sheep (Ps. 100.3). But not everyone has seen sheep scattered without a shepherd (Matt. 9.36).

Do we understand what it means to "winnow" barley on the threshingfloor (Ruth 3) with a winnowing fork or fan (Matt. 3.12), or to separate the "wheat from the tares" (Matt. 13), or to watch the chaff blow away (Ps. 1.4); or what it means to sow seed on rocky ground (Matt. 13); or to muzzle the oxen while it treads out the grain (Deut. 25.4; 1 Tim. 5.18), or to tread the winepress (Isa. 63.3; Rev. 19.15); or to what it is to "bind" (Gen. 37.7; Ps. 129.7) or "glean" sheaves (Ruth 2) or "glean" a vineyard (Lev. 19)?

Martin Luther's last written words contain these thoughts:

1. No one can understand Vergil's Bucolics unless he has been a shepherd for five years. No one can understand Vergil's Georgics, unless he has been a farmer for five years.

2. No one can understand Cicero's Letters (or so I teach), unless he has busied himself in the affairs of some prominent state for twenty years.

3. Know that no one can have indulged in the Holy Writers sufficiently, unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with the prophets, such as Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles.

Do not assail this divine Aeneid; nay, rather prostrate revere the ground that it treads.

We are beggars: this is true.

So again, I ask, and invite the reader to share his or her thoughts, whether your experience is urban or rural or somewhere in-between, have we lost something by our removal as a society from agricultural life? Are the words of Scripture more distant to us; are we impoverished beggars? I don't wish to over-romanticize the pastoral life. But what we do lose if we who are God's sheep have never had occasion to seek a little lost lamb (Matt. 18)?

The Further You Go, The Greater the Temptations

...we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. (Acts 14.22)

C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, p. 209:

The fine flower of unholiness can grow only in the close neighbourhood of the Holy. Nowhere do we tempt so successfully as on the very steps of the altar.

Johannes Hoornbeeck, Spiritual Desertion, pp. 96-97:

Fourth, God's people have these trials in common. They do not touch you alone, with others being passed by; no, they come to everyone. It is true that they touch the one more and the other less, but since they are not sent to anyone except for the purpose of salvation, they bring greater fruit of salvation to those who are more heavily burdened. Think about the most saintly -- above whom you may not place yourself (and you do not want to). Think about Christ, our Lord. How did he bear these trials and abandonments? How much did the Son of God, who could not be abandoned completely, suffer? Truly, everything. And would you now want to be an exception above all these? Certainly not, for do you not consider yourself blessed in their company?

Augustine says, "The Master of medicine has first drunk from the bitter cup himself, so that the sick would not hesitate to drink from it." We have already spoken about Christ's trials. We know that it was said of him, "In all things he was like we are; he was tempted but without sin" (Heb. 4:15). Hence, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ have to expect such oppressions. "Who of the saints," Jerome asks, "has been crowned without battle?" Thomas à Kempis declares, "I have never known a godly person who did not at times have this removal of grace." And Otto Casmannus says, "No one becomes saved who is not trained in this battle, before or in death." All this was not foreign to the saints of the Bible either. Listen to Job in chapters 6 and 7; to David in Psalms 13, 32, 38, 39, 42; to Asaph in Psalm 77; and to Heman in Psalm 88. The man of God Luther, enabled by God, was used daily for the great work of the reformation of God's church, and he felt the abandonment of spirit. Both he and others testified to this. Casmannus says about Luther, "In 1527, the holy man Luther felt the heat of these trials so strongly that he, ill in body and soul from them, lay in bed, and later he himself testified that he would rather be imprisoned in the darkest dungeon his whole life than endure that pain again for one hour." One can name several martyrs who were similarly attacked, often just before their death. Someone therefore said, not without good reason, "Let this be a sign to you to know that when you are advancing on the road to the city of the King and are coming closer, that you will undergo the greatest temptations; the further you go, the greater the temptations. Because God does not give great gifts without great temptations."

Prayers of the Righteous

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 5.16b)

It is reported that Mary, Queen of Scots, confessed that she feared the prayers of John Knox more than an army of ten thousand men.

Puritan prayer warrior and catechist Thomas Lye (d. 1684) said in his second ejection sermon preached on August 17, 1662 that "I had rather stand against the canons of the wicked, then against the prayers of the righteous."

John Whitecross, The Shorter Catechism Illustrated From Christian History and Biography, p. 157:

Theodorus, speaking of Luther, says, 'Once I overheard him in prayer; but oh! with what life and spirit did he pray! It was with so much reverence as if he were speaking to God; yet with so much confidence as if he had been speaking to a friend.' Perceiving the interest of religion to be low, he be took himself to prayer. Rising off his knees, he came out of his closet triumphantly saying to his friends, 'We have overcome, we have overcome.' At which time it was observed, there came out a proclamation from Charles V that none should be further molested for their profession of the gospel.

Martin Luther, Table Talk CCCXXXIII:

It is impossible that God should not hear the prayers which with faith are made in Christ, though he give not according to the measure, manner, and time we dictate, for He will not be tied. In such sort dealt God with the mother of Saint Augustine; she prayed to God that her son might be converted, but as yet it would not be; then she ran to the learned, entreating them to persuade and advise him thereupon. She propounded unto him a marriage with a Christian virgin, so that thereby he might be drawn and brought to the Christian faith. Nothing worked. But when our Lord God came thereto, He came to purpose and made of him such an Augustine, that he became a great light to the church. Saint James says: "Pray for one another, for the prayer of the righteous availeth much." Prayer is a powerful thing, for God has bound and tied Himself thereunto.

Luther's Three Hours of Prayer

There is a well-known saying attributed to Martin Luther: "I have so much to do today that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer." The source of this saying is fuzzy, as it has been often quoted but not found in Luther's own writings. I have wondered about it for some time, but while reading Westminster divine John Arrowsmith's Armilla Catechetica: A Chain of Principles (1659, 1822), p. 143, I came across a reference to this anecdote, which cited a source.

Viet Dietrich (also known as Vitus Theodorus), the Nuremberg Reformer who was Martin Luther 's close friend, and who served as amanuensis both to Luther and Philipp Melanchthon (1506-1549), wrote a letter to Melanchthon dated June 30, 1530, which states:

Nullus abit dies, quin ut minimum tres horas, easque studiis aptissimas in orationibus ponat.

Arrowsmith elaborates:

[Luther], during his retirement in the castle at Coburga for the safety of his person, having then more time to spare for devotion than his many public employments had been wont to afford him, was no niggard of it: but (as one Vitus Theodorus, who then lived with him, informed Melancthon,) spent no less in prayer to God, then at least three hours every day, and those such hours as were fittest for study.*

* Here Arrowsmith cites the Latin text of Dietrich's June 30, 1530 letter to Melanchthon.

The quote widely attributed to Luther, it appears to me, is likely an extrapolation from this reference by Viet Dietrich in his letter to Philipp Melanchthon. While Luther may not have uttered the words repeated so often today, yet they do, it seems, accurately reflect the importance of prayer in his life, and his own specific practice to pray three hours a day, early in the day, at least while he resided at the Veste Coburg.

Remarkable Providences

Ever since the Great Deluge of Noah's day, storms and other natural calamities have, in God's providence, altered the course of, or left their mark on, church history. Building on a plan and notes compiled by Matthew Poole, Increase Mather and, later, William Turner, wrote accounts of such "remarkable providences." Here are a few notable examples from the Reformation era that I have compiled in my own studies:

• On May 21, 1382 a synod meeting in London, convened for the purpose of condemning the articles of faith propounded by John Wycliffe, was shook by an earthquake. Ever since, that convocation has been known to history as the "Earthquake Synod."

• On July 2, 1505, young Martin Luther, at the time bound for the study of law, was caught up in a frightening thunderstorm while riding a horse on his way back to the University of Erfurt. When a bolt of lightning struck close by, in great fear, he vowed to become a monk, saying: "Help, Saint Anna, I will become a monk." Fifteen days later, he entered the Augustinian Friary, and began the path that would ultimately lead to the Reformation.

• In the summer of 1565, the French Huguenot colony of Fort Caroline, near what would become Jacksonville, Florida, under the command of René de Laudonnière, had suffered famine and illness before being resupplied, first, by English seadog John Hawkins, and finally, by the great French Huguenot naval commander Jean Ribault. In late August, however, almost at the same time as Ribault's arrival, Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés reached the Florida coast with orders to wipe out the "heretics." After a tentative skirmish, Menéndez sailed south and established a base camp at what would become St. Augustine. Against Laudonnière's advice, Ribault took his fleet of ships and most of the soldiers at Fort Caroline, and pursued Menéndez by sea, threatening in a bold gambit to overwhelm Menéndez's forces at St. Augustine. However, a hurricane struck at that very moment, scattering Ribault's fleet, destroying a number of ships, and leaving hundreds of Frenchman stranded on the shore far south of St. Augustine. Meanwhile, in a bold move of his own, Menéndez led his men on a forced overland march northward to Fort Caroline, calculating that the fort would be weak and unmanned, and vulnerable to a surprise attack during a hurricane. He was right, and he massacred most of the remaining colonists on September 20, hanging them under a tree bearing a sign that said they were executed "not as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans and heretics". Most of the stranded Frenchmen on the south shore were also later massacred the following month, which put an end to the French Huguenot dream of building a colony in Florida.

• During the Eighty Years' War, the Spanish laid siege to the Dutch city of Leiden, first in 1573, and then again a year later. The Spanish had defeated the forces of William of Orange were strangling Leiden slowly and successfully. The city fathers decided in September 1574 in act of desperation to break the dikes and flood the Spanish army but due to a lack of rain, there was insufficient water to accomplish their design. Finally, storms came in early October that enabled them to break the dikes and flood the Spanish. On October 3, the Spanish lifted the siege and the city was saved. The starving inhabitants were able to eat a dish of Hotchpotch or Hutspot (carrots and onion stew) left behind in haste by the Spanish. William of Orange established the University of Leiden as a gift to the city for its sacrifices during the siege, and to this day, annually on October 3, celebrations are held by the Dutch in remembrance of the Lord's providential deliverance, which include a dish of Hutspot.

• In August 1588, the 'invincible' Spanish Armada of Philip II threatened to bring the undeclared Anglo-Spanish war to the British seacoast by invading England in retaliation for the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, the previous year. The fleet had assembled at Gravelines, France, when it was attacked by English fire ships. With the winds against them, the Spanish ships were forced to sail north, while pursued by the English. The Spanish intended to sail around the British isles, but were pushed off course by the Gulf Stream and unusually powerful storms that devastated the armada. With many of its ships having lost its anchors in the Battle of Gravelines, a number of them were lost at sea or forced to run aground off the coast of Ireland, where Spanish forces were slaughtered by the English or died of starvation. Thousands of men were killed, after the remainder of the armada limped home, Philip is reported to have said, "I sent the Armada against men, not God's winds and waves." The English attributed their great victory to the "Protestant Wind," as described in a seal commemorating the event: "Flavit Jehovah et Dissipati Sunt" ("Jehovah blew with His wind and they were scattered").

• On June 2, 1609, the Sea Venture set sail with six other ships from Plymouth, England, on a mission to resupply the Jamestown, Virginia colony, with colonists and provisions. However, on July 24, the ship ran into a strong storm, possibly a hurricane, separating it from the other ships. After fighting the storm for several days, the Sea Venture ran aground at Bermuda on July 28, 1609, from which the English settlement of this island is dated. All 150 souls on board (and one dog) were saved, but were stranded on the island for nine months. The settlers were forced to salvage the Sea Venture and build two new ships, the Deliverance and Patience, in order to reach their ultimate destination: Jamestown. While on Bermuda, John Rolfe lost his wife and son. Later, he went on to found Virginia's tobacco industry and marry the Indian princess Pocahontas. The arrival of the Sea Venture's settlers helped the Jamestown colony, which was in imminent danger of collapse due to starvation. The story of the shipwreck of the Sea Venture, as recounted by William Strachey, is believed to serve as the origin of William Shakespeare's famous play, The Tempest.

• In August 1635, as Richard Mather and his family were on board the vessel James, along with one hundred others, fleeing persecution in England and aiming to settle in Puritan Massachusetts, they were overtaken by the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635. It is reckoned by historians to have been a Category 4 hurricane when it struck Long Island, New York, and a Category 3 when the storm made landfall along the border of Rhode Island and Connecticut, with the eye of the storm eventually passing between Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts. Many stories are told about this storm, including the tale of how Thacher Island got its name (from the sole survivor, Anthony Thacher, of a small bark, which shipwrecked on that island during the tempest), but the story of the James is perhaps most memorable because of Richard's account, and the fact that his survival led to the founding of the Mather dynasty (Increase was born after his parents' safe arrival in New England). While off the Isles of Shoals, at the border of modern New Hampshire and Maine, the James was buffeted so strongly by what is believed to be the strongest hurricane ever to hit New England, that it was in danger of foundering. The storm was written about by John Winthrop and William Bradford, as well as Richard Mather, who recorded the event in his journal, along with, in later accounts, his future progeny, Increase Mather and Cotton Mather. Richard wrote in his journal for August 15, 1635 (as recorded by Cotton):

"The Lord had not yet done with us, nor had he let us see all his power and goodness, which he would have us take the knowledge of. And therefore about break of day he sent a most terrible storm of rain and easterly wind, whereby we were, I think, in as much danger as ever people were. When we came to land, we found many mighty trees rent in pieces in the midst of the bole, and others turned up by the roots, by fierceness thereof. We lost in that morning three anchors and cables; one having never been in the water before; two were broken by the violence of the storm, and a third cut by the sea-men in extremity of distress, to save the ship and their and our lives. And when our cables and anchors were all lost, we had no outward means of deliverance, but by hoisting sail, if so be we might get to sea, from among the islands and rocks where we were anchored. But the Lord let us see that our sails could not help us neither, no more than the cables and anchors; for by the force of the wind and storm, the sails were rent asunder, and split in pieces, as if they had been but rotten rags; so that of divers of them there was scarce left so much as an hand's-breadth that was not rent in pieces or blown away into the sea; so that at that time all hope that we should be saved, in regard of any outward appearance, was utterly taken away; and the rather, because we seemed to drive with full force of wind directly upon a mighty rock, standing out in sight above water; ao that we did but continually wait, when we should hear and feel the doleful crushing of the ship upon the rock. In this extremity and appearance of death, as distress and distraction would suffer us, we cried unto the Lord, and he was pleased to have compassion upon us; for by his over-ruling providence, and his own immediate good hand, he guided the ship past the rock, asswaged the violence of the sea and of the wind. It was a day much to be remembered, because on that day the Lord granted us as wonderful a deliverance as, I think, ever any people had felt. The sea-men confessed they never knew the like. The Lord so imprint the memory of it in our hearts, that we may be the better for it, and be careful to please him, and to walk uprightly before him as long as we live! and I hope we shall not forget the passages of that morning until our dying day. In all this grievous storm, my fear was the less, when I considered the clearness of my calling from God this way. And in some measure (the Lord's holy name be blessed for it!) he gave us hearts contented and willing that he should do with us and cure what he pleased, and what might be most for the glory of his name; and in that we rested ourselves. But when news was brought us into the gun-room that the danger was past, Oh! how our hearts did then relent and melt within us! We burst out into tears of joy among ourselves, in love unto the gracious God, and admiration of his kindness, in granting to his poor servants such an extraordinary and miraculous deliverance, his holy name be blessed for evermore."

• When Queen Mary of Modena, wife of James II, gave birth in June 1688 to a son, James (who would later be known as 'The Old Pretender'), all of England feared that the royal succession would become a Catholic dynasty, instead of passing the throne to his daughter Mary, wife of William of Orange. It was then that William began to plan, with the aid of a group of prominent Englishmen known as the Immortal Seven, to invade England and depose James II, thus ensuring that England would remain a Protestant nation. His fleet assembled at Hellevoetsluis that autumn but were prevented from crossing over by the 'popish wind' that for which Catholics all over Europe were praying. However, in October, the southwestly popish wind finally became an eastern Protestant Wind, thus enabling William's fleet to sail to England, bearing the standard of William which read "Pro Religione et Libertate" ("For Liberty and [the Protestant] Religion"), while working against James. William and his fleet landed, after another change in the winds favorable to his cause, at Brixham, England, on November 5 (Guy Fawkes Day, referring to another notable providential deliverance in British history), 1688 and marched toward London. James fled England in December, and Parliament declared that he had effectively abdicated the throne, after which William & Mary were crowned joint rulers of England. The English Bill of Rights then ensured that England would remain Protestant from henceforth.

Christianity Consists in Possessive Pronouns

J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: St. Mark (1.21-34), pp. 12-13:

Let us take heed that our faith be a faith of the heart as well as of the head. Let us see that our knowledge has a sanctifying influence on our affections and our lives. Let us not only know Christ but love Him, from a sense of actual benefit received from Him. Let us not only believe that He is the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, but rejoice in Him, and cleave to Him with purpose of heart. Let us not only be acquainted with Him by the hearing of the ear, but by daily personal application to Him for mercy and grace. "The life of Christianity," says Luther, "consists in possessive pronouns."* It is one thing to say "Christ is a Saviour." It is quite another to say "He is my Saviour and my Lord." The devil can say the first. The true Christian alone can say the second.**

* Martin Luther wrote: 'These words, OUR, US, FOR US, must be written in letters of gold. He who does not believe this is not a Christian' (LW 17:221. Lectures on Isaiah (1527-30); WA 31(II):432. 'Therefore read these words "me" and "for me" with great emphasis, and accustom yourself to accepting this "me" with a sure faith and applying it to yourself....Christ did not love only Peter and Paul and give himself for them, but the same grace belongs and comes to us as to them; therefore we are included in this "me"' (LW 26:179. Lectures on Galatians (1535); WA 40(I):299).

** Ryle then quotes George Petter, author of the largest-ever commentary on the Gospel of Mark, A Learned, Pious and Practical Commentary upon the Gospel according to St. Mark (1.24), p. 68, the full quote of which is given here:

Use 2. Rest not in an Historicall Knowledge or Faith; if thou do, it will not save thee: for if it would, then it would save the Devils: for they have this literal Knowledge and general belief of the Word. Dost thou think it enough to know and believe that Christ dyed for Sinners? The Devil and his Angels know and believe as much. Labour then to out-strip them, and to get a better Faith then is in them: Labour to apply to thy own Soul the promise of Salvation, and not onely to know the Word, but to frame thy Heart and life to it, &c.

Our Time is Not Our Own

John Calvin, Sermon on Gen. 2.1-6, preached on September 19, 1559, in John Calvin, Sermons on Genesis, p. 127:

We are not to spend a single minute without considering [God].

Switzerland is known, among other things, for its watches, but how did it come to be so? When the Reformation came to Switzerland, jewelers and goldsmiths, who had previously devoted their labors to the creation of idols in the service of the Roman Catholic Church found themselves prohibited from making instruments of idolatry as well as "useless [ostentatious] jewelry." Faced with the need to find new opportunities to practice their craft, watchmaking became Geneva's specialty. As Huguenot artisans emigrated to this city of refuge, Geneva built its reputation over the following centuries as the center of the time-keeping world, Greenwich mean time notwithstanding.

Max Engammare, General Director of Librarie Droz, puts forward a thesis in his 2004 book L'ordre du temps: L'invention de la ponctualité au XVIe siècle (translated by Karin Maag in 2009 under the title On Time, Punctuality, and Discipline in Early Modern Calvinism) that we owe much of the modern concept of punctuality or "being on time" as a virtue and indeed an ethical obligation to both to the rise of Genevan watchmaking and the spiritual regulation of time as a limited commodity to be measured and spent wisely. This thesis is also discussed in a May 20, 2009 Haute Horlogerie magazine article: "How Calvin invented punctuality, 500 years ago."

As time-pieces proliferated, church and society became increasingly conscious of the flow of time and the importance of redeeming it rather than wasting it in idleness (Eph. 5.16). The use of hourglasses to monitor the length of sermons, fines issued for tardiness relating to church attendance, the conversion of ecclesiastical calendars from liturgical festival days (cyclical) to historical (linear) non-liturgical commemorations, the recording and accounting of time spent in personal diaries and journals -- each of these represent applications of the principle that the measuring and profitable use of time is a virtue.

Engamarre examines the writings of Calvin, and other literature, including Huguenot calendars, to articulate this thesis. He does not attribute to technology the spiritual value put upon time in Calvin's Geneva, but rather notes that the convergence of technological and spiritual reckoning of time has bequeathed to our age the virtue of punctuality in a way not found previously in history. If the increased consciousness of time and precision in its measurement can be put to good use in tracking how we spend it and by inculcating a sense of accountability to God the giver of time, it is also true that perhaps never in human history has man experienced such stress as the pressures upon our personal time management. We often exclaim that we need more hours in the day to satisfy all of the demands upon our time. The reckoning of time is, perhaps, a two-edged sword.

Engamarre's book highlights Calvin's own personal time management and the encroachments upon his own schedule by messengers who waited upon him while he was forced write quickly to dispatch letters. While reading this, I was reminded of Pascal's famous saying, "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time" (Provincial Letters: Letter XVI). Or the famous saying attributed to Martin Luther: "I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer." Men have always struggled with being busy or the temptation to be lazy. Though clocks and the electric light bulb have impacted the schedules of modern man in ways that the ancients could have not have imagined, yet the responsibility for improving upon the time given to us remains, and technology cannot be blamed if we fail to live each moment for God.

The Fourth Commandment still binds us to work six days and find our spiritual rest in worshiping God on his holy day. The Sixth Commandment still binds to the moderate use of sleep, recreation and labor. We may glorify God by resting our bodies as well as by working. "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:" (Eccl. 3.1). Or, in Engamarre's words: "A moment for everything and something for every moment."

To return to first principles concerning time, we ought to heed the prayer of Moses, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom" (Ps. 90.12), as well as the admonition of the Apostle to be "wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil" (Eph. 5.15-16). With such wisdom may we reckon our time as a precious gift, not to be wasted, of which we are stewards who must give account to our heavenly Master. The watch is not our master, but a means to an end that we may reckon each moment and spend it to God's glory.

Dawning of the Reformation

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church of Wittenburg; many mark this as the dawning of the Reformation. Master Poole Publishing is celebrating the anniversary of this important event with a special one-day sale on October 31.

Julia McNair Wright's A Children's Lives of the Reformers is on sale for $23.99 (20% off of the $29.99 retail). This collection includes biographies of Martin Luther and John Calvin. To purchase, visit http://stores.lulu.com/dildaysc.

Also, Matthew Poole's three-volume commentary on Genesis is available at a sale price of $60 (30% off of retail). Poole's Synopsis presents the very best of Reformation-era exegesis. To purchase, visit http://stores.lulu.com/dildaysc.

For October 31, 2009 only, take an additional 20% off your entire order by entering the coupon code "FALLBACK" (case-sensitive).