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which the voices of the future had been audible, would have heard other accents joining in the petition. The generations of mankind are linked together by indissoluble bonds. Our voices, the voices of the whole Protestant world which has been or is to be, united in the prayer to Luther, not to desert us. We are his works-not the four-and-twenty volumes in our libraries.

This volume of Luther's Table-Talk is to us of special value, because it solves to a great extent that other question : What did Luther become ? He stands there portrayed before us, so that we can know him better than those who daily sat around his table. For we can regard him from a higher point of view. Though infinitely smaller than he, we stand upon a height from which we can. look down upon him. We can see him as he appeared in his moments of relaxation, in the bosom of his family, in the circle of his friends, at the bed-side of his dying child. Matters which the foolish“ dignity of history” thinks quite unworthy of notice, but which are yet the stuff of which all history which is worth anything is made, are here recorded.

The title-page of the book presents Luther at the head of a table, around which are seated Melancthon, Justus Jonas, Creuziger, Bugenhagen, and others. At a modest distance stand, cap in hand, a company of youthful students. Through the open door appear the fantastic gables of the good town of Wittenberg. The apartment is modest enough. A few flowers occupy the window-seats; a narrow shelf contains some half-score folios, with massive clasps. On the table is a single loaf and a dish of grapes. But nectar and ambrosia, to say nothing of mere earthly viands, form but a small part of the “ suppers of the gods;" and the discourse of such men as were gathered around that board, would compensate for much humbler fare. From this Table-talk, we present some specimens, taken almost at random.

Of the Bible.—“ Dr. Martin once said to Master Philip Melancthon and Doctor Justus Jonas, respecting the Bible, that it was a great and wide forest wherein stood many and various trees, froin which one might pluck fruits and berries of every sort. For in the Bible is the richest consolation, doctrine, instruction, admonition, warning, promises and threatenings; and there is no tree in all this forest upon which I have not beaten, and from which plucked or shaken a few apples or pears."

The Bible is of God.-“ He once proved the Bible to be the book and word of God, because everything in the world, and how i came to pass, and exists, stands recorded in the first book of Moses. King Alexander the Great, the kingdom of Egypt, the empire of Babylon, the Persian, the Grecian and Roman monarchies, Julius and Augustus Cæsar also, had all tried to uproot and destroy this book. They were all unable to do it.

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They have all passed away, but the book remains unchanged and complete, just as it was written. Who preserves it?

Who protects it with such mighty power? No one save God himself, who is its author. It is a great wonder that God has so long maintained and defended this book, for the Devil and the world is its enemy. I do verily believe that the Devil bas utterly destroyed many good books in the Church, just as he has destroyed and made away with many saints of whom we know nothing at all. But the Bible he must leave alone. In like manner do baptism, the sacrament of the altar, the real body and blood of Christ, and the sacerdotal office, remain, in spite of so many tyrants and heretics.

The Lord God has taken especial care of all these. There must be baptism, preaching, and adıninistration of the sacrament, and no one can prevent or hinder it. Homer and Virgil, and the like, are excellent and useful books; they are old books; but are nothing when compared with the Bible.”

Difference between the Bible and other books.-" The Holy Scriptures are full of divine gifts and virtues. The heathen books teach nothing of faith, hope, and love, for they know nothing of them. They look only at present things, which the understanding can lay hold of, feel, and comprehend. But they contain nothing of confidence in God, and hope in the Lord. These we must learn from the Psalms and the book of Job, which treat of patience, faith, hope, and prayer. In fine, the Bible is the best book, full of consolation in trial, for it teaches of faith, hope, and love, in a manner which the understanding cannot feel, experience, or comprehend. When things go ill, it shows how these virtues can shine therefrom, and teaches that there is another and an eternal life beyond this poor

and miserable one." The best Theologian.-"He who is well grounded in the text is the right pastor; and it is my best and most Christian counsel that we should draw from the springs and fountains of water; that is, should diligently read the Bible. He who is well grounded and exercised in the text will be an excellent theologian, since a single passage or text from the Bible is worth more than many comments and glosses, which are not strong and sound, and do not touch the point.”

The Bible inexhaustible.—« God's word is unsearchable. It is impossible thoroughly to explore and exhaust a single word in the Holy Scripture. It is the word of the Holy Spirit, and spite of scholars and theologians, is too high for men. The new-born Christian has only the first-fruits and tithes of it. I have sometimes undertaken to meditate upon the Ten Commandments, and when I have merely touched upon the first words · I am the Lord thy God,' I stick fast at the I;' I cannot understand the little word 1. Whoever, therefore, bas but a single word of God, and

'' cannot make a sermon from it, should never be a preacher. ..... Though I am an old Doctor in the Holy Scriptures, I have not yet got beyond my hornbook. I do not rightly understand the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer. I cannot study them out and learn them to the bottom. But I daily learn therein, and say the Catechism, with my son Hans and my little daughter Magdalene. How can one thoroughly and fully understand the first words in the Lord's Prayer-Our Father, who art in heaven! If I understand these words, and believe that God who created heaven and earth and all creatures is my father, then I conclude certainly that I am a lord of heaven and of earth; that Jesus Christ is my brother, and that all things are mine ; Gabriel is my attendant, Raphael my guide, and all angels are servants to me in my need. For they have been charged by my beavenly Father, to guard me in all my ways, that I never dash my foot against a stone."

The Bishop of Mayence." At Eisleben, just before his death, Dr. Luther said that at the Diet of Augsburg, in the year 1530, Albert, Bishop of Mayence, has just been reading in the Bible, when a counsellor came suddenly to him and said, Most Gracious Elector and Lord, what thinks your Electoral Grace of that book ?' The Bishop answered, “I do not know what sort of a book it is, for everything in it is opposed to us.'

The discovery of the Latin Bible, in the University of Erfurth, was no light thing for Luther. The Bible became to him the veritable and authentic words of God, as though they had fallen from his own lips, and he himself had heard them addressed to him personally and individually. Upon that Bible he founded himself as upon a rock. To that he brought everything to be tried. His whole life was an exemplification of his noble words at Worms. “ Till when I bave been convicted and refuted by proof from Holy Scripture, or by fair reason and argument, I neither can nor will recant, for it is neither prudent nor safe to do anything against conscience. Here I take my stand ; I can do no otherwise, God help me, Amen!” His interpretation of Scripture was, doubtless, sometimes erroneous, for it is man's necessity to err. But let the Scripture once speak, and the point was decided, there was no further room for argument. Joshua bade the sun and moon to stand still. They stood, saith the Scripture; therefore they had both been moving; and therefore the Copernican system is false. Again, our Lord said, this is my body, iherefore the body of our Lord is really and truly in the sacrament of the altar, though hidden from our foolish senses: and be he who denies it, Anathema Maranatha. But there is nothing said of a change of the bread into the body of our Lord; therefore transubstantiation is a falsehood, an invention of the Pope and the Devil to deceive and delude poor Christian souls. He and all true preachers were, when setting forth the Word of God, and administering the ordinances, but mouth-pieces, instruments. Thus alone

could he explain it that he, a peasant's son and a monk, had been the chosen instrument to strike such a trenchant blow at the head of that Colossus, the shadow of which, projected by the slant rays of the sun low in the horizon, darkened all Christendom.

It was God's word, what mattered it whether it was spoken by the holy Paul, by Doctor Martin Luther, or by Balaam's ass.

The Preacher an Instrument.-“ We will not give place to, or admit the metaphysical and philosophical distinctions which the reason has spun out, that it is man who preaches, threatens, administers discipline, alarms, and consoles, but that it is the Holy Spirit who works the effect :—that the minister baptizes, absolves, administers the sacrament of our Lord Christ, but that God purifies the heart and forgives sin. Oh, no. We affirm that God himself preaches, threatens, disciplines, alarms, consoles, baptizes, administers the sacrament of the altar, and grants absolution. So says the Lord Christ; “Whoso heareth you, heareth me, • Whatsoever ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven;' “it is not ye that speak, but the spirit of my father which speaks through you. So am I certain when I go into the pulpit and preach or read, that the word is not mine, but that my tongue is the pen of a ready writer,' as saith the Psalms. Let not, therefore, God and man be separated, according to the opinions and judgments of human reason.

But let men speak out straightly, What this man, prophet, apostle, true preacher and teacher, speaks or performs from God's word and ordinance, that God himself speaks and perform, for the man is but a mouth-piece and instrument. And let the hearer also conclude and say, 'It is not Paul, or Peter, or a man that I perceive speaking, or baptizing, granting absolution, disciplining, excommunicating, or administering the sacrament. Dear Lord, what consolation could a poor, weak, and troubled conscience derive from such a preacher, if he only believed and was assured, that the word and consolation were God's word, consolation, and his earnest meaning. Therefore we say boldly, that God works through his word, which is a means whereby man may rightly learn him. The words of Balaam's ass were not the assis, but God's words. So also are the words which we speak to the tortured soul : Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.'

God's Providence.—~ The great and manifold gifts of God overwhelm and confound us. Great as they are, we think little of them because they are so common. And so we act towards the Lord God, as little children do towards their parents, who do not so much prize their daily bread as they do an apple, pear, or other fruit."

“No man can reckon up what God expends in providing nourishment for the birds alone, who are yet of no use at all. I do verily believe that it costs God more every year to maintain merely the sparrows, than all the revenues of the King of France, to say nothing of all other birds."

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The Good outweighs the Evil.-" Though our original sin deserves that there should be many wild and evil hearts who should do harm to man, such as lions, wolves, bears, serpents, and the like, yet has our compassionate and gracious God mitigated our punishment, so that there are many more animals that serve us and are useful to us, than there are that harm us. more sheep than wolves, more lobsters than scorpions, more fish than serpents, more oxen than lions, more hares than foxes, more geese and fowls than kites and ravens. Thus any one who will carefully balance the one against the other, will find that there are more useful than noxious beasts in the world, more benefit than disadvantage. No man can conceive how much good God does us through the four elements. Who can count what he receives froin the earth? There are trees, animals of all sorts, metals, streams of water, fountains, all kinds of corn and herbs, wool. There is fire, at which we warm ourselves and cook our food. The seas and waters are our cellars and magazines; the woods and forests our hunting ground. The earth is full of gold, silver, iron, copper, and other metals; it produces all sorts of grain for us; is our bread-chamber and store-house. For everything is ours, and made for our sakes."

The Worst things spring from the Best.--" From Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the patriarchs, and holy fathers, came the Jews, who crucified Christ. From the Apostles came Judas the traitor. From Alexandria, where was a celebrated school, and many learned and pious Christians, came forth Arius and Origen.

From the Romish Church, wbich has furnished many holy martyrs, comes the last Antichrist, the Pope. From the hermitages of Arabia came the Mohammed. From Constantinople, that noble city, where so many pious Emperors have reigned, comes the bloody Turk. Adultresses come from wives, harlots from virgins, the bitterest foes from brothers, sons, and friends. The devils come from angels, tyrants from kings. From the gospel and divine truth come devilish lies. Heretics come from the Church. Filth comes from food when its natural use is perverted. Precious wine causes harm. From the blood in the body is produced pus. From Luther came Müntzer, the rebels, the Anabaptists, and the Sacramentarians. There must be evil things, or else the good would always prevail. There must be good, or such evils could not be endured."

Of Paradise.—“Some one asked the Doctor what sort of a place Paradise was, and where it was situated. He answered, that the whole world was properly so called, but that Moses described what came before the eyes of Adam. It was called Paradise on account of its beauty and pleasantness. When Adam was created, he dwelt toward the East, in Syria and Arabia. After he had sinned, it was no longer that pleasant place, no longer a

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