Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/224

 as has been said above, and pray God for strength to q>eak of it in public also, that the enemy and the avenger may be destroyed. To this end I shall present you with the iigth Psalm * in German, and a brief explanation of it, that you may see how God comforts you with His Scriptures, and how you are to pray against the false blasphemers and raging per- secutors.*. ..

See, now, dear sirs and friends, I have undertaken to write you this letter of condolence, though another might have done it better and with greater reason, but because my name is in- volved, and you are persecuted as Lutherans, I think it was right for me to take this duty upon myself. To be sure I do not like doctrines and people to be called Lutheran, and must only endure it at their hands when they slander God's Word by giving it my name, nevertheless they shall not overthrow Luther and Lutheran doctrine and Lutheran people and pre- vent them from coming to honor, just as they and their doc- trine will be destroyed and put to shame, even though the whole world were sorry and- all the devils were angry. In a word, 'they will not be rid of us unless they submit to us and surrender to us of their own accord, and their wrath and their raving will not help them, for we know Whose Word it is that we preach, and they shall not take it from us. This is my prophecy, and it will not fail. God have mercy on them.

May God, in His grace and mercy, keep you, dear friends ; and pray to God for me, poor sinner. I commend you to your preachers, who preach Christ and not the Pope or the tem- ple-knights of Mayence. The grace of God be with you.

Amen.

613. LUTHER TO SPALATIN. Enders, iv, 299. Wittenbebg, February 23, 1524.

All is well with us. We have so much trouble in trans- lating Job, on account of the grandeur of his sublime style, that he seems to be much more impatient of our efforts to turn him into German than he was of the consolation of his friends. Either he always wishes to sit on his dunghill, or else he is jealous of the translator who would share with him the credit of writing his book. This keeps the third part of

i7.#.. Psalm exx. 'There followi an exposition of the Ptthn.

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