The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-12
CENTRAL AVENUE NJ. E. CHURCH.
Rev. DR.. Marines Sermon the Luther Me
mortal Service Last Night.

Rev. A. Marine, D. D., pastor of the Central
| avenue Methodist Church, preached Luther
and the Reformation" last night to a packed
house. He said:
I'm history often meet with great men-so
ealleu-who seem to be the greatest at the be-
ginning, who exhaust their originality in their
| first public effort. After this grand effort
| they retain only vitality enough to compose va
riations on their fav0rlte theme, to exaggerate
| their distinctive qualities. But the true genius
| rarely manifests himself early. He has within
a germ OF strength that requires time for devel-
| opment, aud Its fruits need the sunshine of eX-
perence to rlpen them. He ia the oak made
| strong by the storm, the trunk and branches of
| which are made Wig 'ous by adverse winds.
| such was Luther. t.is nina was too vast for
| him 10 comprehend its powers Immediately.
| He had noble aspirations in early life, but they
were somewhat vague. In spirit he was emil
| nently progressive, far removed from sthaG medi-
| ocrity which is happy III its small intellectual
| treasure. He was never satisfied with himself.
| with high order of mind and great vital force,
ana heroic courage, he marked ont his own
| course, so that while he was pupil of his own
country and times-a student of the philosophy.
politics and religion OF his age-he saw its ten
deney and fearlessly protested against It's abuses
Luther's protestauiGns reformer, and mis-
his personality. His personal convictions of
head and heart filled his soul with enthusiasm,
| While at the same time he was singularly free
from fanaticism. He was pre-eminently a manly
| man, and being complete man, his love of man
underies all that he desires or does His sensi-
Dllties and emotions are not to him as with
| GRthe-merely an object for the artists obser-
! vatiOn-but they are vitality and inseparably as
ISOLATED with his mission and work a reform
err He doubtless had imperfectOns, such are
| common to mOrtals; that he erred in judgment
| VIII not be denied; and yet claim that Lu-
| theirs character is q study and examplar for all
ages. His name is not to be forgotten and al
! though four centuries have passed away since
he first saw the light of day, his name has never
shone with greater spiendOr than IL does today,
and his work as "A reformer has never been more
higaly and truly appreciated since the reforma-
tion of the sixteenth century. When We relDem-
Der TO what prodigious height of guilt and
power the papacy had exalted itself by the most
arbitrary and tyrannical force, and that this
superb fabric of fraudulent ambtion-this
| throne of despotism which clothed itself with
| the thunders of omnipOtence, and assumed TO
| WELD the final destinies of men-was shaken
| to Its very foundations, defed and
aIas9 ws horn ane sn9rts Oh one
| ery and disease, unaided by solitary advan~
tage OF worldly distinction, we are filled with
amazement. When We remember that the bold
and fearless utterances of this master spirit of
the reformation aroused the chained spirit OF
| Europe from It's long, CHASTITY dream of superst-
tion and revived within the hearts of nations IA
new and vital love of liberty. and set in motion
| a movement which has had no parallel for
breadth and grandeur since the inau9uration of
| the Christian religion by the Son of GOD, are
smitten with a mingled sentiment of awe and
admiration for the brave Martin Luther. know
that there are certain amiabe sentlmentalsts
who lament the absence OF Luther's civility and
| his Incorporate use of language In diSputatiOn,
| who evidently forget that In the time of the
| reformation courtesy formed no part of the rules
of literary battle,
| NO doubt Luther's indignation was spoken
| broadly and with silver note, but we have
read history wrong if ever o time-strens thened
| despotism was broken down by the smooth
| phrases of courtly breeding. 10 required no
| common tone, chastened down to the whisnering
sycophancy OF etiquette 70 stir the dead hearts of
| naIlons grown gray in degrading yassalage The
voice needed to be both lOud and stern
which was to call up the latent humanity
Off world held PROSTATE and bound for ages
under the armed mastery of Rome There was
a justifying need for the frey tone of Luther
and he knew 1t. AS he said himself, he would
nave spoken thunder could he have exchan ged
the tanner language Of this world for the voices
of the heavens Had his publications been less
caustlc they would have proved Intellectual. The
bull OF communication probably would never
have been published, nor the truth of God vindj-
Gated at Worms and Augsburg But we must be- ar
in nina that our hero never INDUCED in recrim-
ination and unjust personalities. His severity
was In the defense of the truth. Under Luther's
rongh exterior there was as kind and generous
a heart as ever throbbed in n human breast. In
his social and domestic relations we nave a
glimpse of n great heart full of sympathy and
kindness. We are informed that when the
Roman empire was i'll a transition state, man
of singular genius seized the rens of govern
ment and so nodded the institutions ana polity
OF the nation, and so impressed his personal in
tiuence on her people that it may be said that
| Rome never would be what she was. had il NOT
been for the life of julius Caesar So 1 think thai
il is no exageration TO say that modern civiliza-
ton, and especially American civilization, never
would have been what it is had it not been for
the life of Luther.
Luther was great, but God never made a
man whose equal in every respect he can
not reproduce, We mourn Tue loss of
men of ripe scholarship, and ample ex-
perence and sObriety OF Judgment, who once
gathered around the council tables of the
church. We lament their removal, because we
can not see how their places are to be filed
| But Gods resources are not exhausted in this
| direction. No; give the occasion again and an
other Washington shall be found not one whit
| inferior to the first ID ototype of patriotism
Give similar conditions in the church and an
other Luther shall emerge from college closter
panoplied for equal fight and victory To the i'm
mortal hero of the reformation The reforma-
| nOn was essentially an outburst of individual
| lsm-a protest of the individual mind and con-
science against church authority and eccesiast-
| cal domination. Under the old historic ana
philosOphie idea that the churcn and the state
| Were supreme and did not exist for the people
but that the people existed Tor Them individual
rights had long been suppressed. 1t would have
been strange indeed II this long pent up power
of reason and liberty. when first bursting the
| bonds, had not in some instances gone to eX-
| tremes. With the setting aside of church au-
| thOrity over individual liberty came the right
| to reason in matters of religion, and from
the right To question the authority and tradi-
tons of the church, il was an easy step to cues
ton the authority and authenticity of the Bible.
And from reasoning upon religion it not
! hard to attempt TO make religion OF reason,
! and this they did in the land OF Luther
AT one time Germany was the leader of re-
hgious liberty and truth, not only in Europe but
throughout the world. she was thirty yeaPs
lighting the Dattles of protestanism, and the end
OF the long conflict found her victorious. Since
4 that day, however, she has lost her prestage OF
adherence to evangelical Christianity, and her
representative theOlogians and thinkers have
distorted the Bible which she was first to uuseal.
But ratiOnaiSm has had its day in the land of
Luther, and Kant Hege, Fichte, scheliing and
Htrbart, the great apostles of German rational
ism are supeIannuated names, indeed scarcely
! respected names, ia Germany. where they
| are denounced sophists ana charlatans.
Having well nigh run lis race in Germany it
has crossed tho Rhine Into Flauve and the