, 1876-12-09
spiritual EiGr.
n.-Ls--u-- r--nu .l-.n-

Christians. amt which ermun'- were
then set ON fire. wrrrntmn cjn' III, U,'om.
purd with tine errors with which the
oi church dressed up tine minds of ITS
children. Garments Of pjch burned but
a few moments degrading error, tor
mcut tor thousand years. We shall
not attempt to portray or pa!liotc the
i'll, that have come to society 10y the way
OF false teaching. But all the clouds
have, the poets tell Us, light upon one
side. Let rs find the silver lining OF
even the tenth or fifteenth century 1t
lay first in this: That whatever the he.
lief Of the church, the heart will seldom
allow itself to be broken by Il creed.
The great river of youth and health, and
Ot animal spirit, will flow right along
and tear away the spider-wcbs spun by
the throloghn. Even in the days when
| there were thousands of monks in the
converts bcwailing their sins, there was
a great, pOpulous world that was laugh
ing and eating and dancing. and that
was holding only the essentials Of the
Christian religion. BE the dominant
philosophy ever 81 rigid, be the religion
ever So sombre, human nature will al
ways show its tnCc, and will always gath.
er honey in field where every flower
would seem full of poison. Luther lived
in the midst of that dark era. The air,
ut times, seemed full Of devils and vet,
Of hundred men of study and care in
our day, not one, perhaps, would equal
the old Luther in finding happiness in
life, The Pope was indeed a foolish old
tyrant, and yet Luther had his daily
laugh over all sorts OF events and anec-
dotes. Luther hated the sale of indulg-
ences, and determined to throw himself
against all such peddling out of saliva.
tion, but in the midst of all this indigna-
tion he had time for studying music, and
tor composing glorious chants for the
temple Of God. Luther's wife was
beam of sunlight; and in century
which has become the synonym tor re-
ligious bigotry, there stood Luther's
home, as full of laughter and cheer as
any home of to-day along the Rhine or
the Hudson. Not all were poor, torlorn
souls in that day. The Catherine de
Bora who married Luther abandoned the
solemnity of the convent that she might
laugh and chat as the wife of the Jolly
reformer 1t is said that Katy" the
wife, was as conspicuous at that age as
was Martin, the reformer.
1t is often lament Of the present that
men will teach and hold doctrines with
out coming up to them with full, per-
soDal obedience. When the doctrine is
one of virtue 1t is indeed a matter of great
regret that men will say, "Blessed are
the pure in heart" and yet remain desti.
tute of purity. Thus it is, indeed, la.
mentable that an age can SO neglect its
own philosophy, But this quality of hu-
manity has also its brighter side. In
such centuries as those between the fifth
and the sixteenth it was fortunate that
the mind could say one thing and do an.
other Then it was well that the natural
cheertulness and buoyancy of the soul
could carry society along counter to its
creed Teaching that perdition was the
largest region of the universe, and that
to it nearly all the human family had
gone or were going, all, old and young,
still laughed and played and lived along
sweetly, thinking little of the gloomy
prospect painted for them by religion.
Reading only the theology of these
ages, we reach an incorrect estimate of
the public life. One may find in a relg.
ious system some outline OF the people
that held the system, but no full meas
uTement of the domestic and social life
that accompanied the formulas. Even
Calvin himself connot he seen perfectly
in his books and public acts alone.
Away from his system ran the current of
his lite, full OF lights and shadows such
as move across modern thresholds. In
his letters about his wife and to his wife,
and in his sorrow over his dead child,
it was not selection" or "reprbdtioH' that
shone forth, but sweet humanity. Cal-
vim was by nature without ambition, re-
firing and heavy hearted. He had to be