ages, was distant from his views. He regards the whole law as an
external, coercive letter, designed only for the Jews." "How _Luther_
regarded the Sabbath from this general view, is so clearly exhibited in
his Larger Catechism, that the introduction of other passages from his
writings, is entirely superfluous." He then quotes the passages which
will be given in full in our next section, in which Luther declares the
Sabbath to be designed only for the Jews, and that in its outward sense
it does not concern Christians. (Darum, says Luther, gehet nun dies
gebot nach dem groben Verstande uns Christen nichts an, &c.) Melancthon
(continues Hengstenberg,) agreed with Luther, and this view was
introduced into the Augsburg Confession." See Hengstenberg, ueber den
Tag des Herrn, Berlin, 1852, pp. 108, 109, 110.

But the accuracy of the Platform will no longer be disputed, when even
_Dr. Walter_, [sic; should be Walther] the leader of the old Lutheran
Synod of Missouri, and editor of their periodical, a man of acknowledged
theological learning and rigid advocate for the entire Augsburg
Confession, bears testimony in favor of our position. In the March No.
of the Lehre und Wehre, p. 93, he thus expresses his views: "We cannot
agree with him (the author, whom he is reviewing) in the views he
expresses concerning the Sabbath. He asserts that the Sabbath or
Christian Sunday _is a divine institution_, and that this is the
doctrine of the Lutheran Symbols: That the Lutheran Church differs from
the Calvinistic only in the mode of observing the Sabbath, the former
advocating an evangelical, the latter, a legal method. _The contrary of
this is clearly evident from Article XXVIII. of the Augsburg
Confession_, and it would be _almost incomprehensible how the author
could fail to perceive this_, were it not for his manifest desire to
make the sanctification of the Sabbath as binding a duty as any other
precept in the decalogue, and his apprehension that this could not be