Xmas-Ruhland-2: 2nd Christmas sermon, Ruhland's legacy (Part 5 of 5)

   This concludes from Part 4 (Table of Contents in Part 1), a series presenting 2 Christmas sermons by outstanding Lutheran pastors from the past  — This segment publishes the full English translation of the full Christmas sermon by the pastor that Walther judged to have ‘rare preaching gifts’. — Excerpt from Friedrich Carl Theodor Ruhland’s Halte im Gedächtniss Jesum Christ! : Predigten, H. J. Naumann, 1880, p. 52-67.  To preface this sermon, I present an English translation of the "Foreword" by the succeeding president of the Free Church in Germany to this book:

Foreword.

by Otto Willkomm, 2nd Pres., Ev.-Luth. Free Church, Saxony and other States

      There were two main reasons for publishing sermons from the legacy of the late Pastor Ruhland. First, among his former parishioners, especially among those in Saxony who were so suddenly deprived of his oral preaching, his testimony, which produced such rich fruit, should be preserved even longer. During his lifetime, they had often asked for the printing of this or that sermon, which request he had almost always refused in excessive modesty. — On the other hand, a public testimony is to be given of what is preached in the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Saxony. The slanderous speech has reached wide circles that in the pulpits of the separated Lutherans there is only rebuking and scolding. Now, without a doubt, the rebuke or, to speak Biblically, the punishment of the adversaries, the threats and calls of the watchman necessarily belong to the Ministry of an evangelical preacher. And those who refrain from the same are called by Scripture "dumb dogs". But it would be wrong and pernicious if the refutation and punishment of false doctrines and sins, which is especially necessary in our slack times and softened by a false love of peace, were to be practiced without first and always laying a proper foundation of wholesome teaching. These sermons should help to show that the latter really happens within the Saxon Free Church, that doctrine and reproof are in the right relationship and that the congregations are thus shepherded by the whole Word of God, especially by the sweet Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners and eternal Son of God, and are kept on the right path under God's grace. —

      As sermons from a legacy, they admittedly have many shortcomings in their form, which the author would have avoided or eliminated if he had been able to make the selection and arrange for the publication himself. But as testimonies of truth, in which God's Word is rightly shared, we hope to God that they will bring blessing. From the beginning, it has been strived to find a sermon for every Sunday and feast day, if possible, and thus perhaps to produce a whole year's volume. However, for some feast days no sermons suitable for printing were found, and in some cases a sermon on a free text was preferred to a sermon on the Pericopes.… (continued following sermon below)

Some quotes from Ruhland's Christmas sermon:

59, 61: “unconverted men do not admit this;… [they give] praise to their spiritual natural righteousness… there is no peace in their bones, no true joy fills their souls, no true consolation falls into their hearts, no rest is in their consciences; but restlessness, discord, desolation, fear, dread, terror, dissatisfaction chase them through all their lives. Even the most beautiful earthly good cannot make them truly happy. If they have much, they want more.”
60-61-62: “But now on Christmas Day it says: We shall become rich! What a change!… But not only to them, but to all men, and to us, too… God is pleased with all men”

65: “No king, no father, no man would act so against rebels, disobedient ones, and enemies. No one in heaven, not even an angel, has ever experienced or practiced such love.”

66: “God dwells again in grace among men, heaven has been opened to them, the gate of Paradise has been opened. Nothing more hinders our salvation. For God has not only wanted it, but created it for all, also for you, whoever you may be.”

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One will note that Ruhland, like Gustav Knak, highlights the universality of God's grace, like a true Missourian Lutheran preacher. Below is the full English translation:

As a fitting end to this series, the conclusion of Willkomm's “Foreword” above:

      The publication is commissioned by the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church [of Germany]. Any net proceeds will go partly to the author's widow and partly to the synod treasury. May the gracious God, who must also give prosperity to His words and the work of His servants, help to produce fruit for eternal life, so that these sermons may serve to engrave Jesus Christ, in whom alone stands our salvation, firmly in the hearts and memories of all readers!

Niederplanitz, December 3, 1879.

O. Willkomm, Pastor.

May the gracious God, who gave prosperity to Germany through Ruhland's sermon, now grant to this English translation also prosperity in His Word. With Pastor Willkomm we add our Amen!