Class _ I inicS Book . (189) 190 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. lieve that, you cannot be anything else. I am glad that I took the vow that I will be faithful to the Evangelical Lutheran Church until I die, and I expect to keep it, because I am simply keeping God's Word just as He gave it. Question No. 3. If it is possible to eat and drink condemnation at the Lord's table, isn't it best to stay away? Answer: No. The thing to do is to find out the truth, and then come. Because strychnine is poison, it isn't my duty to go and smash every bottle in the drug store that has that poison in it; but they ought to know how to make the right use of it. The Lord's Supper is a blessing, and therefore receive it as a blessing. You might just as well say, if the law puts a man in the penitentiary, wouldn't it be better to do away with all law? The same law that puts a bad man in the penitentiary is the same law that keeps me out if I behave. So this Holy Supper is a wonderful blessing to every man who re- ceives it rightly. It is a condemnation to the man who doubts the word of Jesus, "given and shed for you for the remission of sins." Question No. 4- Can't a man be a good Christian even if he does not go to the Lord's Supper? Answer: Jesus said: This do in remem- brance of Me. The question is, Can I not be a good Christian if I do not do this when God says I shall. Do you see the point? You are disobeying Christ, and you cannot be a good THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 191 Christian if you stay away from the Lord's Supper. Question No. 5. Is it advisable for a member of one church to commune at another, (1) being of the same denomination? (2) of different de- nomination? Answer: I would answer in both cases that it is not wise, and I will tell you why. Suppose Brother Baltzley at St. Luke's Church has a dif- ference with one of his members; he may take that member into discipline; and then the man, instead of going back to his own church, comes down here and takes the Lord's Supper. What right have I to give him the Lord's Supper? How do I know a man from another church is not in discipline where he comes from? The Savior says: Take heed of the flock over which the Holy Ghost has placed you. How can I take heed over my flock, if some other shepherd is going to do the feeding? What we want to do is to stop and think about these matters, in order to learn that every man should go to commun- ion, first of all, in his own church. Suppose you go on a visit to some other State and you cannot be in your own church. It will only take a short time to get a word from your pastor to that pastor, to give you communion there. That is in order, but this thing of running from one church to another to get communion, when no- body knows why you are there, is disorderly, and I would advise that no member should make it a rule to go to any church except his own. 192 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. As to different denominations, I would say this : How could I, for instance, go to the Lord's Supper where I know they have not got it? If I go into a church and the minister says, Take, eat, this represents the body of Christ, how can I take it? The trouble is, so many people do not know what the Lord's Supper is, and conse- quently it is just the same to them. Question No. 6. What would you do if you received anonymous letters? That means, What would you do if you received letters written by people who do not sign their names? Answer: When I used to get those letters 10 or 15 years ago, they made me almost angry, and I made up my mind that I would hunt up the per- son who wrote them. Now I have a better way. Whenever I get a letter, I open it, look at the signature first, and if there is no name to it, I throw it into the waste basket and never look at it. That is the best way to handle that kind of letters. The man who would write a letter and not sign his name to it, is the same one that would run a dagger into your back if he found you in a back alley. Just yesterday I received an anonymous letter, and it started out to say some- thing about our choir. Well, I read just a few lines — I forgot to look for the signature first — then when I looked and there was no name signed to it, I tore it up and do not know what was in it. Question No. 7. Why do you think it wrong to take part in a service of a lodge at a grave? THE WAY MADE PLAIN. 193 Answer: I can make this very plain. Sup- pose the Roman Catholic Church had a funeral this afternoon. What right have I to go up there to the grave and have another service? Did you ever see two churches have a service at the same grave? If two churches would not do it, why should a church and some other organi- zation do this? Is the church service such a miserably poor thing that it has to be finished up by some organization, claiming they have no religion? If they have religion, what is it? The Church's teaching is that Jesus Christ is the only Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man cometh to the Father but by Him. The lodges do not say anything about that. It seems to me it ought to be plain to every Christian heart that the Christian burial service is complete. When I pronounce the benediction I pronounce it on the Christian burial. If any other organization, I do not care by what name it is known, wants to have another service, let them have it, but do not ask me to take part in it. Some man says : Why, we have no religion at all. Well, then, why not get the Fire Department to bury the man; they have no religion. The real truth is just what I keard in a barber shop the other day, that if it wasn't for advertising these things you would mot find them. That is the fact. Whenever a burial becomes so cheap that we use them for advertising, I am done with them. Thus we have tried in simple words to make plain the way of salvation as taught in Dr. 194 THE WAY MADE PLAIN. Luther's catechism, that matchless key of the Bible. "God's Word and Luther's doctrine pare slmil to all eternity endure." Finis. ,AK 5 1909 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: May 2006 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111