LUTHER.
I gave a second lecture, one on Luther, at the same place, and on the
like solicitation of Mr. Le Fevre, President of the Balloon Society; the
date being November 9, 1883.
Of this lecture, not to be tedious, I will here give only the
peroration.
"And now, in conclusion, let us answer these reasonable questions: What
has Martin Luther done and suffered that we at this distant interval of
four centuries should reverence his memory with gratitude and
admiration? What was the lifework he was raised up to do, and how did he
do it? and what influence have his labours of old on the times in which
we live?--We must remember that in the sixteenth century priestcraft had
culminated to its rankest height of fraud, cruelty, vice, and
superstition: the lay-folk everywhere were its serfs and victims, not to
mention also numbers of the worthier clerics who hated but could, not
break their bonds. Luther was the solitary champion to head and lead
both the remonstrant layman and the better sort of monk up to the then
well-nigh forlorn hope of combating Antichrist in his stronghold: Luther
broke those chains for ever off the necks of groaning nations,--freeing
to this day from that bitter bondage not alone Germany, Sweden, France,
and England, but the very ends of the earth from America to China:
without the energies of Luther nearly four hundred years ago, and the
living spirit of Luther working in us now, we should be still in our own
persons adding to the Book of Martyrs in the flames of the Inquisition,
still immersed in blankest ignorance, with the Bible everywhere
forbidden, and scientific research condemned, still cringing slaves at
the feet of confessors who fraudulently sell absolution for money, still
both spiritually and politically the mean vassals of an Italian priest
instead of brave freemen under our English Queen. Luther relit the
well-nigh, extinguished lamp of true religion, and it shines for him all
the more gloriously to this hour: Luther refreshed the gospel salt that
had through corruption lost its savour, until now it is more antiseptic
than ever as the cure of evil, more purifying than ever as the quickener
of good: Luther, under God's good grace and providence, has rescued the
conscience and reason of our whole race from the thraldom of
self-elected spiritual despots, who worked upon the superstitious fears
of men as to another-world in order to strengthen their own power in
this: Luther, for the result of his great labours, is more to us now
than ever was the fabulous Hercules of old,--for he has cleansed the
real Augæan stable,--more than any mythical William Tell,--for he has
ensured the boon of everlasting liberty, more to us than a whole army of
so-called heroes in conquest, patriotism, or even local
philanthropy,--for the enemies he fought and vanquished were our
spiritual foes,--the country he opened to us is the heavenly one,--the
good-doing, he inaugurated is wide as the world, and shines an electric
universal threefold light of faith, hope, and charity."
_Luther._
_Written by request, for the four-hundredth anniversary of his
birth._
"Martin Luther! deathless name,
Noblest on the scroll of Fame,
Solitary monk,--that shook
All the world by God's own book;
Antichrist's Davidian foe,
Strong to lay Goliath low,
Thee, in thy four-hundredth year,
Gladly we remember here.
"How, without thy forceful mind,
Now had fared all human kind,--
Curst and scorch'd and chain'd by Rome,
In each heart of hearth and home?
But for thee, and thy grand hour,
German light, and British power,
With Columbia's faith and hope,
All were crush'd beneath the Pope!
"God be thank'd for this bright morn,
When Eisleben's babe was born!
For the pious peasant's son,
Liberty's great fight hath won,--
When at Wittenberg he stood
All alone for God and good,
And his Bible flew unfurl'd,
Flag of freedom to the world!"
The Reverend E. Bullinger set this to excellent music; and it was
translated for Continental use into German, French, Swedish, and
Hungarian in the same metre.
As quite a cognate subject here shall be added my ballad on Wycliffe,
also written by request:--
_Wycliffe._
"Distant beacon on the night
Full five centuries ago,--
Harbinger of Luther's light,
Now four hundred years aglow,--
Priest of Lutterworth we see
All of Luther-worth in thee!
"Lo, the wondrous parallel,--
Both gave Bibles to their land;
While, the rage of Rome to quell,
Princes stood on either hand,
John of Gaunt, and Saxon John,
Cheered each bold confessor on.
"Both are rescuers of souls,
Cleansing those Augæan styes--
Superstition's hiding holes,
Nunneries and monkeries;
Both gave liberty to men,
Bearding lions in their den!
"Wycliffe, Luther! glorious pair,
Great Twin Brethren of mankind;
Conscience was your guide and care,
Purifying heart and mind;
Both before your judges stood,
'Here I stand, for God and good.'
"Each had liv'd a martyr's life,
Still protesting for the faith;
Yet amid that fiery strife,
Each escap'd the martyr's death;
Rescued from the fangs of Rome,
Both died peacefully at home."