"In your sermons you like to treat subjects like these: 'The blessed state of a Christian,' and the like. Well, do not forget that the blessedness of Christians does not consist in pleasant feelings, but in their assurance that in spite of the bitterest feelings imaginable they are accepted with God and in their dying hour will be received into heaven. That is indeed a great blessedness."

-- C.F.W. Walther, "Twenty-Ninth Evening Lecture (May 29, 1885), The Proper Distinction between Law and Gospel