MARTIN LUTHER.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 36, 17 November 1871, Page 3

MARTIN LUTHER.

To the Editor of tho Thames Guardian. Sir, — I have read with a considerable amount of pain the report of a lecture delivered by the Rev W. J. Williams on “ Martin Luther, the hero of the Reformation.” Your report says that the lecturer viewed the subject from an extremely Protestant point of view. Had it gone a little further and said that he viewed it as ajvulgar, bigoted Protestant,you would not have said one word too much or too strong. A bigot of whatever belief he may be, — be he Roman Catholic, High Church, Episcopalian, or the extreme ranter, —is necessarily a narsow-minded man who accepts and believes such facts as suit liira, and refuses and disbelieves such as do not. lie is a dangerous man also, for put power into bis hands and you place it in the hands of a man unscrupulous in its use, blind to the wrongs its abuse perpetrates, and utterly careless of all else but the serving of liis bigotry. Mr Williams is evidentyone of those (numbers of v'hom are to be found following every creed) who can find bigotry in every other but their own. They can see and pluck the mote out of a brother’s eye, but are totally blind to the beam in their own, so palpable to all observers. Mr. Williams’s lecture I consider a gratuitous insult to a largo body of Christians, amongst whom many great and good men are to be found, men whom to imitate and follow would be of great benefit to Mr Williams, and still greater to his congregation. For a refutation, Mr Williams’s many misstatements, historical creations and fictions, I refer iny readers to any authorised or reliable life of Luther, not one written by a bigot on either side. That Luther, by God’s permission, worked out a great work, I firmly believe ; but I faihto see in this a reason that he should be surrounded with such a halo of holiness and purity as Mr Williams’s statements would have had one to believe. In conclusion, I, a Protestant every sense of the word, beg to record my protest against the whole tenor and intention of the lecture, and in justice to tho Christians of the Roman Catholic Church will say that of the number of times I have have been in one of their churches I never heard oue uncharitable word used concerning Christians of any other denomination. I would ask Mr Williams, and ministers of his style, to remember this, and “ go and do likewise.” —Yours, &c., Anti Bigot.