His Last Interview with the Council

HEN the Council of Geneva visited our Reformer on his death bed, he addressed them at considerable length.* ‘‘ Having finished his discourse,” says

Beza, ‘‘he offered up a prayer to the Almighty and

merciful God to shower down upon them, in still greater

* Their registers have preserved the summary of his words, abundance, His gifts, and by His Holy Spirit to direct all their consultations to the welfare of.the whole republic. He then gave his right hand to each separately, and bade them adieu. All the senators departed in tears, manifesting deep sorrow, as if it were their last interview with a common father. I know not if there could have been a sadder sight for these magistrates, who all considered him, and rightly, for his office’ sake, the mouth of the Lord.”

HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS [0 THE PASTORS,

The day following (April 27th, 1564), he wished to see the pastors, who waited upon him in a body. To them he delivered a solemn and affectionate discourse, in which he tried to stimulate them in a fearless onward course in their duty after his death. He reminded them of hia first; arrival in that city, when he said, ‘‘ the Gospel -was indeed preached, but everything was in the greatest confusion, as if Christianity consisted in nothing else than the overturning of images. Not a few men arose in the church from whom I suffered many great indignities; but the Lord our God Himself so strengthened me; and banished all fear even from my mind, who am by no means distinguished for natural courage (I state the real fact), that I was enabled to resist all their attempts.” He reminded them of his exile, of his return, the struggles of every kind which -he had had to sustain, and how he had seen the blessing of God upon his labours.

This meeting with the pastors was most affecting, and his address like Paul again giving his charge to the elders of Ephesus. At the close he asked pardon of God and of his brethren for any peevishness or impatience he might have manifested under his disease. ‘‘ Finally,” adds Beza, ‘‘he gave his hand to each, one after the other, which was with such anguish and bitterness of. heart in ‘every one, that I cannot even recall it to mind- without extreme sadness.”

CALVIN’S WILL.

A few days before this Calvin made his will, which is more a testament of his faith than a division of his earthly Goods. Of the latter he had but little to leave. ‘He loved a life of poverty. To live honestly, but humbly, was all he in this respect desired. He was too much occupied with higher considerations to encumber himself with the ‘thick clay.” In his will, he first thanks God for delivering him from ‘“ the deep darkness of idolatry in which he was plunged, that He might bring him into the light of the Gospel. He declared his full intention to pass the remainder of his life in the same faith and religion. He testifies that, as a suppliant, he humbly implores the Lord to so wash and purity him, by the blood of the sovereign Redeemer, that he may stand before His tribunal in His image.” He declares ‘‘ that in all the controversies and disputes which he has conducted with the enemies of the Gospel, he has used no craftiness, nor corrupt sophistical arts, but he has defended the truth with candour and sincerity.”

“But, alas! my study and my zeal,” says he, ‘‘if the deserve the name, have been so remiss and languid that 1 confess innumerable things have been wanting in me to discharge the duties of my office in an excellent manner; and unless the infinite bounty of God had been present, all my study would have been vain and transient.” He confesses his entire dependence upon the mercy of the Lord. He also expresses the wish that ‘after his departure his body might be committed to the earth in that manner and with those funeral rites which are usual in that city and church.”’*;

He valued his earthly goods, including books and furniture, at two hundred and twenty-five crowns, but the sale brought three hundred. Ten crowns he left to the college and ten to the fund for ‘ poor strangers” or refugees. The rest was to be divided among his nephews and nieces. Calvin had now just one month to live, which his biographer tells us was spent in almost constant prayer. Two events, however, transpired during that time which we must not overlook.

WILLIAM FAREL AND CALVIN MEET FOR THE LAST TIME.

His old friend and fellow labourer, William Farel, who preceded him in Geneva, could not now let him depart without taking his hand and wishing him Godspeed across the river, Farel was now nearly eighty. In his

* This custom which, according to Bungener, has been observed almost down to the present day, was. that no monument should be raised upon any grave, however illustrious the deceased might be.

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early days he had preached in and around Geneva, with zeal and power, more like the Apostle Paul than a preacher of modern days. We remember how his solemn denunciation withdrew Calvin from his purpose, and settled him as a preacher at Geneva. Having travelled, perhaps, fifty miles on foot, from Neuchatel, the old man, dusty and weary, entered the sick chamber.

This meeting can be better imagined than described. These two veteran victors, although differing considerably in age, are both about to take their leave of time and of each other. As good soldiers of Jesus Christ, for many years they have fought under His banner. For twentyeight years they have stood, as it were, side by side in the front of the battle. Hundreds of their brethren have died as martyrs in the tremendous struggle. But they have lived to see the powers of Rome shaken, the Gospel freely preached, and the consciences of men freed from the iron rule of the man of sin. The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, has been their weapon of warfare, and now, before they leave the field, leaning upon their sword-hilts, for the last time they look each other in the face, and their thoughts run over the struggles and triumphs of their glorious campaign. Before God and before men they can say, ‘‘ We have fought a good fight.” But they have nothing here to glory in. Their laurels are not here. Salvation by free. and sovereign grace has been the theme of their ministrations. By grace they are saved. By grace they have conquered; and their own failing strength now proves their personal need of more grace. Their crowns of righteousness are laid up at home for them, whither their thoughts and affections are tending. They have seen Satan as lightning falling from heaven:;. but the Spirit within them says, ‘‘ Rejoice not in this, but rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.” Indeed, the words of Samuel Rutherford seem remarkably applicable to each of these departing saints:

“The sands of time are sinking,

The dawn of heaven breaks,

The summer morn I’ve sighed for, The fair sweet morn awakes:

Dark, dark hath been the midnight But dayspring is at hand,

And glory, glory dwelleth. In Immanuel’s land.

“Oh! Christ He is the Fountain, The deep sweet well of love! The streams on earth I’ve tasted, More deep I'll drink above: There to an ocean fulness His mercy doth expand, And glory, glory dwelleth In Immanuel’s land,”

THE REFORMER’S LAST MOMENTS.

May 19th, or the Friday before Whit Sunday, brought round the day when the clergy assembled to admonish each other, and take a friendly but modest repast. Calvin desired that this meal should be prepared at his house. And rallying his little strength, when carried from his bed into the room, he said, ‘‘I come to see you, my brethren, for the last time, never more to sit down with you at table.” ‘‘Such,” says Beza, ‘‘was the commencement of one of the most melancholy repasts we ever took. He then offered prayer, took a small portion of food, and discoursed with us at supper in as cheerful a manner as his weakness would permit. Before supper was finished, he had to be carried back to his own room, and said with a smile, ‘ This intervening wall will not prevent me from being present with you in spirit, though absent in body.’”

The following days were spent in almost constant communion with the Lord. Often he was heard to say, ‘‘ Lord, I opened not my mouth because Thou didst it;” and at times, “T did mourn like a dove.” Once also, ‘‘Thou, Lord, biuisest me, but I am abundantly satisfied, since it is Thy hand,”

HIS DEATH AND BURIAL.

“On May 27th, 1564, it seemed,” continued Beza, ‘that he spoke more loudly and more easily, but it was the last effort of nature. Toward eight o’clock in the evening he expired, and so it was, that on that day, and at the same moment the sun set and the greatest light on earth in the Church of God was withdrawn to heaven.

“During that night, and the following day, great lamentations prevailed throughout the city, for the republic regretted the want of one of its wisest citizens, the church deplored the death of its faithful pastor, the college sorrowed for such an incomparable professor, and all grieved

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for the loss of a common parent and comforter bestowed upon them by God Himself. At two o’clock in the afternoon on Sunday, his body was carried to the common burying-place, called Plein Palais, without extraordinary pomp. His funeral, however, was attended by the members of the senate, the pastors, all the professors of the college, and a great proportion of the citizens. The abundance of tears shed on this occasion afforded the strongest evidence of the sense which they had entertained of their loss. According to his own directions, no hillock, no monument was erected to his memory, on which account I wrote the following epitaph :—“ Why, in this humble and unnoticed tomb Is Calvin laid—the dread of falling Rome, Mourned by the good, and by the wicked fear’d; By all who knew his excellence revered; From whom ev’n virtue’s self might virtue learn, And young and old its value may discern. *Twas modesty, his constant friend on earth, That laid this stone, unsculptured with a name; Oh! happy turf, enrich’d with Calvin’s worth, More lasting far than marble is thy fame! ‘‘ He lived fifty-five years, ten months, and seventeen days.”

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

Such are the wise arrangements, and such are the love and mercy blended with the purposes of our covenant God, that His people, however useful in their different spheres, have but a very limited period allotted to them here. They finish their work, and enter into rest. Others less known, and at first less esteemed, are raised up and anointed by the Spirit to carry onthe work. Like the people of Geneva, and churches of Christendom, who wept over their loss of Calvin, we may mourn when our Hezekiahs and Josiahs are taken away, and know not till “‘ afterwards,” when the trial yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness, how much we were trusting to an arm of flesh.

Men, who appear to be the very key-stones of society, or pillars of the most grand aud gracious enterprises, are sometimes called away to their unfading crowns, when, according to our contracted view, the very honour of God and the real good of His church seem to demand their presence here. But the Captain of our salvation not unfrequently removes His standard-bearers and passes the colours to another, lest we should trust to the bearer instead of the God of the banner.

Notwithstanding the excellency of Calvin’s character, and the great good bestowed upon all nations by his work, his name is not generally admired. The reason is that the doctrines of the Gospel, which he so faithfully made known, are as humbling to proud nature as they are exalting to the God of grace.

Vain man likes to consider the will of God as being dependent upon his own; but God works all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph.i. 11). God from eternity knew His people and chose them in Christ. And ‘‘whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. viii. 29). There is no uncertainty about it. The great God does not allow His mighty arrangements to hang in uncertainty. upon the caprice of mortal man.

When Jesus Christ shall come in His glory and separate the people as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, He then shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied (Isa. liii. 11). He will not have to weep over the loss of any of His elect; they will be all there. He has power to give eternal life to as many as the Father gave Him (John xvii. 2).

The unhumbled sinner does not, however, feel his need of salvation and all pertaining thereto as the absolutely free gift of God. The name of John Calvin, the noble defender of these precious truths, is, therefore, through lack of knowledge despised.

That God by His Spirit may bring both reader and writer into a deep spiritual acquaintance with the truth as it is in Christ, is the prayerful desire of

Tre AUTHOR.

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