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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, November 19, 1867

What Luther Loved.

LUTHER, when studying, always had his dog lying at his feet—a dog he had brought from Wartburg, and of which he was very fond. An ivory crucifix stood at the table before him. He worked at his desk for days together, without going out; but when fatigued, and the ideas began to stagnate, he took his guitar with him to the porch, and there executed some musical fantasy (for he was a skillful musician), when the ideas would flow upon him as fresh as flowers after a summer’s rain. Music was his invariable solace at such times. Indeed, Luther did not hesitate to say that, after theology, music was the first of arts. “Music,” says he, “is the art of the prophets; it is the only other art which, like theology, can calm the agitation of the soul, and put the devil to flight.” Next to music, if not before it, Luther loved children and flowers. That great, gnarled man had a heart as tender as a woman’s.