The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 211

From the secret place of prayer came the power that shook the world
in the Great Reformation. There, with holy calmness, the servants of the
Lord set their feet upon the rock of His promises. During the struggle
at Augsburg, Luther “did not pass a day without devoting three hours
at least to prayer, and they were hours selected from those the most
favorable to study.” In the privacy of his chamber he was heard to pour
out his soul before God in words “full of adoration, fear, and hope, as
when one speaks to a friend.” “I know that Thou art our Father and
our God,” he said, “and that Thou wilt scatter the persecutors of Thy
children; for Thou art Thyself endangered with us. All this matter is
Thine, and it is only by Thy constraint that we have put our hands to it.
Defend us, then, O Father!”—Ibid., b. 14, ch. 6.
To Melanchthon, who was crushed under the burden of anxiety and
fear, he wrote: “Grace and peace in Christ—in Christ, I say, and not
in the world. Amen. I hate with exceeding hatred those extreme cares
which consume you. If the cause is unjust, abandon it; if the cause is
just, why should we belie the promises of Him who commands us to
sleep without fear? ... Christ will not be wanting to the work of justice
and truth. He lives, He reigns; what fear, then, can we have?”—Ibid., b.
14, ch. 6.
God did listen to the cries of His servants. He gave to princes and
ministers grace and courage to maintain the truth against the rulers of
the darkness of this world. Saith the Lord: “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on Him shall not be
confounded.” 1 Peter 2:6. The Protestant Reformers had built on Christ,
and the gates of hell could not prevail against them.

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