No Neutral Ground by William A. Spicer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 2, 1905

No Neutral Ground

By William A. Spicer

LUTHER was “the man for his time” because he feared only God, and would have no compromise with evil. Erasmus saw the evils in Rome. He attacked them even before Luther’s eyes were opened. He wanted reform, but he was no reformer. He was a compromiser.

The time for reformation had come, and God was to set his church free from bondage to the papal system. Luther and his associates laid the ax at the root of the tree. Something definite and decisive had to be done. Somebody had to take a stand and say things. Erasmus was distressed by the stir and agitation of genuine reform. He was no partizan. He was not on either side when it came to a conflict. He was for reform, but wanted no open break with the pope. From his neutral position he urged compromise upon both sides. In 1520 he said to Campeggio: “I told Luther that if he would moderate his language, he might be a bright and shining light, and that the pope, I did not doubt would be his friend.”

But Luther knew that the honor of God and his truth called for decided action and protest. “Erasmus wants to walk on eggs without breaking their shells,” he said. Luther knew the feat was impossible. So he marched straight on. It was not that he loved strife, and Erasmus loved peace. “I have nothing to contend for with the great men of this world,” he cried out in that prayer of surrender as he went before the council at Worms. He said that he, too, would fain have his life pass in easy quietness. “But the cause is Thine . . . forsake me not.”

Because it was God’s cause, and not his own, he could not selfishly and quietly leave the field to error. The time demanded a man of action, and all time

since has been blessed because a man acted.

Erasmus loved to study and teach reform principles in a class-room atmosphere. “I am firmly resolved,” he said, “to die studying the Scriptures.” But his study did not lead him to the doing of the things that needed to be done when the hour struck for decided action. His famous motto was, “Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.” But when the time came that men had to line up definitely for the light and meet the ranks of darkness, his irresolution and compromising timidity of soul kept him from the battle-field which all heaven was watching.

The Lord stood by the man who stood by his cause. On the other hand, Erasmus found it impossible to maintain a neutral position in such a crisis. Not coming out squarely for the right, he temporized and compromised until his influence as scholar and teacher bore against the reform movement.

There is a striking lesson in this history for these closing days of the Reformation. The whole world is to line up on one side or the other in the great controversy. There will be but two positions—for and against God and his message for this closing hour. “He that is not with me is against me.” In meeting the daily opportunities now for manifesting loyalty to truth without compromise, we are to learn the lesson that shall make us strong to maintain unswerving devotion to the cause of Christ when the final crisis comes. Through it all, the love of Jesus must be the strength for the uncompromising, flint-like integrity of Jesus. W. A. S.