The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 176

obtained.”—Ibid., b. 8, ch. 5. Pilgrims at all seasons resorted to the
shrine of the Virgin; but at the great yearly festival of its consecration
multitudes came from all parts of Switzerland, and even from France and
Germany. Zwingli, greatly afflicted at the sight, seized the opportunity to
proclaim liberty through the gospel to these bondslaves of superstition.
“Do not imagine,” he said, “that God is in this temple more than
in any other part of creation. Whatever be the country in which you
dwell, God is around you, and hears you.... Can unprofitable works,
long pilgrimages, offerings, images, the invocation of the Virgin or
of the saints, secure for you the grace of God? ... What avails the
multitude of words with which we embody our prayers? What efficacy
has a glossy cowl, a smooth-shorn head, a long and flowing robe, or
gold-embroidered slippers? ... God looks at the heart, and our hearts
are far from Him.” “Christ,” he said, “who was once offered upon the
cross, is the sacrifice and victim, that had made satisfaction for the sins
of believers to all eternity.”—Ibid., b. 8, ch. 5.
To many listeners these teachings were unwelcome. It was a bitter
disappointment to them to be told that their toilsome journey had been
made in vain. The pardon freely offered to them through Christ they
could not comprehend. They were satisfied with the old way to heaven
which Rome had marked out for them. They shrank from the perple