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The Great Controversy 1888
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.”
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 insured its own destruction.
The experience of those 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
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
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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
tokens, also, that the divine hand was stretched out to protect the
faithful. It was about this time that Melancthon hurried his friend
Grynaeus through the streets of Spires to the Rhine, and urged him
to cross the river without delay. Grynaeus, in astonishment, desired
to know the reason for this sudden flight. Said Melancthon, “An old
man of grave and solemn aspect, but who is unknown to me, appeared
before me, and said, ‘In a minute the officers of justice will be sent by
Ferdinand to arrest Grynaeus.’” On the banks of the Rhine, Melancthon
waited until the waters of that stream interposed between his beloved
friend and those who sought his life. When he saw him on the other
side at last, he said, “He is torn from the cruel jaws of those who thirst
for innocent blood.”
Grynaeus had been on intimate terms with a leading papist doctor;
but, having been shocked at one of his sermons, he went to him, and