The Chronica of Peter Haftiti states that a warning letter which Luther addressed to Kohlhase, and in which he solemnly and impressively admonishes him to repentance, encouraged the outcast to go to Luther's house, and, without naming himself, implore for admission. "It occurred suddenly to Luther that this might be Kohlhase; therefore he went to the door himself, and said: 'Numquid tu es Hans Kohlhase?' to which the answer was, 'Jam Domine Doctor.' Upon this he was let in; and Luther conducted him solemnly to his own room, and sent for Master Philip (Melancthon) and several other divines. These Kohlhase made acquainted with the state of his affairs; and all remained with him until late at night. In the morning he confessed himself to Luther, received the holy communion, and promised that he would abstain from violence, and injure the Saxon lands no further. He departed, unrecognized and unobserved, from the hostelry; having

(Luther and his friends) would advocate his cause, and bring it to a good end." When this interference proved unavailing, Kohlhase resumed his attempts to right himself by violence; and was at length taken, condemned, and executed, 1540.

In the picture Kohlhase appears despairing; bowing down before Luther only, because he could have faith in and respect him alone. Luther receives him seriously and compassionately; for he reads in this darkened mind, and perceives that a great and divine power had been given it, the degeneration and destruction of which he deeply laments.

LUTHER VISITING PLAGUE PATIENTS.

LUTHER, inspired by the courage which faith gives, looked death in the face even when it approached in the terrible guise of the plague. This awful disease had broken out three times in Wittemberg (1516, 1527, 1535;) and three times he remained in the midst of the danger,

she is near her lying in; my little son also has been ill for the last three days. Thus there is struggle abroad and fear within and both violent enough. Christ visits us sorely; the only consolation which we can oppose to the wrath of Satan is, that we have God's word for the salvation of our souls, even though he destroys our bodies. Therefore do thou and our brethren include us in your prayers, that we may firmly bear the hand of God." On the 10th of December he writes: "I am like a dying man; and behold, I live!" At the end of the year he exclaimed thankfully: "God hath shown himself wondrously merciful unto us." In the picture we see the horrors of a plague-scene. Luther administers the last consolations of religion to a dying woman; she has already overcome the afflictions of this world, even the painful

sight of her dead child, in the anticipation of a future life. Around her are depicted the different degrees of the fear of death, which stalks along in the back-ground as a never-ending funeral train.

LUTHER TAKES LEAVE OF HIS FAMILY; EXPERIENCES GREAT DANGER DURING HIS JOURNEY; HIS RECEPTION AT THE FRONTIERS BY THE COUNTS OF MANSFELD.

THE man of battles begins a journey of home; it was, as he had felt it to be, his peace as peacemaker he proceeds to his peace, and to his real home. "The world last journey, which led him to eternal is tired of and I am tired of it; we shall part easily, as a guest leaves his hostelry not unwilling."

me,

panied by his three sons, he started a third time (January 23d, 1546.) His Katherina saw him depart with a sorrowful heart, as if she had a presentiment that she should never see him again, at least not otherwise than in his coffin. In vain he sought to cheer her in his letters by gay and grave remarks: "Read St. John and the Little Catechism, my beloved Kate, for thou seemest to fear for thy God as if he were not almighty, and could not create ten Dr. Martins, if the one old one were drowned in the Saale." "Do not trouble me with thine anxieties; I have a better protector than thee and all the angels. He lieth in the manger, or clings to the breast of the Virgin, but sitteth also at the right hand of God our Father Almighty. Therefore rest in peace. Amen."

He had escaped death in crossing the Saale during a flood, (January 28th,) that he might depart this life a few weeks later at the very place where he had entered it, at Eisleben. At the frontiers of Mansfeld he was received by the counts with a great retinue he went there to reconcile the brothers and other relations who were at issue among themselves about their worldly possessions. This task was a most painful one for him. "In this school," he says, one may learn why the Lord in his Gospel calls riches thorns."

66

LUTHER'S DEATH.

AN eventful great life, of which the results are incalculable, approaches its end; the heart stands still, that had beaten so warmly and faithfully for his people, for Christianity, and for the gospel. During the last years of Luther's life, his enemies often spread reports of his death; with the addition of the most singular and tragic circumstances. To refute these, Luther had printed in 1545, in German and Italian, a pamphlet, entitled Lies of the Goths touching the Death of Dr. Martin Luther. "I tell Dr. Bucer beforehand, that whoever, after my death, shall despise the authority of this school and this Church, will be a heretic and unbeliever; for it was here first that God purified his word and again made it known. Who could do anything twenty-five years since? Who was on my side twenty-one years ago?" "I often count and find that I approach nearer and nearer to the forty years, at the end of which I believe all

this will end. St. Paul only preached for forty years; and so the Prophet Jeremiah and St. Augustin. And when each of these forty years had come to an end, in which they had preached the word of God, it was no longer listened to, and great calamities followed."

The aged electress, when he was last at her table, wished him forty years more of life. "I would not have heaven," said he, "on condition that I must live forty years longer. . . . I have nothing to do with doctors now. It seems they have settled that I am to live one year longer; so that I won't make my life a torment, but, in God's name, eat and drink what I please."-"I would my adversaries would put an end to me; for my death now would be of more service to the Church than my life." (February 16th, 1546.) The conversation running much on death and sickness, during his last visit to Eisleben, he said, “If I return to Wittemberg, I shall soon be in my coffin, and then I shall give the worms a good meal on a fat doctor." Two days after this he died, at Eisleben.

Luther often said that it would be a great disgrace to the pope were he to die in his bed. "All of you, thou pope, thou devil, ye kings, princes, and lords, are Luther's enemies, and yet you can do him no harm. It was not so with John Huss. I take it that there has not been a man so hated as I for these hundred years. I, too, hate the world. In the whole round of life, there is nothing which gives me pleasure; I am sick of living. May our Lord then come quickly, and take me with him. May he, above all, come with his day of judgment. I would stretch forth my neck .. so that he hurled his thunderbolt and I were at rest.

Luther had arrived, the 28th January, at Eisleben, and, though already ill, he joined in all the conferences until the 17th February. He preached also four times, and revised the ecclesiastical statutes for the earldom of Mansfeld. The 17th, he was so ill that the counts prayed him not to go out. At supper he spoke much of his approaching end, and some one asking him if he thought we should recognize each other in the other world, he replied that he thought so. On returning to his chamber with Master Cælius and his two sons, he drew near the window, and remained there a long time in prayer.

After that he said to Aurifaber, who had just arrived, "I feel very weak, and my pains seem to increase:" on which they administered some medicine to him, and endeavored to warm him by friction. He spoke a few words to Count Albert, who had come to see him, and then laid himself down on the bed, saying, "If I could only sleep for half an hour, I think it would refresh me." He did sleep without waking for an hour and a half. This was about eleven o'clock. When he awoke, he said to those in attendance, "What, still sitting up by me: why do you not go to rest yourselves?" He then commenced praying, and said with fervor, “ In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum; redemisti me, Domine, Deus veritatis. (Into thy hands I commend my spirit; thou art my Redeemer, O God of truth.") He also said to those about him, " All of you pray, my friends, for the gospel of our Lord, that his reign may be extended, for the Council of Trent and the pope threaten it greatly." He then slept again for about an hour, and when he awoke, Doctor Jonas asked him how he felt, "O my God," he replied, "I feel myself very bad. I think, my dear Jonas, that I shall remain here at Eisleben, where I was born." He then took a few steps about the room, and laid himself down again on the bed, where they covered him with soft cushions. Two doctors, and the count with his wife, then arrived. Luther said to them, "I am dying: I shall remain at Eisleben." And Doctor Jonas expressing a hope that the perspiration would perhaps relieve him “No, dear Jonas,” replied he, "it is a cold and dry sweat, and the pain is worse." He then applied himself to prayer, and said, "O my God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, thou the God of all consolation, I thank thee for having revealed to me thy well-beloved Son, in whom I believe; whom I have preached and acknowledged; whom I have loved and honored; and whom the pope and the ungodly persecute. I commend my soul to thee, O my Saviour Jesus Christ! I shall leave this terrestrial body; I shall be taken from this life; but I know that I shall rest eternally with thee." He repeated three times following, “In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum; redemisti me, Domine veritatis." Suddenly his eyes closed and he fainted. Count Albert and his wife, as well as the doctors, used their

utmost efforts to restore him to life, in which they with difficulty succeeded. Doctor Jonas then said to him, "Reverend father, do you die in constant reliance on the faith you have taught?" He replied distinctly, "Yes," and fell asleep again. Soon after he became alarmingly pale, then cold, and drawing one deep breath, he expired.

In the picture his two sons kneel beside their dying parent; his faithful friend and companion, Dr. Justus Jonas, addressed his last words to him; Michael Cœlius prays for the preservation of the beloved life; the physician, Simon Wild, holds the now useless medicine-bottle in his hand; to the right stand Count Albracht and his wife, for whose sake the weary warrior had undertaken this troublesome winter journey.

Below, Master Lukas Fortenagel, from Halle, is kneeling at the coffin of the departed, whose portrait he is about to take. Above, the swan prophesied by Huss, rises anew from the flames.

LUTHER'S OBSEQUIES.

ONCE more we stand at Wittemberg before Luther; but the eloquent lips are silent, the eye is closed which once he raised with holy confidence to the emperor and the country, to the pope and the cardinals; he is silent forever in the Church to which he had affixed thirty years before a word that was to shake the world. His body had been carried, as ordered by the elector, in solemn procession from Eisleben to Wittemberg, that a place of rest might be prepared for it in the electoral chapel. Next to the coffin stands his friend Melancthon, who had during twenty-eight years fought indefatigably by his side. On the morning of the 19th of February he had, deeply affected by the news of the death, pronounced in his lecture-room, with few but emphatic words, the testimony of history and of the Protestant world upon the departed: "The doctrine of the forgiveness of sins and of faith in the Son of God has not been discovered by any human understanding, but has been revealed unto us by God through this man, whom he had raised up." On the day of the funeral also, after Dr. Bugenhagen had preached, he once more bore witness to the value of the labors of the departed: "His doctrine does not consist in rebellious opinions