." And since then, down to the
present day, millions and millions of hands have been stretched forth to
receive Luther's catechetical classic. While during the last four
centuries hundreds of catechisms have gone under, Luther's Enchiridion
is afloat to-day and is just as seaworthy as when it was first launched.
A person, however, endowed with an average measure of common sense will
hardly be able to believe that the entire Lutheran Church has, for four
centuries, been so stupid as would have been the case if men of Dr.
Gurlitt's stripe had spoken only half the truth in their criticisms.

Moreover, the number of detractors disappears in the great host of
friends who down to the present day have not tired of praising the
Catechisms, especially the Enchiridion. They admire its artistic and
perfect form; its harmonious grouping, as of the petals of a flower, the
melody and rhythm of its language, notably in the explanation of the
Second Article, its clarity, perspicuity, and popularity; its
simplicity, coupled with depth and richness of thought; the absence of
polemics and of theological terminology, etc. However, with all this and
many other things which have been and might be said in praise of the
Catechism, the feature which made it what it truly was, a Great Deed of
the Reformation, has not as yet been pointed out. Luther Paulinized,
Evangelicalized, the Catechism by properly setting forth in his
explanations the _finis historiae,_ the blessed meaning of the great
deeds of God, the doctrine of justificaiton. Indeed, also Luther's
Catechism is, in more than one way, conditioned by its times, but in its
kernel, in its doctrine, it contains, as Albrecht puts it, "timeless,
never-aging material. For in it pulsates the heartbeat of the primitive
Christian faith, as witnessed by the apostles, and experienced anew by
the Reformer." (648.) This, too, is the reason why Luther's Enchiridion
is, indeed, as G. v. Zezschwitz remarks, "a booklet which a theologian
never finishes learning, and a Christian never finishes living."

117. Evaluation of Small Catechism.

Luther himself reckoned his Catechisms among his most important books.
In his letter to Wolfgang Capito, July 9, 1537, he writes: "I am quite
cold and indifferent about arranging my books, for, incited by a
Saturnine hunger, I would much rather have them all devoured, _eo quod
Saturnina fame percitus magis cuperem eos omnes devoratos._ For none do
I acknowledge as reall