The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1884-01-15
MARTIN LUTHER.
A Brilliant Lecture by Rev. G.. a. Bel
lows.

One of the most interesting and brilliant lee
tares in the First Parish course was delivered
on Saturday afternoon by Rev. John A. Bel
lows of Park street church. His subject was
Martin Luther, the great reformer, and we
give below small portion of the address. TO
which, however, no abstract can do justice
1t was an eloquent and able production, and
was listened TO with profound attention nv
those who were present.
Though Protestant communions have no
saints, calendars and few holy days, yet Prot
estants OF every name have recently united
In revereDcing that kind of elemental force
working fer liberty ard light which was em-
bodied in the person of the leader of the Ref
ormation. He resembles Paul, the apostle, in
his vigor OF mind, his resoluteness of will and
largeress of purpose. Both were scome-outers.
both tearlessly met hardship and persecution
while retaining the soundness of Judgment
which marks men of the first order of genius,
There is also certain picturesqueness at oat both
ives @ltness Paul standing before Agrippa,
and Luther at the Diet of Worms. Without
Paul there had been no organized Christianity;
without Luther no ordered and well-defned
protest against the Papal infallibilty. The
environment" theory cannot explain the
appearance of such men. Though the Refor
nation Indeed was largely colored by the diff.
terence of personalities in the German and the
Italian leaders-iu the latter elegant and Gull
tivated men, going back with an Intense en-
thusiasm to the old classic models. in the
former humble peasants and obscure monks
nr0tAGtInO spir
tais cannot "explain'' Luther. His great
ness is not merely in his act. bat in his person.
atty. His was large, full. comprehensive
Marlborough and somewhat coarse it may be-,
but strong and healthy aud luminous.
There is an immense simplicity about Luz
Their. To this numherless letters and passages
of his Table Talk bear witness->uch as his
charming letter to his little boy, his witty say
lngs about preaching, his many descriptions Of
his fight with the Pope, etc., as we'll as some
OF his deeper utterances about the Bible and
the nature of religion. He is surely no mar
row dogmatist, though he can fight stoutly for
principle Hence the judgment of Goethe
who said that "Luther threw back the intel
lectual progress of mankind for centuries BY
calling in the passions of the multitude to de-
eide questions which ought to have been left
to the learned, - seems to hit somewhat wide of
the mark. The great German, like Mr.. Ar
mold of our own time was SO eager for self-cul-
ture and Sweetness and light" that he failed
to see how this great moral revelation would
IN the end bring ont greater intellectual free
dom. Lnther's work in transating the scrip
tures-by Thich he unclaimed the Bible for
tho obI.
Freedom of the Christian Man. and his Wig
orous though rather rugged. paraphrases of the
Palms, show the breadth and scope of his
mind. Though he had no perfect balance or
self-control or absolute ''right-reason," Luther
was the man for the hour, ready to take the
next step AS il was pointed out to him. He
fully embodied Tennyson's IDEA of twill"
seeming "a promontory rock that meets the
ar of the surges, "tempest-buffeted, citadel
crowned"
The speaker then sketohed the career of Luz
Their from his fast visit to Rome-where This
early illusions were rudey scattered-his in
dignant protest against Teizel selling Papal IN
dulgenees, the mailing up Of the ninety-tiye
theses over the church door at Wertemberg to
the great council at Augsburg, and Luther's
appearance before the Diet of Worms, the most
dramatic scene in his his history. After that
the story pales in interest, though there is
certa romance IN his story in the castle of
Wardbnrg, and the fanciful letters he writes
from it. Lutheg's home life has great charm
about it, and we find him there happy and full
OF love for his children. The letter which he
wrote after the death Of mis- little daughter
Magdalen, and tbs touching inscription 1pon
ner TOMB Stone, show what great heart of
love and tenderness there was in him. His
death in 1916 was like his lfe-fui of struggle,
yet full also OF trust in the Eternal Will. If.
as Carlyle says, We are here in this world not
merely to accept what is pleasant, but to pro-
test against what is wrong, certainly Luther
was one OF the best protesters who ever lived,
No man mora devoutly than he waited
for TIE Word of God to be revealed irr his own
soul, or more couragsously followed the lead
ing when 1t was made clear. To his courage
and faithfulness the four centuries that have
passed since his birth in the miners hut of
Eisleben, bear grateful testimony.