Matthias Loy. The Augsburg confession: An Introduction To Its Study And An Exposition Of Its Contents, Columbus, Ohio: Lutheran Book Concern, 1908.
"Protestants are all astray when they imagine that an imposing organization of churches under titled dignitaries, at which the multitude will gaze with wonder, or that the gathering of congregations in mighty masses under one general government, will so impress the community that the Church will conquer the world. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world, and only the Word and Sacraments contain the power of God which converts men to Christ and sustains their faith. Even Lutherans are enticed upon the wrong road when they are induced to lay great stress upon their numbers and to fancy that their union in larger organizations will give them more power. The power for all the legitimate purposes of the Church lies in the means of grace. Numbers may give us prestige, and in that respect give us larger opportunity to ply these means. But it is an erring and disloyal thought, that any concession in regard to the purity of the Word and Sacraments, which might increase the number of adherents to our churches, could by any possibility increase the number of believers, who alone constitute the Church.
A little company can do more by fidelity to the Lord and His Gospel and a faithful plying of these means in season and out of season, through evil and through good report, than could that company increased tenfold by a surrender to the liberal sentiment of men who cannot brook the exclusiveness of Christianity in its teaching that only Christ can save and only Christ shall rule the congregation of the saved. And as the establishment of an external kingdom of Christ on earth does not lie within the divine plan, it is impossible that such an organization could be legitimately realized. God’s government on earth, which the goodness of God always makes tributary to His purpose of grace and salvation, has made it impracticable to form an external union of Christians in all the world. They never can get together in space, and the conditions are not such that they ever could get together by representatives in a general union or confederation of churches into a universal visible church. Why then should Christians trouble themselves about such human schemes, instead of devoting themselves to their proper work of preserving the purity of the faith and providing for churches in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered?"
