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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: that we do not contemn these preparations, but set the highest
value on them; a belief in them we do contemn, because no one
thinks that they constitute a real and permanent structure. If
any one were so manifestly out of his senses as to have no other
object in life but that of setting up these preparations with all
possible expense, diligence, and perseverance, while he never
thought of the structure itself, but pleased himself and made his
boast of these useless preparations and props, should we not all
pity his madness and think that, at the cost thus thrown away,
some great building might have been raised?
Thus, too, we do not contemn works and ceremonies--nay, we set
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