174
The Great Controversy
the most favorable to study.” In the privacy of his chamber he was
heard to pour out his soul before God in words “full of adoration,
fear, and hope, as when one speaks to a friend.” “I know that Thou
art our Father and our God,” he said, “and that Thou wilt scatter the
persecutors of Thy children; for Thou art Thyself endangered with us.
All this matter is Thine, and it is only by Thy constraint that we have
put our hands to it. Defend us, then, O Father!”—Ibid., b. 14, ch. 6.
To Melanchthon, who was crushed under the burden of anxiety and
fear, he wrote: “Grace and peace in Christ—in Christ, I say, and not in
the world. Amen. I hate with exceeding hatred those extreme cares
which consume you. If the cause is unjust, abandon it; if the cause is
just, why should we belie the promises of Him who commands us to
sleep without fear? ... Christ will not be wanting to the work of justice
and truth. He lives, He reigns; what fear, then, can we have?”—Ibid.,
b. 14, ch. 6.
God did listen to the cries of His servants. He gave to princes and
ministers grace and courage to maintain the truth against the rulers of
the darkness of this world. Saith the Lord: “Behold, I lay in Zion a
chief cornerstone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on Him shall
not be confounded.”
1 Peter 2:6
. The Protestant Reformers had built
on Christ, and the gates of hell could not prevail against them.
[211]