And in
the Leipzig disputation against Eck the favorable impression which the
self-possessed, honest, and sturdy nature of Luther produced was the
best counterpoise to the self-satisfied assurance of his clever
opponent.
But Luther's inward life calls for greater sympathy. It was after all
a terrible period for him. Close to exaltation and victory lay for him
deathly anxiety, torturing doubt, and horrible apparitions. He, almost
alone, was in arms against all Christendom, and was becoming more and
more irreconcilably hostile to the mightiest power, which still
included everything that had been sacred to him since his youth. What
if, after all, he were wrong in this or that! He was responsible for
every soul that he led away with him--and whither? What was there
outside the Church but destruction and perdition for time and for
eternity? If his adversaries and anxious friends cut him to the heart
with reproaches and warnings, the pain, the secret remorse, the
uncertainty which he must not acknowledge to any one, were greater
beyond comparison. He found peace, to be sure, in prayer. Whenever his
fervid soul, seeking its God, rose in mighty flights, he was filled
with strength, peace, and cheerfulness. But in hours of less tense
exaltation, when his sensitive spirit quivered under unpleasant
impressions, then he felt himself embarrassed, divided, under the
spell of another power which was hostile to his God. He knew from
childhood how actively evil spirits ensnare mankind; he had learned
from the Scripture that the Devil works against the purest to ruin
them.
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