5. To return once more to the sacrament; since the Christian fellowship also is at present in a bad way, as never before, and daily grows worse, especially among the rulers, and all places are full of sin and shame, you should not consider how many masses are said, or how often the sacrament is celebrated, or this will make things worse rather than better,--but how much you and others increase in that which the sacrament signifies and in the faith it demands,--for therein alone lies improvement; and the more you find yourself being incorporated into Christ and into the fellowship of His saints, the better it is with you,--that is, if you find that you are becoming strong in the confidence of Christ and of His dear saints, and are certain that they love you and stand by you in all the trials of life and in death, and that you in turn take to heart the shortcomings and lapses of all Christians and of the whole Church, that your love goes out to everyone, and that you desire to help everyone, to hate no one, to suffer with all and pray or them: then will the work of the sacrament proceed aright, then you will often weep, lament and mourn or the wretched condition of Christendom to-day. If, however, you find no such confidence in Christ and His saints, and the needs of the Church and of every fellowman do not trouble or move you, then beware of all other good works, if in doing them you think you are godly and will be saved. Be assured they are only hypocrisy, sham and deceit, or they are without love and fellowship, and without these nothing is good. For the sum of it all is, _Plenitudo legis est dilectio_, "Love is the fulfilling of the law." [Rom. 13:10] Amen. FOOTNOTES [1] See _Treatise on Baptism_, Vol. I, pp. 56 ff. [2] Note the advance in _The Babylonian Captivity_, below, pp. 178 ff. [3] Cf. _Babylonian Captivity_, below, p. 186. [4] Cf. _Sermo_, 112, cap. 5 (Migne, xxxviii, 615). [5] See Vol. I, p. 56. [6] E. g., the danger of spilling the wine. [7] See p. 37. [8] Used here and above in the New Testament sense of true Christians, living or dead, cf. 1 Cor. 1:2. [9] See p. 11. [10] See above, pp. 12, 13, and Vol. I, pp. 59 ff. [11] The virgin Mary. [12] Cf. _Enarratio in Ps. XXI_ (Migne, xxxvi, 178). [13] Penitential works. [14] Cf. Acts 2:46. [15] See Vol. I, p. 310. [16] In the Vulgate the Greek word "mystery" is translated by _sacramentum_. See below, p. 258. [17] Luther still adheres to the doctrine of transubstantiation. But see below, pp. 187 ff. [18] See p. 11. [19] Cf. below, p. 192. [20] See Luther's explanation of the First Commandment in the Catechisms. Also the answer to the last question in Part V, Small Catechism. [21] _Treatise on Penance_ (_Weimer Ed._, II, 721), where Luther exhorts the troubled conscience to pray with the father of the lunatic boy, "Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief," and with the Apostles, "Lord, increase our faith." [22] Cf. above, p. 17. [23] The Church.