The Canada Lutheran "The Faith of our Fathers in the Language of our Children." Vol. 6 UNIONVILLE, NOVEMBER, 1917 No. 1 THE SECRET OF LUTHER'S GREATNESS. In Luther's soul lived one desire which was paramount and that was to "find God," not as men vainly and foolishly imagined Him to be but as He was in reality. St. Augustine had said that "man could rest only as he rested in God." But Luther was not at rest. On the contrary he was greatly troubled. The mists were about his soul. He stretched out lame hands after God and found Him not. The minds and the hearts of the people about him were equally darkened. Painfully, by prayers and fastings, by long vigils and all manner of self-crucifixion he groped for the light. Christ, the tender and faithful Shepherd of the soul, he knew not. To him this Christ was a "Wrathful Judge," at best a second Moses.How came at last the light to this man? How were the dark clouds rolled back and how came he finally to see in Jesus "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," and through this knowledge and blessed assurance found peace for his tempest-tossed soul? It was because he believed that the testimony which God gave in His divine Word, the Holy Scriptures, was a reliable testimony and could be fully accepted without any reservation. At the famous debate at Leipsig, with Dr. Eck, and also at the Diet of Worms, two of the most critical periods in his life, it was the Holy Scriptures which he made the final court of appeal. Upon the folds of his garments and upon the walls of his lom he had printed ,Psalm 119: 89, "Forever, 0 Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven." With the Word as his rock foundation he stood unmoved. "Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. Gad help me. Amen." Luther was no rationalist. By God's boundless grace he was a true child of faith, willing to accept what his imperfect reason could not explain, full con- scious of the fact that the finite can at best but dimly comprehend the Infinite. He refused to lift his reason above God. If there were error it was not with God and His Word or ways, but in his own lack of ability to as yet spell out the Way of God's dealings with men. He came to see in God, his Heavenly Father, One infinite in tenderness, unfailing in com- passion, eternal in goodness, not willing that any should perish, who, because of the constancy of His love had sent His Son to redeem by His innocent sufferings and death, a lost and ruined world.--Rev. G. B. Young, D.D., in Lutheran Church Work and Observer.