Letter

,542 be offended with these people,but consider the advantages theyreap from the press of business.

However, you shall soon receive your two copies.

I can promisenothing,for the publishersobjectto largeworks, because they know from experiencethat if they do not sell it is a great loss to them.

If a prefacefrom me can be of any service to you, why plead for it,as you know You would have been wiser to giveyour work to Socerius or some one in Central Germany, as I wrote you, for these do nothing at all, so I am indignantseeinggood paper, beautiful lettering, and hard work bestowed on such contaminating writings.Bucer and such-like,who ought not to write,do so constantly.You understand.

Albrecht had shut up, should be opened for Evangelical service.

Jonas,why hesitate as to openingthe third church The time has come to which we looked forward when your burghermasterand syndic.Dr.

Son of God, who has hitherto been trampled under foot,has at length been glorified among His enemies, havingwon such a victory as neither we nor His enemies could have believed possible.

Christ has been openlymanifested ; and althoughI have no desire that the Mayence monster should falla victim to God's wrath and eternal perdition, still I rejoice that the old knave has lived to see the confusion and irrevocable failure of his diaboHc projects.Praise be to God, who isjudge upon the earth,and destroys the work of the godless, so that bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. Let him now weep as he deserves,and await his punishmentfor havingrejoiced in wickedness and all that is againstGod, as well as in all that is Godlike.

Do joinwith us in thankingHim with loud voice, for He has showed us wondrous thingsto His own glory, and has not despisedthe sighsof the destitute,but has heard their cries.

Thus, Lord, shall thine enemies perish.

(De Wette.) ccccxxxvii Luther wishes his son educated at a publicschool.

Hans, as we arranged, my dear Marcus, so that he may be instructed in grammar and music alongwith the other boys,and at the same time

I hope you will attend to his manners and morals.

I am committinga great trust to you in the Lord.

I shall never grudge the outlay,and you will report his progress and let me know what should be done with him.

Florian,one of his schoolmates,with him, for it is importantthat boys should have others to vie with.

But you must be more strict with the latter,and if you can, board him with a burgher; if not, send him back.

God bless your efforts.

I shall,ifspared, send the other two boys ; for in future we shall not easily find such unwearied instructors,especially in the languages, and such strict disciplinarians as you.

Therefore, one must seize the opportunity, for time flies, and competent teachers disappear even more quickly.For more advanced studies they would be better here.

Farewell in the Lord, and say to Walter that I pray for his welfare,and commit my little son to his care in music.

I can train theologians, but wish my children to have grammar and music.

So once more farewell, and greet Gabriel and his family. And for the third time I wish you continued prosperity.

Luther sends for his son to see his dyingsister.

Grace and peace, my dear I beg of you to conceal from my son Magdalene is nearingher end, and will soon departto her true

Father in heaven unless God see fit to spare her.

She longsso to see her brother that I send a carriage to fetch him.

They loved one another tenderly, so perhapsa sight of him will revive her.

I do my best,so that my fatherly heart may not afterwards be torn by remorse.

Desire him therefore,without telling him why, to return at once.

I shall send him back as soon as she has either fallen asleep in the Lord or been restored to health.

Say to him we must have somethingprivateto communicate.

All here are otherwise well.

Luther tries to convince Albrecht's insincerity.

Grace and peace in the Lord I abide by my opinion, my Jonas,that the Mayence Satan will never alienate the Burgraviate of Halle, especially at such a price,and with the stipulation that the gospel should have free course there.

Whatever this son of perdition says and does is pure deceit and lies.

I often said that the sun had never looked down upon anythingso craftyupon God's earth as this man.

Prince into ridicule, even as he makes fun of every one.

Halle people are being needlessly alarmed throughfalse rumours ; and this monster delights in beholdingthe misery of the wretched,whether the torment be real or fanciful.

I have earnestlyadmonished your son to obey his father,and such a father,remindinghim how grateful he should feel to God for lettinghim enjoysuch a blessing tillhe is nearingthe years of maturity, one who can counsel and helphim in the slipperypathsof youth,in a world so full of the machinations of the devil.

He promisedto follow your advice and that of his teachers.

I fancythat you have heard that my beloved Magdalene has been reborn into Christ^s everlastingKingdom.

I ought to rejoice on account of her happy end, stillthe tenderness of the father's heart is so great that we cannot think of itwithout sobs and sighs, which tear asunder the heart.

For the imageof this most obedient and tenderlylovingdaughterever hovers before our eyes, with everything she said and did in lifeas well as in death, that even the death of Christ (and what are all deaths comparedto that.'') isalmost powerless to obliterate the memory.

For has He not honoured us greatly in glorifying our child ?

You know how affectionate and sensible she was, nay, how charming. Christ be praisedfor choosingher, and calling her away, and glorifying her.

God that I and all of us may have such a death,nay, such a life.

This is my one petition to the Father of all consolation and mercy.

In Him may you and yours prosper.

Reply to letter of consolation on Many thanks,most excellent friend, for tryingto console me on my dearest daughter's death.

I loved her not onlybecause she was my flesh,but for her placidand gentlespirit and her dutifulness to me.

I rejoice that she is sleepingsweetlyin her Heavenly Father's home till that day.

Alas,for the days in which we live !

And theyare dailybecomingworse.

I pray that we and all dear to us may be granted such a blessed hour of departureas was her lot.

I would call this reallysleeping in the Lord, not experiencing one pang of fear.

This is the time of which The righteousis taken away from the evil to come ; they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness," justas when one gathersthe wheat into the barn,and commits the chaff to the flames,a punishment the world has deserved for her ingratitude.Truly it is a I should like to write you oftener,but you write so seldom.

I agree with you as to the reports about Heinz's judgments and threats.

Meissen people are become a byword throughthis man at Merseburg,where they portray themselves as so courageous and us so timid.

The war prospects givegood reason for fear.

I never thoughtwe could achieve anything against the Turks except squander our money and reap ridicule.

God accomplishwith such tools ^ So we must pray without ceasingthat He would overcome this monstrosity, even as He did with the Papacy, with all its abominations.

Did you get my letter asking for a post for Weller, who complains of the indifference of the Freibergpeople to the But as thingsare not yet settled with you, this request may come at an inopportunetime.

Comfort yourselfin the Lord and be steadfast, for you are Christ's servant, who called you to this post, even if you merelyremain quietly in your place,preventingthe devil occupyingit,althoughyou should do nothingm.ore all your life.

And thus how much more are you His servants when you are not onlynot idle,but maintain a constant conflict, and purifythe people from sin through the Kathie greets you, although she often breathes a sigh over the memory of her beloved and obedient daughter.

Luther tries to comfort his friend on the death of his amiable wife.

Christ,who is our salvation and consolation, my dear I have been so thoroughly prostratedby this unexpected calamitythat

I do not know what to write.

We have all lost in her the dearest of friends.

Her brightpresence, her eye so full of trust, all drew forth our love,especially as we knew that she shared both our joysand sorrows as if theyhad been her own.

A bitter partingin very deed, for I was gone she would have been the best of comforters for those The deep longing after one so distinguished by piety,propriety, and amiability makes me weep.

I can easilyimagine your feelings.Temporal consolation is of no avail here.

One must look solely to the unseen and eternal.

She is our precursor into the regionsbeyond,where we shall all be gathered on our dismissal from this vale of tears and this corrupt world.

Mourn, therefore, as you have good cause to do, but at the same time comfort yourselfwith the thoughtof the common lot of humanity. Althoughaccording to the flesh the partinghas been very bitter,nevertheless we shall be reunited in the life beyond, and enjoy the sweetest communion with the departed, as well as with Him who loved us so, that He purchasedour lifethrough

His own blood and death.

God's mercy is better than life.

What does it matter though we should suffer a littlehere, when there we shall partake of joy unutterable Oh, what a gulf separates those

Turks, Jews, and, stillworse, those Mainz, from this glory!

Would theycould weep now, so that theymay not mourn eternally For we, after mourning a littlewhile,shall enter into joy,whither your

Magdalena have gone, and are now