The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 175
“The Scriptures,” said Zwingli, “come from God, not from man, and
even that God who enlightens will give thee to understand that the speech
comes from God. The word of God ... cannot fail; it is bright, it teaches
itself, it discloses itself, it illumines the soul with all salvation and grace,
comforts it in God, humbles it, so that it loses and even forfeits itself, and
embraces God.” The truth of these words Zwingli himself had proved.
Speaking of his experience at this time, he afterward wrote: “When ... I
began to give myself wholly up to the Holy Scriptures, philosophy and
theology (scholastic) would always keep suggesting quarrels to me. At
last I came to this, that I thought, ‘Thou must let all that lie, and learn
the meaning of God purely out of His own simple word.’ Then I began
to ask God for His light, and the Scriptures began to be much easier to
me.”—Ibid., b. 8, ch. 6.
The doctrine preached by Zwingli was not received from Luther. It
was the doctrine of Christ. “If Luther preaches Christ,” said the Swiss
Reformer, “he does what I am doing. Those whom he has brought to
Christ are more numerous than those whom I have led. But this matters
not. I will bear no other name than that of Christ, whose soldier I am,
and who alone is my Chief. Never has one single word been written
by me to Luther, nor by Luther to me. And why? ... That it might
be shown how much the Spirit of God is in unison with itself, since
both of us, without any collusion, teach the doctrine of Christ with such
uniformity.”—D’Aubigne, b. 8, ch. 9.
In 1516 Zwingli was invited to become a preacher in the convent
at Einsiedeln. Here he was to have a closer view of the corruptions of
Rome and was to exert an influence as a Reformer that would be felt far
beyond his native Alps. Among the chief attractions of Einsiedeln was
an image of the Virgin which was said to have the power of working
miracles. Above the gateway of the convent was the inscription, “Here a
plenary remission of sins may be
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