United States or Ireland ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Through it all survived the truths that love is supreme, and that the law of life is goodness sublimed to holiness. The revivals of religions have been the rediscovery of the glad truth, freed each time from some accompanying error. The discovery of Luther was that the soul's life in God was possible outside of the Catholic church.
"That indulgences have virtue to deliver souls from Purgatory I do not believe, nor can it be proven by them that teach it; the Church says nothing to that effect. "What I preach to you is based on the certainty of the Holy Scriptures, which no one ought to doubt." So Luther preached, and his word went out to the ends of the earth.
As for the historical retrospect which Miltitz wanted, and which Luther briefly appends to this letter, all that the latter says in vindication of himself is, that it was not his own fault, but that of his enemies, who had driven him further and further onward, that 'no small part of the unchristian doings at Rome had been dragged to light.
But this marriage, which proved happy, was the signal of new reforms. Luther now emancipated himself from his monastic fetters, and lifted up his voice against the whole monastic system. Eight years had elapsed since he preached against indulgences. During these eight years, reform had been gradual, and had now advanced to the extreme limit it ever reached during the life of the reformer.
Luther himself was a devout believer in witchcraft, and in the bodily presence of the Spirit of Evil upon the earth; all his harassing doubts and mental struggles he ascribes to his visible agency. Germany, indeed, seemed to live and breathe in an atmosphere of mysticism.
In a general way it may be said that for the positive views of Luther on the subjects discussed, Theses 30-37 and 41-51 are the most vital, while Theses 92-95 are sufficient evidence of the motive which led Luther to make his protest.
In a sermon preached as early as the summer of 1516, Luther had warned his congregation against trusting to indulgences, and he did not conceal his aversion to the system, whilst admitting his doubts and ignorance as to some important questions on the subject.
He found his country tied up to formalism, scholasticism, and tradition; and by strokes as remarkable for boldness as strength he set it free. He stands at the head of a great historical epoch, which was prepared to receive and crown him. In another field, we have, even in this day, a reformer whom his age has called for, and who will surely do in the world of art what Luther did in religion.
"It's fifteen years since I've been at 'a killing, and I feel as if I were ten years old again," Noland said as he watched the hard earth give way under the mattock Luther wielded. "Go hunt a straw in that case, and I'll see that you get the bladder. Shall I save you the pig's tail?" Luther said as he settled the barrel into the cavity.
The sphere of his mighty ministry was not bounded by his defence of the truth against the great and powerful. No! He was as rich a pastor, as terrible a warrior. He fed the sheep in the fattest pastures, while he destroyed the wolves on every side. Nor will those pastures be dried up or lost until time, nations, and the churches of God shall be no more." Dr. Cole's Pref. to Luther on Genesis.
Word Of The Day