which, out of brotherly love, could not be withholden from thee. Preserve thyself for thine own sake, for thy followers, for the cause of Christ, whose Gospel is proclaimed by you with such blessed results. Whoever I may be, I am thine. Thou wilt find out hereafter." This was the case. The writer was Michael Hummelberg, preacher at Ravensburg. Of the same import were the warnings of others, to guard the approaches to his dwelling, to take care, if he should be called from home, the breaking of his windows by stones hurled at them, and the attack, which was actually made one night on his assistant as he was about to go forth at the feigned call of a sick person, instead of the people's priest, who was expected by the bandits. How little power all this had to frighten Zwingli from the course he had marked out for himself, is seen in a yet bolder step, which he took the same year--the sending of a petition to the Bishop of Constance in the Latin language and to the governments of the Confederacy in German, asking them to approve the marriage of priests. No proof is needed to show that the noblest endeavor of man is after self-rule, spiritual purification, the attainment of the supernatural. A few rarely-gifted individuals press up this steep path with ease; by far the greater number follow slowly and with toil. Before deliverance from the fetters of earth, no one achieves a complete victory. This world is a school not the home of perfection. They, who are nearest the goal, know best how far they are yet distant from it. The following reflections are suggested by this subject. The statesman, zealous for the good of his country, as well as the thinker, busied with the higher interests of mankind in general, must both acknowledge in the difference and mutual wants of the sexes, in their union by marriage, the chief source of all civilization, the ground-pillar of all domestic, social and political well-being. Far be it from us to oppose merely natural impulses to purity of heart, endeavors after improvement, struggles for self-dominion; nay rather, marriage requires and makes all these the more easy. What victories over ease and self, what offerings of renunciation do not our duties to husbands, wives and parents demand? They are only the purer and nobler, because they spring from love, not compulsion. Still more--it is proved by all experience, that just in proportion as the marriage tie is worthily apprehended and held sacred, the heart is at the same time expanded with love for all men, and the sharing of common joys and sorrows in our own families teaches us to understand and share those of others also.