Melancthon was as different from Luther as Erasmus. He was the
theologian of the three,--so much so that the scholars were all jealous
of him. Sir Thomas More wrote to Erasmus that Tyndale had seen
Melancthon in Paris; that Tyndale was afraid "if France should receive
the word of God by him, it would be confirmed in the faith of the
Eucharist contrary to the sect of the Wickliffites." "I have been born,"
said Luther, "to war and fight with factions and devils, therefore my
books are stormy and warlike. I must root out the stumps and stocks, cut
away the thorns and hedges, fill up the ditches, and am the rough
forester, to break a path and make things ready. But master Philip walks
gently and silently, tills and plants, sows and waters with pleasure, as
God has gifted him richly." When Melancthon arose to preach on one
occasion, he took this for a text: "I am the good shepherd." In looking
round upon his numerous and respectable audience, his natural timidity
entirely overcame him, and he could only repeat the text over and over
again. Luther, who was in the pulpit with him, at length impatiently
exclaimed, "You are a very good sheep!" and telling him to sit down,
took the same text, and preached an excellent discourse from it.
Coming down to later times, and to characters more purely literary, what
could more beautifully illustrate the harmony of opposites, so often
observable in literature and life, than the intimacy which existed
between Professor Wilson and Dr. Blair? The course and habit of Dr.
Blair's life "were like the smooth, deep water; serene, undisturbed to
outer eye; and the very repose that was about him had a charm for the
restless, active energy of his friend, who turned to this gentle and
meek nature for mental rest. I have often seen them sitting together,"
says Mrs. Gordon, "in the quiet retirement of the study, perfectly
absorbed in each other's presence, like school-boys in the abandonment
of their love for each other, occupying one seat between them, my
father, with his arm lovingly embracing 'the dear doctor's' shoulders,
playfully pulling the somewhat silvered locks to draw his attention to
something in the tome spread out on their knees, from which they were
both reading. Such discussions as they had together hour upon hour!
Shakespeare, Milton--always the loftiest themes--never weary in doing
honor to the great souls from whom they had learnt so much. Their voices
were different, too: Dr. Blair's soft and sweet as that of a woman; the
professor's sonorous, sad, with a nervous tremor: each revealing the
peculiar character of the man."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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