Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/518

 may be like Him also in future glory.

Let your heart be strong and at ease in your trouble, for we have yonder a true mediator with God, Jesus Qirist, who has slain death and sin for us, and now sits in heaven with all His angels> and looks down on us and awaits us so that when we set forth we need have no fear nor care lest we should sink and fall to the ground. He has too great power over sin and death to let them do anything to us, and He is so heartily true and kind that by no chance can He nor will He let us go, at least if we ask His help without doubting. He has promised, and cannot lie, of that we are certain. "Ask," says He, ''and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, ktiock and it shall be opened unto you." And elsewhere : "All who call on the name of the Lord shall be blessed." The whole Psalter is full of such comfortable promises; especially the Ninety-first Psalm, which is particularly good to read to the sick.

I wish to write this to you because I am anxious about your illness (for we know not the hour), that I might become a participant of your faith^ temptation, consolation and thanks to God for His holy Word, which He has richly and graciously given us at this time. If it is His divine will you should still await that better life and suffer with us in this troubled and unhappy vale of tears, to see and hear sorrow and help other Christians to suffer and conquer. He win give you grace to receive all willingly and obediently. This execrable life is nothing but a vale of tears, the longer a man lives the more sin and wickedness and plague and sorrow he sees and feels, nor is there respite nor cessation this side of the grave; there is repose, and we can then sleep in the rest Christ gives us until He comes again to wake us with joy. Amen.

I commend you to Him who loves you more than you love yourself, and has proved His love in taking your sins upon Himself, and paying for them with His blood, as He tells you by the Gospel, and has given you grace to believe by His Spirit, and has prepared and accomplished all most surely, so that you need not care nor fear any more, but only keep your heart strong and reliant on His Word and faith. If you do that, let Him care for the rest ; He will do well, yea,

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