Perhaps no one since the days of the apostles and early martyrs fought such a fight as Martin Luther--a fight against principalities and powers, civil, ecclesiastical, and Satanic; against a religion rooted and established in all the so-called Christian world, and intertwined with every civil government and supported by the kings and rulers of the earth, having unlimited power to prosecute, persecute, imprison, torture, crush, and kill any persons offensive to its rule. Luther stood alone, practically without defense or protection, and had no forces of men and arms wherewith to attack a power whose strength stood in men and arms in every country. Neither did he care for carnal help. For evermore will his work be an irrefutable testimony to the [280] terrible power of the word of God. When some of his followers used some of the Romish tactics and tried to put down the mass by carnal means within the circle of their power, Luther straitly rebuked them. "The mass," he said, "is a bad thing. God is inimical to it. It must be abolished, and I could wish that over the whole world it were supplanted by the Supper of the gospel. But let nobody be driven from it by violence. The affair must be committed to God. His word must act, not we. 'And why?' you will say. Because I do not hold the hearts of men in my hands, as the potter does the clay. We have a right to speak, but not to act [that is, to enforce the observance of our doctrine by others]. Let us preach--the rest belongs to God. If I employ force, what shall I obtain? Grimace, appearances, apishness, human ordinances, hypocrisy. But there will be no sincerity of heart, no faith, no charity. Any work in which these three things are wanting wants everything, and I would not give a pin for it."

      "I am willing to speak, to preach, to write; but I would not constrain any one, for faith is a voluntary matter. See what I have done! I have withstood the pope, indulgences, and the papists, but without tumult and violence. I have put forward the word of God, have preached, have written; but this is all I have done. And while I slept . . . the Word which I had preached overthrew the papacy, assailing it more effectually than was ever done by prince or emperor. I have done nothing--the Word has done all. Had I chosen to appeal to force, perhaps Germany might have been bathed in blood. But what would have been the consequences? Ruin and desolation, both to soul and body. I therefore remained quiet and allowed the Word to have free course in the world. When he sees recourse had to force to spread the gospel among men, . . . Satan with malignant leer says: [281] 'Ah, how sagely these fools are playing my game!' But when he sees the Word running and wrestling alone on the field of battle, he feels uneasy and his knees tremble."

      In another place he says: "It is by the Word that we must fight; by the Word overturn and destroy what has been established by violence. I am unwilling to employ force against the ignorant or the unbelieving. Let him who believes approach; let him who believes not stand aloof. None ought to be constrained. Liberty is of the essence of faith."

      And these things hold their lesson for us, lest we by some kind of carnal force, such as browbeating, ostracism, boycott, ridicule, or other forms of oppression, should attempt to coerce men and women into obedience to God.

[TAG 280-282]