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From the dust jacket:
Individuals with deep devotion to God and to the Lord Jesus Christ have been instruments used of God in the great awakenings of the past and of the present. How often God has called the humble in life to do a spectacular thing for Him! The author of this work summarizes preparation for the great Reformation and the reason we should become familiar with the details in this way: "To effect great results by the smallest means–such is the law of God . . . God selected the reformers of the Church from the same class whence He had taken the apostles . . . Everything was thus intended to manifest to the world that the work was not of man but of God. The reformer Zwingli emerged from an Alpine shepherd's hut; Melancthon, the theologian of the Reformation, from an armorer's shop; and Luther from the cottage of a poor miner.
"The first period in man's life–that in which he is formed and moulded under the hand of God–is always important. It is eminently so in the career of Luther. The whole of the Reformation is included in it. The different phases of this work succeeded one another in the soul of him who was to be the instrument for effecting it, before they were accomplished in the world. The knowledge of the change that took place in Luther's heart can alone furnish the key to the reformation of the Church. It is only by studying the particulars that we can understand the general work. Those who neglect the former will be ignorant of the latter except in its outward appearance . Let us study the reformation in Luther himself, before we proceed to the events that changed the face of Christendom."
As one of the great minds of the Reformation times said: "What an age! studies flourished, minds were awakening: it was a joy merely to be alive!" The world of the Reformation times "waited in expectancy. Luther appeared."
The world feverishly waits in expectancy in our day. For what, for whom? Who knows? The Christian with knowledge of the Bible and of God's working among men in the past can sense what is ahead–in fact know–for he awaits One who shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and "ride forth conquering and to conquer . . . Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness" (Rev. 6:2; Ps. 45:4).
Read! Read! and become more alive to the liberating truth of the gospel of the grace of God that worked in the heart of Martin Luther!
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