remained the common version in use throughout Germany, even as the authorized King James version, made nearly a century later by the labor of many scholars and divines, has remained the standard English Bible.  Moreover, he finds time to make liturgies and creeds and hymns, and to write letters to all parts of Christendom,—­a Jerome, a Chrysostom, and an Augustine united; a kind of Protestant pope, to whom everybody looks for advice and consolation.  What a wonderful man!  No wonder the Germans are so fond of him and so proud of him,—­a Briareus with a hundred arms; a marvel, a wonder, a prodigy of nature; the most gifted, versatile, hard-working man of his century or nation!

At last, this great theologian, this daring innovator, is summoned by imperial, not papal, authority before the Diet of the empire at Worms, where the Emperor, the great Charles V., presides, amid bishops, princes, cardinals, legates, generals, and dignitaries.  Thither Luther must go,—­yet under imperial safe conduct,—­and consummate his protests, and perhaps offer up his life.  Painters, poets, historians, have made that scene familiar,—­the most memorable in the life of Luther, as well as one of the grandest spectacles of the age.  I need not dwell on that exciting scene, where, in the presence of all that was illustrious and powerful in Germany, this defenceless doctor dares to say to supremest temporal and spiritual authority, “Unless you confute me by arguments drawn from Scripture, I cannot and will not recant anything . . .  Here I stand; I cannot otherwise:  God help me!  Amen.”  How superior to Galileo and other scientific martyrs!  He is not afraid of those who can kill only the body; he is afraid only of Him who hath power to cast both soul and body into hell.  So he stands as firm as the eternal pillars of justice, and his cause is gained.  What if he did not live long enough to accomplish all he designed!  What if he made mistakes, and showed in his career many of the infirmities of human nature!  What if he cared very little for pictures and statues,—­the revived arts of Greece and Rome, the Pagan Renaissance in which he only sees infidelity, levities, and luxuries, and other abominations which excited his disgust and abhorrence when he visited Italy!  He seeks, not to amuse and adorn the Papal empire, but to reform it; as Paul before him sought to plant new sentiments and ideas in the Roman world, indifferent to the arts of Greece, and even the beauties of nature, in his absorbing desire to convert men to Christ.  And who, since Paul, has rendered greater service to humanity than Luther?  The whole race should be proud that such a man has lived.