The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 213

faith, others clung with blind persistence to the creed of Rome. Their
persecution of those who desired to receive the truth finally gave rise to
civil war. Zwingli and many who had united with him in reform fell on
the bloody field of Cappel. Oecolampadius, overcome by these terrible
disasters, soon after died. Rome was triumphant, and in many places
seemed about to recover all that she had lost. But He whose counsels
are from everlasting had not forsaken His cause or His people. His
hand would bring del iverance for them. In other lands He had raised
up laborers to carry forward the reform.
In France, before the name of Luther had been heard as a Reformer,
the day had already begun to break. One of the first to catch the light
was the aged Lefevre, a man of extensive learning, a professor in the
University of Paris, and a sincere and zealous papist. In his researches
into ancient literature his attention was directed to the Bible, and he
introduced its study among his students.
Lefevre was an enthusiastic adorer of the saints, and he had
undertaken to prepare a history of the saints and martyrs as given in
the legends of the church. This was a work which involved great labor;
but he had already made considerable progress in it, when, thinking that
he might obtain useful assistance from the Bible, he began its study with
this object. Here indeed he found saints brought to view, but not such as
figured in the Roman calendar. A flood of divine light broke in upon his
mind. In amazement and disgust he turned away from his self-appointed
task and devoted himself to the word of God. The precious truths which
he there discovered he soon began to teach.
In 1512, before either Luther or Zwingli had begun the work
of reform, Lefevre wrote: “It is God who gives us, by faith, that
righteousness which by grace alone justifies to eternal life.”—Wylie, b.
13, ch. 1. Dwelling upon the mysteries of redemption, he exclaimed:
“Oh, the unspeakable greatness of that exchange,—the Sinless One is
condemned,

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