The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 122
Luther’s parents bestowed great care upon the education and training
of their children. They endeavored to instruct them in the knowledge
of God and the practice of Christian virtues. The father’s prayer often
ascended in the hearing of his son that the child might remember the
name of the Lord and one day aid in the advancement of His truth.
Every advantage for moral or intellectual culture which their life of toil
permitted them to enjoy was eagerly improved by these parents. Their
efforts were earnest and persevering to prepare their children for a life
of piety and usefulness. With their firmness and strength of character
they sometimes exercised too great severity; but the Reformer himself,
though conscious that in some respects they had erred, found in their
discipline more to approve than to condemn.
At school, where he was sent at an early age, Luther was treated with
harshness and even violence. So great was the poverty of his parents
that upon going from home to school in another town he was for a
time obliged to obtain his food by singing from door to door, and he
often suffered from hunger. The gloomy, superstitious ideas of religion
then prevailing filled him with fear. He would lie down at night with a
sorrowful heart, looking forward with trembling to the dark future and
in constant terror at the thought of God as a stern, unrelenting judge, a
cruel tyrant, rather than a kind heavenly Father.
Yet under so many and so great discouragements Luther pressed
resolutely forward toward the high standard of moral and intellectual
excellence which attracted his soul. He thirsted for knowledge, and the
earnest and practical character of his mind led him to desire the solid and
useful rather than the showy and superficial.
When, at the age of eighteen, he entered the University of Erfurt,
his situation was more favorable and his prospects were brighter than in
his earlier years. His parents having by thrift and industry acquired a
competence, they were able to render him all needed assistance. And
the influence of
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