God’s grace and peace. Thank you for your very good letter, which shows that you are learning to love God and are beginning to feel the emptiness of the world more and more as time goes by.

Every knee shall bow before God, and every tongue shall confess that Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So you were right when you said that the sooner we bow our knees, the better. The world’s joy consists of satisfying carnal desires. But these desires are sin. All the sin in the world comes from lust, and the law says: “You shall not lust.” [Norw.] Every transgression of the law is sin; in fact, the law exists only for transgressors. The law is superfluous for those who are righteous, because the law is righteous, holy, and good. The righteous man is also righteous, holy, and good, so the law and the righteous man are one. That’s also why it is written that the one who speaks evil of his brother speaks evil of the law and judges it.

Every Word of God can be proven, just like a mathematical formula. The Word can be broken down into its component parts. It cleaves and divides unendingly, even to the division of joints and marrow, and is able to discern the hidden thoughts and intents of the heart.

One thing is of paramount importance: We simply cannot be disciples of Jesus unless we suffer with Him—in other words, take up our cross and follow Him, laying down our lives.

The person who can bear to suffer with Christ and suffer for His name’s sake conquers himself, and thereby conquers Satan and all his might. Through suffering, our “I” is destroyed and our new “I” grows up, which is only power. That is why the apostle could say, “I . . . yet not I.” This is a strange but wonderful way of expressing it; yet then again, He shall be called “Wonderful,” Counselor, and Prince of Peace.

The world and its lusts are nothing; they are sheer emptiness. The pleasures of the world are merely a glittering gateway into even greater emptiness.

What the world calls happiness is in those things that pass away, when lust conceives. But once lust has conceived, it brings forth sin, and the one who adds sin to sin is conformed to the image of his father (the devil)—from condemnation to condemnation.

But it is different for us who are in Christ; we are changed from glory to glory by beholding the face of Christ. Satan has no power over us. His regime is in darkness, not in the light. But we are children of the light. Children of the light are invincible. “Truth” is their watchword and “Power” their battle cry. This process of “Dissolution of the Union” goes on constantly,9 and that results in our senses becoming exercised in discerning between good and evil. God is a zealous God, so we, too, become zealous. Zeal is to consume us.

God has determined the limitations of every power, and without power no other powers can be destroyed. There is power in the light and power in the darkness, and we have been transferred from the power of Satan to God. So we see that Satan has power, but when someone stronger enters the house, he binds the strong man and casts him out.

I’m very glad that you have begun on the way that leads to life. God gives grace to the humble. So let us always humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God so He can exalt us in His time. Let us always give up our own will and run with joy in the race set before us, with the assurance that we are always following the One who has gone before us.

Let us always devote our heart to understanding wisdom, and let us always be adorned with insight. Let us never be the slaves of men, since we were bought with a price. Let us never nurture the flesh so that its lusts are awakened. Rather, let us live as victors over ourselves. God draws everyone to Himself. He wants everyone to be happy and to come to the acknowledgment of the truth. The important thing is never to resist His drawing and His will.

We have now been discharged, and we were cleared yesterday, but I am going to Melsomvik tomorrow to deliver the boat’s inventory and supplies. We had good, competent people on board this time. They called our squadron the “Black Sea Squadron.” We had to stoke frantically to get up to 8 knots. We had a whole lot of reserve officers in the squadron, who, as you can imagine, weren’t up to much; but it was a lot of fun all the same, and the exercises and passing-powder drills went very well. It was quite uncomfortable lying at anchor in the Hvaler district with our little vessel. It was as if a sloop with 5 to 10 rifles was to take on a battleship. We barely managed to keep a torpedo boat at bay. But we would have needed to rustle up anything and everything that could shoot and float. We were the command vessel and had 5 torpedo boats under us.

But it is over now, and peaceably at that, although we were prepared for the worst. In that case, it wouldn’t have been so easy for the enemy to avoid the Norwegian torpedo boats. Kristian likes to be with me; I run with him, and it is fun.

Now I will finish here with a loving greeting from your brother,

Greet Ludvig and those at home.