“Maledictions upon every preacher who strives after the sublime in the church with an eye to his own glory, ambitious to gain the favor of someone or another. When I preach at Wittenberg, I descend to the lowest level.
I do not look at the doctors and magistrates, of whom about forty are present, but at the hundred or so young people. To these I preach; to these I address myself. They need instruction. If the others do not want to listen– the door is open.”
–Martin Luther, What Luther Says: An Anthology, comp. Ewald M. Plass (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), entry no. 3574, p.1118-1119.
