"The mass is a

"Let me repeat,” he continued. bad thing. God is opposed to it. It ought to be abolished, and I would that everywhere the Supper of the Lord were established in its stead. But let none be torn from it by force. We must leave results to God. It is not we that must work, but His Word. And why so? you will ask. Because the hearts of men are not in my hand, as clay in the hand of the potter. We have a right to preach, but none whatever to compel. Let us preach ;-the rest belongs to God. If I resort to force, what shall I gain? Grimace, fair appearances, apings, cramped uniformity, and hypocrisy; but there will be no hearty sincerity, no faith, no love. When these are wanting, all is wanting; and I would not give a straw for such a victory.

"Know you what the devil thinks when he sees men resort to violence to spread the Gospel through the world? Seated behind the fire of hell, and folding his arms, with indignant glance and horrid leer, Satan says, 'How good it is in yonder madmen to play into my hands!' But only let him see the Word of the Lord circulating, and working its way unaided on the field of the world, and at once he is disturbed at his work: his knees smite each other, he trembles, and is ready to die with fear.

"Observe the sun. He dispenses two gifts, namely, light and warmth. The mightiest monarch cannot turn aside his rays;—they come straight on, arriving upon this earth by a direct course. Meanwhile his warmth

goes out and diffuses itself in every direction. So it is that truth, like light, should ever be simple and unbending; whilst love, like warmth, should beam forth on all sides, and bend to every necessity of our brethren."

"Don't you think Luther a wonderful teacher?"

This question was asked of Gabriel Didymus-of him who had been one of the most extravagant in both religious theory and action.

"Ah!" replied he, "I seem to be listening to the voice of an angel rather than of a man.'

Carlstadt left the church with an air of melancholy dejection. For months afterwards, he could not even wear a smile. Ultimately, however, he confessed his errors, and resumed, with a more sober spirit, his offices at the university.

For six days more did Luther continue, in manifold expositions of Scripture, to enforce similar truths upon an increasingly congenial auditory. At length the deluded people laid aside their rampant ferocity towards their Roman Catholic brethren. Kindness and forbearance, at least on their part, followed. And, supposing that he could have had any disposition to institute comparisons between himself and former orators, he might have said,

"Easy enough was it for Demosthenes to take the lead, and then to stimulate to a higher velocity the already prepared impulses of an Athenian people. Savonarola, too, could have found but little difficulty in fanning the already ignited flame of the ardent

VOL. II.

T

Florentines. But this work of mine has been far more desperate. Mine has been, not to add fuel to an already kindled fire, but, without extinguishing it, to become its master, and to direct it for the purposes of civilization and of religion."

All this, and much more, he might have said to himself, at the successful close of his sermons to his recently furious and intractable congregation at Wittemberg. But heavenly mercy saved him from any such self-glorification.

But a few weeks after all this excitement, and all this perilous appeal to his vanity, he calmly took his seat near his friend Melancthon's desk, worked with him at the translation of the Holy Scriptures into honest German, and while his eye lost, for a moment, its serenity in stern indignation at his Papal opponents, who sought to establish what they thought right by force, not by argument, he would often interpose

"If reason could speak, dear Philip, it would say, Oh, that I could once hear the Word of God! I should think it worth a journey to the very uttermost parts of the earth. Give ear, then, my fellow countryman: God, the Creator of heaven and earth, now speaks to you in your own tongue."

Thus acted Martin Luther, as he stood upon the threshold of another, and somewhat more trying, series of actions in his eventful life. Thus did he from a quarter, personal to himself, and therefore whence he might have failed to be dispassionate, proclaim to all

men, of all ages, that for the maintenance of truth there should be no offensive strife; that there should be no vindictiveness of spirit; that while moral aggression should be made on error, that aggression should be purely moral; and that all its soldiers, in the spiritual warfare they might have to wage, need never doubt that its weapons, though not carnal but spiritual, must be mighty enough to pull down all strongholds of error, and to bring even every thought to obedience unto Christ.*

*Note 19.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE incidents in Martin Luther's life, which we have just detailed, came so rapidly as to forbid any interruption in narrating them; and thus we have been compelled to lose sight of what was meanwhile happening to the other persons in our tale.

When we last met with Count Arensberg, he was at Eisenach, on his journey, accompanied by his mother and the Lady Bianca, to the Court of the Elector Frederick. The news which reached him, some days after, of Martin Luther's sudden disappearance did not disconcert him; for he had previously gathered, from several sources, that the abduction of the great Reformer would be made by friendly hands. Neither did any other circumstance impede him in his progress; so that only a few days had elapsed before he reached Torgau, provided a suitable mansion for his family, and then placed himself in immediate attendance upon his Sovereign.

It was on one occasion when, as he left the audiencechamber, Count Arensberg was followed by the Secretary Spalatin, who placed in his hands a packet,