nts, and none the less worry about the wolf in the woods. Such are
our times, and this is the reward we have earned by our ingratitude
toward the endless grace which Christ has won for us freely with His
precious blood, grievous labor and bitter death.

XVI. Lo! where are the idle ones, who do not know how to do good works?
Where are they who run to Rome, to St. James, hither and thither? Take
up this one single work of the mass, look on your neighbor's sin and
ruin, and have pity on him; let it grieve you, tell it to God, and pray
over it. Do the same for every other need of Christendom, especially of
the rulers, whom God, for the intolerable punishment and torment of us
all, allows to fall and be misled so terribly. If you do this
diligently, be assured you are one of the best fighters and captains,
not only against the Turks, but also against the devils and the powers
of hell. But if you do it not, what would it help you though you
performed all the miracles of the saints, and murdered all the Turks,
and yet were found guilty of having disregarded your neighbor's need
and of having thereby sinned against love? For Christ at the last day
will not ask how much you have prayed, fasted, pilgrimaged, done this
or that for yourself, but how much good you have done to others, even
the very least.

Now without doubt among the "least" are also those who are in sin and
spiritual poverty, captivity and need, of whom there are at present far
more than of those who suffer bodily need. Therefore take heed: our own
self-assumed good works lead us to and into ourselves, that we seek
only our own benefit and salvation; but God's commandments drive us to
our neighbor, that we may thereby benefit others to their salvation.
Just as Christ on the Cross prayed not for Himself alone, but rather
for us, when He said, "Father, forgive them, fort they know not what
they do," so we also must pray for one another. From which every man
may know that the slanderers, frivolous judges and despisers of other
people are a perverted, evil race, who do nothing else than heap abuse
on those for whom they ought to pray; in which vice no one is sunk so
deep as those very men who do many good works of their own, and seem to
men to be something extraordinary, and are honored because of their
beautiful, splendid life in manifold good works.

XVII. Spiritually understood, this Commandment has a yet far higher
work, which embraces the whole nature of man. He