The young theologian raised his sparkling eyes heavenward as he spoke,
and continued: "Our doctrine is founded on him, his word, his love alone;
and who among the enthusiastic heralds of Christianity in ancient times
grasped faith in him with warmer sincerity than the very Martin Luther
whom you would have led to the stake had not the Emperor Charles's
plighted word been dearer to him than the approval of Rome? Oh, my
friend, our young faith can also show its martyrs. Think of the Bohemian
John Huss and the true Christians who, in the Netherlands and Spain, were
burned at the stake and bled upon the scaffold because they read the
Bible, the Word of God and their Saviour, and would rather die than deny
it. If it should come to the worst, thousands here would also be ready
to ascend the funeral pyre, and I at their head. If war is declared now,
the Emperor Charles will gain the victory; and if he does not wish to
withdraw in earnest from Romish influences, who can tell what will then
await us Protestants? But I am not anxious about what may come. We
German citizens, who are accustomed to guide our own destinies and
maintain the system of government we arranged for ourselves, who built by
our own strength our solid, comfortable, gable-roofed houses and noble,
towering cathedrals, will also independently maintain the life of our
minds and our souls. Rome, with her legions of priests, claimed the
right not only to interfere in our civil life, but also to intrude into
our houses, our married lives, and our nurseries. What could she not
decide for the individual by virtue of the power she arrogates to bind
and to loose, to forgive sins, and to open or to close the door of heaven
for the dying? What she has done with the Church's gifts of grace we
know.

"There is a deep, beautiful meaning underlying this idea. But it has
degenerated into a base traffic in indulgences. We have sincere natures.
For a long time we believed that salvation is gained by works--gifts to