76a LUTHER TO ELIZABETH AGRICOLA ^ AT EISLEBEN. DeWette, iii, 183. German. (Wittisnbesg), June 10, 1527.
Grace and peace, my dear Elsa. I had intended to write you sooner, but Matthes ' had left before I had attended to it. I hope that your school-master' is back at home again, and that, God willing, you arc better. But you must not be so fearful and down-hearted, but remember that Christ is near and helps you bear your ills, for He has not forsaken you as your flesh and blood makes you imagine. Only call upon Him earnestly, from your heart, and be sure that He hears you, for you know that it is His way to help, to strengthen and to comfort all who ask Him. Therefore be of good cheer, and remember that He Himself has suffered much for you, far more than you can ever suffer for His sake or your own. Thus we too will pray, and pray earnestly, that God will accept you in His Son Christ, and strengthen you in this your weak- ness of body and soul. God have you in His keeping. Amen. Greetings to your school-master and all your family from all of us. Mart. Luther.
761. LUTHER TO LAMBERT HEMERTUS AT CELLE.
ZKG., xviii (1898), 23of. (Wittenberg), June 12, 1527.
Except that Hemertus had at this tinie just been appointed school- master at Celle, I can learn nothing about hitn.
... It has been told me that with you there are certain men of the new sort called "spiritual," who deny that the sacrament of the body of Christ exists among the papists, but who falsely believe that they have nothing but mere bread. If you are able to accomplish anything with these men by my testimony, tell them to stop believing and teaching this. For a thing is not destroyed simply by being misused. Otherwise we should have to say that the Gospel did not exist when the impious hear it, and that the sun which the ungrateful see did not exist, and that God Himself, whom the impious worship perversely, was not God. For Christ did not build His founda-
^The wife of Luther's old friend, John Agricola. A month earlier Lather had invited her to his home at Wittenberg "for a change of air" (Enders, vi. 49). The invitation was apparently accepted (vide infra, no. 762).
'Blasius Matthatu (i484-x56i), a town councillor of Wittenberg. Cnden, xii, 70.
- Agricola was teacher at Eisleben.
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