SECULAR CONTEST BETWEEN CONSCIENCE AND POWER. 131 



" Philosophers, doctors and writers," said the preacher, " have 

 endeavoured to teach men the way to obtain everlasting life, and 

 they have not succeeded. I will now tell it to you : — 



" There are two kinds of works — works not of ourselves^ and 

 these are good; our own works, they are of little worth. One 

 man builds a church; another goes on a pilgrimage to St. lago 

 of Compostella, or St. Peter's; a third fasts, takes the cowl, and 

 goes bare-foot; another does something else. All these works 

 are nothingness, and will come to naught, for our own works 

 have no virtue in them. But I am now going to tell you what is 

 the true work. God has raised one Man from the dead, the Lord 

 Jesu Christ, that He might destroy death, expiate sin, and shut 

 the gates of hell. This is the work of salvation. 



" Christ has vanquished ! This is the joyful news ! and we are 

 saved by His work, and not by our own. . . . Our Lord Jesus 

 Christ said, ' Peace be unto you ! behold my hands, ' that is to say, 

 Behold, O man ! it is I, I alone, who have taken away thy sins, 

 and ransomed thee; and now thou hast peace, saith the Lord."" 



It was the first time for centuries that the truth of justification 

 by faith had been thus clearly stated. Those who had previously 

 rejected the prevailing superstitions of Eome had ultimately been 

 silenced, nor had their doctrine been as clear as that of the monk 

 who now shook the world. If he could have been cowed or 

 coerced into silence, it is likely that Calvin would never have had 

 a safe place in which to preach, nor should we have had any real 

 reformation in England. Not onl}^ had Luther the fate of the 

 early reformers to remind him of his own danger, but he was 

 standing up against a church which had been united by the Council 

 that burned Huss and had, therefore, a greater apparent claim^ 

 to the obedience of mankind. It was a church which he had been 

 taught to reverence as the only true representative of the Divine 

 Eevelation on earth, a church whose creeds indeed set forth the 

 faith of the earlier and purer ages. 



It is interesting to learn that it was on his journey to this 

 Council that Luther composed his famous hymn, " A strong tower 

 is our God," and sang it sitting in his conveyance as the towers 

 of Worms appeared in view. When he reached the gates the 

 citizens left their dinner and with all the multitude of princes, 

 nobles and men of all the nations gathered there gave the monk 

 a greater reception than had met the emperor a few days before. 



On the following morning Luther appeared before the Diet, 

 someone whispering in his ear, as he entered, " Fear not them 

 that can kill the body, and after that have no more that they can 

 do." On this occasion he was asked two questions, first, " Did 

 he acknowledge his books ? ' ' which had been collected and placed 



