With this chapter we conclude our studies of the Way of Salvation. They have been extended much beyond our original purpose. As we remarked in the beginning, we have written for plain people; for those who, surrounded by all forms and varieties of belief and unbelief, are often attacked, questioned and perplexed as to their faith, and their reasons for holding it. Our object has been to assist our unpretentious people always to be ready to give an answer to those who ask a reason for the hope that is in them.

We also remarked in the beginning that there often come to our people arrogant and self-righteous persons, who say "the Lutheran Church has no religion," that it "does not bring its members into the light," and does not "believe in or insist on personal salvation."

Unfortunately there are only too many Lutherans who do not know how to answer such bold and baseless assertions. Sometimes they apologize for being Lutherans, and timidly hope that they may find salvation in their own Church! Many also have been persuaded to abandon the Church and faith of their fathers to find more light and religion elsewhere. After having been wrought upon and strangely affected by human and unscriptural methods, after they have experienced some new sensations, they proclaim to the world that now they have found the light which they could never find in the Lutheran Church! And thus not a few of our simple-minded and unreflecting people are led to depart from the faith and follow strange delusions.

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.

The scriptural doctrine of Christ's holy sacrament, which our Church holds and sets forth, and the solemn, searching preparatory service which she connects with it, make it truly calculated to strengthen the child of God, and unite him closer to Christ.

Our Church insists that the whole life of the believer, in the fellowship of the Saviour and His people, is to be a "growth in Grace and in knowledge." In this, also the believer is wonderfully assisted by our teachings concerning the efficacy of the Word of God as a means of Grace, a vehicle and instrument of the Holy Spirit. He is further comforted and quickened by that precious doctrine of justification -- alone by faith in Jesus Christ. He is encouraged to press forward to the mark, to purify himself more and more, to become more and more active, earnest and consecrated by what the Church teaches of sanctification.

Nor does the Church overlook or forget the sad fact that many -- often through the fault of those who ought to be their spiritual guides in the home and Church -- lapse from their baptismal covenant, or forget their confirmation vows, and thus fall back into an unconverted state. She insists on the absolute necessity of conversion or turning back, for all such. She does not, however, expend all her energies in proclaiming its necessity, but also sets forth and makes plain the nature of conversion, and the means and methods of bringing it about.

While the Church would, first of all, use every endeavor to preclude the necessity of conversion, by bringing the children to Jesus that He may receive and bless them through His own sacrament; and while she would use all diligence and watchfulness to keep them true to Christ in their baptismal covenant, yet, when they do fall away, she solemnly assures them that except they repent and be converted, they will eternally perish.

And if this lamentable backsliding should take place more or less with a large portion of a congregation, our Church prays and labors for a revival. While she repudiates and abhors all that is unscriptural, and therefore dangerous, in the modern revival system, she yet appreciates and gives thanks for every "time of refreshing from the Lord."

Yes, the Lutheran Church does believe in salvation, in the absolute necessity of its personal application, and in eternal perdition to every one who will not come to God in the only way of salvation -- through Jesus Christ.

And thus the Lutheran system is a complete system. It takes in everything revealed in the Word. It teaches to observe all things that Christ has commanded. It declares the whole counsel of God.

The Lutheran Church believes in a Way of being saved. She has a positive system of faith. Her system of the doctrines and methods of Grace is a complete, a consistent, a simple, an attractive one. It avoids the contradictions and difficulties of other ways and systems. It is thoroughly loyal to God's Word. Where it differs from other systems and faiths, it is because it abides by and bows to what is written, while others depart from and change the record to suit their reasons. It gives all the glory of salvation to God. It throws all the responsibility of being saved on man. It is indeed the highway of the Lord, where the redeemed can walk in safety and in joy. It is the old path, the good Way wherein men can find rest unto their souls. It is the Way trodden by Patriarchs, Prophets, and ancient servants of God. It is the Way of the Apostles, and Martyrs, and Confessors of the early Church -- the Way that became obscured and almost hidden during the dark ages. It is the Way for the bringing to light and re-opening of which God raised up Martin Luther.

Yes, the nominally Christian Church had largely lost that Way. God wanted to put her right again. For this purpose He raised up the great Reformer. Is it not reasonable to believe that He would lead him and guide him and enlighten him to know and point out this Way aright? If the Lutheran Reformation was a work of God, does it need constant improvements and repetitions? No! we believe that God led Luther aright, that the Way of Salvation to which He recalled the Church through him is the Divine Way. Millions have walked in it since his day, and found it a good, safe, and happy Way. No one who has ever left it for another way has gained thereby.

To abandon the Lutheran Church for another is to exchange a system that is based on sound and well-established principles of interpretation, logical, consistent, thoroughly scriptural, and therefore changeless in the midst of changes, for one without fixed principles of interpretation, only partially loyal to the inspired record, more or less inconsistent, uncertain, shifting and changing with the whims or notions of a fickle age.

It is to exchange a faith that satisfies, brings peace, and manifests itself in a child-like, cheerful, joyous trust in an ever-living and ever-present Redeemer, for one that ofttimes perplexes, raises doubts, and is more or less moody and gloomy. A faith that is built either on uncertain and ever-varying experience or on an inexorable and loveless decree, cannot be as steadfast and joyous as one that rests implicitly in a Redeemer, who tasted death for every man.

We conclude with the eloquent words of Dr. Seiss: "We do not say that none but Lutherans in name and profession can be saved. But we do assert that if salvation cannot be attained in the Lutheran Church, or the highway of eternal life cannot be found in her, there is no such thing as salvation. There is no God but the God she confesses. There is no sacred Scripture which she does not receive and teach. There is no Christ but the Christ of her confession, hope and trust. There are no means of Grace ordained of God, but those which she uses, and insists on having used. There are no promises and conditions of divine acceptance, but those which she puts before men for their comfort. And there is no other true Ministry, Church, or Faith, than that which she acknowledges and holds."