Protest of the Princes
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of Jesus Christ. But it goes farther: it lays down the principle that all
human teaching should be subordinate to the oracles of God.”—Ibid.,
b. 13, ch. 6. The protesters had moreover affirmed their right to utter
freely their convictions of truth. They would not only believe and
obey, but teach what the word of God presents, and they denied the
right of priest or magistrate to interfere. The Protest of Spires was a
solemn witness against religious intolerance, and an assertion of the
right of all men to worship God according to the dictates of their own
consciences.
The declaration had been made. It was written in the memory of
thousands and registered in the books of heaven, where no effort of
man could erase it. All evangelical Germany adopted the Protest as
the expression of its faith. Everywhere men beheld in this declaration
the promise of a new and better era. Said one of the princes to the
Protestants of Spires: “May the Almighty, who has given you grace
to confess energetically, freely, and fearlessly, preserve you in that
Christian firmness until the day of eternity.”—Ibid., b. 13, ch. 6.
Had the Reformation, after attaining a degree of success, consented
to temporize to secure favor with the world, it would have been untrue
to God and to itself, and would thus have ensured its own destruction.
The experience of these noble Reformers contains a lesson for all
succeeding ages. Satan’s manner of working against God and His
word has not changed; he is still as much opposed to the Scriptures
being made the guide of life as in the sixteenth century. In our time
there is a wide departure from their doctrines and precepts, and there
is need of a return to the great Protestant principle—the Bible, and the
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Bible only, as the rule of faith and duty. Satan is still working through
every means which he can control to destroy religious liberty. The
antichristian power which the protesters of Spires rejected is now with
renewed vigor seeking to re-establish its lost supremacy. The same
unswerving adherence to the word of God manifested at that crisis of
the Reformation is the only hope of reform today.
There appeared tokens of danger to the Protestants; there were to-
kens, also, that the divine hand was stretched out to protect the faithful.
It was about this time that “Melanchthon hastily conducted through the
streets of Spires toward the Rhine his friend Simon Grynaeus, pressing
him to cross the river. The latter was astonished at such precipitation.
‘An old man of grave and solemn air, but who is unknown to me,’ said