The Trodden Shards Part One

This is the first part of what I intend to be a larger work, titled The Trodden Shards.

Luther, of the "faith alone" principle, lived not knowing from moment to moment if each would be his last.  Paul, who lamented in Romans that his sinful nature was perplexing to him, experienced a similar jeopardy.  Those men, convicted as they were of their sinfulness, had great cause to convince themselves in a moment that they had been squared with their damnable moral qualities.  For Luther, "faith alone" must have been a great comfort.  Paul, on the other hand, is a livelier question--if only because he was in the instant both the writer and the recipient of his doctrine, balm as it was to him.