# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 02 28_S107
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

107

and at the end of his epistle to the Colossians he writes: "And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea," by which latter epistle the apostle probably means his epistle to the Ephesians. If there were at last any book of which one might yet suppose, following his natural reason, that not every one should read it because it is very hard to understand, it would surely be the Revelation of St. John. And yet, how does it read at the very beginning of this book? Do we find, perhaps, at least a warning there for some against the reading of it? No, the contrary. For it says in the very opening of the Revelation of St. John: "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein.

But why do we look for such single express commands to read the Bible? That all men who can should read the Bible is commanded as often as it is commanded to the apostles to preach the Gospel to all nations, and as often as all men are commanded to receive the apostles and to hear them. That all men should read the Bible is further commanded as often as they are commanded to ground their faith not upon the testimony of men but upon the Scripture, and to fight and to contend with the sword of the Spirit, with the Word of God. Thus Isaiah writes: "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." (8:20.) That all men should read the Bible is further commanded as often as they are commanded to test all teachers by God's Word and to judge them, and not to let themselves be led astray by false prophets. That all men should read the Bible is further commanded as often as all who are led astray are declared inexcusable for the very reason that they have the Scripture. "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them," says Abraham from heaven to the rich man in hell, when the latter begs for the sending of a messenger from the other world for his seduced and blinded brethren. Yea, what do I say? Bible-reading is commanded to all men as often as they are only called upon to turn to the Lord and to care for the salvation of their souls; for it is the Scripture that shows the way to salvation; wherefore Paul writes to Timothy: "Because from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." And John closes the last chapter but one of his Gospel with the words: "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name."

So there is no doubt, then, that the work to whose furtherance we have bound ourselves, namely the work of spreading the Bible in the mother tongue, is a good and therefore exceedingly blessed work. For if, as we have seen, the reading of the Bible is commanded to all men by God, then the spreading of it among all men is also commanded by God; but if it is a work commanded by God, then it is also a good work; but if it is a good work, then it is also a work pleasing to God and exceedingly blessed, a work that gladdens God and all the angels, a work that surely promotes God's honor, a work that stands under God's protection, a work by which God is served, a work that rests upon an eternal foundation, a work that belongs not to that wood, hay and stubble which is consumed in the fiery trial, but to that gold, silver and precious stones which abide and have their reward, a true Christian work which no wind of the times blows away, but which abides there forever. Blessed is therefore he who carries on this work in true faith!

2.

Although, my brethren, it is surely already sufficient, after this, for the joyful prosecution of a work to know that it is a work commanded by God Himself, yet in the work of spreading the Bible in the mother tongue there is this besides, that it is also an exceedingly blessed one. Let me therefore now speak to you also of this as the second point.

Since a Bible can now be had at so small a price that even the beggar is able to procure a copy of it for himself, it seems indeed to be something slight, what a Bible society does when it takes care that, where possible, in every house and in the hand of every Christian there be a Bible. But, my brethren, apart from the fact that it was precisely the Bible societies through whose zeal it first came about that now no book but the Bible can be obtained for so small a price; I say, apart from that: what does Christ say of the worth of a Bible in our text? He says to the Jews: "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me." Christ means to say: Read only earnestly and diligently in the Scripture, for you know and confess it yourselves that, as the pearl in the shell, and as the gold in the deep shaft, so eternal life, that is, heaven with all its blessedness, lies hidden in the Scripture, and if you seek therein, you will find that it — O consider the great grace! — that it is not by heavy works that you earn eternal life for yourselves, but that it means to take and enjoy it through faith in me freely and for nothing. What, then, are all the treasures of the earth compared with a Bible? What is the perishable dust of the earth compared with the imperishable treasures of heaven.

What kind of work is it, then, that we do when we bring the Bible into a house? — O blessed work! We thereby lead into such a house the whole choir of the apostles and prophets, who proclaim to its inhabitants, as with one voice, an eternal salvation to be obtained of free grace. We thereby dig in such a house a well in which the inhabitants find living water in fullness at all times. We thereby plant in such a house the tree of life, and make it so for all who will eat of its fruits a most blessed paradise. We thereby kindle in such a house the star of the wise men from the East, which still guides seeking souls to Bethlehem, to the Saviour of the world; yea, we lay thereby the infant Jesus Himself, wrapped in the swaddling clothes of the Scripture, in such a house and make it thereby the stable where the newborn salvation of the world lies for all who only desire it in the house. We thereby build in such a house an open door through which all the inhabitants of the house have free access every hour to grace, yea, into heaven. We thereby carry the true ladder of Jacob into such a house and transform it into a Holy of Holies, where God Himself will reveal Himself, let Himself be questioned, and answer the soul desirous of salvation.

But how? my hearers! Must we not concede to the enemies of Bible-spreading that countless persons now indeed have a Bible but do not enjoy this blessing?

It is indeed true that, alas! only too many have the tree of life with the Bible who yet do not eat of its fruits; that, alas! only too many possess with the Bible the fountain of grace who yet do not drink from it; that, alas! only too many have with the Bible the open door of heaven who yet do not enter in through it! But does this prove that the Bible is dark and that the reading of it is therefore useless, yea harmful, and that therefore the work of Bible-spreading is an unblessed one? Far be it! Those who say this with the Romish priests pronounce sentence upon themselves, for the holy apostle says: "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost!"

And suppose, my brethren, that the blessing of Bible-spreading were indeed at least very small, should we therefore withdraw our hand from this work? How does God act? Did not God know beforehand that the goods of the earth would be misused by millions, and has He not nevertheless created the most glorious world and an earth that is full of His goods? Did not God, further, know from eternity that millions would not accept the redemption which He willed to accomplish through the giving up of His Son unto death, and has He not nevertheless wrought the unspeakable wonder of His love and sent His only-begotten Son nevertheless into the world? — Should we not now be "followers of God," and with the holy Bible al-