
Eisleben has a double significance in the life of Martin Luther: it was the small town in which he was born in 1483, and the same small town in which he died in 1546. It is also where he preached his last sermon just four days before he died. In another church he was baptized. These four buildings in which these momentous events occurred are still standing.
Luther’s birth house is a comfortable one for the fifteenth century. His father, Hans Luther, was a self-made businessman who started as a copper miner and saved enough eventually to buy controlling interest in the company. His hard-earned wealth allowed Luther to have an excellent education, but his decision to join a monastery was quite distressing to his father.
He was baptized at the church of Saints Peter and Paul, and he preached his final sermon

at the church of St. Andrew in which he remarked that he was feeling tired but hoped to be better soon. His text, appropriately, was from Matt. 11:28-30, “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
He had come to Eisleben in 1546 to help two brothers settle a quarrel between them. He died on the Thursday following his last sermon with no indication as to whether he helped the brothers with their difficulty. When the news of his demise reached Wittenberg, His associate, Philipp Melanchthon, announced to his class, “A prince and a great man in Israel has fallen today.”
Yes, it was thrilling to walk about that small town and see so much evidence of the life of Martin Luther; it was quite meaningful to stand where his life began and ended and contemplate what he accomplished during the lifetime between these events.
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