The Missionary by Stephen Nelson Haskell

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 16, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 16.

The Missionary.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

Huss Leaves Prague.

WHILE in Prague, Huss was surrounded by personal friends as well as by bitter enemies. He was upheld at this time by the king and queen. The archbishop who had made a failure of trying to silence him was dead; but the thunders of the vatican continued to roar, and his enemies became more and more fierce. Those of the opposition were determined to silence him, and they left no stone unturned to accomplish their object. Finally, at the close of the year 1412, after an earnest appeal from the decision of the pope, he thought it advisable to leave Prague. A wider field of usefulness was thus opened before him. Thousands flocked to hear the man whom the pope had excommunicated, and his eloquence charmed the people. As the result of this preaching, many in after years embraced the truths of the gospel, and the seeds of truth were sown everywhere.

As the ardent reformer went from city to city and from village to village, the people left their fields, their workshops, and their homes to listen to him, many of whom would otherwise have had no opportunity to hear the gospel. He wrote, explaining why he left Prague, as follows: "I feared that my presence there would be the means of drawing down persecution on the faithful, and increasing the animosity and grievances of my persecutors. My enemies reproach me for having fled; but I have done so in imitation of Christ's example, and in obedience to his precept; not to abandon the truth, for which I am willing to suffer death, God helping me, but for fear of being the occasion of the eternal damnation of the wicked and the affliction of the good."

Speaking, also, of his preaching in the various places where he went, in vindication of his course, he said: "The command that forbids me to preach, is opposed to the words and example both of Christ and his apostles. Christ preached to the people on the sea, in the desert, in the open fields, in houses, in synagogues, in villages, in the streets; and the apostles preached everywhere, the Lord helping them. The command, moreover, is opposed to the interests of the church, in forbidding the word to have free course. It was for these reasons that I appealed against the bull, which was intended to silence me."

He writes to the Bethlehem church, "I would gladly die for Christ's sake, and be with Christ; and yet I would gladly preach to you, for your good, the word of God. I am in a strait betwixt two, and know not what to choose." Playing upon his own name—which in Bohemian means "goose"—he says: "Although the goose is a tame kind of domestic animal, and has no wings for lofty flight, yet it has escaped and broken through their snares. So we may confidently hope that other birds, better fitted for flying, by the word of God and by their own lives, will bring all the plots and toils of the enemies to naught."

Again he says: "The more truth is beat down, the higher it rises. This same truth has sent to Prague, not only one feeble goose, but a flock of keen-sighted falcons and eagles. These, by the grace of God, soar upward, and sweep other birds up with them toward Jesus Christ, who will strengthen and confirm all his faithful ones." These, and other expressions in the time of the Reformation under Luther, were explained as prophetic.

God blessed Huss, and the words he spoke, wherever he went; but Satan was not idle in stirring up opposition. On a certain occasion, while he was speaking in severe terms of the pope and the cardinals, an old man, supposed to be a priestly spy, asked him what these words, pope and cardinals, meant in the Bohemian language, and if he had ever seen them? "I have never seen them, and have no wish to see them," said Huss. "But how comes it," asked the old man, "that you speak such bad things of people you have never seen? For myself," said he, "I was a long time ago in Rome with my father; and I have seen the pope and some of the cardinals, and found in them remarkable piety." "Very well," replied Huss, "if they are so much to your taste; go back and spend the rest of your life with them." The lord of the castle who had Huss under his protection prevented further interference.

Wherever Huss preached he developed missionaries who went forth well versed in the Scriptures; but they were not always as judicious as Huss. One of his bitterest enemies said to him, "You send out your missionaries everywhere, to nobles, soldiers, common people, and women. They quote Scripture largely in defense of their course. 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel,' is their warrant and commission. 'If persecuted in one city, flee into another,' is their justification for avoiding dangers which they are not prepared to meet. When they are charged with violating ecclesiastical orders, they are ready with the reply,

'It is better to obey God than man.'" "This," said one who had formerly been the friend of Huss, but who had turned against him, "was the method and justification of the missionaries that Huss sent out."

"How shall Huss be silenced?" was the all-absorbing question of the times. The papal party feared the result of violent measures, for "the common people heard him gladly," and many of the nobles and princes were in sympathy with his doctrines. S. N. HASKELL.