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6 THE PRESBYTEF
maincd an alien, in a strange city, almost to the last.
He did not become a citizen of Geneva till 1559, four
years before his death. When we look at the lives
of the two greatest Reformers, thev appear to be anomalous.
Luther's effervescent, impulsive temperament
seems better suited to the volatile French character;
Calvin's tranquillizing temperament to that of the Germans.
As Henry says?"the watchword of the one was
war. of the other, order." Luther uprooted old things,
Calvin organized new things. The former planted one
foot in the past, the other in the present; the latter one
foot in the present, and the other in the future. Luther
never completely broke with his Catholic past; Calvin
created an entirely distinct and new view of the world
and of tlic Church. He dug up again, from the neglected
ages, the doctrine of "common grace" and ranged
all human development under it.
In Catholicism and also in Lutheranism, the link
between God and man is the Church. Calvin knew
no intermediary. He brought God and man face to
face in the most intimate relation and revived the doctrine
of the priesthood of all believers. In a sectarian
sense Calvinism may stand for a group of believers;
in a confessional sense it may indicate a faith, but in
its truest and widest, that is in the historical sense, it
stands for a "Weltanschauung," a view of the world
nn rl nf Ufo A _r,i
- ...u 111ai view 01 tne world, combatted as.
it is alike by the rationalism of the last century and
by its revolutionary idealism, is after all the strong
foundation on which modern civilization is built. It
has its own viewpoints, its own principles, its own
ideals. Luther could never have organized the Reformation
; Calvin found it on a downward grade, in distress
and confusion, and did organize it. But it is
equally certain that Calvin, with his methods, could
never have inaugurated it. The Melanchthonian
Reformation, as the Interim-period witnesses, would
have reverted to Rome and would have shared the fate
of Hussitism. Calvin, to use his own favored doctrine,
urn C nrArlnef J A 1
^.vviioiuiaicu iui me tasK and tor the hour.
The two systems appealed to the world of the sixteenth
century and whilst Germany largely clung to
Luther, together with Denmark and Scandinavia, the
rest of Europe followed the banner of Calvin. Nor is
this strange. None of the Reformers had so wide an
outlook as Calvin. Providentially trained both for the
law and for theology, gifted with a mind both acute
and profound, practical as well as erudite, a man of
meditation as well as of action, a man with an immense
store of reserved force,?he was the very man God
needed for his work among the nations. Rome always
recognized in Calvin her chief enemy. Dr. Kuy
per has pointed out this fact in his "Stone Lectures."
Geneva radiated a power far greater than Wittenburg
had ever done. Its influence was literally felt all
over Europe. Besides, with all the Swiss and German
theologians, Calvin corresponded with Cranmer, Grindal,
Hooper, Covcrdale, Cox and Whittingham in England.
In Poland with A Lasco, who has imprinted himself
for ever on the Anglican and Dutch churches. ,In
y
a AN OF THE SOUTH. February 17, 1909.
Holland with Louis of Orange and Marnix of Aldegonde,
the great poet-statesman and the right-hand
man of William of Orange. Princes and nobles were
among his correspondents. Margaret of Navarre and
Renata de Ferrara (a daughter of Louis XII), Coligny
and Conde, and King Anthony of Navarre, Lord Sotnmerset
and King Edward VI, Frederick III of the
Palatinate and King Sigismund of Poland. Wonderful
Calvin! A man of marvelous industry and marvelous
reach of influence! Does any one wonder that
he could make of Geneva a fulcrum? He has been
called "the Protestant pope" and with a show of truth,
though what a pope! How poor and humble and unostentatious!
When King Anthony of Navarre had
proved unfaithful, Calvin wrote to him?"The enemy
has flung this dirt upon you that lie might he able to
sing a song of triumph at your disgrace." But when
the same king needed money, lie applied to the poorly
paid Genevan pastor and Calvin obtained the money
None of the Reformers, therefore, exerted such an
influence as he did; his life was fuller than that of any
of them. During his lifetime he saw the growth of the
Church he had founded, and when he closed his eye9,
in 1564, he might well have said with Paul: "I labored
more abundantly than they all; yet not I. but the grace
of God, which was with me."
What he did say was this: "I have labored with all
my strength for the common good. It would be hypocrisy
not to own that the Lord has been pleased to employ
me, and that not unprofitably, in His service."
Pres. Seminar}* of Ky., Louisville, Ky.
THE HOLY SPIRIT.
His Personality and Work.
God the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost, or Spirit of
Holiness) is the Third Person of the Trinity, the coequal
of and the co-worker with God the Father
and God the Son, and is the invisible Divine personality
in the world which reveals to human hearts and consciences
the love of the Father and the atonement of
the Son for man's salvation, He proceeds from the
Father and the Son, being sent by them and through
whom they operate in preserving the Church and promoting
its growth in the world.
Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life;" the Holy
Spirit leads the soul into that way, guides it into all
truth, and imparts to it that life. He convicts of sin,
aids in repentance and faith, regenerates our natures,
purifies from sinfulness, and gives peace and joy. He
comforts, strengthens and sanctifies belie'vers, bears
witness to their acceptance with God and adoption as
God's children, dwelling in them as the principle of
that new and divine life, and giving guidance, force
and effect to the efforts of those who work and witness
for him.
The Holy Spirit thus continues, in unison with the
Father and thp 'snn fin? ?'
_ _w.., i>uii\ ui i coemption wnicn
Jesus began and performed, while in person upon the
earth, to the day of His ascension.
Staunton, Va. Preston A. Ross.