nd reform the people would be
virtually to undermine the authority of Rome, to stop thousands of streams
now flowing into her treasury, and thus greatly to curtail the
extravagance and luxury of the papal leaders. Furthermore, to teach the
people to think and act as responsible beings, looking to Christ alone for
salvation, would overthrow the pontiff's throne, and eventually destroy
their own authority. For this reason they refused the knowledge tendered
them of God, and arrayed themselves against Christ and the truth by their
opposition to the man whom He had sent to enlighten them.

Luther trembled as he looked upon himself--one man opposed to the mightiest
powers of earth. He sometimes doubted whether he had indeed been led of
God to set himself against the authority of the church. "Who was I," he
writes, "to oppose the majesty of the pope, before whom ... the kings of
the earth and the whole world trembled? ... No one can know what my heart
suffered during these first two years, and into what despondency, I may
say into what despair, I was sunk."(177) But he was not left to become
utterly disheartened. When human support failed, he looked to God alone,
and learned that he could lean in perfect safety upon that all-powerful
arm.

To a friend of the Reformation Luther wrote: "We cannot attain to the
understanding of Scripture either by study or by the intellect. Your first
duty is to begin by prayer. Entreat the Lord to grant you, of His great
mercy, the true understanding of His word. There is no other interpreter
of the word of God than the Author of this word, as He Himself has said,
'They shall be all taught of God.' Hope for nothing from your own labors,
from your own understanding: trust solely in God, and in the influence of
His Spirit. Believe this on the word of a man who has had
experience."(178) Here is a lesson of vital importance to those who feel
that God has called them to present to others the solemn truths for this
time. These truths will stir the enmity of Satan, and of men who love the
fables that he has devised. In the conflict with the powers of evil, there
is need of something more than strength of intellect and human wisdom.

When enemies appealed to custom and tradition, or to the assertions and
authority of the pope, Luther met them with the Bible, and the Bible only.
Here were arguments which they could not answer; therefore the slaves of
formalism and superstition clamored for his blood, a