# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 01 10_S40
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

only repeatedly accept public safe conduct, but also consented to his concealment at the Wartburg — not out of fear of the papal ban or the imperial edict of outlawry, the contrary of which has already been shown above, nor in order to seek protection from his prince, but solely out of obedience to his prince's orders. But when the pious Elector made known to Luther his concern, at the time when, after a ten-month stay, Luther wished to return to Wittenberg, Luther, while already on his journey, wrote that most remarkable letter to the Elector. In it he says: "I have done enough for Your Electoral Grace in that I withdrew this year (1521) in Your Electoral Grace's service. For the devil knows quite well that I did not do it out of any cowardice. He saw my heart well when I entered Worms, that had I known that as many devils were lying in wait for me as there are tiles on the roofs, I would nevertheless have leapt among them with joy." Further: "I know well of myself that if this matter stood at Leipzig as it does at Wittenberg, I would ride in nonetheless, even if — Your Electoral Grace forgive my foolish talk — it rained nothing but Duke Georges for nine days, and each one were nine times more furious than this one is."

Then Luther adds, with unheard-of frankness: "This is written to Your Electoral Grace with the intent that Your Electoral Grace should know that I am coming to Wittenberg under a far higher protection than that of the Elector. Nor do I have it in mind to seek Your Electoral Grace's protection. Indeed, I hold that I would rather protect Your Electoral Grace than that you could protect me. Moreover, if I knew that Your Electoral Grace could and would protect me, I would not come at all. In this matter, no sword can counsel or help; God alone must act here, without any human care or contribution. Therefore, whoever believes the most will protect the most here. Since I now perceive that Your Electoral Grace is still quite weak in faith, I can in no way regard Your Electoral Grace as the man who could protect or save me." Whoever, in the face of such a testimony, can still maintain or believe that Luther relied on the Elector's protection, must truly be struck with blindness. Luther was, rather, just such a hero of faith as he himself describes in his excellent exposition of Ephesians 6:11–17 — clothed in the whole armor of God, especially with the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And in accordance with the exhortation of Paul that follows immediately after, in verses 18–20, many devout people, indeed at times the whole Church, prayed for this chosen instrument of God; this happened notably during his journey to Worms, as well as during his illness at Schmalkalden, and God heard their prayer.

Several times already the enemies had spread all sorts of rumors of Luther's impending or already-accomplished death, but to their great vexation they soon had to feel once again that he still lived. A bitter enemy of Luther's, Johann Carion, wanted to predict with certainty, in a published writing, in what year and on what day Luther would surely be burned. On another occasion they spread the rumor that Luther, driven to despair by great poverty, had taken his own life with poison. Most remarkable of all, however, is the writing which appeared in Rome in 1545 (that is, a full year before Luther's death) under the title:
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"A Dreadful and Unheard-of Miraculous Sign Which the Blessed God Has Shown in the Shameful Death of Martin Luther, Damned in Soul and Body, to the Honor and Praise of Jesus Christ and for the Betterment of the Godly." It relates therein that before his death Luther had commanded that his body be placed upon an altar and worshiped. In his grave a dreadful clattering had been heard, and soon afterward the host, which he had last received unworthily, appeared in the air. On the following night that clattering had repeated itself even more violently, and when the grave was opened, not the slightest trace of Luther's corpse was found, but a suffocating smell of sulfur rose up instead. This lying pamphlet soon came into Luther's hands; he himself translated it from the Italian into German and published it, adding the following cheerful testimony: "And I, Martin Luther, Doctor, confess and testify by this writing that I received this angry fable about my death on March 21, and read it almost gladly and cheerfully, except for the blasphemy, in that such lies are ascribed to the high divine Majesty. Otherwise it does me good on my right kneecap and my left heel, that the devil and his brood, pope and papists, are so heartily hostile to me. May God convert them from the devil," etc. (Luther's Works XXI, 256.)

Luther often mentioned among the circle of his friends the many dangers in which he had found himself and how wonderfully God had preserved his life. He used to add the following: "If he were to die in his bed, it would be a great shame and defiance to the Pope, for our Lord God thereby gives him this much to understand: Pope, devil, kings, princes, and lords, you are to be enemies of Luther, and yet you shall not be able to do him harm. I believe that no one has lived in a hundred years to whom the world has been as hostile as to me. I too am hostile to the world, and there is nothing in my whole life that I take pleasure in, and I am altogether weary of living." (Luther's Works, XXII, 2405.)

Of such longing on Luther's part for a blessed death and for the dear Last Day, the clearest testimonies are found in his writings. When Luther was once a guest, in 1539, at the castle of Lichtenberg with the widowed Electress, this pious Christian woman said to him that she wished and hoped he would still live long, and that he might well live another forty years, if it were God's will. Then Doctor Luther said: "God forbid! Even if he offered me paradise itself, to live here another forty years therein, I would not accept it: I would rather hire an executioner to strike off my head. So evil is the world now, and people are becoming utter devils, that one can wish a man nothing better than a blessed final hour and to be gone from it." (Luther's Works XXII, 1945.)

That a speedy rest in the grave might well be granted to him, he testifies in a letter to his dear Myconius in the year 1541, whom this letter of comfort called back from the gates of death. In it he says: "Thus I desire and pray that my dear God would let me fall ill in your place, and let me lay aside this tabernacle of mine, which has now been worn out and has served its purpose, and has become consumed and powerless and therefore unfit." (Luther's Works X, 2101 ff.) This request God fulfilled five years later, when Luther departed this life only a few weeks before Myconius.

He also asked God — already around the year 1527 — that he would graciously take him away, together with his own, so that he might not see the future misery and punishment coming upon Germany (on account of its dreadful ingratitude toward the Gospel); (Luther's Works XI, 2447) and he knew most certainly that God would grant him his request and let him die in peace. (Luther's Works I, 2633.)

Luther believed several times that his end was near; for example, at Coburg in 1530. He had already chosen his burial place, namely in the castle chapel beneath the cross (Luther's Works XXII, 1945), and wrote to the famous musician Senfl, asking him to have a four-part composition written out on David's words, "I will lay me down in peace and sleep," Psalm 4:9, or, if he had none, to compose a new one, even if this should not happen until after his death. (Luther's Works XXI, 1219.) But the excellent Senfl, who well knew how much depended on Luther's life, changed the text; and when Luther, upon breaking open the letter, expected to find the funeral text he had ordered, behold — he found instead the text of life: "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD," Psalm 118:17, which pleased Luther so much that he wrote these words on the wall of his room at Coburg. (Meelführer's Book of Sayings, p. 451 ff.)

Luther did not believe he would live to see his sixtieth year, for he once said to his friends: "I often reckon it up, and I always come closer to sixty years; then I think, that will be the end of it. For St. Paul preached no longer than forty years; likewise St. Augustine. And whenever the forty years have run their course in which God's Word has been purely preached, it has come to an end, and a great calamity has followed upon it." (Luther's Works XXII, 2236.)

Finally, the worthy Luther always held himself ready for his death, and what this readiness consisted of he states in the following few words: "When I am to depart from this life, I hold fast to this comfort, that I believe in the Son of God." (Luther's Works II, 1688.) What all this readiness comprises, however, can be seen from the counsels which Luther gives in his invaluable but unfortunately little-known "Sermon on Preparing to Die" (Luther's Works X, 2292 ff.), in which he speaks as one who has already passed through from death to life, just as Christ himself testifies this of all his believers on earth. John 5:29. Luther also composed, around the year 1534, a short, excellent prayer for his final hour, and no doubt prayed it often. (See Der Lutheraner, 1st year, No. 26, supplement.)

Whoever, finally, desires still more testimonies of how Luther's mouth, even in contemplating death and preparing for it, overflowed with what his heart was full of, let him read and earnestly ponder his two comforting hymns: In the Midst of Life We Are in Death, etc., and In Peace and Joy I Now Depart, etc.

Paid:
Volumes 1 and 2, Mr. P. Crämer, Möhlenkamp.

7. 7. 7.

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