LUTHER’S ARGUMENT WITH THE DEVIL.
LUTHER says, “Once upon a time the devil came to me and said, ‘Martin Luther, you are a great sinner, and you will be damned!’ ‘Stop! stop!’ said I, ‘one thing at a time; I am a great sinner, it is true, though you have no right to tell me of it. I confess it. What next?’ ‘Therefore you will be damned.’ ‘That is not good reasoning. It is true I am a great sinner, but it is written, Jesus Christ came to save sinners; therefore I shall be saved. Now go your way.’ So I cut the devil off with his own sword, and he went away mourning because he could not cast me down by calling me a sinner.” “If all the sins which men have done,
In thought or will, in word or deed,
Since worlds were made, or time begun,
Were laid on one poor sinner’s head,
The stream of Jesus’ precious blood
Could wash away the dreadful load.”