Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/198

 been participants, you who have been the first to witness unto us. For it has been given unto you before all the world not only to hear the Gospel and to know Christ, but to be the first to suffer, for Christ's sake, shame and injury, wrong and dis- tress, imprisonment and death. Now you have become full of fruit and so strong that you have watered the cause with your blood. For among you those two precious jewels of Christ, Henry and John, have held their lives of no account for Christ's Word. Oh, how miserably were those two souls condemned, but how gloriously with eternal joy will they meet Christ and justly condemn those by whom they were unjustly condemned! What a little thing it is to be put to shame and slain by the world, so long as we know that their blood is precious and their death dear in the eyes of God, as the Psalms say.* What is the world compared to God? With what gladness and joy have all the angels in heaven looked on these two souls! How welcome was that fire which helped them from this sinful life to eternity, from this ignominy to everlasting glory ! God be praised and blessed forever that we, who have canonized and worshiped so many false saints, have lived to see and hear real saints and true martyrs. We in Upper Germany have not yet been worthy to become so precious and worthy an offering to Christ, though many of our members have not been, and still are not, without persecution. There- fore, my dearly beloved, be of good cheer and be glad in Christ, and let us thank Him for the great signs and wonders that He has begun to do among us. He has given us a fresh illustration of His own life, and now it is time that the kingdom of God shall not be in word, but in power.* Here we learn what is meant by the saying,' "Be joyful in tribulation." "For a small moment," says Isaiah,* have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee," and in the 91st Psalm God says,* him, because he hath known my name." Because, then, we see our present tribulation and have such strong and com- fortable promises, let us renew our hearts and be of good
 * ! will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor

ipsahn Ixxii, 141; cxvi, 15. * Isaiah liv, 7.


 * I Corinthiant it, 20. ■Psalm xci, 14.


 * Roiaani xii, u.

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