Arizona weekly citizen., 1883-10-27
The Lnthrr AnnIrersarY.

Amid all the centennial cOmmemOra- tions with which We have become lam liar, none is more worthy of the unl- versal observance which It will receive than the four-hunCredth anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther, which Oc- CUTS on the 10th of November. At Eisleben, his birthplace, and through out Germany, and everywhere in the countries that lead civilization, will the suspicious day be gratefully remember cd and reverently celebrated. For m the truest sense Luther is the father of modern civilization. He emancipated the human mind from ecclesiastical slavery. He proclaimed that freedom of thought without which lt IS easy to see that despite the great modern lnven- tions, the spirit of the Dark Ages must have been indefinitely prolonged, and the course of modern civilization must have been essentially different. lt was the spiritual freedom which Luther as- serted that produced political freedom and the freedom of the press; Luther's spirit was to make the invention or Gutenberg the true servant of humanity, and to open to the benign genius of | liberty the lands to which GioIa's mar iner's compass should point the way. Indeed, among human beneiactors there are few greater names than Mar | tin Luther.
 | Of course neither ID his own life nor ! in that of those who followed him most l closely was the great doctrine ot liberty | for which his name stands, fully devel- | oped, nor has that doctrine yet regener- ated human society. The right Ot prl- vate judgment carries with 10 an Immu- | niiy which is by no means willingly or | completely recognized even by the | communities which are most truly Lu- | theran in the sense of sharing hls pro
 test against the old order, and hls at- | iirmation Of tbe authority Of the | individual COnsci ience. Indeed, much 1 that is strictly Lutheran, n the sense Of necessary consequence ot nls great doctrine, IS not Co toe found il hls works,
 and would have teeu personally repu diated by him. But It IS hls, neverthe-
 less, as the free political development | of England and America is the result Of Purltanism, however different its aspect
 may be from that ut the Puritan Com
 monWealth, and however steruly the Puritan may have denounced It. Out of | strength comes forth sweetness. Out Of
 Luther came forth John NOoiman and Channing, and those also at whom
 WoOlman and Chauning would look m wonder and even with apprehension. | The lesson of LGther's birthday K not
 only that the individual conscience
 alone reveals the truth and the way to
 the sincere soul, but that the man who
 has the courage to hold Co it firmly will
 be at last recognized and hOnOred. It IS
 the oldest of sayings that prophet IS not honOred in his own country, and that we do not recognize the angels with
 whom We live. Many "solid man of Boston" gloriiies the memory of sam Adams who, had he lived m Sam Adams
 day, would have thought hlm pestllent
 fellow, and who look askauJc upon the ! Sam Adamses of their own day. It may
 be wisely remembered by the respecta-
 ble and dominant opinion winch delights
 to pay homage to Luther that the same
 respectable and dominant opinion of bis
 own time hated and hunted him. The
 tale is forever repeated The other day
 at public dinner ID Boston the Lord
 Chief Justice of England, who would
 be heard nowhere more respectfully than in Boston, mentioned several dIs-
 tInguished men of that ueigEbOrhoOd,
 but the four he first named together
 were Benlamin Franklin and Daniel
 Webster and Joseph Story and Theodore
 Parker. But how long is lt since, Co
 many of the eminent citizens who ap-
 plauded Lord Colerilre, Theodore Par
 ker was abhOrreut as dangerous tO both
 church and state?-Harpers' Magazine
 for November.