y rough consolation, to give it
rest. Once when Luther had written to him, "Oh my sins! my sins! my
sins!" his ghostly counsellor answered him: "You wish to be without
sin, and yet have no real sins. Christ is the forgiver of mortal sins,
such as the murder of parents, &c., &c. If you would have the help of
Christ, you must have mortal sins to record, and not come to Him with
such trifles and peccadilloes, making a sin out of every little
infirmity."

The way in which Luther raised himself out of this despair decided the
whole tenour of his life. The God whom he served appeared then as a God
of terror, whose anger was only to be appeased by the means of grace
given by the old Church, especially by continual confession, for which
endless forms and directions were given, which were but cold and empty
to the spirit. By the prescriptions of the Church and the practice of
so-called good works, young Luther had not attained the feeling of true
reconciliation and inward peace. At last a sentence from his spiritual
adviser pierced him like an arrow: "There is no true repentance that
does not begin by the love of God; the love of God, and the reception
of it in the soul, does not follow, but precedes the means of grace
enjoined by the Church." This teaching which came from Tauler's school
became for him the foundation of a new, genial, and moral relation with
God; it was a holy discovery to him. The change in his own spirit was
the main point for which he must labour; repentance, penance, and
expiation must proceed from the inward feelings of the heart. It was by
his own efforts alone that man could raise himself to God. For the
first time he experienced what direct prayer was. In the place of a
distant God, whom hitherto he had sought in vain, by hundreds of forms
and childish confessions, he beheld the image of an all-loving
protector, with whom he could hold communion at every hour, whether in
joy or sorrow, before whom he could lay every grief and doubt, who
incessantly sympathized with, and cared for him, and, like a good
father, either granted or denied the requests of his heart. Thus he
learned to pray, and how ardent his prayers became! Now he was able to
live in tranquillity, being daily and hourly in communion with his God,
whom he had at last found; his intercourse with the Highest became more
confidential than with those dearest to him on earth. When he poured
out his whole soul before Him, he obtained rest, holy pea