who is the Lord, we will venture it." The conference yielded to this earnest appeal, and a general assembly was called, to convene at Wittenberg, in the following autumn. On the 21st of September, the appointed day, five hundred of the leading evangelical theologians and laymen of Germany were present, to adopt whatever measures might be thought best to avert existing and impending evils. They met in the same old gothic temple on whose door, three centuries previously, Luther had nailed his ninety-five theses. The exercises opened with prayer, and the singing of Luther's hymn, "Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott," which has been thus translated by Carlyle: "A safe stronghold our God is still, A trusty shield and weapon; He'll help us clear from all the ill That hath us now o'ertaken. The ancient Prince of Hell Hath risen with purpose fell; Strong mail of craft and power He weareth in this hour,-- On earth is not his fellow. With force of arms we nothing can, Full soon were we down-ridden; But for us fights the proper man, Whom God himself hath bidden. Ask ye, Who is this same? _Christ Jesus_ is his name, The Lord Zebaoth's Son; He, and no other one, Shall conquer in the battle. And were the world all devils o'er And watching to devour us, We lay it not to heart so sore, Not they can overpow'r us. And let the prince of ill Look grim as e'er he will, He harms us not a whit, For why? His doom is writ-- A word shall quickly slay him. God's word for all their craft and force, One moment will not linger, But spite of hell shall have its course, 'Tis written by His finger. And though they take our life, Goods, honor, children, wife, Yet is their profit small; These things shall vanish all, The Church of God remaineth." The Church Diet, now in its first session, was in direct contrast with the revolutionary outbreaks in Frankfort and other cities. True and firm hearts were within the walls of the Schlosskirche. Earnestness, seriousness, humility, and faith were depicted on the countenances of the members. Those men had been steadfast in the past, and were now intent upon the immediate and utter destruction of the worship of reason. Doctrinal differences were laid aside and apparently forgotten. Men who had been contending with pen and paper for many years now grasped each other's hand in friendship, and, burying their doctrinal animosities, stood close together in a common effort to reconstruct the temple of evangelical faith for the benefit of their countrymen. The Lutheran could not be distinguished from his Reformed brother, nor the member of the United Church from the Moravian. That denominational union and fraternal intercourse which had been foreshadowed in 1817, were now thoroughly consummated for the first time.