# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1858_S219
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Luther Monument in Worms. 219

worth and their outward presentation the demands now made of them, and
to the means at our disposal for it.*) That would be the paying off of a
debt of gratitude which evangelical Germany has long owed its great
teacher, and it would constitute an act of atonement if such an edition
were to go forth from Worms, where the German Empire, by condemning
Luther's writings, gravely sinned and brought about great calamity.
Such a Worms edition of Luther's works would be a finer and more
lasting monument than any sculptor's hand can fashion, and also a
greater glory for the old imperial city. With a capital outlay of
60,000 thalers — for that is what the monument is estimated to cost —
something truly excellent could indeed be accomplished for this
purpose.

Surely the support and assistance of many who cannot work up
enthusiasm for a monument would attend such an undertaking, even though
the great mass will have no feeling for it. But no matter if, of those
who are enthusiastic for a monument, some should fall away — what does
it matter? Sis licet divus, they say unwittingly, dummodo non vivus!
(Let him be a god, provided only he is not alive.) They wish to honor
Luther in death, and wherever he stirs and shows himself alive
anywhere, there they cry out in alarm! They wish to build Luther a
monument, and yet they persecute Lutheranism itself — some with
specious words, others with gendarmes! Who can help but recall the
words: Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who build the
tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and
say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been
partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. So you bear witness
against yourselves, that you are the children of them who killed the
prophets.

Dixi et salvavi animam!*) (I have spoken, and saved my soul.)
                    Meurer.

Note of the Editors. In publishing this well-grounded protest of
Luther's well-known biographer against the Worms monument, we cannot
refrain from commending the thought raised here, of an edition of
Luther's works answering to every legitimate demand, to the earnest
consideration of all friends of our church and of literature —

*) That the Erlangen edition, as a private undertaking, is a very
meritorious work, and has various advantages over its predecessors, is
readily granted; but on the other hand presumably no one will wish to
maintain that it does justice to the demands stated above.

**) The writer is far from hoping for any further effect from his
word. On the one hand his voice lacks the weight necessary for that; on
the other hand it would require of the promoters, should they be asked
to depart from their original plan, a degree of self-denial that is
seldom found. Nevertheless he wishes his proposal wider circulation,
and asks the editors to whom it seems worth taking to heart for the
reprinting of the above lines in their papers.