st sermons:

The Christian religion being preeminently missionary the Reformation
of the Christian Church would necessarily be missionary. Protestant
missions began with Protestantism.

Herzog's Encyclopedia says: "Luther himself already seizes every
opportunity offered by a text of the Divine Word in order to remind
believers of the distress of the Heathen and Turks and earnestly urges
them to pray in their behalf, and to send out missionaries to them. In
accord with him all the prominent theologians and preachers of his
day, and of the succeeding period inculcated the missionary duty of
the Church. Many also of the Evangelical princes cherished the work
with Christian love and zeal."

Luther's interest in the work of true evangelization is seen in the
name he designedly chose for the church of his followers. He did not
call it Protestant nor Lutheran, but conscientiously insisted upon it
being called the Evangelical, or in plain Anglo-Saxon, the Gospel
church, the Evangelizing church. Because of Luther's emphasis on the
word evangelical there are properly speaking no Lutheran, but only
Evangelical-Lutheran churches. He is the evangelist of Protestantism
in the true sense.

Of the library of 110 volumes of which Luther is the author, 85 of
them treat of the Bible and expound its pure evangelical teachings in
commentaries, sermons and catechetical writings. He popularized the
word evangelical. With his tongue and pen he labored incessantly for
the evangelization of Europe. That Europe is evangelized is due more
to his labors and writings than to those of any other. What those
writings did for Europe they may do, and we believe, will do, for the
world in a greater or less degree. The greatest evangelist of Europe
has a God-given place in the evangelization of the world. His most
evangelical classics should be translated into all the dialects of
earth as soon as the Bible is given to the people in their native
tongue.

Dr. Warneck says: "By the Reformation the christianizing of a large
part of Europe was first completed, and so far it may be said to have
carried on a mission work at home on an extensive scale." Further he
says: "The Reformation certainly did a great indirect service to the
cause of missions to the heathen, as it not only restored the true
substance of missionary preaching by its earnest proclamation of the
Gospel, but also brought back the whole work of missions on Apostolic
lines. Luther rightly c