Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/369

Rh the army of the Empire, he had an open Bible in his hand, and, pointing to the sacred pages, he exclaimed, solemnly, "We ask nothing which is not promised to us here by the founders of Christianity." In time these peasants were crushed, but others rose in their stead; their inspiring thought lived on. The Reformation bore fruit in new longings for liberty. Long-buried truths dropped in many a crevice of old foundations had been for two hundred years silently making their way into the light and the air; they were now forcing apart each hindering clod and stone, and proving that

 One germ of life is mightier Than a whole universe of death."

Ancient thrones and citadels fast gave way before the new principle that power should be invested in the people. From the outset the ruling classes traced this idea to the Bible, which Luther had just then put into the hands of the people in their own language, and both the book and its reader were hated accordingly.

There seems to be a natural antagonism between the Church of Rome and a Bible which common people can read. Throughout Christendom this precious book was for centuries concealed from the masses in a dead language, until it became an almost forgotten part of that "whole armor of God" which he has commanded his Church to take in her spiritual warfare. The gospel which had been preached to the poor had thus a political outcome over which kings, priests, and even Reformers themselves, trembled. It is true that Protestantism became at times a political engine, but God worked through it in fulfillment of his own word: "Every valley shall be exalted and every hill brought low."