ts others preach and rule, and labor
in the sweat of their brows.

GOD'S WORD THE CHRISTIAN'S GUIDE.

59. The one important thing, then, is to see to it that we have God's
Word, and that we regulate all the teachings and claims of men in
accordance therewith. We will thus distinguish between the true and
the false. We must remember, also, that human reason holds a far
inferior position to faith and is not to be acknowledged as
trustworthy, save as it is authorized by God for temporal authority.
He who has faith can easily perceive when reason conflicts with God's
Word or seeks, in its wisdom, to rise superior thereto; just as, in
worldly things, each one in his station, office, or calling, knows
full well, when another attempts the same work, whether he does it
right or not. So every householder well understands that in his home
wantonness and wrong-doing on the part of the servants are not to be
tolerated. However, in divine things, reason can so attire and adorn
itself as not to be recognized except by one who, guided by faith,
has a right knowledge of God's Word.

Reason will not refrain from intruding, with its wisdom and prudence,
into the affairs of God, where it has no orders. Thus the devil
creates endless misery, as he did at the beginning in the case of our
first parents. And yet reason will not permit, in its own domain, the
slightest interference of one unskilled in reason's code.

60. If a cobbler were to arise in the Church and censure the people
because they did not wear his make of shoes, and should try to
convince people that such a procedure was necessary to salvation,
they would pursue him out of the Church with shoes and slippers, and
cry after him: Stay at home in your shop with your shoes and lasts!
What does that concern the spiritual estate?

But when a factious spirit stands up and in his supposed wisdom
grunts forth: I am a holy, pious man. I have a special illumination
from the spirit. Therefore do not believe what the others say, which
is nothing but the dead letter, that one person can be God and man;
that a virgin can be a mother; that a man can be cleansed from sin by
water and the spoken Word, etc.,--when he does this, then there is no
one to offer resistance. Reason then gains the victory if it only
claims the glory of guidance by the Spirit, of a holy life, etc.,
even though God's Word and faith are not present in their purity.
Behold, what mischief the Turk, with his Mohammed,