Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

The corrupted and depraved churches can and should be reformed, recleansed, and brought back to wholeness from no other source than from the Word of God.  Certainly, therefore, those churches that come most closely to the norm of the Word are true churches.  Consequently, one should pass judgment on a church on the basis of the rule of the Word.  -- Blessed Johann Gerhard, On the Church, p. 251.