Zwingli dreaded a physical interpretation; Luther, on the contrary, dreaded the evaporation of the spiritual element of the sacrament of the communion. One considered that he defended the cornerstone of evangelical Protestantism; the other the foundation of the Christian Church. On one side the cry was, "The spirit quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing!" the other side maintained the presence of the entire Christ.

Profound and insurmountable antitheses of religious thought and practice, defying the discriminating power of the human understanding!

In vain the Swiss sought to establish a cordial union, notwithstanding these differences, or rather rising above them. "There are no people on earth with whom I would more willingly be united than those of Wittemberg!" cried Zwingli in

tears.

un

"Ye have a different spirit from ours!" was Luther's implacable reply. "Conscience is a shy thing; therefore we must not act lightly in such great matters, nor introduce anything new, less we have the distinct word of God for it. We deem, truly, that our opponents mean well; but it will be seen that their arguments do not satisfy conscience, as opposed to the meaning of the words, This is my body."

Even a Christian and brotherly union was rejected. "To-day," says Luther, "the Landgrave proposed that we should, although maintaining different opinions, still keep together as brethren and members in Christ. But we want not such brethren or members; let us, however, have peace and good-will!"

At other times he speaks with great severity of them. In 1527, he published a work against Zwingle and Ecolampadius, in which he styled them New Wickliffites, and denounced their opinions as sacrilegious and heretical. At length, in 1528, he said, "I know enough, and more than enongh, of Bucer's iniquity to feel no surprise at his perverting against me my own published sentiments on the Christ keep you, -you who are living in the midst of these ferocious beasts, these vipers, lionesses, panthers, with almost more danger than Daniel in the lions' den." "I believe Zwingle to be worthy of a holy hate for

sacrament.

To the left of the picture, Melancthon and Ecolampadius are conversing; behind them, Philip of Hesse and Ulrich of Wurtemberg follow the conversation between Luther and Zwingli with extreme attention; to the right, several other theologians belonging to the two contending parties sit under the portrait of the peaceable Frederick the Wise.

ABOVE, LUTHER PRAYING. PRINCIPAL SCENE, THE PRESENTATION OF THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION, 1530.

THAT which had been heard thirteen years before at Wittemberg, on the 31st of October, 1517, like the voice of a watchman at midnight, was in full daylight, on the 25th of June, 1530, proclaimed at the court of the Bishop of Augsburg, before the emperor and the country, as the steadfast conviction of many thousand German hearts.

Melancthon, transformed at Augsburg into a partisan leader, and forced to do battle dayly with legates, princes, and emperor, was exceedingly discomposed with the active life with which he had been saddled, and often unbosomed his troubles to Luther, when all the comfort he got was rough rebuke: "You tell me of your labors, dangers, tears; am I on roses? Do not I share your burden? Ah! would to Heaven my cause were such as to allow me to shed tears!" (June 20th.) "May God reward the tyrant of Saltzburg, who works thee so much ill, according to his works! He deserves another sort of answer from thee; such as I would have made him, perchance; such as has never struck his ear. They must, I fear, hear the saying of Julius Cæsar: They would have it.' I write in vain, because, with thy philosophy, thou wishest to set all these things right with thy reason, that is, to be unreasoning with reason. Go on; continue to kill thyself so, without seeing that neither thy hand nor thy mind can grasp this thing." (30th June, 1530.) "God has placed this cause in a certain spot, unknown to thy rhetoric and thy philosophy-that spot is faith; there all things are inaccessible to the sight;

and whoever would render them visible, apparent, and comprehensible, gets pains and tears as the price of his labor, as thou hast. God has said that his dwelling is in the clouds and thick darkness. Had Moses sought means of avoiding Pharaoh's army, Israel would, perhaps, still be in Egypt. If we have not faith, why not seek consolation in the faith of others, for some must necessarily have it, though we have not? Or else, must we say that Christ has abandoned us before the fulfillment of time? If he be not with us, where is he in this world? If we be not the Church, or part of the Church, where is the Church? Is Ferdinand the Church, or the Duke of Bavaria, or the pope, or the Turk, or their fellows? If we have not God's word, who has? These things are beyond thee, for Satan torments and weakens thee. That Christ may heal thee is my sincere and constant prayer!" (June 29th.) "I am in poor health.

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But I despise the angel of Satan, that is buffeting my flesh. If I cannot read or write, I can at least think and pray, and even wrestle with the devil; and then sleep, idle, play, sing. Fret not thyself away, dear Philip, about a matter which is not in thy hand, but in that of One mightier than thou, and from whom no one can snatch it."

"Great is my joy," says Luther," to have lived till this hour, when Christ is proclaimed by such confessors, before such an assembly, through so glorious a confession! Now the word is fulfilled: 'I will speak of thy testimony also before kings.' The other also will be fulfilled: 'Thou hast not let me be put to shame ;' for 'whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father who is in heaven.'"

In this spirit he comforted his friends with the most joyful confidence: "Ye have confessed Jesus Christ; ye have offered peace, rendered obedience to the emperor, borne evil, have been covered with contumely, and have not returned evil for evil. To sum all, ye have worthily carried on the sacred work as it becometh his saints. Look up, and lift up your heads, for your deliverance is nigh!"

Being in the castle at Coburg-which, from a Sinai, he intended to make his Sion-Luther could only in the spirit and in prayer be present with his friends during the decisive hours at Augsburg.

"With sighs and prayer," he writes to Melancthon, "I am in truth faithfully by your side. The cause concerns me also, indeed more than any of you; and it has not been begun lightly or wickedly, or for the sake of honors or worldly good; in this the Holy Ghost is my witness, and the cause itself has shown it until now. If we fall, Christ falls with us-he, the ruler of the world: and though he should fall, I would rather fall with Christ than stand with the emperor. Christ is the conqueror of the world; that is not false, I know! Why then should we fear the conquered world, as if it were the conqueror ?"

The artist has grouped the Reformers to the left, and the Catholics to the right of the spectator. There stands Melancthon, with his careworn, thoughtful countenance, full of grief over the impending separation of the Churches; beside him, with hands folded in prayer, the elector, John the Constant; behind him, the margrave, George of Brandenburg; and, leaning on his sword, Philip of Hesse. Before the emperor stands the chancellor, Christian Baier, reading with a loud voice the evangelical confession. On the stairs in the background, the people are seen pushing in, and listening with attention. Above, in the Gothic arch, Luther is seen in prayer. In the lower compartment appear Luther's and Melancthon's coatof-arms, connected by a band, on which we read Luther's motto of those days, taken from his favorite Psalm: Non moriar, sed vivam, "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord." Such was the presentiment of his soul regarding himself and his mission.

THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE

THE members of the Evangelical Church had published their General Confession at Augsburg. It is true the source of this Confession could only be found in the Bible; and the Bible became their property only through Luther's translation.

"This is one of the greatest miracles," says Mathesius, "which our Lord has caused to be performed, by Dr. Martin Luther, before the end of the world, that he giveth us Germans a very beautiful version of the Bible, and explaineth to us his eternal divine nature, and his merciful will, in good intelligible German words.

"When the whole German Bible had been published, Dr. Luther began anew to revise it with great zeal, industry, and prayer. And as the Son of God had promised, that where two or three were gathered together in his name, he would be in the midst of them,' he caused a sanhedrim, as it were, of the best people then about him to assemble weekly, for a few hours before supper, at his house; namely, Dr. Bugenhagen, Dr. Justus Jonas, Dr. Kreuziger, Melancthon, Mattheus Aurogallus, and also George Rörer the corrector. These were frequently

joined by strange doctors and other learned men-Dr. Bernhard Ziegler, Dr. Forstenius, and others.

"After our doctor had looked through the published Bible, and consulted Jews and foreign philologists, and had also inquired among old German persons for fitting German words, he joined the above assembly with his Latin and new German Bible; he had also the Hebrew text always with him. Melancthon brought the Greek text; Dr. Kreuziger, both the Hebrew and the Chaldee Bibles. The professors had several tables beside them;

and Dr. Pomacer had also a Latin text before him. Every one had previously prepared himself by studying the text. Then Luther, as president, proposed a passage, and collected the votes, and heard what each one had to say on it, according to the peculiarity of the language, and the interpretation of the old doctors."

In the picture, Luther stands between Melancthon and Bugenhagen; to the left, looking up at Luther, Jonas; beside him, Dr. Forstenius; and to the right, Dr. Kreuziger, conversing with the rabbis.

THE IMPROVEMENT OF SCHOOLS: INTRODUCTION OF THE CATECHISM.

AMONG the finest fruits of the reform movement was the religious instruction of youth in the schools of the people; and nothing lay more at Luther's heart.

"I hold that the magistrates ought to force parents to send their children to school. Can they not force their subjects to bear pikes and muskets in war-time? why not much more then to send their children to school? for in this instance a worse war impendeth against the detestable devil, who seeketh to drain all cities and countries dry of all worthy people, until he have extracted the kernel, so that only the empty useless shell of worthless people be left standing, whom he may play with and deceive as he listeth! Therefore let all those work who can! Well, my beloved Germans, I have toldyou enough: ye have heard your prophet."

In this spirit he presented to the youth of his nation that masterpiece of popular instruction in the elementary truths of Christianity, his Little Catechism.