been your enemy for many
years."

"God's blessed word says--`Love your enemies, do good to them who hate
and ill-use you.' If you had treated me far worse than you have done,
still I should desire to help you."

"Ah! you conquer me, Moretz," said Herder, after a long silence. "I
have no doubt that the Bible says as you tell me; but I did not think
that any one would thus act according to its commands."

"Nor would they," answered Moretz, "unless the Holy Spirit had changed
their hearts. The natural man may read the commands over and over
again, but he takes no heed of them."

Thus Moretz frequently spoke to his guest. Karl also often read the
Bible to him. One day they received a visit from Gottlieb Spena. He
was on his way to the castle of Furstenburg. Before he left the
woodcutter's hut Herder declared that he now understood how Christ had
died to save him from the just consequences of his sin.

Meta grew into a noble-looking young lady, and married a Protestant
baron, who ever stood up boldly for the faith. She never forgot her
kind guardian nor her foster-brother--Karl. She provided a comfortable
house for old Moretz, and watched over him affectionately till, in
extreme old age, he quitted this world for one far better.

Karl became the head steward of her estates, and ever proved himself a
true and faithful man, as he had been an honest and good boy. Spena was
greatly instrumental in spreading the glorious truths of the gospel
throughout the country, but at length, venturing into a part of Europe
where the papists were supreme, he was seized and accused of being a
recreant monk. Refusing to abjure the faith, he--as were many others at
that time--was condemned to the flames, and became one of the noble army
of martyrs who will one day rise up in judgment against that fearful
system of imposture and tyranny which condemned them to suffering and
death.

There was one district where the insurrection was put down without
bloodshed. It was that of the truly pious and Protestant prince, the
Elector of Saxony. The power of the word there produced its effect.
Luther, Friedrich Myconius, and others went boldly among them, and, by
their eloquent arguments, induced them to abandon their designs. Thus,
at length, peace was restored to the land of Luther, although these
proceedings of the misguided peasants for a time greatly impeded the
progress of the Reformation.

THE END.

End of Project