body." Looking at his little son, just three years old, who was playing
and talking to himself, he said, "This child is like a drunken man; he
does not know that he lives, and yet he enjoys life in security,
jumping and skipping about." He drew the child towards him, and thus
addressed him: "Thou art our Lord's little innocent, not under the law,
but under the covenant of grace and forgiveness of sins; thou fearest
nothing, but art secure and without cares, and what thou doest is
pure." He then continued: "Parents always love their youngest children
best; my little Martin is my dearest treasure: the little ones have
most need of care and love, therefore the love of parents naturally
descends. What must have been the feeling of Abraham when he had to
sacrifice his youngest and dearest son? he could not have told Sarah
about it; this journey must have been a bitter one to him." His beloved
daughter Magdalen lay dying; he laments thus: "I love her very much,
but, dear Lord, as it is thy will to take her to thee, I am content to
know that she is with thee. Magdalen, my little daughter, thou wouldst
willingly remain with thy father here, yet gladly goest to thy Father
yonder." The child then said, "Yes, dear father, as God wills it." As
she was dying, he fell on his knees by the bed, weeping bitterly, and
praying that God would redeem her. She then passed away in her father's
arms. When the people came to bury her, he addressed them as was usual,
saying, "I am joyful in spirit, but the flesh is weak; parting is
beyond measure grievous. It is a wonderful thing, that, though feeling
assured of all being well with her, and that she is at peace, one
should yet feel so sorrowful." His _dominus_, or Herr Kate, as he used
to call his wife in his letters to his friends, had soon become an apt
and thrifty housewife. She had great troubles; many children, her
husband frequently an invalid, a number of boarders (masters and poor
students), always open house--as it seldom happened that they were
without learned or distinguished guests, and in addition to all, a
scanty income and a husband who preferred giving to taking; and who
once during his wife's confinement got hold in his zeal of the baby's
christening plate to give in alms.[42] From the way in which Luther
treated her, we see how happy his family life was, and when he made
allusions to the glib chattering of women, he had no right to do so,
for he was by no means a man who was hi