Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

When the Lutheran Church acts in the spirit of the current denominationalism she abandons her own spirit... No seeming success could compensate our Church for the forsaking of the principles which gave her being, for the loss of internal peace, for the destruction of her proper dignity, for the sack of self-respect which would follow it. The Lutheran Church can never have real moral dignity, real self-respect, a real claim on the reverence and loyalty of her children, while she allows the fear of the denominations around her, or her desire of their approval, in any respect to shape her principles or control her actions... We have among us a sort of charity that not only does not begin at home, but never gets there. It is soaring and gasping for the Unity of Lutherans with all the rest of the world, but not with each other. It can forgive all the sects for assailing the truth, but has no mercy for the Lutherans who defend it. -- C. P. Krauth, Free Lutheran Diet, pp. 66, 67