1845.] Spirit of the true Preacher. 709 that man? His first feeling was one of self-distrust, but his next feeling was, if he could only enjoy the benefit of that hearer's free and affectionate counsels and advice with regard to preaching it would be invaluable to him. Who was the preacher and who this hearer? The preacher I doubt not may have been any young minister present, and the hearer was Jesus Christ. Every time we have preached we have had him for a hearer. When the great and the learned and the honored of the earth come to hear you, He is there, whose opinion of you, while it is infinitely more important than theirs, will either confirm or reverse their judgment of you. When we meet a few of our flock in that distant school-house in a dark and stormy night, and something whispers, Will you waste your time and strength on these few people, the Son of God is there to hear what you say to them, and to have an opinion of you for saying it which is or will hereafter be a greater reward to you than the applauses of a throng. In the bungalow, or under the plantain or the palm, or in those South African huts where you must creep like an animal to get in, remember that you cannot speak in his name but you will speak in his ear. He was once a preacher and a minister to souls. He knows all the trials of the profession, and all the secret influences which make thoughts and words eloquent. We shall agree that the secret of his eloquence consisted in what he was, and not in any artificial power. Whatever of grace or power there may have been in his natural manner, he was resistless as a preacher because he was, in perfection, that which we should aim to be in all virtue and knowledge. He never sought eloquence for its own sake, neither should we think that we can acquire it as men learn a trade. But seeking to be all that a good man and a scholar, and a minister to souls ought to be, in mental qualifications, in the arts of oratory, in professional enthusiasm, and in moral worth, eloquence may be expected to flow from us, and for similar reasons, as it did from him who had without measure that Spirit which he can also pour out on us. Let us not think that He does not condescend to appreciate our efforts when in his name we speak well. God who ordained the priesthood made Aaron his high-priest of whom He could say, "I know that he can speak well." This is our business, to speak well. I have endeavored to show what this implies. If we would speak well, it must be our constant aim to speak better. In doing so, we may remember that this life may not be the only term of service in which God may use us to influence others by the communication of our thoughts and feel ings. It cannot be that eloquent communication from mind to mind is limited to earth. Then what must it be for all the sanctified genius which has been eloquent in song on earth to be gathered together in heaven, "And with its ninefold harmony, Make up full concert to the angelic symphony?" What must it be for the preachers of Christ from Noah to the last generation to meet there, and for angels to listen to the eloquence of earth flowing from what they never knew,-the experience of sin, repentance, and restoration. If the presence of this company of preachers makes one who speaks before them feel as Jacob did when he said, "This is God's host," where in the distance shall many of us stand when the tongues which were most eloquent here upon the themes of redemption, instruct and please the heavenly world? Where in the distance did I say? From your lips, if they have dwelt with peculiar love and power on the doctrines of the cross, may the inhabitants of other worlds learn things yet imperfectly understood by them in the history of redemp tion. It may be that you will then be called of God to be employed in wondrous acts of ministry to other worlds, because He can say of you, in remembrance of your earthly attainments and service, "I know that he can speak well." ARTICLE VII. LIFE OF JOHN CALVIN. By R. D. C. Robbins, Librarian Theological Seminary, Andover, Mass. [Concluded from No. VII. p. 527.] Calvin's Return to Geneva. WHILST Calvin was occupied with his various labors at Strasburg a change was effected in Geneva. After the banishment of their ministers, the people seem to have been left, for a time, to their own chosen way. Disorder reigned both in the Church and in the State. But God in kindness sent chastisements upon them. Those who had been most forward in opposing the restraints of their guides, received the just reward of their mis 1845.] Exertions of the Genevans for Calvin's Return. 711 deeds. Within two years, one of the four syndics who were leaders of the faction in 1538, was executed for murder, a second convicted of sedition, in attempting to escape by a window, fell and was instantly killed; the other two, on account of treasonable conduct while absent from the city, were prohibited from returning. These disorders and changes prepared the way for the recall of the exiles. Calvin's declaration in his letter to Sadolet, "That he could not cease to love, as his own soul, the church of Geneva," which God had entrusted to him, and other expressions of regard, as well as his growing popularity abroad and the consequent disgrace of the Genevans, for having banished him,1 caused them to especially desire his return. Hooker says, "they were not before so willing to be rid of their learned pastor, as now importunate to obtain him again from them who had given him entertainment, and who were loth to part with him, had not unresistible earnestness been used."2 The first letter to Calvin, requesting his return, was received just as the embassy was about to leave Strasburg for the imperial diet at Worms. Calvin showed it to Bucer and his fellow laborers at Strasburg, and they answered it. After admonishing the Genevans for their previous treatment of their preachers and commending them for the course they were now taking, they say: The desire for your salvation, even at the expense of his greatest exertions and life itself, has ever ruled in Calvin's breast. What he will now do, he, as well as we, is unable to say. To-morrow or the following day he goes with us to Worms, where his presence is needed. We advise that you send for Farel and Viret." The people of Neufchatel wholly refused to part with Farel, and the Genevans repeated their request for Calvin's return, while he was at Worms. But the magistrates of Strasburg, learning that he was again invited to go to Geneva, wrote to their representatives, Bucer, Capito and Sturm, to use their influence to retain him at Strasburg. But the Genevans were not yet discouraged. They wrote to the churches of Berne, Basil and Zurich, asking them to intercede in their behalf. The letter sent to Zurich, now remaining in the library at Geneva, shows their earnestness. They say that the people of Strasburg must be "It was not unlikely, but that his credit in the world might in many ways stand the poor town in great stead; as the truth is, their ministers' foreign estimation hitherto had been the best stake in their hedge."—Hooker. 2 Eccl. Polity, Preface. 3 Mss. Gen. conscious that the ruin or support of the church at Geneva is their own ruin or support, they implore them therefore to restore their preacher; the magistrates and the whole people beseech it; into their hands they in a manner throw their salvation. Jacob Bernard, a preacher in Geneva, wrote to Calvin, Feb. 6th, 1541: "Since all the other clergy had left the city, except Henry and myself, and the people were mourning their deserted state, I admonished them to turn to God in humble supplication, and ask him through Christ the great Shepherd, to provide them a pastor whom he would bless. I was not thinking of you, having given up all hope of your return. The people followed my advice with great earnestness. The next day the council of the Two Hundred convened and called for Calvin. A general convocation was assembled on the following day; and the cry was unanimous for Calvin, that good and learned man, Christ's minister.' When I heard this, I could not but praise God, and acknowledge that he had done this marvellous thing in our eyes, making the stone which the builders did refuse to become the head-stone of the corner. Come then, venerable father in Christ. Ours you are, for the Lord God has given you to us. All sigh for you. Your reception will show how much you are desired.-Do not then delay to come and see Geneva;—they are another people, changed by the grace of God, through the labors of Viret. The Lord hasten your return. Worthy is our church of your aid, and God will require her blood at your hands if you do not come, for he has made you a watchman of the house of Israel among us." On the first of May 1541, the decree of banishment was formally annulled, and Ami Perrin, the ambassador of Geneva, formerly a syndic, went from Strasburg to Worms to intercede with the Strasburg theologians who were there, for Calvin's return. By representing to them in strong terms the favorable opportunity presented, for spreading the gospel in France, he secured their influence in favor of Geneva, especially that of Bucer, who in order to overcome Calvin's doubts, again suggested to him the example of Jonah. The Genevans sent the third urgent request, seconded by Basil, Berne and Zurich. Farel and Viret who was engaged in Geneva for six months, were importunate. In fine, not a measure was left untried to prevail upon Calvin to resume his former charge. During all these proceedings Calvin was not an indifferent spectator. His struggles with himself were severe and show that he had not yet overcome that timid and shrinking nature of which 1845.] Calvin hesitates to return to Geneva. 713 he so often complained. To his friend Farel with whom he had no secret, he writes: "You know that during these days I have been so agitated by trouble and anguish that I have not been able to half control myself. You will see why I am not willing, that what I now confide to your bosom should be divulged. When I recollect how miserable I was at Geneva, I tremble to my inmost soul at the slightest intimation of a return. I very well know that wherever I go, sufferings await me, and that if I live for Christ, life must be a struggle. But forgive me, if I think of that place with terror when I remember the torture of conscience, the agonies which destroyed all my comfort there. Next to God you can best bear witness, that I was retained there by no other bond than the fear to cast from me the yoke of my office, which God had put upon me. So long as I was bound to that place I preferred to endure anything rather than to think of a change, which sometimes obtruded itself upon me. But since I am now free by the grace of God, who can blame me if I do not willingly plunge myself again into the vortex from which I received so much injury. Besides I have lost the art of governing large masses; here, I have to do with but few, who, for the most part, respect me as their pastor and teacher. And if this is difficult, how much more the greater charge. But these reasons alone will not hinder me from obeying this call: for the more my heart recoils from it, the more am I suspicious of myself. Therefore I do not allow myself to give counsel in this matter, and ask our friends not to have any reference to my opinion,—and in order that they may be uninfluenced, I conceal from them a great part of my internal struggles. I protest however that I am not dealing craftily with God, nor seeking any evasion; but I so much desire the welfare of the Genevan church, that I am ready to suffer a hundred deaths rather than, by abandoning, betray them." To Viret he writes about the same time: "I could not read the part of your letter in which you express so much anxiety for my welfare without a smile. Shall I then go to Geneva in order to be better off? Shall I not rather go to the cross? To die at once, is better than, again in that place of torture, to suffer a living death."2 Several other letters3 are found in which Calvin ex 1 Cur non potius ad crucem? 2 Mss. in the Genevan Lib. 3 Extracts from some of them may be found translated, with some of those above given, in the Princeton Review for 1837, p. 69 sq. |