For Altar and For Hearth

Men Needed

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The following article is taken from the January 14, 1923 issue of The Northwestern Lutheran, Volume 10, Number 1, on page 13. A PDF scan of the original issue may be found in the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Digital Library.

Evidently the need of the times in which we now live is men. But what kind of men and where are they to be found? is a question of great importance. Is it men of avoirdupois, strong and robust physique, gladiators and pugilists that are needed? Men who measure six foot six in their socks; who can look over the heads of the common people, walk across the continent, or win on the race course? These may do for notoriety or to entertain the sporting element in society, but their fame will be shortlived and with the masses they will soon be forgotten.

Yes, men are needed, but what sort of men are needed? Those who simply have the name, belong to the masculine gender, are grown up boys, merely bipeds? Too many of this class we admit are called men, but are they men? To be a man means more than to belong to the class of mankind. Is a man a man unless he is a man? In our opinion a man is a man only when he possesses the elements which comprise true manhood.

To be a man in the true sense of the word implies at least the capabilities of fulfilling the purpose for which man was and is created. A machine that comes short of the purpose for which it was designed is practically worthless, so with man. The first purpose in the creation of man is that he may glorify his Maker who is God. When he fails in this, whatever else he may accomplish is in comparison of little significance. Yes, all his acquired ability in the arts, sciences, inventions, etc., will avail him nothing if he fails in God’s first purpose concerning him.

To glorify God man must become possessor and sharer in the grace of God that redeems from sin. It is in the spotless character and pure mind of man through which God is glorified, rather than his natural achievements. Such men are wanted by God, wanted because God needs them to glorify His name in the earth. God has chosen man to glorify Him, not mere machines that are man-made; therefore God needs men. Men of sense, knowledge, skill and power are needed who have the grace of God exemplified in their lives. For such men there is a crying need in the world, in every station, calling, and position in life. Effeminate, foolish, sinful men, are a reproach to God and a reflection upon humanity.

The men needed today are men of clear vision, men of convictions and courage (who have the courage of their convictions), valiant hearted men who are not afraid to defy the devil in the darkest hour; men who will risk their all to follow Christ, and to rescue the fallen and the perishing for whom Christ died. O man! where shall such men be found except among the ranks of the holy, those who are redeemed from the corruption of sin through the “precious blood of Christ?” For such man there is a place waiting greater than the world has to offer, honor above that which man can bestow, a name and a reward that God alone can give. Men are needed. Who will respond to the call of God and humanity?

–Providence Mission Tidings.

Mothers Who Are Men-Makers

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The following article is taken from the August 21, 1916 issue of The Northwestern Lutheran, Volume 3, Number 16, on page 126. A PDF scan of the original issue may be found in the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Digital Library.

Dr. Lorimer, of Tremont Temple, Boston, tells this story of one of our distinguished men who was introduced at a great public meeting as a “self-made man.” Instead of appearing gratified at this tribute, it seemed to throw him for a few moments into a “brown study.” Afterward they asked him the reason for the way in which he received the announcement.

“Well,” said the great man, “it set me thinking that I was not really a self-made man.”

“Why,” they replied; “did you not begin to work in a store when you were ten or twelve?”

“Yes,” said he, “but it was because my mother thought I ought early to have the educating touch of business.”

“But, then,” they urged, “you were always such a great reader, devouring books when a boy!”

“Yes,” he replied, “but it was because my mother led me to do it, and at her knee had me to give an account of the book after I had read it. I don’t know about being a ‘self-made man.’ I think my mother had a great deal to do with it.”

“But, then,” they urged again, “your integrity was your own.”

“Well, I don’t know about that. One day a barrel of apples had come to me to sell out by the peck, and after the manner of some storekeepers, I put the specked ones at the bottom and the best ones on top. My mother called me, and asked me what I was doing. I told her, and she said: ‘Tom, if you do that, you will be a cheat’–and I did not do it. And, on the whole, I doubt whether I am a self-made man. I think my mother had something to do with making me anything I am of any character or usefulness.”

“Happy,” said Dr. Lorimer, “the boy who had such a mother! Happy the mother who has a boy so appreciative of his mother’s formative influence!”

–Baptist Outlook.

Before You Get Engaged

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The following article is taken from the September 5, 1920 issue of The Northwestern Lutheran, Volume 7, Number 18, on pp. 285-286. A PDF scan of the original issue may be found in the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Digital Library.

Before you get engaged, my dear girl with the dreamy eyes, consider whether the young fellow is the kind of man whose company you could enjoy–not only on Sunday evenings, but on Monday mornings.

Find out how he treats his mother and sister and younger brother, when he is alone with them.

Discover the opinion of him entertained by his employer, and by his fellow employees, way in the back of their heads.

Learn the caliber of his religion; can it hold its own in the face of disappointment and loss and sickness and death?

Do you regard him as a suitable companion, not so far above you intellectually that you can not stimulate him, nor so far below you intellectually that he cannot stimulate you?

Do you believe in him so thoroughly that your promise to love, honor–yes, and obey–will come without hesitation or reservation and with glad and proud loyalty.

Are you sure that he would bring to you the same unsullied purity that you would bring to him?

In short, are you confident that he would be to you a life companion dearer than life, with a love stronger than death, and that your marriage would have upon it the blessing of the Christ of Cana?

Then, dear girl with the dreamy eyes, place your heart in his hands.

But not until then.

–Christian Endeavor World.

The Home

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The following article is taken from the January 25, 1925 issue of The Northwestern Lutheran, Volume 12, Number 2, on page 29. A PDF scan of the original issue may be found in the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Digital Library.

The home is not the house. A home is the place where a family abides together in love, and in mutual respect and confidence. Homes sometimes thrive in cottages and perish in palaces. A home may be made in a tent, a rented house, an apartment, or a mansion.

A home is a fold that shelters a family from the wild beasts of lust, greed, strife, envy, hate, suspicion, distrust, selfishness, and unbelief.

A home is a harbor in which souls anchor and abide secure while the shifting waves of opinion, the tempest of doubt, and the storms of carnal stress and struggle lift the waves of fear and anxiety high without.

A home is a fortress from whose citadel the armed forces of love, gentleness, kindness, truth, virtues, chastity, and self-control, like an army of mighty men go forth to subdue the world.

A home is a sanctuary in which faith builds an altar of worship, opens a door of prayer, recognizes the presence of God and yields control of life’s desires and its destiny to the Son of God as Savior and Lord.

A home is the ante-room to heaven when those who abide in it dwell together in love, and walk together in the fear of God, the faith of Christ, and the fruit of the Spirit.

–The Watchman-Examiner.

Birth Control

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The following entry is from The Concordia Cyclopedia, edited by L. Fuerbringer, Th. Engelder, and P. E. Kretzmann, and published by Concordia Publishing House in 1927, page 84.

Birth Control. A movement to limit the number of offspring by preventing conception or by legalizing abortion, chiefly by the use of artificial means, by medicines, and by unnatural practises. In modern times this movement goes back to Thomas Robert Malthus, an English political economist, whose Essay on the Principles of Population, 1798, was founded on the hypothesis that population increases in a geometrical, while provisions increase only in an arithmetical ratio. Although this theory is not borne out by the facts of history, the idea was accepted with alacrity, and the Malthusian League has been very active since 1877. The movement has now embodied certain practical features and is known as Neo-Malthusianism, with many adherents in the various civilized countries. In America the propaganda has been carried on with such energy that the Sixth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference was held in New York, with social workers, medical men, and political economists from America, England, Austria, India, China, and a dozen other countries in attendance. The president of the American Birth Control League is Mrs. Margaret Sanger, and she and several of her associates also edit a periodical in the interest of their theories. — The Bible very emphatically does not sanction movements of this kind. Ps. 127, 3—5; Ps. 128, 3; 1 Tim. 2, 15; 5, 14, and other passages are in force to-day as they ever were. One of the objects of marriage is the procreation of children, and this cannot be set aside by the whim or by the selfishness of men. In a Christian home, husband and wife will live together according to knowledge, 1 Pet. 3, 7, and each one will possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, 1 Thess. 4, 4. In the case of illness and by the advice of a competent physician, total continence may be practised, but beyond this Christians may not go, especially in advocating the murder of unborn children, for that is what abortion amounts to. Christians must consistently oppose the sinful and destructive character of the modern theory and become more and more conscious of the grandeur and prerogative of marriage and of offspring in marriage. See also Sexual Life.

The Ideal Husband

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Home in the Woods (1847) by Thomas Cole. A cabin in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

The following article by John H. C. Fritz is taken from the December 1924 issue of the Walther League Messenger, Volume XXXIII, Number 5, on pp. 206 and 245. It is the third article in the series Questions of the Heart and Home and the companion piece to “The Ideal Wife”, which appeared in the January 1925 issue.

A young woman has her own ideal as to her future husband. To a certain extent she ought to have. A man who would make an ideal husband for one woman would not at all be an ideal husband for another woman. Husband and wife ought to be well matched, and, therefore, also certain personal likes and dislikes, and such things as temperament, must be given due consideration.

There are, however, certain underlying, essential principles which a Christian woman should not overlook when about to choose a husband; certain characteristics and qualifications which must be found in the ideal husband. And although propriety dictates that a young woman wait until she be asked to marry, she, finally, has the privilege of saying yes or no. After Abraham’s servant had gotten the consent of Rebekah’s parents, we read: “And they said, We will call the damsel, and enquire at her mouth. And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? and she said, I will go.” Gen. 24:57-58.

Is the beautiful man the ideal husband? Silly question! We speak of beautiful women, but who has ever heard of beautiful men? Young men are naturally attracted by the beauty of woman. God has made woman a beautiful creature, and, in spite of sin, she still is, providing that she gives due attention to bodily health and development, is not a fashion-plate, but dresses neatly and “tastily,” and does not use powder overmuch nor paint her face at all. But while man is attracted by the beauty of woman, woman is not attracted by the beauty of man. What woman looks for in man are manly qualities: a strong, sterling character, a healthy frame of body and mind, the ability to support a wife and children. It is not a good-looking man whom a woman desires to marry (which does not go to say that a man should pay no attention to his personal appearance), but a man whom a woman can respect. The sissified dude does not appeal to a real woman; she may permit such a one, for mere courtesy’s sake, to see her home from a party, but when she is about to marry she desires to marry a real man. Womanish men, as well as manish women, are an anomaly, and neither enjoys, nor merits, the respect of the other. But, after all, more than manly qualities are needed to make an ideal husband.

Is the wealthy man the ideal husband? Some will say at once, “This sounds more like it.” Many a young woman, no doubt, would like to marry a man of wealth, or at least one who has good prospects of becoming wealthy. Many a one thinks that such a man would make an ideal husband. It is true, economic and social conditions are far different today from what they were twenty-five to fifty years ago. In those days our young people began married life in a very humble way in a very humble home; they made no great demands as to housing conditions and dress and the conveniences of this life. Times and conditions, however, have changed. Money today is much more plentiful in this country than it ever has been before; and while it is true that the purchase value of the dollar is much less, this is more than balanced by the greatly increased amount of money in circulation and owned per capita. Modern inventions and improvements make life in the home far different from what it was in the days of our grandfathers and grandmothers. We may, therefore, rightly expect that greater demands are made by our young married people today than were made many years ago.

But we dare not forget that the lure of wealth and its temptations are also greater today than they formerly were. As a result unreasonable demands are often made on the part of young people, and some are inclined to think themselves unhappy if all their demands and wishes cannot be satisfied. Wealth, however, does not make for happiness. “Riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.” Prov. 23, 5. Man can suddenly be deprived of all his wealth, and many a rich man has over night become poor. “He that trusteth in his riches shall fall.” Prov. 11, 28. “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.” Prov. 22, 1. “Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.” 1 Tim. 6:6-9. Solomon wisely prayed: “Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny Thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.” Prov. 30:8-9. “The love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” 1 Tim. 6, 10. In many palaces of the rich we find much misery, while in many humble cottages men and women live happy lives. So, after all, in order to be an ideal husband a man must have more than wealth, even though he would be a multi-millionaire.

Is a man of social standing the ideal husband? Social standing is, perhaps, as attractive, and also as delusive, as wealth is. People often make overmuch of their family connections and of their association with people of high rank in social, political, and business life. It is often taken for granted that the father’s mantle will eventually be worn by his son. The fact, however, is that an illustrious father seldom has an illustrious son: a father who has acquired world-wide fame usually has a son whose name is never mentioned outside of his own family and little community circle. Greatness is not inherited, but must be won by one’s own personal, determined, persistent, and sanctified effort and labor. To marry a young man on the credit which his father has would be foolhardy on the part of any young woman. But even the fact that the young man himself holds a high rank in the social, business, or political world, does not insure any real happiness as far as marriage is concerned; the very contrary may be, and often is, the case. That which makes of man an ideal husband must spring from an altogether different source.

A description of the ideal husband is given us by the Holy Spirit, speaking through Paul. We read: “The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: for we are members of his body, or his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.” Eph. 5:23, 25-31.

Read again slowly and carefully the words of Paul. According to these words, the ideal husband is the Christian husband. The ideal husband is the man who knows his place in the home, loves his wife, keeps her, and cleaves unto her.

The husband is the head of the wife. This relation was not established by man, but by God. A Christian wife will honor God’s institution: she knows that it is for her own good and that setting aside or inverting God’s order always works harm. A Christian wife desires to have a husband upon whom she, as the weaker vessel, can lean and to whom she can always look up with respect. Also in this connection it may again be said that a woman desires to marry a real man.

The Christian husband loves his wife. The Christian husband’s love is not that natural love by which the sexes are attracted, nor that love which is the result of the impulse given by certain outward qualities and accomplishments, such as beauty, education, good manners, culinary efficiency, dress, and the like, but the Christian husband’s love is that love which springs from faith and which comes from a regenerated heart. The Christian husband loves his wife as Christ loved the church. Such a love is self-sacrificing, and such a love endures in sickness and misfortune and the trials of this life. If a Christian woman cannot expect that a man who proposes to her will show her such love, then she can know from the outset that with such a man she could not live happily.

The Christian husband nourishes, or keeps, his wife. The husband has the responsibility to provide for his wife and for his children. A woman may well inquire whether the man who asks her to be his wife can and is willing to support her. It would be sheer folly on the part of a woman, and she herself would be inviting her own unhappiness, if she would marry a man who could not or would not support her, and if she then herself would have to “go out” and earn her living and, perhaps, even support her husband. Nor should young married people rely upon their rich parents to support them, for no good can come of such an arrangement. A man who would marry should be able to establish and to keep his own home. Of the Christian husband the Psalmist says: “Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways. For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.” Psalm 128:1-3.

Marriage is not to be an experiment or venture in life. A woman should never risk marriage with any man. Marriage is much too sacred and much too important for that. In marriage a man and a woman are to be united for lifetime, and upon the right relation between them will not only depend their own happiness, and, indirectly, perhaps their salvation, but also, whether or not their home will serve the purpose of the Christian home in this world in its important and far-reaching relation to the church and to the state. Unless a man is willing to enter into marriage in the fear of God, a woman has no assurance that she can live a happy life with him.

Whenever a Christian young man who measures up to Paul’s description of a Christian husband, makes love to a Christian young woman, and if she - personal inclinations and peculiarities not forbidding a real match - can really love him; that is the man whom she ought to marry. When such a young man proposes to her, she ought not to say no, for she may not again be given an opportunity to say yes.

(In the January issue Dean Fritz will discuss: “The Ideal Wife.”)

The Ideal Wife

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

God Bless Our Home (1884) by Wm. Bruns

The following article by John H. C. Fritz is taken from the January 1925 issue of the Walther League Messenger, Volume XXXIII, Number 6, on pp. 286 and 307. It is the fourth article in the series Questions of the Heart and Home and the companion piece to “The Ideal Husband”, which appeared in the December 1924 issue.

What kind of a woman is the ideal wife? The answer to this question can only be given by Him who created woman and who instituted that estate in which man and woman are to live together as husband and wife. In His Word the Lord, by direct statements and by presenting to us ideal wives, answers the question.

We shall not attempt to embrace in these lines all that the Bible says on the ideal wife. We could, for example, elaborate on that glorious passage, Eph. 5, 22-24, in which the relation between Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom, and the church, His bride, is given as a pattern for the relation of husband and wife; or we could speak of such examples of ideal wives as that of Sarah, 1 Peter 3, 1-6, Elizabeth, Luke 1, 5, 6, 24, 25, and others. We shall for the present choose the description which Solomon gives of the ideal wife in the Book of Proverbs, chapter 31, 10-31. (Incidentally, the Book of Proverbs is too little read and known.) In the Hebrew Bible each of the twenty-two verses of this description begins with one of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, arranged in the usual order. Referring to this description, a commentator says: “Nothing can add to the simple beauty of this admirable portrait. On the measure of its realization in the daughters of our own day rest untold results in the domestic, and, therefore, the civil and religious welfare of the people.”

We shall quote each verse of Solomon’s A B C for the ideal wife, and then, by way of comment, translate his Oriental language into the language of our day. We shall give the name of the Hebrew letter with which each verse begins.

V. 10. Aleph. “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.” Solomon is speaking by inspiration of the Holy Ghost. He tells us that the ideal wife is a virtuous woman, a woman of a moral goodness that is combined with bodily vigor and activity. In the words of this verse Solomon gives a general characterization of the ideal wife; in the following verses he speaks of her characteristics in detail. Of such a wife Solomon says that “her price is far above rubies.”

V. 11. Beth. “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.” The ideal wife is a woman in whom her husband can have the confidence that when he is away from home, engaged in his daily work, she will well take care of domestic affairs, so that the husband will not suffer any loss. The husband can depend upon her prudence and her skill.

V. 12. Gimel. “She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.” The ideal wife is a woman whose love toward her husband will continue in good and in evil days, in early married life and in old age; her love will know no change.

V. 13. Daleth. “She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.” The ideal wife is a diligent and faithful worker and does not consider household cares beneath her dignity.

V. 14. He. “She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.” The ideal wife is a woman who knows when and how to buy on the market to the advantage of her husband.

V. 15. Vav. “She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.” The ideal wife rises early in the morning to begin her household duties and to make provision for the day.

V. 16. Sajin. “She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.” The ideal wife is a woman who by her diligence and frugality helps her husband to acquire and own property and even to increase it. Her thrift preserves what her husband has, and adds to it.

V. 17. Cheth. “She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.” The ideal wife is a woman who by the daily exercise of labor in her household increases her strength and is able to endure continued exertion.

V. 18. Tet. “She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.” The ideal wife is a woman who finds pleasure in her household duties. She is pleased when she sees that her work is successful, and such success encourages her to work even far into the night.

V. 19. Jod. “She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.” The ideal wife is not satisfied merely to cook and bake and wash and clean, but she will also sew and knit and stitch and crochet: she will do all that she can for her home.

V. 20. Kaf. “She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.” The ideal wife is not selfish or miserly, but, like Dorcas (Acts 9, 36), is full of good works and almsdeeds; her industry enables her to be charitable, and her godly spirit prompts her to exercise charity.

V. 21. Lamed. “She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.” The ideal wife provides in summer that she may have in winter.

V. 22. Mem. “She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.” The ideal wife well looks to her own neat and tidy personal appearance, as well as to that of her home.

V. 23. Nun. “Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.” The ideal wife, by well attending to her domestic duties, enables her husband to take part in public affairs and thus helps to increase his influence and his good reputation among the people.

V. 24. Samekh. “She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.” The ideal wife will expend her labor upon such things as will enable her to add beauty and comfort and wealth to her home.

V. 25. Ajin. “Strength and honor are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.” The ideal wife is strong in faith and in character, and she, therefore, worries not about things yet to come, but joyfully thinks of the future.

V. 26. Pe. “She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.” The ideal wife speaks wisely and kindly; she is not a gossip, not an idle talker, not a scold.

V. 27. Tsade. “She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.” The ideal wife is a good manager of the home, and, therefore, with hard work earns her own bread.

V. 28. Kof. “Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.” The ideal wife is a fruitful mother of children, is devoted to them, and trains them right. She is honored and praised by her husband and her children as a good wife and a good mother.

V. 29. Resch. “Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.” The ideal wife is a woman that stands out among the women of the land; and her reputation corresponds to her character: both are good.

V. 30. Schin. “Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.” The true beauty of the ideal wife does not consist in that of face or form, but in fearing the Lord. Her trust and faith in God, her Savior, and her godly conversation, are the very things which make of her an ideal wife, and are the source of all her good characteristics. Such a woman, says Solomon, “shall be praised.”

V. 31. Taw. “Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.” The ideal wife will enjoy the fruit of her work, and her actions will always speak for themselves.

Nothing need be added to this beautiful portrait of the ideal wife given us by the Lord Himself in His Word. When a Christian young man has such a wife for his spouse, namely, a Christian, home-loving young woman, he will live with her and with their children in a blessed and happy home, and marriage then will be what the Lord intended that it should be.

Rejoice in Thy Youth

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The following article by Walter A. Maier is taken from the May 1923 issue of the Walther League Messenger, Volume XXXI, Number 10.

The joy-season of the year has come, the verdant month that hastens spring to summer, the throbbing weeks when nature hangs her green mantle over the re-awakened world. “Rejoice! Rejoice!” the new born wealth of this budding universe calls out to us, this wonder sphere of ours that cold and unfeeling men describe as voiceless and inanimate. “Rejoice! Rejoice!” entreats the tender blue of wistful skies, the heavens that tell the glory of God. “Rejoice! Rejoice!” resounds the echo from the world that lies below these skies, this earth of ours where flowers paint the laughing soil and where the unlocked newness of a throbbing life teaches the sullen fields to smile. Whether we look—and see the blushing rose, the emerald carpet of grassy softness, the woods that live with color and with strength of renewed purity; or whether we listen—and hear the chirping robin, the splashing leap of swollen brooks, the wind that softly finds its way over hill and vale to help draw out the treasures of the black and bursting soil; what we perceive with all the senses which the good Creator has given us repeats the paean of joy: “Rejoice! Rejoice!”

And youth is the joy-season of life, the bridge that spans the years which separate the carefree days of childhood from the furrowed struggle of adult responsibilities. The precious years of youth come but once in a lifetime and they are so full of life and action, so overflowing with energy and vitality, that even Solomon whose woeful “Vanity of vanities” shows the gloom which settled in his heart, rouses himself from his dejection to declare: “Rejoice in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth.”

Faith in Jesus is not a thing of pessimism and darkness. It is not a down-cast and joy-killing religion that has no room for laughter, no time for innocent pleasure, no interest in the enjoyment of God-granted gifts. God is happy when the buoyancy of youth finds its expression in the enjoyment of the great variety of pleasures which He, the all-wise Father, has prepared for us. He only asks that Christian young people, while enjoying this freedom, be scrupulously careful in the choice of their pleasures and painfully conscientious in their determination to avoid all places and occasions where they might be led to join in denying their blessed Savior.

The voice of the wise Solomon rings out in our day and tells young men and women not only: “Rejoice in the Lord,” but also: “But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.” Because sincerely Christian young people know and realize that there is an inevitable accounting for our every action, they will flee all pleasures that might pollute their faith and ask God’s help in rejecting all temptations that tend to diminish their love toward their Savior. If others who profess to be Christians throw themselves into the whirlpool of worldly pleasures and are driven swiftly into the maelstrom of sin; if the Christianity of many people who surround us stops where their pleasure begins, when they kneel at the altars of Christ on Sunday, but on Monday bow down before the golden calf of this world’s unclean pleasures and sinful pastimes, we, who only a few weeks ago have stood on Calvary’s heights, and have seen the terrible consequences of sin and the appalling result of human depravity must always remember that even our hours of pleasure and recreation must not lead us to deny this Savior nor to crowd out from our lives the picture of His sufferings for our sins and shortcomings.

“Rejoice in your youth,” but let it be a Christian rejoicing. Go to no place where the stainless Jesus can not accompany you. Do nothing that would offend His holiness. Avoid the company of those in whose hearts and lives His love finds no room. Remember at all times, that “in God we live and move and have our being,”—and this spirit and determination will show itself in a wholesome, happy, and joy-spreading life.

But while much of the tinsel and the glitter and the glamour of this pleasure-crazed world of ours is thus forbidden to Christian young people, they have pleasures and happinesses which can be made to mean inexpressibly more than gaudy and shabby attractions which make their appeal to sin-stricken hearts. We have the pleasures of Christian companionship, the joy of vibrating nature, the happiness of a Christian home. We have song, music, books, laughter; we have play, sport, recreation, and in and through all this we have our Savior Jesus, who is ours not only in sorrow and affliction, but ours also in pleasure and happiness. Therefore “Rejoice in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth.”

W. A. M.

Save Our Schools: Our Homes Need Them

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Country School (1871) by Winslow Homer

The following article by Walter A. Maier is taken from the November 1921 issue of the Walther League Messenger, page 106.

Theodore Roosevelt once said: “When home ties are loosened, when men and women cease to regard a worthy family life with all its duties fully performed and all its responsibilities lived up to, as the life best worth living, then evil days for the commonwealth are at hand.” It must not be branded as an expression of pessimism, when it is stated that we of today are living in the midst of such evil days, that the home and family life which has enraptured poets and inspired artists is changing rapidly into a far less ideal state of living together.

Under the pressure of our swiftly moving world with its cold commercialism and its driving pleasure seeking, the family hearth has often been deserted and the genuine pleasures of the home circle are becoming less attractive and inviting. How many families eat breakfast together? How many Sundays and holidays find our young people in the company of their parents and their brothers and sisters? How often do the members of the family unite in working out some problem or in enjoying some diversion? It is all too plain: family life has dwindled down to a hurried existence with every member for himself.

It cannot but be otherwise, than that under such conditions the family altar has been forgotten and neglected; that the morning and evening devotional exercises are continually becoming fewer and shorter. Not so many years ago it was no unusual occurrence when passing a house to be greeted by hymns and chorals; but today if the automatic piano or the graphaphone is not at work, the raucous and rattling perpetration of the latest jazz monstrosity breaks violently into the evening’s solitude. Not a few of our young people can remember the time when, after the evening dishes had been wiped and put away, father or mother would read from one of our church papers, or from some of the popular devotional books; but now after supper had been gulped down, it’s off to the movies, or away to some party or social gathering. The glitter and tinsel of the attractions which our pleasure-mad world offers has indeed worked with sad and disastrous success.

The only influence which can successfully counteract this away-from-the-home tendency is a sound Christian training and education just along the lines which our parish schools offer. Here children are impressed with the sanctity of the home; here they learn just what the Lord requires of them in the fourth commandment; here they read the scriptural examples of the men of God who in their youth were subject and obedient to their parents; here they are warned against the evil forces which seek to break the ties which bind them to home and hearth; here they receive spiritual instruction which will go far in making them good and happy sons and daughters ready to love and respect their parents.

It is not said or implied that our public schools cannot do much in sustaining within the children a love for home and for parents. We most emphatically disagree with Father Schauer who declared: “The public schools have produced nothing but a godless generation of thieves and blackguards”; nor can we subscribe to the statement which appeared in the Catholic Telegraph, to the effect that the public schools are “nurseries of vice”; that “they are godless and unless suppressed will prove the damnation of the country.” We believe firmly that the public schools in our country are generally doing an admirable piece of work; yet, we deplore the fact that they do not and cannot do enough, that they can never give the only and paramount answer to the greatest question in human life. While, therefore, the public schools turn out well-trained boys and girls, it is quite evident that schools where these boys and girls are daily instructed in the Way of Life will do more: they will turn out Christian, home-loving, respectful and obedient children.

For many years our church has been conducting a mission school in the slum district of St. Louis. More than one thousand children have been graduated from this school in the twenty odd years of its existence. All of the children have come from the poorest district of the city and were reared under the most adverse circumstances. Few had any conception of religion; many came from godless families, where fathers and mothers shifted for themselves and left their children surrounded by poverty and squalor. And yet, of these thousand children who have graduated from our city mission school, not one, according to the follow-up records of the Rev. F. W. Herzberger, who has the distinction of founding this institution, not one has ever been arrested or has ever been involved in public disgrace or scandal. The very environment of the school has been transformed. The policeman patrolling the district assured our pastor: “You can tell that there is a Christian school here,” because of the absence of riotous and disorderly conduct which previously marked that district.

If the blessing of our schools can be so apparent and pronounced under such unfavorable circumstances, how much more reason have we to believe that supplemented with the care and love of Christian parents, our Lutheran schools will be a vital power in preserving the Christian home, in welding the family circle, and in strengthening the spirituality of our every day lives!

W. A. M.

The Christian and His Power

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The following article by Walter A. Maier is taken from the May 1924 issue of the Walther League Messenger, Volume XXXII, Number 10.

For every effect, as science, history, and human experience assure us, there must be an active and impelling cause. The placid stream becomes a raging, swollen torrent that floods destructively over all restraints; but it is the increased flow of highland freshets and the melting glacier snow that works this startling transformation. The sputtering volcano smokes ominously above its gleaming crater; but deep within earth’s bowels there blaze mysterious flames amid the molten metals that cause these smoke clouds in the sky. It is the storm wind blowing unchecked across the watery wastes that whips the swelling billows into frenzied madness. It is the hidden voltage of the blackened firmament that sends the jagged thrusts of lightning on their unmarked courses. It is, in short, the power of nature’s crushing energies that causes the myriads of startling changes so miraculous and so mysterious to the human mind.

But what is the cause for the effects, more stupendous by far than those produced by nature’s elements, which shake the spiritual universe of men’s souls? What is that dynamic urge that has swept through centuries of hostility and ignorance and superstition and left behind it on its path innumerable and stupendous changes in the hearts and lives of men? What is that transcending energy that has enabled men, groveling in the sordid sins of selfishness, held and swayed by passions and prejudice, impaired and paralyzed by human infirmities and frailties, to rise up over their self-centered impulses, to bind and control their lusts and desires, to receive and exercise a super-human and majestic strength? What is it, indeed, if not the power of christian faith that has softened hard hearts, overcome violence with meekness, triumphed over organized wrong with unorganized right, and always given a rebirth that offers a new vision, a new purpose, and a new ideal in life, together with the ability to acquire and keep this newness of spirit.

Diplomats may smile indulgently at the preaching of this power that conquers the world through love; philosophers may ridicule this faith that is wiser than the wisdom of the world; self-enlightened minds may brand its eternal message as out of harmony with the times; but above the bickering and cavil of deceit-blinded mortals, rings true and clear the paean of that victory which overcomes the world and which still puts within the grasp of mortal men the greatest power which the world has ever known.

Not only when fair-haired maidens, kneeling in the sands of the arena, were strengthened to rejoicing when the blood-hungry lions pounced upon them; not only when faithful followers of the Savior, tormented to the very capacity of human endurance by the horrors of inquisition could remain steadfast and unwavering until the very end; not only when saints in all lands and ages have sacrificed all that men hold precious and desirable, and have gone into exile and poverty without murmur or complaint; today, too, in countless instances that are often unnoticed and unheralded, this faith is demonstrating its dynamic force and continuing uninterrupted in its unalterable march of triumph.

Yes, the transcending power of this faith is ours today — and ours to use determinedly and confidently. Three times the blessed Savior impresses us with this fact and shows us the sweeping range of this power. “All things,” He declares in the most unqualified manner, “whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive.” Again He asserts: “Nothing shall be impossible unto you.” And to add certainty to certainty, we read once more the divine assurance: “All things are possible to him that believeth.”

Surely, if the power of this all-conquering faith has been demonstrated so strikingly in our own lives when we have been brought into a heaven-born newness, we should not hesitate to use its resources when sin and sorrow beset us, and when we are apt to lose sight of the fact that we have been made the conquerors of the world. Again, if we recognize the limitless energies that radiate from this Gospel and understand that it is ours to preach and to spread, we will apply its dynamic force for the saving of the sin-bound souls that crowd this sin-torn world. We will work in growing confidence and unbounded assurance, since no task is impossible to us who can join the great hero-apostle in declaring: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

W. A. M.

A Referendum on Amusements

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following article by Rev. Hans Kollar Moussa is taken from the December 7, 1915 issue of The Northwestern Lutheran, volume 2, number 23, on page 178. The original PDF scan may be found on the WELS Essays archive.

Recently a Methodist pastor of Chicago propounded the following question to his fellow pastors of the district:

“Do your young people, as a rule, dance, go to the theater, play cards, attend paid concerts on Sunday, attend theaters on Sunday, go to moving picture shows? Is the rule in the Methodist discipline prohibiting indulging in the amusements named a hindrance, a help, or a matter of indifference?”

He tabulated the answers he received as follows: Dance: Yes, 24; no, 28 etc., and the answer to the last question was: Pastors who regarded the rule against the amusements as a benefit numbered 9; a dead letter, 3; without effect, 14; a hindrance, 25.

There will never be a time when the church can disregard the lure of amusements on its members. Especially in our time, which is amusement-mad, there must be reference made to the call of the world as voiced by the worldly amusements. But will a prohibition ever accomplish anything? Certainly not!

Those who shun one or the other public amusement merely because it is forbidden are not one whit better for their abstinence spiritually. It is not a matter for rules and regulations. Among Christians it can only be the sober strength of faith in Christ and love for Him, which will operate in a wholesome manner to keep them free from the taint of worldliness. St. Peter says: “As he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy: for I am holy.”

Any one of a hundred “respectable” occupations may become a source of unholy worldliness, and the most harmless amusement may become an obsession that drives out the love of God. There are, to be sure, some amusements more dangerous than others and a warning against them must be given, but when a rule is necessary to conserve Christian life, then the law which Christ has abolished for His elect is imposed anew and the seed of unholiness is sown.

The one way to wean man of his love for the lustful things of the world is to make him love Christ more. That is done by showing him in the Gospel what Christ has done for him. In the degree in which this knowledge of Christ grows, his interest for worldly amusement diminishes and is guided into safe channels; an observance of mere rules in shunning the world breeds selfrighteousness and must lead away from Christ.

This is not our Lutheran way of preaching license, but it is the divine way of making better men and women. Fanatics and self-righteous reformers have never yet liked the Bible’s way and they never will, but that will not induce us to trade in the living Gospel for the deathdealing law— not even in the form of rules and regulations against dancing, theaters, and the like.

H.K.M.

Personal Purity

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following article by Walter A. Maier is taken from the June 1922 issue of the Walther League Messenger, volume 30, pages 440-441.

In the throbbing and pulsating years of youth and growing maturity young men and young women are assailed by fiercer passions and confronted with greater temptations than at any other period of their lives. The devil works overtime with young people, and because he knows that their fatal weakness is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes , and the pride of life, he leaves nothing undone that would appeal to this weakness and lead to sins of impurity and unchastity. It is the sixth commandment probably more than all other commandments that suffers from serious and repeated transgressions on the part of young men and young women, for by thought, word, and deed , the baser impulses of human nature often find sad expression in the lives of young people who are otherwise sincere and determined to lead a Christian life.

The Powerful Forces of Impurity Today

It will require little explanation to show that conditions today are gradually making personal purity more impossible than ever before. Immoral pictures with their lewd exhibitions, that have been diabolically planned to arouse sinful desires and unclean impulses, are tearing down the morals of our country and contributing to the spirit of depravity and lawlessness which is characterizing our age. Free love, easy divorce, rewarded immorality, lascivious scenes of the most sensuous nature are portrayed with calculated allurement and exhibited to millions who faithfully wend their way to the “movies” two or three times every week.

Then there is the theatre. The most suggestive and immoral pieces run not months but years in our larger cities, and night after night uncounted masses pay two or three dollars to behold the most indecent plots, situations, and actions which perverted minds can invent and exhibit. The strange law of our country punishes those who steal and destroy another’s property, but sometimes it almost seems to put a premium on the theft of public morality and the slow destruction of modesty, virtue, and purity, which occurs behind the footlights.

All this is re-echoed on the printed page. Magazines which have become notorious for their entire disregard of morals and conventions, their impure sex stories, their unabashed discussion of subjects which a father should tell his son and a mother her daughter in the holy fear of the Lord, are feeding their millions of readers—for the most part young people—a slow poison that is killing off the nobler impulses, pardoning impurity, and making immodesty an accomplishment to be desired. And the newspapers carry this spirit into our homes every day, and especially on Sunday when the entire effect of an inspiring sermon is often lost in the contemplation of the magazine or pictorial supplements, where the whole catalogue of sins against the sixth commandment is glorified and modesty ridiculed as old - fashioned and out of date. The devil himself could hardly work more destructively and make more people ready to sin against their bodies and their souls than some of the writers and editors whom he has drafted into his service.

And thus literature, the spoken and pictured drama, yes, even art and music, in themselves noble expressions of human emotions, have been prostituted and made to serve destructive and pernicious ends. Immorality has been made attractive and immodesty is passed by unrebuked.

The Result

ll this is helping to raise a generation of sophisticated young people, for whom there are few mysteries and who know far too much about the intimate questions of life . Loose immorality and brazen immodesty, together with the absence of clean-cut manhood and chaste virginity are alarming, but frequent, signs of the times. For, how else can we explain the over-crowded dance halls that are robbing our American girls of their innocence; or, the immodest dress flaunted before our eyes every day to make a very direct appeal to the fire that smolders beneath every human breast; or the mid-night “joy-rides,” which far too often become sorrow rides, both for the young people and for the indulgent or indifferent parents who are too soft or too preoccupied to watch over their children and to rear them in the fear and admonition of the Lord ; or, the worldly-wise actions of young men with old men’s thoughts and habits; or, in general, any of the all too evident impurities of this day and hour; how, we repeat, are we to account for all this , unless we realize that our times, perhaps no more, but certainly no less than any previous age, have distorted and depraved ideas as to what constitutes real manhood and genuine womanhood?

Failing Remedies

Now it is in this world that the young people of our Church find themselves, clothed in weak flesh and surrounded by strong temptations, faltering when they should stand fast, giving in when their conscience tells them to resist. It is therefore of paramount importance that each one of our young people realize fully the one great power which is able to meet and to repel the temptations of our flesh. Much, indeed, has been said and written on this subject, but far too much has missed its goal and brought discouragement and despair. Wild passions can as little be tamed by good advice or by dire warnings as a roaring lion can be subdued by a soft voice or a harsh threat. Lecturers and writers may plead for chastity because it is good and virtuous and most to be desired; but in the depth of its sin the human heart laughs at this counsel and hurries on from the satisfaction of one carnal desire to the pursuit of another sinful lust. Physicians and scientists may predict with certainty all the terrible consequences of sin against self and others which certainly follow in the wake of this impurity and moral leprosy, sapping, as it does, the energy, draining the vitality, and wrecking more lives than any scourge of war and pestilence ; but such warning falls on deaf ears, and, as long as these consequences are not seen or felt, will be cast to the winds heedlessly . Books claiming to show “What a Young Man Should Know,” or to contain “What every Young Woman Should Realize” often fall far short of their mark by omitting entirely one thing that is needful for all young people who would lead more chaste and godly lives. Men have tried to educate people to view sins against the sixth commandment as something to be feared and avoided; but they have been forced to admit that educated people sin just as often and just as grievously as others. They have tried legislation; but experience has shown that the more laws there are, the more are broken, and that something else is necessary to bring about a change in heart and life.

The One Purifying Power

And this something else is nothing other than the power of faith in the Savior who tells us: “Without me ye can do nothing.” Until we fight against the sins of impurity and unchastity as the redeemed and regenerated warriors of Christ, we fight not in His strength but in our own sinking weakness and frailty. "Without Him, " someone has said, "we can see some of our sins and fight against them, and if they be sins that threaten our social position or our reputation we can avoid and overcome them, but sins which are hidden from men, . . . sins which lurk in the heart and make us worldly and ungodly and sensual, these gather strength in spite of all that we can do, unless we have the aid of Christ’s fellowship. " And if the power of Christ’s love is not the restraining and inspiring strength in our hearts and lives, then nothing else can keep us from a life that is entirely given over to sin in its veiled or open forms.

"If any man be in Christ Jesus, " says St. Paul, “he is a new creature; old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new.” And the great wonder of Christian faith is this, that it takes men and women steeped in sin and wickedness, held and swayed by fleshly lusts and desires, and makes new creatures of them,—not pure and perfect, it is true, as long as we are on this earth of sin and wrong,—but nevertheless, men and women with a new purpose in life and a new spirit animating their beings. And if we habitually live in Jesus and put on the whole armor of God, we will be divinely equipped to withstand the onslaughts of evil hours. Knowing that our sins bring grief to the Savior and that our unchastity wounds Him anew, we will guard our ways and endeavor to keep our bodies God’s temples, blessed with the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.

The earnest and repeated prayers of any Christian young man or young woman for a pure heart and for strength to withstand temptations will never remain unanswered by our God, who has promised never to permit us to be confronted with temptations which we cannot withstand, and who has assured us that if we call upon Him in the hour of discouragement and despair, He will lift us up from the depth of our sins and give us power to fight more bravely and successfully. If we have fallen repeatedly and given way to grievous sins of impurity in thought and words, yes, even in deeds, God’s grace will still receive us and His strength will still be at our disposal, ours to have and to hold.

We must remember, however, that there is no profit in praying: “Lead us not into temptation,” if we persist in seeking temptations and in going along the path which we know to be laid with pitfalls. The Lord will seldom cleanse us, if we are determined to be impure. And all who are moved by the spirit of Christ will studiously avoid all places where they will be tempted; they will not play with a fire which can burn beyond healing. Earnest Christians will not be found in the company of those who are slaves of vicious habits and who speak slurringly of some of the most intimate and sacred subjects. They will not be devotees of the modern dance, nor belong to the millions of “movie fans” who do not make any attempt to distinguish between what is morally good and bad. The library of the Christian home will be selected with care and no “Snappy Stories”, “Cosmopolitan” or any similar magazines will have a place there. Even the pictures and statuary will be chosen with discrimination, and the whole will breathe an air of clean purity and wholesomeness which will stand out in sharp contrast to the many homes in which Christ has no place.

But on the other hand, young people who are endeavoring to live as Christians should enjoy purely and whole-heartedly all the recreational and social pleasures which their Lord has intended them to have. There is much truth in the old Latin proverb to the effect that a sound mind dwells in a sound body. Outdoor sports, games of skill and endurance, long walks through God’s wonders in nature will help to work off much of the overflowing energy in young lives. Clean entertainments, concerts, uplifting amusements, entertaining and helpful books, all this is but part of the recreational pleasures, the fun, if you please, which every Christian may and should enjoy. And for young people there is nothing more stimulating and refining than the society of clean, full-blooded, Christian young men and women.

In such a common-sense and healthy existence, where work and play have their proportionate part, the power of Christian faith and the strength of Christian prayer will work together for a God-pleasing and clean life. There will be lapses, of course, in which our natural impulses will assert themselves; there will be sins which will cause grief and remorse; but after each such lapse and sin, there will be a greater determination to conform ourselves more closely to the Holy Christ. This we can only do through the strength of His Spirit, and that this Spirit be given to us should be the prayer and confidence of every Christian young man and young woman.

W. A. M.

Let us ever walk with Jesus,
Follow His example pure,
Flee the world, that would deceive us
And to sin our soul allure.
Ever in His footsteps treading,
Body here, yet soul above,
Full of faith and hope and love,
Let us do the Father’s bidding.
Faithful Lord, abide with me,
Savior lead, I follow Thee.

“Remember Now Thy Creator In The Days Of Thy Youth.”

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following article is taken from the August-September 1922 issue of the Walther League Messenger, Volume 31, Number 1 & 2.

To be born into a world of beauty, surrounded by the inexhaustible grandeur of this wonder universe, and endowed with the power to enjoy life in its full measure; to be reared in a home where the peace of God has reigned with its serene and benign influence, encircled by a host of kindly friends, and enriched with the opportunity of spreading happiness; to be instructed in the one thing needful, prepared to meet all the emergencies which life may offer, and equipped to decrease the sum total of unhappiness and grief among the people of the earth; to have ideals, to rise above the lowly and sordid on the wings of faith, to know God, His love and His will,—this, in short, is the privilege and blessing which has been bestowed upon all of the young men and young women of our church and country, their priceless heritage and immeasurable treasure, for all of which their God and Savior calls out to them: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.”

Youth is the springtime of life. It embraces those pulsating and throbbing years, when the energies and powers of the body and mind are usually strongest and sharpest. It is the critical age when the destiny of more mature years is shaped and the value and usefulness of the subsequent career decided, for they are impressionable years,—this period of youthful bouyancy and carefree vitality, when warm enthusiasm can be stirred as quickly as it is forgotten, when opinions can be formed as easily as they are changed, and when the whole world seems to be a happy playground where dull care is cast aside and responsibilities are lightly dismissed.

Yet in this springtime youth must remember its Creator. The duty of serving God is not to be left to the aged, the infirm, and the decrepid. The call to consecration resounds less insistently and compellingly to those, who, wearied and worn, have journeyed far along the road of earthly pilgrimage, than it does to those who, fresh and eager, are just beginning to tread the heights of life’s pathway. God is not satisfied with the prayers of feeble lips, the hymns of wavering voices, the devotion of those who totter near the brink of the grave, or the faith of those who await the desired summons into eternity on invalid’s bed. No, He wants the bloom of youth, the sparkling vivacity of growing manhood and womanhood, the clear and clean-cut self-surrender which young people, as no others, are able to offer to their God.

We dare not rob the Lord of this devotion. It is dangerous to put self first and the Savior second, for those who forget their Creator in the days of their youth, will usually not remember Him in the declining years of their old age. Grace continually spurned is very often grace finally lost. And those deluded young people who wilfully and repeatedly postpone the accepted hour when their Savior pleads with them, those who think that religion, church attendance, personal service to Christ, a consecrated life, are for the quiet and meditating years of old age when the pleasures of a youth that can be lived only once fades from memory, those who are too pre-occupied in their vain quest of fleeting vanities and gilded glories to remember the God who has given them the breath of life and the opportunity of existence,-these are they who purchase the temporal at the cost of the eternal, who exchange heaven for earth, and serve a body that perishes and decays rather than a soul that can live on in endless ages.

After all, the surrendered life that lives in God is the life worth while. When the Savior said: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light,” He gave us the divine assurance that even though the Christian’s life is from cross to crown, it is still the easiest and happiest life for those who recognize the wisdom of putting first things first, and the folly of spurning the repeated mercies of divine and overflowing compassion. It is to this larger life in the Savior’s service that every Christian young man and young woman must aspire and attain, and though tribulation may follow upon discouragement, and affliction upon adversity, yet, if when God calls to us and says: “My son, give me thine heart,” and we gladly bring to Him the best that we have in the best years of our lives, His grace will be renewed in us so that we will walk closer to Jesus, ever and always confident that He, being the Savior of the world, is first of all our own and all-sufficient Redeemer.

W. A. M.

A Wonderful Motion Picture

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following article is taken from the May 1923 issue of the *Walther League Messenger, *Volume 31, page 435.

“I saw a wonderful motion picture last night,” said my neighbor as we met on our way down town.

“Tell me about it.” I said. “Wonderful motion pictures are very few, in spite of advertisements.”

“A man and a woman were sitting together in a plainly but comfortably furnished sitting-room. They were husband and wife in middle age. From their looks it was very evident that they were still lovers.

“A boy and a girl were also in the room, each reading. While they were sitting there a handsome old lady came in. At once the boy and girl arose and remained standing until the old lady was seated. As the picture unfolded it told the story of the grandmother.

“Out in the dining room a splendid looking young woman could be seen setting a table. She went in and out from the kitchen doing her work until the meal was ready. Then she came to the sitting room doorway and called the others.

“As they came in a young man entered, coming from a library room. He drew back a chair and helped the grandmother to be seated.

“After the meal was over the entire family helped ‘do up the work’ in the absence of any servant in the house. The handsome young woman and her big brother did most of it.

“After the dishes had been washed and the dining room set to rights, the entire family went into the sitting room and remained there the entire evening, reading, studying, and visiting together over the events of the day.

“At the close of the evening before ten o’clock the father read a passage from the Bible and offered a short prayer of thanks. Then everyone sang a song of rejoicing, the mother at the piano, kissed one another good night and retired.

I stopped on the sidewalk and viewed my neighbor with astonishment.

“And you mean to tell me that you saw all that in a moving picture house?”

“No. I saw it last night in an American home, where I was a visitor.”

“There isn’t any such place.” I said.

“There are thousands of them in America.” my neighbor said. “Wonderful motion picture I call it.”

“But not in the movies,” I said.

“And that may be one reason why people think there is no American home," said my neighbor.

The Christian Herald

The Greatness of Being Small

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following article is taken from the June 1922 issue of the *Walther League Messenger, *Volume 30, Number 11.

There is a craze in this world today that has taken possession of people in high and low standing, a madness that distorts the true value of everything, that drives heedless men and women on relentlessly, and makes them cold and artificial; and this is the craze for greatness, the passion for doing big things, the mad desire for power and authority. Eight years ago this frenzy cast the whole civilized world into the whirling maelstrom of bloody war; but even the millions of lives sacrificed to the grinning idol of greatness have not cured the world of this insane affliction. It still grips the rulers of the nations and holds up before them the delusion of world dominion; it whispers into the ears of the wealthy and breeds covetousness and envy in their hearts; it beckons to the men of the laboring class and tempts them with a glimpse of the power that lies in united action; it calls to the scholar and inflames within him a burning desire for fame and honor; and whatever our position and station in life may be, it comes to all of us and frequently do we kneel down and worship at its altars.

But oh, what a contrast to the tinsel and glitter and glamor of this world’s greatness is the sinking weakness of the Son of God who humbled Himself in a life of poverty and persecution and finally became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross! When we see Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane imploring His Father with anguish that almost breaks His grief-torn soul; when we behold Him with a crown of thorns pressed into His bleeding head and hear the crowds curse and cry: “Crucify Him, Crucify Him,” there is nothing great, nothing wonderful, nothing magnificent about all this, nothing, indeed, unless we know “that the weakness of God is stronger than men” and that the Lord who told St. Paul in his affliction: “My grace is sufficient for thee” also assures us: “My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Young men and young women of our Church today, who live in a world which calls out and tempts them to kneel down and worship at its altars, altars of greed and gold, of sin and shame, must be prepared for a life that will live in constant protest against the fleeting vanities and gilded glories which so many young people consider the greatest good in life and the necessary signs of a successful career. The path of faith is still the way of the Cross, and while it may be more spectacular to earn the applause of popularity and frivolity, it is more eminently worth-while to pass unnoticed and unhonored, but as a quiet and determined worker for a better and happier world through Christ.

How many young people have been so misguided by the passing and changeable greatness of the earth, that they have forsaken their God and Savior to follow the will-o’-the-wisp of position, honor, riches, and authority! How many are leaving the green pastures of God’s Church to stumble through a barren and waste desert towards the shifting mirage of earthly greatness and power! How many are there in our own Church who are endeavoring to make a compromise between God and the world, by serving two masters, God and Mammon!

To all such, let it be said: “The path of glory leads but to the grave,” and “what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” Much that is despised and held in little esteem by men with their false standards and faulty vision will be held forever in honor and power before the throne of heavenly judgment, “because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

Living in Christ and safe in His redemption, we have all that we need for this life and for the life to come. Let us be happy to be considered small and insignificant in this world of distorted values, if only we shall be great and mighty in His sight in whose service we live, in whose Name we die, and in whose Kingdom we shall live eternally, in divine majesty, heavenly honor and never-ending glory.

W. A. M.

True Riches

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following poem is taken from the August-September 1922 issue of the Walther League Messenger, page 21.

If all things were mine, but not the Savior,
Were life then worth living for a day?
Could my yearning heart find rest and solace
Just in things that soon must pass away?
If all things were mine, but not the Savior,
Would that gain be worth a lifelong strife?
Is all earthly joy e’en worth comparing
With one moment of the Christ-filled life?

Had I wealth and love beyond all measure,
With a reverenced name both far and near,
Yet, without the hope of life eternal,
And my storm-tossed craft no harbor near;
If all things were mine, but not the Savior,
Who endured the Cross and died for me,
Could then all the world afford a refuge
Whither, in soul-anguish, I might flee?

Oh, what emptiness without the Savior
Midst all sin and sorrow here below,
And eternity-how dark without Him,
Only night and tears, an endless woe.
If I thus could live without the Savior,
When I come to die, how would it be?
Oh, to face the valley’s gloom without Him,
And without Him all eternity.

Oh! the joy, my all in all is Jesus,
Fragrant balm heart’s every wound to heal.
Ne’er a sin so great He will not pardon,
Nor a sorrow that He does not feel.
If I have but Jesus, only Jesus—
Nothing else in all the world beside,
Still I do possess all things in Jesus,
All my needs and more He will provide.

The Lutheran Companion

The Christian and His Home

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

A Cottage Interior (1868) by William Henry Midwood

The following article by Walter A. Maier is taken from the August-September 1923 issue of the *Walther League Messenger, *Volume 32, Number 1 & 2.

It has often been said, and correctly said, that the homes of a people are the pillars of their nation and that the moral fibre and strength of any country may be accurately gauged by the influence which is radiated from the family hearth. For, “when home-ties become loosened, when men and women cease to regard a worthy family life with all its duties fully performed and all its responsibilities lived up to, as the life best worth living, then,” as Theodore Roosevelt once said, “evil days for the commonwealth are at hand.”

As we look about us today we realize to our sorrow that the home life which has enraptured poets and inspired artists is in too many cases passing under the pressure of our too swiftly moving world with its cold commercialism and its driving pleasure-seeking, and that as a result the authority of the parents is often weakened, the interests of the home divided, and the pleasures of the family fireside deserted for the glitter and tinsel of outside attractions.

There is only one power that is strong enough to counteract this threatening evil, and that power is only, but wholly, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Put Jesus into any home; let Him be the third member whenever a new household is started; let there be inscribed upon its walls and graven upon the hearts of those who dwell within those walls: "Christ is the head of this house, the unseen Guest at every meal, the silent Listener to every conversation,” and such homes will come closest to the high ideal of a perfect home.

In such a home, marriage is something high and holy, not a mere temporary arrangement that may be discarded as soon as it proves inconvenient; in such a home, both husband and wife realize the divine love that prompted the all-wise Creator to tell all the generations of men: “Be fruitful and multiply,” and children are regarded as the gifts of God’s grace, so that there is no unwillingness to assume the duties and responsibilities of parenthood. In homes that are thus blessed the eternal Redeemer Himself is enthroned and it is His Spirit of peace and helpfulness and love that can quiet the tempests that arise in almost every family and adjust the misunderstandings that crop out as long as human nature still asserts itself.

And in any home where Jesus reigns supreme, children will love and honor their parents, for they will remember that the blessed Savior Himself was subject to His earthly parents and that even in the height of His great passion He looked down from the Cross and provided for the support and comfort of His mother. Christian young people will realize that the Savior still tells them: “Honor thy father and mother,” and a sense of gratitude for the immeasurable world of deep love that crowds itself into their parents’ lives, will lead them to count no effort too great that will enable their parents to spend their declining years in comfort and blessing and to receive unmistakable tokens of their childrens’ love and devotion.

But to both, parents and children, the Savior looks for a home life that will be a constant expression of faith in His Name. There can be no sincerely Christian home where the family altar has not been established and where the members of the household do not unite in morning and evening prayers to the Father above. There is something missing in that home where the Bible with the solutions which it offers for all the perplexing problems of any household, is not read in the quiet devotion of the family circle, for it is still true: “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”

Yet if the story of the Cross of Jesus finds an abiding place in any home, that family is indeed blessed and endowed with the power that makes this life of ours really worth living. Such a home may not attract the attention of men; it may not boast of the wealth and luxury, or offer the comforts and the attractions which men are apt to prize highly, but it will have another glory: it will have Christ, the eternal Redeemer, Christ as the Guide and Counsellor of husband and wife, Christ as the Guardian and Protector of all who dwell within that home, Christ to share in joy and happiness, Christ to soothe in sorrow and distress, Christ to receive the little children that are born to bless that home, Christ to wipe away the tears that come when a dear one is carried by angels into the heavenly home: Christ the Glory of time, the Crown of eternity.

W. A. M.

Prevention of Pregnancy

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following is an excerpt from a chapter titled On Marriage from Questions on Christian Topics by Rev. Carl Manthey-Zorn, published by Northwestern Publishing House, the official publisher for the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.

The Lord God blessed the first married couple and said to them: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” Gen. 1:28. This blessing and word of God extends over all married people down to the very end of time. The prime purpose of marriage is the orderly propagation of the human race. And the Holy Spirit makes the Psalmist to sing. “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them." Ps. 127: 3-3a. And to them that fear the Lord, the Holy Spirit has caused this song to be sung:

"Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord:
That walketh in his ways.
For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands:
Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house:
Thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed That feareth the Lord.
The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion:
And thou shall see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.
Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, And peace upon Israel.

— Psalm 128

And among God’s chosen people, Israel, married people were very sad who were not blessed with children, and a barren woman would weep and pray for children. Such a woman had reproach to bear among men, and the finger of scorn was pointed at her. But those women were esteemed and praised as being highly favored who were mothers of many children.

How do matters stand nowadays in this world and, to a great extent, oh, to such a great extent, in Christian Churches?

Nowadays people pity and feel sorry for a woman who is the mother of many children. They regard her as one that is highly afflicted. Yea, they sneer, and point the finger of scorn at such a woman; she has reproach to bear. And a fruitful woman nowadays will weep and lament at seeing child follow child in rapid succession. Married people nowadays rejoice when they find themselves blessed with few children or with none at all. A large family is not looked upon as a blessing, but rather as — as what?

As a curse? People do not make the words of God their thoughts, the psalms of God find no echo in their hearts; they make the speech of worldly people their thoughts, and their hearts echo the vile utterances of certain contemptible preachers who by word and pen declare: You cannot blame parents for trying to keep from having many children; such conduct is right and proper; he that has but one or two children can bring them up better than he that has a dozen; the average man hasn’t money enough to properly support and educate a lot of children; and why should a woman be tortured with the bearing and nourishing of a lot of children and with all the work that falls to the lot of such a manifold mother? Thus people are willing to marry, but the prime purpose of marriage they are not willing to achieve. Married women, yea, such as are only engaged, aye, even girls in their teens, lend their ears to “wise” women who teach them how to prevent pregnancy. And in their married life they put these teachings into practice. They will “not have” any children, or they will “have” one or two, just as they like, and just when they get ready. They prevent pregnancy if they like and whenever they like.

Now, we are not going to speak of the means that are employed to prevent pregnancy. No, indeed. But we shall say this: At a certain social gathering a lady said with a smile: “American mothers do not have many children.” “No,” was the reply ,“but that remark uncovers a quagmire of abominable filth.” Yes, indeed, such abominable doings made marriage far filthier than a pig-sty.

And how can such hearts be graced with faith and fear of the Lord and with the mind of a child of God? How can God’s blessing rest upon such a home? We verily believe that God’s wrath hovers there.

Making the Home Beautiful

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

An excerpt from The Lutheran Witness in 1924.

Even on the humblest family rests the obligation of making the home attractive, for old and young alike.

There should be a cluster of Christian friends. How beautiful are the home pictures of Luther’s family, with friends gathered to spend a pleasant social hour! Let the children and young people have similar friends. The wrong kind of friends are an open danger; often enough it has proved deadly. Make the home so attractive that it will draw, like a magnet, into its safe circle, instead of letting the little flock scatter, to seek pleasure perhaps in questionable company, or in questionable places.

Games and music of the right type are a great help. Every Christian home should be stacked with attractive Christian books and papers. What a wealth of pure amusement may thus be found! Save on others things, for in-stance, display; lavish here.

Of the beautiful, interesting, helpful things, not religious in themselves, take the best to make pleasant the home. These, too, are ours, like the flowers in the garden, the pets we love, the little hobbies of pleasant occupation, the useful arts combining diversion with other benefits.

— From “The Active Church Member.”

Whom Shall I Marry?

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following article is taken from the June 1923 issue of The Northwestern Lutheran, Volume 10, Number 12, on pp. 187-188. A PDF scan of the original issue may be found in the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Digital Library.

Young man, young woman, you who read this, does the above question bring a smile to your face? It need not, in fact, it should not, because marriage is a serious, solemn matter, in spite of what wordly, frivolously-minded persons think or say about it.

Because of the present laxity of morals, swamping of the divorce courts and the nauseating, deplorable dramas enacted therein, and frivolity with which many persons enter into the holy estate of matrimony, a discussion of the above question is indeed important, timely, and necessary.

“Marriage” says the learned Rev. J. C. Ryle, B. A., “is a state of life which has the greatest effect on the souls of those who enter into it. It helps them upwards or downwards. It leads them nearer to heaven or nearer to hell. We all depend much on the company we keep. Our characters are insensibly moulded by those with whom we pass our time. To none does this apply so much as to married people. Husbands and wives are continually doing either good or harm to one another’s souls.”

If these words of the Rev. Ryle are true - and you must admit that they are — then it is of the utmost importance that your life’s companion be such whose companionship will assist and not hinder you in obtaining your soul’s salvation.

Would you, if you marry, know whom you should marry, then consult, in the first place, your Bible. Marriage, briefly stated, is a union between one man and one woman. It is an “institution of divine origin,” and is designed for the happiness of those who enter this state, and for the purity and permanence of the race." Read Gen. 2: 18-24.

In 2 Cor. 6:14-17, we read: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God: as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.”

Applying this text the noted evangelist, Dr. Moody, once said: “What right has a praying man to marry a frivolous, scoffing young lady that hates Jesus Christ. the Bridegroom of the Church of God?”

To marry one who is an unbeliever is surely “to yoke oneself unequally” with an unbeliever. Would to God that Christian young men and women would ever keep that in mind.

Surely there is no need to speak at any length on this point to any Christian man or woman. It surely is clear that an unbelieving woman is not a suitable life’s companion for a believing man; neither is an unbelieving man a suitable companion for a believing woman. For a believing man or woman to marry an unbeliever, knowing her or him to be such, is a sin which will, if not repented of, lead to eternal perdition.

Did not St. Paul earnestly warn Christian men and women and say: “For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband, or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?” — I Cor. 7: 16.

Avoid, advises St. Paul, a marriage with an unbeliever. St. Paul knew what he was talking about. Give heed, therefore, all who are contemplating marriage.

Ah! many a pious husband, many a pious wife has been led from the narrow path by an unbelieving spouse and both have gone down to destruction.

You have heard of Samson. You have heard how his ruin was effected by Delilah, his heathen Philistine wife. — Judges 16:4-6.

You know the history of Solomon. No wiser man ever lived. No grander king ever reigned. His career was a glorious one, but it was finally marred — marred by his marriage with heathen women, who perverted his heart. — I Kings 11:4; Neh. 13:26.

Were not such marriages, believers with unbelievers, a disgusting feature of the godless age before the Flood? — Gen. 6:2.

Was it not marriage with the heathen that led Israel astray again and again?

An unbeliever you should certainly not marry.

But marriage with one of another faith is likewise to be carefully avoided. Surely it is something to be deeply deplored, when husband and wife can not and do not worship at the same altar. How serious the offence thus given to the world, to the children as they grow up! O the heart-breaking and life-wrecking strife and sorrow that has resulted from such unions! O the hopes that have been shattered! O the tears, the grief, the misery that has resulted! Would you, dear Lutheran men and women, ignore the lesson?

Too often, for the “sake of peace in the home,” church-going has ceased entirely, and the souls of husband, wife, and children have been deprived of eternal salvation. Is it not a case of “I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come?” Too often, too, either the husband or the wife has been forced, against conviction, to embrace a religion both burdensome and un-Scriptural.

Too often, we admit with regret, have Lutheran men and women failed seriously to ask themselves, Whom shall I marry? Too often have Lutheran men and women become unfaithful to their Church, and ultimately to God Himself, because they unthinkingly married one of another faith.

After consulting your Bible on this important question, forget not to consult your father and your mother. Your parents have, to use a common phrase, been “through the mill” If they are true parents, your earthly as well as your eternal welfare will be their earnest desire. Do not refuse their advice, lovingly given. Even if you are old enough to “think for your-self,” the advice of loving parents will do you no harm. And note: “A wise son hearth, his father’s instruction.” — Proverbs 13:1.

Too often, unfortunately, parents fail just here. They too often think that money and a reputation among men are the first requirements in a prospective son-in-law or daughter-in-law. But money or any other earthly advantage can not and does not secure a happy married life. Neither will saving faith in husband or wife be nourished and sustained thereby.

If your parents are Christians they will seek not only your earthly welfare, but especially your eternal welfare. To this end they will strongly advise you to marry none other than a truly Lutheran Christian man or woman.

Yes, truly Christian parents will never fail to walk in the footsteps of Abraham and Isaac of whom the Bible reports as follows: “And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh: And I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell.” — Gen. 24:2. 3.

“And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.” — Gen. 28:1.

If a full purse, a reputation among men, a pretty face cannot make marriage truly successful, what is necessary?

My young friends, first of all, treat marriage seriously. Make it the subject of much prayer. See to it that true, saving faith in Jesus Christ dwells in the heart of the person of your choice. See to it that you can throughout your married life worship your God at the same altar, for then, and then only, will you continue doing good, and not harm, to one another’s souls.

And lastly, choose a partner who has similar tastes and tendencies. If you do, your faith will not be subjected to such severe tests as would otherwise be the case.

And now a final word.

You who are contemplating marriage, have you joined that vast, unhappy throng, that would enjoy the earthly pleasures, but would avoid the responsibilities of married life, and that vulgarly says: “Not too many ‘kids’ for me, when I am married”?

Pardon me, dear reader, if I refuse to enter into this tragic phase of present-day married life. But to him and to her whose heart and mind have thus been perverted by Satan, I would simply, in tender pity, say, May God have mercy on you.

The writer of these lines is the happy father of a number of happy, healthy children. More than one childless couple has envied him and his happy wife in their lot of happy, healthy children, precious jewels in the sight of God, every one of them; and though many, yet not one too many. Sometimes, it is true, because means are limited, Satan would blight the happiness and cheerfulness of his wife and himself by whispering, What will you eat? What will you drink? Wherewith will you clothe yourself and your little ones? But, dear reader, the thought of Him who provides for the sparrow, who cares for the ravens which cry, who clothes the lily of the field turns the subtle temptation of Satan into a quickly passing shadow and reveals in all its resplendent beauty the loving and unremitting care of Him who once asked the tender and reassuring question, “Are ye not much better than they?”

“A Happy Husband and Father.”
The Australian Lutheran

The Treasure of Marriage

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following article is taken from the April 1923 issue of The Northwestern Lutheran, Volume 10, Number 8, on pp. 121. A PDF scan of the original issue may be found in the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Digital Library.

Not long ago in crossing the street we met a young woman pushing a baby carriage. In it lay her first born child, a daughter. She roused from sleep as the coach stopped swinging, and big, round eyes gazed squarely, innocently, and fearlessly into ours. The mother was proud of the health and growing intelligence of her baby.

We know some of the “facts” about this first born. Her coming was the source of joyous anticipation by the expectant parents, but the travail of birth was a severe trial. The first months were difficult. The baby did not thrive. The situation was made more depressing by an economic disturbance which compelled the young father to seek work and to accept a sort of employment for which he had had no preliminary training. The circumstances were the kind that often are permitted to discourage and separate young people.

But these two had their baby, each other, friends, parents and Christian faith. “They managed some-how.” The baby weathered the difficult first year. The father found a place to work. The mother mastered the routine of domestic life and maternity. They (and they means three souls) have won their first great battle in family life. The man and the woman have each other and they have their child.

“Your husband should be a proud man,” we said to the young mother. Her face fairly shone when she replied: “He is; he can hardly wait to get home at night.” These people are happy.

Marriage is a sacred rite, in that two people solemnly covenant before God and in His name to live in holy bonds of matrimonial relationship until death parts them. But back of marriage are the privileges and the functionings, the duties and the division of labor that involve a family, that normally requires children. Happiness based on parentage is a part of the marital promise. Unless there are obstacles of unusual sort happiness is not complete without children. Where flippant and artificial objections to children dominate husband and wife, they cannot expect God to provide them the compensations for life’s difficulties that yield contentment. “The Mystery” with which marriage is creatively endowed is thus rigorously locked out and the distinctive reason for marital grace is thereby excluded. We could tell you of an instance in which a young married person has chosen “a career.” To succeed she must not have children. She has wrecked a home. She will reap passing applause from crowds. She has, however, broken her solemn promise — not only to her husband but to her God.

Some sorts of “New freedom” are really forms of infidelity.

The Lutheran

Lutheran Tunes for Lutheran Congregation Singing

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following article by F. W. H. is taken from the February 10th issue of The Northwestern Lutheran, Volume 5, Number 3, on pp. 23-24. A PDF scan of the original issue may be found in the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Digital Library.

Our Lutheran Church is preeminently the Singing Church of Evangelical Christendom. No other church can rival her in the rich, soulful music in which she sings her immortal hymns. Countless other songs and melodies have been composed in their day, delighted their audience for a short while, and then passed into hopeless oblivion. Our majestic Lutheran chorals, however, have survived the wrecks of time, and are still today the delight of all true lovers of sacred music, irrespective of creed or language.

“The Lutheran Church,” says Dr. Schaff, the noted Reformed theologian, “draws the fine arts into the service of religion, and has produced a body of hymns and chorals, which, in richness, power, and unction, surpass the hymnology of all other churches in the world.” The late Alexander Guilmant, a Frenchman and devout Catholic, the unrivaled master of the organ in his day, declared that the Lutheran chorals are the most heart-stirring and inspiring tunes in the whole realm of sacred music. And the noted Episcopal choirmaster and organist of St. Louis, Mr. Charles Gallo-way, prizes the edification he receives, when serving at one of our church-concerts and hearing our congregations singing our Lutheran hymns, more highly than his stipulated fee.

Now what is it that gives to our Lutheran chorals or church tunes their imperishable charm? Knowing their history as we do, we must say that it is the spirit of heroic faith; singing in every note its profound adoration of the merciful and omnipotent God that makes these old Lutheran chorals so universally and solemnly impressive in their character. They are alive with pure and holy devotion. They thrill the very depth of the Christian heart because they are born from the deepest and holiest passion of their inspired singers. With few exceptions, they were composed in the heroic days of the Reformation and the Thirty Years’ War, days that called for heroic courage to believe and confess the truth as it is in Jesus; days that demanded heroic submission to the inscrutable ways of our God and Redeemer. The same spirit of sublime, God-given heroism that inspired the texts of our immortal hymns also inspired their heart-stirring tunes. Hence the tunes are an integral part of our hymns. Deprive our hymns of their historic musical setting, sing them to a newer, modern tune, and you have deprived the rose of the fragrance she alone possesses, you have robbed the nightingale of her most rapturous note. You may then have a sorry hybrid of a poem and some sort of tune, but nevermore the original, forceful, edifying, compact hymn! For in our Lutheran hymns the text and the tune are welded as inseparably together as body and soul in man. The reason is that one and the same spirit of holy devotion gave birth to the texts as well as the chorals, or tunes, of our Lutheran hymnology.

Broadly speaking then, our Lutheran chorals are preeminently devotional in character.

It is different with the hymns and tunes of the eighteenth century. That was the time of decaying orthodoxy, and it witnessed the rise of Pietism in Germany and of Methodism in England. Speaking of English tunes in particular, it is a well-known fact that the Reformed Churches of Great Britain at first possessed no chorals of their own. Some of them (e. g., the Episcopal Church!) originally borrowed their sacred tunes and even many hymns from the Lutheran Church of Germany. Others (e. g., the Presbyterians!) contented themselves with chanting the Psalms of the Bible. They declared all “man-made” tunes and hymns to be inventions of the Devil. When, however, Methodism swept over the British Islands, it produced the two greatest hymn-writers of the English-speaking world, Isaac Watts (1674-1748) and Charles Wesley (1708-1788). They were followed by other hymn-writers, both in England and America, whose songs have been set to original tunes. But what is their character? Like the emotional spirit that fostered them, they are, with a few classical exceptions, shallow, insipid, and lacking in that deep reverence of feeling, that solemn harmony of tone which characterizes our old Lutheran chorals.

It is true, they call themselves Gospel-hymns, but upon closer inspection you will find that very many of them contain very little Gospel and much less of true choral music. Many of them are unevangelical in text, urging and exhorting the sinner to consecrate himself to God by his own powers. Others are so silly and meaningless that sincere Christians in these churches, among them President Woodrow Wilson, have publicly protested against their further use. In their musical setting, particularly, these sensational Gospel-hymns are but little removed from the degenerate and discordant “rag-time” tunes with which the Salvation Army tills the streets of our large cities at night. How much these decadent church-tunes of a more recent date have served to vitiate the popular taste for sacred needs no further comment.

But there is another class of popular church-tunes to which we wish to call attention here. We mean the sentimental art-songs of the nineteenth century that have succeeded in creeping into the hymnology of the Church at large, via the Christless opera. Writers of text-books on the standard operas of our day point with no little pride to the fact that so many airs of the operatic stage have become favorite tunes in the Church. We sincerely deplore this fact. Pleasing, captivating as these airs may be, we hold that they have no birthright in the Church of Christ. They were never intended by their composers for the sanctuary of God. Many of them are so sentimental, even sensuous in their character, that they ought to be forever banished from the chaste lips of the singing Bride of Christ. We hold with Dr. Frank Damrosch of New York who declared: “I do not want an operatic melody when I enter a church.”

Now if all the above concerning church-music is true, as it is, we believe the slogan: “Lutheran Tunes for Lutheran Congregational Singing!” to be of insisting force for every loyal Lutheran. We were very much surprised, therefore, at a criticism that recently appeared on a newly published Lutheran Hymnary (hymn-book with tunes!) and which held the book to be impossible for the English Lutheran Church at large because, forsooth! one-third of the hymns were translations and half of the tunes German and Norwegian chorals. For the life of us we cannot see why the great number of original Lutheran hymns and chorals should prove a drawback to the general usage of the hymnal in question. We for one want to register our unqualified approval of our Norwegian brethren taking these chorals into their English hymnary. We for one would have held them disloyal to the best interests of our dear Lutheran Church if they had omitted to embody these matchless hymns and chorals in the hymn book intended for their children using the English tongue. We know that these old Lutheran hymns and tunes are not popular with the English-speaking people. But how can they be? Our English populace does not know them and therefore has them still to learn. And they can be learned by English people just as readily as they are learned by German or Norwegian folks. For the last ten years we are conducting a mission school in the tenement district of St. Louis, and we invite everybody and anybody to convince himself if our old Lutheran tunes cannot be learned by children of almost every nation under the sun! Again we can point to the negroes in our Colored Mission, who are originally neither German nor Norwegian, and who sing our Lutheran hymns with a vim as though they had learned them at their mother’s breast. We know it takes time and patience to teach our rising English-speaking generation these noble hymns, but the joy at hearing our English youths finally singing the grand old hymns of the Reformation and glorifying their God and Redeemer in them richly repays you for all the trouble. When we hear of a Lutheran pastor who studiously avoids giving out our historic hymns and chorals in public worship, we cannot help thinking that he is either very vain and chasing after cheap popularity, or that he is very ignorant concerning the nature of true church-music, or that he is reprehensibly indolent and shirks the labor of teaching these grand tunes to his people. We hold it to be one of the missionary duties of the Lutheran Church in America to acquaint the American public not only with the saving doctrine of our Church, but also with its sacred hymnology. If we Lutherans fail to do this, if we prefer the light, emotional operatic tunes of the present day to the devout, edifying tunes of our fathers, and thus suffer our historic hymns with their chorals to be forgotten, we are depriving our own posterity of the sweetest choral music this side of heaven. Therefore: “Lutheran Tunes for Lutheran Congregational Singing!”

F. W. H.

Head Coverings: A Laudable Custom

Sun, 16 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

From the General Rubrics of the Lutheran Liturgy with commentary by Arthur Carl Piepkorn in The Conduct of the Service. The underlined portion is the rubric from The Lutheran Liturgy, pp. 417-419, 425-427, published by Concordia Publishing House, representing the official position of the Lutheran Church—Missouri and Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Church as members of the Synodical Conference. The full book may be purchase from Emmanuel Press or viewed online for free (this quotation may be found on p. 10).

It is a laudable custom, based upon a Scriptural injunction (I Cor. 11:3-15), for women to wear an appropriate head covering in Church, especially at the time of divine service. “Appropriate head covering” includes a hat, a veil, a handkerchief, or a head-band. This custom is not only an ecclesiastical one, but also one that is dictated by good social usage.
On and after Easter Day, 1955, in any case of a contradiction between these General Rubrics as they are here printed and other rubrics published elsewhere in the official service books of the Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North America, these General Rubrics shall govern.

Are You Getting The Best Out Of Life?

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following article by Walther A. Maier is take from the February 1922 issue of the Walther League Messenger, volume 30, number 7, on page 247.

Do you walk on mountains wrapped in golden sunlight and bathed in the crystal of the air, or do you grovel in darkened caverns where light and warmth seldom penetrate? Are your eyes opened to behold the far-reaching breadth of life, or does your short-sighted vision stop at the boundaries of self and of the moment present? Can you say that this will be a better world, that the total of human happiness will be increased because you have lived, or will your whole career be so self-centered, cal-loused, and cold, that being ended, its record will be written on the restless waters of the sea of failure? Ask yourself: Am I getting the best out of life? Or, put the question this way: Is life, the life that is really worth living, getting the best out of me?

When the first Christian missionary came to the British Isles, the King of Northumbria summoned his nobles to a gathering at which the new. religion would be examined. At this meeting an old chief arose and put this test to christianity. He said: “You know, O king, how, on a winter evening, when you are sitting at supper in your hall with your company around you, when the night is dark and dreary, when the rain and the snow rage outside, when the hall inside is lighted and warm with a blazing fire, sometimes it happens that a sparrow flies into the bright hall out of the dark night, flies through the hall, and then flies out into the dark night again. We see him for a few moments, but we know not whence he came, nor whither he goes in the blackness of the storm outside. So is the life of man. It appears for a short space in the warmth and brightness of this life, but what came before this life and what is to follow this life, we know not. If, therefore, these new teachers can enlighten us as to the darkness that went before and the darkness that is to come after, let us hear what they can teach us.”

But Christ’s blessed Gospel gives us not only the answer to these problems that have perplexed thinking men of all lands and ages, but also enlightenment as to that span of years between birth and death which is commonly called life. As fleeting and as swift as the flow of years may be, life may be lived and bring blessing, or it may be wasted and bring judgment. Lost wealth may be recovered by energy and thrift, lost knowledge by reading and study, lost health by medicine and rest, but time lost is lost forever.

Christian young men and young women cannot and dare not lose time and waste their life. Living in God, in whom they also move and have their being, theirs is a definite purpose in life, a fixed objective, to reach which they count no service too hard, no sacrifice too demanding. Because they know that whether they eat or drink or whatsoever they do, they must do all to the glory of God, they realize that they have been born into this passing life to serve the Maker and Redeemer, whom they will glorify in the endless life. And because the love toward their fellow-men is second only to the love which they must give to their God, they will find their other great purpose in life in the uplifting and sustaining of their fellow-men and fellow-sinners and in bringing them to the Savior whose death gave our life something real and imperishable.

The plain and plodding life which the Christian young man and young woman live in God and for mankind is not spectacular and showy. Someone has said: “To human vision, nothing was ever smaller than the grain of seed which fell into Calvary’s soil and died. To any vision, nothing will ever be vaster than the tree of life which, having come up from Calvary’s dying seed, is overshadowing human space and human kind and sending out its boughs through all the immensities." And in much the same way the world will not pause or slacken its pace before any redeemed disciple of Christ except to smile and wonder. Yet the humblest peasant in the obscurity of the lowliest hovel who has taken the best out of life-and that is Jesus the Christ as the only but all-sufficient cure for all the sin and wrong in this sick world of ours—has lived for more blessing than the most exalted man of millions in the magnificence of the costliest mansion, who may have gained the whole world, but in so doing lost his own soul.

Get the best out of life! Let Christ live in you and you in Him, so that the glory of salvation revealed in you, may be shed abundantly upon those who have missed life’s real goal and are battering the eternal for the temporal.

W. A. M.

Home or Career?

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following article by Walter A. Maier can be found in the December 1922 issue of the Walther League Messenger on page 171.

“Can a Woman Run a Home and a Job, Too?” is the rather blunt but important question which the “Literary Digest” asks and which it attempts to answer by quoting statements of a number of more or less well-known women in different stations and positions of life. The majority of the women whose opinion has been printed are of the opinion that it is possible for a woman to have a career and at the same time to be a successful homemaker.

This is a question which more or less directly concerns all of the young people of our church, for the idea is becoming more and more prevalent that when a girl marries she need not give up the position or profession which has engaged her efforts up till that time, but that she can continue and take part in a life that is divided between home duties and the pursuit of an outside career.

Our young men and young women should realize that the place for any woman after marriage is the home. There are exceptions, it is true, but the average girl will find that the multiplicity and variety of duties connected with the proper care for the home and for the family are so great and so numerous that there is little time and less energy left for any form of work that is not directly connected with the home life. The widow of Admiral Perry, discoverer of the North Pole brings this out quote strongly when she says: “It is impossible to serve two masters at once and do it well.” Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, wife of one of our former presidents, comes to the same conclusion and states that no woman can succeed in business “and bring up her children properly and make a desirable and successful home at the same time.”

Experience has proved that either the home or the work will suffer. Very often both suffer, but the home much more than the work. Family trouble, absence of children, furnished-room-homes, overwork and other evils very often follow in the wake of a married life that is torn between business and the home. The young bride who ventures out into the sea of matrimony with only half of her attention on the compass of happiness need not be surprised if she finds herself heading toward rocky shores or drifting about in untried waters. And the young husband who permits his wife to keep up her former business connections should not complain when he realizes that his dreams of home and happiness have only partially been fulfilled.

The business of woman’s life lies only in her home and with her children, and until our young people realize this with its full meaning they have not grasped one of the fundamental requisites for happiness in married life. What our country needs today is strong and happy homes, for the home is the foundation of the nation. What our church needs today is determinedly Christian homes, where children are reared in the fear and admonition of the Lord, for the home training, especially in matters of religion, is the basis and support of all subsequent education. What all normal, healthy, and sincere young people need is a helpful and harmonious home, where the Savior reigns and where He has given them large and increasing responsibilities.

But such homes can be founded and will endure only when there is no division of interests, no power that draws away from the home, no influence that makes the duties toward the home seem irksome and monotonous. Yet such homes will be founded, with the Savior’s help, whenever there is that love and feeling of mutual esteem which is happy to begin wedded life humbly and with self-denial, and to count no interests on earth stronger than those which center about the family hearth.

W. A. M.

Whereby Should a Christian Be Governed in Choosing a Spouse?

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

We cannot expect people that are “in love” — we purposely choose this expression — to believe it, but true it is, nevertheless: Love, even fervent love, and attachment, even strongest attachment, unless they rest upon the proper foundation and are borne up and supported by it, are but a pleasant dream and, as a general thing, of very short duration. They are mere bubbles.

No, we cannot expect people that are in love to accept this statement as true in their case. And yet it is voiced by a man who had nothing but human observation to guide him, by the poet Schiller, in his beautiful “Lay of the the Bell.” Schiller sings:

See … if, forever united,
The heart to the heart flows in one, love-delighted;
Illusion is brief, but Repentance is long.
Lovely, thither are they bringing
With her virgin wreath the bride.
To the love-feast clearly ringing,
Tolls the church-bell far and wide.
With that sweetest holyday
Must the May of life depart;
With the cestus loosed — away
Flies Illusion from the heart!

But Schiller continues:

Yet love lingers lonely,
When Passion is mute
And the blossoms may only
Give way to the fruit.

Hereupon the poet, in lines that are both beautiful and true — as far as human truth and human beauty go — points out the conditions under which love will abide when passion takes its inevitable flight: he tells how the husband and father must labor and strive to provide for his family, how the housewife and mother must train her children and perform her household duties with untiring zeal and devotion. Yes, indeed, these things are indispensable where love is to abide when passion, or let us say, “being in love,” takes its flight; and not only to abide but to grow stout and strong and ever stouter and ever stronger. But love must grow so stout and so strong that the words will apply to it which the Holy Spirit sings concerning the love of the heavenly Bridegroom and of the Church, his bride, which love He likens to true conjugal love. The Spirit sings and says:

… Love is strong as death;
Jealousy is cruel as the grave:
The coals thereof are coals of fire which hath a most vehement flame.
Many waters cannot quench love,
Neither can the floods drown it.

— Sol.'s Song, 8:6-7

Now, to make love thus strong and stout, something more is required than labor on the part of the husband and father and the training of the children and untiring zeal and devotion to her household duties on the part of the housewife and mother. Genuine fear of the Lord is required on the part of both. For where there is genuine fear of the Lord, there is the Holy Spirit, the true and living God. And where the Holy Spirit is He twines the hearts about with a bond of Heaven-born love, of His own weaving. And this bond is stout and strong and cannot be torn asunder, and every effort to loosen it and tear it asunder will only result in making it stouter and stronger. And oftentimes the things that seek to loosen this bond and tear it asunder are powers which that love which is based upon more fidelity in the performance of duty, on the part of both husband and wife, cannot resist and overcome. But the bond which we just referred to is a bond that holds and one that binds the hearts of man and wife together in such fashion that in the fear of the Lord each spouse lives solely for the other even unto death.

For this reason we say: In choosing a spouse let a Christian be governed not merely by love and attachment. Let men be guided by Prov. 31:10-31, and women by Ps. 128. Prov. 31: 10-31, gives an excellent description of a virtuous woman, while Ps. 128 describes a man who is signally blessed of the Lord. In both passages the tear of the Lord is mentioned as the all-controlling factor.

And both man and wile, when about to choose, or when about to decide to accept a spouse, should call upon God in the name of Jesus Christ and pray that He, the Author and Institutor of marriage, would help them, His children, to find a spouse after His heart.

Oh, what happy marriages there would be if this were done!

But oh, how carelessly people will enter the state of matrimony, even in Christian Churches! And how many unhappy marriages there are in consequence!

Just a word on mixed marriages.

By mixed marriages we mean marriages in which one spouse is either an unbeliever or a member of an unorthodox church. If we consider how intimate is the relation of married people to each other, if we bear in mind how they are to lead a joint life in every particular, how, above all, they ought to be of one mind with respect to the chief concerns of life - one must say that the contracting of a mixed marriage is a pretty sure sign of more or less indifference on the part of the orthodox spouse toward his or her most holy faith. And what will be the result? Either increased indifference or friction. If the marriage be blessed with children, in which faith shall they be brought up? In none at all? In the true faith? In the false one? Or the boys in the father’s faith and the girls in the mother’s? When sickness sets in and death draws nigh, shall the orthodox Christian see his spouse lie there and die with callous heart and void of comfort, or shall he see how some Roman Catholic priest gives him ungodly counsel and care, or how some sectarian preacher treats the poor soul with false comfort and goads it with merciless demands?

O my dear young Christian friends, in choosing a spouse have an eye to the faith, your own and your partner’s faith, and choose a spouse who is one with you in the real, true faith.

A Beautiful Story of Family Worship

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following is the fifth letter from Eunice: Letters of a Fatherly Friend to a Young Christian Mother, pages 13-16, published by Concordia Publishing House in 1921 as a translation from the original German by Rev. Carl Manthey-Zorn. The full book may be read for free at https://archive.org/details/zorn-eunice.

DEAR EUNICE: —

Years ago,—for you know that by this time I am an old retired minister, — years ago I once came into the home of some young married people belonging to my congregation, and was asked to remain for supper, which I did. In fact, I must confess, if they had not invited me, I would have invited myself, for I was hungry, and it was too late for me to go home for supper. And I had a great and especial fondness for this young couple. I had confirmed both the husband and his wife, and had married them. And now I want to tell you of the experience I had there.

When supper was ready, we all sat down at the table,— all of us, for there were five children, ranging in age from nine years down to six months. The father held the baby in his lap, and the next youngest sat in a high chair. Father, the head of the house, said grace, and the three oldest children also said a prayer, in unison. The one in the high chair said, “Abba, Father, Amen”; and baby said, “Abba.” We all ate with a will and were in the best of spirits. When we were through eating, before the father returned thanks, the oldest of the children, a boy, got up and brought a book and laid it before his mother. She looked at her husband, expecting him to say something. And he said to me: “We always have family worship after supper, and Anna [that was the young mother’s name] does the reading, for she can read German better than I. [This was a German family.] But do you do the reading to-day!” “O no,” said I, “I am your guest and join in whatever is your custom.” So Anna read. But papa would always inject some very simple explanations and ask questions of the children, and occasionally the children, especially the five-year-old girl, would ask a question. Then an evening prayer was said, and a short verse was sung. And then father returned thanks. — Never in all my life did I attend a more beautiful family worship.

Then mother cleared the table and washed the dishes. Meanwhile I played with the children and talked with their father, who was of a very cheerful disposition. Then came mother and said the children must now go to bed. And very nicely they all said good night. After a bit the father gave me a sign, placing his finger on his lips, and softly led me to the kitchen door, which stood just a wee bit open. And what did I see? There sat that dear young mother with baby in her lap and all the other four children kneeling . about her, in their night-gowns, and each one saying his prayer. Then mother kissed each one of them, and upon their foreheads made the sign of the holy cross. She did not know that I saw it all.

O blest that house where faith ye find.
And all within have set their mind
To trust their God and serve Him still,
And do in all His holy will!

O blest the parents who give heed
Unto their children’s foremost need,
And weary not of care or cost:
To them and heaven shall none be lost.

— ELH #190

That man and his wife loved their children with a true and a genuine love. They meant to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They did not restrain their children from being cheerful and happy, they were not forever scolding. The tone that prevailed in that house was not forbidding, gloomy, fearful. However, if a child did something that was really bad, it was corrected and punished. Mother especially had to attend to that, for father was away at work all day. But after every punishment there always followed some kind encouragement. Mother would speak about as follows: “Do you see, when you are bad, some little devil is at your ear and whispers: Be bad! And his whispering goes ’way down into your heart. And you cannot drive that away. You must say: Dear Savior, drive that devil away! And then the devil will have to go away.” I must admit that I taught Anna this.

I think I shall add nothing more to this story.

YOUR OLD FRIEND

There is No Place Like Home

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following brief article, titled “Home”, appeared in the October 1921 issue of the Walther League Messenger, Volume 30, Number 3, on page 71.

“There is no place like home.” This proverbial saying is used of the home chiefly as a place of real satisfaction and happiness; and this in spite of the fact that there are many homes in which there is anything but happiness.

But “there is no place like home” is true in another sense. Just because the home is the place of the purest and most real enjoyment and happiness, it is also the mightiest agency for developing and maintaining those virtues and qualities that are absolutely essential to real contentment and happiness among men whatever their relations to one another may be.

There are three institutions that may properly be called divine: the home, the state, and the church. The home was divinely instituted when God in Eden brought Adam and Eve together as man and wife and commanded them to live together and to beget children. The state was divinely instituted when God gave authority to men to enact such laws and regulations as might seem needful to order, safety and general well-being in material and temporal affairs. The church was divinely instituted when God sent His Son into the world to redeem men from sin and the power of the devil and gather them into a communion of believers through the Spirit and by the means of grace.

The home comes first, first in time and first in importance. If the home is what it should be, so that the young are trained up according to divine requirement, then there will be no trouble in solving the problems which concern the state. And again if the home were what it should be, a truly Christian home, then the Church’s victory over the world would be a comparatively easy fight.

Rev. Sheatsley in Lutheran Standard

The Blessed Vocation of Motherhood

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following is the first letter from Eunice: Letters of a Fatherly Friend to a Young Christian Mother, published by Concordia Publishing House in 1921 as a translation from the original German by Rev. Carl Manthey-Zorn. The full book may be read for free at https://archive.org/details/zorn-eunice.

DEAR EUNICE:
May God bless you, dear Eunice, and may the Savior comfort you!

You are now a wife and a mother. What a blessed thing that is! Without any question whatever this is a vocation that is well-pleasing unto God. For God has instituted the estate of matrimony and ordained all that it comprises. Did not God create man “male and female”? Did not God bless them and say unto them: “Be fruitful and multiply”? Is it not He who ordained that man and wife should be “one flesh”?1 - True, after the Fall God laid much pain and sorrow upon child-bearing,2 but that is not saying that God no longer regards matrimony a sacred estate upon which He delights to lay His richest blessings. No, while the earth continues, matrimony shall be a sacred and a blessed institution.3

Now, no doubt, you have tasted the pain and sorrow of it all. Did you think, at times, that God was angry with you? O Eunice, you are a beloved child of God through faith in Christ Jesus!4 When the pain and sorrow and fear of pregnancy and childbirth come upon you, God only wants you in full and childlike trust to fly to Him as to your dear heavenly Father, and to say to Him:

O God of mercy, pity me!
Thou bidst me bring my grief to Thee.
Thine own beloved child am I,
Though hell and world and sin decry.
My Lord and God, Thou art my Stay,
In Thee am I content alway;
Thou art my Jesus, Savior, Friend,
My Comforter, world without end.
This cheers my heart and makes me bold;
In every storm to Thee I hold;
Thy Word shall light my paths again:
O God of mercy, hear! Amen.

Eunice, dear child of God, I implore you, beware of the evil spirit and of the ungodly talk that is current with increasing brazenness among unbelieving women, and has bewitched and seduced so many — alas! — who profess to be Christians.5 I mean such talk as when a woman says: “I won’t have any children!” Or: “I am willing to have one or two, but that is enough. It is so troublesome to have them, and to raise them is a lot of trouble too. It costs too much to have children and to raise them, especially nowadays, when everything costs so much.” And they act accordingly, as you may well know. In various ways they prevent pregnancy. But it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.6 Some, when they become aware of their pregnancy, get rid of it. That is downright murder. Such a wicked woman will say: “As long as it is not born, it is only a part of myself, and I have a right to do as I please with myself.” But those are vain words.7 The old saying is true: It is better to raise ten than to have to answer for one.

Eunice, dear child of God, let God’s Holy Spirit lead you!8 Let the Word of God be your guide.9 God the Holy Spirit, in the Word of God, says that God bestows His blessings on child-bearing.10 "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is His reward. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them."11 Gladly accept the children your Father in heaven bestows upon you. Pray for every child you bear, yes, pray for it, that it may be the Lord’s child eternally. There is another old saying: The more children you have, the more you pray.

May the good Spirit of God and His faithful Word rule your mind, my dear Eunice! You want to be saved, I am sure. Now, you shall be saved in child-bearing; childbearing is the way in which God wants to lead you to salvation, if you continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety, not allowing the Evil Spirit and wicked talk to beguile you.12

This is the prayer of
YOUR OLD FRIEND.

More Consecration

Sun, 09 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

From the sermon delivered by Rev. Walter A. Maier at the opening of the twenty-ninth international convention of the Walther League and published by resolution of that convention in the October 1921 issue of the Walther League Messenger, Volume 30, Number 3, on page 55.

1 Chronicles 24:5 : “Who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?”

. . . . Consecrating yourselves means giving yourselves to the service of the Lord; it means surrendering yourselves, your very bodies and souls, means rising above the low and ordinary things of this life and coming into a very holy and intimate relation with the God whom we would serve. Consecration to the Lord’s service turns us away from this earth with all its fleeting vanities and gilded pleasures, leads us out to Mount Calvary’s heights, and makes us bow in deep contrition at the foot of the glory-crowned Cross; it tears us away from ourselves, from our self-centered and selfish interests and makes us willing, yes, happy, to serve in the spirit of Good-Samaritanship for the temporal and eternal welfare of the bodies and souls of our fellowmen. It is that conquering power that has worked in the lives of the great heroes of faith and endowed them with strength divine to defeat the forces of godlessness that have risen up against the kingdom of Christ’s elect; and it is consecration today that will help to turn the tide of battle and bring victory for the cause of the crucified Redeemer.

So when God looks down upon you and asks: “Who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?” He is appealing for your help in the spreading of the saving Gospel, He is asking each one of you, individually and very directly, for more faithfulness, for greater sincerity, for stronger love. And, oh, how the world cries for a fuller measure of this self-dedication; how the spiritual need of the millions who live on without the Savior in their hearts and lives emphasizes the imperative necessity of an increasing number of earnest and self-sacrificing followers of Jesus; how the painful consciousness of our weakness and selfishness and narrowness makes us yearn for an enholied life, sanctified by service to Christ!

With every day while the opportunities of this service are becoming larger and more promising, the call for consecration becomes louder and more insistent, especially the call for complete consecration, for work as called toilers in the white harvest of souls to be saved for Jesus. For almost three quarters of a century our church has appealed year after year for pastors and teachers, for consecrated young men and women who are qualified to assume the duties and responsibilities of Christian stewardship, and in all of these years there never have been enough who have responded and answered, as did the prophet of old: “Here I am, send me.” And as a result the progress of the Gospel has been retarded and the growth of our church stunted. Hundreds are dying every day in our great cities without having a Christian pastor bring them the comfort of salvation; thousands of our children are being fed with the dry husks of Christ-less and anti-Christian education, because there are not enough teachers for our parish schools; millions of heathen are expiring in darkness and despair, because there is no missionary to show them the way and the light and the truth,-all this because there never were enough earnest and devoted young men and women who were willing to follow the appeal for consecration.

Shall it continue thus? Shall it be said of our Lutheran Church and of our Walther League that its members have been cold and indifferent to the spiritual need of unsaved souls? God forbid! By the sore need of a suffering and decaying world, by our great resources in money and man-power, by our inheritance of the only remedy for human sin and spiritual sickness, yes, by the very blood drops which fell from the Savior’s wounds, the path of consecration is calling us, calling you this day, bidding you to go into your innermost hearts and to ask yourselves whether the Lord has not called you to consecrate yourself this day unto His service, as a pastor, as a missionary, as a teacher, as a deaconess, in any one of the many ways by which this life of ours may be made worth living. . . .

But even in our daily life and in the pursuit of our earthly calling, there is a quiet but determined spirit of consecration which should guide us in making our lives sanctified and useful. Remember, the acid test of any person’s Christianity is the test that shows whether or not he is leading others to the same Savior whose name he bears. And one of the great evils in our Lutheran Church to-day is this, that the members of our congregation are leaving altogether too much to their pastors, forgetting that they themselves must be their brothers’ keeper, neglecting their calling as missionaries of the Savior. We talk and read much about personal work, about enthusiasm and great interest in individual missionary effort, but with all this, the fears and the excuses of our young people, and their hesitancy about telling others of Christ, has kept this personal work, this enthusiasm, this great interest on a pedestal. The only way to bring the Gospel to the people with whom we come into contact in our every day life is to go to them and to tell them of their Savior. And God has told us to go. But we do not go. Where are the young people in our church to-day who are so strongly consecrated to the service of their Lord that they will be happy to bear personal testimony to His redeeming grace, that they will be anxious to give to others the comfort and the hope of salvation? Where is the young man or woman who is willing to stand up for Jesus, as we just sang, when standing up for Jesus means standing up against popular opinion, and facing the ridicule and blasphemy of an unbelieving world? We all need more, immeasurably more, consecration to the service of the Lord in our every day lives. . . .

Need I say that our Walther League needs more of this devotion? Are there not painful but unmistakable signs of laxity, of indifference, of carelessness in the profession of our faith? Has there been an inward growth in devotion which has kept pace with the outward growth in numbers? Have our young people lived up to their high and holy calling? If we were to take a spiritual inventory of our League, if we could measure the extent of our love and loyalty, if it were possible to peer into our innermost hearts, what would we find? Conscious of our utter weakness and of our glaring shortcomings, we simply pray in a humble and contrite spirit: “Give us, O Lord, more consecration.”

A plain statement of the very plainest facts will acknowledge that our whole Lutheran church today is suffering from the absence of a full measure of consecration and devotion among its members. Three quarters of a century ago when Dr. Walther and the brave souls who committed themselves to his spiritual care laid the foundation for our Lutheran church in America, there were consecrated workers for Christ. And the Lord blessed their efforts and the church grew and flourished until it has grown to be a magnificent army of more than a million immortal souls. Grown in numbers, yes; in wealth, in power, in ostentation, yes ;—in spirituality, in consecration, in the extent of its devotion,—would to God we could answer with the same “Yes”! Truth presses an unwilling “No” from our lips. The blessings of the Lord are not resting as visibly upon our church now, as they did then, and while our church is growing outwardly, we are every year, losing thousands and thousands of immortal souls, for whose eternal redemption the Savior lived and died. We are compromising, we are beginning to conform to the world, we are losing our first love.

But more. From without powerful and satanic forces are at work, trying to tear down our church and to reduce our faith to the ruins of world wisdom. Organized secrecy is becoming more pronounced in its antagonism to Christ; worldliness is making greater inroads upon our church with every year, so that the time has come when we must ask ourselves: Will our church survive or perish? Will it assert an unflinching determination to protect and to maintain the faith of our fathers, with the pure Word and the pure sacraments, which they bequeathed to us, their children,—or will it sink and surrender in indifference and lukewarmness?

In this hour of need your church calls to you and pleads with you for loyalty and for devotion. Before us lies a future heavy with burdens which must be carried, with responsibilities which must be assumed, with problems which must be solved. And these burdens will be your burdens, these responsibilities your responsibilities, these problems your problems, because you are the church of the future, because you represent the very life-blood of sound Lutheranism for the coming generation; because with you, with your loyalty or your indifference our hopes for the coming years stand or fall. And so when your own Savior calls to you to-day and asks you if you are willing to consecrate yourself to His service, answer His plea; resolve to go out in His strength as conquerors for salvation, to pledge yourself in unswerving allegiance to the unfinished task of your church. And strive to show this consecration in your life, for “if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature.” Be outstanding Christians, determined followers of the crucified but now glorified Lord, before whom even the world will stop in awe and admiration. While godlessness, immorality, sin, and vice grows and increases, while the world hastens farther and farther away from its God in its mad career of sin and crime, let your light shine forth into the darkness of unbelief, shedding rays of hope and happiness into the despair of benighted and comfortless souls.

W. A. M.

Trifles Make for Perfection

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

An excerpt from The Lutheran Pioneer from the April 1915 issue, Volume 37, number 5, on page 27, a monthly publication of the Synodical Conference covering home and world missions from 1879-1933. This volume can be found in the CSL Scholar archive.

A celebrated sculptor was one day visited by a friend. He had come to look at a statue on which the artist was working. He had been there several times before, but upon this particular occasion he was much surprised at the great progress the sculptor had made.

Full of astonishment he cried, “What an extraordinary change you have made in the statue since I was here last! What have you done to it?” “Oh,” replied the artist, “this part I have somewhat changed, that feature I have made a little more prominent, to the lips I have given a little more expression, and this part I have polished.” “But, friend,” cried the visitor, “the things you claim to have done are all mere trifles; they surely could not bring about such a great change!”

“Certainly, they are trifles,” said the artist, “but you want to remember that trifles go to make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.”

In striving after holiness, do not forget that trifles, the little things, count for very much.

On Going to Church

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Peasant family in church - Adolf Lüben (public domain)

An excerpt from The Northwestern Lutheran, Volume 1, Issue 22, on November 21st, 1914. It can be found in the WELS Essays archive on page 184.

Go early to church. Not only be punctual, but be in your place before the hour when the service is announced to begin. Then you will not disturb other worshipers.

Go in a reverent spirit. On the way remember whither you go. Avoid lightness of manner and conversation on worldly topics.

Before you enter, and as you enter the church, breathe a silent prayer of invocation for the influence of the Holy Spirit.

As you take your place, bow your head reverently in prayer for yourself and for all others who enter the sanctuary for the service about to begin.

Resolve that you will foster no thought, fix your eyes on no object, utter no word that will tend to divert your mind from the holy purpose for which you have come into this place.

As the minister enters the pulpit, offer an earnest, silent prayer in his behalf.

In all the service take an active part, as hearer and as worshiper.

At the close of the service, after a moment of prayerful silence, greet with cheerfulness and good-will all whom you happen to meet, remembering that Christian fellowship is a part of Christian worship.

Bishop Vincent

Courtship and Marriage: Conduct of the Betrothed and Newly Married

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The Wedding Register (1920) by Edmund Blair Leighton

The following is the fifth and final article in a series titled Courtship and Marriage from the 1924 volume of The Lutheran Witness, the official publication of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, by Rev. Hans Manthey Zorn.

Between the newly engaged there is, of course, a measure of that strong young love which is only natural and right and proper; but here, too, that self-control which should mark all Christian conduct must not be forgotten. There is no warrant for that utter abandon between the betrothed which many consider right just because it is so common. Indulgence of fleshly appetites without restraint is something that is practiced by “the Gentiles that know not God,” says St. Paul, 1 Thessalonians 4:5. If the betrothed walk in the fear of God, they will also have a decent regard for their fellow-men. While no one must be a slave to public opinion, yet a Christian must not live in contempt of it, for a good reputation is of the greatest value.

And let the betrothed plan to have a home for themselves. The time is approaching when they shall leave father and mother and live in a home of their own. Certainly a widowed mother or father must not be neglected, but generally speaking, it is by all means best that the newly married live by themselves. Exceptions, proper exceptions, there always are, and let us say that it is easier to live with the wife’s mother than with the husband’s mother; for it is the women who are together all day long while the man is out at work. Let the betrothed plan to have a home and prepare to furnish it.

The newly married, too, must walk in the fear of God and not recklessly abandon themselves to sensual passion or even to the natural stimulation of it. In married life God has given the proper sphere and the proper limitation for sex-life. The rearing of a family, the raising of children, is the proper function of the holy estate of matrimony. There the purity of the nation is preserved. There is the blessing of God. There, too, is the cross and the tribulation which God Himself appoints for the discipline of Christians in this world where all are sinful and in need of the schooling which God has provided. That, therefore, is not a Christian family, though church-membership be maintained, where such family life is prevented.

How much utter vanity there is in so many a new home! The young man has been accustomed to spend freely what he earned, and he feels that he must continue to do so. There must be luxurious furniture, and there must be a constant round of gaiety; shows, dances, auto rides, and a parade before the world must be maintained, and the home is chiefly a place for licensed lust. The young woman, quite often, is of the same stripe, wanting finery of every sort, complaining of every task, and entirely putting out of question the duties of motherhood. According to the statement of a local judge of large experience increasing marital trouble of late arises from the fact that young women demand big pay of their husbands for all they do. Such selfish families invariably find very little time to serve the Lord; indeed, they think they are unable to do so. Many a poor widow, therefore, does better than they.

It is most regrettable that so many young wives continue to work outside of the home. We would not sit in judgment over each case; for there are circumstances where this may be quite proper; but on the whole this arrangement leads to, if it does not arise from, sordid greed and the wilful prevention of the blessings of motherhood. Where this is the case, the fear of God has been forsaken. Such practice is godless and accursed. What selfish souls those are that are wilfully sterile, souls dead as cinders! They end in self-willed family extinction and then will be called before the judgment-seat of God to answer for their evil deeds. There is a necessity for recalling to the minds of such people that greed is idolatry, and that the love of money is the root of all evil. Holy matrimony is an institution of service. In it manhood and womanhood develop an even greater capacity for the service of God by serving their fellow-men. Do not rob it of its beauty and make of it a byword for selfishness, unfruitfulness, and wasted lives! Often such a home becomes unbearable. And what stormy scenes, yes, shameful scenes, when children, though not wanted, nevertheless do come! What unfortunate children, these, who were not wanted! They will be petted in a passionate way and punished and neglected in the same way.

Oh, then, begin and continue that union of yours in the fear of God! From the very beginning establish the habit of joint prayer and joint devotion. The Bible, the hymn-book, a prayer-book, or some good book of devotion will give you wholesome food. Let the husband or the wife do the reading; let them pray together, jointly, aloud. Should they not join in the Lord’s Prayer? Begin this at once and get the habit! If you do it only now and then, you will soon not do it at all. A mere pious admonition now and then soon loses its power. Get the habit, never to be broken, of family prayer. Then the children too, as they come, will from the beginning be reared in the fear of God.

Let no one foolishly imagine that such a home cannot be a happy home. Daily prayer is a powerful corrective for all ills that arise. It dissipates all clouds. Such a family experiences that the Gospel is what its name implies, a good spell, glad tidings of the grace of God. It is more than mere tidings. It brings what it speaks of the blessings of God. If you are assured of the grace of God, your eyes will be brightened, and you will learn to rejoice in the Lord alway. Where there is true fear of God, mere physical passion will be displaced by true love, which grows truer and nobler and deeper.

Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that walketh in His ways; happy shall he be, and it shall be well with him.

Indianapolis, Ind.
H.M. Zorn

Courtship and Marriage: Qualifications of a Future Helpmeet

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following article is the fourth in a series titled Courtship and Marriage from the 1924 volume of The Lutheran Witness, the official publication of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, by Rev. Hans Manthey Zorn.

By what standard is one to judge the fitness of a future spouse? It seems rather a large undertaking to answer that question, but surely the question is of vital importance, and there ought to be an answer.

The wrong standard is the most common one. It is the one that obtained before the Deluge, when the children of God became wayward and refused to be instructed by the Spirit of God. They beheld the fairness of the daughters of men and chose those who pleased their eyes. That resulted in a universal falling away from God. And how foolish, how short-sighted, to form a lifelong union, to build a. home in which you will live all the rest of your life on nothing better than a passionate infatuation! The infatuation is short-lived, like the leaves of a blossom; and how bitter the fruit may be! An unhappy marriage is a very grievous burden.

It is, of course, equally reprehensible to contract marriage prompted by considerations of money. More often, perhaps, it is the parents who make such calculations. Greed is sordid and the prolific root of trouble. The family connections of the spouse form a decidedly minor consideration. Trouble may arise here too. There are matters of greater moment to be considered.

Good health of body and mind is an important factor, provided you are not too extreme in your calculations. Much has been written on this score, and there has been some vain legislation along this line. It should be noted that there are some chronic diseases and deformities that disqualify for home-building and will bring on grievous defects in the children. The family physician should be consulted when mental or bodily disability is involved.

But the one great qualification which a Christian should look for is the fear of God. You should want to live the rest of your life with a conscientious Christian. Mere church-membership, sad to say, does not always go with that fear of God. Look for evidences of sincerity. A worldly life, disrespect to parents, an ungovernable temper, does not show self-discipline. A demand that there must be no children is ungodly and should disqualify such person for marriage. It is a breach of the marriage vow given in betrothal and a wicked disregard of one of the purposes for which God has instituted marriage.

Your future spouse should be one heart and one soul with you in your true Lutheran faith. Is not marriage the most intimate union, and should not the souls be one in their inmost faith? You should be one in prayer. How else will you have a Christian home and Christian children? So much unhappiness and so much harm to the children arises where either man or wife is a Catholic. Be not misled; the Catholic Church considers only that marriage sacred which is solemnized by one of its priests; and in that case the children are pledged to it, with or without your knowledge.

Where one spouse belongs to a sectarian church, conditions often are not much better. There usually is a marked hatred against the Lutheran confession, and almost invariably the children are affected. And there is so much of cross and tribulation that comes to a family in a lifetime that you should not want to go without the comfort which comes where husband and wife are one also in sincere faith.

If you will lay the beginnings of your future marriage in the fear of God, as shown in our last article, you will look for this oneness in faith even before courtship and require it before an engagement can be considered. A promise to join the church after engagement or even after marriage is by no means always carried out, and when it is carried out, it is often done as a mere matter of form, and no true living faith results. There are, it is true, notable exceptions to this; we occasionally get some very active members who became such after marriage. But usually the promise given before marriage is not kept, and as a consequence there is either a sad married life for the one who is & Christian or a falling away from the faith on the part of the one who did belong to the church. The children almost invariably are still farther removed from the truth and from God than the parents were. Thus godlessness increases.

This fear of God and this oneness in faith is the one important consideration in the choice of a future spouse. As we write this, we are well aware that, quite naturally, we shall be ridiculed and hated for this in this unionistic and unbelieving generation. But the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men!

Indianapolis, Ind.
H.M. Zorn

Courtship and Marriage: The Fear of God

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Nordic Summer Evening (1899–1900) by Richard Bergh — CC BY-SA 3.0

The following article is the third in a series titled Courtship and Marriage from the 1924 volume of The Lutheran Witness, the official publication of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, by Rev. Hans Manthey Zorn.

Should not a Christian always walk in the fear of God? Should not a Christian therefore also begin his courtship and enter the state of matrimony in the fear of God? There are few things that affect his welfare more than courtship and marriage. Let him bethink himself of his Christian faith. Let him take all his thoughts of courtship and marriage to God in prayer. And then let him walk honorably, as in the day. Let him lay the foundations for a Christian home by having a good conscience. Let him keep himself chaste.

Yes, let him keep himself chaste. Is not his body the temple of the Holy Ghost that is in him? Let him watch, then, over his thoughts. Out of the heart proceed evil things. Let his heart, his mind, be chastened in the fear of God. This calls for self-discipline, and self-discipline means real and persistent effort, painstaking effort. The Bible says Christians must crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts. This does not mean that a young Christian should center all his thoughts of self-discipline habitually on courtship and marriage; rather not. He has also other things to look after. He must earn his daily bread. He must keep his body fit for the many tasks to be performed by him. He must also keep himself healthy and clean. He should dress properly, that is, in a way that makes for a sound body and he should eat so that his body becomes the obedient tool of his Christian mind. Such discipline will scatter his thoughts. And in such self-discipline he will take to God in prayer also his thoughts of courtship and marriage, even as Eliezer and Isaac and Rebekah did at the direction of Abraham.

We know right well that we cannot cast all minds into one mold when impetuous thoughts of courtship and marriage come upon them, nor would we attempt such a thing: but the evils resulting from such a situation are so great and the conscience of men and women and of our youth has become so sadly calloused, generally, with regard to the fear of God in this respect, that it certainly becomes necessary for us to point out what is right. Let our Christian young people remember that we live in Sodom, and that it becomes them to live in the fear of God if they would save their souls. Let their parents give them timely instruction and warming in order that they may understand the circumstances surrounding them before they learn through sad experience. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

The Christian young man will behold the young woman with the eyes of a Christian, and when he has made up his mind to marry, he will proceed as a Christian. He will seek his own parents’ approval of the step he is about to take. Then, too, he will ask the permission of the parents of the maiden whom he desires to marry. Finally he will obtain the consent of the young woman herself. That being obtained, the engagement should take place in the presence of witnesses, preferably of the parents, who have already consented. That engagement is a solemn covenant made before God. Both parties, honest and in the fear of God, without deceiving each other, without compulsion, have plighted each other their troth, have promised, from & day not too far distant, to live with one another as man and wife. God has respect to such a covenant, and it should not be broken. Let us remember that betrothed Mary, before Joseph took her to his home, was called the spouse of Joseph.

This procedure is so different from that commonly followed, we know. Usually there is a long period of “going together.” But what excuse is there for an extended period of that kind? If there is to be an engagement, why this uncertainty? If there is to be no engagement, why this intimacy? And they will live in the fear of God also while they are engaged: chaste and with a high esteem for each other’s honor. They want to retain a pure conscience; they want to retain each other’s respect; they want to retain the respect of their follow-Christians and of the world. Their marriage day is to be a sacred day. on which they shall truly, before God as well as before men, appear as a chaste young man and a chaste virgin on the threshold of a Christian home.

It certainly is not a good thing that the period of engagement should be extended too long. Under certain circumstances this may be necessary, and when they live far removed from each other, this may be more permissible; but the situation is unnatural when they live near each other and meet each other frequently. Sad experience in many a case marks the unnaturalness of it. The nervous and physical fiber so often gives way, and altogether an unnatural relation develops.

Indianapolis, Ind.
H.M. Zorn

Courtship and Marriage: Evil Beginnings

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following article is the second in a series titled Courtship and Marriage from the 1924 volume of The Lutheran Witness, the official publication of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, by Rev. Hans Manthey Zorn.

The present situation reminds us of that other time, mentioned in Genesis 6, when the fear of God disappeared from the homes of men. The Bible tells of it in these words: “The sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose.” Even the God-fearing, the “children of God,” had become altogether carnal, “flesh-minded,” and refused to be corrected. So God said: “My Spirit shall not always strive with man,” and He destroyed the earth in the great Flood. Woe unto the world when God takes His Holy Spirit from man! There may follow a season of prosperity, just as it did then, — for the sacred record says that there were mighty men then and men of renown; — but the judgment of God is sure to come.

The evil beginnings of the godless homes of our day doubtless must be traced to the loose sexual relations that obtain. Absolute shamelessness and sexual abandon is preached to the people in the show-houses, which are also frequented by church people, it is flashed at them from the bill-boards, it is unblushingly paraded in street-cars, on the street corners, and in automobiles. In schools where the Word of God does not prevail, especially in the secondary schools, as well as in house parties, there often becomes evident a shocking lack of restraint. Witness the dances carried on there. At high school functions and perhaps in many a “Christian” home one may see dances that certainly can no longer make any pretense to being expressions of art or healthful exercises; for they are vulgar and excite to beastly Just. “Beastly” is really not the proper word, for beasts do not artificially stimulate lust. Is it possible that at any time of the world there was more immoral dancing than today?

St. Peter wrote to Christians of those days: “They [the heathen] think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot.” Are there not many young people in our churches today of whom the unbelieving world would not hold such an opinion ? And is it not true that in some places just such young people as are adept in the ways of the world are the leaders of the young people of their respective congregations and are setting the pace for our young people’s activities? The world is very much gratified to see that the Church is becoming conformed to it more and more. Church, awake! Congregations and pastors, awake and be not mute dogs, but speak out!

At the same time our young people must work hard to earn their salary; which is all the more reason why they should not, merely from the viewpoint of good sense, “burn the candle at both ends” by spending their spare time, and more, in a storm of gaiety. No wonder, therefore, that nervous disorders are increasing most alarmingly.

Very few of those who are throwing themselves into a whirl of fun — we are speaking of those within the church — still have a desire to hear the Word of God. Parents are generally kept entirely in the dark as to any possible engagement for marriage. There still may be a case here or there where the parents will go too far and compel an engagement of their own choice regardless of the free will of their children, but in the great majority of cases parents seem to be entirely disregarded. As a result it is not often known whether a proper engagement has been entered into. A young man and a young woman who “went together” for quite a while suddenly no longer do so. One party may be heart-broken and ruined, while the other will say there was no engagement.

This “going together,” in most cases, is rather a modern arrangement of questionable value. There is a sort of unwritten agreement, but no obligation, and a far more intimate relation than is warranted. Let us have a finer sense of honor! Let us have a proper regard for one anothers’ souls!

Parents should open the eyes of their children in due time to the perils that surround them, to the stormy passions that are so easily aroused, and to the evil consequences. That young man of the world who so freely spends his money and lavishes flattering attentions upon a young woman is but a wolf who seeks to devour. What misery results if his desires are gratified! And that coquettish girl of the world, — how sadly that young man will be deceived who is captivated by her smiles, her mode of dressing, and her outward charms! Do not let your children walk blindfolded into the traps set for them!

Indianapolis, Ind.
H.M. Zorn

Courtship and Marriage: Why Do We Write About It?

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

The following article is the first in a series titled Courtship and Marriage from the 1924 volume of The Lutheran Witness, the official publication of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, by Rev. Hans Manthey Zorn.

Courtship leads to marriage, and marriage is the beginning of the home, and upon the quality of the home rests the quality of the Church and of the State. Such as are the homes, such is the community.

Are the homes today what they should be? At a recent gathering of religious and educational leaders in Indianapolis Mr. Wm. H. Remy, prosecuting attorney for Marion County, in which Indianapolis is situated, submitted figures in which he showed that the age at which men become dangerous criminals is rapidly shifting toward youth and early manhood. Ten years ago major crimes were committed by men averaging twenty-eight years of age, and now such criminals are between seventeen and twenty-one years old. Such information is startling, and it points a significant finger at the home. The home, generally speaking, has become unchristian, godless. Physicians tell us the same thing.

Dr. Walter S. Athearn, who has made a survey of religious educational conditions in Indiana, reports that 500,000 children of the State are not identified with any church. This applies chiefly to the Protestants. Jews and Catholics provide better for their children. They look after almost all of their children and give them from 200 to 335 hours of religious education a year over against only 12 hours a year on the average given to Protestant children attending a Sunday-school, while hundreds of thousands receive no religious education whatever. Surely, then, we are not overstating the case when we say that the home of today, especially the Protestant home, generally speaking, is godless.

What shall we do about it? Shall we not bear witness? We need no longer wonder at the record of the divorce courts. The new home, even among our own people, often enough is too plainly built on selfishness and indulgence. Its bond too often is lust. Too many homes are childless, not under the providence of God, but by wicked design, because of the selfish lustfulness of either husband or wife, or both. There must be music and entertainment and a constant program of shows.

Or, instead of a round of amusements there may be disease, not such as comes to all mankind, even in a Christian life, but venereal disease, due to immorality. There is a hospital bill and an operation and only the shell of a woman for the rest of her life. No wonder quack doctors thrive. The lust of the nation nowadays crowds hospitals to the same extent as formerly only a battlefield did.

Too often marriage is merely an episode, a sort of climax in a life of sin. The unmarried mother must have a husband; the unmarried father must escape a court trial. Marriage therefore, is only an episode. There follows more sin and shame and cruelty.

And in such homes — homes did we say? — children grow up who become a burden to the community and to the state. These children often are defective, diseased, neglected, and require expensive treatment, for which the community must pay in the shape of increased taxes. This is the type of children that furnishes a large contingent to the criminal class. Thus many families degenerate. The grandparents were God-fearing people, but their children turned their backs to the Word of God. How many families, even among our own people, have thus degenerated! Sometimes there is money enough to keep the public from knowing conditions that are slumlike.

But our concern is not only about those who become a public charge. Right among some of our people, with what little fear of God is the beginning often laid for a home! With such, engagement, to say the least, is a very uncertain quantity. So loose, so extreme, has become the intercourse between the sexes that those whom all right-minded people must hold to be engaged do not themselves know whether they are engaged or not. Engagement is held in light esteem, and it easily happens that one or the other party to an engagement is disappointed for life, being deceived after the most solemn hopes and expectations and confidences had been quickened.

All this and much more like it brings down the wrath of God and is the ruin of Church and State. There is abundant reason why we should bear testimony.

Indianapolis, Ind.
H.M. Zorn

A Tribute to Lutheran Hymnology

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

A poem by Anna Hoppe in Volume 37, Number 11 of The Lutheran Witness, May 28th, 1918. A scan of the full issue can be found here.

Sing me the songs to my heart so dear,
Those Lutheran songs of old;
Their matchless melodies let me hear,
Their infinite charm unfold.
The beautiful strain as I hear it
In choral or vesper psalm
Breathes a peace divine o’er my spirit,
Bids my troubled heart be calm.

I hear the song of David again
When these dear old hymns are sung,
Or the strains of Hebrew captives when
Their harps on the willows hung.
Sweet echoes peal from a distant land;
With shepherds of Bethlehem
I hear in spirit the angels’ band
Sing its '“Peace, good will to men.”

I left the dulness of earth’s enthrall,
My dear old Lutheran Church,
In the vastness of thy music-hall
For treasures divine to search.
I found them, — hid them deep in my heart,
These jewels of priceless worth,
From their possession never to part
For the wealth of all the earth.

They tell me, these songs, of Creation,
Of my Father’s tender care,
How in trial and tribulation
He heareth His children’s prayer.
They bid me e’er seek life eternal
In the flawless Word of God,
And point to the mansions supernal
When I leave this earthly sod.

They tell of my Lord’s incarnation,
How He left heaven’s pure delights;
How the Captain of my salvation
Died on Calv’ry’s cruel heights.
How from the dark tomb He ascended
To His Father’s throne of grace
My cause to plead, till life has ended,
And I see Him face to face.

They tell me how God’s Holy Spirit
To my soul His Word imparts.
What a blessing it is to hear it;
How it comforts burdened hearts!
How His strength in the hour of trial
Can quell the onrushing tide;
How He stems the waves of denial,
My Pilot, Counselor, Guide.

Sing me the songs of Luther again,
Songs of Faith, and Hope, and Peace.
The inspired words of his master-pen
Bid my heart from sorrow cease.
When in days of sadness and illness
I tire of earth’s lonely vale,
There thrills through the Sabbatic stillness
That Wittenberg nightingale.

How I love that Wittenberg singer!
Like a vesper bell’s sweet toll
His melodious echoes linger
On the harp-strings of my soul.
“God is my Fortress,” he is singing;
Hark! “The Just shall live by faith.”
The sweet refrain continues ringing:
“Saved by grace, I fear not death.”

Sing me those Lutheran songs divine,
The songs by the martyrs sung;
The songs so beautiful, so sublime,
That from Gcrhardt’s soul were wrung;
Sing them over and over again,
These songs that I love so well,
Whose echo so sweet, “Good will to men,”
Peals forth with each Sabbath-bell.

Dear Church, were these melodies given
To thy trust from realms afar?
Did the Music Master in heaven
Leave the pearly gates ajar?
Their tunes, so harmoniously blended,
Tell of heavenly joys untold.
I’ll love, till life’s journey is ended,
These Lutheran songs of old.

Milwaukee, Wis.
Anna Hoppe