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Protestantism in Sweden and Denmark - James Aitken Wylie

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The disaster which had overtaken the movement <strong>in</strong><br />

Switzerl<strong>and</strong> had arrested it, but had not<br />

ext<strong>in</strong>guished it. The light of the new day cont<strong>in</strong>ued<br />

to brighten on the shores of its lakes, <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> the<br />

cities of its pla<strong>in</strong>s; but the darkness l<strong>in</strong>gered <strong>in</strong><br />

those deep <strong>and</strong> secluded valleys over which the<br />

mighty forms of the Oberl<strong>and</strong> Alps hang <strong>in</strong> their<br />

glaciers <strong>and</strong> snows. The five Forest Cantons had<br />

led gloriously <strong>in</strong> the campaign aga<strong>in</strong>st Austria; but<br />

they were not to have the honor of lead<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> this<br />

second <strong>and</strong> greater battle. They had fought<br />

valorously for political freedom; but that liberty<br />

which is the palladium of all others they knew not<br />

to value.<br />

To France came <strong>Protestantism</strong> <strong>in</strong> the sixteenth<br />

century, with its dem<strong>and</strong>, "Open that I may enter."<br />

But France was too magnificent a country to<br />

become a convert to <strong>Protestantism</strong>. Had that great<br />

k<strong>in</strong>gdom embraced the Reformation, the same<br />

century which witnessed the birth would have<br />

witnessed also the triumph of <strong>Protestantism</strong>; but at<br />

what a cost would that triumph have been won!<br />

The victory would have been ascribed to the<br />

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