consumed, and they do forget. Not to speak of the horrible profanations of which we sometimes hear, it seems to us as if Jesus must be even yet more pained by the cold neglect, and slovenly, niggardly devotion of those, who call themselves the faithful. All this it is our business to repair. If Jesus does not suffer, we are to suffer in His place. Mortal sin will, if we love Him, torturé us with something of the anguish with which it tortured Him. We are to try and prevent it with our tears, our labours, and our prayers; and if men still commit it, we know our place is before the tabernacle, to make amends for each new crime and new neglect by some new act of love. And that we may be fit to do so, we have to fill our own hearts with a fire and an energy of love we can learn only in the depths of the Heart of Jesus. He showed It to His servant, as It has ever since been represented, with the flames of that love that could not keep its narrow bounds, bursting out, and seeking, as it were, to kindle the world. It is there that we must go. "O Jesus," again says St. Catherine, "Thou art the light which kindles the fire of our souls, and makes our charity to burn like wood; because, showing us Thy divine goodness, the love which it kindles in us desires to know its God; and that desire Thou satisfiest." It is even so; we have but to know our God, and to know Him as He manifests Himself in the Humanity of Jesus, and the love is lighted in our hearts which will teach us what we have to do. We shall not learn it by standing far off, with that strange dread of familiarity which Protestants are wont to mistake for reverence, nor by fearing to realise the mysteries of love, not daring to believe them true. The Humanity of Jesus is what It ever was, save that Its suffering is past for ever. He took It with Him to the throne of God, to draw our love there after Him. His love has suffered no change from the glory that surrounds It now there is a Human Heart in heaven, and Its tenderness is all our own. Levey, Robson, and Franklyn, Great New Street and Fetter Lane. N.B. The facts, and occasionally the language, of the following Tract, are taken from Audin's Life of Luther, or Michelet's, or Dollinger's. The Foreign Reformation. I. THE LIFE OF LUTHER. Ar the beginning of the sixteenth century there was only one recognised faith throughout the greater part of Europe. If we except Russia, all the rest of Christian Europe professed the Catholic faith. It is true, indeed, that there were a few followers of the errors of John Wickliffe in our own country; that in the south of France and in the valleys of Piedmont there was a certain number of Waldenses; and that in Bohemia many professed the doctrines that had been lately taught there by John Huss and Jerome of Prague. Still, these, even when all taken together,—and we need hardly say that they were by no means of one mind with one another, their chief point of agreement being their rebellion against the Church,-formed a very inconsiderable minority; so inconsiderable as to be scarcely worth noticing. All the rest of Europe, from north to south, and from east to west, were united in one faith; were subject to one authority; were in communion with one central Church, the Church of Rome; and the few individuals in various countries who had separated from this vast body were rejected as heretics by the rest; their opinions had been carefully examined, and condemned by authority; and all men had been warned against following their errors, lest they should become involved in their guilt. This, I say, was the state of things in the beginning of the sixteenth century, say in the year 1515. But if we look forward for a space of fifty or sixty years, how different is the scene! England, Scotland, a great part of Germany and of Hungary, Holland, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark, are altogether separated from this unity; France is rent and distracted by the civil dissensions caused by the professors of the new doctrines; and the only countries which remain unshaken in the ancient faith are Italy, Ireland, Poland, Spain, and Portugal. If we inquire into the causes of this great change, we shall be told on all sides that the main instrument in bringing it about was one Martin Luther, once a Catholic priest and a religious (that is, a man devoted to a specially religious life in a monastery), but afterwards a Protestant, and indeed, I might almost say, the first Protestant; the prime mover in bringing about that change of religion which is commonly known in this country by the name of the Reformation. Thus much will be agreed upon by every body; for, however men may differ as to whether the Reformation should be considered to be the work of God or the work of the devil, yet all will at once acknowledge that, at any rate, the main instrument that was used, either by Almighty God or by the great enemy of mankind, was this Martin Luther. It becomes, therefore, a matter of considerable importance that we should know something about this man; that we should examine into his private life and character; for this knowledge ought to be of material service to us in judging of the nature of the work in which he took so prominent a part. Protestants, indeed, have sometimes denied this; and have objected, that whether Luther was a good man or a bad one makes very little difference, for that he was clearly the mouth-piece of Heaven in the doctrine which he taught, and that his own private and personal failings cannot destroy, or in any way affect, this Divine mission. This, however, is a sentiment in which few persons will be disposed to agree; it is so entirely contrary to what our own reason would teach us to expect, and what all history proclaims. God has often made use of men of irregular and wicked lives, of heretics, and even of the heathen, to punish the sins of His children; but when He raises up men in an extraordinary manner, as the Prophets of old and the Apostles, and many of their suc |