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THE

Lutheran Home Journal.

JANUARY, 1858.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

HE Home Journal sends the greetings THE of the New Year, to its patrons. It fondly cherishes the hope that during the year upon which they have entered, Heaven's richest blessings may rest upon them. It utters also the language of sincerity, when the desire is expressed that the friendship of the past may be continued in the future. As the beginning of the New Year is the turning over of a fresh page in the book of life, the Home Journal desires to review what has been written

upon the pages of its past existence, that it may clearly ascertain what defects can be remedied and what improvements for the future be made, in order that nothing but what is beautiful and good may be written during the coming year, upon that page as yet untouched and unsullied.

Lamenting the former tardiness of its monthly visits and the fact that resort has been had too frequently to articles taken from the well cultivated gardens of others instead of supplying them with that original matter which was faithfully promised, it hopes to do better for the future, and is determined to do it. The main cause of this dependence upon foreign material has been the failure upon the part of many promised contributors to supply it regularly with matter, shall it not say Lutheran matter, that would adorn its pages and interest its readers. Many of these pledges

VOL. III. NO. 1.

1

have been unfulfilled; but renewed promises from some of the best men of the Church, and of whom the Church may well be proud, give additional means for promises of amendment on the part of the Ilome Journal itself. Henceforth, therefore, no effort shall be spared to render the Home Journal a pleasant companion, and one whose periodical visits shall be anticipated both by young and old with gladness; and this, notwithstanding past remissness, our readers may expect.

Now having honestly confessed its own faults, the Home Journal hopes it will not be taken amiss if it inquires of its patrons whether there are no delinquencies of which they have been guilty, and which should be redressed by them also, and humbly submits the following questions: How can a Journal, even though its editors are faithful and laborious, be expected to have its pages furnished with original articles, rich, racy and brilliant, when those who have promised their assistance are, when "weighed in the balance found wanting?" How can even the life which it does possess, be longer retained, when so many whose names are on the subscription list seem totally unconscious of those Scriptural injunctions, "Owe no man anything," and "Pay that thou owest?" How too, can it go forth cheerfully and merrily when it feels, that by many it will only be rigidly scrutinized for the purpose of being

condemned, who, for an unintentional word or expression will accuse it of heresy and then sternly forbid its future visits, without even thanking it for any past enjoyment given, or remunerating it for services already rendered? The Home Journal disclaims all intention of offending any, and has only addressed these simple questions to the guilty, in order that an opportunity might be given to test their courage by honorably acknowledging their errors and the sincerity of that acknowledgment by a proper atonement in the shape of a dollar a year henceforth and the prompt payment of all money due. The Home Journal flatters itself that by a proper patronage, it will be able to make its future career more productive of good than its past, and now earnestly looks to its patrons for an increased and more efficient support. It believes that by a little effort, all indebtedness to it can be removed, and the Journal placed upon such a basis, as its want in the Church demands. That a periodical like the Journal is needed for our homes and firesides, none will dispute. Its mission is emphatically a loving and peaceful one. It comes as much to cheer as to instruct, to scatter the flowers of innocence and hope around the pathway to the tomb, and allure by that which is beautiful and true and good to a happier and better world beyond! It trenches not upon the ground of the weekly press, or the Quarterly Review: they have their appropriate work, and in that work let all wish them God speed. They are the tillers of the soil, the Home Journal seeks to beautify it. Let their's be the golden grain and the ripened fruit, whilst the latter is content with the sunshine that gladdens the harvest and cheers the "Home circle," both useful in their spheres and both assisting to form one glorious whole. With an earnest desire, therefore, to please, and an equally earnest expectation of being henceforth better appreciated, the Home Journal enters upon another year of its existence. May its every wish be realized, as well as the wishes of those of its pa

trons, who with all its faults have still ad-
hered to it, and who, amid every discour-
agement have nobly cheered and sustained
it.
L.

LUTHER.

II.

A continuation of promiscuous paragraphs from Archdeacon Hare's "Vindication of Luther."

THE

BY REV. M. SHEELEIGH.

HE best vindication of Luther is, indeed, that supplied by his own works, by the volumes which he sent forth during thirty years, at one period almost like flights of birds, in assertion of God's truth, and to destroy the strongholds of falsehood,-and still more by that which he was enabled in God's strength to write on the page of history, and on the hearts of his countrymen, and of so large a portion of Christ's Church. Hence, the most satisfactory apology for him is his life, the fullest and most faithful record of it. Such apologies are found in several books written of late years, both of English growth, and exotics which have been naturalized. It is the intense interest of Luther's character that has given such wide popularity in England to D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation, notwithstanding the great vices of its style and manner. p. 7.

This deep interest in the education of the people, abode with Luther through life, and is continually expressed; nor did he ever shrink from exhorting and expostulating with the princes and nobles, to prevail on them to fulfill their sacred duty in this matter.—p. 71.

His intense love of truth revolts those who dally with truth, and play tricks with it, until they cease to discern the distinction between truth and falsehood. His straight-forwardness finds no sympathy in those who walk in crooked ways. His hunger and thirst after that which is spiritual, and his comparative indifference about outward forms, are mortal offences to those with whom forms, institutions, rites, ordinances are the main thing, and almost

everything. Hence the contest about Luther's character now has a peculiar interest and importance.-p. 74.

The blind admiration for the Fathers, the servile deference to their authority, have wrought much harm in former ages, and are no less mischievous now. In Coleridge's Remains we find several instances noted of the injury done to our divines of the seventeenth century, by their exaggerated reverence for the Fathers; he remarks, "Luther was too spiritual, of too heroic faith, to be thus blinded by the declamations of the Fathers."-p. 80.

If it was Luther's fate that his name should be borne by a large branch of the Church, even though it should be falsely deemed heretical or schismatical, is not a school. Seeing too that the name was originally imposed on his followers by their adversaries,—seeing that it was a great trouble and grief to him, which he often expresses, to hear his name attached to those who ought to bear no name save that of their crucified Lord,-seeing that from first to last his desire was ever to decrease, and that his beloved Master might increase, the name may so far be accepted, as a testimony to all generations that Luther was the man of God, sent with the power and spirit of Elijah to cast down the altars of Baal, and to re-establish the true spiritual worship of the Father, in hearts reconciled to Him by the Incarnation and Sacrifice of His Only-begotten Son.p. 84.

lose the reality in the form, in the symbol, in the outward work, in the outward ordinance: and this superstition was pervading the whole Church, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, when Luther arose to call it back from the worship of forms to the worship of realities. It was because he saw hardly anything but shadows and masks and empty forms, the spawn of the limbo of vanities, moving to and fro in the death dance around him,— because the spirit of life had slipped away from institutions and ordinances, which may once have had life and meaning and a practical purpose, but which were now become purposeless and hollow and cavernous for all manner of evil lusts to revel in, and because, when, in his yearning after realities, he threw his arms around these hollow forms, they crumbled to dust in his fervent embrace,-because he could not bear to live in a world of shadows and fictions, amid a swarm of "unreal mockeries,"--because he felt through all the depths of his heart and soul and mind, that God and Christ and Salvation and Grace and Holiness and Righteousness are not words and shadows, but realities,-while at the same time he felt no less strongly that Sin and Evil and Condemnation and Hell are also terrible realities, which have thrust their iron fangs through our hearts, it was because of this yearning after realities, and of his deep conviction of this twofold reality, that, as one shadow after another revealed its hollowness to him, he bade it avaunt and vanish.-pp. 89, 90.

You can hardly read a prayer of Luther, either in the four folio volumes of his Latin works, or the twenty-two thick, doublecolumned German quartos,—you can hardly read a single letter, however slight and short, among 2324 in Dr. Wette's Collection, without being impressed with the conviction that religion with Luther is not a thing of habit or custom, of convention or tradition, not a thing of times and seasons, but an intense, vivid reality, which governs the pulses of his heart and the motions of his will.-p. 89. Indeed this is superstition, to seek and Erasmus's No, Voltaire's No, merely awa

Whatever Lutheranism may be, seeing it has exercised a vast power over mankind, its principle or form, the kernel of its true definition, must be something positive, not something negative, an assertion, not a denial. The assertion will indeed invoke a denial, or, it may be many denials; and these will be the limits of the definition: but a No has little power, unless it be the rebound of a Yes, the thunderclaps following the lightning-flash.

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OF HEZEKIAH, surrounded by houses, and supplying the bathing establishment of the Greeks on Patriarch Street, derives its supply of water entirely from the Manilla Pool, outside of Jerusalem, and usually has from two to six feet of water, though it sometimes becomes entirely exhausted late in the fall. The water is drawn up to a considerable height, at great expense of labor, by two stout Fellaheen, and sent across the street over a large stone arch to supply a bathing establishment; which, being lower than the pool, might easily be supplied by a small leaden pipe, acting as

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a syphon. But such a device as this, emanating from Christians, the Simon-pure Moslem spurns.

The "WAILING-PLACE OF THE JEWS," occupying a space of forty yards, from a point about one hundred yards north of the southwest corner of the Temple Area, is a place of constant resort by the poor Jews, who purchase the right from the Turks to approach this boundaryofthe Temple, to wail over the desolation of Judah, and implore the mercy and forgiveness of God. This touching custom was observed by the Jews as early as the twelfth century, and is men

*This splendidly illustrated work is just issued and for sale at the Lutheran Publication House, 732 Arch Street. Price, cloth $3 50, morocco $5 00.

tioned by Benjamin of Tudela, in connection with this same spot. On the capture of Jerusalem by Adrian, they were excluded from the city and forbid the sight of it, even from the neighboring hills, till the age of Constantine; when they were allowed to enter the city once a year, on the anniversary day of its captivity by Titus, that they might wail over the ruins of the Temple, a privilege purchased then, as now, at the hands of their oppressors. In the shadow ofthe wall, the Jew, with bare feet, will bring his Talmud and Bible, and spend a large portion of his declining days at this place; questing an early burial with his fathers, in the mournful valley of Jehoshaphat. The women resort here, too, in their long white

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robes, and kiss the sacred stones of the Temple wall, and insinuating their heads into the crevices of the wall, offer up their prayers of deep devotion, that may frequently be heard at quite a distance from the place. It is deeply affecting, thus to see a handful of this people under such circumstances, still identified with the ruins of their Temple, whose stones in the hands of the conquering Romans, are "poured out on the tops of every street," amid them, yet lifting up their prayer to that God who endowed them with the proudest and most exalted nationality on earth, when the nations around them lay sunk in idolatry.

On the western side of the Haram enclosure, numerous fountains, of exquisite Saracenic architecture, adorn the streets leading to this tabooed locality. Adjoining the "House of Dives," is one of ornate finish, that will not fail to attract the eye of the traveller, as well as the devout and hypercredulous pilgrim, who halts at this spot to cross himself at the bowl of Lazarus, from which tradition says the "poor man" was wont to eat, eighteen long centuries back.

Another very beautiful fountain, similar in appearance to the one here represented, adorns the Lower Pool of Gihon, which, however, is not dry, as are most of those within the city.

Leaving the city, with its mosqued domes and peering minarets, intermingled with church turrets and a confused mass of terraced roofs, and threading our way through the narrow streets and thronged bazaars, we pass under the frowning Hippic Tower, from whence the blood-stained crescent banner of the Moslems now waves, and making our exit through the Jaffa Gate enjoy the luxury of pure fresh air from the Mediterranean.

A lively and gay scene here presents itself in the afternoon, when the Frank residents come out in mass to "shoon el howah," drink in the wind; which is very acceptable, in exchange for the heat and confined atmosphere within the walls. On effecting a passage through the crowd of two-legged and four-legged nondescript animals thronging the gateway, all alike intent and eager in forcing their way in

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