Odegaard went across to the bundle of shawls, and bent over to try to catch a glimpse of her face, but in vain, "Is there anything more you would like to ask," said he, "for you seem to have thought over several things?"--"Oh, the Lord help me, I do not think always right."--"Well; at first after the grace of conversion, one is so absorbed by its wonders, that other things appear useless and wrong; one is like a lover, desiring only the beloved."--"Yes, but look at the early Christians, we must still follow their example."--"No, their difficult position among the heathen is no longer ours; we have other duties; we must bring Christianity into the life that now is."--"But there is so much in the Old Testament against the whole spirit of what you say," said the young man, for the first time without bitterness.--"Yes, but those commands are now dead, they are 'done away,' as Paul says: 'We are the ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit':--again: 'Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.' And:----'All things are needful unto me,' says Paul further, 'but,' he adds, 'all things are not expedient.'--Now we are fortunate in having a man's life before us, that shows us what Paul meant. That is Luther's. Of course you believe that Luther was a good enlightened Christian?" Yes, they believed that.--"Luther's religion was cheerful, IT was the religion of the new testament. His idea of a gloomy faith was, that the devil was always on the watch behind it; and as for fear of temptation, those that fear the least are the least tempted. He used all the powers God had given, the powers of enjoyment too. Shall I give you a few examples? The pious Melancthon once sat so closely at a defence of the true doctrines, that he did not take time to eat; Luther snatched the pen from his hand: 'One does not serve God by work alone,' said he, 'but also in rest and quietness; therefore God gave us the third commandment and instituted the Sabbath.'--Again, Luther used figures of speech, the facetious as well as the serious, and he was full of good, often merry ideas. He also translated some excellent old popular tales into his mother tongue, and said in the preface, that next to the Bible, he scarcely knew any better admonitions than these. He played the lute, as perhaps you may know, and sang with his children and friends,--not psalms only, no, but lively old songs too; he was fond of social games, played at chess, let the young people dance at his house; he desired only that all should be modestly and well conducted.--A simple old disciple of Luther's, pastor Johan Mathesius wrote this down, and gave it to his parishioners from the pulpit. He prayed that it might be a guide to them,--and let us pray for the same."