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The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan

by Ellen G. White · English · Gutenberg #25833 · 1,486,119 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan

Author: Ellen G. White


        
Release date: June 19, 2008 [eBook #25833]
                Most recently updated: June 20, 2020

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25833


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GREAT CONTROVERSY BETWEEN CHRIST AND SATAN ***





                         *The Great Controversy*

                         Between Christ and Satan

          The Conflict of the Ages in the Christian Dispensation

                            By Ellen G. White

                  Review & Herald Publishing Association

                             Washington, D.C.

             Copyright 1888, 1907, 1911, by Mrs. E. G. White





CONTENTS


Preface
Introduction.
1. The Destruction Of Jerusalem.
2. Persecution In The First Centuries.
3. The Apostasy.
4. The Waldenses.
5. John Wycliffe.
6. Huss and Jerome.
7. Luther’s Separation From Rome.
8. Luther Before The Diet.
9. The Swiss Reformer.
10. Progress Of Reform In Germany.
11. Protest Of The Princes.
12. The French Reformation.
13. The Netherlands And Scandinavia.
14. Later English Reformers.
15. The Bible And The French Revolution.
16. The Pilgrim Fathers.
17. Heralds Of The Morning.
18. An American Reformer.
19. Light Through Darkness.
20. A Great Religious Awakening.
21. A Warning Rejected.
22. Prophecies Fulfilled.
23. What Is The Sanctuary?
24. In The Holy Of Holies.
25. God’s Law Immutable.
26. A Work Of Reform.
27. Modern Revivals.
28. The Investigative Judgment.
29. The Origin Of Evil.
30. Enmity Between Man And Satan.
31. Agency Of Evil Spirits.
32. Snares Of Satan.
33. The First Great Deception.
34. Spiritualism.
35. Aims Of The Papacy.
36. The Impending Conflict.
37. The Scriptures A Safeguard.
38. The Final Warning.
39. “The Time Of Trouble.”
40. God’s People Delivered.
41. Desolation Of The Earth.
42. The Controversy Ended.
Appendix.
Index of Scripture References.
General Index.
Footnotes






PREFACE


                         [Illustration: Preface.]

This book, reader, is not published to tell us that there is sin and woe
and misery in this world. We know it all too well.

This book is not published to tell us that there is an irreconcilable
controversy between darkness and light, sin and righteousness, wrong and
right, death and life. In our heart of hearts we know it, and know that we
are participators, actors, in the conflict.

But to every one of us comes at times a longing to know more of the great
controversy. How did the controversy begin? or was it always here? What
elements enter into its awfully complex aspect? How am I related to it?
What is my responsibility? I find myself in this world by no choice of my
own. Does that mean to me evil or good?

What are the great principles involved? How long will the controversy
continue? What will be its ending? Will this earth sink, as some
scientists tell us, into the depths of a sunless, frozen, eternal night?
or is there a better future before it, radiant with the light of life,
warm with the eternal love of God?

The question comes closer still: How may the controversy in my own heart,
the strife between inflowing selfishness and outgoing love, be settled in
the victory of good, and settled forever? What does the Bible say? What
has God to teach us upon this question, eternally important to every soul?

Questions like these meet us from every side. They rise insistent up from
the depths of our own heart. They demand definite answer.

Surely the God who created in us the longing for the better, the desire
for the truth, will not withhold from us the answer to all needed
knowledge; for “the Lord Jehovah will do nothing, except He reveal His
secret unto His servants the prophets.”

It is the aim of this book, reader, to help the troubled soul to a right
solution of all these problems. It is written by one who has tasted and
found that God is good, and who has learned in communion with God and the
study of His word that the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him,
and that He will show them His covenant.

That we may better understand the principles of the all-important
controversy, in which the life of a universe is involved, the author has
set it before us in great, concrete object-lessons of the last twenty
centuries.

The book opens with the sad closing scenes of Jerusalem’s history, the
city of God’s chosen, after her rejection of the Man of Calvary, who came
to save. Thence onward along the great highway of the nations, it points
us to the persecutions of God’s children in the first centuries; the great
apostasy which followed in His church; the world-awakening of the
Reformation, in which some of the great principles of the controversy are
clearly manifest; the awful lesson of the rejection of right principles by
France; the revival and exaltation of the Scriptures, and their
beneficent, life-saving influence; the religious awakening of the last
days; the unsealing of the radiant fountain of God’s word, with its
wonderful revelations of light and knowledge to meet the baleful
upspringing of every delusion of darkness.

The present impending conflict, with the vital principles involved, in
which no one can be neutral, are simply, lucidly, strongly set forth.

Last of all, we are told of the eternal and glorious victory of good over
evil, right over wrong, light over darkness, joy over sorrow, hope over
despair, glory over shame, life over death, and everlasting,
long-suffering love over vindictive hate.

Former editions of this book have brought many souls to the True Shepherd;
it is the prayer of the publishers that this edition may be even more
fruitful of eternal good.

THE PUBLISHERS.





INTRODUCTION.


                       [Illustration: Introduction]

Before the entrance of sin, Adam enjoyed open communion with his Maker;
but since man separated himself from God by transgression, the human race
has been cut off from this high privilege. By the plan of redemption,
however, a way has been opened whereby the inhabitants of the earth may
still have connection with heaven. God has communicated with men by His
Spirit, and divine light has been imparted to the world by revelations to
His chosen servants. “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost.” 2 Peter 1:21.

During the first twenty-five hundred years of human history, there was no
written revelation. Those who had been taught of God, communicated their
knowledge to others, and it was handed down from father to son, through
successive generations. The preparation of the written word began in the
time of Moses. Inspired revelations were then embodied in an inspired
book. This work continued during the long period of sixteen hundred
years,—from Moses, the historian of creation and the law, to John, the
recorder of the most sublime truths of the gospel.

The Bible points to God as its author; yet it was written by human hands;
and in the varied style of its different books it presents the
characteristics of the several writers. The truths revealed are all “given
by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16); yet they are expressed in the words
of men. The Infinite One by His Holy Spirit has shed light into the minds
and hearts of His servants. He has given dreams and visions, symbols and
figures; and those to whom the truth was thus revealed, have themselves
embodied the thought in human language.

The ten commandments were spoken by God Himself, and were written by His
own hand. They are of divine, and not of human composition. But the Bible,
with its God-given truths expressed in the language of men, presents a
union of the divine and the human. Such a union existed in the nature of
Christ, who was the Son of God and the Son of man. Thus it is true of the
Bible, as it was of Christ, that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us.” John 1:14.

Written in different ages, by men who differed widely in rank and
occupation, and in mental and spiritual endowments, the books of the Bible
present a wide contrast in style, as well as a diversity in the nature of
the subjects unfolded. Different forms of expression are employed by
different writers; often the same truth is more strikingly presented by
one than by another. And as several writers present a subject under varied
aspects and relations, there may appear, to the superficial, careless, or
prejudiced reader, to be discrepancy or contradiction, where the
thoughtful, reverent student, with clearer insight, discerns the
underlying harmony.

As presented through different individuals, the truth is brought out in
its varied aspects. One writer is more strongly impressed with one phase
of the subject; he grasps those points that harmonize with his experience
or with his power of perception and appreciation; another seizes upon a
different phase; and each, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, presents
what is most forcibly impressed upon his own mind—a different aspect of
the truth in each, but a perfect harmony through all. And the truths thus
revealed unite to form a perfect whole, adapted to meet the wants of men
in all the circumstances and experiences of life.

God has been pleased to communicate His truth to the world by human
agencies, and He Himself, by His Holy Spirit, qualified men and enabled
them to do this work. He guided the mind in the selection of what to speak
and what to write. The treasure was intrusted to earthen vessels, yet it
is, none the less, from Heaven. The testimony is conveyed through the
imperfect expression of human language, yet it is the testimony of God;
and the obedient, believing child of God beholds in it the glory of a
divine power, full of grace and truth.

In His word, God has committed to men the knowledge necessary for
salvation. The Holy Scriptures are to be accepted as an authoritative,
infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the
revealer of doctrines, and the test of experience. “Every scripture
inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction which is in righteousness; that the man of God
may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.” 2 Tim. 3:16,
17, Revised Version.

Yet the fact that God has revealed His will to men through His word, has
not rendered needless the continued presence and guiding of the Holy
Spirit. On the contrary, the Spirit was promised by our Saviour, to open
the Word to His servants, to illuminate and apply its teachings. And since
it was the Spirit of God that inspired the Bible, it is impossible that
the teaching of the Spirit should ever be contrary to that of the Word.

The Spirit was not given—nor can it ever be bestowed—to supersede the
Bible; for the Scriptures explicitly state that the word of God is the
standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested. Says the
apostle John, “Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they
are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” 1
John 4:1. And Isaiah declares, “To the law and to the testimony: if they
speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in
them.” Isa. 8:20.

Great reproach has been cast upon the work of the Holy Spirit by the
errors of a class that, claiming its enlightenment, profess to have no
further need of guidance from the word of God. They are governed by
impressions which they regard as the voice of God in the soul. But the
spirit that controls them is not the Spirit of God. This following of
impressions, to the neglect of the Scriptures, can lead only to confusion,
to deception and ruin. It serves only to further the designs of the evil
one. Since the ministry of the Holy Spirit is of vital importance to the
church of Christ, it is one of the devices of Satan, through the errors of
extremists and fanatics, to cast contempt upon the work of the Spirit, and
cause the people of God to neglect this source of strength which our Lord
Himself has provided.

In harmony with the word of God, His Spirit was to continue its work
throughout the period of the gospel dispensation. During the ages while
the Scriptures of both the Old and the New Testament were being given, the
Holy Spirit did not cease to communicate light to individual minds, apart
from the revelations to be embodied in the Sacred Canon. The Bible itself
relates how, through the Holy Spirit, men received warning, reproof,
counsel, and instruction, in matters in no way relating to the giving of
the Scriptures. And mention is made of prophets in different ages, of
whose utterances nothing is recorded. In like manner, after the close of
the canon of Scripture, the Holy Spirit was still to continue its work, to
enlighten, warn, and comfort the children of God.

Jesus promised His disciples, “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and
bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
“When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth:
... and He will show you things to come.” John 14:26; 16:13. Scripture
plainly teaches that these promises, so far from being limited to
apostolic days, extend to the church of Christ in all ages. The Saviour
assures His followers, “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
world.” Matt. 28:20. And Paul declares that the gifts and manifestations
of the Spirit were set in the church “for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till
we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ.” Eph. 4:12, 13.

For the believers at Ephesus the apostle prayed, “That the God of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the _Spirit of wisdom
and revelation_ in the knowledge of Him: _the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened_; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and
... what is the _exceeding greatness_ of His power to us-ward who
believe.” Eph. 1:17-19. The ministry of the divine Spirit in enlightening
the understanding and opening to the mind the deep things of God’s holy
word, was the blessing which Paul thus besought for the Ephesian church.

After the wonderful manifestation of the Holy Spirit on the day of
Pentecost, Peter exhorted the people to repentance and baptism in the name
of Christ, for the remission of their sins; and he said: “Ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your
children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God
shall call.” Acts 2:38, 39.

In immediate connection with the scenes of the great day of God, the Lord
by the prophet Joel has promised a special manifestation of His Spirit.
Joel 2:28. This prophecy received a partial fulfilment in the outpouring
of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost; but it will reach its full
accomplishment in the manifestation of divine grace which will attend the
closing work of the gospel.

The great controversy between good and evil will increase in intensity to
the very close of time. In all ages the wrath of Satan has been manifested
against the church of Christ; and God has bestowed His grace and Spirit
upon His people to strengthen them to stand against the power of the evil
one. When the apostles of Christ were to bear His gospel to the world and
to record it for all future ages, they were especially endowed with the
enlightenment of the Spirit. But as the church approaches her final
deliverance, Satan is to work with greater power. He comes down “having
great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Rev.
12:12. He will work “with all power and signs and lying wonders.” 2 Thess.
2:9. For six thousand years that master-mind that once was highest among
the angels of God, has been wholly bent to the work of deception and ruin.
And all the depths of satanic skill and subtlety acquired, all the cruelty
developed, during these struggles of the ages, will be brought to bear
against God’s people in the final conflict. And in this time of peril the
followers of Christ are to bear to the world the warning of the Lord’s
second advent; and a people are to be prepared to stand before Him at His
coming, “without spot, and blameless.” 2 Peter 3:14. At this time the
special endowment of divine grace and power is not less needful to the
church than in apostolic days.

Through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the scenes of the
long-continued conflict between good and evil have been opened to the
writer of these pages. From time to time I have been permitted to behold
the working, in different ages, of the great controversy between Christ,
the Prince of life, the Author of our salvation, and Satan, the prince of
evil, the author of sin, the first transgressor of God’s holy law. Satan’s
enmity against Christ has been manifested against His followers. The same
hatred of the principles of God’s law, the same policy of deception, by
which error is made to appear as truth, by which human laws are
substituted for the law of God, and men are led to worship the creature
rather than the Creator, may be traced in all the history of the past.
Satan’s efforts to misrepresent the character of God, to cause men to
cherish a false conception of the Creator, and thus to regard Him with
fear and hate rather than with love; his endeavors to set aside the divine
law, leading the people to think themselves free from its requirements;
and his persecution of those who dare to resist his deceptions, have been
steadfastly pursued in all ages. They may be traced in the history of
patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, of martyrs and reformers.

In the great final conflict, Satan will employ the same policy, manifest
the same spirit, and work for the same end, as in all preceding ages. That
which has been, will be, except that the coming struggle will be marked
with a terrible intensity such as the world has never witnessed. Satan’s
deceptions will be more subtle, his assaults more determined. If it were
possible, he would lead astray the elect. Mark 13:22, Revised Version.

As the Spirit of God has opened to my mind the great truths of His word,
and the scenes of the past and the future, I have been bidden to make
known to others that which has thus been revealed,—to trace the history of
the controversy in past ages, and especially so to present it as to shed a
light on the fast-approaching struggle of the future. In pursuance of this
purpose, I have endeavored to select and group together events in the
history of the church in such a manner as to trace the unfolding of the
great testing truths that at different periods have been given to the
world, that have excited the wrath of Satan, and the enmity of a
world-loving church, and that have been maintained by the witness of those
who “loved not their lives unto the death.”

In these records we may see a foreshadowing of the conflict before us.
Regarding them in the light of God’s word, and by the illumination of His
Spirit, we may see unveiled the devices of the wicked one, and the dangers
which they must shun who would be found “without fault” before the Lord at
His coming.

The great events which have marked the progress of reform in past ages,
are matters of history, well known and universally acknowledged by the
Protestant world; they are facts which none can gainsay. This history I
have presented briefly, in accordance with the scope of the book, and the
brevity which must necessarily be observed, the facts having been
condensed into as little space as seemed consistent with a proper
understanding of their application. In some cases where a historian has so
grouped together events as to afford, in brief, a comprehensive view of
the subject, or has summarized details in a convenient manner, his words
have been quoted; but in some instances no specific credit has been given,
since the quotations are not given for the purpose of citing that writer
as authority, but because his statement affords a ready and forcible
presentation of the subject. In narrating the experience and views of
those carrying forward the work of reform in our own time, similar use has
been made of their published works.

It is not so much the object of this book to present new truths concerning
the struggles of former times, as to bring out facts and principles which
have a bearing on coming events. Yet viewed as a part of the controversy
between the forces of light and darkness, all these records of the past
are seen to have a new significance; and through them a light is cast upon
the future, illumining the pathway of those who, like the reformers of
past ages, will be called, even at the peril of all earthly good, to
witness “for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

To unfold the scenes of the great controversy between truth and error; to
reveal the wiles of Satan, and the means by which he may be successfully
resisted; to present a satisfactory solution of the great problem of evil,
shedding such a light upon the origin and the final disposition of sin as
to make fully manifest the justice and benevolence of God in all His
dealings with His creatures; and to show the holy, unchanging nature of
His law, is the object of this book. That through its influence souls may
be delivered from the power of darkness, and become “partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light,” to the praise of Him who loved us,
and gave Himself for us, is the earnest prayer of the writer.

E. G. W.

           [Illustration: Jerusalem From The Mount Of Olives.]

                   Jerusalem From The Mount Of Olives.





1. THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.


               [Illustration: The Destruction Of Jerusalem]

“If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things
which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the
days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about
thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall
lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they
shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not
the time of thy visitation.”(1)

From the crest of Olivet, Jesus looked upon Jerusalem. Fair and peaceful
was the scene spread out before Him. It was the season of the Passover,
and from all lands the children of Jacob had gathered there to celebrate
the great national festival. In the midst of gardens and vineyards, and
green slopes studded with pilgrims’ tents, rose the terraced hills, the
stately palaces, and massive bulwarks of Israel’s capital. The daughter of
Zion seemed in her pride to say, “I sit a queen, and shall see no sorrow;”
as lovely then, and deeming herself as secure in Heaven’s favor, as when,
ages before, the royal minstrel sung, “Beautiful for situation, the joy of
the whole earth, is Mount Zion, ... the city of the great King.”(2) In
full view were the magnificent buildings of the temple. The rays of the
setting sun lighted up the snowy whiteness of its marble walls, and
gleamed from golden gate and tower and pinnacle. “The perfection of
beauty” it stood, the pride of the Jewish nation. What child of Israel
could gaze upon the scene without a thrill of joy and admiration! But far
other thoughts occupied the mind of Jesus. “When He was come near, He
beheld the city, and wept over it.”(3) Amid the universal rejoicing of the
triumphal entry, while palm branches waved, while glad hosannas awoke the
echoes of the hills, and thousands of voices declared Him king, the
world’s Redeemer was overwhelmed with a sudden and mysterious sorrow. He,
the Son of God, the Promised One of Israel, whose power had conquered
death, and called its captives from the grave, was in tears, not of
ordinary grief, but of intense, irrepressible agony.

His tears were not for Himself, though He well knew whither His feet were
tending. Before Him lay Gethsemane, the scene of His approaching agony.
The sheep gate also was in sight, through which for centuries the victims
for sacrifice had been led, and which was to open for Him when He should
be “brought as a lamb to the slaughter.”(4) Not far distant was Calvary,
the place of crucifixion. Upon the path which Christ was soon to tread
must fall the horror of great darkness as He should make His soul an
offering for sin. Yet it was not the contemplation of these scenes that
cast the shadow upon Him in this hour of gladness. No foreboding of His
own superhuman anguish clouded that unselfish spirit. He wept for the
doomed thousands of Jerusalem—because of the blindness and impenitence of
those whom He came to bless and to save.

The history of more than a thousand years of God’s special favor and
guardian care, manifested to the chosen people, was open to the eye of
Jesus. There was Mount Moriah, where the son of promise, an unresisting
victim, had been bound to the altar,—emblem of the offering of the Son of
God.(5) There, the covenant of blessing, the glorious Messianic promise,
had been confirmed to the father of the faithful. There, the flames of the
sacrifice ascending to heaven from the threshing-floor of Ornan had turned
aside the sword of the destroying angel(6)—fitting symbol of the Saviour’s
sacrifice and mediation for guilty men. Jerusalem had been honored of God
above all the earth. The Lord had “chosen Zion,” He had “desired it for
His habitation.”(7) There, for ages, holy prophets had uttered their
messages of warning. There, priests had waved their censers, and the cloud
of incense, with the prayers of the worshipers, had ascended before God.
There, daily the blood of slain lambs had been offered, pointing forward
to the Lamb of God. There, Jehovah had revealed His presence in the cloud
of glory above the mercy-seat. There, rested the base of that mystic
ladder connecting earth with heaven,(8)—that ladder upon which angels of
God descended and ascended, and which opened to the world the way into the
holiest of all. Had Israel as a nation preserved her allegiance to Heaven,
Jerusalem would have stood forever, the elect of God.(9) But the history
of that favored people was a record of backsliding and rebellion. They had
resisted Heaven’s grace, abused their privileges, and slighted their
opportunities.

Although Israel had “mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words,
and misused His prophets,”(10) He had still manifested Himself to them, as
“the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in
goodness and truth;”(11) notwithstanding repeated rejections, His mercy
had continued its pleadings. With more than a father’s pitying love for
the son of his care, God had “sent to them by His messengers, rising up
betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His
dwelling-place.”(12) When remonstrance, entreaty, and rebuke had failed,
He sent to them the best gift of heaven; nay, He poured out all heaven in
that one Gift.

The Son of God Himself was sent to plead with the impenitent city. It was
Christ that had brought Israel as a goodly vine out of Egypt.(13) His own
hand had cast out the heathen before it. He had planted it “in a very
fruitful hill.”(14) His guardian care had hedged it about. His servants
had been sent to nurture it. “What could have been done more to My
vineyard,” He exclaims, “that I have not done in it?”(15) Though when He
“looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild
grapes,”(16) yet with a still yearning hope of fruitfulness He came in
person to His vineyard, if haply it might be saved from destruction. He
digged about His vine; He pruned and cherished it. He was unwearied in His
efforts to save this vine of His own planting.

For three years the Lord of light and glory had gone in and out among His
people. He “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of
the devil,”(17) binding up the broken-hearted, setting at liberty them
that were bound, restoring sight to the blind, causing the lame to walk
and the deaf to hear, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, and
preaching the gospel to the poor. To all classes alike was addressed the
gracious call, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest.”(18)

Though rewarded with evil for good, and hatred for His love,(19) He had
steadfastly pursued His mission of mercy. Never were those repelled that
sought His grace. A homeless wanderer, reproach and penury His daily lot,
He lived to minister to the needs and lighten the woes of men, to plead
with them to accept the gift of life. The waves of mercy, beaten back by
those stubborn hearts, returned in a stronger tide of pitying,
inexpressible love. But Israel had turned from her best Friend and only
Helper. The pleadings of His love had been despised, His counsels spurned,
His warnings ridiculed.

The hour of hope and pardon was fast passing; the cup of God’s
long-deferred wrath was almost full. The cloud that had been gathering
through ages of apostasy and rebellion, now black with woe, was about to
burst upon a guilty people; and He who alone could save them from their
impending fate had been slighted, abused, rejected, and was soon to be
crucified. When Christ should hang upon the cross of Calvary, Israel’s day
as a nation favored and blessed of God would be ended. The loss of even
one soul is a calamity infinitely outweighing the gains and treasures of a
world; but as Christ looked upon Jerusalem, the doom of a whole city, a
whole nation, was before Him,—that city, that nation, which had once been
the chosen of God, His peculiar treasure.

Prophets had wept over the apostasy of Israel, and the terrible
desolations by which their sins were visited. Jeremiah wished that his
eyes were a fountain of tears, that he might weep day and night for the
slain of the daughter of his people, for the Lord’s flock that was carried
away captive.(20) What, then, was the grief of Him whose prophetic glance
took in, not years, but ages! He beheld the destroying angel with sword
uplifted against the city which had so long been Jehovah’s dwelling-place.
From the ridge of Olivet, the very spot afterward occupied by Titus and
his army, He looked across the valley upon the sacred courts and
porticoes, and with tear-dimmed eyes He saw, in awful perspective, the
walls surrounded by alien hosts. He heard the tread of armies marshaling
for war. He heard the voice of mothers and children crying for bread in
the besieged city. He saw her holy and beautiful house, her palaces and
towers, given to the flames, and where once they stood, only a heap of
smouldering ruins.

Looking down the ages, He saw the covenant people scattered in every land,
“like wrecks on a desert shore.” In the temporal retribution about to fall
upon her children, He saw but the first draught from that cup of wrath
which at the final judgment she must drain to its dregs. Divine pity,
yearning love, found utterance in the mournful words: “ ‘O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent
unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as
a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!’(21) O
that thou, a nation favored above every other, hadst known the time of thy
visitation, and the things that belong unto thy peace! I have stayed the
angel of justice, I have called thee to repentance, but in vain. It is not
merely servants, delegates, and prophets, whom thou hast refused and
rejected, but the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer. If thou art destroyed,
thou alone art responsible. ‘Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have
life.’ ”(22)

Christ saw in Jerusalem a symbol of the world hardened in unbelief and
rebellion, and hastening on to meet the retributive judgments of God. The
woes of a fallen race, pressing upon His soul, forced from His lips that
exceeding bitter cry. He saw the record of sin traced in human misery,
tears, and blood; His heart was moved with infinite pity for the afflicted
and suffering ones of earth; He yearned to relieve them all. But even His
hand might not turn back the tide of human woe; few would seek their only
Source of help. He was willing to pour out His soul unto death, to bring
salvation within their reach; but few would come to Him that they might
have life.

The Majesty of heaven in tears! the Son of the infinite God troubled in
spirit, bowed down with anguish! The scene filled all heaven with wonder.
That scene reveals to us the exceeding sinfulness of sin; it shows how
hard a task it is, even for infinite power, to save the guilty from the
consequences of transgressing the law of God. Jesus, looking down to the
last generation, saw the world involved in a deception similar to that
which caused the destruction of Jerusalem. The great sin of the Jews was
their rejection of Christ; the great sin of the Christian world would be
their rejection of the law of God, the foundation of His government in
heaven and earth. The precepts of Jehovah would be despised and set at
naught. Millions in bondage to sin, slaves of Satan, doomed to suffer the
second death, would refuse to listen to the words of truth in their day of
visitation. Terrible blindness! strange infatuation!

Two days before the Passover, when Christ had for the last time departed
from the temple, after denouncing the hypocrisy of the Jewish rulers, He
again went out with His disciples to the Mount of Olives, and seated
Himself with them upon the grassy slope overlooking the city. Once more He
gazed upon its walls, its towers, and its palaces. Once more He beheld the
temple in its dazzling splendor, a diadem of beauty crowning the sacred
mount.

A thousand years before, the psalmist had magnified God’s favor to Israel
in making her holy house His dwelling-place: “In Salem also is His
tabernacle, and His dwelling-place in Zion.”(23) He “chose the tribe of
Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved. And He built His sanctuary like high
palaces.”(24) The first temple had been erected during the most prosperous
period of Israel’s history. Vast stores of treasure for this purpose had
been collected by King David, and the plans for its construction were made
by divine inspiration.(25) Solomon, the wisest of Israel’s monarchs, had
completed the work. This temple was the most magnificent building which
the world ever saw. Yet the Lord had declared by the prophet Haggai,
concerning the second temple, “The glory of this latter house shall be
greater than of the former.” “I will shake all nations, and the Desire of
all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the
Lord of hosts.”(26)

After the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, it was rebuilt
about five hundred years before the birth of Christ, by a people who from
a life-long captivity had returned to a wasted and almost deserted
country. There were then among them aged men who had seen the glory of
Solomon’s temple, and who wept at the foundation of the new building, that
it must be so inferior to the former. The feeling that prevailed is
forcibly described by the prophet: “Who is left among you that saw this
house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes
in comparison of it as nothing?”(27) Then was given the promise that the
glory of this latter house should be greater than that of the former.

But the second temple had not equaled the first in magnificence; nor was
it hallowed by those visible tokens of the divine presence which pertained
to the first temple. There was no manifestation of supernatural power to
mark its dedication. No cloud of glory was seen to fill the newly erected
sanctuary. No fire from heaven descended to consume the sacrifice upon its
altar. The shekinah no longer abode between the cherubim in the most holy
place; the ark, the mercy-seat, and the tables of the testimony were not
to be found therein. No voice sounded from heaven to make known to the
inquiring priest the will of Jehovah.

For centuries the Jews had vainly endeavored to show wherein the promise
of God given by Haggai, had been fulfilled; yet pride and unbelief blinded
their minds to the true meaning of the prophet’s words. The second temple
was not honored with the cloud of Jehovah’s glory, but with the living
presence of One in whom dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily—who was
God Himself manifest in the flesh. The “Desire of all nations” had indeed
come to His temple when the Man of Nazareth taught and healed in the
sacred courts. In the presence of Christ, and in this only, did the second
temple exceed the first in glory. But Israel had put from her the
proffered Gift of heaven. With the humble Teacher who had that day passed
out from its golden gate, the glory had forever departed from the temple.
Already were the Saviour’s words fulfilled, “Your house is left unto you
desolate.”(28)

The disciples had been filled with awe and wonder at Christ’s prediction
of the overthrow of the temple, and they desired to understand more fully
the meaning of His words. Wealth, labor, and architectural skill had for
more than forty years been freely expended to enhance its splendors. Herod
the Great had lavished upon it both Roman wealth and Jewish treasure, and
even the emperor of the world had enriched it with his gifts. Massive
blocks of white marble, of almost fabulous size, forwarded from Rome for
this purpose, formed a part of its structure; and to these the disciples
had called the attention of their Master, saying, “See what manner of
stones and what buildings are here!”(29)

To these words, Jesus made the solemn and startling reply, “Verily I say
unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall
not be thrown down.”(30)

With the overthrow of Jerusalem the disciples associated the events of
Christ’s personal coming in temporal glory to take the throne of universal
empire, to punish the impenitent Jews, and to break from off the nation
the Roman yoke. The Lord had told them that He would come the second time.
Hence at the mention of judgments upon Jerusalem, their minds reverted to
that coming; and as they were gathered about the Saviour upon the Mount of
Olives, they asked, “When shall these things be? and what shall be the
sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?”(31)

The future was mercifully veiled from the disciples. Had they at that time
fully comprehended the two awful facts,—the Redeemer’s sufferings and
death, and the destruction of their city and temple,—they would have been
overwhelmed with horror. Christ presented before them an outline of the
prominent events to take place before the close of time. His words were
not then fully understood; but their meaning was to be unfolded as His
people should need the instruction therein given. The prophecy which He
uttered was twofold in its meaning: while foreshadowing the destruction of
Jerusalem, it prefigured also the terrors of the last great day.

Jesus declared to the listening disciples the judgments that were to fall
upon apostate Israel, and especially the retributive vengeance that would
come upon them for their rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah.
Unmistakable signs would precede the awful climax. The dreaded hour would
come suddenly and swiftly. And the Saviour warned His followers: “When ye
therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the
prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.”(32) When the
idolatrous standards of the Romans should be set up in the holy ground,
which extended some furlongs outside the city walls, then the followers of
Christ were to find safety in flight. When the warning sign should be
seen, those who would escape must make no delay. Throughout the land of
Judea, as well as in Jerusalem itself, the signal for flight must be
immediately obeyed. He who chanced to be upon the housetop must not go
down into his house, even to save his most valued treasures. Those who
were working in the fields or vineyards must not take time to return for
the outer garment laid aside while they should be toiling in the heat of
the day. They must not hesitate a moment, lest they be involved in the
general destruction.

In the reign of Herod, Jerusalem had not only been greatly beautified, but
by the erection of towers, walls, and fortresses, adding to the natural
strength of its situation, it had been rendered apparently impregnable. He
who would at this time have foretold publicly its destruction, would, like
Noah in his day, have been called a crazed alarmist. But Christ had said,
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”(33)
Because of her sins, wrath had been denounced against Jerusalem, and her
stubborn unbelief rendered her doom certain.

The Lord had declared by the prophet Micah: “Hear this, I pray you, ye
heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that
abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood, and
Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the
priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money:
yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none
evil can come upon us.”(34)

These words faithfully described the corrupt and self-righteous
inhabitants of Jerusalem. While claiming to observe rigidly the precepts
of God’s law, they were transgressing all its principles. They hated
Christ because His purity and holiness revealed their iniquity; and they
accused Him of being the cause of all the troubles which had come upon
them in consequence of their sins. Though they knew Him to be sinless,
they had declared that His death was necessary to their safety as a
nation. “If we let Him thus alone,” said the Jewish leaders, “all men will
believe on Him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and
nation.”(35) If Christ were sacrificed, they might once more become a
strong, united people. Thus they reasoned, and they concurred in the
decision of their high priest, that it would be better for one man to die
than for the whole nation to perish.

Thus the Jewish leaders had “built up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with
iniquity.” And yet, while they slew their Saviour because He reproved
their sins, such was their self-righteousness that they regarded
themselves as God’s favored people, and expected the Lord to deliver them
from their enemies. “Therefore,” continued the prophet, “shall Zion for
your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the
mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.”(36)

For nearly forty years after the doom of Jerusalem had been pronounced by
Christ Himself, the Lord delayed His judgments upon the city and the
nation. Wonderful was the long-suffering of God toward the rejecters of
His gospel and the murderers of His Son. The parable of the unfruitful
tree represented God’s dealings with the Jewish nation. The command had
gone forth, “Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?”(37) but divine
mercy had spared it yet a little longer. There were still many among the
Jews who were ignorant of the character and the work of Christ. And the
children had not enjoyed the opportunities or received the light which
their parents had spurned. Through the preaching of the apostles and their
associates, God would cause light to shine upon them; they would be
permitted to see how prophecy had been fulfilled, not only in the birth
and life of Christ, but in His death and resurrection. The children were
not condemned for the sins of the parents; but when, with a knowledge of
all the light given to their parents, the children rejected the additional
light granted to themselves, they became partakers of the parents’ sins,
and filled up the measure of their iniquity.

The long-suffering of God toward Jerusalem only confirmed the Jews in
their stubborn impenitence. In their hatred and cruelty toward the
disciples of Jesus, they rejected the last offer of mercy. Then God
withdrew His protection from them, and removed His restraining power from
Satan and his angels, and the nation was left to the control of the leader
she had chosen. Her children had spurned the grace of Christ, which would
have enabled them to subdue their evil impulses, and now these became the
conquerors. Satan aroused the fiercest and most debased passions of the
soul. Men did not reason; they were beyond reason,—controlled by impulse
and blind rage. They became satanic in their cruelty. In the family and in
the nation, among the highest and the lowest classes alike, there was
suspicion, envy, hatred, strife, rebellion, murder. There was no safety
anywhere. Friends and kindred betrayed one another. Parents slew their
children and children their parents. The rulers of the people had no power
to rule themselves. Uncontrolled passions made them tyrants. The Jews had
accepted false testimony to condemn the innocent Son of God. Now false
accusations made their own lives uncertain. By their actions they had long
been saying, “Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.”(38)
Now their desire was granted. The fear of God no longer disturbed them.
Satan was at the head of the nation, and the highest civil and religious
authorities were under his sway.

The leaders of the opposing factions at times united to plunder and
torture their wretched victims, and again they fell upon each other’s
forces, and slaughtered without mercy. Even the sanctity of the temple
could not restrain their horrible ferocity. The worshipers were stricken
down before the altar, and the sanctuary was polluted with the bodies of
the slain. Yet in their blind and blasphemous presumption the instigators
of this hellish work publicly declared that they had no fear that
Jerusalem would be destroyed, for it was God’s own city. To establish
their power more firmly, they bribed false prophets to proclaim, even
while Roman legions were besieging the temple, that the people were to
wait for deliverance from God. To the last, multitudes held fast to the
belief that the Most High would interpose for the defeat of their
adversaries. But Israel had spurned the divine protection, and now she had
no defense. Unhappy Jerusalem! rent by internal dissensions, the blood of
her children slain by one another’s hands crimsoning her streets, while
alien armies beat down her fortifications and slew her men of war!

All the predictions given by Christ concerning the destruction of
Jerusalem were fulfilled to the letter. The Jews experienced the truth of
His words of warning, “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to
you again.”(39)

Signs and wonders appeared, foreboding disaster and doom. In the midst of
the night an unnatural light shone over the temple and the altar. Upon the
clouds at sunset were pictured chariots and men of war gathering for
battle. The priests ministering by night in the sanctuary were terrified
by mysterious sounds; the earth trembled, and a multitude of voices were
heard crying, “Let us depart hence.” The great eastern gate, which was so
heavy that it could hardly be shut by a score of men, and which was
secured by immense bars of iron fastened deep in the pavement of solid
stone, opened at midnight, without visible agency.(40)

For seven years a man continued to go up and down the streets of
Jerusalem, declaring the woes that were to come upon the city. By day and
by night he chanted the wild dirge, “A voice from the east! a voice from
the west! a voice from the four winds! a voice against Jerusalem and
against the temple! a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides! a
voice against the whole people!” This strange being was imprisoned and
scourged, but no complaint escaped his lips. To insult and abuse he
answered only, “Woe, woe to Jerusalem!” “woe, woe to the inhabitants
thereof!” His warning cry ceased not until he was slain in the siege he
had foretold.

Not one Christian perished in the destruction of Jerusalem. Christ had
given His disciples warning, and all who believed His words watched for
the promised sign. “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies,”
said Jesus, “then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them
which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the
midst of it depart out.”(41) After the Romans under Cestius had surrounded
the city, they unexpectedly abandoned the siege when everything seemed
favorable for an immediate attack. The besieged, despairing of successful
resistance, were on the point of surrender, when the Roman general
withdrew his forces without the least apparent reason. But God’s merciful
providence was directing events for the good of His own people. The
promised sign had been given to the waiting Christians, and now an
opportunity was afforded for all who would, to obey the Saviour’s warning.
Events were so overruled that neither Jews nor Romans should hinder the
flight of the Christians. Upon the retreat of Cestius, the Jews, sallying
from Jerusalem, pursued after his retiring army; and while both forces
were thus fully engaged, the Christians had an opportunity to leave the
city. At this time the country also had been cleared of enemies who might
have endeavored to intercept them. At the time of the siege, the Jews were
assembled at Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, and thus the
Christians throughout the land were able to make their escape unmolested.
Without delay they fled to a place of safety,—the city of Pella, in the
land of Perea, beyond Jordan.

The Jewish forces, pursuing after Cestius and his army, fell upon their
rear with such fierceness as to threaten them with total destruction. It
was with great difficulty that the Romans succeeded in making their
retreat. The Jews escaped almost without loss, and with their spoils
returned in triumph to Jerusalem. Yet this apparent success brought them
only evil. It inspired them with that spirit of stubborn resistance to the
Romans which speedily brought unutterable woe upon the doomed city.

Terrible were the calamities that fell upon Jerusalem when the siege was
resumed by Titus. The city was invested at the time of the Passover, when
millions of Jews were assembled within its walls. Their stores of
provision, which if carefully preserved would have supplied the
inhabitants for years, had previously been destroyed through the jealousy
and revenge of the contending factions, and now all the horrors of
starvation were experienced. A measure of wheat was sold for a talent. So
fierce were the pangs of hunger that men would gnaw the leather of their
belts and sandals and the covering of their shields. Great numbers of the
people would steal out at night to gather wild plants growing outside the
city walls, though many were seized and put to death with cruel torture,
and often those who returned in safety were robbed of what they had
gleaned at so great peril. The most inhuman tortures were inflicted by
those in power, to force from the want-stricken people the last scanty
supplies which they might have concealed. And these cruelties were not
infrequently practised by men who were themselves well fed, and who were
merely desirous of laying up a store of provision for the future.

Thousands perished from famine and pestilence. Natural affection seemed to
have been destroyed. Husbands robbed their wives, and wives their
husbands. Children would be seen snatching the food from the mouths of
their aged parents. The question of the prophet, “Can a woman forget her
sucking child?”(42) received the answer within the walls of that doomed
city, “The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they
were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.”(43)
Again was fulfilled the warning prophecy given fourteen centuries before:
“The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set
the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her
eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and
toward her daughter, ... and toward her children which she shall bear: for
she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and
straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.”(44)

The Roman leaders endeavored to strike terror to the Jews, and thus cause
them to surrender. Those prisoners who resisted when taken, were scourged,
tortured, and crucified before the wall of the city. Hundreds were daily
put to death in this manner, and the dreadful work continued until, along
the valley of Jehoshaphat and at Calvary, crosses were erected in so great
numbers that there was scarcely room to move among them. So terribly was
visited that awful imprecation uttered before the judgment-seat of Pilate:
“His blood be on us, and on our children.”(45)

Titus would willingly have put an end to the fearful scene, and thus have
spared Jerusalem the full measure of her doom. He was filled with horror
as he saw the bodies of the dead lying in heaps in the valleys. Like one
entranced, he looked from the crest of Olivet upon the magnificent temple,
and gave command that not one stone of it be touched. Before attempting to
gain possession of this stronghold, he made an earnest appeal to the
Jewish leaders not to force him to defile the sacred place with blood. If
they would come forth and fight in any other place, no Roman should
violate the sanctity of the temple. Josephus himself, in a most eloquent
appeal, entreated them to surrender, to save themselves, their city, and
their place of worship. But his words were answered with bitter curses.
Darts were hurled at him, their last human mediator, as he stood pleading
with them. The Jews had rejected the entreaties of the Son of God, and now
expostulation and entreaty only made them more determined to resist to the
last. In vain were the efforts of Titus to save the temple; One greater
than he had declared that not one stone was to be left upon another.

The blind obstinacy of the Jewish leaders, and the detestable crimes
perpetrated within the besieged city, excited the horror and indignation
of the Romans, and Titus at last decided to take the temple by storm. He
determined, however, that if possible it should be saved from destruction.
But his commands were disregarded. After he had retired to his tent at
night, the Jews, sallying from the temple, attacked the soldiers without.
In the struggle, a firebrand was flung by a soldier through an opening in
the porch, and immediately the cedar-lined chambers about the holy house
were in a blaze. Titus rushed to the place, followed by his generals and
legionaries, and commanded the soldiers to quench the flames. His words
were unheeded. In their fury the soldiers hurled blazing brands into the
chambers adjoining the temple, and then with their swords they slaughtered
in great numbers those who had found shelter there. Blood flowed down the
temple steps like water. Thousands upon thousands of Jews perished. Above
the sound of battle, voices were heard shouting, “Ichabod!”—the glory is
departed.

“Titus found it impossible to check the rage of the soldiery; he entered
with his officers, and surveyed the interior of the sacred edifice. The
splendor filled them with wonder; and as the flames had not yet penetrated
to the holy place, he made a last effort to save it, and springing forth,
again exhorted the soldiers to stay the progress of the conflagration. The
centurion Liberalis endeavored to force obedience with his staff of
office; but even respect for the emperor gave way to the furious animosity
against the Jews, to the fierce excitement of battle, and to the
insatiable hope of plunder. The soldiers saw everything around them
radiant with gold, which shone dazzlingly in the wild light of the flames;
they supposed that incalculable treasures were laid up in the sanctuary. A
soldier, unperceived, thrust a lighted torch between the hinges of the
door: the whole building was in flames in an instant. The blinding smoke
and fire forced the officers to retreat, and the noble edifice was left to
its fate.

“It was an appalling spectacle to the Roman—what was it to the Jew? The
whole summit of the hill which commanded the city, blazed like a volcano.
One after another the buildings fell in, with a tremendous crash, and were
swallowed up in the fiery abyss. The roofs of cedar were like sheets of
flame; the gilded pinnacles shone like spikes of red light; the gate
towers sent up tall columns of flame and smoke. The neighboring hills were
lighted up; and dark groups of people were seen watching in horrible
anxiety the progress of the destruction: the walls and heights of the
upper city were crowded with faces, some pale with the agony of despair,
others scowling unavailing vengeance. The shouts of the Roman soldiery as
they ran to and fro, and the howlings of the insurgents who were perishing
in the flames, mingled with the roaring of the conflagration and the
thundering sound of falling timbers. The echoes of the mountains replied
or brought back the shrieks of the people on the heights; all along the
walls resounded screams and wailings; men who were expiring with famine
rallied their remaining strength to utter a cry of anguish and desolation.

“The slaughter within was even more dreadful than the spectacle from
without. Men and women, old and young, insurgents and priests, those who
fought and those who entreated mercy, were hewn down in indiscriminate
carnage. The number of the slain exceeded that of the slayers. The
legionaries had to clamber over heaps of dead to carry on the work of
extermination.”(46)

After the destruction of the temple, the whole city soon fell into the
hands of the Romans. The leaders of the Jews forsook their impregnable
towers, and Titus found them solitary. He gazed upon them with amazement,
and declared that God had given them into his hands; for no engines,
however powerful, could have prevailed against those stupendous
battlements. Both the city and the temple were razed to their foundations,
and the ground upon which the holy house had stood was “plowed like a
field.”(47) In the siege and the slaughter that followed, more than a
million of the people perished; the survivors were carried away as
captives, sold as slaves, dragged to Rome to grace the conqueror’s
triumph, thrown to wild beasts in the amphitheaters, or scattered as
homeless wanderers throughout the earth.

The Jews had forged their own fetters; they had filled for themselves the
cup of vengeance. In the utter destruction that befell them as a nation,
and in all the woes that followed them in their dispersion, they were but
reaping the harvest which their own hands had sown. Says the prophet, “O
Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself;” “for thou hast fallen by thine
iniquity.”(48) Their sufferings are often represented as a punishment
visited upon them by the direct decree of God. It is thus that the great
deceiver seeks to conceal his own work. By stubborn rejection of divine
love and mercy, the Jews had caused the protection of God to be withdrawn
from them, and Satan was permitted to rule them according to his will. The
horrible cruelties enacted in the destruction of Jerusalem are a
demonstration of Satan’s vindictive power over those who yield to his
control.

We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection
which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind
from passing fully under the control of Satan. The disobedient and
unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God’s mercy and
long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil
one. But when men pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is
removed. God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the
sentence against transgression; but He leaves the rejecters of His mercy
to themselves, to reap that which they have sown. Every ray of light
rejected, every warning despised or unheeded, every passion indulged,
every transgression of the law of God, is a seed sown, which yields its
unfailing harvest. The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last
withdrawn from the sinner, and then there is left no power to control the
evil passions of the soul, and no protection from the malice and enmity of
Satan. The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning to all
who are trifling with the offers of divine grace, and resisting the
pleadings of divine mercy. Never was there given a more decisive testimony
to God’s hatred of sin, and to the certain punishment that will fall upon
the guilty.

The Saviour’s prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments upon
Jerusalem is to have another fulfilment, of which that terrible desolation
was but a faint shadow. In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the
doom of a world that has rejected God’s mercy and trampled upon His law.
Dark are the records of human misery that earth has witnessed during its
long centuries of crime. The heart sickens and the mind grows faint in
contemplation. Terrible have been the results of rejecting the authority
of Heaven. But a scene yet darker is presented in the revelations of the
future. The records of the past,—the long procession of tumults,
conflicts, and revolutions, the “battle of the warrior, with confused
noise, and garments rolled in blood,”(49)—what are these, in contrast with
the terrors of that day when the restraining Spirit of God shall be wholly
withdrawn from the wicked, no longer to hold in check the outburst of
human passion and satanic wrath! The world will then behold, as never
before, the results of Satan’s rule.

But in that day, as in the time of Jerusalem’s destruction, God’s people
will be delivered, “every one that shall be found written among the
living.” Christ has declared that He will come the second time, to gather
His faithful ones to Himself: “Then shall all the tribes of the earth
mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great
sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four
winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”(50) Then shall they that obey
not the gospel be consumed with the spirit of His mouth, and be destroyed
with the brightness of His coming.(51) Like Israel of old, the wicked
destroy themselves; they fall by their iniquity. By a life of sin, they
have placed themselves so out of harmony with God, their natures have
become so debased with evil, that the manifestation of His glory is to
them a consuming fire.

Let men beware lest they neglect the lesson conveyed to them in the words
of Christ. As He warned His disciples of Jerusalem’s destruction, giving
them a sign of the approaching ruin, that they might make their escape; so
He has warned the world of the day of final destruction, and has given
them tokens of its approach, that all who will may flee from the wrath to
come. Jesus declares, “There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon,
and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations.”(52) Those who
behold these harbingers of His coming are to “know that it is near, even
at the doors.”(53) “Watch ye therefore,”(54) are His words of admonition.
They that heed the warning shall not be left in darkness, that that day
should overtake them unawares. But to them that will not watch, “the day
of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”(55)

The world is no more ready to credit the message for this time than were
the Jews to receive the Saviour’s warning concerning Jerusalem. Come when
it may, the day of God will come unawares to the ungodly. When life is
going on in its unvarying round; when men are absorbed in pleasure, in
business, in traffic, in money-making; when religious leaders are
magnifying the world’s progress and enlightenment, and the people are
lulled in a false security,—then, as the midnight thief steals within the
unguarded dwelling, so shall sudden destruction come upon the careless and
ungodly, “and they shall not escape.”(56)





2. PERSECUTION IN THE FIRST CENTURIES.


                     [Illustration: Chapter header.]

When Jesus revealed to His disciples the fate of Jerusalem and the scenes
of the second advent, He foretold also the experience of His people from
the time when He should be taken from them, to His return in power and
glory for their deliverance. From Olivet the Saviour beheld the storms
about to fall upon the apostolic church; and penetrating deeper into the
future, His eye discerned the fierce, wasting tempests that were to beat
upon His followers in the coming ages of darkness and persecution. In a
few brief utterances of awful significance, He foretold the portion which
the rulers of this world would mete out to the church of God.(57) The
followers of Christ must tread the same path of humiliation, reproach, and
suffering which their Master trod. The enmity that burst forth against the
world’s Redeemer, would be manifested against all who should believe on
His name.

The history of the early church testified to the fulfilment of the
Saviour’s words. The powers of earth and hell arrayed themselves against
Christ in the person of His followers. Paganism foresaw that should the
gospel triumph, her temples and altars would be swept away; therefore she
summoned her forces to destroy Christianity. The fires of persecution were
kindled. Christians were stripped of their possessions, and driven from
their homes. They “endured a great fight of afflictions.”(58) They “had
trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and
imprisonment.”(59) Great numbers sealed their testimony with their blood.
Noble and slave, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, were alike slain
without mercy.

These persecutions, beginning under Nero about the time of the martyrdom
of Paul, continued with greater or less fury for centuries. Christians
were falsely accused of the most dreadful crimes, and declared to be the
cause of great calamities—famine, pestilence, and earthquake. As they
became the objects of popular hatred and suspicion, informers stood ready,
for the sake of gain, to betray the innocent. They were condemned as
rebels against the empire, as foes of religion, and pests to society.
Great numbers were thrown to wild beasts or burned alive in the
amphitheaters. Some were crucified; others were covered with the skins of
wild animals, and thrust into the arena to be torn by dogs. Their
punishment was often made the chief entertainment at public fêtes. Vast
multitudes assembled to enjoy the sight, and greeted their dying agonies
with laughter and applause.

Wherever they sought refuge, the followers of Christ were hunted like
beasts of prey. They were forced to seek concealment in desolate and
solitary places. “Destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was
not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and
caves of the earth.”(60) The catacombs afforded shelter for thousands.
Beneath the hills outside the city of Rome, long galleries had been
tunneled through earth and rock; the dark and intricate network of
passages extended for miles beyond the city walls. In these underground
retreats, the followers of Christ buried their dead; and here also, when
suspected and proscribed, they found a home. When the Lifegiver shall
awaken those who have fought the good fight, many a martyr for Christ’s
sake will come forth from those gloomy caverns.

Under the fiercest persecution, these witnesses for Jesus kept their faith
unsullied. Though deprived of every comfort, shut away from the light of
the sun, making their home in the dark but friendly bosom of the earth,
they uttered no complaint. With words of faith, patience, and hope, they
encouraged one another to endure privation and distress. The loss of every
earthly blessing could not force them to renounce their belief in Christ.
Trials and persecution were but steps bringing them nearer their rest and
their reward.

Like God’s servants of old, many were “tortured, not accepting
deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.”(61) These
called to mind the words of their Master, that when persecuted for
Christ’s sake, they were to be exceeding glad, for great would be their
reward in heaven; for so the prophets had been persecuted before them.
They rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer for the truth, and
songs of triumph ascended from the midst of crackling flames. Looking
upward by faith, they saw Christ and angels leaning over the battlements
of heaven, gazing upon them with the deepest interest, and regarding their
steadfastness with approval, A voice came down to them from the throne of
God, “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of
life.”(62)

In vain were Satan’s efforts to destroy the church of Christ by violence.
The great controversy in which the disciples of Jesus yielded up their
lives, did not cease when these faithful standard-bearers fell at their
post. By defeat they conquered. God’s workmen were slain, but His work
went steadily forward. The gospel continued to spread, and the number of
its adherents to increase. It penetrated into regions that were
inaccessible, even to the eagles of Rome. Said a Christian, expostulating
with the heathen rulers who were urging forward the persecution: You may
“kill us, torture us, condemn us.... Your injustice is the proof that we
are innocent.... Nor does your cruelty ... avail you.” It was but a
stronger invitation to bring others to their persuasion. “The oftener we
are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians
is seed.”(63)

Thousands were imprisoned and slain; but others sprung up to fill their
places. And those who were martyred for their faith were secured to
Christ, and accounted of Him as conquerors. They had fought the good
fight, and they were to receive the crown of glory when Christ should
come. The sufferings which they endured brought Christians nearer to one
another and to their Redeemer. Their living example and dying testimony
were a constant witness for the truth; and where least expected, the
subjects of Satan were leaving his service, and enlisting under the banner
of Christ.

Satan therefore laid his plans to war more successfully against the
government of God, by planting his banner in the Christian church. If the
followers of Christ could be deceived, and led to displease God, then
their strength, fortitude, and firmness would fail, and they would fall an
easy prey.

The great adversary now endeavored to gain by artifice what he had failed
to secure by force. Persecution ceased, and in its stead were substituted
the dangerous allurements of temporal prosperity and worldly honor.
Idolaters were led to receive a part of the Christian faith, while they
rejected other essential truths. They professed to accept Jesus as the Son
of God, and to believe in His death and resurrection; but they had no
conviction of sin, and felt no need of repentance or of a change of heart.
With some concessions on their part, they proposed that Christians should
make concessions, that all might unite on the platform of belief in
Christ.

Now the church was in fearful peril. Prison, torture, fire, and sword were
blessings in comparison with this. Some of the Christians stood firm,
declaring that they could make no compromise. Others were in favor of
yielding or modifying some features of their faith, and uniting with those
who had accepted a part of Christianity, urging that this might be the
means of their full conversion. That was a time of deep anguish to the
faithful followers of Christ. Under a cloak of pretended Christianity,
Satan was insinuating himself into the church, to corrupt their faith, and
turn their minds from the word of truth.

Most of the Christians at last consented to lower their standard, and a
union was formed between Christianity and paganism. Although the
worshipers of idols professed to be converted, and united with the church,
they still clung to their idolatry, only changing the objects of their
worship to images of Jesus, and even of Mary and the saints. The foul
leaven of idolatry, thus brought into the church, continued its baleful
work. Unsound doctrines, superstitious rites, and idolatrous ceremonies
were incorporated into her faith and worship. As the followers of Christ
united with idolaters, the Christian religion became corrupted, and the
church lost her purity and power. There were some, however, who were not
misled by these delusions. They still maintained their fidelity to the
Author of truth, and worshiped God alone.

There have ever been two classes among those who profess to be followers
of Christ. While one class study the Saviour’s life, and earnestly seek to
correct their defects and conform to the Pattern, the other class shun the
plain, practical truths which expose their errors. Even in her best
estate, the church was not composed wholly of the true, pure, and sincere.
Our Saviour taught that those who wilfully indulge in sin are not to be
received into the church; yet He connected with Himself men who were
faulty in character, and granted them the benefits of His teachings and
example, that they might have an opportunity to see their errors and
correct them. Among the twelve apostles was a traitor.

Judas was accepted, not because of his defects of character, but
notwithstanding them. He was connected with the disciples, that, through
the instruction and example of Christ, he might learn what constitutes
Christian character, and thus be led to see his errors, to repent, and by
the aid of divine grace, to purify his soul “in obeying the truth.” But
Judas did not walk in the light so graciously permitted to shine upon him.
By indulgence in sin, he invited the temptations of Satan. His evil traits
of character became predominant. He yielded his mind to the control of the
powers of darkness, he became angry when his faults were reproved, and
thus he was led to commit the fearful crime of betraying his Master. So do
all who cherish evil under a profession of godliness hate those who
disturb their peace by condemning their course of sin. When a favorable
opportunity is presented, they will, like Judas, betray those who for
their good have sought to reprove them.

The apostles encountered those in the church who professed godliness while
they were secretly cherishing iniquity. Ananias and Sapphira acted the
part of deceivers, pretending to make an entire sacrifice for God, when
they were covetously withholding a portion for themselves. The Spirit of
truth revealed to the apostles the real character of these pretenders, and
the judgments of God rid the church of this foul blot upon its purity.
This signal evidence of the discerning Spirit of Christ in the church was
a terror to hypocrites and evil-doers. They could not long remain in
connection with those who were, in habit and disposition, constant
representatives of Christ; and as trials and persecution came upon His
followers, those only who were willing to forsake all for the truth’s sake
desired to become His disciples. Thus, as long as persecution continued,
the church remained comparatively pure. But as it ceased, converts were
added who were less sincere and devoted, and the way was opened for Satan
to obtain a foothold.

But there is no union between the Prince of light and the prince of
darkness, and there can be no union between their followers. When
Christians consented to unite with those who were but half converted from
paganism, they entered upon a path which led farther and farther from the
truth. Satan exulted that he had succeeded in deceiving so large a number
of the followers of Christ. He then brought his power to bear more fully
upon these, and inspired them to persecute those who remained true to God.
None understood so well how to oppose the true Christian faith as did
those who had once been its defenders; and these apostate Christians,
uniting with their half-pagan companions, directed their warfare against
the most essential features of the doctrines of Christ.

It required a desperate struggle for those who would be faithful to stand
firm against the deceptions and abominations which were disguised in
sacerdotal garments and introduced into the church. The Bible was not
accepted as the standard of faith. The doctrine of religious freedom was
termed heresy, and its upholders were hated and proscribed.

After a long and severe conflict, the faithful few decided to dissolve all
union with the apostate church if she still refused to free herself from
falsehood and idolatry. They saw that separation was an absolute necessity
if they would obey the word of God. They dared not tolerate errors fatal
to their own souls, and set an example which would imperil the faith of
their children and children’s children. To secure peace and unity they
were ready to make any concession consistent with fidelity to God; but
they felt that even peace would be too dearly purchased at the sacrifice
of principle. If unity could be secured only by the compromise of truth
and righteousness, then let there be difference, and even war.

Well would it be for the church and the world if the principles that
actuated those steadfast souls were revived in the hearts of God’s
professed people. There is an alarming indifference in regard to the
doctrines which are the pillars of the Christian faith. The opinion is
gaining ground, that, after all, these are not of vital importance. This
degeneracy is strengthening the hands of the agents of Satan, so that
false theories and fatal delusions which the faithful in ages past
imperiled their lives to resist and expose, are now regarded with favor by
thousands who claim to be followers of Christ.

The early Christians were indeed a peculiar people. Their blameless
deportment and unswerving faith were a continual reproof that disturbed
the sinner’s peace. Though few in numbers, without wealth, position, or
honorary titles, they were a terror to evil-doers wherever their character
and doctrines were known. Therefore they were hated by the wicked, even as
Abel was hated by the ungodly Cain. For the same reason that Cain slew
Abel, did those who sought to throw off the restraint of the Holy Spirit,
put to death God’s people. It was for the same reason that the Jews
rejected and crucified the Saviour,—because the purity and holiness of His
character was a constant rebuke to their selfishness and corruption. From
the days of Christ until now, His faithful disciples have excited the
hatred and opposition of those who love and follow the ways of sin.

How, then, can the gospel be called a message of peace? When Isaiah
foretold the birth of the Messiah, he ascribed to Him the title, “Prince
of Peace.” When angels announced to the shepherds that Christ was born,
they sung above the plains of Bethlehem, “Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace, good will toward men.”(64) There is a seeming
contradiction between these prophetic declarations and the words of
Christ, “I came not to send peace, but a sword.”(65) But rightly
understood, the two are in perfect harmony. The gospel is a message of
peace. Christianity is a system, which, received and obeyed, would spread
peace, harmony, and happiness throughout the earth. The religion of Christ
will unite in close brotherhood all who accept its teachings. It was the
mission of Jesus to reconcile men to God, and thus to one another. But the
world at large are under the control of Satan, Christ’s bitterest foe. The
gospel presents to them principles of life which are wholly at variance
with their habits and desires, and they rise in rebellion against it. They
hate the purity which reveals and condemns their sins, and they persecute
and destroy those who would urge upon them its just and holy claims. It is
in this sense—because the exalted truths it brings, occasion hatred and
strife—that the gospel is called a sword.

The mysterious providence which permits the righteous to suffer
persecution at the hand of the wicked, has been a cause of great
perplexity to many who are weak in faith. Some are even ready to cast away
their confidence in God, because He suffers the basest of men to prosper,
while the best and purest are afflicted and tormented by their cruel
power. How, it is asked, can One who is just and merciful, and who is also
infinite in power, tolerate such injustice and oppression? This is a
question with which we have nothing to do. God has given us sufficient
evidence of His love, and we are not to doubt His goodness because we
cannot understand the workings of His providence. Said the Saviour to His
disciples, foreseeing the doubts that would press upon their souls in days
of trial and darkness: “Remember the word that I said unto you, The
servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they
will also persecute you.”(66) Jesus suffered for us more than any of His
followers can be made to suffer through the cruelty of wicked men. Those
who are called to endure torture and martyrdom, are but following in the
steps of God’s dear Son.

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise.”(67) He does not forget or
neglect His children; but He permits the wicked to reveal their true
character, that none who desire to do His will may be deceived concerning
them. Again, the righteous are placed in the furnace of affliction, that
they themselves may be purified; that their example may convince others of
the reality of faith and godliness; and also that their consistent course
may condemn the ungodly and unbelieving.

God permits the wicked to prosper, and to reveal their enmity against Him,
that when they shall have filled up the measure of their iniquity, all may
see His justice and mercy in their utter destruction. The day of His
vengeance hastens, when all who have transgressed His law and oppressed
His people will meet the just recompense of their deeds; when every act of
cruelty or injustice toward God’s faithful ones will be punished as though
done to Christ Himself.

There is another and more important question that should engage the
attention of the churches of to-day. The apostle Paul declares that “all
that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”(68) Why is
it, then, that persecution seems in a great degree to slumber? The only
reason is, that the church has conformed to the world’s standard, and
therefore awakens no opposition. The religion which is current in our day
is not of the pure and holy character that marked the Christian faith in
the days of Christ and His apostles. It is only because of the spirit of
compromise with sin, because the great truths of the word of God are so
indifferently regarded, because there is so little vital godliness in the
church, that Christianity is apparently so popular with the world. Let
there be a revival of the faith and power of the early church, and the
spirit of persecution will be revived, and the fires of persecution will
be rekindled.

               [Illustration: St. Peter’s And The Vatican]

                       St. Peter’s And The Vatican





3. THE APOSTASY.


                     [Illustration: Chapter header.]

The apostle Paul, in his second letter to the Thessalonians, foretold the
great apostasy which would result in the establishment of the papal power.
He declared that the day of Christ should not come, “except there come a
falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is
worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God.”(69) And furthermore, the apostle warns his brethren that
“the mystery of iniquity doth already work.”(70) Even at that early date
he saw, creeping into the church, errors that would prepare the way for
the development of the papacy.

Little by little, at first in stealth and silence, and then more openly as
it increased in strength and gained control of the minds of men, the
mystery of iniquity carried forward its deceptive and blasphemous work.
Almost imperceptibly the customs of heathenism found their way into the
Christian church. The spirit of compromise and conformity was restrained
for a time by the fierce persecutions which the church endured under
paganism. But as persecution ceased, and Christianity entered the courts
and palaces of kings, she laid aside the humble simplicity of Christ and
His apostles for the pomp and pride of pagan priests and rulers; and in
place of the requirements of God, she substituted human theories and
traditions. The nominal conversion of Constantine, in the early part of
the fourth century, caused great rejoicing; and the world, cloaked with a
form of righteousness, walked into the church. Now, the work of corruption
rapidly progressed. Paganism, while appearing to be vanquished, became the
conqueror. Her spirit controlled the church. Her doctrines, ceremonies,
and superstitions were incorporated into the faith and worship of the
professed followers of Christ.

This compromise between paganism and Christianity resulted in the
development of the “man of sin” foretold in prophecy as opposing and
exalting himself above God. That gigantic system of false religion is a
masterpiece of Satan’s power,—a monument of his efforts to seat himself
upon the throne to rule the earth according to his will.

Satan once endeavoured to form a compromise with Christ. He came to the
Son of God in the wilderness of temptation, and showing Him all the
kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, offered to give all into His
hands if He would but acknowledge the supremacy of the prince of darkness.
Christ rebuked the presumptuous tempter, and forced him to depart. But
Satan meets with greater success in presenting the same temptations to
man. To secure worldly gains and honors, the church was led to seek the
favor and support of the great men of earth; and having thus rejected
Christ, she was induced to yield allegiance to the representative of
Satan,—the bishop of Rome.

It is one of the leading doctrines of Romanism that the pope is the
visible head of the universal church of Christ, invested with supreme
authority over bishops and pastors in all parts of the world. More than
this, the pope has been given the very titles of Deity. He has been styled
“Lord God the Pope,”(71) and has been declared infallible. He demands the
homage of all men. The same claim urged by Satan in the wilderness of
temptation, is still urged by him through the Church of Rome, and vast
numbers are ready to yield him homage.

But those who fear and reverence God meet this Heaven-daring assumption as
Christ met the solicitations of the wily foe: “Thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”(72) God has never given a hint in
His word that He has appointed any man to be the head of the church. The
doctrine of papal supremacy is directly opposed to the teachings of the
Scriptures. The pope can have no power over Christ’s church except by
usurpation.

Romanists have persisted in bringing against Protestants the charge of
heresy, and wilful separation from the true church. But these accusations
apply rather to themselves. They are the ones who laid down the banner of
Christ, and departed from “the faith which was once delivered unto the
saints.”(73)

Satan well knew that the Holy Scriptures would enable men to discern his
deceptions and withstand his power. It was by the Word that even the
Saviour of the world had resisted his attacks. At every assault, Christ
presented the shield of eternal truth, saying, “It is written.” To every
suggestion of the adversary, He opposed the wisdom and power of the Word.
In order for Satan to maintain his sway over men, and establish the
authority of the papal usurper, he must keep them in ignorance of the
Scriptures. The Bible would exalt God, and place finite men in their true
position; therefore its sacred truths must be concealed and suppressed.
This logic was adopted by the Roman Church. For hundreds of years the
circulation of the Bible was prohibited. The people were forbidden to read
it or to have it in their houses, and unprincipled priests and prelates
interpreted its teachings to sustain their pretensions. Thus the pope came
to be almost universally acknowledged as the vicegerent of God on earth,
endowed with authority over church and state.

The detector of error having been removed, Satan worked according to his
will. Prophecy had declared that the papacy was to “think to change times
and laws.”(74) This work it was not slow to attempt. To afford converts
from heathenism a substitute for the worship of idols, and thus to promote
their nominal acceptance of Christianity, the adoration of images and
relics was gradually introduced into the Christian worship. The decree of
a general council(75) finally established this system of idolatry. To
complete the sacrilegious work, Rome presumed to expunge from the law of
God the second commandment, forbidding image worship, and to divide the
tenth commandment, in order to preserve the number.

The spirit of concession to paganism opened the way for a still further
disregard of Heaven’s authority. Satan, working through unconsecrated
leaders of the church, tampered with the fourth commandment also, and
essayed to set aside the ancient Sabbath, the day which God had blessed
and sanctified,(76) and in its stead to exalt the festival observed by the
heathen as “the venerable day of the sun.” This change was not at first
attempted openly. In the first centuries the true Sabbath had been kept by
all Christians. They were jealous for the honor of God, and believing that
His law is immutable, they zealously guarded the sacredness of its
precepts. But with great subtlety, Satan worked through his agents to
bring about his object. That the attention of the people might be called
to the Sunday, it was made a festival in honor of the resurrection of
Christ. Religious services were held upon it; yet it was regarded as a day
of recreation, the Sabbath being still sacredly observed.

To prepare the way for the work which he designed to accomplish, Satan had
led the Jews, before the advent of Christ, to load down the Sabbath with
the most rigorous exactions, making its observance a burden. Now, taking
advantage of the false light in which he had thus caused it to be
regarded, he cast contempt upon it as a Jewish institution. While
Christians generally continued to observe the Sunday as a joyous festival,
he led them, in order to show their hatred of Judaism, to make the Sabbath
a fast, a day of sadness and gloom.

In the early part of the fourth century, the emperor Constantine issued a
decree making Sunday a public festival throughout the Roman empire.(77)
The day of the sun was reverenced by his pagan subjects, and was honored
by Christians; it was the emperor’s policy to unite the conflicting
interests of heathenism and Christianity. He was urged to do this by the
bishops of the church, who, inspired by ambition and thirst for power,
perceived that if the same day was observed by both Christians and
heathen, it would promote the nominal acceptance of Christianity by
pagans, and thus advance the power and glory of the church. But while many
God-fearing Christians were gradually led to regard Sunday as possessing a
degree of sacredness, they still held the true Sabbath as the holy of the
Lord, and observed it in obedience to the fourth commandment.

The arch-deceiver had not completed his work. He was resolved to gather
the Christian world under his banner, and to exercise his power through
his vicegerent, the proud pontiff who claimed to be the representative of
Christ. Through half-converted pagans, ambitious prelates, and
world-loving churchmen, he accomplished his purpose. Vast councils were
held from time to time, in which the dignitaries of the church were
convened from all the world. In nearly every council the Sabbath which God
had instituted was pressed down a little lower, while the Sunday was
correspondingly exalted. Thus the pagan festival came finally to be
honored as a divine institution, while the Bible Sabbath was pronounced a
relic of Judaism, and its observers were declared to be accursed.

The great apostate had succeeded in exalting himself “above all that is
called God, or that is worshiped.”(78) He had dared to change the only
precept of the divine law that unmistakably points all mankind to the true
and living God. In the fourth commandment, God is revealed as the Creator
of the heavens and the earth, and is thereby distinguished from all false
gods. It was as a memorial of the work of creation that the seventh day
was sanctified as a rest-day for man. It was designed to keep the living
God ever before the minds of men as the source of being and the object of
reverence and worship. Satan strives to turn men from their allegiance to
God, and from rendering obedience to His law; therefore he directs his
efforts especially against that commandment which points to God as the
Creator.

Protestants now urge that the resurrection of Christ on Sunday made it the
Christian Sabbath. But Scripture evidence is lacking. No such honor was
given to the day by Christ or His apostles. The observance of Sunday as a
Christian institution had its origin in that “mystery of lawlessness”(79)
which, even in Paul’s day, had begun its work. Where and when did the Lord
adopt this child of the papacy? What valid reason can be given for a
change which the Scriptures do not sanction?

In the sixth century the papacy had become firmly established. Its seat of
power was fixed in the imperial city, and the bishop of Rome was declared
to be the head over the entire church. Paganism had given place to the
papacy. The dragon had given to the beast “his power, and his seat, and
great authority.”(80) And now began the 1260 years of papal oppression
foretold in the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation.(81) Christians
were forced to choose either to yield their integrity and accept the papal
ceremonies and worship, or to wear away their lives in dungeons or suffer
death by the rack, the fagot, or the heads-man’s axe. Now were fulfilled
the words of Jesus: “Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren,
and kins-folks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to
death. And ye shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake.”(82)
Persecution opened upon the faithful with greater fury than ever before,
and the world became a vast battle-field. For hundreds of years the church
of Christ found refuge in seclusion and obscurity. Thus says the prophet:
“The woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of
God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore
days.”(83)

The accession of the Roman Church to power marked the beginning of the
Dark Ages. As her power increased, the darkness deepened. Faith was
transferred from Christ, the true foundation, to the pope of Rome. Instead
of trusting in the Son of God for forgiveness of sins and for eternal
salvation, the people looked to the pope, and to the priests and prelates
to whom he delegated authority. They were taught that the pope was their
earthly mediator, and that none could approach God except through him; and
further, that he stood in the place of God to them, and was therefore to
be implicitly obeyed. A deviation from his requirements was sufficient
cause for the severest punishment to be visited upon the bodies and souls
of the offenders. Thus the minds of the people were turned away from God
to fallible, erring, and cruel men, nay, more, to the prince of darkness
himself, who exercised his power through them. Sin was disguised in a garb
of sanctity. When the Scriptures are suppressed, and man comes to regard
himself as supreme, we need look only for fraud, deception, and debasing
iniquity. With the elevation of human laws and traditions, was manifest
the corruption that ever results from setting aside the law of God.

Those were days of peril for the church of Christ. The faithful
standard-bearers were few indeed. Though the truth was not left without
witnesses, yet at times it seemed that error and superstition would wholly
prevail, and true religion would be banished from the earth. The gospel
was lost sight of, but the forms of religion were multiplied, and the
people were burdened with rigorous exactions.

They were taught not only to look to the pope as their mediator, but to
trust to works of their own to atone for sin. Long pilgrimages, acts of
penance, the worship of relics, the erection of churches, shrines, and
altars, the payment of large sums to the church,—these and many similar
acts were enjoined to appease the wrath of God or to secure His favor; as
if God were like men, to be angered at trifles, or pacified by gifts or
acts of penance!

Notwithstanding that vice prevailed, even among the leaders of the Roman
Church, her influence seemed steadily to increase. About the close of the
eighth century, papists put forth the claim that in the first ages of the
church the bishops of Rome had possessed the same spiritual power which
they now assumed. To establish this claim, some means must be employed to
give it a show of authority; and this was readily suggested by the father
of lies. Ancient writings were forged by monks. Decrees of councils before
unheard of, were discovered, establishing the universal supremacy of the
pope from the earliest times. And a church that had rejected the truth,
greedily accepted these deceptions.(84)

The few faithful builders upon the true foundation(85) were perplexed and
hindered, as the rubbish of false doctrine obstructed the work. Like the
builders upon the wall of Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s day, some were ready to
say, “The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much
rubbish; so that we are not able to build.”(86) Wearied with the constant
struggle against persecution, fraud, iniquity, and every other obstacle
that Satan could devise to hinder their progress, some who had been
faithful builders became disheartened; and for the sake of peace and
security for their property and their lives, they turned away from the
true foundation. Others, undaunted by the opposition of their enemies,
fearlessly declared, “Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which
is great and terrible;”(87) and they proceeded with the work, every one
with his sword girded by his side.(88)

The same spirit of hatred and opposition to the truth has inspired the
enemies of God in every age, and the same vigilance and fidelity have been
required in His servants. The words of Christ to the first disciples are
applicable to His followers to the close of time: “What I say unto you I
say unto all, Watch.”(89)

The darkness seemed to grow more dense. Image worship became more general.
Candles were burned before images, and prayers were offered to them. The
most absurd and superstitious customs prevailed. The minds of men were so
completely controlled by superstition that reason itself seemed to have
lost its sway. While priests and bishops were themselves pleasure-loving,
sensual, and corrupt, it could only be expected that the people who looked
to them for guidance would be sunken in ignorance and vice.

Another step in papal assumption was taken, when, in the eleventh century,
Pope Gregory VII. proclaimed the perfection of the Roman Church. Among the
propositions which he put forth, was one declaring that the church had
never erred, nor would it ever err, according to the Scriptures. But the
Scripture proofs did not accompany the assertion. The proud pontiff also
claimed the power to depose emperors, and declared that no sentence which
he pronounced could be reversed by any one, but that it was his
prerogative to reverse the decisions of all others.(90)

A striking illustration of the tyrannical character of this advocate of
infallibility was given in his treatment of the German emperor, Henry IV.
For presuming to disregard the pope’s authority, this monarch was declared
to be excommunicated and dethroned. Terrified by the desertion and threats
of his own princes, who were encouraged in rebellion against him by the
papal mandate, Henry felt the necessity of making his peace with Rome. In
company with his wife and a faithful servant, he crossed the Alps in
midwinter, that he might humble himself before the pope. Upon reaching the
castle whither Gregory had withdrawn, he was conducted, without his
guards, into an outer court, and there, in the severe cold of winter, with
uncovered head and naked feet, and in a miserable dress, he awaited the
pope’s permission to come into his presence. Not until he had continued
three days fasting and making confession, did the pontiff condescend to
grant him pardon. Even then it was only upon condition that the emperor
should await the sanction of the pope before resuming the insignia or
exercising the power of royalty. And Gregory, elated with his triumph,
boasted that it was his duty to pull down the pride of kings.

How striking the contrast between the overbearing pride of this haughty
pontiff and the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who represents Himself
as pleading at the door of the heart for admittance, that He may come in
to bring pardon and peace, and who taught His disciples, “Whosoever will
be chief among you, let him be your servant.”(91)

The advancing centuries witnessed a constant increase of error in the
doctrines put forth from Rome. Even before the establishment of the
papacy, the teachings of heathen philosophers had received attention and
exerted an influence in the church. Many who professed conversion still
clung to the tenets of their pagan philosophy, and not only continued its
study themselves, but urged it upon others as a means of extending their
influence among the heathen. Serious errors were thus introduced into the
Christian faith. Prominent among these was the belief in man’s natural
immortality and his consciousness in death. This doctrine laid the
foundation upon which Rome established the invocation of saints and the
adoration of the Virgin Mary. From this sprung also the heresy of eternal
torment for the finally impenitent, which was early incorporated into the
papal faith.

Then the way was prepared for the introduction of still another invention
of paganism, which Rome named purgatory, and employed to terrify the
credulous and superstitious multitudes. By this heresy is affirmed the
existence of a place of torment, in which the souls of such as have not
merited eternal damnation are to suffer punishment for their sins, and
from which, when freed from impurity, they are admitted to heaven.(92)

Still another fabrication was needed to enable Rome to profit by the fears
and the vices of her adherents. This was supplied by the doctrine of
indulgences. Full remission of sins, past, present, and future, and
release from all the pains and penalties incurred, were promised to all
who would enlist in the pontiff’s wars to extend his temporal dominion, to
punish his enemies, or to exterminate those who dared deny his spiritual
supremacy. The people were also taught that by the payment of money to the
church they might free themselves from sin, and also release the souls of
their deceased friends who were confined in the tormenting flames. By such
means did Rome fill her coffers, and sustain the magnificence, luxury, and
vice of the pretended representatives of Him who had not where to lay His
head.(93)

The scriptural ordinance of the Lord’s supper had been supplanted by the
idolatrous sacrifice of the mass. Papal priests pretended, by their
senseless mummery, to convert the simple bread and wine into the actual
“body and blood of Christ.”(94) With blasphemous presumption, they openly
claimed the power of creating God, the Creator of all things. Christians
were required, on pain of death, to avow their faith in this horrible,
Heaven-insulting heresy. Multitudes who refused were given to the
flames.(95)

In the thirteenth century was established that most terrible of all the
engines of the papacy,—the Inquisition. The prince of darkness wrought
with the leaders of the papal hierarchy. In their secret councils, Satan
and his angels controlled the minds of evil men, while unseen in the midst
stood an angel of God, taking the fearful record of their iniquitous
decrees, and writing the history of deeds too horrible to appear to human
eyes. “Babylon the great” was “drunken with the blood of the saints.” The
mangled forms of millions of martyrs cried to God for vengeance upon that
apostate power.

Popery had become the world’s despot. Kings and emperors bowed to the
decrees of the Roman pontiff. The destinies of men, both for time and for
eternity, seemed under his control. For hundreds of years the doctrines of
Rome had been extensively and implicitly received, its rites reverently
performed, its festivals generally observed. Its clergy were honored and
liberally sustained. Never since has the Roman Church attained to greater
dignity, magnificence, or power.

But “the noon of the papacy was the midnight of the world.”(96) The Holy
Scriptures were almost unknown, not only to the people, but to the
priests. Like the Pharisees of old, the papal leaders hated the light
which would reveal their sins. God’s law, the standard of righteousness,
having been removed, they exercised power without limit, and practised
vice without restraint. Fraud, avarice, and profligacy prevailed. Men
shrank from no crime by which they could gain wealth or position. The
palaces of popes and prelates were scenes of the vilest debauchery. Some
of the reigning pontiffs were guilty of crimes so revolting that secular
rulers endeavored to depose these dignitaries of the church as monsters
too vile to be tolerated. For centuries Europe had made no progress in
learning, arts, or civilization. A moral and intellectual paralysis had
fallen upon Christendom.

The condition of the world under the Romish power presented a fearful and
striking fulfilment of the words of the prophet Hosea: “My people are
destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I
will also reject thee:... seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I
will also forget thy children.” “There is no truth, nor mercy, nor
knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and
stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth
blood.”(97) Such were the results of banishing the word of God.





4. THE WALDENSES.


                     [Illustration: Chapter header.]

Amid the gloom that settled upon the earth during the long period of papal
supremacy, the light of truth could not be wholly extinguished. In every
age there were witnesses for God,—men who cherished faith in Christ as the
only mediator between God and man, who held the Bible as the only rule of
life, and who hallowed the true Sabbath. How much the world owes to these
men, posterity will never know. They were branded as heretics, their
motives impugned, their characters maligned, their writings suppressed,
misrepresented, or mutilated. Yet they stood firm, and from age to age
maintained their faith in its purity, as a sacred heritage for the
generations to come.

The history of God’s people during the ages of darkness that followed upon
Rome’s supremacy, is written in heaven, but they have little place in
human records. Few traces of their existence can be found, except in the
accusations of their persecutors. It was the policy of Rome to obliterate
every trace of dissent from her doctrines or decrees. Everything
heretical, whether persons or writings, she sought to destroy. Expressions
of doubt, or questions as to the authority of papal dogmas, were enough to
forfeit the life of rich or poor, high or low. Rome endeavored also to
destroy every record of her cruelty toward dissenters. Papal councils
decreed that books and writings containing such records should be
committed to the flames. Before the invention of printing, books were few
in number, and in a form not favorable for preservation; therefore there
was little to prevent the Romanists from carrying out their purpose.

No church within the limits of Romish jurisdiction was long left
undisturbed in the enjoyment of freedom of conscience. No sooner had the
papacy obtained power than she stretched out her arms to crush all that
refused to acknowledge her sway; and one after another, the churches
submitted to her dominion.

In Great Britain, primitive Christianity had very early taken root. The
gospel received by the Britons in the first centuries, was then
uncorrupted by Romish apostasy. Persecution from pagan emperors, which
extended even to these far-off shores, was the only gift that the first
churches of Britain received from Rome. Many of the Christians, fleeing
from persecution in England, found refuge in Scotland; thence the truth
was carried to Ireland, and in all these countries it was received with
gladness.

When the Saxons invaded Britain, heathenism gained control. The conquerors
disdained to be instructed by their slaves, and the Christians were forced
to retreat to the mountains and the wild moors. Yet the light, hidden for
a time, continued to burn. In Scotland, a century later, it shone out with
a brightness that extended to far-distant lands. From Ireland came the
pious Columba and his co-laborers, who, gathering about them the scattered
believers on the lonely island of Iona, made this the center of their
missionary labors. Among these evangelists was an observer of the Bible
Sabbath, and thus this truth was introduced among the people. A school was
established at Iona, from which missionaries went out, not only to
Scotland and England, but to Germany, Switzerland, and even Italy.

But Rome had fixed her eyes on Britain, and resolved to bring it under her
supremacy. In the sixth century her missionaries undertook the conversion
of the heathen Saxons. They were received with favor by the proud
barbarians, and they induced many thousands to profess the Romish faith.
As the work progressed, the papal leaders and their converts encountered
the primitive Christians. A striking contrast was presented. The latter
were simple, humble, and scriptural in character, doctrine, and manners,
while the former manifested the superstition, pomp, and arrogance of
popery. The emissary of Rome demanded that these Christian churches
acknowledge the supremacy of the sovereign pontiff. The Britons meekly
replied that they desired to love all men, but that the pope was not
entitled to supremacy in the church, and they could render to him only
that submission which was due to every follower of Christ. Repeated
attempts were made to secure their allegiance to Rome; but these humble
Christians, amazed at the pride displayed by her emissaries, steadfastly
replied that they knew no other master than Christ. Now the true spirit of
the papacy was revealed. Said the Romish leader: “If you will not receive
brethren who bring you peace, you shall receive enemies who will bring you
war. If you will not unite with us in showing the Saxons the way of life,
you shall receive from them the stroke of death.”(98) These were no idle
threats. War, intrigue, and deception were employed against these
witnesses for a Bible faith, until the churches of Britain were destroyed,
or forced to submit to the authority of the pope.

In lands beyond the jurisdiction of Rome, there existed for many centuries
bodies of Christians who remained almost wholly free from papal
corruption. They were surrounded by heathenism, and in the lapse of ages
were affected by its errors; but they continued to regard the Bible as the
only rule of faith, and adhered to many of its truths. These Christians
believed in the perpetuity of the law of God, and observed the Sabbath of
the fourth commandment. Churches that held to this faith and practice,
existed in Central Africa and among the Armenians of Asia.

But of those who resisted the encroachments of the papal power, the
Waldenses stood foremost. In the very land where popery had fixed its
seat, there its falsehood and corruption were most steadfastly resisted.
For centuries the churches of Piedmont maintained their independence; but
the time came at last when Rome insisted upon their submission. After
ineffectual struggles against her tyranny, the leaders of these churches
reluctantly acknowledged the supremacy of the power to which the whole
world seemed to pay homage. There were some, however, who refused to yield
to the authority of pope or prelate. They were determined to maintain
their allegiance to God, and to preserve the purity and simplicity of
their faith. A separation took place. Those who adhered to the ancient
faith now withdrew; some, forsaking their native Alps, raised the banner
of truth in foreign lands; others retreated to the secluded glens and
rocky fastnesses of the mountains, and there preserved their freedom to
worship God.

The faith which for many centuries was held and taught by the Waldensian
Christians, was in marked contrast to the false doctrines put forth from
Rome. Their religious belief was founded upon the written word of God, the
true system of Christianity. But those humble peasants, in their obscure
retreats, shut away from the world, and bound to daily toil among their
flocks and their vineyards, had not by themselves arrived at the truth in
opposition to the dogmas and heresies of the apostate church. Theirs was
not a faith newly received. Their religious belief was their inheritance
from their fathers. They contended for the faith of the apostolic
church,—“the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”(99) “The
church in the wilderness,” and not the proud hierarchy enthroned in the
world’s great capital, was the true church of Christ, the guardian of the
treasures of truth which God has committed to His people to be given to
the world.

Among the leading causes that had led to the separation of the true church
from Rome, was the hatred of the latter toward the Bible Sabbath. As
foretold by prophecy, the papal power cast down the truth to the ground.
The law of God was trampled in the dust, while the traditions and customs
of men were exalted. The churches that were under the rule of the papacy
were early compelled to honor the Sunday as a holy day. Amid the
prevailing error and superstition, many, even of the true people of God,
became so bewildered that while they observed the Sabbath, they refrained
from labor also on the Sunday. But this did not satisfy the papal leaders.
They demanded not only that Sunday be hallowed, but that the Sabbath be
profaned; and they denounced in the strongest language those who dared to
show it honor. It was only by fleeing from the power of Rome that any
could obey God’s law in peace.

The Waldenses were among the first of the peoples of Europe to obtain a
translation of the Holy Scriptures.(100) Hundreds of years before the
Reformation, they possessed the Bible in manuscript in their native
tongue. They had the truth unadulterated, and this rendered them the
special objects of hatred and persecution. They declared the Church of
Rome to be the apostate Babylon of the Apocalypse, and at the peril of
their lives they stood up to resist her corruptions. While, under the
pressure of long-continued persecution, some compromised their faith,
little by little yielding its distinctive principles, others held fast the
truth. Through ages of darkness and apostasy, there were Waldenses who
denied the supremacy of Rome, who rejected image worship as idolatry, and
who kept the true Sabbath. Under the fiercest tempests of opposition they
maintained their faith. Though gashed by the Savoyard spear, and scorched
by the Romish fagot, they stood unflinchingly for God’s word and His
honor.

Behind the lofty bulwarks of the mountains,—in all ages the refuge of the
persecuted and oppressed,—the Waldenses found a hiding-place. Here the
light of truth was kept burning amid the darkness of the Middle Ages.
Here, for a thousand years, witnesses for the truth maintained the ancient
faith.

God had provided for His people a sanctuary of awful grandeur, befitting
the mighty truths committed to their trust. To those faithful exiles the
mountains were an emblem of the immutable righteousness of Jehovah. They
pointed their children to the heights towering above them in unchanging
majesty, and spoke to them of Him with whom there is no variableness nor
shadow of turning, whose word is as enduring as the everlasting hills. God
had set fast the mountains, and girded them with strength; no arm but that
of Infinite Power could move them out of their place. In like manner He
had established His law, the foundation of His government in heaven and
upon earth. The arm of man might reach his fellow-men and destroy their
lives; but that arm could as readily uproot the mountains from their
foundations, and hurl them into the sea, as it could change one precept of
the law of Jehovah, or blot out one of His promises to those who do His
will. In their fidelity to His law, God’s servants should be as firm as
the unchanging hills.

The mountains that girded their lowly valleys were a constant witness to
God’s creative power, and a never-failing assurance of His protecting
care. Those pilgrims learned to love the silent symbols of Jehovah’s
presence. They indulged no repining because of the hardships of their lot;
they were never lonely amid the mountain solitudes. They thanked God that
He had provided for them an asylum from the wrath and cruelty of men. They
rejoiced in their freedom to worship before Him. Often when pursued by
their enemies, the strength of the hills proved a sure defense. From many
a lofty cliff they chanted the praise of God, and the armies of Rome could
not silence their songs of thanksgiving.

Pure, simple, and fervent was the piety of these followers of Christ. The
principles of truth they valued above houses and lands, friends, kindred,
even life itself. These principles they earnestly sought to impress upon
the hearts of the young. From earliest childhood the youth were instructed
in the Scriptures, and taught to regard sacredly the claims of the law of
God. Copies of the Bible were rare; therefore its precious words were
committed to memory. Many were able to repeat large portions of both the
Old and the New Testament. Thoughts of God were associated alike with the
sublime scenery of nature and with the humble blessings of daily life.
Little children learned to look with gratitude to God as the giver of
every favor and every comfort.

Parents, tender and affectionate as they were, loved their children too
wisely to accustom them to self-indulgence. Before them was a life of
trial and hardship, perhaps a martyr’s death. They were educated from
childhood to endure hardness, to submit to control, and yet to think and
act for themselves. Very early they were taught to bear responsibilities,
to be guarded in speech, and to understand the wisdom of silence. One
indiscreet word let fall in the hearing of their enemies, might imperil
not only the life of the speaker, but the lives of hundreds of his
brethren; for as wolves hunting their prey did the enemies of truth pursue
those who dared to claim freedom of religious faith.

The Waldenses had sacrificed their worldly prosperity for the truth’s
sake, and with persevering patience they toiled for their bread. Every
spot of tillable land among the mountains was carefully improved; the
valleys and the less fertile hillsides were made to yield their increase.
Economy and severe self-denial formed a part of the education which the
children received as their only legacy. They were taught that God designs
life to be a discipline, and that their wants could be supplied only by
personal labor, by forethought, care, and faith. The process was laborious
and wearisome, but it was wholesome, just what man needs in his fallen
state, the school which God has provided for his training and development.
While the youth were inured to toil and hardship, the culture of the
intellect was not neglected. They were taught that all their powers
belonged to God, and that all were to be improved and developed for His
service.

The Vaudois churches, in their purity and simplicity, resembled the church
of apostolic times. Rejecting the supremacy of pope and prelate, they held
the Bible as the only supreme, infallible authority. Their pastors, unlike
the lordly priests of Rome, followed the example of their Master, who
“came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” They fed the flock of
God, leading them to the green pastures and living fountains of His holy
word. Far from the monuments of human pomp and pride, the people
assembled, not in magnificent churches or grand cathedrals, but beneath
the shadow of the mountains, in the Alpine valleys, or, in time of danger,
in some rocky stronghold, to listen to the words of truth from the
servants of Christ. The pastors not only preached the gospel, but they
visited the sick, catechized the children, admonished the erring, and
labored to settle disputes and promote harmony and brotherly love. In
times of peace they were sustained by the freewill offerings of the
people; but, like Paul the tent-maker, each learned some trade or
profession by which, if necessary, to provide for his own support.

From their pastors the youth received instruction. While attention was
given to branches of general learning, the Bible was made the chief study.
The Gospels of Matthew and John were committed to memory, with many of the
Epistles. They were employed also in copying the Scriptures. Some
manuscripts contained the whole Bible, others only brief selections, to
which some simple explanations of the text were added by those who were
able to expound the Scriptures. Thus were brought forth the treasures of
truth so long concealed by those who sought to exalt themselves above God.

By patient, untiring labor, sometimes in the deep, dark caverns of the
earth, by the light of torches, the sacred Scriptures were written out,
verse by verse, chapter by chapter. Thus the work went on, the revealed
will of God shining out like pure gold; how much brighter, clearer, and
more powerful because of the trials undergone for its sake, only those
could realize who were engaged in the work. Angels from heaven surrounded
these faithful workers.

Satan had urged on the papal priests and prelates to bury the Word of
truth beneath the rubbish of error, heresy, and superstition; but in a
most wonderful manner it was preserved uncorrupted through all the ages of
darkness. It bore not the stamp of man, but the impress of God. Men have
been unwearied in their efforts to obscure the plain, simple meaning of
the Scriptures, and to make them contradict their own testimony; but like
the ark upon the billowy deep, the word of God outrides the storms that
threaten it with destruction. As the mine has rich veins of gold and
silver hidden beneath the surface, so that all must dig who would discover
its precious stores, so the Holy Scriptures have treasures of truth that
are revealed only to the earnest, humble, prayerful seeker. God designed
the Bible to be a lesson-book to all mankind, in childhood, youth, and
manhood, and to be studied through all time. He gave His word to men as a
revelation of Himself. Every new truth discerned is a fresh disclosure of
the character of its Author. The study of the Scriptures is the means
divinely ordained to bring men into closer connection with their Creator,
and to give them a clearer knowledge of His will. It is the medium of
communication between God and man.

While the Waldenses regarded the fear of the Lord as the beginning of
wisdom, they were not blind to the importance of a contact with the world,
a knowledge of men and of active life, in expanding the mind and
quickening the perceptions. From their schools in the mountains some of
the youth were sent to institutions of learning in the cities of France or
Italy, where was a more extended field for study, thought, and observation
than in their native Alps. The youth thus sent forth were exposed to
temptation, they witnessed vice, they encountered Satan’s wily agents, who
urged upon them the most subtle heresies and the most dangerous
deceptions. But their education from childhood had been of a character to
prepare them for all this.

In the schools whither they went, they were not to make confidants of any.
Their garments were so prepared as to conceal their greatest treasure,—the
precious manuscripts of the Scriptures. These, the fruit of months and
years of toil, they carried with them, and whenever they could do so
without exciting suspicion, they cautiously placed some portion in the way
of those whose hearts seemed open to receive the truth. From their
mother’s knee the Waldensian youth had been trained with this purpose in
view; they understood their work, and faithfully performed it. Converts to
the true faith were won in these institutions of learning, and frequently
its principles were found to be permeating the entire school; yet the
papal leaders could not, by the closest inquiry, trace the so-called
corrupting heresy to its source.

The spirit of Christ is a missionary spirit. The very first impulse of the
renewed heart is to bring others also to the Saviour. Such was the spirit
of the Vaudois Christians. They felt that God required more of them than
merely to preserve the truth in its purity in their own churches; that a
solemn responsibility rested upon them to let their light shine forth to
those who were in darkness; by the mighty power of God’s word they sought
to break the bondage which Rome had imposed. The Vaudois ministers were
trained as missionaries, every one who expected to enter the ministry
being required first to gain an experience as an evangelist. Each was to
serve three years in some mission field before taking charge of a church
at home. This service, requiring at the outset self-denial and sacrifice,
was a fitting introduction to the pastor’s life in those times that tried
men’s souls. The youth who received ordination to the sacred office saw
before them, not the prospect of earthly wealth and glory, but a life of
toil and danger, and possibly a martyr’s fate. The missionaries went out
two and two, as Jesus sent forth His disciples. With each young man was
usually associated a man of age and experience, the youth being under the
guidance of his companion, who was held responsible for his training, and
whose instruction he was required to heed. These co-laborers were not
always together, but often met for prayer and counsel, thus strengthening
each other in the faith.

To have made known the object of their mission would have insured its
defeat; therefore they carefully concealed their real character. Every
minister possessed a knowledge of some trade or profession, and the
missionaries prosecuted their work under cover of a secular calling.
Usually they chose that of merchant or peddler. “They carried silks,
jewelry, and other articles, at that time not easily purchasable save at
distant marts; and they were welcomed as merchants where they would have
been spurned as missionaries.”(101) All the while their hearts were
uplifted to God for wisdom to present a treasure more precious than gold
or gems. They secretly carried about with them copies of the Bible, in
whole or in part; and whenever an opportunity was presented, they called
the attention of their customers to these manuscripts. Often an interest
to read God’s word was thus awakened, and some portion was gladly left
with those who desired to receive it.

The work of these missionaries began in the plains and valleys at the foot
of their own mountains, but it extended far beyond these limits. With
naked feet and in garments coarse and travel-stained as were those of
their Master, they passed through great cities, and penetrated to distant
lands. Everywhere they scattered the precious seed. Churches sprung up in
their path, and the blood of martyrs witnessed for the truth. The day of
God will reveal a rich harvest of souls garnered by the labors of these
faithful men. Veiled and silent, the word of God was making its way
through Christendom, and meeting a glad reception in the homes and hearts
of men.

To the Waldenses the Scriptures were not merely a record of God’s dealings
with men in the past, and a revelation of the responsibilities and duties
of the present, but an unfolding of the perils and glories of the future.
They believed that the end of all things was not far distant; and as they
studied the Bible with prayer and tears, they were the more deeply
impressed with its precious utterances, and with their duty to make known
to others its saving truths. They saw the plan of salvation clearly
revealed in the sacred pages, and they found comfort, hope, and peace in
believing in Jesus. As the light illuminated their understanding and made
glad their hearts, they longed to shed its beams upon those who were in
the darkness of papal error.

They saw that under the guidance of pope and priests, multitudes were
vainly endeavoring to obtain pardon by afflicting their bodies for the sin
of their souls. Taught to trust to their good works to save them, they
were ever looking to themselves, their minds dwelling upon their sinful
condition, seeing themselves exposed to the wrath of God, afflicting soul
and body, yet finding no relief. Thus conscientious souls were bound by
the doctrines of Rome. Thousands abandoned friends and kindred, and spent
their lives in convent cells. By oft-repeated fasts and cruel scourgings,
by midnight vigils, by prostration for weary hours upon the cold, damp
stones of their dreary abode, by long pilgrimages, by humiliating penance
and fearful torture, thousands vainly sought to obtain peace of
conscience. Oppressed with a sense of sin, and haunted with the fear of
God’s avenging wrath, many suffered on, until exhausted nature gave way,
and without one ray of light or hope, they sank into the tomb.

The Waldenses longed to break to these starving souls the bread of life,
to open to them the messages of peace in the promises of God, and to point
them to Christ as their only hope of salvation. The doctrine that good
works can atone for the transgression of God’s law, they held to be based
upon falsehood. Reliance upon human merit intercepts the view of Christ’s
infinite love. Jesus died as a sacrifice for man because the fallen race
can do nothing to recommend themselves to God. The merits of a crucified
and risen Saviour are the foundation of the Christian’s faith. The
dependence of the soul upon Christ is as real, and its connection with Him
must be as close, as that of a limb to the body, or of a branch to the
vine.

The teachings of popes and priests had led men to look upon the character
of God, and even of Christ, as stern, gloomy, and forbidding. The Saviour
was represented as so far devoid of sympathy with man in his fallen state
that the mediation of priests and saints must be invoked. Those whose
minds had been enlightened by the word of God longed to point these souls
to Jesus as their compassionate, loving Saviour, standing with
outstretched arms, inviting all to come to Him with their burden of sin,
their care and weariness. They longed to clear away the obstructions which
Satan had piled up that men might not see the promises, and come directly
to God, confessing their sins, and obtaining pardon and peace.

Eagerly did the Vaudois missionary unfold to the inquiring mind the
precious truths of the gospel. Cautiously he produced the carefully
written portions of the Holy Scriptures. It was his greatest joy to give
hope to the conscientious, sin-stricken soul, who could see only a God of
vengeance, waiting to execute justice. With quivering lip and tearful eye
did he, often on bended knees, open to his brethren the precious promises
that reveal the sinner’s only hope. Thus the light of truth penetrated
many a darkened mind, rolling back the cloud of gloom, until the Sun of
Righteousness shone into the heart with healing in His beams. It was often
the case that some portion of Scripture was read again and again, the
hearer desiring it to be repeated, as if he would assure himself that he
had heard aright. Especially was the repetition of these words eagerly
desired: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all
sin.”(102) “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have eternal life.”(103)

Many were undeceived in regard to the claims of Rome. They saw how vain is
the mediation of men or angels in behalf of the sinner. As the true light
dawned upon their minds, they exclaimed with rejoicing, “Christ is my
priest; His blood is my sacrifice; His altar is my confessional.” They
cast themselves wholly upon the merits of Jesus, repeating the words,
“Without faith it is impossible to please Him.”(104) “There is none other
name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”(105)

The assurance of a Saviour’s love seemed too much for some of these poor
tempest-tossed souls to realize. So great was the relief which it brought,
such a flood of light was shed upon them, that they seemed transported to
heaven. Their hands were laid confidingly in the hand of Christ; their
feet were planted upon the Rock of Ages. All fear of death was banished.
They could now covet the prison and the fagot if they might thereby honor
the name of their Redeemer.

In secret places the word of God was thus brought forth and read,
sometimes to a single soul, sometimes to a little company who were longing
for light and truth. Often the entire night was spent in this manner. So
great would be the wonder and admiration of the listeners that the
messenger of mercy was not infrequently compelled to cease his reading
until the understanding could grasp the tidings of salvation. Often would
words like these be uttered: “Will God indeed accept _my_ offering? Will
He smile upon _me_? Will He pardon _me_?” The answer was read, “Come unto
Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”(106)

Faith grasped the promise, and the glad response was heard: “No more long
pilgrimages to make; no more painful journeys to holy shrines. I may come
to Jesus just as I am, sinful and unholy, and He will not spurn the
penitential prayer. ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee.’ Mine, even mine, may be
forgiven!”

A tide of sacred joy would fill the heart, and the name of Jesus would be
magnified by praise and thanksgiving. Those happy souls returned to their
homes to diffuse light, to repeat to others, as well as they could, their
new experience; that they had found the true and living Way. There was a
strange and solemn power in the words of Scripture that spoke directly to
the hearts of those who were longing for the truth. It was the voice of
God, and it carried conviction to those who heard.

The messenger of truth went on his way; but his appearance of humility,
his sincerity, his earnestness and deep fervor, were subjects of frequent
remark. In many instances his hearers had not asked him whence he came or
whither he went. They had been so overwhelmed, at first with surprise, and
afterward with gratitude and joy, that they had not thought to question
him. When they had urged him to accompany them to their homes, he had
replied that he must visit the lost sheep of the flock. Could he have been
an angel from heaven? they queried.

In many cases the messenger of truth was seen no more. He had made his way
to other lands, or he was wearing out his life in some unknown dungeon, or
perhaps his bones were whitening on the spot where he had witnessed for
the truth. But the words he had left behind could not be destroyed. They
were doing their work in the hearts of men; the blessed results will be
fully known only in the judgment.

The Waldensian missionaries were invading the kingdom of Satan, and the
powers of darkness aroused to greater vigilance. Every effort to advance
the truth was watched by the prince of evil, and he excited the fears of
his agents. The papal leaders saw a portent of danger to their cause from
the labors of these humble itinerants. If the light of truth were allowed
to shine unobstructed, it would sweep away the heavy clouds of error that
enveloped the people; it would direct the minds of men to God alone, and
would eventually destroy the supremacy of Rome.

The very existence of this people, holding the faith of the ancient
church, was a constant testimony to Rome’s apostasy, and therefore excited
the most bitter hatred and persecution. Their refusal to surrender the
Scriptures was also an offense that Rome could not tolerate. She
determined to blot them from the earth. Now began the most terrible
crusades against God’s people in their mountain homes. Inquisitors were
put upon their track, and the scene of innocent Abel falling before the
murderous Cain was often repeated.

Again and again were their fertile lands laid waste, their dwellings and
chapels swept away, so that where once were flourishing fields and the
homes of an innocent, industrious people, there remained only a desert. As
the ravenous beast is rendered more furious by the taste of blood, so the
rage of the papists was kindled to greater intensity by the sufferings of
their victims. Many of these witnesses for a pure faith were pursued
across the mountains, and hunted down in the valleys where they were
hidden, shut in by mighty forests and pinnacles of rock.

No charge could be brought against the moral character of this proscribed
class. Even their enemies declared them to be a peaceable, quiet, pious
people. Their grand offense was that they would not worship God according
to the will of the pope. For this crime, every humiliation, insult, and
torture that men or devils could invent was heaped upon them.

When Rome at one time determined to exterminate the hated sect, a bull was
issued by the pope, condemning them as heretics, and delivering them to
slaughter.(107) They were not accused as idlers, or dishonest, or
disorderly; but it was declared that they had an appearance of piety and
sanctity that seduced “the sheep of the true fold.” Therefore the pope
ordered “that malicious and abominable sect of malignants,” if they
“refuse to abjure, to be crushed like venomous snakes.”(108) Did this
haughty potentate expect to meet those words again? Did he know that they
were registered in the books of heaven, to confront him at the judgment?
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren,”
said Jesus, “ye have done it unto Me.”(109)

This bull called upon all members of the church to join the crusade
against the heretics. As an incentive to engage in this cruel work, it
“absolved from all ecclesiastical pains and penalties, general and
particular; it released all who joined the crusade from any oaths they
might have taken; it legitimatized their title to any property they might
have illegally acquired; and promised remission of all their sins to such
as should kill any heretic. It annulled all contracts made in favor of
Vaudois, ordered their domestics to abandon them, forbade all persons to
give them any aid whatever, and empowered all persons to take possession
of their property.” This document clearly reveals the master-spirit behind
the scenes. It is the roar of the dragon, and not the voice of Christ,
that is heard therein.

The papal leaders would not conform their characters to the great standard
of God’s law, but erected a standard to suit themselves, and determined to
compel all to conform to this because Rome willed it. The most horrible
tragedies were enacted. Corrupt and blasphemous priests and popes were
doing the work which Satan appointed them. Mercy had no place in their
natures. The same spirit that crucified Christ and slew the apostles, the
same that moved the bloodthirsty Nero against the faithful in his day, was
at work to rid the earth of those who were beloved of God.

The persecutions visited for many centuries upon this God-fearing people
were endured by them with a patience and constancy that honored their
Redeemer. Notwithstanding the crusades against them, and the inhuman
butchery to which they were subjected, they continued to send out their
missionaries to scatter the precious truth. They were hunted to the death;
yet their blood watered the seed sown, and it failed not of yielding
fruit. Thus the Waldenses witnessed for God, centuries before the birth of
Luther. Scattered over many lands, they planted the seeds of the
Reformation that began in the time of Wycliffe, grew broad and deep in the
days of Luther, and is to be carried forward to the close of time by those
who also are willing to suffer all things for “the word of God, and for
the testimony of Jesus Christ.”(110)





5. JOHN WYCLIFFE.


                     [Illustration: Chapter header.]

Before the Reformation, there were at times but very few copies of the
Bible in existence; but God had not suffered His word to be wholly
destroyed. Its truths were not to be forever hidden. He could as easily
unchain the words of life as He could open prison doors and unbolt iron
gates to set His servants free. In the different countries of Europe men
were moved by the Spirit of God to search for the truth as for hid
treasures. Providentially guided to the Holy Scriptures, they studied the
sacred pages with intense interest. They were willing to accept the light,
at any cost to themselves. Though they did not see all things clearly,
they were enabled to perceive many long-buried truths. As Heaven-sent
messengers they went forth, rending asunder the chains of error and
superstition, and calling upon those who had been so long enslaved, to
arise and assert their liberty.

Except among the Waldenses, the word of God had for ages been locked up in
languages known only to the learned; but the time had come for the
Scriptures to be translated, and given to the people of different lands in
their native tongue. The world had passed its midnight. The hours of
darkness were wearing away, and in many lands appeared tokens of the
coming dawn.

In the fourteenth century arose in England the “morning star of the
Reformation.” John Wycliffe was the herald of reform, not for England
alone, but for all Christendom. The great protest against Rome which it
was permitted him to utter, was never to be silenced. That protest opened
the struggle which was to result in the emancipation of individuals, of
churches, and of nations.

Wycliffe received a liberal education, and with him the fear of the Lord
was the beginning of wisdom. He was noted at college for his fervent piety
as well as for his remarkable talents and sound scholarship. In his thirst
for knowledge he sought to become acquainted with every branch of
learning. He was educated in the scholastic philosophy, in the canons of
the church, and in the civil law, especially that of his own country. In
his after-labors the value of this early training was apparent. A thorough
acquaintance with the speculative philosophy of his time enabled him to
expose its errors; and by his study of national and ecclesiastical law he
was prepared to engage in the great struggle for civil and religious
liberty. While he could wield the weapons drawn from the word of God, he
had acquired the intellectual discipline of the schools, and he understood
the tactics of the schoolmen. The power of his genius and the extent and
thoroughness of his knowledge commanded the respect of both friends and
foes. His adherents saw with satisfaction that their champion stood
foremost among the leading minds of the nation; and his enemies were
prevented from casting contempt upon the cause of reform by exposing the
ignorance or weakness of its supporter.

While Wycliffe was still at college, he entered upon the study of the
Scriptures. In those early times, when the Bible existed only in the
ancient languages, scholars were enabled to find their way to the fountain
of truth, which was closed to the uneducated classes. Thus already the way
had been prepared for Wycliffe’s future work as a Reformer.

Men of learning had studied the word of God, and had found the great truth
of His free grace there revealed. In their teachings they had spread a
knowledge of this truth, and had led others to turn to the Living Oracles.

When Wycliffe’s attention was directed to the Scriptures, he entered upon
their investigation with the same thoroughness which had enabled him to
master the learning of the schools. Heretofore he had felt a great want,
which neither his scholastic studies nor the teaching of the church could
satisfy. In the word of God he found that which he had before sought in
vain. Here he saw the plan of salvation revealed, and Christ set forth as
the only advocate for man. He gave himself to the service of Christ, and
determined to proclaim the truths he had discovered.

Like after-reformers, Wycliffe did not, at the opening of his work,
foresee whither it would lead him. He did not set himself deliberately in
opposition to Rome. But devotion to truth could not but bring him in
conflict with falsehood. The more clearly he discerned the errors of the
papacy, the more earnestly he presented the teaching of the Bible. He saw
that Rome had forsaken the word of God for human tradition; he fearlessly
accused the priesthood of having banished the Scriptures, and demanded
that the Bible be restored to the people, and that its authority be again
established in the church. He was an able and earnest teacher, and an
eloquent preacher, and his daily life was a demonstration of the truths he
preached. His knowledge of the Scriptures, the force of his reasoning, the
purity of his life, and his unbending courage and integrity, won for him
general esteem and confidence. Many of the people had become dissatisfied
with their former faith, as they saw the iniquity that prevailed in the
Roman Church, and they hailed with unconcealed joy the truths brought to
view by Wycliffe; but the papal leaders were filled with rage when they
perceived that this Reformer was gaining an influence greater than their
own.

Wycliffe was a keen detector of error, and he struck fearlessly against
many of the abuses sanctioned by the authority of Rome. While acting as
chaplain for the king, he took a bold stand against the payment of tribute
claimed by the pope from the English monarch, and showed that the papal
assumption of authority over secular rulers was contrary to both reason
and revelation. The demands of the pope had excited great indignation, and
Wycliffe’s teachings exerted an influence upon the leading minds of the
nation. The king and the nobles united in denying the pontiff’s claim to
temporal authority, and in refusing the payment of the tribute. Thus an
effectual blow was struck against the papal supremacy in England.

Another evil against which the Reformer waged long and resolute battle,
was the institution of the orders of mendicant friars. These friars
swarmed in England, casting a blight upon the greatness and prosperity of
the nation. Industry, education, morals, all felt the withering influence.
The monks’ life of idleness and beggary was not only a heavy drain upon
the resources of the people, but it brought useful labor into contempt.
The youth were demoralized and corrupted. By the influence of the friars
many were induced to enter a cloister and devote themselves to a monastic
life, and this not only without the consent of their parents, but even
without their knowledge, and contrary to their commands. One of the early
Fathers of the Roman Church, urging the claims of monasticism above the
obligations of filial love and duty, had declared: “Though thy father
should lie before thy door, weeping and lamenting, and thy mother should
show the body that bore thee and the breasts that nursed thee, see that
thou trample them under foot, and go onward straightway to Christ.” By
this “monstrous inhumanity,” as Luther afterward styled it, “savoring more
of the wolf and the tyrant than of the Christian and the man,” were the
hearts of children steeled against their parents.(111) Thus did the papal
leaders, like the Pharisees of old, make the commandment of God of none
effect by their tradition. Thus homes were made desolate, and parents were
deprived of the society of their sons and daughters.

Even the students in the universities were deceived by the false
representations of the monks, and induced to join their orders. Many
afterward repented this step, seeing that they had blighted their own
lives, and had brought sorrow upon their parents; but once fast in the
snare, it was impossible for them to obtain their freedom. Many parents,
fearing the influence of the monks, refused to send their sons to the
universities. There was a marked falling off in the number of students in
attendance at the great centers of learning. The schools languished, and
ignorance prevailed.

The pope had bestowed on these monks the power to hear confessions and to
grant pardon. This became a source of great evil. Bent on enhancing their
gains, the friars were so ready to grant absolution that criminals of all
descriptions resorted to them, and as a result, the worst vices rapidly
increased. The sick and the poor were left to suffer, while the gifts that
should have relieved their wants went to the monks, who with threats
demanded the alms of the people, denouncing the impiety of those who
should withhold gifts from their orders. Notwithstanding their profession
of poverty, the wealth of the friars was constantly increasing, and their
magnificent edifices and luxurious tables made more apparent the growing
poverty of the nation. And while spending their time in luxury and
pleasure, they sent out in their stead ignorant men, who could only
recount marvelous tales, legends, and jests to amuse the people, and make
them still more completely the dupes of the monks. Yet the friars
continued to maintain their hold on the superstitious multitudes, and led
them to believe that all religious duty was comprised in acknowledging the
supremacy of the pope, adoring the saints, and making gifts to the monks,
and that this was sufficient to secure them a place in heaven.

Men of learning and piety had labored in vain to bring about a reform in
these monastic orders; but Wycliffe, with clearer insight, struck at the
root of the evil, declaring that the system itself was false, and that it
should be abolished. Discussion and inquiry were awakening. As the monks
traversed the country, vending the pope’s pardons, many were led to doubt
the possibility of purchasing forgiveness with money, and they questioned
whether they should not seek pardon from God rather than from the pontiff
of Rome.(112) Not a few were alarmed at the rapacity of the friars, whose
greed seemed never to be satisfied. “The monks and priests of Rome,” said
they, “are eating us away like a cancer. God must deliver us, or the
people will perish.”(113) To cover their avarice, these begging monks
claimed that they were following the Saviour’s example, declaring that
Jesus and His disciples had been supported by the charities of the people.
This claim resulted in injury to their cause, for it led many to the Bible
to learn the truth for themselves,—a result which of all others was least
desired by Rome. The minds of men were directed to the Source of truth,
which it was her object to conceal.

Wycliffe began to write and publish tracts against the friars, not,
however, seeking so much to enter into dispute with them as to call the
minds of the people to the teachings of the Bible and its Author. He
declared that the power of pardon or of excommunication is possessed by
the pope in no greater degree than by common priests, and that no man can
be truly excommunicated unless he has first brought upon himself the
condemnation of God. In no more effectual way could he have undertaken the
overthrow of that mammoth fabric of spiritual and temporal dominion which
the pope had erected, and in which the souls and bodies of millions were
held captive.

Again Wycliffe was called to defend the rights of the English crown
against the encroachments of Rome; and being appointed a royal ambassador,
he spent two years in the Netherlands, in conference with the
commissioners of the pope. Here he was brought into communication with
ecclesiastics from France, Italy, and Spain, and he had an opportunity to
look behind the scenes, and gain a knowledge of many things which would
have remained hidden from him in England. He learned much that was to give
point to his after-labors. In these representatives from the papal court
he read the true character and aims of the hierarchy. He returned to
England to repeat his former teachings more openly and with greater zeal,
declaring that covetousness, pride, and deception were the gods of Rome.

In one of his tracts he said, speaking of the pope and his collectors:
“They draw out of our land poor men’s livelihood, and many thousand marks,
by the year, of the king’s money, for sacraments and spiritual things,
that is cursed heresy of simony, and maketh all Christendom assent and
maintain this heresy. And certes though our realm had a huge hill of gold,
and never other man took thereof but only this proud worldly priest’s
collector, by process of time this hill must be spended; for he taketh
ever money out of our land, and sendeth naught again but God’s curse for
his simony.”(114)

Soon after his return to England, Wycliffe received from the king the
appointment to the rectory of Lutterworth. This was an assurance that the
monarch at least had not been displeased by his plain speaking. Wycliffe’s
influence was felt in shaping the action of the court, as well as in
moulding the belief of the nation.

The papal thunders were soon hurled against him. Three bulls were
dispatched to England,—to the university, to the king, and to the
prelates,—all commanding immediate and decisive measures to silence the
teacher of heresy.(115) Before the arrival of the bulls, however, the
bishops, in their zeal, had summoned Wycliffe before them for trial. But
two of the most powerful princes in the kingdom accompanied him to the
tribunal; and the people, surrounding the building and rushing in, so
intimidated the judges that the proceedings were for the time suspended,
and he was allowed to go his way in peace. A little later, Edward III.,
whom in his old age the prelates were seeking to influence against the
Reformer, died, and Wycliffe’s former protector became regent of the
kingdom.

But the arrival of the papal bulls laid upon all England a peremptory
command for the arrest and imprisonment of the heretic. These measures
pointed directly to the stake. It appeared certain that Wycliffe must soon
fall a prey to the vengeance of Rome. But He who declared to one of old,
“Fear not: I am thy shield,”(116) again stretched out His hand to protect
His servant. Death came, not to the Reformer, but to the pontiff who had
decreed his destruction. Gregory XI. died, and the ecclesiastics who had
assembled for Wycliffe’s trial, dispersed.

God’s providence still further overruled events to give opportunity for
the growth of the Reformation. The death of Gregory was followed by the
election of two rival popes. Two conflicting powers, each professedly
infallible, now claimed obedience.(117) Each called upon the faithful to
assist him in making war upon the other, enforcing his demands by terrible
anathemas against his adversaries, and promises of rewards in heaven to
his supporters. This occurrence greatly weakened the power of the papacy.
The rival factions had all they could do to attack each other, and
Wycliffe for a time had rest. Anathemas and recriminations were flying
from pope to pope, and torrents of blood were poured out to support their
conflicting claims. Crimes and scandals flooded the church. Meanwhile the
Reformer, in the quiet retirement of his parish of Lutterworth, was
laboring diligently to point men from the contending popes to Jesus, the
Prince of Peace.

The schism, with all the strife and corruption which it caused, prepared
the way for the Reformation, by enabling the people to see what the papacy
really was. In a tract which he published, “On the Schism of the Popes,”
Wycliffe called upon the people to consider whether these two priests were
not speaking the truth in condemning each other as the antichrist. “God,”
said he, “would no longer suffer the fiend to reign in only one such
priest, but ... made division among two, so that men, in Christ’s name,
may the more easily overcome them both.”(118)

Wycliffe, like his Master, preached the gospel to the poor. Not content
with spreading the light in their humble homes in his own parish of
Lutterworth, he determined that it should be carried to every part of
England. To accomplish this he organized a body of preachers, simple,
devout men, who loved the truth and desired nothing so much as to extend
it. These men went everywhere, teaching in the market-places, in the
streets of the great cities, and in the country lanes. They sought out the
aged, the sick, and the poor, and opened to them the glad tidings of the
grace of God.

As a professor of theology at Oxford, Wycliffe preached the word of God in
the halls of the university. So faithfully did he present the truth to the
students under his instruction, that he received the title of “The Gospel
Doctor.” But the greatest work of his life was to be the translation of
the Scriptures into the English language. In a work, “On the Truth and
Meaning of Scripture,” he expressed his intention to translate the Bible,
so that every man in England might read, in the language in which he was
born, the wonderful works of God.

But suddenly his labors were stopped. Though not yet sixty years of age,
unceasing toil, study, and the assaults of his enemies, had told upon his
strength, and made him prematurely old. He was attacked by a dangerous
illness. The tidings brought great joy to the friars. Now they thought he
would bitterly repent the evil he had done the church, and they hurried to
his chamber to listen to his confession. Representatives from the four
religious orders, with four civil officers, gathered about the supposed
dying man. “You have death on your lips,” they said; “be touched by your
faults, and retract in our presence all that you have said to our injury.”
The Reformer listened in silence; then he bade his attendant raise him in
his bed, and gazing steadily upon them as they stood waiting for his
recantation, he said, in the firm, strong voice which had so often caused
them to tremble, “I shall not die, but live, and again declare the evil
deeds of the friars.”(119) Astonished and abashed, the monks hurried from
the room.

Wycliffe’s words were fulfilled. He lived to place in the hands of his
countrymen the most powerful of all weapons against Rome,—to give them the
Bible, the Heaven-appointed agent to liberate, enlighten, and evangelize
the people. There were many and great obstacles to surmount in the
accomplishment of this work. Wycliffe was weighed down with infirmities;
he knew that only a few years for labor remained for him; he saw the
opposition which he must meet; but, encouraged by the promises of God’s
word, he went forward nothing daunted. In the full vigor of his
intellectual powers, rich in experience, he had been preserved and
prepared by God’s special providence for this, the greatest of his labors.
While all Christendom was filled with tumult, the Reformer in his rectory
at Lutterworth, unheeding the storm that raged without, applied himself to
his chosen task.

At last the work was completed,—the first English translation of the Bible
ever made. The word of God was opened to England. The Reformer feared not
now the prison or the stake. He had placed in the hands of the English
people a light which should never be extinguished. In giving the Bible to
his countrymen, he had done more to break the fetters of ignorance and
vice, more to liberate and elevate his country, than was ever achieved by
the most brilliant victories on fields of battle.

The art of printing being still unknown, it was only by slow and wearisome
labor that copies of the Bible could be multiplied. So great was the
interest to obtain the book, that many willingly engaged in the work of
transcribing it, but it was with difficulty that the copyists could supply
the demand. Some of the more wealthy purchasers desired the whole Bible.
Others bought only a portion. In many cases, several families united to
purchase a copy. Thus Wycliffe’s Bible soon found its way to the homes of
the people.

The appeal to men’s reason aroused them from their passive submission to
papal dogmas. Wycliffe now taught the distinctive doctrines of
Protestantism,—salvation through faith in Christ, and the sole
infallibility of the Scriptures. The preachers whom he had sent out
circulated the Bible, together with the Reformer’s writings, and with such
success that the new faith was accepted by nearly one half of the people
of England.

The appearance of the Scriptures brought dismay to the authorities of the
church. They had now to meet an agency more powerful than Wycliffe,—an
agency against which their weapons would avail little. There was at this
time no law in England prohibiting the Bible, for it had never before been
published in the language of the people. Such laws were afterward enacted
and rigorously enforced. Meanwhile, notwithstanding the efforts of the
priests, there was for a season opportunity for the circulation of the
word of God.

Again the papal leaders plotted to silence the Reformer’s voice. Before
three tribunals he was successively summoned for trial, but without avail.
First a synod of bishops declared his writings heretical, and winning the
young king, Richard II., to their side, they obtained a royal decree
consigning to prison all who should hold the condemned doctrines.

Wycliffe appealed from the synod to Parliament; he fearlessly arraigned
the hierarchy before the national council, and demanded a reform of the
enormous abuses sanctioned by the church. With convincing power he
portrayed the usurpations and corruptions of the papal see. His enemies
were brought to confusion. The friends and supporters of Wycliffe had been
forced to yield, and it had been confidently expected that the Reformer
himself, in his old age, alone and friendless, would bow to the combined
authority of the crown and the mitre. But instead of this the papists saw
themselves defeated. Parliament, roused by the stirring appeals of
Wycliffe, repealed the persecuting edict, and the Reformer was again at
liberty.

A third time he was brought to trial, and now before the highest
ecclesiastical tribunal in the kingdom. Here no favor would be shown to
heresy. Here at last Rome would triumph, and the Reformer’s work would be
stopped. So thought the papists. If they could but accomplish their
purpose, Wycliffe would be forced to abjure his doctrines, or would leave
the court only for the flames.

But Wycliffe did not retract; he would not dissemble. He fearlessly
maintained his teachings, and repelled the accusations of his persecutors.
Losing sight of himself, of his position, of the occasion, he summoned his
hearers before the divine tribunal, and weighed their sophistries and
deceptions in the balances of eternal truth. The power of the Holy Spirit
was felt in the council-room. A spell from God was upon the hearers. They
seemed to have no power to leave the place. As arrows from the Lord’s
quiver, the Reformer’s words pierced their hearts. The charge of heresy,
which they had brought against him, he with convincing power threw back
upon themselves. Why, he demanded, did they dare to spread their errors?
For the sake of gain, to make merchandise of the grace of God.

“With whom, think you,” he finally said, “are ye contending? with an old
man on the brink of the grave? No! with Truth,—Truth which is stronger
than you, and will overcome you.”(120) So saying, he withdrew from the
assembly, and not one of his adversaries attempted to prevent him.

Wycliffe’s work was almost done; the banner of truth which he had so long
borne was soon to fall from his hand; but once more he was to bear witness
for the gospel. The truth was to be proclaimed from the very stronghold of
the kingdom of error. Wycliffe was summoned for trial before the papal
tribunal at Rome, which had so often shed the blood of the saints. He was
not blind to the danger that threatened him, yet he would have obeyed the
summons had not a shock of palsy made it impossible for him to perform the
journey. But though his voice was not to be heard at Rome, he could speak
by letter, and this he determined to do. From his rectory the Reformer
wrote to the pope a letter, which, while respectful in tone and Christian
in spirit, was a keen rebuke to the pomp and pride of the papal see.

“Verily I do rejoice,” he said, “to open and declare unto every man the
faith which I do hold, and especially unto the bishop of Rome: which,
forasmuch as I do suppose to be sound and true, he will most willingly
confirm my said faith, or if it be erroneous, amend the same.

“First, I suppose that the gospel of Christ is the whole body of God’s
law.... I do give and hold the bishop of Rome, forasmuch as he is the
vicar of Christ here on earth, to be most bound, of all other men, unto
that law of the gospel. For the greatness among Christ’s disciples did not
consist in worldly dignity or honors, but in the near and exact following
of Christ in His life and manners.... Christ, for the time of His
pilgrimage here, was a most poor man, abjecting and casting off all
worldly rule and honor....

“No faithful man ought to follow either the pope himself or any of the
holy men, but in such points as he hath followed the Lord Jesus Christ;
for Peter and the sons of Zebedee, by desiring worldly honor, contrary to
the following of Christ’s steps, did offend, and therefore in those errors
they are not to be followed....

“The pope ought to leave unto the secular power all temporal dominion and
rule, and thereunto effectually to move and exhort his whole clergy; for
so did Christ, and especially by His apostles. Wherefore, if I have erred
in any of these points, I will most humbly submit myself unto correction,
even by death, if necessity so require; and if I could labor according to
my will or desire in mine own person, I would surely present myself before
the bishop of Rome; but the Lord hath otherwise visited me to the
contrary, and hath taught me rather to obey God than men.”

In closing he said: “Let us pray unto our God, that He will so stir up our
pope Urban VI., as he began, that he with his clergy may follow the Lord
Jesus Christ in life and manners; and that they may teach the people
effectually, and that they, likewise, may faithfully follow them in the
same.”(121)

Thus Wycliffe presented to the pope and his cardinals the meekness and
humility of Christ, exhibiting not only to themselves but to all
Christendom the contrast between them and the Master whose representatives
they professed to be.

Wycliffe fully expected that his life would be the price of his fidelity.
The king, the pope, and the bishops were united to accomplish his ruin,
and it seemed certain that a few months at most would bring him to the
stake. But his courage was unshaken. “Why do you talk of seeking the crown
of martyrdom afar?” he said. “Preach the gospel of Christ to haughty
prelates, and martyrdom will not fail you. What! I should live and be
silent?... Never! Let the blow fall, I await its coming.”(122)

But God’s providence still shielded His servant. The man who for a whole
lifetime had stood boldly in defense of the truth, in daily peril of his
life, was not to fall a victim to the hatred of its foes. Wycliffe had
never sought to shield himself, but the Lord had been his protector; and
now, when his enemies felt sure of their prey, God’s hand removed him
beyond their reach. In his church at Lutterworth, as he was about to
dispense the communion, he fell, stricken with palsy, and in a short time
yielded up his life.

God had appointed to Wycliffe his work. He had put the word of truth in
his mouth, and He set a guard about him that this word might come to the
people. His life was protected, and his labors were prolonged, until a
foundation was laid for the great work of the Reformation.

Wycliffe came from the obscurity of the Dark Ages. There were none who
went before him from whose work he could shape his system of reform.
Raised up like John the Baptist to accomplish a special mission, he was
the herald of a new era. Yet in the system of truth which he presented
there was a unity and completeness which Reformers who followed him did
not exceed, and which some did not reach, even a hundred years later. So
broad and deep was laid the foundation, so firm and true was the
framework, that it needed not to be reconstructed by those who came after
him.

The great movement that Wycliffe inaugurated, which was to liberate the
conscience and the intellect, and set free the nations so long bound to
the triumphal car of Rome, had its spring in the Bible. Here was the
source of that stream of blessing, which, like the water of life, has
flowed down the ages since the fourteenth century. Wycliffe accepted the
Holy Scriptures with implicit faith as the inspired revelation of God’s
will, a sufficient rule of faith and practice. He had been educated to
regard the Church of Rome as the divine, infallible authority, and to
accept with unquestioning reverence the established teachings and customs
of a thousand years; but he turned away from all these to listen to God’s
holy word. This was the authority which he urged the people to
acknowledge. Instead of the church speaking through the pope, he declared
the only true authority to be the voice of God speaking through His word.
And he taught not only that the Bible is a perfect revelation of God’s
will, but that the Holy Spirit is its only interpreter, and that every man
is, by the study of its teachings, to learn his duty for himself. Thus he
turned the minds of men from the pope and the Church of Rome to the word
of God.

Wycliffe was one of the greatest of the Reformers. In breadth of
intellect, in clearness of thought, in firmness to maintain the truth, and
boldness to defend it, he was equaled by few who came after him. Purity of
life, unwearying diligence in study and in labor, incorruptible integrity,
and Christlike love and faithfulness in his ministry, characterized the
first of the Reformers. And this notwithstanding the intellectual darkness
and moral corruption of the age from which he emerged.

The character of Wycliffe is a testimony to the educating, transforming
power of the Holy Scriptures. It was the Bible that made him what he was.
The effort to grasp the great truths of revelation imparts freshness and
vigor to all the faculties. It expands the mind, sharpens the perceptions,
and ripens the judgment. The study of the Bible will ennoble every
thought, feeling, and aspiration as no other study can. It gives stability
of purpose, patience, courage, and fortitude; it refines the character,
and sanctifies the soul. An earnest, reverent study of the Scriptures,
bringing the mind of the student in direct contact with the infinite mind,
would give to the world men of stronger and more active intellect, as well
as of nobler principle, than has ever resulted from the ablest training
that human philosophy affords. “The entrance of Thy words,” says the
psalmist, “giveth light; it giveth understanding.”(123)

The doctrines which had been taught by Wycliffe continued for a time to
spread; his followers, known as Wycliffites and Lollards, not only
traversed England, but scattered to other lands, carrying the knowledge of
the gospel. Now that their leader was removed, the preachers labored with
even greater zeal than before, and multitudes flocked to listen to their
teachings. Some of the nobility, and even the wife of the king, were among
the converts. In many places there was a marked reform in the manners of
the people, and the idolatrous symbols of Romanism were removed from the
churches. But soon the pitiless storm of persecution burst upon those who
had dared to accept the Bible as their guide. The English monarchs, eager
to strengthen their power by securing the support of Rome, did not
hesitate to sacrifice the Reformers. For the first time in the history of
England, the stake was decreed against the disciples of the gospel.
Martyrdom succeeded martyrdom. The advocates of truth, proscribed and
tortured, could only pour their cries into the ear of the Lord of Sabaoth.
Hunted as foes of the church and traitors to the realm, they continued to
preach in secret places, finding shelter as best they could in the humble
homes of the poor, and often hiding away even in dens and caves.

Notwithstanding the rage of persecution, a calm, devout, earnest, patient
protest against the prevailing corruption of religious faith continued for
centuries to be uttered. The Christians of that early time had only a
partial knowledge of the truth, but they had learned to love and obey
God’s word, and they patiently suffered for its sake. Like the disciples
in apostolic days, many sacrificed their worldly possessions for the cause
of Christ. Those who were permitted to dwell in their homes, gladly
sheltered their banished brethren; and when they too were driven forth,
they cheerfully accepted the lot of the outcast. Thousands, it is true,
terrified by the fury of their persecutors, purchased their freedom at the
sacrifice of their faith, and went out of their prisons, clothed in
penitents’ robes, to publish their recantation. But the number was not
small—and among them were men of noble birth as well as the humble and
lowly—who bore fearless testimony to the truth in dungeon cells, in
“Lollard towers,” and in the midst of torture and flame, rejoicing that
they were counted worthy to know “the fellowship of His sufferings.”

The papists had failed to work their will with Wycliffe during his life,
and their hatred could not be satisfied while his body rested quietly in
the grave. By the decree of the Council of Constance, more than forty
years after his death his bones were exhumed and publicly burned, and the
ashes were thrown into a neighboring brook. “This brook,” says an old
writer, “hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into
the narrow seas, they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wycliffe
are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world
over.”(124) Little did his enemies realize the significance of their
malicious act.

It was through the writings of Wycliffe that John Huss, of Bohemia, was
led to renounce many of the errors of Romanism, and to enter upon the work
of reform. Thus in these two countries, so widely separated, the seed of
truth was sown. From Bohemia the work extended to other lands. The minds
of men were directed to the long-forgotten word of God. A divine hand was
preparing the way for the Great Reformation.





6. HUSS AND JEROME.


                     [Illustration: Chapter header.]

The gospel had been planted in Bohemia as early as the ninth century. The
Bible was translated, and public worship was conducted, in the language of
the people. But as the power of the pope increased, so the word of God was
obscured. Gregory VII., who had taken it upon him to humble the pride of
kings, was no less intent upon enslaving the people, and accordingly a
bull was issued forbidding public worship to be conducted in the Bohemian
tongue. The pope declared that “it was pleasing to the Omnipotent that His
worship should be celebrated in an unknown language, and that many evils
and heresies had arisen from not observing this rule.”(125) Thus Rome
decreed that the light of God’s word should be extinguished, and the
people should be shut up in darkness. But Heaven had provided other
agencies for the preservation of the church. Many of the Waldenses and
Albigenses, driven by persecution from their homes in France and Italy,
came to Bohemia. Though they dared not teach openly, they labored
zealously in secret. Thus the true faith was preserved from century to
century.

Before the days of Huss, there were men in Bohemia who rose up to condemn
openly the corruption in the church and the profligacy of the people.
Their labors excited widespread interest. The fears of the hierarchy were
roused, and persecution was opened against the disciples of the gospel.
Driven to worship in the forests and the mountains, they were hunted by
soldiers, and many were put to death. After a time it was decreed that all
who departed from the Romish worship should be burned. But while the
Christians yielded up their lives, they looked forward to the triumph of
their cause. One of those who “taught that salvation was only to be found
by faith in the crucified Saviour,” declared when dying, “The rage of the
enemies of the truth now prevails against us, but it will not be forever;
there shall arise one from among the common people, without sword or
authority, and against him they shall not be able to prevail.”(126)
Luther’s time was yet far distant; but already one was rising, whose
testimony against Rome would stir the nations.

John Huss was of humble birth, and was early left an orphan by the death
of his father. His pious mother, regarding education and the fear of God
as the most valuable of possessions, sought to secure this heritage for
her son. Huss studied at the provincial school, and then repaired to the
university at Prague, receiving admission as a charity scholar. He was
accompanied on the journey to Prague by his mother; widowed and poor, she
had no gift of worldly wealth to bestow upon her son, but as they drew
near to the great city, she kneeled down beside the fatherless youth, and
invoked for him the blessing of their Father in heaven. Little did that
mother realize how her prayer was to be answered.

At the university, Huss soon distinguished himself by his untiring
application and rapid progress, while his blameless life and gentle,
winning deportment gained him universal esteem. He was a sincere adherent
of the Roman Church, and an earnest seeker for the spiritual blessings
which it professes to bestow. On the occasion of a jubilee, he went to
confession, paid the last few coins in his scanty store, and joined in the
processions, that he might share in the absolution promised. After
completing his college course, he entered the priesthood, and rapidly
attaining to eminence, he soon became attached to the court of the king.
He was also made professor and afterward rector of the university where he
had received his education. In a few years the humble charity scholar had
become the pride of his country, and his name was renowned throughout
Europe.

But it was in another field that Huss began the work of reform. Several
years after taking priest’s orders he was appointed preacher of the chapel
of Bethlehem. The founder of this chapel had advocated, as a matter of
great importance, the preaching of the Scriptures in the language of the
people. Notwithstanding Rome’s opposition to this practice, it had not
been wholly discontinued in Bohemia. But there was great ignorance of the
Bible, and the worst vices prevailed among the people of all ranks. These
evils Huss unsparingly denounced, appealing to the word of God to enforce
the principles of truth and purity which he inculcated.

A citizen of Prague, Jerome, who afterward became so closely associated
with Huss, had, on returning from England, brought with him the writings
of Wycliffe. The queen of England, who had been a convert to Wycliffe’s
teachings, was a Bohemian princess, and through her influence also the
Reformer’s works were widely circulated in her native country. These works
Huss read with interest; he believed their author to be a sincere
Christian, and was inclined to regard with favor the reforms which he
advocated. Already, though he knew it not, Huss had entered upon a path
which was to lead him far away from Rome.

About this time there arrived in Prague two strangers from England, men of
learning, who had received the light, and had come to spread it in this
distant land. Beginning with an open attack on the pope’s supremacy, they
were soon silenced by the authorities; but being unwilling to relinquish
their purpose, they had recourse to other measures. Being artists as well
as preachers, they proceeded to exercise their skill. In a place open to
the public they drew two pictures. One represented the entrance of Christ
into Jerusalem, “meek, and sitting upon an ass,”(127) and followed by His
disciples in travel-worn garments and with naked feet. The other picture
portrayed a pontifical procession,—the pope arrayed in his rich robes and
triple crown, mounted upon a horse magnificently adorned, preceded by
trumpeters, and followed by cardinals and prelates in dazzling array.

Here was a sermon which arrested the attention of all classes. Crowds came
to gaze upon the drawings. None could fail to read the moral, and many
were deeply impressed by the contrast between the meekness and humility of
Christ the Master, and the pride and arrogance of the pope, His professed
servant. There was great commotion in Prague, and the strangers after a
time found it necessary, for their own safety, to depart. But the lesson
they had taught was not forgotten. The pictures made a deep impression on
the mind of Huss, and led him to a closer study of the Bible and of
Wycliffe’s writings. Though he was not prepared, even yet, to accept all
the reforms advocated by Wycliffe, he saw more clearly the true character
of the papacy, and with greater zeal denounced the pride, the ambition,
and the corruption of the hierarchy.

From Bohemia the light extended to Germany; for disturbances in the
University of Prague caused the withdrawal of hundreds of German students.
Many of them had received from Huss their first knowledge of the Bible,
and on their return they spread the gospel in their fatherland.

Tidings of the work at Prague were carried to Rome, and Huss was soon
summoned to appear before the pope. To obey would be to expose himself to
certain death. The king and queen of Bohemia, the university, members of
the nobility, and officers of the government, united in an appeal to the
pontiff that Huss be permitted to remain at Prague, and to answer at Rome
by deputy. Instead of granting this request, the pope proceeded to the
trial and condemnation of Huss, and then declared the city of Prague to be
under interdict.

In that age this sentence, whenever pronounced, created wide-spread alarm.
The ceremonies by which it was accompanied were well adapted to strike
terror to a people who looked upon the pope as the representative of God
Himself, holding the keys of heaven and hell, and possessing power to
invoke temporal as well as spiritual judgments. It was believed that the
gates of heaven were closed against the region smitten with interdict;
that until it should please the pope to remove the ban, the dead were shut
out from the abodes of bliss. In token of this terrible calamity, all the
services of religion were suspended. The churches were closed. Marriages
were solemnized in the churchyard. The dead, denied burial in consecrated
ground, were interred, without the rites of sepulture, in the ditches or
the fields. Thus by measures which appealed to the imagination, Rome
essayed to control the consciences of men.

The city of Prague was filled with tumult. A large class denounced Huss as
the cause of all their calamities, and demanded that he be given up to the
vengeance of Rome. To quiet the storm, the Reformer withdrew for a time to
his native village. Writing to the friends whom he had left at Prague, he
said: “If I have withdrawn from the midst of you, it is to follow the
precept and example of Jesus Christ, in order not to give room to the
ill-minded to draw on themselves eternal condemnation, and in order not to
be to the pious a cause of affliction and persecution, I have retired also
through an apprehension that impious priests might continue for a longer
time to prohibit the preaching of the word of God amongst you; but I have
not quitted you to deny the divine truth, for which, with God’s
assistance, I am willing to die.”(128) Huss did not cease his labors, but
traveled through the surrounding country, preaching to eager crowds. Thus
the measures to which the pope resorted to suppress the gospel, were
causing it to be the more widely extended. “We can do nothing against the
truth, but for the truth.”(129)

“The mind of Huss, at this stage of his career, would seem to have been
the scene of a painful conflict. Although the church was seeking to
overwhelm him by her thunderbolts, he had not renounced her authority. The
Roman Church was still to him the spouse of Christ, and the pope was the
representative and vicar of God. What Huss was warring against was the
abuse of authority, not the principle itself. This brought on a terrible
conflict between the convictions of his understanding and the claims of
his conscience. If the authority was just and infallible, as he believed
it to be, how came it that he felt compelled to disobey it? To obey, he
saw, was to sin; but why should obedience to an infallible church lead to
such an issue? This was the problem he could not solve; this was the doubt
that tortured him hour by hour. The nearest approximation to a solution
which he was able to make, was that it had happened again, as once before
in the days of the Saviour, that the priests of the church had become
wicked persons, and were using their lawful authority for unlawful ends.
This led him to adopt for his own guidance, and to preach to others for
theirs, the maxim that the precepts of Scripture, conveyed through the
understanding, are to rule the conscience; in other words, that God
speaking in the Bible, and not the church speaking through the priesthood,
is the one infallible guide.”(130)

When after a time the excitement in Prague subsided, Huss returned to his
chapel of Bethlehem, to continue with greater zeal and courage the
preaching of the word of God. His enemies were active and powerful, but
the queen and many of the nobles were his friends, and the people in great
numbers sided with him. Comparing his pure and elevating teachings and
holy life with the degrading dogmas which the Romanists preached, and the
avarice and debauchery which they practised, many regarded it an honor to
be on his side.

Hitherto Huss had stood alone in his labors; but now Jerome, who while in
England had accepted the teachings of Wycliffe, joined in the work of
reform. The two were hereafter united in their lives, and in death they
were not to be divided. Brilliancy of genius, eloquence and learning—gifts
that win popular favor—were possessed in a preeminent degree by Jerome;
but in those qualities which constitute real strength of character, Huss
was the greater. His calm judgment served as a restraint upon the
impulsive spirit of Jerome, who, with true humility, perceived his worth,
and yielded to his counsels. Under their united labors the reform was more
rapidly extended.

God permitted great light to shine upon the minds of these chosen men,
revealing to them many of the errors of Rome; but they did not receive all
the light that was to be given to the world. Through these, His servants,
God was leading the people out of the darkness of Romanism; but there were
many and great obstacles for them to meet, and He led them on, step by
step, as they could bear it. They were not prepared to receive all the
light at once. Like the full glory of the noontide sun to those who have
long dwelt in darkness, it would, if presented, have caused them to turn
away. Therefore He revealed it to the leaders little by little, as it
could be received by the people. From century to century, other faithful
workers were to follow, to lead the people on still farther in the path of
reform.

The schism in the church still continued. Three popes were now contending
for the supremacy, and their strife filled Christendom with crime and
tumult. Not content with hurling anathemas, they resorted to temporal
weapons. Each cast about him to purchase arms and to obtain soldiers. Of
course money must be had; and to procure this, the gifts, offices, and
blessings of the church were offered for sale.(131) The priests also,
imitating their superiors, resorted to simony and war to humble their
rivals and strengthen their own power. With daily increasing boldness,
Huss thundered against the abominations which were tolerated in the name
of religion; and the people openly accused the Romish leaders as the cause
of the miseries that overwhelmed Christendom.

Again the city of Prague seemed on the verge of a bloody conflict. As in
former ages, God’s servant was accused as “he that troubleth Israel.”(132)
The city was again placed under interdict, and Huss withdrew to his native
village. The testimony so faithfully borne from his loved chapel of
Bethlehem was ended. He was to speak from a wider stage, to all
Christendom, before laying down his life as a witness for the truth.

To cure the evils that were distracting Europe, a general council was
summoned to meet at Constance. The council was called at the desire of the
emperor Sigismund, by one of the three rival popes, John XXIII. The demand
for a council had been far from welcome to Pope John, whose character and
policy could ill bear investigation, even by prelates as lax in morals as
were the churchmen of those times. He dared not, however, oppose the will
of Sigismund.(133)

The chief objects to be accomplished by the council were to heal the
schism in the church, and to root out heresy. Hence the two anti-popes
were summoned to appear before it, as well as the leading propagator of
the new opinions, John Huss. The former, having regard to their own
safety, did not attend in person, but were represented by their delegates.
Pope John, while ostensibly the convoker of the council, came to it with
many misgivings, suspecting the emperor’s secret purpose to depose him,
and fearing to be brought to account for the vices which had disgraced the
tiara, as well as for the crimes which had secured it. Yet he made his
entry into the city of Constance with great pomp, attended by
ecclesiastics of the highest rank, and followed by a train of courtiers.
All the clergy and dignitaries of the city, with an immense crowd of
citizens, went out to welcome him. Above his head was a golden canopy,
borne by four of the chief magistrates. The host was carried before him,
and the rich dresses of the cardinals and nobles made an imposing display.

Meanwhile another traveler was approaching Constance. Huss was conscious
of the dangers which threatened him. He parted from his friends as if he
were never to meet them again, and went on his journey feeling that it was
leading him to the stake. Notwithstanding he had obtained a safe-conduct
from the king of Bohemia, and received one also from the emperor Sigismund
while on his journey, he made all his arrangements in view of the
probability of his death.

In a letter addressed to his friends at Prague he said: “My brethren, ...
I am departing with a safe-conduct from the king, to meet my numerous and
mortal enemies.... I confide altogether in the all-powerful God, in my
Saviour; I trust that He will listen to your ardent prayers, that He will
infuse His prudence and His wisdom into my mouth, in order that I may
resist them; and that He will accord me His Holy Spirit to fortify me in
His truth, so that I may face with courage, temptations, prison, and if
necessary, a cruel death. Jesus Christ suffered for His well-beloved; and
therefore ought we to be astonished that He has left us His example, in
order that we may ourselves endure with patience all things for our own
salvation? He is God, and we are His creatures; He is the Lord, and we are
His servants; He is Master of the world, and we are contemptible
mortals:—yet He suffered! Why, then, should we not suffer also,
particularly when suffering is for us a purification? Therefore, beloved,
if my death ought to contribute to His glory, pray that it may come
quickly, and that He may enable me to support all my calamities with
constancy. But if it be better that I return amongst you, let us pray to
God that I may return without stain,—that is, that I may not suppress one
tittle of the truth of the gospel, in order to leave my brethren an
excellent example to follow. Probably, therefore, you will never more
behold my face at Prague: but should the will of the all-powerful God
deign to restore me to you, let us then advance with a firmer heart in the
knowledge and the love of His law.”(134)

In another letter, to a priest who had become a disciple of the gospel,
Huss spoke with deep humility of his own errors, accusing himself “of
having felt pleasure in wearing rich apparel, and of having wasted hours
in frivolous occupations.” He then added these touching admonitions: “May
the glory of God and the salvation of souls occupy thy mind, and not the
possession of benefices and estates. Beware of adorning thy house more
than thy soul; and above all, give thy care to the spiritual edifice. Be
pious and humble with the poor, and consume not thy substance in feasting.
Shouldst thou not amend thy life and refrain from superfluities, I fear
that thou wilt be severely chastened, as I am myself.... Thou knowest my
doctrine, for thou hast received my instructions from thy childhood; it is
therefore useless for me to write to thee any further. But I conjure thee,
by the mercy of our Lord, not to imitate me in any of the vanities into
which thou hast seen me fall.” On the cover of the letter he added, “I
conjure thee, my friend, not to break this seal until thou shalt have
acquired the certitude that I am dead.”(135)

On his journey, Huss everywhere beheld indications of the spread of his
doctrines, and the favor with which his cause was regarded. The people
thronged to meet him, and in some towns the magistrates attended him
through their streets.

Upon arriving at Constance, Huss was granted full liberty. To the
emperor’s safe-conduct was added a personal assurance of protection by the
pope. But in violation of these solemn and repeated declarations, the
Reformer was in a short time arrested, by order of the pope and cardinals,
and thrust into a loathsome dungeon. Later he was transferred to a strong
castle across the Rhine, and there kept a prisoner. The pope, profiting
little by his perfidy, was soon after committed to the same prison.(136)
He had been proved before the council to be guilty of the basest crimes,
besides murder, simony, and adultery, “sins not fit to be named.” So the
council itself declared; and he was finally deprived of the tiara, and
thrown into prison. The anti-popes also were deposed, and a new pontiff
was chosen.

Though the pope himself had been guilty of greater crimes than Huss had
ever charged upon the priests, and for which he had demanded a
reformation, yet the same council which degraded the pontiff proceeded to
crush the Reformer. The imprisonment of Huss excited great indignation in
Bohemia. Powerful noblemen addressed to the council earnest protests
against this outrage. The emperor, who was loath to permit the violation
of a safe-conduct, opposed the proceedings against him. But the enemies of
the Reformer were malignant and determined. They appealed to the emperor’s
prejudices, to his fears, to his zeal for the church. They brought forward
arguments of great length to prove that “faith ought not to be kept with
heretics, nor persons suspected of heresy, though they are furnished with
safe-conducts from the emperor and kings.”(137) Thus they prevailed.

Enfeebled by illness and imprisonment,—for the damp, foul air of his
dungeon had brought on a fever which nearly ended his life,—Huss was at
last brought before the council. Loaded with chains, he stood in the
presence of the emperor, whose honor and good faith had been pledged to
protect him. During his long trial he firmly maintained the truth, and in
the presence of the assembled dignitaries of church and state, he uttered
a solemn and faithful protest against the corruptions of the hierarchy.
When required to choose whether he would recant his doctrines or suffer
death, he accepted the martyr’s fate.

The grace of God sustained him. During the weeks of suffering that passed
before his final sentence, heaven’s peace filled his soul. “I write this
letter,” he said to a friend, “in my prison, and with my fettered hand,
expecting my sentence of death to-morrow.... When, with the assistance of
Jesus Christ, we shall again meet in the delicious peace of the future
life, you will learn how merciful God has shown Himself toward me, how
effectually He has supported me in the midst of my temptations and
trials.”(138)

In the gloom of his dungeon he foresaw the triumph of the true faith.
Returning in his dreams to the chapel at Prague where he had preached the
gospel, he saw the pope and his bishops effacing the pictures of Christ
which he had painted on its walls. “This vision distressed him: but on the
next day he saw many painters occupied in restoring these figures in
greater number and in brighter colors. As soon as their task was ended,
the painters, who were surrounded by an immense crowd, exclaimed, ‘Now let
the popes and bishops come; they shall never efface them more!’ ” Said the
Reformer, as he related his dream, “I maintain this for certain, that the
image of Christ will never be effaced. They have wished to destroy it, but
it shall be painted afresh in all hearts by much better preachers than
myself.”(139)

For the last time, Huss was brought before the council. It was a vast and
brilliant assembly,—the emperor, the princes of the empire, the royal
deputies, the cardinals, bishops, and priests, and an immense crowd who
had come as spectators of the events of the day. From all parts of
Christendom had been gathered the witnesses of this first great sacrifice
in the long struggle by which liberty of conscience was to be secured.

Being called upon for his final decision, Huss declared his refusal to
abjure, and fixing his penetrating glance upo

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