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John Huss and the Hussite Wars - James Aitken Wylie

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many would have yielded – how many in similar<br />

circumstances have yielded, <strong>and</strong> been lost! Had<br />

<strong>Huss</strong> bowed his head before <strong>the</strong> infallibility, he<br />

never could have lifted it up again before his own<br />

conscience, before his countrymen, before his<br />

Savior. Struck with spiritual paralysis, his strength<br />

would have departed from him. He would have<br />

escaped <strong>the</strong> stake, <strong>the</strong> agony of which is but for a<br />

moment, but he would have missed <strong>the</strong> crown, <strong>the</strong><br />

glory of which is eternal.<br />

From that moment <strong>Huss</strong> had peace – deeper<br />

<strong>and</strong> more ecstatic than he had ever before<br />

experienced. "I write this letter," says he to a<br />

friend, "in prison, <strong>and</strong> with my fettered h<strong>and</strong>,<br />

expecting my sentence of death tomorrow ... When,<br />

with <strong>the</strong> assistance of Jesus Christ, we shall meet<br />

again in <strong>the</strong> delicious peace of <strong>the</strong> future life, you<br />

will learn how merciful God has shown himself<br />

towards me – how effectually he has supported me<br />

in <strong>the</strong> midst of my temptations <strong>and</strong> trials." The<br />

irritation of <strong>the</strong> debate into which <strong>the</strong> Council had<br />

dragged him was forgotten, <strong>and</strong> he calmly began to<br />

prepare for death, not disquieted by <strong>the</strong> terrible<br />

96

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