THE FAMILY ALTAR

October 31.

"The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge."

Ps. 46:11.

From this "heroic" forty-sixth Psalm Luther drew his inspira-

tion for his "heroic" battle-cry of Evangelical Christendom, for

his world-famous hymn A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. On this

ever-memorable 31st day of October, he nailed his 95 Theses, pro-

testing against the infamous sale of indulgences, to the door of

the Castle Church at Wittenberg. In the very first thesis he strikes

the keynote of the Reformation. He writes : "When our Lord and

Master Jesus Christ saith : 'Repent ye' etc., He intended that the

whole life of His believers on earth should be a constant repen-

tance." Himself unaware of the fact, Luther had now begun the

great work of his life, the work that resulted in restoring the

Gospel to Pope-ridden Christendom. The Reformation is not his

work, but God's work. He was only God's chosen instrument. For

thirty long years he, the lowly monk, battled for the truth as it is

in Jesus, at first almost single-handed, against Pope and emperor

and all the fanatical and heretical foes that assailed the Gospel

in his day. Yet he never yielded an inch of the holy ground on

which he stood, the ground of God's saving Word. Whence did

he derive this wonderful, world-conquering faith? Our text gives

us the answer : The Lord of hosts was with him, the God of Jacob

was his Refuge. The hammer blows with which he on this day

startled the world still resound through all lands. All opposition,

all persecution could not drown their rallying cry: "Fear God,

and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come;

and worship Him that made heaven and earth and the sea and

the fountain of waters." (Rev. 14, 7.) The Lord of hosts was with

His restored Gospel and is with it to-day. No matter, therefore,

how dark the future may look to the Church of the pure Word and

Sacrament, we will not fear, "though the earth be removed, and

though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea: for

the Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge."

God's Word and Luther's doctrine pure shall to eternity endure.