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The Great Controversy 1888
reached before. Sweden became one of the bulwarks of Protestantism.
A century later, at a time of sorest peril, this small and hitherto feeble
nation—the only one in Europe that dared lend a helping hand—came
to the deliverance of Germany in the terrible struggles of the thirty
years’ war. All Northern Europe seemed about to be brought again
under the tyranny of Rome. It was the armies of Sweden that enabled
Germany to turn the tide of popish success, to win toleration for the
Protestants—Calvinists as well as Lutherans—and to restore liberty of
conscience to those countries that had accepted the Reformation.
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