Luther's Catechetical Writings; God's Call to Repentance, Faith and Prayer Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... by our natural disposition to look more to ourselves than to the lips of Christ and the words proceeding from them. Human nature is constrained to such a course by its desire securely to rely upon itself; where it cannot do this, it will not move. Let this suffice for the first part. 260. In the second place, a promise is attached to this commandment, as mentioned above, which should most forcibly_ prompt and impel us. Here stand the loving and precious words: "This is my body, given for you. This is my blood, shed for you for the remission of sins." These words, I said, are not preached to wood and stone, but to me and to you; otherwise Christ might as well have been silent and have refrained from instituting a Sacrament. Therefore, reflect, and include yourself_in this word "you," that he may not speak with you in vain. 261. In this Sacrament he offers us all the treasures he brought from heaven for us, to which he invites us most graciously in other passages; as when he says in Matthew 11, 28: "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Now it is a sin and a shame that, when he tenderly and faithfully calls and exhorts us to possess ourselves of the greatest and most precious blessing, we should want to be strangers to it--neglecting the Lord's Supper so long that at length, cold and hardened, we have lost all desire and love for it. Beware of regarding the Sacrament as a dangerous thing from which to flee. It is rather an exceedingly salutary and soothing medicine, helpful and quickening to both soul and body; for when the soul has been cured, the body has benefited, likewise. Why, then, act, as if the Sacrament were a poison which we eat to our death? That...