TWICE-BORN MEN
REMARKABLE CONVERSIONS OF WELL-KNOWN MEN
IN DIFFERENT AGES AND IN VARIED RANKS OF LIFE
Compiled by HY. PICKERING
Monk who Shook the World
MARTIN LUTHER, the Monk who shook the world, was born in Eisleben, in 1483, the son of a miner. As a monk he was climbing, upon his knees, a stone staircase of many steps, which was said to have been carried through the air from its former to its present place. He had said prayers by hundreds, day and night; he had nearly starved himself to death, but sin would not be starved out, and after having done all he could to reach the scat of the disease, he still felt as loathsome as Naaman, as possessed as Mary Magdalene. There was just this penance left to try. The Pope had decreed an indulgence to any who would climb to the top of Pilate’s staircase at Rome on his knees, and the poor monk, as a last effort of despair, would not omit this degrading act, which he fondly hoped would obtain for him the forgiveness and holiness he sought.
Suddenly he starts and pauses in his mean labour. A voice seems to sound through him: “The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1.17). It shakes his soul, chasing before it the dark thoughts of superstition and falsehood. With a blush of shame he sprang to his feet, conscious of a mighty change of principle wrought in him, that cast him once and for ever on the finished work of Christ.
“The just shall live by faith;” the faith that finds all the merit, acceptance, and strength in Another, which man seeks in himself and does not find; the faith that works by love, sees its title to forgiveness in the Blood of the Lamb of God, and obtains “grace to help” against sin and sorrow. Martin Luther happily failed in his efforts to get a false and unholy peace. It was the voice of Mercy which reached him at that moment of his history, and sent him a new man from Rome, to proclaim to the world that great truth of God, that a sinner is pardoned and justified only by believing in Jesus Christ.
In writing upon the ARTICLE OF JUSTIFICATION, he makes this declaration :
“I, Martin Luther, an unworthy preacher of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thus profess, and thus believe, that this Article, that faith alone, without works, can justify before God, shall never be overthrown, neither by the Emperor, nor by the Turk, nor by the Tartar, nor by the Persian, nor by the Pope, with all his cardinals, bishops, sacrifices, monks, nuns, kings, princes, powers of the world, nor yet by all the devils in Hell. This Article shall stand fast whether they will or no. This is the true Gospel. Jesus Christ redeemed us from our sins, and He only. This most firm and certain truth is the voice of the Scripture, though the world and all the devils rage and roar. If Christ alone take away our sins, we cannot do this with our own works; and as it is impossible to embrace Christ but by faith, it is therefore equally impossible to apprehend Him by works. If, then, faith alone must apprehend Christ, before works can follow, the conclusion is clear, that faith alone apprehends Him, before and without the consideration of works; and this is our justification and deliverance from sin.”