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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 4
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 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 were
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conscientious souls 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, many vainly sought to obtain peace of conscience.
Oppressed with a sense of sin, and haunted with the fear of God’s
avenging wrath, they 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 those 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 make satisfaction for transgression of
God’s law, they held to be based upon falsehood. Reliance upon
human merits intercepts the view of Christ’s infinite love. Jesus
died as men’s sacrifice, because they 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 union of the soul to
Christ by faith is as real, 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 of the world was represented as so far
devoid of all sympathy with man in his fallen state that the mediation
of priests and saints must be invoked. How those whose minds
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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.