any goodness, let it be theirs. Thus the apostle teaches: Receive one another even as Christ received you, for the glory of God,* and again : Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, when he was in the form of God, humbled himself, &c.* Thus do you, if you seem pretty good to yourself, not count it as booty, as though it were yours alone, but humble yourself, forget what you are, and be as one of them that you may carry them. . . . Do this, my brother, and the Lord be with you. Farewell in the Lord.
Your brother,
Martin Luther, Augustinian.
12. LUTHER TO GEORGE LEIFFER AT ERFURT. Enders, L 31. Wittenberg, April 15, 1516.
Greeting in the Lord and in his Comforter. Excellent father and sweet brother in the Lord, I hear that you are tempted, shaken by the whirlwinds and disquieted by the various floods, but blessed is God the Father of mercy and God of all conso- lation, who has provided for you a comforter and consoler as good as any man may be, the Rev. Dr. Usingen.* Only let it be your care to thro>v away your own ideas and thoughts and make place for his words in your thoughts. I am certain from my own experience and yours, or rather from the experience of all whom I ever saw perturbed, that prudence alone is the cause of our emotion and the root of all our unquiet. For our eye is very evil, and, to speak of myself, alas! how much misery has it caused me and does it cause me yet.
The cross of Christ is distributed through the whole world, to every one certainly comes his portion. Do you therefore not cast it aside, but rather take it up as a holy relic, kept not in a golden or silver case, but in a golden, that is, gentle and
'Romans, xr. 7.
'Philippians, ii. 5, 6.
- Bartholomew Arnold! of Usingen, born between 1462 and 1465, entered Erfurt
X484 and took bis M. A. 1491. He taught philosophy at the University, being a follower of Aristotle in all things. He entered the Augustinian cloister about 151a, apparently under Luther's influence, and took his D. D. in 15x4. He' did not, however, follow Luther in the revolt, although, notwithstanding a debate in May, 151S, they remained on friendly terms until 1522 when Usingen came out strongly against the Reformation. He was obliged to leave Erfurt in 1526, going to Wurzbtxrg, where he died September 9, 1532. He was at the Diet of Augsburg, X530U Life by N. Paulua, 1893.
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