Front Matter

Foreword

I N preparing this brief and popular life of Martin Luther I encountered two chief difficulties. The first was to select and condense the material. It would have been easier to write two large volumes than a brief account. No doubt I have related a number of events which some will think might have been omitted, while others may be looking in vain for incidents which, in their judgment, ought to have been included. I have endeavored to present the main features of the life and work of the great leader in accordance with the general object of the series, "Men of the Kingdom."

My second difficulty has been the language. While it is not easy to render Luther's pointed and trenchant German into idiomatic English, the difficulty is so much the greater for one whose mother tongue is the language of Luther.