Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

The church of both the Old and New Testaments can cease to exist in this way, that corruptions increase, the public ministry is no longer pure so that in that place where there was a large and obvious church, no church appears any longer.  Thus the true church of God goes into hiding and is preserved in those who do not make up a visible and manifest assembly. -- Blessed Johann Gerhard, *On the Church* p. 152.