Leander Keyser - On Love and Hate

Quote from Keyser from his sermon on Love and Hate.

One would think that all people would be only too thankful to Christ and His faithful disciples who warn them of their peril, and show them the plain way to escape to eternal joy. But the hatred of the world to its best friends is one of the ethical paradoxes created by sin. “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.” You cannot go “cheek by jowl” with the world, and at the same time be a true Christian. This does not mean that you and I are to provoke worldly people purposely; but it does mean that we cannot condone their offenses, nor follow in their footsteps. One of the most specious adages in the world is this: “When you are in Rome, you must do as the Romans do.” It is a maxim of the compromiser and the opportunist, and that spells the ugly word cowardice.

From: Keyser, Leander. In The Apostles’ Footsteps: Sermons on the Epistle Lessons for the Church Year. The Lutheran Literary Board: 1920. Lutheran Library edition forthcoming

Forgiveness of Sin

"And what is needed on our part in order to receive forgiveness? Our text indicates the precise need. “And Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy: Son, be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee.”

 So it is faith in Christ that is needed. But faith always implies something else — that we feel our sinfulness; that we desire to be delivered from our sins; that is, that we repent. Christ looked down into the sick man’s heart, and saw that he was contrite; hence he said, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” 

 You see, it is this way, my friend. If you and I do not realize that we are sinners, and do not feel godly sorrow for sin, we will not desire forgiveness, and so we will not go to Christ for pardon. Therefore saving faith must be preceded by a knowledge of sin and a felt need of salvation. The law of God gives us the former; the gospel offers us the grace of God in Christ Jesus. And thus when we feel how sinful we are, and how helpless in our sins, we will look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who will pardon and deliver us."


From Keyser, Leander. In the Redeemer’s Footsteps: Sermons on the Gospel Lessons for the Church Year. 1918. Lutheran Library Edition

Leander Keyser - On the Basic Error of Modern Missouri

 Leander S. Keyser put his finger on the trouble with the LCMS claw machine.

 "Raised for our justification." Missouri says, "See! Everyone was declared righteous on Easter, Romans 4:25. Never mind Romans 4:24!"

"After writing the foregoing, we read over again Dr. J. L. Neve’s graphic report of the Missouri-Ohio-Iowa free conferences at Milwaukee and Detroit in 1903-4. It would appear that they spent a large part of their time in wrestling over methods of Biblical interpretation. Missouri was against the doctrine of the 'Analogy of Faith;' the others for it. We have no time to amplify on this matter now. For our part, we do not hold up any objective rule by which to interpret Scripture, nor do we feel obliged to “harmonize” the various parts of the Bible; we believe they do not need to be harmonized; they need simply to be understood, and then they will be seen to be harmonious. If God is a unity, His revelation will be like Himself. Therefore our simple hermeneutical rule is to take each passage according to its natural and literal meaning in connection with the context, always reading enough to be sure of the author’s main proposition. By applying this simple rule – it is the rule of all true literary exposition – we do not find one passage of Scripture teaching one thing, and another something else. Of course, no brief Scripture verse teaches all the doctrines of redemption. John 3:16, though called the “gospel in nuce“ says nothing about vicarious atonement or the resurrection. You must go to other parts of the Bible to find those doctrines. But all portions of the Scripture are complementary. One of the strongest evidences of the divine authority and inspiration of the Bible is its organic unity."

From: Leander Keyser. Election and Conversion Available in paperback from Amazon and free ebook from lutheranlibrary.org.

 Keyser also published books on birds.