ery beginning of his awakening he shows the moral earnestness
of a prophet, and even in his earliest writings he emphasizes the
inwardness of true religion and the importance of a personal experience
of the living, creative Divine Word.[4] As a result of this passion of
his for the formation of moral and spiritual character in the lives of
the people, he was very acute and sensitive to note the condition which
actually existed around him, and he was not long in detecting, much to
his sorrow, aspects of weakness in the new type of Christianity which
was spreading over Germany. Even as early as 1524, in _An Admonition
to all the Brethren of Silesia_[5] he called attention to the
superficiality of the change which was taking place in men's lives as a
result of the Reformation--"the lack of inward grasp" as he calls
it--and to the externality of the new Reform, the tendency to stop at
"alphabetical promises of salvation." He gives a searching examination
to the central principles of Luther's teachings and approves of them
all, but at the same time he points out that little will be gained if
they be adopted only as intellectual statements and formulated views.
He pleads for a faith in Christ and an appreciation of Him that shall
"reach the deep regions of the spirit," renew the heart, and produce a
new man in the believer--"the atoning work of Christ must be
vital"--and for a type of religion that will involve suffering with
Christ, real conformity of will to His will, dying to self and rising
again with Him, which means that we cannot "take the {67} cross at its
softest spot."[6] He calls with glowing passion for a radical
transformation of personal and social life, and for a serious attempt
to revive primitive Christianity with its conquering power.

Luther himself was always impressed with the lack of real, intense,
personal religion which resulted from the Reformation movement, and he
often bewailed this lack. He said once to Schwenckfeld in this early
period, "Dear Caspar, genuine Christians are none too common. I wish I
could see two together in a place!" But with all his titanic power to
shake the old Church, Luther was not able to sift away the accumulated
chaff of the ages and to seize upon the inward, living kernel of
Christ's Gospel in such a real and vivid presentation that men were
once again able to find the entire Christ, and were once again lifted
into apostolic power through the discovery of Him. This