At another time he wrote: "Our Elijah is not yet with us, but we wait and hope for him. What more shall I say? My longing for him tortures me grievously!" Luther reprimanded him about this, and wrote thus: "Even though I should be lost, the Gospel will lose nothing by that; for in that you now excel me, and follow Elijah as an Elisha with a double portion of the spirit, which may the Lord Jesus bestow upon you in his mercy! Amen." Already on the 12th of May, 1521, a letter of comfort arrived from PATMOS, as Luther called the Wartburg. He says in it: "And what are you doing, my Philip? Do you pray for me, that this my involuntary concealment may redound to the greater glory of God?" In conclusion, he says: "Here I sit, and all day long place before me the picture of the Church, and lament my insensibility that I am not drenched in tears, and with my eyes, as with fountains of tears, weep for the slain of my people. But there is no one who will arise and cleave to the Lord, or oppose himself as a wall for the house of Israel, in these latter days of his wrath. Yes, Kingdom of the Pope, thou art worthy of this latter time! God be merciful unto us! Do you then, as a servant of the word, stand in the midst, and guard the walls and gates of Jerusalem, until they come upon you also. You understand your calling and your gifts. I pray for you before all other things, if, (as I do not doubt,) my prayer availeth anything. Do you likewise. Let us bear our burden together. We stand alone in the battle. After me, they will fall upon thee." Melanchthon needed such encouragement in his present position; for as it has often been, so was it now in Wittenberg, that enemies are less dangerous than friends. With all his storming, Luther yet proceeded calmly. It was his primary object to lay on every side the deep foundation of Justification by Grace through Faith; and he thought less of the finishing of the building. He permitted all those things to remain which did not flatly contradict the word of God. But his friends in Wittenberg did not think so soberly and prudently. They wished to overturn the structure of the Roman Church by rapid assault, and to erect something entirely new. Every particle of the Romish leaven was to be exterminated from the public worship of God.