Our people need to be better informed about their own Church.  When they come to understand what that Church is, and what she teaches, they will be “no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of man and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”

It is to assist them to such an understanding and appreciation of the truth as it is in Jesus, and is confessed by our Church, that we have written these pages.  If they have strengthened any who are weak in the faith, removed any doubts and perplexities, established any who wavered and made any love the Church and her great Head more, we are more than repaid.

Whatever may have been the effect of reading these chapters, the writing of them has made the Church of the Reformation, her faith and practices, more precious than ever to the writer.  He has become more and more convinced that what Rome stigmatized as “Lutheranism” is nothing else than the pure and simple Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Let us take a rapid backward glance.  We see that the Lutheran Church grasps fully and accepts unreservedly the whole sad and unwelcome doctrine of sin.  She believes all that is written as to the deep-going and far-reaching consequences of sin—­that every soul comes into this world infected with this fearful malady, and, therefore, unfit for the kingdom of God, and under condemnation.  She believes therefore that every human being, down to the youngest infant, must have its nature changed before it can be saved.  The necessity of this change is absolute and without exception.

In the very beginning, therefore, we see that no Church places the necessity of personal renewal and salvation on higher ground than does the Lutheran Church.  She believes that our blessed Saviour has appointed a means, a channel, a vehicle, by and through which His Holy Spirit conveys renewing Grace to the heart of the tender infant, and makes it a lamb of His flock.  She believes that where Christ’s Sacrament of holy Baptism—­which is the means referred to—­does not reach a child, His Spirit can and will reach and renew it in some way not made known to us.

She believes that the beginning of the new life in a child is a spiritual birth; that this young and feeble life needs nourishment and fostering care for its healthy development; that it is the duty of Christian parents to see to this; that the Sunday-school and catechetical class are helps offered to the parents by the Church.  She believes that by this nourishing of the divine life in the family and Church, “with the sincere milk of God’s Word,” the baptismal covenant can be kept unbroken, and the divine life developed and increased more and more.

After careful instruction in the home and Church, if there is due evidence that there is Grace in the heart, that penitence and faith, which are the elements of the new life, are really present, she admits her children to the communion of the body and blood of Christ, by the beautiful and significant rite of confirmation.