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The Great Controversy 1888
When powerful foes were uniting to overthrow the reformed faith,
and thousands of swords seemed about to be unsheathed against it,
Luther wrote: “Satan is raging; ungodly priests take counsel together,
and we are threatened with war. Exhort the people to contend earnestly
before the throne of the Lord, by faith and prayer, that our adversaries,
being overcome by the Spirit of God, may be constrained to peace.
The most urgent of our wants—the very first thing we have to do, is to
pray; let the people know that they are at this hour exposed to the edge
of the sword and the rage of the devil; let them pray.”
Again, at a later date, referring to the league contemplated by the
reformed princes, he declared that the only weapon employed in this
warfare should be “the sword of the Spirit.” He wrote to the Elector
of Saxony: “We cannot in our conscience approve of the proposed
alliance. Our Lord Christ is mighty enough, and can well find ways
and means to rescue us from danger, and bring the thoughts of the
ungodly princes to nothing.... Christ is only trying us whether we
are willing to obey his word or no, and whether we hold it for certain
truth or not. We would rather die ten times over than that the gospel
should be a cause of blood or hurt by any act of ours. Let us rather
patiently suffer, and, as the psalmist says, be accounted as sheep for
the slaughter; and instead of avenging or defending ourselves, leave
room for God’s wrath.” “The cross of Christ must be borne. Let your
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highness be without fear. We shall do more by our prayers than all our
enemies by their boastings. Only let not your hands be stained with
the blood of your brethren. If the emperor requires us to be given up
to his tribunals, we are ready to appear. You cannot defend the faith;
each one should believe at his own risk and peril.”
From the secret place of prayer came the power that shook the
world in the Great Reformation. There, with holy calmness, the ser-
vants of the Lord set their feet upon the rock of his promises. During
the struggle at Augsburg, Luther did not fail to devote three hours each
day to prayer; and these were taken from that portion of the day 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 if
speaking 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,