John Calvin

OD, who created the smith that bloweth the coals in G the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for His work (Isa. liv. 16), never allows His operations Sto stand still through lack of means to accomplish His purpose. He sent Moses to be educated in Pharaoh’s court, to qualify him to return to that court with all the accomplishments of a prince, and demand the freedom of Jehovah’s sons.

Young Saul of Tarsus, a Jew, yet a freeborn citizen of Rome, was sent to Jerusalem to be brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, to qualify him to deliver his eloquent address before King Agrippa, and to preach the Gospel to Cesar’s household, The sacred language of Philippians iii. 7, 8, dropped not from the lips and pen of a man who knew not the value of relationship to Abraham and the mortification of having to renounce all life’s most cherished associations. But as a Hebrew of the Hebrews and touching the law a Pharisee, Paul was qualified to appeal to his brethren as no other man could, saying, ‘‘ What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.”

So young Calvin, destined of God to be, without exception, the greatest of the Reformers, nay, the greatest divine and politician of the age, was trained in the bosom of that system which he afterwards so successfully opposed.

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10 CALVIN ¢

This eminent Reformer was born on the 10th of July, 1509, at Noyon, a city of France, about fifty-eight miles north-east of Paris. To the church of his childhood he was most devoutly and sincerely attached. When only twelve years of age he was made chaplain of the church La Gésine. Chaplaincies were then given in France as they are now too often given even in this country. Not here perhaps to very young persons, but they are often given as Javours to those who are destitute of the grace of God, and not more qualified to preach the Gospel than children.

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