The Holy Scripture - english version B.indd - Sabbat

Double Foreview of the Reformation.417that admirable translation in which Germany has now for three centuries perused theoracles of God. Is was perhaps the first time that any hand had taken down this preciousvolume from the place which it occupied in the library of Erfurt. This book, lying on theunknown shelves of an obscure chamber, is to become the book of life to a whole people.The Reformation was hid in that Bible."(D'AUBIGNÈ: "History of the Reformation," vol. I., p. 113.)Later on, when soul agony had driven the young student from his loveduniversity into a Benedictine convent, to seek the salvation fro which he longed,it was the same blessed book, with its glorious doctrines of the forgiveness of sinsand justification by faith alone, that calmed his storm-tossed spirit, and quickenedhis soul to new spiritual life. Staupitz, the vicar-general of his order, who provedhimself a true pastor to the poor young monk, gave him a Bible of his own. Hisjoy was great. He soon knew where to find any passage he needed. With intenseearnestness he studied its pages, and especially the epistles of St. Paul. Rightvaliantly did the young reformer use the sword of the Spirit thus placed in hishand."The Reformation, which commenced with the struggles of a humble soul inthe cell of a convent at Erfurt, has never ceased to advance. An obscure individual,with the word of life in his hand, had stood erect in presence of worldly grandeur,and made it tremble. This word he had opposed, first, to Tetzel and his numeroushost ; and these avaricious merchants, after a momentary resistance, had takenflight. Next, he had opposed it to the legate of Rome at Augsburg ; and the legate,paralysed, had allowed his prey to escape. At a later period he had opposed it tothe champions of learning in the halls of Leipsic, and the astonished theologianshad seen their syllogistic weapons broken to pieces in their hands. At last hehad opposed it to the pope, who, disturbed in his sleep, had risen up upon histhrone, and thundered at the troublesome monk ; but the whole power of the headof Christendom this word had paralysed. The word had still a last struggle tomaintain. It behoved to triumph over the emperor of the west, over the kings andprinces of the earth, and then, victorious over all the powers of the world, take itsplace in the Church, to reign in it as the pure word of God." (D'AUBIGNÉ: "Historyof Reformation," vol. II., p. 129.)"Let us believe the gospel [good tidings], let us believeSt. Paul, and not the letters and decretals of the pope,"Luther was wont to say. "Are you the man that undertakes to reforn the Papacy?"said an officer to him one day. "Yes," replied Luther ; "I am the man. I confidein Almighty God, whose WORD I have before me." "Sooner sacrificemy body and my life, better allow my arms and legs to be cut off," said he to thearchbishop, who tried to persuade him to restract his writings, "than abandon theclear and genuine WORD OF GOD."From his lonely, Patmos-like prison in the castle of Wartburg, in the forestsof Thuringia, Luther gave this priceless treasure, the word of God, to his countryin a translation which is still in use in Germany. He felt that the Bible which hadliberated him could alone liberate his people. "It was necessary that a mighty handshould throw back the ponderous gates of that arsenal of the word of God in whichLuther himself had found his armour, and that those vaults and ancient halls which