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kind. When he lost his daughter Madeleine, aged fourteen, his wife wept and lamented; but he said to her, "My dear Catherine, think where she is gone; to a certainty she has made a blessed exchange. The flesh bleeds indeed; that is our nature; but the spirit exults, and finds all as it should be." As his daughter lay before him, he exclaimed, — “ I love her much; but, O my God, if it be thy will to take her, I would give her up to thee without one selfish murmur." When she was dying, he said, "My dearest child, my own Madeleine, I know you would gladly stay with your father here, and you will be equally ready to go to your Father in heaven; will you not?" She answered, "O, yes, dear father; as God wills." "Dear little girl," he exclaimed, "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." He then walked up and down in a troubled manner, saying, “Ah, yes! I have loved this dear child too much. If the flesh is so strong, what becomes of the spirit?" When she was breathing her last, he threw himself on his knees by her bedside, praying to God that he would spare her, till she expired in his arms. After her death, he said, "My poor, dear little Madeleine, you are at rest now." Then, looking long and fixedly at her, he said, "Yes, dear child, thou shalt rise again; thou shalt shine like a star, yes! like the sun! I am joyful in spirit, but, O, how sad in the flesh! It is a strange feeling this, to know that she is so certainly at rest, and yet to be so sad!"

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We have given this affecting scene to show how the stormy controvertist bore himself in the quiet circle of home. It shows, that, rough and bold as he was, he abounded in manly tenderness, as faithful and contented in the bosom of his family as bold when blazing in the van of reform. Still, the suspension of his former excitement brought on his hypochondriacal distresses to such an extent, that, when sickness had brought him to the edge of the grave, he was happy in believing that his last hour was come. Those men who are great in extended spheres do not always appear to equal advantage in a small one; but Luther's bearing in distressed and humble circumstances was to the full as honorable to him as those greater efforts and sacrifices which laid the foundation of his fame.

It was found, on experiment, that Luther could do without the public better than the public could dispense with him. The course of reform, however unlike that of true love in

benignity, very much resembled it in the smoothness of its flow. In ordinary times it could spread quietly without any external agency to sustain it; but when the clouds gathered and thunders began to roll, it needed his heart of flame and nerves of iron to confront the storm. The emperor seemed to be perfectly indifferent on the subject, except so far as his own interest was concerned; in all cases he was better pleased to take what was Cæsar's than to give up what belonged to God. So long as only the Pope's authority was endangered by the changes in Germany, he looked on with great composure; but when the mutual sympathy of the German princes began to threaten his own, his moral sense would not longer suffer him to rest. The only case of conscience which he was interested to determine was, to know which side it was most politic on the whole to favor; in other words, which was likely to prove strongest in the long run. Had Germany alone been his field of action, he would have taken side with the Reformers; but as his politics embraced all Europe, the friendship of the Roman court was too important to be surrendered. It would have been a great comfort to him, could he have frightened the Reformers into silence; and on the whole, he thought it better to throw tufts of grass before he tried what virtue there, was in stones. But he had no reason to boast the success of his pelting operations; for as soon as a decree had been issued to carry into effect the sentence pronounced on Luther at Worms, and to prohibit future innovations in religion, a league of princes and free cities protested against it; thus originating that word Protestant, which was then used for the first time, but which the world has since had opportunity to learn by heart.

When Charles, in pursuance of his designs, had appointed a diet of the empire at Augsburg, Luther was the soul of the Protestant party. Being under censure, he could not be present, and Melancthon was the representative of the Protestant divines. But Luther was near at hand, and his inflexible firmness held together the elements of their association against all the force and fraud that were employed to dissolve them. Their enemy was desirous to divide and conquer, while many of the more sagacious Protestants were for sinking their differences to secure their common union. But Luther knew full well, that, at such times, the boldest counsels were the wisest; that a spirit of compromise growing out of a sense

of danger was not to be trusted; and that for each to speak his own opinion was the best way to reconcile them all. As to harmony between Catholics and Protestants, which was a fond vision of Melancthon, Luther told him plainly that it should take place only on condition that the Pope abdicated his throne. So much influence was exerted to entangle the Protestant councils, to make them responsible for the republicanism of Zwingle and the Swiss, and for the Anabaptist fanaticism, and to involve them in inconsistencies and contradictions, that nothing short of Luther's fixed determination could have maintained that confidence and union which were indispensable to the success, and even the existence, of the party; so that even his defects of character became serviceable to the great cause which it was the business of his life to maintain. "I care not," he says, "about being accused of violence; it shall be my glory henceforth to have it said how I rage and storm. For more than ten years I have been humbling myself, and speaking them fairly. To what end? Only to exasperate the evil. The clowns are but the haughtier for it. Well; since there is no longer any hope of shaking their infernal resolutions with kindness, I break with them, and will leave them no rest from my curses till I sink into the grave." This does not look precisely like the spirit of the gospel, it must be allowed. But he says, "Yet do I keep towards all the world a kind and loving heart, and my greatest enemies themselves know it well." In many persons this would have been self-blinded contradiction; but in him it was really true, that his ungovernable energy, however furiously expressed, never overpowered the feeling of goodwill to men. There were haste and passion, at times, enough and to spare; but nothing like malice and revenge was ever harboured in his breast. He told Melancthon, that, if he heard of his getting on badly, he should himself be tempted "to face that row of Satan's teeth.” All danger he treated with contempt, saying, "If the emperor is disposed to publish an edict, let him." Accordingly, that potentate, whose patience grew somewhat threadbare at finding how little he was feared, prevailed on the diet to issue a decree which prohibited the future progress of reform. Luther did justice to Melancthon's admirable character and bearing, saying to him, -"Rejoice and be comforted in your Saviour! Man of longsuffering, raise up your drooping head, for your salvation draweth nigh."

This movement on the part of the emperor tended more to provoke than to overawe the Protestants, or to restore the old religion. The chiefs who were thus threatened formed a coalition for their mutual security, not by the advice of Luther, who rigidly regarded the charge, "Put not your trust in princes," whilst he disliked the resort to force in matters of religion. They were the more busy in this, because it was understood that Duke George of Saxony, "that clown," as Luther termed him in his courtly way, had arranged a secret combination of Catholic princes, to which the emperor himself had acceded. Between this duke and Luther a constant interchange of compliments was passing, in which, it must be confessed, the grace and good manners are chiefly on the layman's side. He earnestly exhorted Luther to repentance, while Luther replied, with little reverence,- "See our little prince; and he would be respected, glorified, adored, withal! Gramercy!" The duke utterly denied the existence of any such association; but the Protestant rulers assembled at Smalkalde, formed a league for their common defence, and made application to the kings of France and England for their aid and countenance, which those sovereigns, not from love of the Reformation, but from hatred of Charles, were quite ready to bestow. Luther was accused of having instigated them to this course; he denied the charge, but said, that, if they thought it their right or their duty to resist, he should not interfere to prevent it. Whatever they did was all the same to him. Meantime, nothing was more proper than that the Papists should tremble at shaking leaves, and see phantoms of death and insurrection on every side. He intimated, that, if they should die of their fright, he should not be chief mourner. He made these declarations of his views and feelings in reply to an anonymous work, which he possibly ascribed to his friend Duke George, in which the Protestants were accused of conspiring against the Catholics, who were all for peace. He said, "No one is to know the author of this work; well, I will remain in ignorance too. However, I will try my hand and strike upon the sack; if the blows should fall upon the ass that carries it, it will not be my fault; they were, of course, intended for the sack alone."

As this Protestant coalition was formidable in itself, and secured to itself the aid of foreign sovereigns, Charles's con

science was visibly affected. He began to have serious doubts of the justice of persecuting heretics and upholding the old religion. With France, and England, and Denmark threatening on one side, and the Turks entering Austria on the other, he saw the duty of toleration more clearly than ever before. He therefore entered into negotiation with the Protestant princes, in which he agreed that all processes against Reformers should be suspended, and that no one should thenceforth be persecuted on account of his religion; very wise conclusions, whatever may have been the process by which he reached them. This prosperous result was primarily owing to Luther; for, though he took no part in secular arrangements, and was opposed to the exertion of civil pow er in matters of religion, it was evidently his determination, and the spirit of firmness which he had breathed into the Reformers, which held them together in the face of danger, and enabled them to present a front so formidable and commanding. The Protestants were brave, through their sympathy with him; it was like the enthusiasm which shoots through the heavy masses of an army, when they feel that they are fighting under their leader's eye.

It was quite obvious that Luther made himself enemies by resisting the popular tendencies, which he was expected to favor, because they grew out of an impulse which he had given to the public mind. But very little cared he for the expectations of other men, and having a clear head to discern the right, and a clear heart to follow it, he went on his way, like a decree of fate, leaving others to wonder, complain, or abuse him, as happened to suit them best. This was the case with the Anabaptists, as they were called, from their opposition to infant baptism; though the name, as often happens, gives no idea whatever of their character and opinions. Some of them carried the principles of Christian liberty to a base and unprincipled excess, and claimed exemption from all moral restraints under the name of religious privilege, till they were lost in all manner of sins. Luther told them his full opinion of them and their proceedings, which was far from complimentary. As soon as their excitement began, he said, "There was no spark so small, but that a fire might be kindled to consume the world, if the Devil was suffered to blow it." Foreseeing the enormous crimes to which their tenets would lead them, he was ready to unite with any oth

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