464 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1530.
Nothing can be more charming or creditable to his heart than the truly childlike letter he wrote to his oldest boy Hans, then four years of age, from Coburg, during the sessions of the Augsburg Diet in the momentous year 1530.)
‘* Grace and peace in Christ, my dear little boy. I am pleased to see that thou learnest thy lessons well, and prayest diligently. Go on thus, my dear boy, and when I come home, I will bring you a fine fairing. I know ofa pretty, delightful garden, where are merry children that have gold frocks, and gather nice apples and pears, cherries and plums under the trees, and sing and jump and are happy; they also ride on fine little horses with gold bridles and silver saddles. I asked the man who owns the garden, who the children were. He said, ‘These are the children who love to pray and to learn, and are good.’ Then I said, ‘Dear man, I also have a son who is called Hans Luther. May he not come to this garden and eat such pretty apples and pears, and ride on such fine little horses, and play with these children ?’ The man said, ‘If he likes to pray and to learn, and is pious, he may come © to the garden, and Lippus? and Jost? may come also; and if they all come together, they shall have pipes and drums and lutes and fiddles, and they shall dance and shoot with little crossbows.’
‘* Then he showed me a smooth lawn in the garden laid out for dancing, and there hung the golden pipes and drums and crossbows. But it was still early, and the children had not dined; therefore I could not wait for the dance. So I said, ‘ Dear sir, I will go straight home and write all this to my little boy; but he has an aunt, Lene,* that he must bring with him.’ And the man answered, ‘So it shall be; go and write as you say.’
‘* Therefore, dear little boy Johnny, learn and pray with a good heart, and tell Lippus and Jost to do the same, and then you will all come to the garden together. And now I commend you to Almighty God. Give my love to aunt Lene, and give her a kiss forme. Anno 1530.
“ὁ Thy loving father, ““MARTINUS LUTHER.”
He was deeply grieved by the early death of his favorite daughter Lena (Magdalen), a pious, gentle, and affectionate girl of fourteen, with large, imaginative eyes, and full of
1 De Wette, IV. 41 sq. Comp. Luther’s Brief an sein Sohnlein Hansigen. With woodcuts and original drawings by Ludwig Richter, Leipz. 1883. Froude calls it ‘‘the prettiest letter ever addressed by a father to a child.’’? Luther, Ὁ. 53.
2 Philip, son of Melanchthon. 8 Jodocus, son of Jonas.
4 Great-aunt, Magdalen.
§ 78. LUTHER’S HOME-LIFE. 465
promise.t “I love her very much,” he prayed; “but, dear God, if it is thy holy will to take her hence, I would gladly | leave her with Thee.” And to her he said, “ Lena dear, my little daughter, thou wouldst love to remain here with thy father: art thou willing to go to that other Father?” — “ Yes, dear father,” she replied, “just as God wills.” And when she was dying, he fell on his knees beside her bed, wept bitterly, and prayed for her redemption. As she lay in her coffin, he exclaimed, “ Ah! my darling Lena, thou wilt rise again, and shine like a star, — yea, as asun. I am happy in the spirit, but very sorrowful in the flesh.” He wrote to his friend Jonas: “ You will have heard that my dearest child is born again into the eternal kingdom of God. We ought to be glad at her departure, for she is taken away from the world, the flesh, and the devil; but so strong is natural love, that we cannot bear it without anguish of heart, without the sense of death in ourselves.” On her tomb he inscribed these
lines : — ‘* Here do I Lena, Luther’s daughter, rest, Sleep in my little bed with all the blessed. In sin and trespass was I born; Forever would 1 be forlorn, But yet I live, and all is good — Thou, Christ, didst save me with thy blood.”’
Luther was simple, regular, and temperate in his habits. The reports to the contrary are slanders of enemies. The famous and much-abused adage, —
‘Who does not love wife, wine, and song, Remains a fool his whole life long,’’ ?—
is not found in his works, nor in any contemporary writing, but seems to have originated in the last century, on the basis
1 ἘΠῚ. ed., vol. LXV. 237, in Latin and German. Lena died Sept. 20, 1542, See her picture by Cranach in Kostlin’s small biography, p. 545. 2“ Wer nicht liebt Weib, Wein und Gesang, Der bleibt ein Narr sein Leben lang.”