THE KING’S BUSINESS
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and the declaration of the rights of man and the citizen, laid down by Rousseau’s dis ciples. And Lilly indicates a still further extension of Luther’s influence. He says, the great moral and intellectual regenerators of Germany—Kant, Schiller, Lessing, and Goethe—may properly be considered an out-. come of Luther, for it is impossible to im agine these worthies doing the work they did as Catholics. Luther delivered them from the yoke of tradition, and as Goethe acknowledges, we are indebted to him for the fre'edom from the fetters of spiritual narrowness. Let us therefore forge our weapons with the metal we obtain from the treasures we dig in the divine field, and march out against all that obstructs sound progress based on Bible teaching. Let us in the words of the Epistle, “Stand fast therefore in the lib erty wherewith Christ has made us free, and not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1). (See table next page.) —--------- $------------ Continued Growth T"\URÎNG the months of June, July and August the subscription list of T h e K ing ’ s B u sin e ss has increased at the raté of" over 600 names per month. The same rate of increase has been maintained during the first two weeks of September, and it is our expectation and earnest hope that it may continue for many months. Thanks to our friends for their continued efforts, and for their assistance in spreading the Master’s - good tidings. ----------- $----------- Someone wrote to Bishop McCabe asking him to take stock in a silver mine which was to be worked in the interest of mis sions and church extension. He replied : “We hâve two mines already which are working with great success. One is Self- Denial, situated in the Valley of Humilia tion. The other is Consecration, which is entered on the heavenly side of the Brook Peniel. These are glorious mines ! Their riches are inexhaustible. There is enough in them to bring the world to Christ .”—Living Water.
beyond criticism on account of its useful ness.” Bishop Lightfoot said: “No man was better fitted by the sympathy of like experiences to appreciate the character and teaching of St. Paul,” and G. G. Findlay, in his commentary on this Epistle, said : “Of all the great Reformer’^ writings this was the widest in its influence, the dearest to himself. This famous commentary sum moned :Christendom to recover the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.” SHOOK THE WORLD It does not enter into the purpose of this paper to detail the culminating steps which this monk took to shake the world. How on December 10 he burned the Pope’s Bull (which Eck had obtained against him)— the act which so greatly impressed the Ger man people; in Carlyle’s words, “the shout of the students who looked on finding an echo throughout Europe in the awakening of nations ;” the dramatic entry of Luther into Worms in April, 1521, which has ever since fired the imagination of all Protest ants; his seizure by friends who carried him off to the castle of Wartburg to be out of the reach of his enemies ; and his return to Wittenberg in 1522. Let it but be seen that all this followed closely on his grasp of the significance and teaching of the Epistle to the Galatians, and that Epistle’s importance as the great factor in the Reformation can scarcely fail to be recognized. Then what further important results out side the church followed on his work! There can be but little doubt that the Peasants’ War was an outcome of his opposition to ecclesiastical authority. In their discontent at. oppression and in resistance to their tem porary rulers they were inspired by his judgment of spiritual governors. INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS . Again, as to the far-reaching results of loyalty to conviction, \the principles which Luther laid down in the sphere of theology were applied by the French revolutionists in the sphere of politics. They are debtors to Luther too, for that doctrine of the sov ereignty of the individual which is the very foundation of Rousseau’s “Contrat Social,”
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