The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 195

language. This translation was received with great joy by all who loved
the truth; but it was scornfully rejected by those who chose human
traditions and the commandments of men.
The priests were alarmed at the thought that the common people
would now be able to discuss with them the precepts of God’s word, and
that their own ignorance would thus be exposed. The weapons of their
carnal reasoning were powerless against the sword of the Spirit. Rome
summoned all her authority to prevent the circulation of the Scriptures;
but decrees, anathemas, and tortures were alike in vain. The more she
condemned and prohibited the Bible, the greater was the anxiety of the
people to know what it really taught. All who could read were eager
to study the word of God for themselves. They carried it about with
them, and read and reread, and could not be satisfied until they had
committed large portions to memory. Seeing the favor with which the
New Testament was received, Luther immediately began the translation
of the Old, and published it in parts as fast as completed.
Luther’s writings were welcomed alike in city and in hamlet. “What
Luther and his friends composed, others circulated. Monks, convinced
of the unlawfulness of monastic obligations, desirous of exchanging a
long life of slothfulness for one of active exertion, but too ignorant
to proclaim the word of God, traveled through the provinces, visiting
hamlets and cottages, where they sold the books of Luther and his
friends. Germany soon swarmed with these bold colporteurs.”—Ibid.,
b. 9, ch. 11.
These writings were studied with deep interest by rich and poor, the
learned and the ignorant. At night the teachers of the village schools
read them aloud to little groups gathered at the fireside. With every effort
some souls would be convicted of the truth and, receiving the word with
gladness, would in their turn tell the good news to others.

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