Chapter 9—The Swiss Reformer
In the choice of instrumentalities for the reforming of the church,
the same divine plan is seen as in that for the planting of the church.
The heavenly Teacher passed by the great men of the earth, the titled
and wealthy, who were accustomed to receive praise and homage
as leaders of the people. They were so proud and self-confident in
their boasted superiority that they could not be molded to sympathize
with their fellow men and to become colaborers with the humble Man
of Nazareth. To the unlearned, toiling fishermen of Galilee was the
call addressed: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Matthew 4:19
. These disciples were humble and teachable. The less
they had been influenced by the false teaching of their time, the more
successfully could Christ instruct and train them for His service. So
in the days of the Great Reformation. The leading Reformers were
men from humble life—men who were most free of any of their time
from pride of rank and from the influence of bigotry and priestcraft.
It is God’s plan to employ humble instruments to accomplish great
results. Then the glory will not be given to men, but to Him who works
through them to will and to do of His own good pleasure.
A few weeks after the birth of Luther in a miner’s cabin in Saxony,
Ulric Zwingli was born in a herdsman’s cottage among the Alps.
Zwingli’s surroundings in childhood, and his early training, were such
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as to prepare him for his future mission. Reared amid scenes of natural
grandeur, beauty, and awful sublimity, his mind was early impressed
with a sense of the greatness, the power, and the majesty of God. The
history of the brave deeds achieved upon his native mountains kindled
his youthful aspirations. And at the side of his pious grandmother he
listened to the few precious Bible stories which she had gleaned from
amid the legends and traditions of the church. With eager interest he
heard of the grand deeds of patriarchs and prophets, of the shepherds
who watched their flocks on the hills of Palestine where angels talked
with them, of the Babe of Bethlehem and the Man of Calvary.
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