One evening, Luther saw cattle going in the fields, in a pasture,
and said: Behold, there go our preachers, our milk-bearers, butter-
bearers, cheese and wool-bearers, which do daily preach unto us the
faith towards God, that we should trust in him, as in our loving
Father; he careth for us, and will maintain and nourish us.


That God nourisheth all the Beasts.

No man, said Luther, can account the great charges which God is at
only in maintaining the birds and such creatures, which in a manner
are nothing or little worth. I am persuaded, said he, that it
costeth God yearly more to maintain only the sparrows than the
yearly revenue of the French King amounteth unto. What then shall
we say of all the rest of his creatures?


That God is skilful in all Manner of Trades.

God, said Luther, is skilful in all occupations and trades, in a
most perfect and excellent manner; for, like a skilful tailor, he
makes such a coat for the stag, which he wears nine hundred years
together, and of itself it is not torn; also, like a good shoemaker,
he gives him shoes on his feet, that last longer than the stag
himself, etc.

God gives this world, with all his works, to those people who, as he
knows before, will anger, contemn, and blaspheme him. What, then,
may we think, will he give to those that through faith are
justified, and do know that they, so justified, shall live and