Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

When distributed, the text of Scripture, the Decalogue, the Lord's Prayer, the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the means by which the church is established and grows.  They neither cease being what they are nor do they cease being effectual when impure teachers, stained with the mud of heresies and superstitions, administer them.  Rather, they remain the instruments of salvation through which some people are converted and saved, the efficacy of the Holy Spirit being amid the corrupt state of the church. -- Blessed Johann Gerhard, On the Church, p. 365