The Thirty Years' War - James Aitken Wylie

death." From his youth his soul had been visited
with impulses which he believed came from
beyond the sphere of humanity. His grandfather's
dying words had consecrated him to a sublime but
most arduous mission; that mission he could
scarcely misunderstand. The thoughts that began to
stir within him as he grew to manhood, and the
aspects of Providence around him, gave depth and
strength to his early impressions, which so grew
upon him from day to day that he had no rest.
He saw the labors of the Reformers on the point
of being swept away, the world about to be rolled
back into darkness, add the religion and liberty of
Christendom overwhelmed by a flood of arms and
Jesuitry. Among the princes of Germany he could
discern no one who was able or at all willing to
cope with the crisis. If the terrible ruin was to be
averted, he himself must stand in the breach: he
was the last hope of a perishing world. Thus it was
that he came across the sea with a feeling that he
was the chosen instrument of Providence to set
limits to the ruinous reaction that was
overwhelming Christendom. In the great generals
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