Page:Lectures on Great Men.djvu/27

 MARTIN LUTHER. 7 employed to the result produced how shadowy is the visible connexion between cause and effect. The more, therefore, you take from the greatness of Luther the more you magnify the agency of God a result I shall not object to if only you do not speak unjustly for your Maker. So far, however, am I from having an undue bias to speak too highly of Luther that I only fear that my prepossessions may draw me too far the other way. For my studies have led me to the general conclusion that the characters of most notable men are sadly inferior to the first impressions inspired by their words or their deeds: and therefore, if my estimate of Luther be a right one, he stands out as an exception to my general experience as a man worthy of his work as one whose character corresponds to his mission. I feel that it would perhaps be more in keeping wIOTThe ways of Him who chose Bethlehem for His birth- place and not Rome who was ministered unto by Women and not by Angels and whose Apostles were no Philo- sophers but only Fishermen I say, perhaps it would be more in accordance with His dealings to regenerate His Church by Luther were he the least of all Monks, than by that mighty Emperor his opponent on whose dominions the sun never set. Yet as one does trace in the peculiar calling of a Paul the fittest of all instruments for the noblest of all works the occasional introduction of another principle, perhaps this may be the case too in the instance of one who possessed more of the qualities of that chief of the Apostles than have since been combined in the character of any Preacher of Truth. And if GOD thus honoured Luther surely so ought we. If she who but broke a box of ointment on our Blessed Lord is to have a memorial whithersoever the Gospel is preached, it may be permitted us affectionately to bear in mind the deeds of one who re-opened for many generations that