Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Call to mind, O faithful soul, the wonderful grace of God bestowed upon thee in holy baptism. Baptism is the washing of regeneration; therefore he who hath been spiritually washed in the laver of baptism is no longer held, body and soul, under the power of a carnal nature, but because he hath been born again of God, through water and the Spirit, he is a son of God, and if a son then an heir of eternal blessings. -- Johann Gerhard, *Sacred Meditations* XVII