ROME was not destined to fall in a day as it was not built in a day. It was very gradually that Luther came to see the light, as the Spirit of God was illuminating him more and more. When he attacked Tetzel’s sale of indulgences he did not mean to sever his connection with the Papal See. He still fondly cherished the belief that the Pope was his father in God and the vicar of Christ on earth. He appealed to the Vatican to obtain redress for his grievances against Tetzel and his followers in their God-dishonouring sale of indulgences. Needless to say he obtained no relief from that direction for his conscience, but on the contrary was buried under a mountain of curses and excommunications.
When the Papal bull was fulminated against him, the monk that shook the world burned his boats behind him and declared the Bishop of Rome Anti-christ and the Man of Sin. The world was aghast at his boldness in publicly burning the Papal bull. A new era was thus ushered in in this dramatic manner, and liberty rose from the ashes of the Vatican document. The nine centuries long dominion of darkness and superstition was ended, we hope, for ever, by the agency of one weak man. Yet, he was not alone for God was with him. He had more than human strength and courage. The Rock of Ages was his support in this most memorable action. He was now more than a weed in the Pope’s garden.
It was far from Dr. Martin Luther’s original intention to be a schismatic, or to cause a division in the body of Christ, but his hand was forced by the march of events, until he found himself compelled to stand alone against the world, like Athanasius in the early period of the Church. Even his most intimate friends kept aloof and feared to be entangled in his downfall. The only source of power and consolation to the Reformer was prayer. In this he excelled and prevailed with God over all his enemies and the assaults of the kingdom of darkness. His hands were full of business, as he was continually writing and studying and lecturing in addition to preaching. Yet on one busy day he spent three hours in prayer to facilitate his work.
A saying of his was that to have prayed well was to have studied well. He poured out his heart to the Almighty in secret prayer as to a friend in heaven, and yet with an awe of His infinite majesty upon his spirit. Some of his prayers were overheard and they can be read as they were delivered. We can see what apostolic fervency he used in his petitions to Heaven. This was the secret of his success as a reformer although encountered by fearful odds. He was used by God to restore His Church to its primitive purity, just as it had been when Christianity was disseminated by the Apostles in the first century. Nine dreary centuries had intervened, rightly called by historians the Dark Ages.
As a doctor of divinity he had graduated in the text books of the schoolmen, such as Aquinas and Duns Scotus, but when the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ shone in his soul, he forsook the way of justification by works and took justification by faith as the article of belief by which the Church either stood or fell. This he now preached to the common people and to his students at Wittenberg. The quiet German town was stirred into life and no little strife was raised by his contentions for truth. There were many powerful adversaries to the gospel thus restored such as Dr. Eck, a furious Romanist protagonist, and the Papal Legate before whom Luther appeared to vindicate his opinions.
A diet of temporal princes was convened at Worms to suppress heresy in the Empire. Here Luther appeared although warned by his friends not to go as it would mean certain death. On being pressed to retract his doctrines he read out a summary of them in Latin and German and then uttered the historic words, “Here I take my stand. I can do no other. So help me God.” In the midst of the vast assembly of temporal and ecclesiastical powers he remained unabashed, although he had been “in much weakness” like the Apostle Paul on the preceding night in his private lodging. He had been wrestling for victory on his knees, and consequently in the presence of kings he was calm and undismayed.
During his stay in the castle of Wartburg he used his leisure in translating the Bible into German. It was here he saw the semblance of the devil and threw the bottle of ink at the apparition. By thus giving the people access to the Scriptures the battle of the Reformation was won. His writings were carried to England in bales of merchandise although prohibited by law. Pious merchants bought his writings in bulk and distributed them throughout Europe. Tyndale later translated the Bible into English, for which he suffered martyrdom. Luther, however, evaded in the providence of the Most High all attempts upon his life, and lived to see the flourishing of the movement away from Rome which he had set on foot.—D. J. Macaskill.