CHAPTER XLVIII.
LUTHER.
I gave a second lecture, one on Luther, at the same place, and on the like solicitation of Mr.Le Fevre, President of the Balloon Society; the date being November 9, 1883.
Of this lecture, not to be tedious, I will here give only the peroration.
"And now, in conclusion, let us answer these reasonable questions: What has Martin Luther done and suffered that we at this distant interval of four centuries should reverence his memory with gratitude and admiration?
What was the lifework he was raised up to do, and how did he do it?
and what influence have his labours of old on the times in which we live ?--We must remember that in the sixteenth century priestcraft had culminated to its rankest height of fraud, cruelty, vice, and superstition: the lay-folk everywhere were its serfs and victims, not to mention also numbers of the worthier clerics who hated but could, not break their bonds.

Luther was the solitary champion to head and lead both the remonstrant layman and the better sort of monk up to the then well-nigh forlorn hope of combating Antichrist in his stronghold: Luther broke those chains for ever off the necks of groaning nations,--freeing to this day from that bitter bondage not alone Germany, Sweden, France, and England, but the very ends of the earth from America to China: without the energies of Luther nearly four hundred years ago, and the living spirit of Luther working in us now, we should be still in our own persons adding to the Book of Martyrs in the flames of the Inquisition, still immersed in blankest ignorance, with the Bible everywhere forbidden, and scientific research condemned, still cringing slaves at the feet of confessors who fraudulently sell absolution for money, still both spiritually and politically the mean vassals of an Italian priest instead of brave freemen under our English Queen.

Luther relit the well-nigh, extinguished lamp of true religion, and it shines for him all the more gloriously to this hour: Luther refreshed the gospel salt that had through corruption lost its savour, until now it is more antiseptic than ever as the cure of evil, more purifying than ever as the quickener of good: Luther, under God's good grace and providence, has rescued the conscience and reason of our whole race from the thraldom of self-elected spiritual despots, who worked upon the superstitious fears of men as to another-world in order to strengthen their own power in this: Luther, for the result of his great labours, is more to us now than ever was the fabulous Hercules of old,--for he has cleansed the real Augaean stable,--more than any mythical William Tell,--for he has ensured the boon of everlasting liberty, more to us than a whole army of so-called heroes in conquest, patriotism, or even local philanthropy,--for the enemies he fought and vanquished were our spiritual foes,--the country he opened to us is the heavenly one,--the good-doing, he inaugurated is wide as the world, and shines an electric universal threefold light of faith, hope, and charity." _Luther._ _Written by request, for the four-hundredth anniversary of his birth._ "Martin Luther! deathless name, Noblest on the scroll of Fame, Solitary monk,--that shook All the world by God's own book; Antichrist's Davidian foe, Strong to lay Goliath low, Thee, in thy four-hundredth year, Gladly we remember here.
"How, without thy forceful mind, Now had fared all human kind,-- Curst and scorch'd and chain'd by Rome, In each heart of hearth and home?
But for thee, and thy grand hour, German light, and British power, With Columbia's faith and hope, All were crush'd beneath the Pope! "God be thank'd for this bright morn, When Eisleben's babe was born! For the pious peasant's son, Liberty's great fight hath won,-- When at Wittenberg he stood All alone for God and good, And his Bible flew unfurl'd, Flag of freedom to the world!" The Reverend E.Bullinger set this to excellent music; and it was translated for Continental use into German, French, Swedish, and Hungarian in the same metre.
As quite a cognate subject here shall be added my ballad on Wycliffe, also written by request:-- _Wycliffe._ "Distant beacon on the night Full five centuries ago,-- Harbinger of Luther's light, Now four hundred years aglow,-- Priest of Lutterworth we see All of Luther-worth in thee! "Lo, the wondrous parallel,-- Both gave Bibles to their land; While, the rage of Rome to quell, Princes stood on either hand, John of Gaunt, and Saxon John, Cheered each bold confessor on.
"Both are rescuers of souls, Cleansing those Augaean styes-- Superstition's hiding holes, Nunneries and monkeries; Both gave liberty to men, Bearding lions in their den! "Wycliffe, Luther! glorious pair, Great Twin Brethren of mankind; Conscience was your guide and care, Purifying heart and mind; Both before your judges stood, 'Here I stand, for God and good.' "Each had liv'd a martyr's life, Still protesting for the faith; Yet amid that fiery strife, Each escap'd the martyr's death; Rescued from the fangs of Rome, Both died peacefully at home.".