To the most blessed Father Leo X, sovereign bishop, friar Martin Luther, Augustinian, wishes eternal salvation!

"I understand, most holy Father, that ill reports circulate with regard to me, and that my name has been brought into bad odour with your holiness. I am called heretic, apostate, treacherous, and a thousand other hard names. I am amazed at what I see, and alarmed at what I hear. Yet the sole foundation of my peace remains intact, and that is an undefiled and quiet conscience. Be pleased to attend to me, O most holy Father, even to me who am but a child and an ignoramus."

Luther then relates how the affair began, and proceeds :

“In all the ale-houses there was nothing to be heard but complaints about the avarice of the priests, and attacks on the power of the keys and of the sovereign pontiff. All Germany can witness to this. On hearing of it, my zeal was moved for the glory of Christ, as it appears to me, or, if we must in some other way account for it, my young boiling blood took fire.

""I gave warning to several of the princes of the Church. But some mocked at me, and others closed their ears. All seemed overawed by the terror of your name. I then published the disputation.

"You now see, most holy Father, the act of incendiarism which, it is said, has set the whole world in a blaze.

"What course ought I now to pursue? I cannot retract, and I perceive that this publication draws on me inconceivable hatred from all quarters. I have no wish to make a figure of myself before the world, for I am without learning, without talent, and far too inconsiderable a person to attempt great matters; especially in this illustrious age, when Cicero himself, were he alive, would be compelled to hide himself in some obscure corner.

"But in order to appease my opponents, and to reply to the solicitations which many have addressed to me, you see I have published my views. I have published them, holy Father, that thereby I may be the safer under the shadow of your wings. All who wish to do so, may thus understand with what simplicity of heart I besought the ecclesiastical authority to instruct me, and with what respect I have acknowledged the power of the keys. Had I not conducted my affair in a proper manner, it would have been impossible for the most serene Lord Frederick, duke and elector of Saxony, that conspicuous friend of the apostolic and

Christian truth, to have suffered a person so dangerous as people would have me to be, to remain in his university of Wittenberg.

"Therefore it is, most holy Father, that I fall at the feet of your holiness, and submit to you all that I have and am. Ruin my cause or embrace it; do me justice or injustice; take my life or restore it to me, as you please. I shall own your voice as the voice of Jesus Christ, who presides and speaks by you. If I have deserved death I refuse not to die; the earth belongs to the Lord with all that it contains. May he be praised unto all eternity! May he preserve you for evermore! Amen.

"Given on the day of the Holy Trinity, the year 1518.

'What humility and what truth in this fearfulness on Luther's part, or rather in the avowal he makes, that his boiling young blood may possibly have caught fire too soon! We see here the man of sincerity who, not presuming on himself, dreads the influence of his passions, even in those actions of his which are most conformed to the word of God. There is a wide difference between such language and that of a proud fanatic. We see working in Luther's mind the desire to gain over Leo to the cause of the truth, to prevent all schism, and to make the reformation, of which he proclaims the necessity, proceed from the highest dignitary of the Church. Certainly it is not he whom we must charge with the destruction in the West of that unity, the loss of which was deplored by so many men of all parties afterwards. He sacrificed everything for the sake of preserving it; everything but the truth. It was his opponents and not he, who by refusing to acknowledge the fulness and the sufficiency of the salvation wrought by Jesus Christ, rent asunder our Lord's coat at the foot of the cross.

'After writing this letter, Luther the same day addressed one to his friend Staupitz, the vicar general of his order. It was through his intervention that he desired to transmit his resolutions and accompanying epistle to Leo.

666 I pray you," says he, "kindly to accept the wretched pieces which I send you, and to see to their being transmitted to the excellent pope Leo X. Not that I would thereby drag you into the same peril in which I am involved myself; I wish to run this risk alone. Jesus Christ will see whether what I have said comes from him or from me; Jesus Christ, without whose will the tongue of the pope cannot move, and the hearts of kings resolve nothing.

6

"As for those who threaten me, I have nothing to say to them in reply, unless it be the words of Reuchlin: The poor man has nothing to fear, for he has nothing to lose.' I have no property and no money, and I ask for none. If I at one time was held in some degree of honour and had some good reputation, he who began to deprive me of these is completing his work. There remains nothing to me but this wretched body, weakened by so many trials: let them destroy it, by foul means or by fair, for the glory of God! They may thus abridge by a few hours the natural term of my life. Enough for me to have a precious Redeemer, a mighty High Priest, Jesus Christ, my Lord. I will praise him as long as I have a breath of life. If none choose to praise him along with me, what matters it to me?"

'These words enable us to read deep into Luther's heart!

'While he was thus looking towards Rome with confidence, Rome was already nursing thoughts of being revenged on him. As early as the 3rd of April, cardinal Raphael de Rovere had written in the pope's name to the elector Frederick, that suspicions were entertained with respect to the soundness of his faith, and that he ought to beware of protecting Luther. "Cardinal Raphael," says the latter, "would delight to see me burned by Duke Frederick." Thus did Rome begin to whet her weapons against Luther. The first blow she aimed was to alienate his protector from him, knowing that could she succeed in destroying the shelter behind which the Wittenberg monk lay secure, he would soon become an easy prey.'

(To be continued.)

THE LORD DOES ALL THINGS WELL. DEAR FRIENDS,-As you no doubt know that, God willing, I have engaged to be at Gower Street for the last four Sabbaths in May, I just drop this line to ask whether it will be quite convenient to you for me to be at your house, as I have been the last two years? an early reply to this will greatly oblige me.

I hope you and all the family are well; for my own part, I am now much better than I have been, for I have had a very trying winter; but I know in my judgment, and through mercy sometimes sweetly feel, that the Lord does all things well, and I feel it a great blessing to be enabled to trust in an unchanging God, who always acts according to his own solemn declarations; and when he

enables me feelingly to rely upon what he says, I feel my feet stand on firm ground. A few moments' blessed intercourse with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, by a vital faith in the blood and love of God the Son under the sweet unction of God the Holy Ghost, is of infinitely more importance than all the world; it is a foretaste and sure pledge of the joys to come. I shall be happy to hear that both of you are blessed with much of it. O my friends, what a mercy it is that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever!' in him we may safely confide; the Lord help us so to do, and then come what will, all will be well.

My love to all your family, and to all friends.-Yours in the Lord,
Manchester, March 7, 1842.
W. GADSBY.

STRENGTH MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS. MY DEAR FRIEND,-I received your welcome letter on Thursday, and strange as it may appear to you, I was glad to find you cannot get out of the path of tribulation, that you have not got beyond unbelief and carnal reason so as for them not to overtake you again, nor yet, like the boy with his catechism, got beyond the devil and all his works; for, I assure you, all these things are the daily struggle and plague of my life; but this I find, they serve to hide pride from my eyes, to make life itself a burden, and everything beneath the sun vanity and vexation of spirit; to endear the Saviour to me, to more highly prize his love and mercy, his blood and righteousness, and to cleave closer to him; to stick to him by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving; for I know if he gives me up, I am gone, I am done for, I should sink in despondency and never rise: on him I rely, in him I confide, on his arm I lean, and in him I trust for life and salvation here and hereafter; and it is from this the devil tries so hard to drive me.

'Ifs, buts, and hows are hurled,

To sink me with the gloom,

Of all that's dismal in this world,

Or in the world to come;'

and it is surprising what a little thing will bring it on. Solomon says a 'grasshopper shall be a burden;' and at times the least thing will bring such a gloom upon my spirit, such hardness of heart, with such despondency of mind, that my whole frame is agitated and shaken under it so as to render me unfit for any one

thing; and then in comes the devil and tells me if I were a child of God these things would not be ;-that it is of no use to pray, for when I cry and shout, my prayer will be shut out; and really for a time it appears to me to be so, and here my heart and flesh both fail; my heart is brought down with this labour and travail, until I 'fall down and there is none to help;' but still I keep crying to the Saviour through thick and thin, determined never to give up while life remains; and after awhile the mind ceases from its raging, hardness and darkness go off, a little light breaks forth, at which I thank God and take courage, and presently in comes the Saviour, sweeter and more valuable than ever, at which my spirit dissolves, and my heart melts in love and gratitude. This is the way I go on. I have neither wisdom to conduct myself, even in temporal things, nor strength to stand; and yet his wisdom is made perfect in my foolishness, and his strength in my weakness. I can truly say with Mr. Hart,

"Though temptations seldom cease,

Though frequent griefs I feel,
Yet his Spirit whispers peace,

And he is with me still.

Weak of body, sick in soul,

Depress'd at heart, and faint with fears,
His dear presence makes me whole,

And with sweet comfort cheers.'

We have had quite a sick house this winter, and mother still continues very unwell. Mrs. M. and her niece still continue very poorly; but I am better at present than I could reasonably expect. All the family join me in love to you and Mr. and Mrs. Gorringe and all friends. If I go anywhere this summer, it will be to Eastbourne. I remain, yours affectionately, in haste,

Woolwich, 4th April, 1835.

THE SOUL'S DESIRE.

W. MATTHEWS.

South Villa, Rotherfield, April, 1878. DEAR FRIEND,-In hearing you to-day, I felt your subject to attract my attention, for in your opening up of the exercises, and tracing out the footprints of the people of God, I found a sweet echo in my own heart, and an assurance that I was walking in those footsteps. When you were speaking of that still small voice, I had an inward witness that I knew something of the sweet power