y more busy years he was destined to work as an educator of
his nation. During this time his greatest work, the translation of the
Bible, was completed, and in this work, which he accomplished in
cooeperation with his Wittenberg friends, he acquired a complete
control of the language of the people--a language whose wealth and
power he first learned to realize through this work. We know the lofty
spirit which he brought to this undertaking. His purpose was to create
a book for the people, and for this he studied industriously turns of
phrases, proverbs, and special terms which made up the people's
current language. Even Humanists had written an awkward, involved
German, with clumsy sentences in unfortunate imitation of the Latin
style. Now the nation acquired for daily reading a work which, in
simple words and short sentences, gave expression to the deepest
wisdom and the best intellectual life of the time. Along with Luther's
other works, the German Bible became the foundation of the modern
German language, and this language, in which our whole literature and
intellectual life has found expression, has become an indestructible
possession which, in the gloomiest times, even corrupted and
distorted, has reminded the various German strains that they have
common interests. Every individual in our country still rises superior
to the dialect of his native place, and the language of culture,
poetry, and science which Luther created is still the tie which binds
all German souls in unity.

And what he did for the social life of the Germans was no less; for by
his precepts and his writings he consecrated family prayers, marriage
and the training of children, the daily life of the community,
education, manners, amusements, whatever touches the heart, and all
social pleasures. He was everywhere active in setting up new ideals,
in laying deeper foundations. There was no field of human duty upon
which he did not force his Germans to reflect. Through his many
sermons and minor writings he influenced large groups of people, and
by his innumerable letters, in which he gave advice and consolation to
those who asked for them, he influenced individuals. When he
incessantly urged his contemporaries to examine for themselves whether
a desire was justified or not, or what was the duty of a father toward
his child, of the subject toward the authorities, of the councillor
toward the people, the progress which was made through him was so
import