Our Illustrations — A Great Struggle

ELDOM do artists, who sketch illustrations for books, S} so strikingly depict in the countenance the change of the mind as is seen in our two representations of aa Calvin on pages 15 and 31. The beardless youth of eighteen with shaven crown, haggard features, and despairing.soul, appears ten years older than when he, near two years later having found the way of Life, is visiting the cottage of the peasant and castle of the baron in Bourges, saying, ‘‘Come and hear all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul.”

Delivered from the entanglements of the man of sin, and made free by faith in the blood of Jesus, his countenance soon indicated the joy of his soul. He could now walk in communion with the Psalmist, and find the very secrets of his soul expressed in words like these, ‘‘He ‘ brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out cf the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God; many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord” (Ps. xl. 2, 3).

A GREAT STRUGGLE,

But Calvin had yet a great battle to fight before he could disentangle his mind from the idea of the church of Rome being the church of God.

That there were numerous evils within her, calling for a reformation, he could not doubt, but the greatness, the learning, the wide-spread influence, the wealth and splendour, and the outward uniformity of that church in many lands; together with her arrogant claims, lying legends of saints, pretended miracles, and flattering lips, things by which millions of her devotees have been

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enchanted, held, and fatally deceived, were brought to bear upon the mind of the young convert with all the bewildering, fascinating power of the arch-fiend.

A PROTESTANT LABOURER OF BOURGES READING THE SCRIPTURBS.

Where could he find the true church of God if not in this mighty organization?

Could it be possible that a few strangers scattered abroad, hated, and counted the scum of the earth and the off-scouring of all things, were really the Church of the Bible, ‘‘the body of Christ,” ‘‘the pillar and ground of the truth?”

, These were staggering considerations, and when presented to the mind by the great enemy, were too much for human nature to stand against. But Calvin was helped; helped by One who had endured the same temptation—One whom the same adversary had shown all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, saying, ‘‘ All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me” (Matt. iv. 9).

He was brought to the Bible and there led by the Spirit to. see the true Church, as the whole body of true. believers with Jesus Christ as their only Head and Mediator.

When the great hody of Jewish priests professed to be the children of God, Jesus, rejoicing in spirit, said, ‘‘I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; even so, Father; for so it seemed good in Thy sight.’ So in the days of John Calvin, and in every other age, the true Church has been composed of a few spiritual worshippers who have been

_hated by the world, whether professedly religious or profane.;

CALVIN THE LAWYER.

’ “O Lord,” said Jeremiah, ‘T know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps,” and this is especially noticeable in the way God prepared Calvin for the high position he had to fill

Designed of God to be as a prince of princes and the centre of the Reformation in Europe; to give influence to the destinies of nations and light to the churches of the saints throughout the world, his wonderfully capacious powers needed stores of knowledge of various kinds. Let us trace a few of the steps which, in the order of a Divine Providence, fitted him to be the Great Reformer.

‘The design of making him a priest was interrupted,” says Beza, ‘‘by a change in the views of both father and son, in the former because he saw that the Law was a surer road to wealth and honour; and in the latter, because having been made acquainted with the reformed faith he had begun to devote himself to the study of the Holy Scriptures; and from an abhorrence of all kinds of superstition, to discontinue his attendance on the public services of the Church.

“Having set out for Orleans to study Law, which was there taught by Peter de |’Etoile, by far the first French Lawyer of that period, Calvin, in a short time, made such astonishing progress that he very often officiated for the professors, and was considered rather a teacher than a pupil. pees On his departure, he was presented with a Doctor’s Degree, free of expense, and with the unanimous consent of the professors, as a return for the services which he had rendered to the Academy.

‘‘ Meanwhile, however, he diligently cultivated the study of sacred literature, and made such progress, that all in that city who had any desire to become acquainted with a purer religion often called to consult him, and were greatly struck both with his learning and his zeal.”

His custom at this time was after a very light supper to study till midnight, aud in the morning to spend some time digesting what he’ had read in bed over night. By this close application he acquired much learning, but no doubt undermined his constitution.

About this time a lawyer of great repute from Italy was flourishing in the Academy of Bourges. Thither, therefore, our Reformer bent his steps to study under Andrew Alciat, the Italian celebrity.

At Bourges he formed a friendship with Melchior Wolmar, a Professor of Greek, from whom Calvin obtained great assistance in studying that language.

CALVIN THE GOSPEL MINISTER.

Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, of whom we hope yet to speak, was at this time the defender of the Protestants; and Bourges, being a province of Berry, was under her immediate jurisdiction, ‘Under Margaret,” says Dr. Wylie, ‘it became a centre of evangelization. For some

30 CALVIN: HIS LIFE AND TIMES,

time previous no little religious fermentation had been going on among its population. The new doctrines (as they were called, although as old as the everlasting hills) had found their way thither; they were talked of in its social gatherings; they had begun even to be heard in the pulpit; certain priests, who had come to a knowledge of the truth, were preaching them with tolerable clearness to congregations composed of lawyers, students, and citizens. It was at this crisis that Calvin arrived at Bourges.

‘‘His fame had preceded him. The Protestants gathered round him, and entreated him to become their teacher. Calvin was averse to assume the office of the ministry. Not that he shrunk either from the labours or the perils of the work, but because he cherished a deep sense of the greatness of the function and of his own unworthiness to fill it. ‘I have hardly learned the Gospel myself,’ he would say, ‘ and, lo! I am called to teach it to others.’

“Not for some time did Calvin comply with these solicitations. At last he consented. ‘ Wonderful it is,’ he said, ‘that one of so lowly an origin should be exalted to so great a dignity.’

“ But how unostentatious the opening of his career! The harvests of the earth spring not in deeper silence than does this great evangelical harvest, which beginning in the ministry of Calvin is destined to cover the world.

‘Gliding along the street might be seen a youth of slender figure and sallow features. He enters a door; he gathers round him the family, and opening the Bible, he explains to them its message. His words distil as the dew and as the tender rain on the grass. By-and-bye the city becomes. too narrow a sphere of labour, and the young evangelist extends his efforts to the hamlets and towns around Bourges. One tells another of the sweetness of the water, and every day the numbers increase of those who wish to drink it.

“The castle of the baron is opened as well as the cottage of the peasant, and a cordial welcome is accorded the missionary in both. His doctrine is clear and beautiful, and as refreshing to the soul as light to the eye after long darkness. And then the preacher is so modest withal, so sweet in his address, and altogether so unlike any other preacher the people had ever known! ‘Upon my word,’

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32 CALVIN :!

said the Lord Leginéres to his wife, ‘Master John Calvin seems to me to preach better than the monks, and he goes heartily to work too.’”

HIS FATHER’S DEATH.

Bourges, however, was not designed long to be the sphere of his labours. While thus happily engaged in his new calling, tidings were brought of the death of his father.

Quitting this fruitful field of toil he therefore repaired to his native city. The journey from Bourges to Noyon was fraught with singular trials; yet it may be that one trial was sent to take the edge from another, or that multiplied trials might drive him in greater need to his only refuge.

Those tender and sacred associations, formed between the young ambassador of Christ and the newly regenerated spirits who found joy and peace in believing under the Word, had to be severed. But the man who had so many hard battles to fight by naked faith in God, nestling too long under the royal patronage of the Queen, might lean unduly upon an arm of flesh. He had therefore to depart from that Elim, and carrying with him that inexpressible feeling of void which death occasions, helped perhaps to turn his thoughts from the many severing threads of friendship at Bourges.

Passing through Paris on his way he found the city full of commotion, One of the greatest nobles of France had to yield up his life at the stake that day (April 22nd, 1529). Berquin, a much admired and devout son of the church, had referred to the Scriptures to enlighten his mind upon a certain subject of dispute, and to his astonishment found that the doctrines of the Protestants were the really old and Bible doctrines, and that the doctrines of the Papacy were but novel, human inventions.

What more suitable sight could the young Reformer witness than the martyrdom of this valiant servant of Christ?

He had witnessed the reforming power of the truth among his hearers at Bourges: he had tasted the sweetness of it im his own soul, and now to witness the sustaining power of it in the martyr, contrasted with the persecuting spirit of Popery, was the very best thing to bring him to a determination to forsake everything else for the work of the ministry and the reformation of jhe church.