Page:The letters of Martin Luther.djvu/15

 his anxiety for a common Christianity — one would almost say humanity.”

Luther’s attitude towards Charles V. also showed his toleration. When the Emperor forbade Evangelical preaching during the Diet of Augsburg, Luther said: “The town belongs to him, so we must give way;” but happily the princes would not yield. Luther had always a great affection for the young Emperor. “He is pious and peaceable,” he said, “and does not speak as much in a year as I do in one day.”

June 25 was a proud day for Luther, when the Augsburg Confession was read at the Diet. Although drawn out by Melanchthon, it is doubtful if it would ever have been finished had Luther’s powerful letters not restored his fainting powers. “God,” he writes, “has placed you in a spot, which is neither to be found in your rhetoric nor your philosophy; and this spot is called faith, where all you cannot see nor comprehend is to be found.”

The precious words of consolation which Luther scattered across his path came from a heart assailed by many a storm, for he knew his moments of weak faith came direct from Satan. It was in Coburg that he wrote that letter to his son Hans which has delighted the children of every age.

When there his father died, and he wrote commending his sick father to Him who loved him better than he did, comforting him with the thought of “the exit from this world to God being shorter than the journey from Wittenberg to Mansfeld, for it only means an hour’s sleep.” Just then his wife sent him the picture of his little Lena. At first he could not make out who it was, but gradually recognized it, and thought it an excellent likeness. And as a husband Luther was no less loving. When once the