I. on that day wore no crown, nor robe of state.’’ With

“‘head uncovered, his eyes cast on the ground, and in his hand a lighted taper,’’ the king of France appeared ‘‘in the character of a penitent.’’* At every altar he bowed down in humiliation, not for the vices that defiled his soul, nor the innocent blood that stained his hands, but for the deadly sin of his subjects who had dared to condemn the mass. Following him came the queen and the dignitaries of State, also walking two and two, each with a lighted torch.
As a part of the services of the day, the monarch him- self addressed the high officials of the kingdom in the great hall of the bishop’s palace. With a sorrowful countenance he appeared before them, and in words of moving eloquence bewailed ‘‘the crime, the blasphemy, the day of sorrow and disgrace,’’ that had come upon the nation. And he called upon every loyal subject to aid in the extirpation of the pestilent heresy that threatened France with ruin. ‘‘As true,
AW ANE Vos 1B. lng Pil
THE FRENCH REFORMATION 229
Messieurs, as I am your king,’’ he said, ‘“‘if I knew one of my own limbs spotted or infected with this detestable rotten- ness, I would give it you to cut off... . And further, if 1 saw one of my children defiled by it, I would not spare him. ... I would deliver him up myself, and would sac- rifice him to God.’’ Tears choked his utterance, and the whole assembly wept, with one accord exclaiming, ‘‘ We will live and die for the Catholic religion! ’’*
Terrible had become the darkness of the nation that had rejected the light of truth. ‘‘The grace that bringeth salva- tion’’ had appeared; but France, after beholding its power and holiness, after thousands had been drawn by its divine beauty, after cities and hamlets had been illuminated by its radiance, had turned away, choosing darkness rather than hght. They had put from them the heavenly gift, when it was offered them. They had ealled evil good, and good evil, till they had fallen victims to their wilful self-deception. Now, though they might actually believe that they were do- ing God service in persecuting His people, yet their sincerity did not render them guiltless. The hght that would have saved them from deception, from staining their souls with blood-guiltiness, they had wilfully rejected.
A solemn oath to extirpate heresy was taken in the great cathedral where, nearly three centuries later, the ‘‘Goddess of Reason’’ was to be enthroned by a nation that had for- gotten the living God. Again the procession formed, and the representatives.of France set out to begin the work which they had sworn to do. ‘‘At short distances scaf- folds had been erected, on which certain Protestant Chris- tians were to be burned alive, and it was arranged that the fagots should be lighted at the moment the king ap- proached, and that the procession should halt to witness the exeeution.’’* The details of the tortures endured by these witnesses for Christ are too harrowing for recital; but there was no wavering on the part of the victims. On being urged to recant, one answered: ‘‘I only believe in what the prophets and the apostles formerly preached, and
1D’Aubigné, ‘‘ History of the Reformation in the Time of Calvin,’’ b. 4, ch, 12. * Wylie, b. 13, ch. 21.
230 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
what all the company of saints believed. My faith has a confidence in God which will resist all the powers of hell.’’*
Again and again the procession halted at the places of torture. Upon reaching their starting-point at the royal palace, the crowd dispersed, and the king and the prelates withdrew, well satisfied with the day’s proceedings, and congratulating themselves that the work now begun would be continued to the complete destruction of heresy.
The gospel of peace which France had rejected was to be only too surely rooted out, and terrible would be the results. On the 21st of January, 1793, two hundred and fifty-eight years from the very day that fully committed France to the persecution of the Reformers, another pro- cession, with a far different purpose, passed, through the streets of Paris. ‘‘Again the king was the chief figure; again there were tumult and shouting; again there was heard the ery for more victims; again there were black scaffolds; and again the scenes of the day were closed by horrid executions; Louis XVI., struggling hand to hand with his jailers and executioners, was dragged forward to the block, and there held down by main force till the axe had fallen, and his dissevered head rolled on the scaffold.’’ * Nor was the king the only victim; near the same spot two thousand and eight hundred human beings perished by the guillotine during the bloody days of the Reign of Terror.
The Reformation had presented to the world an open Bible, unsealing the precepts of the law of God, and urging its claims upon the consciences of the people. Infinite Love had unfolded to men the statutes and principles of heaven. God had said, ‘‘Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’’* When France rejected the gift of heaven, she sowed the seeds of anarchy and ruin; and the inevitable outworking of cause and effect resulted in the Revolution and the Reign of Terror.
*D’Aubigné, ‘‘ History of the Reformation in the Time of Calvin,’’ Is 3p, * Wylie,-b. 13, ch. 21, * Deut. 4:6.
THE FRENCH REFORMATION 231
Long before the persecution excited by the placards, the bold and ardent Farel had been forced to flee from the land of his birth. He repaired to Switzerland, and by his labors, seconding the work of Zwingle, he helped to turn the scale in favor of the Reformation. His later years were to be spent here, yet he continued to exert a decided in- fluence upon the reform in France. During the first years of his exile, his efforts were especially directed to spreading the gospel in his native country. He spent considerable time in preaching among his countrymen near the frontier, where with tireless: vigilance he watched the conflict, and aided by his words of encouragement and counsel. With the assistance of other exiles, the writings of the German Reformers were translated into the French language, and together with the French Bible, were printed in large quan- tities. By colporteurs, these works were sold extensively in Hrance. They were furnished to the colporteurs at a low price and thus the profits of the work enabled them to continue it.
Farel entered upon his work in Switzerland in the humble guise of a schoolmaster. Repairing to a secluded parish, he devoted himself to the instruction of children. Besides the usual branches of learning, he cautiously intro- duced the truths of the Bible, hoping through the children to reach their parents. There were some who believed, but the priests came forward to stop the work, and the super- stitious country people were roused to oppose it. ‘‘That eannot be the gospel of Christ,’’ urged the priests, ‘‘seeing the preaching of it does not bring peace, but war.’’* Like the first disciples, when persecuted in one city he fled to another. From village to village, from city to city, he went, traveling on foot, enduring hunger, cold, and weariness, and everywhere in peril of his hfe. He preached in the market-places, in the churches, sometimes in the pulpits of the cathedrals. Sometimes he found the church empty of hearers; at times his preaching was interrupted by shouts and jeers; again he was pulled violently out of the pulpit. More than once he was set upon by the rabble, and beaten
*' Wylie, b. 14, ch. 3. 15a—G. C.
232 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
almost to death. Yet he pressed forward. Though often repulsed, with unwearying persistence he returned to the ~ attack; and one after another, he saw towns and cities which had been strongholds of popery, opening their gates to the gospel. The little parish where he had first labored, soon accepted the reformed faith. The cities of Morat and Neuchatel also renounced the Romish rites, and removed the idolatrous images from their churches.
Farel had long desired to plant the Protestant standard in Geneva. If this city could be won, it would be a center for the Reformation in France, in Switzerland, and in Italy. With this object before him, he had continued his labors until many of the surrounding towns and hamlets had been gained. Then with a single companion he entered Geneva. But only two sermons was he permitted to preach. The priests, having vainly endeavored to secure his condemna- tion by the civil authorities, summoned him before an eccle- siastical council, to which they came with arms concealed under their robes, determined to take his life. Outside the hall, a furious mob, with clubs and swords, was gathered to make sure of his death if he should succeed in escaping the council. The presence of magistrates and an armed force, however, saved him. Early next morning he was conducted, with his companion, across the lake to a place of safety. Thus ended his first effort to evangelize Geneva.
For the next trial a lowlier instrument was chosen,—a young man, so humble in appearance that he was coldly treated even by the professed friends of reform. But what could such a one do where Farel had been rejected? How could one of little courage and experience withstand the tempest before which the strongest and bravest had been forced to flee? ‘‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.’’** ‘‘God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.’’ ‘“Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.’’’
Froment began his work as a schoolmaster. The truths
‘Zech, 4:6. 71 Cor, 1:27, 25.
THE FRENCH REFORMATION 233
which he taught the children at school, they repeated at their homes. Soon the parents came to hear the Bible explained, until the schoolroom was filled with attentive listeners. New Testaments and tracts were freely distrib- uted, and they reached many who dared not come openly to listen to the new doctrines. After a time this laborer also was forced to flee; but the truths he taught had taken hold upon the minds of the people. The Reformation had been planted, and it continued to strengthen and extend. The preachers returned, and through their labors the Prot- estant worship was finally established in Geneva.
The city had already declared for the Reformation, when Calvin, after various wanderings and vicissitudes, entered its gates. Returning from a last visit to his birthplace, he was on his way to Basel, when, finding the direct road. occu- pied by the armies of Charles V., he was forced to take the circuitous route by Geneva. :
In this visit, Farel recognized the hand of God. Though Geneva had accepted the reformed faith, yet a great work remained to be accomplished here. It is not as communi- ties but as individuals that men are converted to God; the work of regeneration must be wrought in the heart and conscience by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by the decrees of councils. While the people of Geneva had east off the authority of Rome, they were not so ready to renounce the vices that had flourished under her rule. To establish here the pure principles of the gospel, and to pre- . pare this people to fill worthily the position to which Provi- dence seemed calling them, was no light task.
Farel was confident that he had found in Calvin one whom he could unite with himself in this work. In the name of God he solemnly adjured the young evangelist to remain and labor here. Calvin drew back in alarm. Timid and peace-loving, he shrank from contact with the bold, independent, and even violent spirit of the Genevese. The feebleness of his health, together with his studious habits, led him to seek retirement. Believing that by his pen he could best serve the cause of reform, he desired to find a
18 Contro,
234 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
quiet retreat for study, and there, through the press, instruct and build up the churches. But Farel’s solemn admoni- tion came to him as a call from heaven, and he dared not refuse. It seemed to him, he said, ‘‘that the hand of God was stretched down from heaven, that it lay hold of him, and fixed him irrevocably to the place he was so impatient to leave.’’*
At this time great perils surrounded the Protestant cause. The anathemas of the pope thundered against Geneva, and mighty nations threatened it with destruction. How was this little city to resist the powerful hierarchy that had so often forced kings and emperors tc submission? How could it stand against the armies of the world’s great conquerors?
Throughout Christendom, Protestantism was’ menaced by formidable foes. The first triumphs of the Reformation past, Rome summoned new forces, hoping to accomphsh its destruction. At this time, the order of the Jesuits was ere- ated, the most cruel, unscrupulous, and powerful of all the champions of popery. Cut off from earthly ties and human interests, dead to the claims of natural affection, reason and conscience wholly silenced, they knew no rule, no tie, but that of their order, and no duty but to extend its power. The gospel of Christ had enabled its adherents to meet danger and endure suffering, undismayed by cold, hunger, toil, and poverty, to uphold the banner of truth in face of _the rack, the dungeon, and the stake. To combat these forces, Jesuitism inspired its followers with a fanaticism that enabled them to endure like dangers, and to oppose to the power of truth all the weapons of deception. There was no crime too great for them to commit, no deception too base for them to practise, no disguise too difficult for them to assume. Vowed to perpetual poverty and humility, it was their studied aim to secure wealth and power, to be devoted to the overthrow of Protestantism, and the re- establishment of the papal supremacy.
*D’Aubigné, ‘‘ History of the Reformation in the Time of Calvin,’? eso chard 7 *See Appendix.
THE FRENCH REFORMATION 935
When appearing as members of their order, they wore a garb of sanctity, visiting prisons and hospitals, minister- ing to the sick and the poor, professing to have renounced the world, and bearing the sacred name of Jesus, who went about doing good. But under this blameless exterior the most criminal and deadly purposes were often concealed. It was a fundamental principle of the order that the end justifies the means. By this code, lying, theft, perjury, as- sassination, were not only pardonable but commendable, when they served the interests of the church. Under vari- ous disguises the Jesuits worked their way into offices of state, climbing up to be the counselors of kings, and shap- ing the policy of nations. They became servants, to act as spies upon their masters. They established colleges for the sons of princes and nobles, and schools for the common peo- ple; and the children of Protestant parents were drawn into an observance of popish rites. All the outward pomp and display of the Romish worship was brought to bear to confuse the mind, and dazzle and captivate the _imagina- tion; and thus the liberty for which the fathers had toiled and bled was betrayed by the sons. The Jesuits rapidly spread themselves over Europe, and wherever they went, there followed a revival of popery.
To give them greater power, a bull was issued re-estab- lishing the Inquisition." Notwithstanding the general abhor- rence with which it was regarded, even in Catholic countries, this terrible tribunal was again set up by popish rulers, and atrocities too terrible to bear the light of day were repeated in its secret dungeons. In many countries, thousands upon thousands of the very flower of the nation, the purest and noblest, the most intellectual and highly educated, pious and devoted pastors, industrious and patriotic citizens, brilliant scholars, talented artists, skilful artisans, were slain, or forced to flee to other lands.
Such were the means which Rome had invoked to quench the light of the Reformation, to withdraw from men the Bible, and to restore the ignorance and superstition of the
*See Appendix,
236 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
Dark Ages. But under God’s blessing and the labors of those noble men whom He had raised up to sueceed Luther, Protestantism was not overthrown. Not to the favor or arms of princes was it to owe its strength. The smallest countries, the humblest and least powerful nations, became its strong- holds. It was little Geneva in the midst of mighty foes plotting her destruction; it was Holland on her sand-banks by the northern sea, wrestling against the tyranny of Spain, then the greatest and most opulent of kingdoms; it was bleak, sterile Sweden, that gained victories for the Refor- mation,
For nearly thirty years, Calvin labored at Geneva; first to establish there a church adhering to the morality of the Bible, and then for the advancement of the .Reformation — throughout Europe. His course as a public leader was not faultless, nor were his doctrines free from error. But he was instrumental in promulgating truths that were of special importance in his time, in maintaining the principles of Protestantism against the fast-returning tide of popery, and in promoting in the reformed churches simplicity and purity of life, in place of the pride and corruption fostered under the Romish teaching.
From Geneva, publications and teachers went out to spread the reformed doctrines. To this point the persecuted of all lands looked for instruction, counsel, and encourage- ment. The city of Calvin became a refuge for the hunted Reformers of all Western Europe. Fleeing from the awful tempests that continued for centuries, the fugitives came to the gates of Geneva. Starving, wounded, bereft of home and kindred, they were warmly welcomed and tenderly cared for; and finding a home here, they blessed the city of their adoption by their skill, their learning, and their piety. Many who sought here a refuge returned to their own zountries to resist the tyranny of Rome. John Knox, the brave Scotch Reformer, not a few of the English Puritans, the Protestants of Holland and of Spain, and the Hugue- nots of France, carried from Geneva the torch of truth to lighten the darkness of their native lands.
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Toten ietuAtDo AND SCAN DINAWIA— 13
In the Netherlands the papal tyranny very early called forth resolute protest. Seven hundred years before Luther’s time, the Roman pontiff was thus fearlessly impeached by two bishops, who, having been sent on an embassy to Rome, had learned the true character of the ‘‘holy see:’’ God ‘‘has made His queen and spouse, the church, a noble and ever- lasting provision for her family, with a dowry that is neither fading nor corruptible, and given her an eternal crown and scepter; ... all which benefits you lke a thief intercept. You set up yourself in the temple as God; instead of pastor, you are become a wolf to the sheep; ... you would make us believe you are a supreme bishop, but you rather behave like a tyrant. ... Whereas you ought to be a servant of servants, as you call yourself, you endeavor to become a lord of lords. . . . You bring the commands of God into con- tempt. ... The Holy Ghost is the builder of all churches as far as the earth extends. ... The city of our God, of which we are the citizens, reaches to all the regions of the heavens; and it is greater than the city, by the holy prophets named Babylon, which pretends to be divine, wins herself to heaven, and brags. that her wisdom is immortal;
and finally, though without reason, that she never did err,
nor ever can,’’’
1Brandt, ‘‘ History of the Reformation in and about the Low Countries,’’ b. 1, p. 6, (237)
238 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
Others arose from century to century to echo this pro- test. And those early teachers, who, traversing different lands and known by various names, bore the character of the Vaudois missionaries, and spread everywhere the knowl- edge of the gospel, penetrated to the Netherlands. Their doctrines spread rapidly. The Waldensian Bible they trans- lated in verse into the Dutch language. They declared ‘‘that there was great advantage in it; no jests, no fables, no trifles, no deceits, but the words of truth; that indeed there was here and there a hard erust, but that the marrow and sweetness of what was good and holy might be easily discovered in it.’’* Thus wrote the friends of the ancient faith, in the twelfth century.
‘Now began the Romish persecutions; but in-the midst sf fagots and torture the believers continued to multiply, steadfastly declaring that the Bible is the only infallible authority in religion, and that ‘‘no man should be coerced to believe, but should be won by preaching.’’*
The teachings of Luther found a congenial soil in the Netherlands, and earnest and faithful men arose to preach the gospel. From one of the provinces of Holland came Menno Simons. Educated a Roman Catholic, and ordained to the priesthood, he was wholly ignorant of the Bible, and he would not read it, for fear of being beguiled into heresy. When a doubt concerning the doctrine of transubstantiation forced itself upon him, he regarded it as a temptation from Satan, and by prayer and confession sought to free himself from it; but in vain. By mingling in scenes of dissipation he endeavored to silence the accusing voice of conscience; but without avail. After a time he was led to the study of the New Testament, and this, with Luther’s writings, caused . him to accept the reformed faith. He soon after witnessed in a neighboring village the beheading of a man who was put to death for having been rebaptized. This led him to study the Bible in regard to infant baptism. He could find no evidence for it in the Scriptures, but saw that repentance
*Brandt, b. 1, p. 14. * Martyn, Vol. II, .p. 87,
THE NETHERLANDS AND SCANDINAVIA 239
and faith are everywhere required as the condition of re- ceiving baptism.
Menno withdrew from the Roman Church, and devoted his life to teaching the truths which he had received. In both Germany and the Netherlands a class of fanatics had risen, advocating absurd and seditious doctrines, outraging order and decency, and proceeding to violence and insur- rection. Menno saw the horrible results to which these movements would inevitably lead, and he strenuously op- posed the erroneous teachings and wild schemes of the fanatics. There were many, however, who had been misled by these fanatics, but who had renounced their pernicious doctrines; and there were still remaining many descendants of the ancient Christians, the fruits of the Waldensian teaching. Among these classes Menno labored with great zeal and success.
For twenty-five years he traveled, with his wife and children, enduring great hardships and privations, and fre- quently in peril of his life. He traversed the Netherlands and northern Germany, laboring chiefly among the humbler classes, but exerting a wide-spread influence. Naturally eloquent, though possessing a limited education, he was a man of unwavering integrity, of humble spirit and gentle manners, and of sincere and earnest piety, exemplifying in his own life the precepts which he taught, and he com- manded the confidence of the people. His followers were scattered and oppressed. They suffered greatly from being confounded with the fanatical Munsterites. Yet great num- bers were converted under his labors.
Nowhere were the reformed doctrines more generally received than in the Netherlands. In few countries did their adherents endure more terrible persecution. In Ger- many Charles V. had banned the Reformation, and he would gladly have brought all its adherents to the stake; but the princes stood up as a barrier against his tyranny. In the Netherlands his power was greater, and persecuting edicts followed each other in quick succession. To read the Bible,
240 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
to hear or preach it, or even to speak concerning it, was to incur the penalty of death by the stake. To pray to God in secret, to refrain from bowing to an image, or to sing a psalm, was also punishable with death. Even those who should abjure their errors, were condemned, if men, to die by the sword; if women, to be buried alive. Thousands perished under the reign of Charles and of Philp II.
At one time a whole family was brought before the in- quisitors, charged with remaining away from mass, and worshiping at home. On his examination as to their prac- tices in secret, the youngest son answered, ‘‘ We fall on our knees, and pray that God may enlighten our minds and pardon our sins; we pray for our sovereign, that his reign may be prosperous and his life happy; we pray for our magistrates, that God may preserve them.’’* Some of the judges were deeply moved, yet the father and one of his sons were condemned to the stake.
The rage of the persecutors was equaled by the faith of the martyrs. Not only men but delicate women and young maidens displayed unflinching courage. ‘‘Wives would take their stand by their husband’s stake, and while he was enduring the fire they would whisper words of solace, or sing psalms to cheer him.’’ ‘‘Young maidens would lie down in their living grave as if they were entering into their chamber of nightly sleep; or go forth to the scaffold and the fire, dressed in their best apparel, as if they were going to their marriage.’’*
As in the days when paganism sought to destroy the gospel, the blood of the Christians was seed.’ Persecu- tion served to increase the number of witnesses for the truth. Year after year the monarch, stung to madness by the unconquerable determination of the people, urged on his cruel work; but in vain. Under the noble William of Orange, the Revolution at last brought to Holland freedom to worship God.
In the mountains of Piedmont, on the plains of France and the shores of Holland, the progress of the gospel was
1 Wylie, b. 18, ch. 6. *See Tertullian’s ‘‘ Apology,’’ par. 50,
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marked with the blood of its disciples. But in the countries of the North it found a peaceful entrance. Students at Wittenberg, returning to their homes, carried the reformed faith to Scandinavia. The publication of Luther’s writings also spread the light. The simple, hardy people of the North turned from the corruption, the pomp, and the super- stitions of Rome, to welcome the purity, the simplicity, and the life-giving truths of the Bible.
Tausen, ‘‘the Reformer of Denmark,’’ was a peasant’s son. The boy early gave evidence of vigorous intellect; he thirsted for an education; but this was denied him by the circumstances of his parents, and he entered a cloister. Here the purity of his life, together with his diligence and fidelity, won the favor of his superior. Examination showed him to possess talent that promised at some future day good service to the church. It was determined to give him an education at some one of the universities of Germany or the Netherlands. The young student was granted permission to ‘choose a school for himself, with one proviso, that he must not go to Wittenberg. The scholar of the church was not to be endangered by the poison of heresy. So said the friars.
Tausen went to Cologne, which was then, as now, one of the strongholds of Romanism. Here he soon became dis- gusted with the mysticisms of the schoolmen. About the same time he obtained Luther’s writings. He read them with wonder and delight, and greatly desired to enjoy the personal instruction of the Reformer. But to do so he must risk giving offense to his monastic superior, and forfeiting his support. His decision was soon made, and erelong he was enrolled as a student at Wittenberg.
On returning to Denmark, he again repaired to his clois- ter. No one as yet suspected him of Lutheranism; he did not reveal his secret, but endeavored, without exciting the prejudices of his companions, to lead them to a purer faith and a holier life. He opened the Bible, and explained its true meaning, and at last preached Christ to them as the sinner’s righteousness and his only hope of salvation.
242 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
Great was the wrath of the prior, who had built high hopes upon him as a valiant defender of Rome. He was at once removed from his own monastery to another, and confined to his cell, under strict supervision.
To the terror of his new guardians, several of the monks soon declared themselves converts to Protestantism. Through the bars of his cell, Tausen had communicated to his com- panions a knowledge of the truth. Had those Danish fathers been skilled in the church’s plan of dealing with heresy, Tausen’s voice would never again have been heard; but instead of consigning him to a tomb in some under- ground dungeon, they expelled him from the monastery. Now they were powerless. A royal edict, just issued, offered protection to the teachers of the new doctrine. Tausen began to preach. The churches were opened to him, and the people thronged to listen. Others also were preaching the word of God. The New Testament, translated into the Danish tongue, was widely circulated. The efforts made by the papists to overthrow the work resulted in extending it, and erelong Denmark declared its acceptance of the reformed faith.
In Sweden, also, young men who had drunk from the well of Wittenberg carried the water of life to their coun- trymen. ‘Two of the leaders in the Swedish Reformation, Olaf and Laurentius Petri, the sons of a blacksmith of Orebro, studied under Luther and Melanchthon, and the truths which they thus learned they were diligent to teach. Like the great Reformer, Olaf aroused the people by his zeal and eloquence, while Laurentius, hke Melanchthon, was learned, thoughtful, and calm. Both were men of ardent piety, of high theological attainments, and of unflinching courage in advancing the truth. Papist opposition was not lacking. The Catholic priests stirred up the ignorant and superstitious people. Olaf Petri was often assailed by the mob, and upon several occasions barely escaped with his life. These Reformers were, however, favored and pro- tected by the king.
THE NETHERLANDS AND SCANDINAVIA 2435
Under the rule of the Roman Church, the people were sunken in poverty, and ground down by oppression. They were destitute of the Scriptures; and having a religion of mere signs and ceremonies, which conveyed no light to the mind, they were returning to the superstitious beliefs and pagan practices of their heathen ancestors. The nation was divided into contending factions, whose perpetual strife in- creased the misery of all. The king determined upon a reformation in the state and the church, and he welcomed these able assistants in the battle against Rome.
In the presence of the monarch andthe leading men of Sweden, Olaf Petri with great ability defended the doctrines of the reformed faith against the Romish cham- pions. He declared that the teachings of the Fathers are to be received only when in accordance with the Scriptures; that the essential doctrines of the faith are presented in the Bible in a clear and simple manner, so that all men may understand them. Christ said, ‘‘My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me;’’* and Paul declared that should he preach any other gospel than that which he had received, he would be accursed.” ‘‘How, then,’’ said the Reformer, ‘*shall others presume to enact dogmas at their pleasure, and impose them as things necessary to salvation?’’* He showed that the decrees of the church are of no authority when in opposition to the commands of God, and maintained the great Protestant principle, that ‘‘the Bible and the Bible only,’’ is the rule of faith and practice.
This contest, though conducted upon a stage compara. tively obscure, serves to show us ‘‘the sort of men that formed the rank and file of the army of the Reformers. They were not illiterate, sectarian, noisy controversialists —far from it; they were men who had studied the word of God, and knew well how to wield the weapons with which the armory of the Bible supplied them. In respect of erudi- tion they were ahead of their age. When we confine our attention to such brilliant centers as Wittenberg and Zurich,
1 John 7:16. *Galmrs: “Wylie, b. 10; ch. 4,
ot] THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
and to such illustrious names as those of Luther and Me- lanchthon, of Zwingle and Ccolampadius, we are apt to he told, these were the leaders of the movement, and we should naturally expect in them prodigious power and vast acquisitions; but the subordinates were not like these. Well, we turn to the obscure theater of Sweden, and the humble names of Olaf and Laurentius Petri— from the masters to the disciples — what do we find? ... Scholars and theolo- gians; men who have thoroughly mastered the whole system of gospel truth, and who win an easy victory over the soph- ists of the schools and the dignitaries of Rome.’’’
As the result of this disputation, the king of Sweden accepted the Protestant faith, and not long afterward the national assembly declared in its favor. The New Testa- ment had been translated by Olaf Petri into the Swedish language, and at the desire of the king the two brothers undertook the translation of the whole Bible. Thus-for the first time the people of Sweden received the word of God in their native tongue. It was ordered by the Diet that throughout the kingdom, ministers should explain the Serip- tures, and that the children in the schools should be taught to read the Bible.
Steadily and surely the darkness of ignorance and super- stition was dispelled by the blessed light of the gospel. Freed from Romish oppression, the nation attained to a strength and greatness it had never before reached. Sweden became one of the bulwarks of Protestantism. A century later, at a time of sorest peril, this small and hitherto feeble nation — the only one in Europe that dared lend a help- ing hand—came to the deliverance of Germany in the terrible struggles of the Thirty Years’ War. All Northern Europe seemed about to be brought again under the tyr- anny of Rome. It was the armies of Sweden that enabled Germany to turn the tide of popish success, to win toleration for the Protestants,— Calvinists as well as Lutherans,— and to restore lberty of conscience to those countries that had accepted the Reformation.
* Wylie, b. 10, ch, 4.
PALER ENGLISHEREFORMERS=— 14
Wuite Luther was opening a closed Bible to the people of Germany, Tyndale was impelled by the Spirit of God to do the same for England. Wrycliffe’s Bible had been trans- lated from the Latin text, which contained many errors. It had never been printed, and the cost of manuscript copies was so great that few but wealthy men or nobles could pro- cure it; and furthermore, being strictly proscribed by the church, it had had a comparatively narrow circulation. In 1516, a year before the appearance of Luther’s theses, Erasmus had published his Greek and Latin version of the New Testament. Now for the first time the word of God was printed in the original tongue. In this work many errors of former versions were corrected, and the sense was more clearly rendered. It led many among the educated classes to a better knowledge of the truth, and gave a new impetus to the work of reform. But the common people were still, to a great extent, debarred from God’s word. ‘Tyndale was to complete the work of Wycliffe in giving the Bible to his countrymen.
A diligent student and an earnest seeker for truth, he had received the gospel from the Greek Testament of Hras- mus. He fearlessly preached his convictions, urging that all doctrines be tested by the Scriptures. To the papist claim that the chureh had given the Bible, and the church
alone could explain it, Tyndale responded: ‘‘Do you know (245)
246 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
who taught the eagles to find their prey? Well, that same God teaches His hungry children to find their Father in His word, Far from having given us the Scriptures, it is you who have hidden them from us; it is you who burn those who teach them, and if you could, you would burn the Scriptures themselves.’ *
Tyndale’s preaching excited great interest; many ac- cepted the truth. But the priests were on the alert, and no sooner had he left the field than they by their threats and misrepresentations endeavored to destroy his work. Too often they succeeded. ‘‘What is to be done?’’ he exclaimed. ‘‘While I am sowing in one place, the enemy ravages the field I have just left. I cannot be everywhere. Oh! if Christians possessed the Holy Scriptures in their own tongue, they could of themselves withstand these sophists. Without the Bible it is impossible to establish the laity in the truth.’’*
A new purpose now took possession of his mind. ‘‘It was in the language of Israel,’’ said he, ‘‘that. the psalms were sung in the temple of Jehovah; and shall not the gos- pel speak the language of England among us?... Ought the church to have less light at noonday than at the dawn? ... Christians must read the New Testament in their mother-tongue.’’ The doctors and teachers of the church disagreed among themselves. Only by the Bible could men arrive at the truth. ‘‘One holdeth this doctor, another that... . Now each of these authors contradicts the other. How then can we distinguish him who says right from him who says wrong? .... How? ... Verily by God’s word.’’*
It was not long after that a learned Catholic doctor, engaging in controversy with him, exclaimed, ‘‘We were bet- ter to be without God’s laws than the pope’s.’’ Tyndale re- plied, ‘‘I defy the pope and all his laws; and if God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scripture than you do.’’’
The purpose which he had begun to cherish, of giving to the people the New Testament Scriptures in their own
*D’Aubigné, b. 18, ch. 4. * Anderson, ‘‘ Annals of the English Bible,’’ p. 19 (rev. ed. 1862).
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language, was now confirmed, and he immediately applied himself to the work. Driven from his home by persecu- tion, he went to London, and there for a time pursued his labors undisturbed. But again the violence of the papists forced him to flee. All England seemed closed against him, and he resolved to seek shelter in Germany. Here he began the printing of the English New Testament. Twice the work was stopped; but when forbidden to print in one city, he went to another. At iast he made his way to Worms, where, a few years before, Luther had defended the gospel before the Diet. In that ancient city were many friends of the Reformation, and Tyndale there prosecuted his work without further hindrance. Three thousand copies of the New Testament were soon finished, and another edition followed in the same year.
With great earnestness and perseverance he continued his labors. Notwithstanding the English authorities haa guarded their ports with the strictest vigilance, the word of God was in various ways secretly conveyed to London, and thence circulated throughout the country. The papists attempted to suppress the truth, but in vain. The bishop of Durham at one time bought of a bookseller who was a friend of Tyndale, his whole stock of Bibles, for the pur- pose of destroying them, supposing that this would greatly hinder the work. But on the contrary, the money thus furnished, purchased material for a new and better edition, which, but for this, could not have been published. When Tyndale was afterward made a prisoner, his hberty was offered him on condition that he would reveal the names of those who had helped him meet the expense of printing his Bibles. He replied that the bishop of Durham had done more than any other person; for by paying a large price for the books left on hand, he had enabled him to go on with good courage.
Tyndale was betrayed into the hands of his enemies, and at one time suffered imprisonment for many months. He finally witnessed for his faith by a martyr’s death; but the weapons which he prepared have enabled other soldiers
248 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
to do battle through all the centuries even to our time.
Latimer maintained from the pulpit that the Bible ought to be read in the language of the people. The Author of Holy Scripture, said he, ‘tis God Himself ;’’ and this Serip« ture partakes of the might and eternity of its Author. “There is no king, emperor, magistrate, and ruler. . but are bound to obey ... His holy word.’’ ‘‘Let us not take any by-walks, but let God’s word direct us: let us not walk after... our forefathers, nor seek not what they did, but what they should have done.’’*
3arnes and Frith, the faithful friends of Tyndale, arose to defend the truth. The Ridleys and Cranmer followed. These leaders in the English Reformation were men of learning, and most of them had been highly esteemed for zeal or piety in the Romish communion. Their opposition to the papacy was the result of their knowledge of the errors of the ‘‘holy see.’’ Their aequaintanee with the mysteries of Babylon, gave greater’ power to their testimonies against her.
“Now I would ask a strange question,’’ said Latimer. ‘““Who is the most diligent bishop and prelate in all Eng- land? ... IT see you listening and hearkening that I should name him. ... I will tell you: it is the devil. ... He is never out of his diocese; ... eall for him when you will, he is ever at home; ... he is ever at his plow.... Ye shall never find him idle, I warrant you. ... Where the devil is resident, .. . there away with books, and up with vandles; away with Bibles, and up with beads; away with the light of the gospel, and up with the light of candles, yea, at noondays; ... down with Christ’s cross, up with purgatory pick-purse; ... away with clothing the naked, the poor, and impotent, up with decking of images and gay garnishing of stocks and stones; up with man’s traditions and lus laws, down with God’s traditions and His most holy word. ... 0 that our prelates would be as diligent to sow the corn of good doctrine, as Satan is to sow eockle and darnel !’’*
“Latimer, ‘First Sermon Preached before King Edward VI.’? (ed, Parker Society). *Latimer, ‘‘Sermon of the Plough.’?’
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The grand principle maintained by these Reformers — the same that had been held by the Waldenses, by Wycliffe, by John Huss, by Luther, Zwingle, and those who united with them — was the infallible authority of the Holy Scrip- tures as a rule of faith and practice. They denied the right of popes, councils, Fathers, and kings, to control the conscience in matters of religion. The Bible was their authority, and by its teaching they tested all doctrines and all claims. Faith in God and His word sustained these holy men as they yielded up their lives at the stake. ‘‘Be of good comfort,’’ exclaimed Latimer to his fellow-martyr as the flames were about to silence their voices, ‘‘we shall this day light such.a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.’’’
In Scotland the seeds of truth scattered by Columba and his co-laborers had never been wholly destroyed. For hundreds of years after the churches of England submitted to Rome, those of Scotland maintained their freedom. In the twelfth century, however, popery became established here, and in no country did it exercise a more absolute sway. Nowhere was the darkness deeper. Still there came rays of light to pierce the gloom, and give promise of the coming day. The Lollards, coming from England with the Bible and the teachings of Wycliffe, did much to preserve the knowledge of the gospel, and every century had its witnesses and martyrs.
With the opening of the Great Reformation came the writings of Luther, and then Tyndale’s English New Testa- ment. Unnoticed by the hierarchy, these messengers si- lently traversed the mountains and valleys, kindling into new life the torch of truth so nearly extinguished in Scot- land, and undoing the work which Rome for four centuries of oppression had done.
Then the blood of martyrs gave fresh impetus to the movement. The papist leaders, suddenly awakening to the danger that threatened their cause, brought to the stake
1¢¢Works of Hugh Latimer,’’ Vol. I, p. xiii (ed. Parker Society).
19 Contro.
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some of the noblest and most honored of the sons of Scot- land. They did but erect a pulpit, from which the words of these dying witnesses were heard throughout the land, thrilling the souls of the people with an undying purpose to cast off the shackles of Rome.
Hamilton and Wishart, princely in character as in birth, with a long line of humbler disciples, yielded up their lives at the stake. But from the burning pile of Wishart there came one whom the flames were not to silence, one who under God was to strike the death-knell of popery in Scotland.
John Knox had turned away from the traditions and mysticisms of the church, to feed upon. the truths of God’s word; and the teaching of Wishart had confirmed his de- termination to forsake the communion of Rome, and join himself to the persecuted Reformers.
Urged by his companions to take the office of preacher, he shrunk with trembling from its responsibility, and it was only after days of seclusion and painful conflict with him- self that he consented. But having once accepted the posi- tion, he pressed forward with inflexible determination and undaunted courage as long as life continued. This true- hearted Reformer feared not the face of man. The fires of martyrdom, blazing around him, served only to quicken his zeal to greater intensity. With the tyrant’s axe held men- acingly over his head, he stood his ground, striking sturdy blows on the right hand and on the left to demolish idolatry.
When brought face to face with the queen of Scotland, in whose presence the zeal of many a leader of the Prot- estants had abated, John Knox bore unswerving witness for the truth. He was not to be won by caresses; he quailed not before threats. The queen charged him with heresy. He had taught the people to receive a religion prohibited by the state, she declared, and had thus transgressed God’s command enjoining subjects to obey their princes. Knox answered firmly :
““As right religion took neither original strength nor authority from worldly princes, but from the eternal God
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alone, so are not subjects bound to frame their religion according to the appetites of their princes. For oft it is that princes are the most ignorant of all others in God’s true religion. ... If all the seed of Abraham had been of the religion of Pharaoh, whose subjects they long were, I pray you, madam, what religion would there have been in the world? Or if all men in the days of the apostles had been of the religion of the Roman emperors, what religion would there have been upon the face of the earth?... And so, madam, ye may perceive that subjects are not bound to the religion of their princes, albeit they are com- manded to give them obedience.”’
Said Mary, ‘‘Ye interpret the Scriptures in one man- ner, and they [the Roman Catholic teachers] interpret in another; whom shall I believe, and who shall be judge?”’
“Ye shall believe God, that plainly speaketh in His word,’’ answered the Reformer; ‘‘and farther than the Word teaches you, ye neither shall believe the one nor the other. The word of God is plain in itself; and if there appear any obscurity in one place, the Holy Ghost, which is never contrary to Himself, explains the same more clearly in other places, so that there can remain no doubt but unto such as obstinately remain ignorant.’’’
Such were the truths that the fearless Reformer, at the peril of his life, spoke in the ear of royalty. With the same undaunted courage he kept to his purpose, praying and fighting the battles of the Lord, until Scotland was free from popery.
In England the establishment of Protestantism as the national religion diminished, but did not wholly stop, perse- cution. While many of the doctrines of Rome had been renounced, not a few of its forms were retained. The su- premacy of the pope was rejected, but in his place the monarch was enthroned as the head of the church. In the service of the church there was still a wide departure from the purity and simplicity of the gospel. The great principle of religious liberty was not as yet understood. Though 1 Laing, ‘* Works of John Knox,’’ Vol. IT, pp. 281, 284 (ed. 1895).
252 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
the horrible cruelties which Rome employed against heresy were resorted to but rarely by Protestant rulers, yet the right of every man to worship God according to the dic- tates of his own conscience was not acknowledged. All were required to accept the doctrines and observe the forms of worship preseribed by the established church. Dissenters suffered persecution, to a greater or less extent, for hundreds of years.
In the seventeenth century thousands of pastors were expelled from their positions. The people were forbidden, on pain of heavy fines, “imprisonment, and banishment, to attend any religious meetings except such as were sanc- tioned by the church. Those faithful souls who could not refrain from gathering to worship God, were compelled to meet in dark alleys, in obscure garrets, and at some seasons in the woods at midnight. In the sheltering depths of the forest, a temple of God’s own building, those scattered and persecuted children of the Lord assembled to pour out their souls in prayer and praise. But despite all their precau- tions, many suffered for their faith. The jails were crowded. Families were broken up. Many were banished to foreign lands. Yet God was with His people, and per- secution could not prevail to silence their testimony. Many were driven across the ocean to America, and here laid the foundations of civil and religious lberty which have been the bulwark and glory of this country.
Again, as in apostolic days, persecution turned out to the furtherance of the gospel. In a loathsome dungeon crowded with profligates and felons, John Bunyan breathed the very atmosphere of heaven; and there he wrote his wonderful allegory of the pilgrim’s journey from the land of destruc- tion to the celestial city. For over two hundred years that voice from Bedford jail has spoken with thrilling power to the hearts of men. Bunyan’s ‘‘Pilgrim’s Progress’’ and ‘“Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners’’ have guided many feet into the path of life.
Baxter, Flavel, Alleine, and other men of talent, educa- tion, and deep Christian experience, stood up in valiant de-
LATER ENGLISH REFORMERS 258
fense of the faith which was once delivered to the saints. The work accomplished by these men, proscribed. and out- ‘lawed by the rulers of this world, can never perish. Flavel’s “‘Fountain of Life’’ and ‘‘Method of Grace’’ have taught thousands how to commit the keeping of their souls to Christ. Baxter’s ‘‘Reformed Pastor’’ has proved a blessing to many who desire a revival of the work of God, and his ‘Saints’ Everlasting Rest’’ has done its work in leading souls to the ‘‘rest that remaineth for the people of God.’’
A hundred years later, in a day of great spiritual dark- ness, Whitefield and the Wesleys appeared as light-bearers for God. Under the rule of the established church, the people of England had lapsed into a state of religious de- clension hardiy to be distinguished from heathenism. Natu- ral religion was the favorite study of the clergy, and included most of their theology. The higher classes sneered at piety, and prided themselves on being above what they called its fanaticism. The lower classes were grossly ig- norant, and abandoned to vice, while the church had no courage or faith any longer to support the downfallen cause of truth.
The great doctrine of justification by faith, so clearly taught by Luther, had been almost wholly lost sight of; and the Romish principle of trusting to good works for salvation, had taken its place. Whitefield and the Wesleys, who were members of the established church, were sincere seekers for the favor of God, and this they had been taught was to be secured by a virtuous life and an observance of the ordinances of religion.
When Charles Wesley at one time fell ill, and anticipated that death was approaching, he was asked upon what he rested his hope of eternal life. His answer was, “‘I have used my best endeavors to serve God.’’ As the friend who had put the question seemed not to be fully satisfied with his answer, Wesley thought, ‘‘What! are not my endeavors a sufficient ground of hope? Would he rob me ot my endeavors? I have nothing else to trust to.’’* Such was
1 Whitehead, John, eer ace Rey. Michie Wesley,’’ p. 102 no ed, 1845).
254 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
the dense darkness that had settled down on the church, hiding the atonement, robbing Christ of His glory, and turning the minds of men from their only hope of salva- tion,— the blood of the crucified Redeemer.
Wesley and his associates were led to see that true re- ligion is seated in the heart, and that God’s law extends to the thoughts as well as to the words and actions. Con- vineed of the necessity of holiness of heart, as well as cor- rectness of outward deportment, they set out in earnest upon a new life. By the most diligent and prayerful efforts they endeavored to subdue the evils of the natural heart. They lived a life of self-denial, charity, and humiliation, observing with great rigor and exactness every measure which they thought could be helpful to them in obtaining what they most desired,— that holiness which could secure the favor of God. But they did not obtain the object which they sought. In vain were their endeavors to free themselves from the condemnation of sin or to break its power. It was the same struggle which Luther had experienced in his cell at Erfurt. It was the same question which had tor- . tured his soul,—‘How should man be just before God?’’’
The fires of divine truth, well-nigh extinguished upon the altars of Protestantism, were to be rekindled from the ancient torch handed down the ages by the Bohemian Chris- tians. After the Reformation, Protestantism in Bohemia had been trampled out by the hordes of Rome. All who refused to renounce the truth were forced to flee. Some of these, finding refuge in Saxony, there maintained the an- cient faith. It was from the descendants of these Chris- tians that hght came to Wesley and his associates.
John and Charles Wesley, after being ordained to the ministry, were sent on a mission to America. On board the ship was a company of Moravians. Violent storms were encountered on the passage, and John Wesley, brought face to face with death, felt that he had not the assurance of peace with God. The Germans, on the contrary, manifested a calmness and trust to which he was a stranger.
+ Job 9:2 (margin).
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-“T had long before,’’ he says, ‘‘observed the great seri- ogusness of their behavior. Of their humility they had given a continual proof, by performing those servile offices for the other passengers which none of the English would undertake; for which they desired and would receive no pay, saying it was good for their proud hearts, and their loving Saviour had done more for them. And every day had given them occasion of showing a meekness which no injury could move. If they were pushed, struck, or thrown down, they rose again and went away; but no complaint was found in their mouth. There was now an opportunity of trying whether they were delivered from the spirit of fear, as well as from that of pride, anger, and revenge. In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the mainsail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible scream- _ ing began among the English. The Germans calmly sung on. I asked one of them afterward, ‘Were you not afraid 2’ He answered, ‘I thank God, no.’ I asked, ‘But were not your women and children afraid?’ He replied mildly, -‘No; our women and children are not afraid to die.’’’*
Upon arriving in Savannah, Wesley for a short time abode with the Moravians, and was deeply impressed with their Christian deportment. Of one of their religious sery- ices, in striking contrast to the lifeless formalism of the Church of England, he wrote: ‘‘The great simplicity as well as solemnity of the whole almost made me forget the seventeen hundred years between, and imagine myself in one of those assemblies where form and state were not; but Paul, the tent-maker, or Peter, the fisherman, presided; yet with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power.’’’
On his return to England, Wesley, under the instruction of a Moravian preacher, arrived at a clearer understand- ing of Bible faith. He was convinced that he must re- nounce all dependence upon his own works for salvation,
1 Whitehead, ‘‘Life of the Rey. John Wesley,’’ p. 10 (Am, ed. 1845). *Idem, pp. 11, 12.
9—G. C.
256 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
and must trust wholly to the ‘‘Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.’’ At a meeting of the Moravian society in London, a statement was read from Luther, de- scribing the change which the Spirit of God-works in the heart of the believer. As Wesley listened, faith was kin- dled in his soul. ‘‘I felt my heart strangely warmed,’’ he says. ‘‘I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation: and an assurance was given me, that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.’’*
Through long years of wearisome and comfortless striv- ing,— years of rigorous self-denial, of reproach and humili- ation,— Wesley had steadfastly adhered to his one purpose of seeking God. Now he had found Him; and he found that the grace which he had toiled to win by prayers and fasts, by almsdeeds and self-abnegation, was a: gift, ‘‘with- out money, and without price.’’
Once established in the faith of Christ, his whole soul | burned with the desire to spread everywhere a knowledge of the glorious gospel of God’s free grace. ‘‘I look upon all the world as my parish,’’ he said; ‘‘in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty, to de- clare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation.’’ *
He continued his strict and self-denying life, not now as the ground, but the result of faith; not the root, but the frwt of holiness. The grace of God in Christ is the foun- dation of the Christian’s hope, and that grace will be mani- fested in obedience. Wesley’s life was devoted to the preaching of the great truths which he had _ received,— justification through faith in the atoning blood of Christ, and the renewing power of the Holy Spirit upon the heart, bringing forth fruit in a life conformed to the example of Christ.
Whitefield and the Wesleys had been prepared for their work by long and sharp personal convictions of their
1 Whitehead, ‘‘Life of John Wesley,’’ p. 52. * Idem, p. 74.
LATER ENGLISH REFORMERS O57
own lost condition; and that they might be able to endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ, they had been subjected to the fiery ordeal of scorn, derision, and persecution, both in the university’ and as they were entering the ministry. They and a few others who sympathized with them were contemptuously called Methodists by their ungodly fellow- students,— a name which is at the present time regarded as honorable by one of the largest denominations in Eng- land and America.
As members of the Church of England, they were strongly attached to her forms of worship, but the Lord had presented before them in His word a higher standard. The Holy Spirit urged them to preach Christ and Him crucified. The power of the Highest attended their labors. Thou- sands were convicted and truly converted. It was neces- sary that these sheep be protected from ravening wolves. Wesley had no thought of forming a new denomination, but he organized them under what was called the Methodist Connection.
Mysterious and trying was the opposition which these preachers encountered from the established church; yet God, in His wisdom, had overruled events to cause the reform to begin within the church itself. Had it come wholly from without, it would not have penetrated where it was so much needed. But as the revival preachers were churchmen, and labored within the pale of the church wherever they could find opportunity, the truth had an entrance where the doors would otherwise have remained closed. Some of the clergy were roused from their moral stupor, and became zealous preachers in their own parishes. Churches that had been petrified by formalism were quickened into life.
In Wesley’s time, as in all ages of the church’s history, men of different gifts: performed their appointed work. They did not harmonize upon every point of doctrine, but all were moved by the Spirit of God, and united in the absorbing aim to win souls to Christ. The differences be- tween Whitefield and the Wesleys threatened at one time to
258 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
create alienation; but as they learned meekness in the school of Christ, mutual forbearance and charity reconciled them. They had no time to dispute, while error and iniquity were teeming everywhere, and sinners were going down to ruin. .
The servants of God trod a rugged path. Men of influ- ence and learning employed their powers against them. After a time many of the clergy manifested determined hostility, and the doors of the churches were closed against a pure faith and those who proclaimed it. The course of the clergy in denouncing them from the pulpit, aroused the elements of darkness, ignorance, and iniquity. Again and again did John Wesley escape death by a miracle of God’s mercy. When the rage of the mob was excited,against him, and there seemed no way of escape, an angel in human form came to his side, the mob fell back, and the servant of Christ passed in safety from the place of danger.
Of his deliverance from the enraged mob on one of these occasions, Wesley said: ‘‘Many endeavored to throw me down while we were going down hill on a slippery path to the town; as well judging that if I was once on the ground, I should hardly rise any more. But I made no stumble at all, nor the least slp, till I was entirely out of their hands. . .. Although many strove to lay hold on my collar or clothes, to pull me down, they could not fasten at all: only one got fast hold of the flap of my waistcoat, which was soon left in his hand; the other flap, in the pocket of which was a bank-note, was torn but half off. ... A lusty man just behind, struck at me several times, with a large oaken stick; with which if he had struck me once on the back part of my head, it would have saved him all further trouble. But every time the blow was turned aside, I know not how; for I could not move to the right hand or left. . . . Another came rushing through the press, and raising his arm to strike, on a sudden let it drop, and only stroked my head, saying, ‘What soft hair he has!’ ... The very first men whose hearts were turned were the heroes of the town, the captains of the rabble on all occa-
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sions, one of them having been a prize-fighter at the bear- gardens. . .
‘“By how gentle degrees does God prepare us for His will! Two years ago, a piece of brick grazed my shoulders. It was a year after that the stone struck me between the eyes. Last month I received one blow, and this evening two, one before we came into the town, and one after we were gone out; but both were as nothing: for though one man struck me on the breast with all his might, and the other on the mouth with such a force that the blood gushed out immediately, I felt no more pain from either of the blows than if they had touched me with a straw.’’*
The Methodists of those early days— people as well as preachers — endured ridicule and persecution, alike from church-members and from the openly irreligious who were inflamed by their misrepresentations. They were arraigned before courts of justice — such only in name, for justice was rare in the courts of that time. Often they suffered vio- lence from their persecutors. Mobs went from house to house, destroying furniture and goods, plundering whatever they chose, and brutally abusing men, women, and children. In some instances, public notices were posted, calling upon those who desired to assist in breaking the windows and robbing the houses of the Methodists, to assemble at a given time and place. These open violations of both human and divine law were allowed to pass without a reprimand. A systematic persecution was carried on against a people whose only fault was that of seeking to turn the feet of sinners from the path of destruction to the path of holiness.
Said John Wesley, referring to the charges against him- self and his associates: ‘‘Some allege that the doctrines of these men are false, erroneous, and enthusiastic; that they are new and unheard-of till of late; that they are Quaker- ism, fanaticism, popery. This whole pretense has been already cut up by the roots, it having been shown at large that every branch of this doctrine is the plain doctrine of
1 Wesley’s Works, Vol. III, pp. 297, 298 (ed. 1831).
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Seripture interpreted by our own church. Therefore it cannot be either false or erroneous, provided the Scripture be true.’’ ‘‘Others allege, ‘Their doctrine is too strict; they make the way to heaven too narrow.’ And this is in truth the original objection, (as it was almost the only one for some time,) and is secretly at the bottom of a thousand more, which appear in various forms. But do they make the way to heaven any narrower than our Lord and His apostles made it? Is their doctrine stricter than that of the Bible? Consider only a few plain texts: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy ‘heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.’ ‘For every idle word which men shall speak, they shall give an account in the day of judgment.’ ‘Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God.’
‘‘Tf their doctrine is stricter than this, they are to blame; but you know in your conscience it is not. And who can be one jot less strict without corrupting the word of God? Can any steward of the mysteries of God be found faith- ful if he change any part of that sacred depositum? No. He can abate nothing, he can soften nothing; he is con- strained to declare to all men, ‘I may not bring down the Seripture to your taste. You must come up to it, or per- ish forever.’ This is the real ground of that other popular ery concerning ‘the uncharitableness of these men.’ Un- charitable, are they? In what respect? Do they not feed the hungry and clothe the naked? ‘No; that is not the thing: they are not wanting in this: but they are so un- charitable in- judging! they think none can be saved but those of their own way.’ ’’*
The spiritual declension which had been manifest in England just before the time of Wesley, was in great degree the result of Antinomian teaching, Many affirmed that Christ had abolished the moral law, and that Christians are therefore under no obligation to observe it; that a believer is freed from the ‘‘bondage of good works.’’ Others, though
*Wesley’s Works, Vol. III, pp. 152, 153.
rd
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admitting the perpetuity of the law, declared that it was unnecessary for ministers to exhort the people to obedience of its precepts, since those whom God had elected to salva- tion would, ‘‘by the irresistible impulse of divine grace, be led to the practice of piety and virtue,’’ while those who were doomed to eternal reprobation ‘‘did not have power to obey the divine law.”’
Others, also holding that ‘“‘the elect cannot fall from grace nor forfeit the divine favor,’’ arrived at the still more hideous conclusion that ‘‘the wicked actions they commit are not really sinful, nor to be considered as instances of their violation of the divine law, and that consequently they have no occasion either to confess their sins or to break them off by repentance. Therefore, they declared that even one of the vilest of sins, ‘‘considered universally an enormous violation of the divine law, is not a sin in the sight of God,’’ if committed by one of the elect, “‘ because it is one of the essential and distinctive characteristics of the elect, that they cannot do anything that is either dis- pleasing to God or prohibited by the law.’’
These monstrous doctrines are essentially the same as the later teaching of popular educators and theologians,— that there is no unchangeable divine law as the standard of right, but that the standard of morality is indicated by society itself, and has constantly been subject to change. All these ideas are inspired by the same master-spirit,— by him who, even among the sinless inhabitants of heaven, began his work of seeking to break down the righteous restraints of the law of God.
The doctrine of the divine decrees, unalterably fixing the character of men, had led many to a virtual rejection of the law of God. Wesley steadfastly opposed the errors of the Antinomian teachers, and showed that this doctrine which led to Antinomianism was contrary to the Scriptures. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared
g91
McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia, art. Antinomians (ed. 1871).
262 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
to all men.’’ ‘‘This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all.’’* The Spirit of God is freely bestowed, to enable every man to lay hold upon the means of salvation. Thus Christ, ‘‘the true Light,’’ ‘‘lighteth every man that cometh into the world.’’* Men fail of salvation through their own wilful refusal of the gift of life.
In answer to the claim that at the death of Christ the precepts of the decalogue had been abolished with the cere- monial law, Wesley said: ‘‘The moral law, contained in the ten commandments and enforced by the prephets, He did not take away. It was not the design of His coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be broken, which ‘stands fast as the faithful witness in heaven.’ ... This was from the beginning of the world, being ‘written not on tables of stone,’ but on the hearts of all the children of men, when they came out of the hands of the Creator. And however the letters once wrote by the finger of God are now in a great measure defaced by sin, yet can they not wholly be blotted out, while we have any consciousness of good and evil. Every part of this law must remain in foree upon all mankind, and in all ages; as not depending either on time or plaee, or any other circumstances liable to change, but on the nature of God, and the nature of man, and their unchange- able relation to each other.
‘*“*T am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.’. . . Without question, His meaning in this place is (consistently with all that goes before and follows after),— I am come to estab- lish it in its fulness, in spite of: all the glosses of men: I am come to place in a full and clear view whatsoever was dark or obscure therein: I am come to declare the true and full import of every part of it; to show the length and breadth, the entire extent, of every commandment contained therein,
1Titus 2:11; 1 Tim, 2:3-6. ? John 1:9,
LATER ENGLISH REFORMERS 263
and the height and depth, the inconceivable purity and spirituality of it in all its branches.’’’*
Wesley declared the perfect harmony of the law and the gospel. ‘‘There is, therefore, the closest connection that can be conceived, between the law and the gospel. On the one hand, the law continually makes way for, and points us to, the gospel; on the other, the gospel continually leads us to a more exact fulfilling of the law. The law, for instance, requires us to love God, to love our neighbor, to be meek, humble, or holy. We feel that we are not sufficient for these things; yea, that ‘with man this is impossible:’ but we- see a promise of God to give us that love, and to make us humble, meek, and holy: we lay hold of this gospel, of these glad tidings; it is done unto us according to our faith; and ‘the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us,’ through faith which is in Christ Jesus... .
“In the highest rank of the enemies of the gospel of Christ,’’ said Wesley, ‘‘are they who openly and explicitly ‘judge the law’ itself, and ‘speak evil of the law;’ who teach men to break (to dissolve, to loose, to untie the obligation of) not one only, whether of the least or of the greatest, but all the commandments at.a streke. . . . The most surprising of all the circumstances that attend this strong delusion, is that they who are given up to it, really believe that they honor Christ by overthrowing His law, and that they are magnify- ing His office while they are destroying His doctrine! Yea, they honor Him just as Judas did when he said, ‘Hail, Master, and kissed Him.’ And He may as justly say to every one of them, ‘Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?’ It is no other than betraying Him with a kiss, to talk of His blood, and take away His crown; to set light by any part of His law, under pretense of advancing His gospel. Nor indeed can any one escape this charge, who preaches faith in any such a manner as either directly or indirectly tends to set aside any branch of obedience: who preaches Christ so as to-disannul, or weaken, in any wise, the least of the commandments of God.’’*
* Wesley ’s Works, Sermon 25.
20 Contro,
264 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
To those who urged that ‘‘the preaching of the gospel answers all the ends of the law,’’ Wesley replied: ‘‘This we utterly deny. It does not answer the very first end of the law, namely, the convincing men of sin, the awakening those who are still asleep on the brink of hell.’’ The apostle Paul declares that ‘‘by the law is the knowledge of sin;’’ ‘fand not until man is convicted of sin, will he truly feel his need of the atoning blood of Christ. ... ‘They that be whole,’ as our Lord Himself observes, ‘need not a physi- cian, but they that are sick.’ It is absurd, therefore, to offer a physician to them that are whole, or that at least imagine themselves so to be. You are first to convince them that they are sick; otherwise they will not thank you for your labor. It is equally absurd to offer Christ to them whose heart is whole, having never yet been broken.’’’
Thus while preaching the gospel of the grace ef God, Wesley, like his Master, sought to ‘‘magnify the law, and make it honorable.’’? Faithfully did he accomplish the work given him of God, and glorious were the results which he was permitted to behold. At the close of his long lfe of more than fourscore years — above half a century spent in itinerant ministry — his avowed adherents numbered more than half a million souls. But the multitude that through his labors had been lifted from the ruin and degradation of sin to a higher and a purer life, and the number who by his teaching had attained to a deeper and richer experi- ence, will never be known till the whole family of the re- deemed shall be gathered into the kingdom of God. His life presents a lesson of priceless worth to every Christian. Would that the faith and humility, the untiring zeal, self- sacrifice, and devotion of this servant of Christ, might be reflected in the churches of to-day!
* Wesley ’s Works, Sermon 35.
Preeti NO: lide. TRENCH: REVOLUTION =15
In the sixteenth century the Reformation, presenting an open Bible to the people, had sought admission to all the countries of Europe. Some nations welcomed it with glad- ness, aS a messenger of Heaven. In other lands, the papacy succeeded to a great extent in preventing its entrance; and the hght of Bible knowledge, with its elevating influences, was almost wholly excluded. In one country, though the light found entrance, it was not comprehended by the dark- ness. For centuries, truth and error struggled for the mas- tery. At last the evil triumphed, and the truth of Heaven was thrust out. ‘‘This is the condemnation, that lght is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light.’’* The nation was left to reap the results of the course which she had chosen. The restraint of God’s Spirit was removed from a people that had despised the gift of His grace. Evil was permitted to come to maturity. And all the world saw the fruit of wilful rejection of the lght.
The war against the Bible, carried forward for so many centuries in France, culminated in the scenes of the Revo- lution. That terrible outbreaking was but the legitimate result of Rome’s suppression of the Scriptures. It pre- sented the most striking illustration which the world has ever witnessed, of the working out of the papal policy,— an illustration of the results to which for more than a thou-
‘John 3:19. *See Appendix. (265)
266 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
sand years the teaching of the Roman Church had been tending. i i
The suppression of the Scriptures during the period of papal supremacy was foretold by the prophets; and the Revelator points also to the terrible results that were to accrue especially to France from the domination of ‘‘the man of sin.”’
Said the angel of the Lord: ‘‘The holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sack- cloth. ... And when they shall have finished their tes- timony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall cvercome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. . . . And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.’’’
The periods here mentioned —‘‘forty and two months,’’ and ‘‘a thousand two hundred and threescore days’’— are the same, alike representing the time in which the chureh of Christ was to suffer oppression from Rome.- The 1260 years of papal supremacy began in a. pd. 538, and would therefore terminate in 1798. At that time a French army entered Rome, and made the pope a prisoner, and he died in exile. Though a new pope was soon afterward elected, the papal hierarchy has never since been able to wield the power which it before possessed.
The persecution of the church did not continue through- out the entire period of the 1260 years. God in mercy to His people cut short the time of their fiery trial. In fore-
* Rev. 11:2-11. _ * See Appendix.
THE BIBLE AND THE FRENCR REVOLUTION. 267
telling the “‘great tribulation’’ to befall the church, the Saviour said, ‘“Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.’’* Through the influence of the Reformation, the persecution was brought to an end prior to 1798.
Concerning the two witnesses, the prophet declares further, ‘‘“These are the two olive-trees, and the two candle- sticks standing before the God of the earth.’’ ‘‘Thy word,”’ said the psalmist, ‘‘is a lamp unto my féet, and a light unto my path.’’* The two witnesses represent the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament. Both are important testimonies to the origin and perpetuity of the law of God. Both are witnesses also to the plan of salvation. The types, sacrifices, and prophecies of the Old Testament point for- ward to a Saviour to come. The Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament tell of a Saviour who has come in the exact manner foretold by type and prophecy.
“They shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and three- score days, clothed in sackeloth.’’ During the greater part of this period, God’s witnesses remained in a state of obscu- rity. The papal power sought to hide from the people the Word of truth, and set before them false witnesses to con- tradict its testimony.’ When the Bible was proscribed by religious and secular authority; when its testimony was perverted, and every effort made that men and demons could invent to turn the minds of the people from it; when those who dared proclaim its sacred truths were hunted, betrayed, tortured, buried in dungeon cells, martyred for their faith, or compelled to flee to mountain fastnesses, and to dens and eaves of the earth,— then the faithful witnesses prophesied in sackeloth. Yet they continued their testimony through- out the entire period of 1260 years. In the darkest times there were faithful men who loved God’s word, and were jealous for His honor. To these loyal servants were given
1Matt. 24:22. *Rey. 11:4; Ps, 119:105. 5 See Appendix.
268 ‘ THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
wisdom, power, and authority to declare His truth during the whole of this time.
‘‘And if any man will hurt pte fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.’’* Men cannot with impunity trample upon the word of God. The meaning of this fearful denunciation is set forth in the closing chapter of the Revelation: ‘‘I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.’’’
Such are the warnings which God has riven to guard men against changing in any manner that which He has revealed or commanded. These solemn denunciations apply to all who by their influence lead men to regard lightly the law of God. They should cause those to fear and tremble who flippantly declare it a matter of little consequence whether we obey God’s law or not. All who exalt their own opinions above divine revelation, all who would change the plain meaning of Scripture to suit their own convenience, or for the sake of conforming to the world, are taking upon themselves a fearful responsibility. The written word, the law of God, will measure the character of every man, and condemn all whom this unerring test shall declare wanting.
‘“When they shall have finished [are finishing] their testi- mony.’’ The period when the two witnesses were to proph- esy clothed in sackcloth, ended in 1798. As they were approaching the termination of their work in obscurity, war was to be made upon them by the power represented as “‘the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit.’’ In many of the nations of Europe the powers that ruled in church and state had for centuries been controlled by
1 Rey. 11:5. ? Rev. 22:18, 19.
THE BIBLE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 269
Satan, through the medium of the papacy. But here is brought to view a new manifestation of satanic power.
It had been Rome’s policy, under a profession of rever- ence for the Bible, to keep it locked up in an unknown tongue, and hidden away from the people. Under her rule the witnesses prophesied, ‘‘clothed in sackeloth.’?’ But an- other power —the beast from the bottomless pit —was to arise to make open, avowed war upon the word of God.
The ‘‘great city’’ in whose streets the witnesses are slain, and where their dead bodies lie, ‘‘is spiritually Egypt.’’ Of all nations presented in Bible history, Egypt most boldly denied the existence of the living God, and resisted His commands. No monarch ever ventured upon more open and high-handed rebellion against the authority of Heaven than did the king of Egypt. When the message was brought him by Moses, in the name of the Lord, Pharaoh | proudly answered, ‘‘Who is Jehovah, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go.’’’ This is atheism; and the nation rep- resented by Egypt would give voice to a similar denial of the claims of the living God, and would manifest a like spirit of unbelief and defiance. The ‘‘great city’’ is also compared, ‘‘spiritually,’? to Sodom. The corruption of Sodom in breaking the law of God was especially manifested in licentiousness. And this sin was also to be a pre-eminent characteristic of the nation that should fulfil the specifica- tions of this scripture.
According to the words of the prophet, then, a little be- fore the year 1798 some power of satanic origin and char- acter would rise to make war upon the Bible. And in the land where the testimony of God’s two witnesses should thus be silenced, there would be manifest the atheism of the Pharaoh and the licentiousness of Sodom.
This prophecy has received a most exact and striking ful- filment in the history of France. During the Revolution, in 17938, ‘‘the world for the first time heard an assembly of
1 Bx,-9:2,
270 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
men, born and educated in civilization, and assuming the right to govern one of the finest of the European nations, uplift their united voice to deny the most solemn truth which man’s soul receives, and renounce unanimously the belief and worship of a Deity.’’* ‘‘France is the only nation in the world concerning which the authentic record survives, that as a nation she lifted her hand in open re- bellion against the Author of the universe. Plenty of blas- phemers, plenty of infidels, there have been, and_ still - continue to be, in England, Germany, Spain, and elsewhere; but France stands apart in the world’s history as the single state which, by the decree of her Legislative Assembly, pro- nounced that there was no God, and of which the entire population of the capital, and a vast majority elsewhere, women as well as men, danced and sang with joy in accept- ing the announcement.’’*
France presented also the characteristic which especially distinguished Sodom. During the Revolution there was manifest a state of moral debasement and corruption simi- lar to that which brought destruction upon the cities of the plain. And the historian presents together the atheism and the licentiousness of France, as given in the prophecy: ‘‘Intimately connected with these laws affecting religion, was that which reduced the union of marriage — the most sacred engagement which human beings can form, and the perma- nence of which leads most strongly to the consolidation of society — to the state of a mere civil contract of a transitory character, which any two persons might engage in and cast loose at pleasure. ... If fiends had set themselves to work to discover a mode of most effectually destroying whatever is venerable, graceful, or permanent in domestic life, and of obtaining at the same time an assurance that the mischief which it was their object to create should be perpetuated from one generation to another, they could not have in- vented a more effectual plan than the degradation of mar-
*Seott, Sir Walter, ‘‘Life of Napoleon Buonaparte,’’
Vol. I, ch. 17 (ed. 1854). * Blaekwood’s Magazine, November, 1870.
THE BIBLE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 271
riage. .. . Sophie Arnoult, an actress famous for the witty things she said, described the republican marriage as ‘the sacrament of adultery.’ ’’’
‘“Where also our Lord was ecrucified.’’ This specifica- tion of the prophecy was also fulfilled by France. In no land had the spirit of enmity against Christ been more strikingly displayed. In no country had the truth- en- countered more bitter and cruel opposition. In the per- secution which France had visited upon the confessors of the gospel, she had crucified Christ in the person of His disciples.
Century after century the blood of the saints had been shed. While the Waldenses laid down their lives upon the mountains of Piedmont’ ‘‘for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ,’’ similar witness to the truth had been borne by their brethren, the Albigenses of France. In the days of the Reformation, its disciples had been put to death with horrible tortures. King and nobles, high- born women and delicate maidens, the pride and chivalry of the nation, had feasted their eyes upon the agonies of . the martyrs of Jesus. The brave Huguenots, battling for those rights which the human heart holds most sacred, had poured out their blood on many a hard-fought field. The Protestants were counted as outlaws, a price was set upon their heads, and they were hunted down like wild beasts.
The ‘‘Chureh in the Desert,’’ the few descendants of the ancient Christians that still lingercd in France in the eighteenth century, hiding away in the mountains of the * south, still cherished the faith of their fathers. As they ventured to meet by night on mountainside or lonely moor, they were chased by dragoons, and dragged away to life- long slavery in the galleys. The purest, the most refined, and the most intelligent of the French, were chained, in horrible torture, amidst robbers and assassins.” Others, more mercifully dealt with, were shot down in cold blood, as, unarmed and helpless, they fell upon their knees in
4 Scott, Vol. I, ch. 17. ?See Wylie, b. 22, ch. 6.
972 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
prayer. Hundreds of aged men, defenseless women, and innocent children were left dead upon the earth’ at their place of meeting. In traversing the mountainside or the forest, where they had been accustomed to assemble, it was not unusual to find ‘‘at every four paces, dead bodies dotting the sward, and corpses hanging suspended from the trees.’’ Their country, laid waste with the sword, the axe, the fagot, ‘‘was converted into one vast, gloomy wilderness.’’ ‘““These atrocities were enacted ...in no dark age, but in the brilliant era of Louis XIV. Science was then ecul- tivated, letters flourished, the divines of the court and of the capital were learned and eloquent men, and greatly affected the graces of meekness and. charity.’’*
But blackest in the black catalogue of crime, most hor- rible among the fiendish deeds of all the dreadful centu- ries, was the St. Bartholomew Massacre. The world still recalls with shuddering horror the scenes of that most cowardly and cruel onslaught. The king of France, urged on by Romish priests and prelates, lent his sanction to the dreadful work. signal for the slaughter. Protestants by thousands, sleep- ing quietly in their homes, trusting to the plighted honor of their king, were dragged forth without a warning, and murdered in cold blood.
As Christ. was the invisible leader of His people from Egyptian bondage, so was Satan the unseen leader of his subjects in this horrible work of multiplying martyrs. For seven days the massacre was continued in Paris, the first three with inconceivable fury. And it was not confined to the city itself, but by special order of the king, was ex- tended to all the provinces and towns where Protestants were found. Neither age nor sex was respected. Neither the innocent babe nor the man of gray hairs was spared. Noble and peasant, old and young, mother and child, were cut down together. Throughout France the butchery con- tinued for two months. Seventy thousand of the very flower of the nation perished.
1 Wylie, b. 22, ch. 7.
THE BIBLE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 273
‘““When the news of the massacre reached Rome, the exultation among the clergy knew no bounds. The cardinal cf Lorraine rewarded the messenger with a thousand crowns; the cannon of St. Angelo thundered forth a joyous salute; the bells rang out from every steeple; bonfires turned night into day; and Gregory XIII., attended by the cardinals and other ecclesiastical dignitaries, went in long procession to the church of St. Lonis, where the cardinal of Lorraine chanted a Te Deum. ... A medal was struck to com- memorate the massacre, and in the Vatican may still be seen three frescoes of Vasari, describing the attack upon the admiral, the king in council plotting the massacre, and the massacre itself. Gregory sent Charles the Golden Rose; and four months after the massacre, . . . he listened com- placently to the sermon of a French priest, . . . who spoke of ‘that day so full of happiness and joy, when the most holy father received the news, and went in solemn state to render thanks to God and St. Louis.’ ’’’
The same master-spirit that urged on the St. Bartholo- mew Massacre led also in the scenes of the Revolution. Jesus Christ was declared to be an impostor, and the rally- - ing ery of the French infidels was, ‘‘Crush the Wretch,’’ meaning Christ. Heaven-daring blasphemy and abominable wickedness went hand in hand, and the basest of men, the most abandoned monsters of cruelty and vice, were most, highly exalted. In all this, supreme homage was paid to Satan; while Christ, in His characteristics of truth, purity, and unselfish love, was crucified.
‘The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall*overcome them, and kill them.’’? The atheistical power that ruled in France during the Revolution and the Reign of Terror, did wage such a war against God and His holy word as the world had never witnessed. The worship of the Deity was abolished by the National Assembly. Bibles were collected and pub- licly burned with every possible manifestation of scorn,
1 White, Henry, ‘‘The Massacre of St. Bartholomew,’’ ch. 14, par. 34 (ed. 1871).
274 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
The law of God was trampled under foot. The institutions of the Bible were abolished. The weekly rest-day was set aside, and in its stead every tenth day was devoted to reveling and blasphemy. Baptism and the communion were prohibited. And announcements posted conspicuously over the burial-places declared death to be an eternal sleep.
The fear of God was said to be so far from the beginning of wisdom that it was the beginning of folly. All religious worship was prohibited, except that of liberty and the country. The ‘‘constitutional bishop of Paris was brought forward to play the principal part in the most impudent and scandalous farce ever acted in the face of a national representation. ... He was brought forward in full pro- cession, to declare to the Convention that the religion which he had taught so many years was, in every.respect, a piece of priesteraft, which had no foundation either in history or sacred truth. He disowned, in solemn and explicit terms, the existence of the Deity to whose worship he had been consecrated, and devoted himself in future to the homage of liberty, equality, virtue, and morality. He then laid on the table his episcopal decorations, and received a fraternal embrace from the president of the Convention. Several apostate priests followed the example of this prelate.’’*
‘And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry,.and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.’’ Infidel France had silenced the reproving voice of God’s two witnesses. The Word of truth lay dead in her streets, and those who hated the restrictions and require- ments of God’s law were jubilant. Men publicly defied the King of heaven. Like the sinners of old, they cried, ‘‘How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High?’’?
With blasphemous boldness almost beyond belief, one of the priests of the new order said: ‘‘God, if You exist, avenge Your injured name. I bid You defiance! You remain silent; You dare not launch Your thunders. Who after
H Scott, viol. lanchseiir “AP Soedioiel
THE BIBLE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 275
this will believe in Your existence?’’* What an echo is this of the Pharaoh’s demand: ‘‘ Who is Jehovah, that I should obey His voice?’’ ‘‘I know not Jehovah!’’
‘“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.’ And the Lord declares concerning the perverters of the truth, ‘‘Their folly shall be manifest unto all.’’* After _ France had renounced the worship of the living God, ‘‘the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,’’ it was only a little time till she descended to degrading idolatry, by the worship of the Goddess of Reason, in the person of a profligate woman. And this in the representative assembly of the nation, and by its highest civil and legislative authori- ties! Says the historian: ‘‘One of the ceremonies of this insane time stands unrivaled for absurdity combined with impiety. The doors of the Convention were thrown open to a band of musicians, preceded by. whom, the members of the municipal body entered in solemn procession, singing a hymn in praise of liberty, and escorting, as the object of their future worship, a veiled female, whom they termed the Goddess of Reason. Being brought within the bar, she was unveiled with great form, and placed on the right of the president, when she was generally recognized as a dane- ing girt of the opera. ... To this person, as the fittest representative of that reason whom they worshiped, the National Convention of France rendered public homage.
‘“‘This impious and ridiculous mummery had a certain fashion; and the installation of the Goddess of Reason was renewed and imitated throughout the nation, in such places where the inhabitants desired to show themselves equal to all the heights of the Revolution.’’*
Said the orator who introduced the worship of Reason: ‘‘Legislators! Fanaticism has given way to reason. Its bleared eyes could not endure the brilliianey of the lght. This day an immense concourse has assembled beneath those gothic vaults, which, for the first time, re-echoed the truth.
1Lacretelle’s ‘‘History,’’ Vol. XI, p. 309; in Alison’s ‘‘ History
of Europe,’’ Vol. I, ch. 10. ; es patel Sovlim- a9: * Scott, Vol. I, ch. 17.
21 Contro.
276 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
There the French have celebrated the only true worship,— that of Liberty, that of Reason. There we have formed wishes for the prosperity of the arms of the Republic. There we have abandoned inanimate idols for Reason, for that animated image, the masterpiece of nature.’’*
When the goddess was brought into the Convention, the orator took her by the hand, and turning to the assembly said: ‘‘Mortals, cease to tremble before the powerless thun- ders of a God whom your fears have created. Henceforth acknowledge no divinity but Reason. I offer you its noblest and purest image; if you must have idols, sacrifice only to such as this. ... Fall before the august Senate of Free- dom, oh! Veil of Rersohd
‘“‘The goddess, after being embraced by Pa president, was mounted on a magnificent car, and condug¢ted, amid an immense crowd, to the cathedral of Notre Dame, to take the place of the Deity. There she was elevated on the high altar, and received the adoration of all present.’’*
This was followed, not long afterward, by the public burning of the Bible. On one occasion ‘‘the Popular So- ciety of the Museum’’ entered the hall of the municipality, exclaiming, ‘‘Vive la Raison!’’ and earrying on the top of a pole the half-burned remains of several books, among others breviaries, missals, and the Old and New Testa- ments, which ‘‘expiated in a great fire,’’ said the president, ‘‘all the fooleries which they have made the human race commit.’’ *
It was popery that had begun the work which atheism was completing. The policy of Rome had wrought out those con- ditions, social, political, and religious, that were hurrying France cn to ruin. Writers, in referring to the horrors of the Revolution, say that these excesses are to be charged upon the throne and the church.’ In strict justice they are to be charged upon the church. Popery had poisoned the * Thiers, M. A., ‘‘ History of the French Revolution,’’ Vol. II, pp. 370, 371. * Alison, Vol. 1, ch. 10, * Journal of Paris, 1793, No. 318. Quoted
in "Buchez- Roux’ s collection of Parliamentary History, Vol. XXX. pp. 200, 201. *See Appendix.
THE BIBLE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 277
minds of kings against the Reformation, as an enemy to the crown, an element of discord that would be fatal to the peace and harmony of the nation. It was the genius of Rome that by this means inspired the direst cruelty and the most galling oppression whiclt proceeded from the throne.
The spirit of liberty went with the Bible. Wherever the gospel was received, the minds of the people were awakened. They began to cast off the shackles that had held them bond-slaves of ignorance, vice, and superstition. They began to think and act as men. Monarchs saw it, and trembled for their despotism.
Rome was not slow to inflame their jealous fears. Said the pope to the regent of France in 1525: ‘‘This mania [Protestantism] will not only confound and destroy religion, but all principalities, nobility, laws, orders, and ranks be- sides.’’* A few years later a papal nuncio warned the king: “Sire, be not deceived. The Protestants will upset all civil as well as religious order. . . . The throne is in as much danger as the altar. . . . The introduction of a new religion must necessarily introduce a new government.’’’ And theologians appealed to the prejudices of the people by declaring that the Protestant doctrine ‘‘entices men away to novelties and folly; it robs the king of the de- voted affection of his subjects, and devastates both church and state.’?’ Thus Rome succeeded in arraying France against the Reformation. ‘‘It was to uphold the throne, preserve the nobles, and maintain the laws, that the aoe of persecution was first unsheathed in France.’’*
Little did the rulers of the land foresee the results of that fateful policy. The teaching of the Bible would have implanted in the minds and hearts of the people those prin- ciples of justice, temperance, truth, equity, and benevolence which are the very corner-stone of a nation’s prosperity. **Righteousness exalteth a nation.’’ Thereby ‘‘the throne is 1 Pélice, G.. de, ‘‘ History of the Protestants of France,’’ b. 1, ch. 2, par. 8.
*D’Aubigné, ‘‘History of the Reformation in the Time of Calvin,’’ b. 2, ch. 36. Sa Wylie bs 3, rch. 4:
278 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
established.’’* ‘‘The work of righteousness shall be peace;’’ and the effect, ‘‘quietness and assurance forever.’’* He who obeys the divine law will most truly respect and obey the laws of his country. He who fears God will honor the king in the exercise of all just and legitimate authority. But unhappy France prohibited the Bible, and banned its disciples. Century after century, men of principle and in- tegrity, men of intellectual acuteness and moral strength, who had the courage to avow their convictions, and the faith to suffer for the truth,— for centuries these men toiled as slaves in the galleys, perished at the stake, or rotted in dungeon cells. Thousands upon thousands found safety in flight; and this continued for two hundred and fifty years after the opening of the Reformation.
‘‘Searcely was there a generation of Frenchmen during that long period that did not witness the disciples of the gospel fleeing before the insane fury of the persecutor, and carrying with them the intelligence, the arts, the industry, the order, in which, as a rule, they pre-eminently excelled, to enrich the lands in which they found an asylum. And in proportion as they replenished other countries with these good gifts, did they empty their own of them. If all that was now driven away had been retained in France; if, during these three hundred years, the industrial skill of the exiles had been cultivating her soil; if, during these three hundred years, their artistic bent had been improving her manufactures; if, during these three hundred years, their creative genius and analytic power had been enriching her literature and cultivating her science; if their wisdom had been guiding her councils, their bravery fighting her battles, their equity framing her laws, and the religion of the Bible strengthening the intellect and governing the conscience of her people, what a glory would at this day have encompassed France! What a great, prosperous, and happy country—a pattern to the nations— would she have been!
* Prov. 14:34; 16:12: “Wsareseel 7,
THE BIBLE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 279
“But a blind and inexorable bigotry chased from her soil every teacher of virtue, every champion of order, every hon- est defender of the throne; it said to the men who would have made their country a ‘renown and glory’ in the earth, Choose which you will have, a stake or exile. At last the ruin of the state was complete; there remained no more conscience to be proscribed; no more religion to be dragged to the stake; no more patriotism to be chased into banish- ment.’’* And the Revolution, with all its horrors, was the dire result.
“With the flight of the Huguenots a general decline set- tled upon France. Flourishing manufacturing cities fell into decay; fertile districts returned to their native wild- ‘ness; intellectual dulness and moral declension succeeded a period of unwonted progress. Paris became one vast almshouse, and it is estimated that, at the breaking out of the Revolution, two hundred thousand paupers claimed charity from the hands of the king. The Jesuits alone flourished in the decaying nation, and ruled with dreadful tyranny over churches and schools, the prisons and the galleys.’’ .
The gospel would have brought to France the solution of those political and social problems that baffled the skill of her clergy, her king, and her legislators, and finally plunged the nation into anarchy and ruin. But under the domina- tion of Rome the people had lost the Saviour’s blessed les- sons of self-sacrifice and unselfish love. They had been led away from the practice of self-denial for the good of others. The rich had found no rebuke for their oppression of the poor, the poor no help for their servitude and degradation. The selfishness of the wealthy and powerful grew more and more apparent and oppressive. For centuries the greed and profligacy of the noble resulted in grinding extortion toward the peasant. The rich wronged the poor, and the poor hated the rich.
In many provinces the estates were held by the nobles, and the laboring classes were only tenants; they were at the
1 Wylie, b. 13, ch. 20.
2380 + THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
mercy of their landlords, and were forced to submit to their exorbitant demands. The burden of supporting both the church and the state fell upon the middle and lower classes, who were heavily taxed by the civil authorities and by the clergy. ‘‘The pleasure of the nobles was considered the supreme law; the farmers and the peasants might starve, for aught their oppressors cared. .... The people were compelled at every turn to consult the exclusive interest of the landlord. The lives of the agricultural laborers were | lives of incessant work and unrelieved misery; their com- plaints, if they ever dared to complain, were treated with insolent contempt. The courts of justice would always listen to a noble as against a peasant; bribes were notoriously accepted by the judges; and the merest caprice of the aris-: toeracy had the foree of law, by virtue of this system of universal corruption. Of the taxes wrung from the commonalty, by the secular magnates on the one hand, and the clergy on the other, not half ever found its way into the royal or episcopal treasury; the rest was squandered in profligate self-indulgence. And the men who thus impovy- erished their fellow-subjects were themselves exempt from taxation, and entitled by law or custom to all the appoint- ments of the state. The privileged classes numbered a hundred and fifty thousand, and for their gratification millions were condemned to hopeless and degrading lives.’’'
The court was given up to luxury and profligacy. There was little confidence existing between the people and the rulers. Suspicion fastened upon all the measures of the government, as designing and selfish. For more than half a century before the time of the Revolution, the throne was occupied by Louis XV., who, even in those evil times, was distinguished as an indolent, frivolous, and sensual monarch. With a depraved and cruel aristocracy and an impoverished and ignorant lower class, the state financially embarrassed, and the people exasperated, it needed no prophet’s eye to foresee a terrible impending outbreak. To the warnings of his counselors the king was accustomed to reply, ‘‘Try to
*See Appendix.
THE BIBLE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 281
make things go on as long as I am likely to live; after my death it may be as it will.’’ It was in vain that the neces- sity of reform was urged. He saw the evils, but had neither the courage nor the power to meet them. The doom await- ing France was but too truly pictured in his indolent and selfish answer,—‘‘ After me, the deluge!’’
By working upon the jealousy of the kings and the rul- ing classes, Rome had influenced them to keep the people in bondage, well knowing that the state would thus be. weak- ened, and purposing by this means to fasten both rulers and people in her thrall. With far-sighted policy she perceived that in order to enslave men effectually, the shackles must be bound upon their souls; that the surest way to prevent them from escaping their bondage was to render-them incapable of freedom. A thousandfold more terrible than the physical suffering which resulted from her policy, was the moral deg- radation. Deprived of the Bible, and abandoned to the teachings of bigotry and selfishness, the people were shrouded in ignorance and superstition, and sunken in vice, so that they were wholly unfitted for self-government.
But the outworking of all this was widely different from what Rome had purposed. Instead of holding the masses in a blind submission to her dogmas, her work resulted in making them infidels and revolutionists. Romanism they despised as priesteraft. They beheld the clergy as a party to their oppression. The only god they knew was the god of Rome; her teaching was their only religion. They regarded her greed and cruelty as the legitimate fruit of the Bible, and they would have none of it.
Rome had misrepresented the character of God, and per- verted His requirements, and now men rejected both the Bible and its Author. She had required a blind faith in her dogmas, under the pretended sanction of the Seriptures. In the reaction, Voltaire and his associates cast aside God’s word altogether, and spread. everywhere the poison of infidelity. Rome had ground down the people under her iron heel; and now the masses, degraded and brutalized, in their recoil from
282 THE ‘GREAT CONTROVERSY
her tyranny, cast off all restraint. Enraged at the glitter- ing cheat to which they had so long paid homage, they re- jected truth and falsehood together; and mistaking license for liberty, the slaves of vice exulted in their imagined freedom.
At the opening of the Revolution, by a concession of the king, the people were granted a representation exceeding that of the nobles and the clergy combined. Thus. the bal- ance of power was in their hands; but they were not pre- pared.to use it with wisdom and moderation. Eager to redress the wrongs they had suffered, they determined to undertake the reconstruction of society. An outraged popu- lace, whose minds were filled with bitter and long-treasured memories of wrong, resolved to revolutionize the state of misery that had grown unbearable, and to revenge them- selves upon those whom they regarded as the authors of their sufferings. The oppressed wrought out the lesson they had learned under tyranny, and became the oppressors of those who had oppressed them. :
Unhappy France reaped in blood the harvest she had sown. Terrible were the results of her submission to the controlling power of Rome. Where France, under the in- fluence of Romanism, had set up the first stake at the open- ing of the Reformation, there the Revolution set up its first guillotine. On the very spot where the first martyrs to the Protestant faith were burned in the sixteenth century, the first victims were guillotined in the eighteenth. In repell- ing the gospel, which would have brought her healing, France had opened the door to infidelity and ruin. When the restraints of God’s law were cast aside, it was found that the laws of man were inadequate to hold in check the powerful tides of human passion; and the nation swept on to revolt and anarchy. The war against the Bible inaug- urated an era which stands in the world’s history as ‘‘The Reign of Terror.’’ Peace and happiness were banished from the homes and hearts of men. No one was secure. He who triumphed to-day was suspected, condemned, to-morrow. Violence and lust held undisputed sway.
THE BIBLE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 283
King, clergy, and nobles were compelled to submit to the atrocities of an excited and maddened people. Their thirst for vengeance was only stimulated by the execution of the king; and those who had decreed his death, soon followed him to the scaffold. A general slaughter of all suspected of hostility to the Revolution was determined. The prisons were crowded, at one time containing more than two hun- dred thousand captives. The cities of the kingdom were filled with scenes of horror. One party of revolutionists was against another party, and France became a vast field for contending masses, swayed by the fury of their passions. “‘In Paris one tumult succeeded another, and the citizens were divided into a medley of factions, that seemed intent on nothing but mutual extermination.’’ And to add to the general misery, the nation became involved in a prolonged and devastating war with the great powers of Europe. ‘‘The country was nearly bankrupt, the armies were clam- oring for arrears of pay, the Parisians were starving, the provinces were laid waste by brigands, and civilization was almost extinguished in anarchy and license.”’
All too well the people had learned the lessons of cruelty and torture which Rome had so diligently taught. A day of retribution at last had come. It was not now the dis- ciples of Jesus that were thrust into dungeons and dragged to the stake. Long ago these had perished or been driven into exile. Unsparing Rome now felt the deadly power of those whom she had trained to delight in deeds of blood. ““The example of persecution which the clergy of France had exhibited for so many ages, was now retorted upon them with signal vigor. The scaffolds ran red with the blood of the priests. The galleys and the prisons, once crowded with Huguenots, were now filled with their per. secutors. Chained to the bench and toiling at the oar, the Roman Catholic clergy experienced all those woes which their church had so freely inflicted on the gentle heretics.’’ *
*See Appendix.
284 ‘THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
‘‘Then came those days when the most barbarous of all codes was administered by the most barbarous of all tribu- nals; when no man could greet his neighbors or say his prayers ... without danger of committing a capital crime; when spies lurked in every corner; when the guillotine was long and hard at work every morning; when the jails were filled as close as the holds of a slave-ship; when the gut- ters ran foaming with blood into the Seine. ... While the daily wagon-loads of victims were carried to their doom through the streets of Paris, the proconsuls, whom the sovereign committee had sent forth to the departments, reveled in an extravagance of cruelty unknown even in the capital. The knife of the deadly machine rose and fell too slow for their work of slaughter. Long rows of captives were mowed down with grape-shot. Holes. were made in the bottom of crowded barges. Lyons was turned into a desert. At Arras even the cruel mercy of a speedy death was denied to the prisoners. All down the Loire, from Saumur to the sea, great flocks of crows and kites feasted on naked corpses, twined together in hideous embraces. No merey was shown to sex or age. The number of young lads and of girls of seventeen who were murdered by that execrable government, is to be reckoned by hundreds. Babies torn from the breast were tossed from pike to pike along the Jacobin ranks.’’* In the short space of ten years, mul- titudes of human beings perished.
All this was as Satan would have it. This was what for ages he had been working to secure. His policy is deception from first to last, and his steadfast purpose is to bring woe and wretchedness upon men, to deface and defile the work- manship of God, to mar the divine purposes of benevolence and love, and thus cause grief in heaven. Then by his deceptive arts he blinds the minds of men, and leads them to throw back the blame of his work upon God, as if all this misery were the result of the Creator’s plan. In like manner, when those who have been degraded and brutalized
See Appendix.
THE BIBLE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 285
through his cruel power achieve their freedom, he urges them on to excesses and atrocities. Then this picture of unbridled leense is pointed out by tyrants and oppressors as an illustration of the results of liberty.
When error in one garb has been detected, Satan only masks it in a different disguise, and multitudes receive it as eagerly as at the first. When the people found Romanism to be a deception, and he could not through this agency lead them to transgression of God’s law, he urged them to regard all religion as a cheat, and the Bible a fable; and casting aside the divine statutes, they gave themselves up to unbridled iniquity.
The fatal error which wrought such woe for the inhab- itants of France was the ignoring of this one great truth: that true freedom lies within the proscriptions of the law of God. ‘‘O that thou hadst hearkened to My command- ments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy right- eousness as the waves of the sea.’’ ‘‘There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.’’ ‘‘But whoso hearkeneth , unto Me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear oe et
Atheists, infidels, and apostates oppose and denounce God’s law; but the results of their influence prove that the well-being of man is bound up with his obedience of the divine statutes. Those who will not read the lesson from the book of God, are bidden to read it in the history of nations.
When Satan wrought through the Roman Church _ to lead men away from obedience, his agency was concealed, and his work was so disguised that the degradation and misery which resulted were not seen to be the fruit of trans- gression. And his power was so far counteracted by the working of the Spirit of God, that his purposes were pre- vented from reaching their full fruition. The people did not trace the effect to its cause, and discover the source of their miseries. But in the Revolution, the law of God
Isa. 48:18, 225 Prov. 1:33.
286 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
was openly set aside by the National Council. And in the Reign of Terror which followed, the working of cause and effect could be seen by all.
When France publicly rejected God and set aside the Bible, wicked men and spirits of darkness exulted.in their attainment of the object so long desired,—a kingdom free from the restraints of the law of God. Because sentence against an evil work was not speedily executed, therefore the heart of the sons of men was ‘‘fully set in them to do evil.’”’* But the transgression of a just and righteous law must inevitably result\in misery and ruin. Though not visited at once with judgments, the wickedness of men was nevertheless surely working out their doom. Centuries of apostasy and crime had been treasuring up wrath against the day of retribution; and when their iniquity was full, the despisers of God learned too late that it is a fearful thing to have worn out the divine patience. The restrain- ing Spirit of God, which imposes a check upon the cruel power of Satan, was in a great measure removed, and he whose only dehght is the wretchedness of men, was per- mitted to work his will. Those who had chosen the service of rebellion, were left to reap its fruits, until the land was filled with crimes too horrible for pen to trace. From devastated provinces and ruined eities a terrible cry was heard,— a ery of bitterest anguish. France was shaken as if by an earthquake. Religion, law, social order, the fam- ily, the state, and the church,—all were smitten down by the impious hand that had been lifted against the law of God. Truly spake the wise man: ‘‘The wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.’’ ‘‘Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before Him: but it shall not be well with the wicked.’’* ‘“They hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord;’’ ‘‘therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.’’*
°
* Heel. 8:11-13, BErOV. L203
THE BIBLE AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 287
God’s, faithful witnesses, slain by the blasphemous power that ‘‘ascendeth out of the bottomless pit,’’ were not long to remain’silent. ‘‘After three days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.’’’ It was in 1793 that the decrees which abolished the Christian religion and set aside the Bible, passed the French Assembly. Three years and a half later a resolution rescinding these de- erees, thus granting toleration to the Scriptures, was adopted by the same body. ‘The world stood aghast at the enormity of guilt which had resulted from a rejection of the Sacred Oracles, and men recognized the necessity of faith in God and His word as the foundation of virtue and morality. Saith the Lord, ‘‘Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and hfted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.’’ “‘Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know,. I will cause them to know Mine hand and My might; and they shall know that My name is Jehovah.’’*
Coneerning the two witnesses the prophet declares further: ‘‘And they heard a great voice from heaven say- ing unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.’’’* Since France made war upon God’s two witnesses, they have been honored as never before. In 1804 the British and Foreign Bible Society was organized. This was followed by similar organizations, with numerous branches, upon the continent of Europe. In 1816 the American Bible Society was founded. When the British Society was formed, the Bible had been printed and circulated in fifty tongues. It has since been translated into more than four hundred lan- guages and dialects.’
For the fifty years preceding 1792, little attention was given to the work of foreign missions. No new societies were formed, and there were but few churches that made
sieeve; iabarlil, Sao (ss eer Lowel *Rev. 11:12. °’See Appendix. 10—G. C.
288 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
any effort for the spread of Christianity in heathen lands. But toward the close of the eighteenth century a_ great change took place. Men became dissatisfied with the results of rationalism, and realized the necessity of divine revela- tion and experimental religion. From this time the work of foreign missions attained an unprecedented growth. '
The improvements in’ printing have given an impetus to the work of circulating the Bible. The increased facilities for communication between different countries, the breaking down of ancient barriers of prejudice and national exclu- siveness, and the loss of secular power by the pontiff of Rome, have opened the way for the entrance of the word of God. For some years the Bible has been sold without re- straint in the streets of Rome, and it has now been carried to every part of the habitable globe. j
The infidel Voltaire once boastingly said: “‘I am weary -of hearing people repeat that twelve men established the Christian religion. I will prove that one man may suffice to overthrow it.’’ A century has passed since his death. Millions have joined in the war upon the Bible. But it is so far from being destroyed, that where there were a hundred in Voltaire’s time, there are now ten thousand, yes, a hundred thousand copies of the Book of God. In the words of an early Reformer concerning the Christian church, ‘“The Bible is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.’’’ Saith the Lord, ‘‘No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.’’”
‘“‘The word of our God shall stand forever.’’? ‘‘All His commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.’’* Whatever is built upon the authority of man will be overthrown; but that which is founded upon the rock of God’s immutable word shall stand forever. —
See Appendix. *Tsa. 54:17. SIsa. 40:8; Ps. 111:7, 8.
COONS BIST LEE TDI ION.
THE PILGRIM FATHERS=—16
THe English Reformers, while renouncing the doctrines of Romanism, had retained many of its forms. Thus though the authority and the creed of Rome were rejected, not a few of her customs and ceremonies were incorporated into the worship of the Church of England. It was claimed that these things were not matters of conscience; that though they were not commanded in Scripture, and hence were non-essential, yet not being forbidden, they were not intrinsically evil. Their observance tended to narrow the gulf which separated the reformed churches from Rome, and it was urged that they would promote the acceptance of the Protestant faith by Romanists.
To the conservative and compromising, these arguments seemed conclusive. But there was another class that did not so judge. The fact that these customs ‘‘tended to bridge over the chasm between Rome and the Reforma- tion,’?* was in their view a conclusive argument against retaining them. They looked upon them as badges of the slavery from which they had been delivered, and to which they had no disposition to return. They reasoned that God has in His word established the regulations governing His worship, and that men are not at liberty to add _ to these or to detract from them. The very beginning of the great apostasy was in seeking to supplement the authority
‘Martyn, Vol. V, p. 22. (289)
290 THE GREAT CONTROVERSY
of God by that of the church. Rome began by enjoining what God had not forbidden, and she ended by forbidding what He had explicitly enjoined.
Many earnestly desired to return to the purity and sim- plicity which characterized the primitive church. They regarded many of the established customs of the English Church as monuments of idolatry, and they could not in conscience unite in her worship. But the church, being supported by the civil authority, would permit no dissent from her forms. Attendance upon her service was required by law, and unauthorized assembles for religious worship were prohibited, under penalty of imprisonment, exile, and death.
At the opening of the seventeenth century the monarch who had just ascended the throne of England declared his determination to make the Puritans ‘‘conform, or ae harry them out of the land, or else worse.’’* Hunted, per- secuted, and imprisoned, they could discern in the future no promise of better days, and many yielded to the con- viction that for such as would serve God according to the dictates of their conscience, ‘‘England was ceasing forever to be a habitable place.’’* Some at last determined to seek refuge in Holland, Difficulties, losses, and imprisonment were encountered. Their purposes were thwarted, and they were betrayed into the hands of their enemies. But stead- fast perseverance finally conquered, and they found shelter on the friendly shores of the Dutch Republic.
In their flight they had left their houses, their goods, and their means of livelihood. They were strangers in a strange land, among a people of different language and customs. They were forced to resort to new and untried occupations to earn their bread. Middle-aged men, who had spent their lives in tilling the soil, had now to learn mechanical trades. But they cheerfully accepted the situation, and lost no tirne in idleness or repining. Though often pinched with pov-
*Bancroft, George, ‘‘ History of the United States of America,’’