"Martin Luther to Hans Luther, his beloved father.—I have inscribed this book to you, my dear father, not that I may make your name renowned through the world, which would be, contrary to the Apostle Paul's teaching, to seek honour after the flesh, but because I had reasons for presenting to the Christian reader, by a preface, the occasion, the contents, and a specimen of this work. And to begin with this, I will not conceal from you that your son has now gone so far as to be convinced and assured that nothing is to be esteemed more honourable, nothing more spiritual, than the commandment and word of God. But now you will say God help thee, hast thou ever doubted of this, or now learned it for the first time?' I reply, that I have not only doubted, but have never even been aware that this was taught. And what is more, if you will suffer me, I am ready to make it plain that you also have been in the like igno rance. "It is now nearly sixteen years since I became a monk, into which state I entered without your knowledge or consent. You entertained much solicitude and fear for my weakness, because I was a youth of twenty-two years, fein jung Blut bei 22 Jahrn] that is, as Austin says, it was yet idle boyhood with me; and you had learned, from many examples, that monkery has made many wretched, and were also desirous for me to enter into an attachment by rich and honourable wedlock. This your fear and anxiety and reluctance proved for a time unalterable, notwithstanding the counsel of all friends, who told you, that when you made an offering to God, you should give him what was dearest and best. God did indeed speak to your heart that verse of the Psalms, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity, but you hearkened not. At last you yielded, and submitted to the will of God; not, however, laying aside your fear and anxiety. For I still remember but too well, how kind you were towards us again, and that you spoke with me, and that I told you how I had been called from heaven by a dreadful apparition. For I was never willingly or of choice a monk, still less from any sensual motives; but being encompassed with the dread and anguish of impending death, I entered into a forced and reluctant vow. You likewise said, God grant that it be not a deception and diabolical ghost!' That word, which God probably spake by your mouth, soon penetrated and sunk to the bottom of my soul, but I closed and hardened my heart, as well as I could, against your counsel. There was yet another incident: while I, as a son would do towards a father, deprecated your anger, you were disgusted, and retorted upon me in such a manner that I have scarcely in all my life heard from man's lips a word which so touched and pierced me. For it was this- Ah! hast thou not heard, then, that one should be obedient to his parents?' I was, however, entrenched in my own piety, and heard and contemned you as no more than a man. Nevertheless I could never banish that word from my heart. Now, therefore, what think you of it? Will you now rescue me from monkery? For you are still my father, I am still your son, and all these vows are stark naught. On your side is the command and power of God, on my side the trifles of man; for the celibacy, which the papists laud so extravagantly, is nothing without obedience. Celibacy is not commanded, obedience is commanded. Therefore I am now a monk, and at the same time no longer a monk, but a new creature of Christ, not of the pope. For the pope also has his creatures, and is a creator, but only of stocks and idols, like himself, mere masks and puppets. I therefore send you this book, in which you will perceive with how great signs powers and wonders Christ has freed me from the monastic vow, and with how great freedom he has favoured me, making me the servant of all men, and yet subject to none, but to himself alone. For he is alone, so to speak, without the intervention of any, my Bishop, Abbot, Prior, Lord, Father, Master; besides him, I know no other. If the pope should strangle me, and lay me under a curse, and transport me beyond the grave, yet he is unable to raise me up again from the dead, that he may strangle me afresh. As to my banishment and excommunication, my wish is that he should never give me absolution. For I hope that the great day is near, when the kingdom of abomination shall be broken and destroyed. And would to God that we were worthy to be strangled and burnt by the pope, that our blood might cry aloud, and accelerate his judgment, that he might come to an end. As, however, we are not worthy to testify with our blood, so let us leave him to himself, that we may supplicate for mercy, and with our lives and voices declare and witness, that Jesus Christ alone is the Lord our God, blessed for ever. Amen. And until you are saved by Him, dearest father, and my mother Margaret, and all our kindred, receive my greetings in Christ the Lord."-Ep. 348. It only remains to mention very briefly the valuable labours of De Wette in preparing this first complete edition of the correspondence of Luther. The remarks which have been offered above, have principal reference to the first two volumes. Five have already been published, and the work is still unfinished; the original expectation was that it would be comprised in about eight octavo volumes. The statement which follows is in substance that of the editor himself. None of the preceding collections have embraced all the letters which are extant. Walch indeed gave, in his edition, all those which the earlier works of Aurifaber and Buddens contained; but great additions have since been made by Schütze, Strobel, and Faber. But after all these attempts, some of the letters already in print, and a multitude of those which exist in manuscript, have been entirely overlooked. De Wette appears to have done all that was possible in order to furnish a complete work, examining the archives of Weimar, the libraries of the universities, and other public and private collections, thus bringing to light more than a hundred epistles before unknown. He has had recourse to the most unexceptionable sources, consulting the autographs or the earliest impressions, in every case, and scrupulously noting the different readings of the text. The letters had so frequently been translated from German into Latin, and vice versa, that it became important to determine the original language in which each was written, which has been carefully done, and the ancient orthography and phraseology have been restored. This work is so arranged as to constitute a copious journal of Luther's life. Each volume is prefaced with a chronological table of the principal events of the period to which it belongs. The strict order of time has been observed in the relative position, and each letter is preceded by a brief but comprehensive introduction and sketch of its contents. The volumes are moreover enriched with a likeness of the refor mer, engraved after the portrait by Kranach, his contemporary and friend, and numerous facsimiles of his hand-writing. REVIEW. 1. Memoirs of John Frederic Oberlin, Pastor of Waldbach, in the Ban de la Roche. Compiled from authentic sources, chiefly in French and German. London, 1829. Pp. 352, 5 plates. 2. The Life of John Frederic Oberlin, Pastor of Waldbach, in the Ban de la Roche. Compiled for the American Sunday School Union, and revised by the Committee of Publication. Philadelphia, 1830. Pp. 140, 2 lithographic plates. We are surprised that the abridgment of these "Memoirs," issued by the American Sunday School Union, should be the only form in which the volume has been republished in this country. The biography of one of the earliest pioneers of the religious enterprise of the age has certainly more than ordinary claims upon the attention of the Christian community. As a stirring proof of what may be effected by the well-directed efforts of a single individual, this narrative speaks loudly to the pastors of every church, who are commonly more disposed to lament over the inadequacy of their powers to their opportunities, than to apportion their energies to the exigence of the times; who, whilst they long for the mission of more labourers into the harvest-field, are apt to neglect to do with their might, whatever lies to their hand. The original Memoirs are compiled by an anonymous female, from several small narratives in French and German, not known in this country, and from some original papers communicated to her. These authorities and documents are well arranged and connected, and the style of the author, with some inconsiderable exceptions, is quite appropriate and interesting. The region which the name of Oberlin has drawn from obscurity, is a canton that originally belonged to Germany, and lies buried in the mountains of the north-east border of France, between Alsace and Lorraine. The French call it the Ban de la Roche; their German neighbours the Steinthal. It contains only about nine thousand acres, and is divided into two parishes, the one Rothau, the other comprising the five hamlets of Foudai, Belmont, Waldbach, Bellefosse and Zolbach, the inhabitants of which are almost exclusively of the Lutheran denomination. Waldbach, the most central village, stands on the Champ de Feu, supposed to have been a volcanic mountain, which is separated from the Vosges range by a deep valley, and rises to the height of three thousand six hundred feet above the sea. The village is about half way up the mountain. The site of the whole district is represented to be highly romantic, though wild and insulated. The summits of the mountain remain covered with snow for a large portion of the year, whilst the valleys, which alone can be cultivated to any advantage, enjoy an Italian atmosphere. The population, so late as 1750, were in a state of comparative barbarism. Secluded in their rude. recess from the polished countries adjacent, and deprived of communication by the want of roads, they appear to have surrendered themselves to sloth and ignorance, frequently suf fering for want of sustenance on account of their repugnance to agricultural or other labour, and rapidly degenerating to the lowest grade of humanity. They had indeed a minister among them, who, it is probable, was not much above the common level, as it is mentioned that he had been twenty years without a Bible, and his parishioners had no other idea of the volume than that it was "a large book that contained the word of God." Under these circumstances it was of little avail to them, that by the decree which incorporated the district with the kingdom of France, liberty of conscience was guaranteed to them, and the privilege of professing their original Protestant faith: a license, however, of which they afterwards enjoyed the full blessing. In the year 1750, Mr Stouber, a Lutheran clergyman, undertook the civilization of this forsaken community. It does not appear whence he came, or by what authority, but we conclude he was a voluntary missionary from Strasburg, which lies within a few miles. He found the principal school under the care of a superannuated swine-herd, who professed to teach "nothing," confessing that he "knew nothing himself." The office of schoolmaster, indeed, had fallen into such disesteem, that those who were best qualified for the station, that is, the few who could name the letters, disdained the employment as ignoble. Stouber overcame their scruples by an ingenious expedient. He abolished the illfavoured title of schoolmaster, and instituted that of messieurs les régents. By the adoption of this euphemism, instructers, such as they were, were obtained, school-houses were erected, and the parents were prevailed upon to send their children, though at first they viewed the elementary syllables as cabalistic symbols. Their progress, under the supervision of the pastor, was so self-recommendatory, that the elder children, and even some of the parents, emulated their progress, and Stouber was encouraged to establish an adult school, which was taught during part of Sunday, and in the evenings of winter. He cut fifty French Bibles into one hundred and fifty portions, which he bound and distributed. They were received with incredulity and distrust, but soon were generally perused, and found their way into many Roman Catholic families. Stouber was beginning to reap the reward of his labours, when, in 1756, he was removed to another parish; in four years, however, he obeyed a powerful impulse which summoned him back from a comfortable living to the wilderness of the Steinthal, and to the great joy of the villages re |