d." The last verse in
Galatians, chap. 4, is made to read: "So then, brethren, we are not the
children of the bondwoman, but of the free: by the freedom wherewith
Christ has made us free." The next chapter begins: "Stand fast," etc.

Luther has expressed opinions of certain books of the Bible which
question their divine authorship. These opinions are being assiduously
canvassed by Catholic writers to prove that Luther accepted only such
portions of the Bible as suited his purpose, and rejected all the rest
as spurious. He is said to have arrogated to himself the authority to
declare any book of the Scriptures inspired or not inspired, and is,
therefore, justly regarded as the father of the higher criticism of
modern times, which has taken the Bible to pieces and destroyed its
power. But Catholic writers fail to state that the uncertainty which
Luther occasionally manifests regarding the divine origin and
authenticity of certain books of the Bible is due to the confusion which
the Catholic Church has created by decreeing that the apocryphal books
shall be considered on a par with the canonical writings of the Bible.
Setting aside the verdict of the ancient Church, and even of their
famous church-father Jerome, the Catholic Church has by an arbitrary
decree ruled the following books into the Bible: 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras,
Tobit, Judith, The Rest of Esther, The Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus
(Sirach), Baruch, with the Epistle of Jeremiah, The Song of the Three
Holy Children, The History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, The Prayer of
Manasses, 1 and 2 Maccabees. These writings are called apocrypha because
their divine origin is in doubt. Scrupulously careful to keep the
divinely inspired writings separate from all other writings, no matter
how godly their contents might seem to be, the Church of the Old
Covenant excluded these writings from the canon, that is, from the list
of fully accredited inspired writings. Besides, in the Catholic Bible in
Luther's days there were apocryphal portions inserted in canonical
writings like Esther.

In the course of his studies Luther learned that certain writings in the
Catholic Bible represented as Biblical were no part of the Bible. Acting
upon the direction which the Lord gave to the Jews: "Search the
Scriptures . . . they are they which testify of Me" (John 5, 39), he
considered this a good test of the genuineness of any portion of the
Bible, viz., that it conveyed to him knowledge of