The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

loaded with rich clusters of grapes, the party is assembled, at sunset. Luther
holds out his hands to his youngest child, who, by the aid of his mother, is
tottering towards his father with a bunch of grapes weighing down his little
hands. The oldest boy, mounted on a light ladder, hands down the grapes,
which Madeleine receives in her apron. The third boy is bringing to his
father a cluster remarkable for its size; the second son is playing with the
dog, perhaps that very dog which, Luther said, had "looked at many
books." The ground is covered with melons. One of Luther's friends plays
upon the flute, another sketches a basket of beautiful fruit; two of them sit
beneath the arbor, and two others wander in the garden in friendly
converse. Through an arch in the wall the river is seen winding quietly
along, under the last rays of the declining sun. What a change from the
time of scourging before the crucifix!
Luther at Christmas.
As a counterpart to this scene, we next have Luther on Christmas
Eve in the family circle. This is a picture that touches the heart. The
Christmas-tides of Luther's life might indeed be considered as its epitome.
Fourteen times Christmas dawned on the cradle, or on the sports of
Luther as a peasant boy. Four times Christmas found the boy in the
school at Magdeburg. Long years after, in his old age, he gave a sketch of
those Christmas days. "At the season when the Church keeps the festival
of Christ's birth, we scholars went through the hamlets from house to
house, singing in quartette the familiar hymns about Jesus, the little child
born at Bethlehem. As we were passing a farm-yard at the end of a village,
a farmer came out, and in his coarse voice, offered us food. His heart was
kind, but we had become so familiar with the threats and cruelty of the
school, that we fled at the sound of harsh tones. But his repeated calls
reassured us, and we returned and received his gifts."
Four times Christmas found him amid the toils of the school at
Erfurt. Then came a Christmas in which the angel voice seemed no more
to sing, “Peace on earth, good will