So long it will obtrude itself on the eye of us who reject it, till we
in our practice too have appropriated whatsoever of truth was in it. Then,
but also not till then, it will have no charm more for any man. It lasts
here for a purpose. Let it last as long as it can.--
Of Luther I will add now, in reference to all these wars and bloodshed, the
noticeable fact that none of them began so long as he continued living.
The controversy did not get to fighting so long as he was there. To me it
is proof of his greatness in all senses, this fact. How seldom do we find
a man that has stirred up some vast commotion, who does not himself perish,
swept away in it! Such is the usual course of revolutionists. Luther
continued, in a good degree, sovereign of this greatest revolution; all
Protestants, of what rank or function soever, looking much to him for
guidance: and he held it peaceable, continued firm at the centre of it. A
man to do this must have a kingly faculty: he must have the gift to
discern at all turns where the true heart of the matter lies, and to plant
himself courageously on that, as a strong true man, that other true men may
rally round him there.
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