But still, to our day, the wrecks of the natives of those lands cling to it. They take the Christian name, and accept all the Christian faith which has been taught to them. This is a boast which we cannot yet make of the natives of the other parts of America.

MARTIN LUTHER, a monk, dressed in a monk's dress, sat in an open wagon, with three friends, riding into the old city of Worms. It was the 16th of April, 1521. There was nothing in his simple arrangements for the journey which should show that that day opened on "the greatest scene in modern history," or that it was "the point, indeed, from which the whole subsequent history of civilization takes its rise." But it was. he felt it was.

And

Luther had been preaching reform, in one and another way, for years. Germany was prepared for it by the various reformers we have spoken of, by the spirit of its people, and by countless reformers who died without leaving name or fame behind them. And now

the Emperor had sent for him, that, at a great Diet or assembly of the princes of the German Empire at Worms, some end might be put to the excitement. The Pope had sent his legate there, the Cardinal Alexander. But he found, to his amazement, a universal antipathy to his master. Songs, pictures, placards, and writings, caricaturing the Pope and himself, were everywhere. It was a new thing for a cardinal to be so handled.

The Pope had long before condemned Luther as a heretic. And this year, on the 28th day of March, Holy Thursday, the condemnation had been in form confirmed by the most solemn anathema of the Church. A vast multitude had assembled to receive his blessing in Rome. The magnificent square before the newly built St. Peter's was decorated with myrtle and laurel; great wax candles were burning on the splendid balcony, and in presence of the concourse was the consecrated host. Of a sudden the sound of bells is heard, and the Pope, in his chair of state, is borne forward, most gorgeously dressed, upon the balcony. "The people fall on their knees; every one is uncovered; the flags are lowered before him; the troops ground arms, and there is solemn silence. After a pause, the Pope stretches out his hands, lifts them to heaven, and then, making the sign of the cross, lets them gradually fall towards the earth. He repeats these gestures three times. The people cannot hear him, but the pealing bells announce everywhere that he has blessed them. Then a train of priests advanced, each with a lighted torch. They rushed along swinging their torches wildly and madly

to and fro. The multitude are thrilled with awe and terror as the words of cursing were uttered in turn:

"We curse all heretics, the Cathari, the Patarini, "the poor men" of Lyons, the Arnoldists, the Speronists, the Passageni, the Wickliffites, the Hussites, the Fraticelli, and Martin Luther, recently condemned by us for a like heresy, together with all his adherents and all persons, whoever they may be, who aid or abet him; in like manner we curse all pirates and corsairs, especially such as infest our seas.""

The cardinal knew that his master's spirit was such as appears in these words. He pressed the Emperor and the council of princes to act in obedience to it, without waiting for Luther. But they all decided against him. And the Emperor Charles the Fifth, the grandson of the great Maximilian, and of Ferdinand and Isabella, so distinguished in our history, the greatest sovereign of his time and the greatest Emperor of Germany, had written to Luther to direct him to attend, in terms as respectful as are these:

"Charles, by the grace of God, Emperor elect of the Romans, always August, &c., &c.

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Worshipful, well beloved, and godly! Whereas we, and the states of the holy Empire here assembled, have resolved to institute an inquiry touching the doctrine and writings which thou hast lately put forth, we have on our own behalf of the Empire issued our safeconduct, hereunto annexed, for thy journey hither and return to a place of security. Our hearty desire is that thou shouldst prepare thyself to set out immediately, so

that within the space of twenty-one days fixed by our safe-conduct thou mayst without fail present thyself before us. Fear no injustice or violence. We will steadily abide by our safe-conduct aforesaid, and we expect that thou wilt pay obedience to our summons. Such is our earnest injunction. Given in our imperial city of Worms, this 6th day of the month of March, in the year of our Lord 1521, and the second of our reign. "CHARLES."

The safe-conduct inclosed in this writ was directed, "To the worshipful our well-beloved and goodly Doctor Martin Luther, of the order of the Augustines."

Charles remembered, as he wrote, the safe-conduct which Sigismund gave Huss, a century before, and what came of it. Luther remembered as he read. All men remembered it. It was spoken of constantly. For the cases were the same, but that a century had gone by.

And a century makes great changes in such things. Even God's kingdom is not a stationary kingdom. It comes. It moves. And after a century, one can always see the movement. Timid men had begged Luther not to go. But Luther had made his celebrated answer, "Were there as many devils at Worms as there are tiles on its roofs, I would enter it." His passage through Germany was a triumph. It was one of those splendid demonstrations, in which governments only follow the people, if they act at all, when the people pour out to welcome an exile or a martyr, fascinated by the genius of the man, and excited to all enthusiasm by the grandeur of his cause. As he stopped one day

by the way, with a monk, there hung on the wall of the cell a portrait of Savonarola. The fair complexion, the high, furrowed brow, the clear, calm blue eye, the ruddy hair, the full, firm lips, the graceful, steady bearing, all recalled the face of Jesus, as the earliest painters depicted it, who scorned the Byzantine caricatures of his person. Luther gazed long and earnestly upon this representation of one who had " endured even unto the death." "Out of the fire into glory," said he at last, turning to his aged friend. "I take no fear, but comfort, from this picture thou hast showed me.' So does one generation help the next. Luther travelled on.

And when his wagon came to the city of Worms, a hundred cavaliers rode out to meet the monk, and became his escort. The Emperor's herald rode before him. A friend on horseback followed close, and the escort closed up around him. An immense crowd awaited him at the gates. They followed him through the streets. Doors and windows filled with gazers as he passed. He was taken to the quarters of the Knights of Rhodes, near his patron, the Elector of Saxony. stepped from his carriage into the midst of the throng, and in reply to their salutation said, "God will defend me."

He

The Pope's party was dismayed by the enthusiasm. They surrounded the Emperor, and begged him to rid himself of Luther at once. But Charles remembered Sigismund and Huss, and answered like a man, "What we promise, we maintain.”

The next day Luther appeared before the Diet. The excitement was intense. His books were named in or