The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 235

retreat for study, and there, through the press, instruct and build up the
churches. But Farel’s solemn admonition came to him as a call from
Heaven, and he dared not refuse. It seemed to him, he said, “that
the hand of God was stretched down from heaven, that it lay hold of
him, and fixed him irrevocably to the place he was so impatient to
leave.”—D’Aubigne, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time
of Calvin, b. 9, ch. 17.
At this time great perils surrounded the Protestant cause. The
anathemas of the pope thundered against Geneva, and mighty nations
threatened it with destruction. How was this little city to resist the
powerful hierarchy that had so often forced kings and emperors to
submission? How could it stand against the armies of the world’s great
conquerors?
Throughout Christendom, Protestantism was menaced by formidable
foes. The first triumphs of the Reformation past, Rome summoned new
forces, hoping to accomplish its destruction. At this time the order of the
Jesuits was created, the most cruel, unscrupulous, and powerful of all
the champions of popery. Cut off from earthly ties and human interests,
dead to the claims of natural affection, reason and conscience wholly
silenced, they knew no rule, no tie, but that of their order, and no duty but
to extend its power. (See Appendix.) The gospel of Christ had enabled
its adherents to meet danger and endure suffering, undismayed by cold,
hunger, toil, and poverty, to uphold the banner of truth in face of the rack,
the dungeon, and the stake. To combat these forces, Jesuitism inspired
its followers with a fanaticism that enabled them to endure like dangers,
and to oppose to the power of truth all the weapons of deception. There
was no crime too great for them to commit, no deception too base for
them to practice, no disguise too difficult for them to assume. Vowed
to perpetual poverty and humility, it was their studied aim to secure
wealth and power, to be devoted to the overthrow of Protestantism, and
the re-establishment of the papal supremacy.

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