to suffer the question whether the persons keeping me are friends or foes to remain in doubt, or to appear doubtful, and observe silence, provided you believe that your doing so would redound to the glory of God. For there is no need of others besides yourself and Amsdorf knowing aught beyond the fact that I am still alive. Who knows what God intends to effect by this counsel to keep me silent) on these heights. Now that I am a prisoner, the priests and monks who were in a rage while I was at liberty are fearful to such a degree, that they are beginning to mitigate their insane enactments against me. They cannot bear the sight of the great multitude of common people threatening them, and do not know by what ruse to escape. I behold in this "the mighty hand of the God of Jacob," Gen. 49, 24, and His doing while we keep silent, suffer, and pray. Is not the word of Moses true: "The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace"? Ex. 14, 14. A certain Romanist has written to the gentleman wearing the biretta) at Mayence, saying: "We are rid of Luther, as we wished to be; but the populace is so wrought up, that I surmise we shall hardly keep our lives, unless we light candles and go in search. of him everywhere and bring him back." He wrote this in jest; but what if his jest should come to be serious truth! Ps. 4, 5: "Commune with your own heart upon your bed and be still," etc.

Of the same date there is extant another letter

It was evidently

He assumes that it was written to Spalatin in 1522.
written during the first days after Luther's arrival at Castle Wartburg,
and judging from its contents must have been written to some person in
Wittenberg. Prof. Hoppe suggests Melanchthon as the addressee on the
ground that there was no need to counsel Spalatin to keep Luther's hiding
place a secret. Spalatin, no doubt, had been party to the secret negotia-
tions for Luther's removal. Koestlin states that it was Spalatin who
facilitated the delivery of letters to and from Luther, while the latter
was at the Castle. See vol. 1, 470.

5) "durch diesen Rath des Schweigens."
6) "galeritae;" the Cardinal is meant.

TO MELANCHTHON.)

To Philip Melanchthon, evangelist of the church at Wittenberg, my exceedingly dear brother in Christ:

Jesus.

Grace! Well, what are you doing meanwhile, my dear Philip? Are you not praying that this retirement, to which I have reluctantly consented, may achieve some greater end for the glory of God? I also wish to know very much how you like this state of affairs. I was afraid that I might be regarded as a deserter from the line of battle, and yet, there was no way open to me for resisting those who desired and advised this plan. I wish for nothing more than to meet the rage of our adversaries and to offer my neck to them.

While I am sitting here, I place before my eyes all day long the condition of the Church, and I see, in the eighty-ninth Psalm, this saying (v. 48): "Wherefore hast Thou made all men in vain?" My God! what a frightful image is the abominable dominion of the Roman antichrist! And I abhor my callousness, because I am not altogether dissolved in tears, "weeping with my fountains of tears for the slain of the daughter of my people," Jer. 9, 1. But on this last day of His anger "there is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of God," Is. 64, 7, or that should "make up the hedge, and stand in the gap for the house of Israel," Ezek. 22, 30; 13, 5. Oh, a papal kingdom meet, indeed, for the end and the dregs of the world! God have mercy on us!

Wherefore, being a servant of the Word, you should meanwhile continue fortifying the walls and towers of Jerusalem, until they shall attack you too. You know your calling and your gifts. I am praying for you especially, in the hope that

7) St. L. Ed. XV, 2513. This letter is found in Cod. Jen. a, fol. 118. It is printed in Aurifaber, vol. 1, fol. 324, in Strobel-Ranner, p. 16, in Schuetze, vol. 2, p. 206, however, incomplete, without the name of the addressee, and placed among the letters from Castle Coburg of the year 1530; in De Wette, vol. 2, p. 1, and in the Erlang. Corresp., vol. 3, p. 148.

my prayer (as I doubt not!) may somewhat avail. Do the same for me, and let us jointly bear this burden. We are left standing alone in the line of battle; after me they will seek to lay hold of you also.

Spalatin writes me that there is in press an edict 8) so cruel, that they will begin to search every man in the world, on peril of his conscience, for my books. By this edict they will soon work their own ruin. Their Rehoboam at Dresden 9) rejoices and is eager to execute the edict. They say that the Emperor was also importuned to write the King of Denmark, requesting him not to receive the remnants of the Lutheran heresy, and they are chanting the well-known strain, Ps. 41, 6: "When shall he die, and his name perish?"

Hartmann Kronenberg 10) has given the Emperor notice that he has quitted his service, for which he was to receive a

8) This refers to the imperial edict issued at Worms May 8, 1521, by which the papal bull of excommunication was confirmed, Luther declared to be diabolically possessed and outlawed, and his abettors charged with the crime of lese majesty, and all their chattels and goods forfeited to their captors after May 14.

9) Duke George of Saxony.

10) Hartmuth von Kronberg, or Cronenberg, a town in the Duchy of Nassau, situated at the foot of the Taunus Mountains, had openly espoused the cause of Luther, had addressed a letter full of burning indignation to Pope Leo X, had urged the inhabitants of Kronberg, with him, to repent of their sins, and to believe the Gospel, had induced and strengthened the city clerk at Oppenheim, Jacob Kohl, to embrace Luther's teaching, and had entered, since March, 1522, into a correspondence with Luther. On March 16, 1522, he nailed to the main gate of the city of Frankfurt a placard addressed to the inhabitants, warning them against "the false prophets and wolves;" he particularly assailed Peter Meyer, the parish priest at St. Bartholomew's, for attempting to suppress Luther's doctrine. In the style of the military parlance of that day, this bold Christian knight drew up articles of agreement between the King of Heaven, his Captain Jesus Christ, and himself, stipulating the terms of service to which he bound himself, in chivalrous faith, to engage in fieldduty for his Lord. Every way this Hessian nobleman is one of the most congenial figures of the day, bold, aggressive, yet without that wanton impetuosity of knightly valor which in more than one instance spoiled undertakings in behalf of the Reformation. His zeal was not tainted by carnal or secular motives; he took his stand simply on Gospel ground.

salary of 200 guilders in gold,11) because he is loath to serve one who will listen to such impious people. I believe that the upshot will be that this edict will rage nowhere except in the dominions of this Rehoboam and your other neighbor,12) who are both afflicted with vaingloriousness. God lives and reigns to eternity! Amen.

The Lord has smitten me with great pain in the rectum. I am so costive, that my stool is forced from me only with great effort, causing nervous perspiration, and the longer I delay the harder it becomes. Yesterday, after four days, I had the first evacuation. For this reason I have not slept all night, and I am still restless. Do pray for me. For if this affliction is to go on as it has begun, it will become unbearable.

The Cardinal at Salzburg has joined Ferdinand on his nuptial journey to Innsbruck the day before St. Philip and St. James, 13) which was four days after our departure.14) It is rumored that Ferdinand was not pleased with his companion, nor the Emperor, as Spalatin writes me. However, you may read his letter yourself. Be sure to write me all that is happening among you, and how everybody is. Godspeed to you and yours!

Exaudi Sunday,15) 1521, in the realm of birds.

Your

MARTIN LUTHER.

D.

(To be continued.)

11) This was the annual salary in consideration of which he, together

with his friend Sickingen, had agreed to enter the Emperor's service.

12) The Elector Joachim of Brandenburg.

13) April 30.

14) Luther left Worms April 26.

15) May 12.

BOOK REVIEW.

LICHT DES LEBENS. Ein Jahrgang von Evangelienpredigten aus dem Nachlass des seligen Dr. Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther, gesammelt von C. J. Otto Hanser. Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, Mo. 1905. II and 688 pp. Price, $2.25.

This book contains 68 sermons of Dr. Walther. They were collected by Rev. Hanser of this city. The greater part of them was found in the original manuscript, some in copies made by pupils. and friends of Walther, and one is a reprint from a former publication. All are genuine products of Dr. Walther. Their contents attest them as such, and the manuscripts submitted for this publication are vouched for to have been either written by Dr. Walther, or copied from his manuscript. The book contains sermons for every Sunday in the church-year, except Sunday after New Year, Sixth Sunday after Epiphany, Sixth Sunday after Easter and Twentyseventh Sunday after Trinity. There are two sermons for the First Sunday in Advent, for Christmas (one for a Matin service), and for Good Friday. For festivals still observed in our church there are one sermon each for Epiphany, Purification of Mary, Ascension, St. John the Baptist's, Michaelmas, and Reformation Day. There is no sermon for Maundy Thursday. The text for every sermon is the conventional Gospel lesson for the day, except for the Matin Service on Christmas Day (Is. 9, 6. 7), Second Christmas Day (Epistle for St. Stephen's Day), Twenty-sixth Sunday after Trinity (Epistle I: 2 Pet. 3, 3-14), and Reformation Day (Ps. 77, 6—21). The texts for Good Friday are Luke 23, 44-48 and Mark 15, 42-47.

These sermons were preached on various occasions and at different places in America during 47 years of Dr. Walther's life, the earliest (No. 9, on the Gospel for the Sunday after Christmas) having been preached in 1839, and the latest (No. 31, on the Gospel for the Sunday after Easter) in 1886, a year before the Doctor's death. Four sermon's (No. 8, Gospel for Second Christmas Day; No. 11, Gospel for Epiphany Day; No. 30, Gospel for Second Easter Day; No. 46, Gospel for Sixth Sunday after Trinity) are without date. More than half (forty) of these sermons were preached during the decade between 1839 and 1848; fifteen between 1849 and 1857, six between 1861 and 1867, and only three (not counting the four not dated) after 1867. Thus, the bulk of these sermons is from a period when Walther was still engaged in pastoral work.