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 BX 9418 .P7 1909 
 
 Calvin memorial addresses 
 
John Calvin 
 
 Ha nan Portrait, 
 
Calvin 
 Memorial Addresses 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE GENERAL 
 ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTER- 
 IAN CHURCH IN THE 
 UNITED STATES 
 
 SAVANNAH, GA., MAY, 1909 
 
 published by the 
 
 Presbyterian Committee ok Publication, 
 
 Richmond, Va. 
 
Copyright 
 
 — BY — 
 
 R. E. MAGILL, 
 
 Secretary of Publication. 
 1909 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 Whittet & Shepperson, 
 richmond, va. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Introduction, 5 
 
 •J Calvin's Contribution to the .Reformation, ii; 
 
 Rev. Richard C. Reed, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 V Calvin the Theologian, 37 
 
 Rev. Henry Collin Minton, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 Calvin's Contributions to Church Polity, 57 
 
 Rev. Thomas Cary Johnson, D. D., LL. D, 
 
 ^i Calvin's Attitude Towards and Exegesis of the 
 
 Scriptures, 89 
 
 Dr. James Orr. 
 
 Calvin's Doctrine of Infant Salvation, 107 
 
 Rev. R. A.'-Webb, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 The Relation of Calvin and Calvinism to Missions,. . 127 
 Rev. S. L. 'Morris, D. D. 
 
 Calvin's Influence on Educational Progress, 147 
 
 George H. Denny. 
 
 Calvin's Influence Upon the Political Development 
 
 of the World, 175 
 
 Frank T. Glasgow. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 (Continued) 
 
 Page 
 How Far Has Original Calvinism been Modified 
 
 by Time, 195 
 
 Rev. Samuel A. King, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 Present Day Attitude to Calvinism, 223 
 
 Rev. Benj. B.'warfield, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 How May the Principles of Calvinism be Rendered 
 
 Most Effective Under Modern Conditions, .... 241 
 A. M. 'Eraser. 
 
 John Calvin — The Man and His Times, 261 
 
 Dr. Charles Merle d' Aubigne. 
 
First Presbytekian Chukch, Savannah, Ga. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church 
 in the United States in session at Birmingham, Ala., 
 May, 1907, received from the Executive Commission 
 of the Alliance of Reformed Churches throughout the 
 world holding the Presbyterian System, the following 
 communication relative to a general observance of the 
 400th Anniversary of the birth of John Calvin : 
 
 "The Executive Commission draws the attention 
 of the churches in the Alliance and of all lovers of 
 true progress to the approaching Four Hundredth An^ 
 niversary of the birth of John Calvin. The Reformer 
 was born at Noyon, Picardy, France, July 10, 1509. 
 His life was lived during one of the most important 
 and crucial epochs of human history. In the provi- 
 dence of God he was one of the most potent forces of 
 his day for human progress, and his influence continues 
 in the present, and will abide in the future, a great 
 power for the welfare of mankind. Men of all classes 
 of thought and of all nations recognize his greatness. 
 Particularly was he influential in setting in motion 
 those forces which have resulted in the formation of 
 the American nation. Great historians speak of him 
 as the founder of the United States. While thus con- 
 nected, however, with the American Republic, the 
 great Genevan had and has a vital relation to all Chris- 
 tian nations. No man of his age has been more influ- 
 ential in securing civil and religious liberty, the devel- 
 
6 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 opment of popular government, the secular progress 
 of man, the reformation of the Christian Church, the 
 development of religious thought along true lines, and 
 the general advance of the Kingdom of God in the 
 world. It is recommended : 
 
 That the Supreme Judicatories of the Churches in 
 the Alliance be requested and urged to take steps for 
 the general observance by all their congregations of 
 the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of John 
 Calvin. 
 
 Overtures v^ere received from thirteen presbyteries 
 to the same effect. 
 
 In response to these overtures, the following ad ifi- 
 terim committee was appointed "to consider and report 
 upon a plan for the general celebration of the four 
 hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Calvin 
 throughout our Church" : R. F. Campbell, J. W. 
 Stagg, C. M. Richards, D. H. Ogden, W. W. Moore, 
 W. M. McPheeters, Geo. E. Wilson, J. D. Murphy, J. 
 W. Faxon, W. J. Martin, A. G. Hall. 
 
 The Assembly of 1908, in session at Greensboro, 
 N. C, took the following action, in accordance with 
 the recommendation of the ad interim committee : 
 
 "The General Assembly, recognizing the historic 
 significance of this anniversary, and the unusual oppor- 
 tunity afforded thereby for the vindication, propaga- 
 tion and inculcation of the great principles of the Re- 
 formed Faith, which lie at the foundation of civil and 
 religious liberty, and earnestly desiring, along with 
 sister churches of the same faith and order throughout 
 the world, 
 
Rev. W. Moore Scott, 
 Pastor First Presbyterian Church, Savannah, Ga. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 7 
 
 "To take 
 Occasion by the hand and make 
 The bounds of freedom wider yet," 
 
 adopts the following plan looking to the general ob- 
 servance of the Calvin Quadricentennial by the Pres- 
 byterian Church in the United States : 
 
 I. All institutions of learning within the bounds 
 of the Assembly, under Presbyterian auspices, are re- 
 quested to consider the feasibility of arranging for 
 series of sermons and addresses bearing on the life 
 and work of John Calvin at such time or times during 
 the year 1909 as may be most convenient. 
 
 IL The Assembly suggests that the religious 
 papers of the church have prepared and published in 
 their columns at intervals during the year 1909 as 
 many articles as possible relating to Calvin and 
 Calvinism. 
 
 III. The Assembly recommends that each Presby- 
 tery at its meeting in the fall of 1908 appoint a special 
 committee to arrange for a formal celebration of the 
 Calvin Quadricentennial at its meeting in the spring 
 of 1909, and to plan for appropriate sermons and ad- 
 dresses in the individual churches of the Presbytery 
 at such time as each church may determine, giving 
 preference to dates as near as possible to that of Cal- 
 vin's birth, July 10. 
 
 IV. The Assembly adopts the following program 
 of exercises for the celebration of the Calvin Quadri- 
 centennial during the sessions of the General Assem- 
 bly of 1909." 
 
8 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 The program referred to was successfully carried 
 out by the Assembly in session at Savannah, Ga., May 
 20th to 28th, 1909, and the addresses delivered on that 
 occasion are contained in this volume, which is issued 
 by the Committee of Publication, in accordance with 
 the order of the Assembly. 
 
 R. F. CAMPBELL, 
 Chairman of the ad interim Committee. 
 
 Gavel Presented. 
 
 A-Ir. C. S. Wood, who invited the Assembly to 
 Savannah, presented to the Moderator, on behalf of 
 the Session of the First Church, Savannah, a historic 
 gavel, made from a beam taken from the belfry of St. 
 Peter's Cathedral, in Geneva, where John Calvin 
 preached. A picture of this gavel was published in the 
 Christian Observer of May 19. The address was as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 Presentation Address By Charles S. Wood. 
 
 Mr. Moderator: The great honor and privilege has 
 been accorded me this morning of investing you with 
 the implement of authority that you may successfully 
 resume your labors and properly transmit the office 
 of Moderator to your successor. The words I must 
 submit have to do with a long and devious pathway 
 of history, even up to this historic occasion. I shall 
 not depart from old or modern methods if some of the 
 threads of my scattered history are spun of fancy; 
 for history, they say, is written from facts and fancy. 
 You will discern the facts and wrestle with the live 
 things of imagination. First, Geneva is my theme. 
 
Mr. C. S. Wood, 
 Who Presented to the General Apsembly 
 the Calvin Gavel. 
 
Calvin AIemorial Addresses 9 
 
 In the commentaries of Caesar we find the first 
 appearance of Geneva in history, "The most northerly 
 city of the Allabroges." He relates how he cut the 
 bridge over the Rhone in order to prevent the passage 
 of the Helvetes, B. C. 58, intimating that the gods had 
 ordained its favorable destiny — a statement of uncon- 
 scious Calvinism. This great soldier found then, as it 
 is now, a city beautiful for situation ; one side guarded 
 by the undulating pine-clad Jura, another by the ver- 
 dant ledges of the Saleve, with the snow-clad range 
 of Mt. Blanc thrown into relief against the deep blue 
 sky, and fronting a lake, the matchless beauty of which 
 has never ceased to inspire painters and poets of all 
 lands. 
 
 In the fourth century we find this city and state 
 organized into the first kingdom of Burgundy. Sub- 
 sequently it came under the control of the Franks and 
 Germans successively governed by one or the other 
 or by both directly or indirectly for several hundred 
 years. Early in the sixteenth century it was remark- 
 able for the final struggle between the people and the 
 partisans of the Duke of Savoy, the successes of the 
 former becoming effective finally with the adoption of 
 the Reformation, when the Episcopal authority was 
 abolished. 
 
 About this period of unrest, 1536, there came to 
 Geneva John Calvin, a refugee from Picardy, already 
 celebrated for his bold utterances and distinguished 
 for his scholarly accomplishments in letters, law and 
 theology. He was impressed by Farel to abide and 
 lend his wisdom and talents to the emergency. The 
 people accepted him, then exiled him, and at last em- 
 braced him ; and so the canton of Geneva became a 
 
lo Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 republic, governed by Syndics and Councils elected by 
 the people. The city quickly became famous through 
 Calvin, whose influence now extended over the whole 
 of Europe in Church and State and public instruction. 
 He elaborated civil and sumptuary laws, investing 
 old institutions with a simplicity which attracted the 
 attention and obtained the support of reformers in all 
 countries. He trusted the people to elect a Council, 
 competent to appoint the judges. He founded an 
 academy which in modern times became a university 
 of wide renown. He advocated the necessity of public 
 instruction to children of tender years and upwards. 
 
 The great John Knox sat at his feet, and subse- 
 quently put the mantle of his intellect over the hills 
 of Scotland. He believed that a child of the Covenant 
 should be a child of the Church, and but for the fact 
 he was only a man, he might have settled the "Infant 
 Clause" with which you are troubled to-day. As was 
 said of the ancient roads, "all leading to Rome," so it 
 may be said of the modern theological roads, they all 
 lead to this modern Protestant Rome, "The court of 
 the Alps." The great Napoleon found in its possession 
 a resource for governmental adaptation and profited 
 by the study of its institutions. The peace of Vienna 
 sanctioned its independence under the present Swiss 
 confederation, whereby it now constitutes the twenty- 
 second canton of Switzerland. 
 
 Such is my reference to fact, but now I must refer 
 to fancy and fact and then my history will be spoken. 
 Above the Black Forest on the crest of the mountain, 
 near a wooded villa, where now the iron steeds of 
 modern travel merge from the tunnel of the road from 
 Berne, there stood for parting words a patriot youth 
 
Gavel Made from Wood from Tower of St. Peter's Cathedral, 
 Geneva, Switzerland. 
 
 Presented to the General Assembly at Savannah, Ga., May, 1909. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses H 
 
 and lover, June, 1366. Leagues of confederation had 
 been made for fifty years between the Swiss States 
 and as often broken through aHen interference. This 
 youth was the son of Schwyz, the loved was a princess 
 of the House of Hapsburg; then and there was formed 
 a compact known as the "Everlasting League." They 
 melted their mutual sorrows with their mutual joys 
 while they listened to the music of forest anthems and 
 watched the feathered songsters assemble. Why 
 should not this beautiful land respond some day in 
 accord with these happy fixtures of forest, flowers and 
 song! The patriot youth planted there a branch ana 
 called it the twig of the dual league and seal of hand 
 and heart, for here will grow a tree, he said, the boughs 
 of which shall shelter soldiers, as these around should 
 have done, but after, its wood shall support the eternal 
 harmony of the music of peace while it looks down 
 upon a soldier of the Cross wielding the effective 
 Sword of the Spirit. From this towering prospect with 
 a vast circumference of vision, these lovers looked 
 around them with a radius of extended area, upon 
 mountain and meadow, forest and field, river and lake, 
 hill and dale, village and farm-land, far ofif city and 
 shimmering water; and, in the further language of Van 
 Dyke, over all, the westering sun wove a transparent 
 robe of gem-like hues, forming a picture of nature, 
 every feature of which was quivering and pulsating 
 with conscious beauty. With what distinctness did 
 they look into the future ! Far out by the distant lake 
 was the castle of Chillon, since made famous by Byron's 
 genius, where Francois de Bonnivard was imprisoned 
 for six cruel years by the Duke of Savoy. And yonder 
 was Vevey, where the weary traveller was wont to 
 sleep the "sleep of the just." 
 
12 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 A hundred years and more from that date, in I470> 
 a sturdy axeman felled a sturdy tree on this spot and 
 workmen placed a strong beam from that tree in the 
 belfry of St. Peter's Cathedral, situated on the central 
 plateau of Geneva, first erected in the tenth century 
 on the site of an ancient pagan temple, nearly de- 
 stroyed by fire in 1430, finally restored many years 
 afterwards. This timber beam was there when Calvin 
 taught and preached in that famous cathedral and for 
 four hundred years it called the worshippers to the 
 peaceful shelter of the old sanctuary. In recent years, 
 having accomplished its labors there, it gave place to 
 modern beams in the erection of a new tower to con- 
 form with ancient design before the fire of 1430. The 
 Administrative Council of Geneva, now controlling 
 this building, through the good offices of Francis B. 
 Keene, the American Consul, presented this congrega- 
 tion with a large section of the beam, and gave orders 
 for its shipment. I need not go further than to say 
 from this wood a beautiful gavel has been carved, de- 
 signed on the pattern of an altar with Ionic columns. 
 On one side the profile likeness of Calvin, on another 
 the famous Calvin seal, the extended hand and heart, 
 surrounded with the motto "Promte et sincere in orere 
 Domoni," and on the other side a bronze plate bearing 
 this inscription, "Wood from old belfry St. Peter's 
 Cathedral, Geneva, where John Calvin preached. Pre- 
 sented by First Presb3'terian Church, Savannah, Ga., 
 to the General Assembly, May, 1909." 
 
 In behalf of this congregation and by order of the 
 Church session, I now present you with this gavel 
 with which the deliberations of this Assembly may be 
 conducted. The gavel is rather large, but remember, 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 13 
 
 you have to do with great affairs. If you find that a 
 cunning- hand has made its harmony complete, the 
 symbol of united measures makes it a souvenir of a 
 great past, and as you see in its design a symbol of 
 devotion, be reminded that the one whose memory it 
 is intended to perpetuate, laid his heart upon the 
 sacrificial altar. 
 
Rev. R. C. Reed, D. D. 
 Columbia, S. C. 
 
CALVIN'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE 
 REFORMATION. 
 
 Rev. Richard C. Reed, D. D., LL. D., 
 
 Columbia Seminary. 
 
 It will hardly be expected of me to answer with 
 perfect precision the question, What was John Calvin'sj 
 contribution to the Reformation of the i6th Century? 
 That mighty revolution was not the work of one man, 
 nor of a few men, but it was wrought by the combined 
 labors of a multitude of men. Consequently, there 
 was the blending of forces, and it would be impossible 
 to segregate the work of the one from the many, and 
 to weigh with nice accuracy the sum total of influence 
 emanating from the single individual. Every actor 
 in the great drama was acted on. He was at the same 
 time a generator and a transmitter of power. Only 
 an omniscient eye could separate the intermingling 
 currents, and trace each to its true source. Neverthe- 
 less, John Calvin stands out with marked distinctness, 
 from his colaborers, and we can specify the most im- 
 portant things which he did, and estimate with some 
 approach to accuracy the value of these as a contribu- 
 tion to the great movement. 
 
 Calvin was a mere lad, eight years old, when, on 
 the 31st of October, 15 17, Martin Luther struck the 
 blow that marked the birth-throes of the Reformation. 
 While he was growing to man's estate, there followed 
 thick and fast the thrilling events of an ever-expanding 
 struggle. In Germany there was the disputation with 
 
i6 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 Eck, the excommunication, the burning of the bull, the 
 diet of Worms, the Knight's war, the Peasant's war, 
 the Protest of Spiers, the Augsburg Confession, the 
 Smalcald League; in Switzerland, the eloquent voice 
 of the noble, patriotic Zwingle had stirred the hearts 
 of his fellow-countrymen, and the War with Rome was 
 on in earnest. While Calvin was growing to man's 
 estate, there were fifteen years of noise and tumult, 
 of high and hot debates, of diets and edicts, of terrible 
 anathemas, and bold defiance, with the result that 
 nearly the whole of North Germany, the Scandinavian 
 countries and many of the cantons of Switzerland were 
 hopelessly lost to the Papacy. The Reformed Faith 
 was still spreading. In thousands of hearts the dawn 
 was breaking, fresh life was throbbing, heaven-born 
 hopes were kindling. But the war was still on. 
 Martyr fires were burning in France, in the Nether- 
 lands, in England and Scotland. The life-blood of 
 Zwingle had stained the battlefield of Cappell ; and 
 nowhere outside of Germany was there a man gifted 
 with powers of leadership, and filled with the spirit 
 of God, who could point the way, and lead these newly 
 emancipated souls out of the wilderness into the prom- 
 ised rest. Such was the condition of affairs when John 
 Calvin, having reached the age of 23, and having been 
 trained in the best schools of France for the role he 
 was to play, was born into the Kingdom of God. It 
 had not yet been determined whether Luther was to 
 be the hero of a great success or the victim of a great 
 failure. 
 
 Just when and where and under what circumstances 
 Calvin was converted, the most diligent students of 
 his life have not been able to discover. He is silent 
 touching time, place and circumstance. He is not 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 17 
 
 silent touching the fact, and that is the great thing — 
 one of the greatest things of the kind that has hap- 
 pened since Jesus met Saul of Tarsus near the gates 
 of Damascus. Calvin speaks of his conversion as sud- 
 den. However sudden, it was thorough, lifting him 
 at once and forever out of the superstitions of Popery 
 into the clear, radiant light of the Gospel. Calvin was 
 not only certain of his conversion, but he was equally 
 certain that his conversion was the work of God, and 
 was an act of His sovereign, electing grace. This con- 
 stituted both his fitness and his call to service. His 
 doctrine was that election unto eternal life meant elec- 
 tion to eternal obedience. 
 
 Immediately he began to make his contribution to 
 the Reformation. "A year had not elapsed," he says, 
 "when all who were desirous of purer doctrine were 
 continually coming to learn of me while as yet but a 
 novice and a tyro." He tried to hide himself, "but 
 this was so far from being permitted to me that all of 
 my retreats were like a public lecture room." "Men 
 do not light a candle and put it under a bushel." Men 
 were groping in darkness, yearning for the light, and 
 God set John Calvin on a candlestick, and constrained 
 him, however reluctantly, to give light to all who 
 were in the house. 
 
 I feel that I can best serve the demands of this oc- 
 casion by not attempting too much. I shall select, 
 therefore, for consideration only the most signal con- 
 tributions which Calvin made to the Reformation. 
 I. His Theological and Exegetical Writings. H. His 
 Church Polity and Genevan Reformation. HI. His 
 Educational Measures and Correspondence. 
 
 I. His Theological and Exegetical Writings. He was 
 at Paris when he cast in his lot with those who were 
 
i8 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 breaking away from the old faith ; and consequently 
 in the midst of enemies who were alert to detect and 
 to suppress every outcropping of heresy. His life was 
 soon in danger and he fled in disguise. In 1535, we 
 find him at Basle, Switzerland. The gracious Provi- 
 dence of God could not have done him a greater kinci- 
 ness than to direct his footsteps to this spot. It fur- 
 nished just the secure retreat and the literary atmos- 
 phere which his retiring nature and his scholarly 
 tastes craved. We might expect him to make this his 
 permanent resting place, and we find that he had 
 planned to do this at a later day. For the present he 
 has brought in his heart to this paradise of the schol- 
 arly recluse the sorrows of his suffering fellow-coun- 
 trymen. The King, the Parliament, the University of 
 Paris, the Sorbonne, were roasting some of these over 
 slow fires. Not content with this, they were putting 
 upon their names and memories the most base and 
 unjust accusations. They spread abroad the report 
 that these saintly martyrs were fanatical anabaptists, 
 whose turbulent and disorderly lives were a menace 
 to society. They were especially concerned to have 
 these slanders believed by the Lutherans of Germany, 
 whose friendship the King was courting for political 
 purposes. This was more than Calvin could silently 
 endure. He must speak a word in their defense. Such 
 was the origin of the first edition of his Institutes of 
 the Christian Religion. 
 
 It was a brief manual as published at that time, and 
 was published for no other reason, as Calvin avers, 
 than to bear witness to the faith of those whom he 
 saw basely maligned. He was not attempting to do a 
 great thing, nor did he suppose, when he put forth 
 his little book that he had done a great thing. So 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 19 
 
 far was he from seeking fame from it that he sHpped 
 away from Basle without anyone's knowing that he 
 was the author of it, and resolved that he would keep 
 it a secret elsewhere, as it was his purpose to avoid 
 taking open part in the fierce religious war that was 
 raging around him. But at once the lovers of evan- 
 gelical truth saw the value of this book. It met, as no 
 other writing had yet met, the most exigent need of 
 the times. It did for struggling Protestantism what 
 the Council of Trent later did for Rome, defined clearly 
 the issue. It put into lucid, logical and succinct form, 
 with solid scriptural basis, the doctrines over which 
 the tremendous conflict was waging. Friend and foe 
 alike could see just what it was that some men were 
 willing to die for, just what it was that other men 
 were willing to make them die for. 
 
 Calvin dedicated the book to the King of France 
 in a preface which for manly frankness, sustained elo- 
 quence, directness and pathos, has never been sur- 
 passed. If it had been in the power of words to touch 
 the King's heart, and secure for his suffering subjects 
 a fair and just treatment, this appeal would not have 
 been in vain. But the proud monarch had already 
 chosen his ground. Having decided that the safety 
 of his kingdom required that there should be "un roi, 
 nil hi, un foi," he turned a deaf ear and held on his 
 ill-starred course. Other ears however heard, other 
 hearts felt, and from the day that the Institutes of the 
 Christian Religion saw the light, the champions of Re- 
 form knew that a power had been added to their cause 
 which would be felt from one end of Europe to the 
 other. 
 
 In respect to the dominance and extent of their 
 influence only two theologians in the history of the 
 
20 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 Church can be placed by the side of Calvin — St. Augus- 
 tine and Thomas Aquinas. By common consent, these 
 three have been lifted to a solitary eminence of fame. 
 Without claiming for Calvin greater genius than the 
 other two, no Protestant can hesitate to claim for 
 him a more intelligent and unbiased devotion to the 
 word of God, the one exclusive source of all true 
 theology. Both Augustine and Aquinas were in slav- 
 ish subjection to the Church, and it was impossible 
 for them to elaborate a system of doctrine that would 
 not be darkly shaded, and fatally distorted by the 
 great and manifold errors which had been embraced, 
 and consequently hallowed for them by the authority 
 of the Church. In contrast with these, Calvin, with 
 mind freed from the trammels of tradition and super- 
 stition, freed from the doctrines and commandments 
 of men, bowed with absolute and undivided reverence 
 before the living oracles, and, discarding speculation, 
 drew from these alone the doctrines out of which he 
 constructed his matchless Systein. The value of such 
 a gift to the Reformation can not easily be exaggerated. 
 Protestants and Romanists bore equal testimony to its 
 worth. The one hailed it as the greatest boon ; the 
 other execrated it with the bitterest curses. It was 
 burnt by order of the Sorbonne at Paris and other 
 places, and everywhere it called forth the fiercest as- 
 saults of tongue and pen. Florimond de Raemond, a 
 Roman Catholic theologian, calls it "the Koran, the 
 Talmud of heresy, the foremost cause of our down- 
 fall." Kampschulte, another Roman Catholic testifies 
 that "it was the common arsenal from which the oppo- 
 nents of the Old Church borrowed their keenest 
 weapons," and that "no writing of the Reformation 
 era was more feared by Roman Catholics, more zeal- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 21 
 
 ously fought against, and more hostilely pursued than 
 Calvin's Institutes." Its popularity was evidenced by 
 the fact that edition followed edition in quick succes- 
 sion ; it was translated into most of the languages of 
 western Europe ; it became the common text-book in 
 the schools of the Reformed Churches, and furnished 
 the material out of which their creeds were made. 
 
 Perhaps we should name this book in its final and 
 enlarged form as the greatest contribution that Calvin 
 made to the Reformation. It controlled or colored, 
 moulded or guided, the theological thinking for the 
 next hundred years of all the countries that adopted 
 the Reformed faith. Not yet have the Protestant 
 churches grown away from it, nor will they leave it 
 behind so long as the Pauline conception of the Gospel 
 continues to command the homage of Christian stu- 
 dents. Its comprehensive mastery of Biblical and 
 Patristic lore, its logical strength and coherence, its 
 pure and elevated style, its reverend tone, its freedom 
 from scientific technicalities must ever secure for it a 
 prominent place in the regard of all who have a taste 
 for theological studies. 
 
 Three years after the first edition of the Institutes 
 issued from the press, Calvin published the first volume 
 of his commentaries on the Scriptures. This was on 
 the Epistle to the Romans, and was followed by other 
 volumes from time to time throughout the remainder 
 of his life. The completed series, as published in 
 English translation, comprises forty-five portly vol- 
 umes and covers nearly the whole of both Old and 
 New 'Testaments. Viewed in connection with the 
 other labors of Calvin, the magnitude of this work is 
 nothing less than marvellous. It Avas not the magni- 
 tude, however, but the quality of this splendid series 
 
22 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 which gave it a permanent place in the front rank of 
 exegetical works on the Scriptures. The style which 
 Calvin proposed to himself was comprehensive brevity, 
 transparent clearness and strict adherence to the spirit 
 and letter of the author. The best description of the 
 result is to say that Calvin accomplished what he 
 intended to do. 
 
 To estimate the service which he rendered to the 
 Reformation by these commentaries, it must be borne 
 in mind that commentaries based on correct principles 
 of exegesis were rare in that day. Calvin has indeed 
 been called the founder of that method of exegesis 
 which stresses dictionary, grammar and history. He 
 led the way in discarding the custom of allegorizing 
 the Scriptures, a custom which had come down from 
 the earliest centuries of Christianity and which had 
 been sanctioned by the greatest names in the Church, 
 from Origen to Luther, a custom which converts the 
 Bible into a nose of wax, and makes a lively fancy 
 the prime qualification of an exegete. Calvin proceeded 
 on the sound assumption that the writers of the Bible, 
 like all other sensible writers, had in mind one definite 
 thought, and that they used language in its natural, 
 everyday meaning to express this thought. "I ac- 
 knowledge," he says, "that Scripture is a most rich and 
 inexhaustible fountain of all wisdom, but I deny that 
 its fertility consists in the various meanings which 
 any man at his pleasure may put into it. Let us know, 
 then, that the true meaning of Scripture is the natural 
 and obvious meaning; and let us embrace and abide 
 by it resolutely. Let us not only refuse as doubtful, 
 but boldly set aside as deadly corruption those pre- 
 tended expositions of Scripture which lead us away 
 from the natural meaning." In addition to correct 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 23 
 
 principles of hermaneutics, Calvin brought to his task 
 ample learning, deep spiritual insight and a heart that 
 delighted in the work. The word of God was to him 
 "more precious than gold, yea, much fine gold, sweeter 
 also than honey and the honeycomb." If he ever did 
 any work con amorc, it was the work of studying and 
 expounding the Scriptures. 
 
 The way in which the commentaries were received, 
 and the influence allowed to them are sufficiently indi- 
 cated by a statement in a MS. note quoted from 
 Hooker. "The sense of Scripture which Calvin al- 
 loweth was held in the Anglican Church to be of more 
 force than if ten thousand Augustines, Jeromes, Chry- 
 sostomes, Cyprians were brought forth." If such was 
 the weight allowed to Calvin in the Anglican Church, 
 much given to reverence for the fathers, we can 
 hardly overstate the weight attached to his exposi- 
 tions in the Reformed Churches, made up of those who 
 were altogether willing to be known as his disciples. 
 I can not dwell upon all the writings of Calvin, 
 but must pass over many that exerted a profound and 
 wide influence — his catechisms, sermons, treatise on 
 the Lord's Supper and many other minor works that 
 did much to fashion the views of his day. I must, 
 however, say a word about some of his polemical 
 writings, aimed directly at Rome. His "Reply to 
 Cardinal Sadolet," his tract "On the Necessity of 
 Reformation," and his sarcastic "Admonition showing 
 the advantages which Christendom might derive from 
 an Inventory of Relics," were merciless exposures of 
 the corrupt and corrupting doctrines and practices of 
 the Romish Church. These not only inspired the 
 friends of Reform, but furnished them their most 
 deadly ammunition. What Luther said of one of these 
 
^4 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 writings might, with truth, have been said of them all : 
 "They had hands and feet" — they could smite and they 
 could travel. Calvin took occasion in all of his writ- 
 ings to uncover the hideous deformities of the Papacy, 
 and he did it with such telling effect as to make himself 
 the most hated man of the Reformation period. It 
 was early recognized that as a controversialist, in 
 which intellectual force, a well-disciplined mind, and 
 keen powers of analysis are supreme requisites, Calvin 
 stood out, the most formidable antagonist with which 
 the enemies of the Reformation had to contend. 
 
 II. His Church Polity and Genevan Reformation. 
 In 1536, when Calvin set foot in Geneva, he had 
 reached the spot which God had predestined as the 
 field of his life-work. His fellow-countryman, William 
 Farel, had prepared the way for him by battering down 
 the strongholds of Popery and securing freedom for 
 the preaching of the gospel. For two years these earnest 
 fellow-laborers not only preached the pure gospel, but 
 they tried by calling in the aid of Caesar, to make the 
 people of Geneva live the pure gospel. The yoke was 
 found to be too heavy, and so the people deposed the 
 preachers and drove them out. This, however, was but 
 an episode. Calvin's field was Geneva. A brief experi- 
 ence of anarchy, following his expulsion, convinced the 
 Genevese that they had separated what God had 
 joined together. Deeply penitent, they pleaded for his 
 return. The prospect ofifered to Calvin nothing but a 
 life of prolonged crucifixion, but the call was too mani- 
 festly from God for him to resist it. 
 
 He entered Geneva a second time in the fall of 
 1541. He was just 32 years old, when it was recog- 
 nized by both parties that they belonged by divine ap- 
 pointment to each other. Certainly no young man, 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 25 
 
 standing practically alone, ever confronted a more 
 formidable task than that which now confronted this 
 ardent reformer. He faced "a tottering- republic, a 
 wavering faith and a nascent church." His first con- 
 cern, of course, was with the Church, and his first con- 
 cern for the Church was to provide for it an organiza- 
 tion. Fortunately, during the period of his recent ban- 
 ishment, he found time to mature his views on church 
 government. He had just published these views in 
 the fourth book of the second edition of his Institutes. 
 He knew, therefore, as he confronted the situation in 
 Geneva, just what he wanted. At once, on his arrival, 
 he waited on the Civil Council and asked for the ap- 
 pointment of a commission to draft the ordinances for 
 the government of the Church. He was appointed on 
 the commission and the work was his. But before the 
 ordinances were adopted, and put into effect, they were 
 modified, so that we do not see in the Genevan Church 
 an exact realization of the theory set forth in the 
 Institutes. 
 
 'Without going into any analysis of these ordi- 
 nances, we may say that they embodied the following 
 fundamental principles. First, clear distinction be- 
 tween Church and State; second, as permanent officers 
 of the Church, pastors, ruling elders, and deacons ; 
 third, the exercise of ecclesiastical power by a court 
 composed of pastors and ruling elders ; fourth, unity 
 of the Church to be realized by placing a number of 
 congregations under the jurisdiction of one court. In 
 the application of these principles, in Geneva, the 
 civil government took a hand and prevented Calvin 
 from realizing his ideal. It must also be said that his 
 ideal was not exactly our ideal. vStill, these four funda- 
 mental principles are the fundamental principles of 
 
2.6 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 Presbyterianism, and hence this church may rightly 
 be called the mother church of all modern Presbyte- 
 rian and Reformed churches. 
 
 If Calvin's church polity was not his greatest con- 
 tribution to the Reformation, it was certainly his most 
 original contribution. His system of theology was not 
 new ; his church polity was. There was nothing even 
 remotely like it in the bounds of Christendom. It 
 differed radically from the Roman Catholic Church, 
 the Episcopal Church of England, the Lutheran 
 churches of Germany, and the Zwinglian, or Reformed 
 churches of Switzerland. So far was Calvin from copy- 
 ing any existing form that he did not even borrow from 
 any existing form. Where, then, did he get the forni 
 of his church organization? He went to the same 
 source from which he drew his system of theology — 
 the word of God. Whatever we may be in this de- 
 generate day, John Calvin was, wfth all his soul, a 
 jus divinum Presbyterian. What he proposed to do, 
 what he believed he did and what I believe he did, was 
 to bring once again to the light of day and make effec- 
 tive those inspired principles of church government, 
 laid down by the apostles, which had for centuries 
 been buried under the colossal structure of Papal des- 
 potism. Calvin was a high-churchman in the sense 
 that he cherished a profound reverence for the visible 
 church, as an institution of Christ, endowed with rare 
 prerogatives, and discharging vital functions. "We may 
 learn," he says, "from the title mother how useful and 
 even necessary it is for us to know her ; since there is 
 no other way of entrance into life unless' we are con- 
 ceived by her, born of her, nourished at her breast, 
 and continually preserved under her care and govern- 
 ment till we are divested of this mortal flesh and be- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 27 
 
 come like the angels." With such views of the church, 
 he naturally assumed that God had not left the form 
 of its organization to the device of man. He never 
 had any misgivings touching the Scriptural basis, ana 
 therefore the divine origin of the church polity which 
 he provided for the city of Geneva. Moreover, he 
 secured from the whole city, through its representa- 
 tives, an expression of the same conviction. In the 
 preface to the ordinances they say, "We have ordaineci 
 and established to follow and to keep in our town and 
 territory the ecclesiastical polity following, zvhich is 
 taken out of the gospel of Christ." The convictions of 
 the people were shallow, not so Calvin's convictiou. 
 Consequently, to make this church polity effective, he 
 consented to wrestle with the turbulent democracy 01 
 Geneva, and for years to live over the thin crust of 
 a rumbling volcano. John Calvin alone of the Re- 
 formers found his chief foes, his most relentless foes, 
 to be those of his own household. The reason was that 
 he alone of the Reformers set to work with a resolution 
 "fixed as the stars," to rule his own household accord- 
 ing to the law of God. 
 
 Certainly it was no slight contribution which John 
 Calvin made to the Reformation when he gave to it 
 a restored Apostolic Presbyterianism. In connection 
 with this, and perhaps we might say as a part of this, 
 he gave to the Reformation a demonstration of the 
 value of ecclesiastical discipline. For a thousand years 
 and more there had been a lamentable divorce of reli- 
 gion from morals. The church had not drifted further 
 away from the doctrinal teachings of the New Testa- 
 ment than from its ethical standards. Piety of heart 
 and purity of life were no longer associated with the 
 Christian profession. It was not enough for the church 
 
28 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 to grant tolerance to all forms of immorality among 
 the private members, but it went so far as to enthrone 
 iniquity in its highest ofifices. What sins in the whole 
 history of human depravity, more gross and more 
 offensive than those which soiled the lives of such 
 Popes as John XXIII. and Alexander VI. When, as 
 frequently happened, the head of the church, allowed 
 to be the vicar of Christ, set an example of shameless 
 debauchery, it is not surprising that the general state 
 of morals throughout Catholic Europe was almost in- 
 tolerable. John Calvin believed that reforming the 
 church meant not merely the restoration of a pure 
 doctrine and a pure worship, but above all and as the 
 end of all, the restoration of the morals enjoined in 
 the Word of God. He purposed to establish a church 
 which should not only glorify orthodoxy by the pro- 
 fession of a true creed, but which should glorify Goi 
 by the practice of holy living. He determined to draw 
 the line so that all might discern between the righteous 
 and the wicked, between him that serveth God and 
 him that serveth Him not. Moreover he insisted that 
 the church must be the sole judge of the qualification 
 of its own members. 
 
 There may seem to us no novelty in such a con- 
 ception of the church and its functions. Such a con- 
 ception may commend itself to us as so manifestly 
 just and true as to hardly deserve mention. But this 
 only shows how far we have travelled since Calvin's 
 day. He was the first of the Reformers to demand 
 for the church complete separation from the State, 
 with the right of untrammelled discipline over its mem- 
 bers. He was the first of the Reformers who actually 
 inaugurated a system of discipline which was designed 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 29 
 
 to make the church a mighty witness to the ethical 
 purity of the gospel of Christ, 
 
 Calvin lived to demonstrate the value of this con- 
 tribution to the Reformation. When God gave 
 Geneva to Calvin, He gave him a field that would put 
 his reforming principles to a crucial test. "The Gene- 
 vese," says an eminent writer, "were a light-hearted, 
 joyous people, fond of public amusement, dancing, sing- 
 ings, masquerades, and reveleries. Reckless gambling, 
 drunkenness, adultery, blasphemy, and all sorts of 
 vice abounded. Prostitution was sanctioned by the 
 authority of the State, and superintended by a woman 
 called the Rciiie du hordcl. The people were ignorant. 
 The priest had taken no pains to instruct them, and 
 had set them a bad example." Just how bad the ey*- 
 ample set by the priests, the writer does not tell us, 
 but we learn from other sources. Shortly before Cal- 
 vin went there, the monks and even the bishop were 
 guilty of crimes, for which in our day, hanging is not 
 adjudged too severe a penalty. In that age of relaxed 
 morals, there were few, if any, cities in Europe more 
 wicked than the one which Calvin set himself, with 
 God's help, to reform. For fifteen years he fought a 
 doubtful battle, the scale of victory frequently in- 
 clining against him. In 1547, he wrote to Viret: 
 "Wickedness has now reached such a pitch here that 
 I hardly hope that the church can be upheld much 
 longer, at least by means of my ministry. Believe me, 
 my power is broken, unless God stretch forth His 
 hand." Eight years more of unyielding, unflinching, 
 uncompromising struggle, vibrating between hope and 
 despair, victory and defeat, and then the climax and 
 crisis of the battle was reached. Calvin believed that 
 he was going down, but he harbored not for one mo- 
 
30 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 ment the thought of striking his colors. He preached 
 his farewell sermon expecting banishment on the mor- 
 row. But the trembling scale turned in his favor, and 
 for the short remainder of his life, about nine years, 
 he was left the undisputed master of the city. 
 
 If his theology was his greatest contribution, and 
 his church polity his most original contribution, we 
 may safely say that his demonstration of the value of 
 discipline was his most costly contribution to the 
 Reformation. He has been persistently reproached 
 and sometimes maliciously censured for burning Ser- 
 vetus. Grant that he was responsible for the death of 
 Servetus, and that he ought not to have prosecuted 
 him before the civil tribunal, this should not be for- 
 gotten, that he was at that time standing in the midst 
 of enemies, numerous and powerful, who would gladly 
 have substituted him for Servetus, because of his vm- 
 paralleled zeal for righteousness. For years he im- 
 perilled his life for no other reason than that he might 
 see the glory of the gospel reflected in the life of 
 Geneva. 
 
 Were the results such as to vindicate the wisdom of 
 Calvin and the efificiency of his methods? The answer 
 is that Geneva became more famed for the quiet, or- 
 derly and moral lives of its citizens than it had pre- 
 viously been for their wickedness. John Knox, who 
 lived in Geneva for several years, wrote to a friend in 
 1556: "In my heart I could have wished, yea, I can 
 not cease to wish, that it might please God to guide 
 and conduct yourself to this place, where I neither 
 fear nor am ashamed to say, is the most perfect school 
 of Christ that ever was on the earth since the days of 
 the Apostles. In other places I confess Christ to be 
 truly preached ; but manners and religion to be so 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 31 
 
 seriously reformed, I have not yet seen in any other 
 place besides." Dr. Philip Schaff, born and reared 
 in Switzerland, with every qualification for forming a 
 trustworthy judgment says: "If ever in this wicked 
 world, the ideal of Christian society can be realized in 
 a civil community with a mixed population, it was in 
 Geneva, from the middle of the i6th to the middle of 
 the i8th century." Without endorsing the severity 
 of the discipline employed, much less the aid ren- 
 dered by the State in enforcing with civil pains and 
 penalties the censures of the church, we may assert 
 that Calvin did demonstrate in the eyes of all the world 
 the value of a representative form of church govern- 
 ment as a means for purifying public morals, and de- 
 veloping the highest type of Christian character. To 
 show how much this was worth to the Reformation, 
 we should have to write a history of the Reformed 
 churches, and show that in respect to the realization of 
 true Christian ideals, they shone with a glory all their 
 own. 
 
 III. Cak'in's Educational Measures and Correspond- 
 ence. It was principally through these means tha: 
 Calvin's influence overflowed the narrow bounds of 
 the little city where he lived and wrought. It has been 
 said, and I think truly said, that with Calvin, Geneva 
 was never an end, but always a means. From the be- 
 ginning of his ministry Calvin set himself to make. 
 Geneva an asylum for the persecuted, and a training 
 school for the Reformed faith. In a large measure 
 his purpose and his hopes were realized. From all the 
 countries of Europe the persecuted fled for safety to 
 this retreat. Many of these refugees were men of great 
 learning and distinguished ability, but none were too 
 
32 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 eminent to learn from Calvin ; and no one returned 
 to his distant home without carrying away knowledge 
 that he was eager to impart. 
 
 In 1558, the famous Academy of Geneva was estab- 
 lished. This has been called Calvin's crowning work 
 in the field which God had given him to subdue and 
 to cultivate. In this crowning work especially we can 
 sec that Calvin's vision was sweeping a wider horizon 
 than that which bounded his little city. No sooner 
 was the Academy opened than it enrolled 900 pupils, 
 representing the same wide range of territory that was 
 represented by the refugees. In addition to these, there 
 were sometimes as many as 1,000 sitting under Calvin's 
 theological lectures. Thus pastors and evangelists 
 were trained to go forth and spread the doctrines whicn 
 they had learned, and to establish churches after the 
 model which they had seen in Geneva. It is easy for 
 us to see with what good reason this city was called 
 the Rome of Protestantism. It was the center from 
 which emanated the spiritual power, and the educa- 
 tional forces that guided and moulded the Reformation 
 in the surrounding countries. While Calvin soon came 
 to be so bitterly hated that he was never permitted 
 to set foot on the soil of his native France, yet to him 
 the eyes of the Huguenots turned for advice and coun- 
 sel at every step in their mighty struggle, and when 
 under cover of darkness they met to organize their 
 2,000 congregations into one united whole, his hand 
 drafted their Confession of Faith, and their form of 
 government. Through France his doctrines invaded 
 the Netherlands, and coming into contact with Luther- 
 anism, which was first on the ground, won the day. 
 John Knox added Scotland to the theological domain 
 of Calvin. The ardent Reformers from England, who 
 
Calv'In Memorial Addresses 33 
 
 rested in Geneva during the reign of Bloody Mary, 
 carried back to their island home the teachings and the 
 spirit of Calvin, and gave to England the Puritanism 
 which proved such a thorn in the side of tyranny, until 
 finally it brought down the Stuart dynasty tumbling in 
 ruins. 
 
 There was yet another method by which Calvm 
 propagated his influence. He carried on a volumin- 
 ous correspondence with all the conspicuous leaders 
 in both church and state throughout Protestant Chris- 
 tendom. We have to-day from Calvin's fertile brain 
 letters addressed to over 300 different persons and 
 bodies, some of them to crowned heads, some to 
 princes and nobles and some to high ecclesiastical dig- 
 nitaries. As a rule, they are not brief documents de- 
 signed merely to pass the compliments of the day, 
 but they are carefully prepared treatises discussing m 
 masterly manner the profound and perplexing ques- 
 tions with which statesmen and churchmen had to do. 
 The influence of these in moulding the thought, in 
 guiding the policy of those who were holding the reins 
 of power and shaping the history of those tumultuous 
 times cannot easily be over-stated. 
 
 To sum up the aggregate of Calvin's influence out- 
 side of Geneva, we may say that all the non-Germanic 
 countries that embraced the Protestant faith, with the 
 one exception of England, enthroned the doctrines of 
 Calvin and set up his church polity. Had not the free 
 development of Protestantism been repressed in Eng- 
 land by the iron hand of royal despotism, it is morally 
 certain that England would have been no exception. 
 As it was, Calvinism found its way into the doctrinal 
 system of the Established Church, and into the hearts 
 and creeds of all dissenting bodies. 
 
34 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 What shall we say more? Time would fail us to 
 trace in detail the manifold currents of influence that 
 had their source in Geneva, and that were flowing in 
 every direction to carry and deposit the seeds of the 
 new faith. One testimony to the predominant influ- 
 ence that radiated from this center must be mentioned 
 — it is the testimony borne by the great adversary. No 
 spot in Europe was so hated as Geneva. Philip II, 
 than whom the Pope was not more zealous for the old 
 order, wrote to the King of France: "This city is the 
 source of all mischief for France, the most formidable 
 enemy of Rome, At any time, I am ready to assist 
 with all the power of my realm in its overthrow." 
 When the Duke of Alva was to lead his Spanish army 
 near Geneva, Pope Pius V asked him to turn aside and 
 "destroy that nest of devils and apostates." Do we 
 admire Calvin for the friends that he made? Equally 
 may we admire him for the enemies that he made. 
 
 I shall close this discussion of John Calvin's con- 
 tribution to the Reformation of the i6th century with 
 a statement, to which I am sure friend and foe would 
 alike assent. John Calvin contrilbuted to the Reforma- 
 tion all that he could contribute. He put into it all 
 that God put into him ; all the resources of his intellect, 
 all the devotion of his heart, all the energies of his 
 will. For 30 years he had but this one interest, and 
 to this be consecrated every moment of his time, every 
 element of his influence, every faculty of body, mind 
 and soul. He toiled for it to the utmost limit of his 
 strength, fought for it with a courage that 'never 
 quailed, suffered for it with a fortitude that never 
 wavered, and was ready at any moment to die for it. 
 He literally poured every drop of his life into it, un- 
 hesitatingly, unsparingly. History will be searched 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 35 
 
 in vain to find a man who gave himself to one definite 
 purpose with more unalterable persistence, and with 
 more lavish self-abandon than Calvin gave himself to 
 the Reformation of the i6th Century. There was 
 a pathos in his position which almost moves to tears. 
 During many weary years when the burden was the 
 heaviest, when the conflict was the fiercest, and when 
 the issue still was doubtful, he stood to his post, an 
 alien in a strange city, without citizenship, without 
 a family, broken in health, and living in the shadow 
 of a desolate home from which he had buried his wife 
 and only child. He toiled on with an utter self-immo- 
 lation, giving to his personal sorrows no voice, and 
 refusing his physical infirmities the solace of rest and 
 care. He burned the candle to the socket, and at the 
 age of 55 "went to God." They buried him without 
 pomp in an unmarked grave. Buried John Calvin ! 
 No, no, they put the frail, wasted body under the 
 ground, but John Calvin has never been buried, nor will 
 be, till all the Reformed churches of two hemispheres 
 have apostatized from the faith once delivered to them 
 by this saint. May God postpone this evil day forever 
 and forever. 
 
XK-.rr 
 
 Rev. Henry Coli.in Minton, D. D. 
 Trenton, N. J. 
 
CALVIN, THE THEOLOGIAN. 
 
 Rev. Henry Collin Minton^ D. D., LL. D., 
 
 Trenton, N. J. 
 
 It is an interesting fact, more significant, I believe, 
 than appears on the face of it, that the four hundredth 
 anniversary of John Calvin's birth is being so widely 
 and so signally celebrated throughout the Christian 
 world in this year of grace nineteen hundred and nine. 
 Most nauics, even of those whom their own age calls 
 great, fade out into oblivion within the limits of a 
 single century. It is allowed to but few to outlive a 
 dozen generations of mankind. The secret of such en- 
 during fame must be looked for elsewhere than in the 
 merely personal qualities or in the contemporary ap- 
 preciation of its possessor. The great name of John 
 Calvin is embalmed in the immortal doctrines of Cal- 
 vinism. It is not linked, like that of Luther, with any 
 great branch of the Christian Church ; it is more ap- 
 propriately associated with a great system of thought, 
 and that system is so comprehensive, so pervasive, and 
 so polygonal that, from one point of view, it is a solid 
 body of doctrine embracing all the great truths of 
 religion and of life, while from another point of view 
 it is scarcely more than a frame of mind, an attitude 
 of the intellect, affecting every possible condition and 
 relation of man. 
 
 Psychologically, Calvinism is Calvin writ large. 
 There is an element of truth, however exaggerated, in 
 the remark once made to me in San Francisco by a 
 
38 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 scholarly Jewish Rabbi, to the effect that theology is 
 nine-tenths temperament. It has been said that John 
 Calvin's God was John Wesley's devil ; this, too, of 
 course, is over-stated; but whatever difference there 
 was in their conceptions was not owing to the differ- 
 ence between God and the devil but to the difference 
 between the two sainted Johns. Both accepted the same 
 Scripture as true, both prayed to be guided by the 
 same Spirit of Truth ; both devoutly subordinated their 
 own reason to the supreme voice of Revelation — and 
 yet how great the difference ! John Calvin and Igna- 
 tius Loyola were schoolmates at the same college, De 
 Montague, in Paris ; what was it that developed the 
 one into the great intellectual organizer of the Reform- 
 ation and the other into the indefatigable founder of 
 the Order of Jesus? 
 
 No man can understand Calvinism who is not in 
 some measure acquainted with the life of John Calvin. 
 The same conditions that developed the one produced 
 the other, and although it is true that he was in a 
 remarkable degree unresponsive to the external condi- 
 tions of his life, yet when we say that he was, under 
 God, a creature of the historical conditions of his age, 
 Ave are only saying that John Calvin was human, not 
 more and not less. 
 
 Any man's theology is his thought concerning God 
 and the world ; and that thought must depend of course 
 in large measure upon his ability to think and the con- 
 ditions of his thinking. Calvin, as theologian, was 
 Calvin looking Godward and turning to tell the world 
 what he saw. His eyes were keener than most men's. 
 His vision was more telescopic in its range and more 
 microscopic in its accuracy ; but his eyes were still 
 his own. We must remember the mists that hung low 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 39 
 
 and heavy in his time, as well as the clouds of ignor- 
 ance that ever darken man's upward look. We must 
 not forget Calvin's inherited gifts of head and heart, 
 the circumstances of his home and school and early 
 life, the strange and fitful career that finally landed 
 him most unexpectedly in Geneva; the innumerable 
 cares, the exacting tasks, the irritating antagonisms, 
 the ever enlarging responsibilities of his public life 
 and the generally belligerent conditions existing in 
 Europe at the age in which he lived; we must bear 
 in mind the intellectual awakening and consequent un- 
 rest which characterized the era of the Renaissance, 
 and the loud call in all this for a master spirit to or- 
 ganize the social forces and to co-ordinate the intel- 
 lectual elements which were in utter confusion after 
 the frontier skirmishes of the Reformation. These 
 were among the thousand and one things which, under 
 God, entered into that mighty and majestic composite 
 which all the world acknowledges to have been not 
 only historic, but also history making, in John Calvin, 
 the great thinker and theologian of the i6th century. 
 All theology should relate itself in some way to 
 human experience. Every truth in the confession 
 should have its place in the life of the confessor. It 
 may not be explicit in his consciousness but it should 
 be implicit in his life. Few can fully state their faith 
 in the Trinity or the Atonement or the gracious work 
 of the Holy Spirit but, if their faith is deep and their 
 life sincere, a full analysis of that faith and a thor- 
 ough explication of that life will bring out into the 
 open the elements that lie dormant and hidden in their 
 breasts. 
 
 The story of Calvin's life is too familiar to need 
 repeating. His birth, unlike Luther's, was into a home 
 
40 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 of gentle life and easy comfort. He enjoyed the best 
 educational advantages which the universities of his 
 time afforded. Both in taste and in attainments, he 
 was an accomplished humanist. His first literary pro- 
 duction was a commentary upon Seneca's De de- 
 mentia, and this purely classical essay has almost no 
 reference to scripture teaching or religious interest. 
 In the preface to his Commentary on the Psalms, he 
 tells us of his sudden conversion, and his biographers 
 have discussed, with differing conclusions, what Cal- 
 vin's conversion at this time was. Less spectacular 
 than that of Saul of Tarsus, less protracted than that 
 of Augustine of Hippo, less violent than that of Luther, 
 we are inclined to believe that it was a sudden re- 
 versal of intellectual attitude toward the momentous 
 issues, so profoundly spiritual in their essence and 
 ethical in their import, which were at that moment at 
 stake between the people and the Pope. This is not 
 to disparage the genuineness of his personal spiritual 
 experience, or to slur over the importance of regenera- 
 tion ; but Calvin was nothing if not intellectual, and 
 such a change of allegiance involved both convictions 
 and courage, which gave splendid play to all the spir- 
 itual graces and heroic virtues of the true man of God. 
 His Institutes, appearing at the early age of twenty- 
 six, were at once accepted as the product of a master 
 spirit. In its immediate intention it was an appeal, a 
 defense and a challenge ; while in its larger references 
 it was at the same time an Evangel, a Dogmatic, an 
 Apologetic, and a Polemic. The historic dedication to 
 Francis the First, is one of the immortal bits of the 
 world's literature. Calvin wrote the Institutes, he some- 
 where tells us, with an evangelistic purpose first of all, 
 but we may sum up its object as three-fold: first, to 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 41 
 
 state the doctrines of the Reformation ; second, to dis- 
 abuse the mind of Francis of certain misconceptions ; 
 and, third, to disclaim and refute the wild vagaries of 
 the Anabaptists. When we remember that the Pope 
 and the Emperor were in front of him, and the pesti- 
 ferous Anabaptists and Libertines in his rear, it is 
 remarkable that Calvin was able to develop the pro- 
 found theology of the Institutes with such calm spirit 
 and such complete mental poise and, if at times an un- 
 seemly harshness smites upon our ears, we have no 
 need to forget that this was but the mark of a uni- 
 versal weakness in theological controversy at that 
 time, and that the provocations to impatience were 
 very numerous and grievous to be borne. 
 
 Calvin's literary labors were wonderfully prolific. 
 If Luther was the great Bible translator of the Reform- 
 ation, Calvin was its great Bible commentator. His 
 tasks of administration were very heavy and never to 
 his liking. He was a preacher of singular clearness 
 and power, and yet he longed for the quiet life of the 
 student. Driven from place to place in his native 
 France, sojourning for a time in the south country of 
 Italy, he finally made his way back to the north, tarry- 
 ing in Geneva but for a single night. William Farel 
 laid almost violent hands upon him and, under the spell 
 of this fiery Frenchman's anathema if he should not 
 heed his call to remain, Calvin found in Geneva not 
 a night's lodging only but the scene of his great life 
 work. He was seeking Strasburg for quiet study ; he 
 finds the seething caldron of Geneva. He fain would 
 shun all noisy conflicts and bitter controversy ; he 
 finds the great battle-ground of the Reformation. No 
 man was ever thrust into an unsought place of promi- 
 nence more suddenly and more reluctantly than was 
 
42 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 Calvin thrust into the midst of the ferments of Geneva. 
 This is but one of a most remarkable series of such 
 personal experiences in the life of the great reformer. 
 "Man proposes, God disposes." This means Divine 
 Providence in human affairs ; it means a "Divinity 
 shaping man's end" ; it means an over-ruling, ever- 
 living, sovereign God. 
 
 If w^e are to succeed in our search for the funda- 
 mental and formative principle of Calvin's teaching, 
 we must remember that his mental make-up was such 
 as required that all his thinking should group itself 
 into a complete and systematic unit. His mind de- 
 manded some truth large enough for all other truths 
 to stand on. His logic was sharp and severe, but his 
 logic was only formal ; the material for his thinking 
 he found in the Word of God. His dialectic was as 
 keen as that of a Plato, but we see its magnificent dis- 
 play only as it is at work on the rich treasures of 
 Divine Revelation. To him any truth that was not 
 related or relatable to every other truth in the field of 
 vision would have been fatal. We sweetly sing with 
 Tennyson : 
 
 "Our little systems have their day, 
 They have their day and cease to be; 
 They are but broken lights of Thee, 
 And Thou, O Lord, art more than they." 
 
 Yes, "our little systems" — if they are only ours, 
 conceived by us, created by us ! But if the system be 
 either found in or founded upon eternal truth, then 
 why is that system not as eternal as the truth itself? 
 "God's thoughts are not as our thoughts" — not because 
 Plis thoughts are essentially different from ours, but 
 because they are "higher" than ours. To think at all 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 43 
 
 is to think systematically, and if there be no system, 
 no order, no self-consistent harmony in God's think- 
 ing", then there can be no such thing- as thinking God's 
 thoughts over again after Him, and Agnosticism, with 
 its cruel hand, has forever closed the door against all 
 human knowledge of things Divine. 
 
 The sweep of Calvin's mind found only one basal 
 truth broad enough on which to build his theology 
 and his theodicy. "In the beginning, God." Calvin 
 took the scripture at its word. The Divine must under- 
 lie the human ; the eternal is presupposed in the tem- 
 poral ; the Creator is, both in the order of thought and 
 of time, antecedent to the creation. 
 
 Here we find the principium, the organizing prin- 
 ciple of Calvin's system. His theology is fundamen- 
 tally theistic. "He has God in all his thoughts." Not 
 the sovereignty of God, as is so often af^rmed, not His 
 justice or His power, or His governmental authority — 
 "In the beginning-, God." Let the scripture develop 
 its own conception of what God is. Let reason judge 
 and experience interpret ; only let him be God. Every 
 theology waits upon its definition of God. Many 
 people, in explicitly defining God, implicitly deny Him. 
 They reverently repeat the words of the Creed, "I be- 
 lieve in God, the Father Almighty," and then proceed 
 to strip Him of the very attributes in the possession 
 of which alone He can be either God or Father or 
 Almighty. 
 
 A God who is not holy is no God. A God who is 
 not just or good or true is no God. A God who does 
 not satisfy and surpass our highest conception of ethi- 
 cal ideal is no God. A God who is not supreme over 
 all, who shares the throne of His rule and glory with 
 angel or man or devil, who does not know all things, who 
 
44 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 does not control all things, whose eyes are closed to any 
 scene of tragedy or distress, whose ears are stopped 
 to any cry of suffering or of need, whose love is 
 quenched by any offense against His holy will, whose 
 arm is bound by any force or fate or law — this is no 
 God. When we hear any one declare that he believes 
 in God, it is necessary to wait until he tells us what 
 kind of a God he believes in that we may be sure 
 that he believes in God at all. Many a qualified theism 
 is, at bottom, an unqualified atheism. 
 
 Here is the seed thought of Calvinism. Once grasp 
 and grant its conception of God and many of its far- 
 reaching and battle-scared doctrines stand forth as 
 inevitable and indisputable corollaries. Not less than 
 Spinoza of Amsterdam, only profoundly more sane 
 and ever loyal to Holy Scripture, was Calvin of Gen- 
 eva "the God-intoxicated man." He had not touched 
 the meaning of a single fact in time, he had not reached 
 to the hem of the garment of any great principle in 
 philosophy, until he had related it to God. No plan 
 back in the eternity that was, no end in the eternity 
 that is to be, is beyond the purview and control of the 
 eternal God. Man's place and part in time, his portion 
 and destiny in eternity are ordained in the vast pano- 
 ramic program of his Creator. Calvin hesitated at 
 no barrier or challenge. If the thought of Calvin the 
 dogmatician seems harsh and a' priori, let us not forget 
 that it was at the same time Calvin, the greatest in- 
 ductive Scripture commentator of his age, and one of 
 the greatest of any age, that propounded that thought. 
 Grant Calvin's theism and only the adroitness of the 
 sophist or the inconsistency of the weakling will balk 
 at his theology. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 45 
 
 But if we find the seed of Calvin's system here it 
 is here also that we find its very crux. It is not the 
 question whether the celebrated five points of the Cal- 
 vinistic star shall fade out or endure ; their brilliancy 
 or their extinction will depend upon the constancy of 
 the mother light at the centre. The only way to ex- 
 tinguish the sunlight from the world is to blot out the 
 disc of the sun itself from the sky. The only way to 
 stop the scintillations of the star is to drown out the 
 star itself in the blackness of the surrounding night. 
 It is child's play to talk of surrendering certain prin- 
 ciples of essential Calvinism and holding on to others. 
 Whatever we may think of Calvinism, it has this 
 merit, that it is a unit and that unit is a vital organism, 
 not a dead mechanism. There are Calvinists and Cai- 
 vinists, to be sure. Some one has pointed out for us 
 the varying grades of Calvinistic loyalty. There is 
 John Calvin himself and there are those to-day who 
 doubtless are worthy to bear the name of their theo- 
 logical patronymic ; there are Calvinists, loyal dis- 
 ciples of the great teacher of Geneva ; then there are 
 those who are honestly and in a healthy sense Calvin- 
 istic, then there are those who are Calvinistical ; next, 
 there are those whose homeopathic adherence to the 
 faith may be characterized as Calvinisticalish ; and 
 last of all, there are those, standing far out on the cir- 
 cumference, who are slightly tinged with Cahdnistical- 
 ishness. But, whether the dye be deep or dim, the 
 great fundamental truth of God at the centre and God 
 at the circumference, and God everywhere between, 
 can never be abandoned. 
 
 You have all, of course, heard of the memorable 
 and classical definition of a crab in which the crab is 
 defuied as *'A red fish which crawls backward." This 
 
46 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 has, upon very good authority, been pronounced to be 
 a highly scientific and essentially correct definition, 
 with three incidental corrections, however, which are 
 deemed worthy to be noted. These are, first, a crab is 
 not a fish ; second, it is not red ; and, third, it does not 
 crawl backward. It is to be feared that there is not a 
 little which passes for Calvinism in the world to-day 
 which calls for just such incidental criticisms as this 
 learned and scientific definition of the crab. 
 
 Of course the test of Calvin's theology must always 
 be upon the absolute universality of this first postulate. 
 He placed at the foundation of his thought not tht- 
 sovereignty of God but a God who is sovereign. He 
 never stood exclusively for the transcendence of God 
 any more than did his great teacher, St. Augustine, 
 before him. He sets forth the Immanence of God as 
 clearly, far more clearly, than do the writers of our 
 own day who fain would have us believe that this is 
 J one of the great finds of modern philosophy. 
 
 But can the teachings of Scripture, can the facts of 
 experience, can the common consciousness of men, be 
 fairly construed so as to support Calvin's views? I am 
 not here to defend Calvinism or to refute its critics. 
 We are only striving to find the characteristic intellec- 
 tual animus, the bed-rock truth of his teaching. 
 
 That objections were forthcoming, that marvelously 
 acute and comprehensive intellect knew very well. It 
 is safe to say that no argument has been hurled at 
 Geneva which Calvin himself did not carefully con- 
 sider and discuss with more or less fullness in his 
 writings. He knew that men said that he made God 
 the author of sin ; he knew that men said that he left 
 no place for the actual freedom of man ; he knew that 
 men shrank back from believing that God's predestina- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 47 
 
 tion positively contemplated the eschatological penal- 
 ties and endless miseries of the finally impenitent — a 
 thing which he himself, with humble awe, called the 
 "Decretum horrihilc." 
 
 Nevertheless, based on Scripture, he could find no 
 other rationale that met the demands of his all-compre- 
 hending thought. These objections all melted down, 
 in the mighty alembic of his master mind, into one, 
 and that one had for its fatal weakness that it contra- 
 dicted his first fundamental Bible-buttressed concep- 
 tion of God. 
 
 His notions of freedom were fearless and frankly 
 stated. He did not scruple to affirm that, although he 
 was created free, yet man in a state of sin is not free, 
 and that he and he himself alone is responsible for 
 his lack of freedom. He regarded sin as a self-imposed 
 handicap upon man's spiritual freedom and life, which 
 is adequately characterized only in the Scripture term 
 which calls it spiritual death. That sin means death, 
 that death means alienation from God and forfeiture 
 of His favor, this he found in Holy Scripture ; that 
 sin introduced a wholly abnormal order — a disastrous 
 disorder — into the natural and moral world, and that 
 this abnormality entailed a curse not only on man 
 but also on the cosmos of which man is the crowning 
 part, — this he found in Holy Scripture ; that the grace 
 of God in Jesus Christ was manifested in the incarna- 
 tion of His only begotten Son and was consummated in 
 the historical Atonement which was accomplished on 
 the heights of Calvary, sufficient for all mankind and 
 certainly efficient for all those who will believe upon 
 him, — this also he found in Holy Scripture ; that the 
 number of those who will thus believe and be redeemed 
 unto holiness and eternal life was ordered and known 
 
48 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 in the mind of the Eternal before the foundation of the 
 world, — this, too, he found in Holy Scripture ; and that 
 in the progress of His kingdom, in the development of 
 His redemptive purpose, God sent forth His Holy 
 Spirit into the world who, with or without Papal pre- 
 rogatives and Sacerdotal or sacramental functions, can 
 and does work when and where and how He pleases in 
 gathering the innumerable body of the elect of God out 
 of every land and age and nation into the comprehen- 
 sive fold, — this also he found in Holy Scripture. On 
 this broad ground Calvin took his unalterable position. 
 That God had foreordained man's course in time and 
 goal in eternity was not to be denied because man's 
 consciousness tells him that he is free. However this 
 may be, refusing to cast a shadow upon the veracity 
 of its testimony, yet even granting that consciousness 
 is a trustworthy witness to a man that the man him- 
 self is free, even so, it does not follow that that inner 
 witness has a single word of competent or relevant 
 testimony either for or against the inscrutable purposes 
 of the Divine, or the unchangeable decrees of the 
 Eternal. 
 
 Calvin's defense was based in part upon the inevi- 
 table limitations of human knowledge. That he was 
 in any fair sense an Agnostic is a base libel upon his 
 fame. Agnosticism is essentially the dogmatic affirma- 
 tion of man's constitutional inability to know. The 
 verb "to know" is a transitive verb, but agnosticism 
 persists in denying it any object, from things celestial 
 or things terrestrial, from things infinite or things 
 finite; and when a transitive verb is defrauded of the 
 object of its action, the verb itself lapses and shrinks 
 into a nonentity ; accordingly, agnosticism would fain 
 wipe the words "knowledge" and "to know" from the 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 49 
 
 dictionaries of human speech. Hume, and Hamilton, 
 and Mansell, and Spencer, and Huxley base their doc- 
 trine of nescience upon man's integral and inherent 
 incapacity to know anything. That tree or this book 
 is as inscrutable as the infinite God and his eternal 
 purposes. Calvin w^as no agnostic. He did hold that 
 there are truths that reach beyond our finite faculties. 
 He stood in awe in the presence of the solemn and un- 
 yielding mysteries of God. God's control and man's 
 freedom are the opposite poles of a mystery, and we 
 call it mystery because we are not able to trace the 
 invisible line which connects the obvious truths which 
 stand at each emerging end. Mystery is not contra- 
 diction, for, as Jonathan Edwards said long ago, "A 
 contradiction is not a thing," whereas the very cruss. 
 of a mystery is in the fact that though we cannot com- 
 prehend it fully it is nevertheless an existing truth. 
 Homo mensura rerum is the discredited dictum of a 
 rationalizing agnosticism. We are always afraid of a 
 philosophy which leaves nothing to be explained. 
 Calvin did not hesitate to accept what seemed to him 
 to be true, and bafiling difficulties, stubborn antino- 
 mies, though they might embarrass him, did not cause 
 him to waver in his allegiance to his underlying theistic 
 postulate. 
 
 Whatever may be men's verdict upon the rational 
 integrity or the moral merits of Calvin, we have here 
 its essential strength and its reputed or its imputed 
 weakness. His notion of God is large enough to em- 
 brace all things that are. Ascribing only infinite per- 
 fection to Him, he nevertheless maintained that in His 
 all-sweeping purpose He contemplated the evil as well 
 as the good, the bitter as well as the sweet, the sinner 
 as well as the saint, the deepest depths of hell as well 
 
50 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 as the highest heights of heaven. If men said that in 
 this he was bringing an indictment against the Divine 
 hohness and the Divine love, he replied that the mystery 
 is there ; but it is a mystery less abhorrent, both to 
 Scripture and to reason, than the mystery which we 
 are bound to face if we dethrone God or limit the 
 scope of His rule. A broken scepter, a mutilated 
 crown, a restricted rule, undeifies God. Only God 
 rules. No force or fate or fact disproves that bottom 
 truth. If there be unsolved problems, locate them 
 elsewhere, let God be God and the developments of 
 history the bodying forth in time of His eternal 
 purposes. 
 
 The magnificence, the audacity, the reverential awe 
 of this conception, who can gainsay? John Calvin's 
 system was, in a sense that is true to the etymology of 
 t^_the word, a genuine theology. Not yet had the de- 
 generate days arrived when men study the objective 
 facts of men's life and history and gravely christen the 
 result "theology." He made theology inductive, but 
 the sources whence he drew his inductions were not 
 the fitful and fleeting scenes of human history but, first 
 of all, the Divinely given and devoutly accepted teach- 
 ings of the inspired Word of God. He would have re- 
 pudiated with abhorrence the crude modern notion that 
 theology is only the science of religion. Like the be- 
 loved disciple, the Theologos of the New Testament, 
 he studied history in the light of God and afterward 
 God in the light of history. He first drew his light 
 from higher sources and then made that light inter- 
 pretative of scientific and historical truth ; and while, of 
 course, the sunburst of modern scientific discovery had 
 not yet broken upon the world, yet his attitude toward the 
 whole field of empirical truth was typical and un- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 51 
 
 affected, in principle, by the multitude or the magni- 
 tude of the conquests of recent scientific research. 
 
 That essential Calvinism is out of date to-day, who 
 that keeps an eye upon the drift of twentieth century 
 thought will presume to affirm? It is safe to say that 
 if he were with us to-day John Calvin would be a 
 vigorous reactionary against the extreme Determinism 
 of many of our scientific and philosophical thinkers, 
 Calvin never reduced man's freedom to a farce. There 
 is a scientific fatalism in vogue to-day that out- 
 Mohammets Mohammet, and while singing to men the 
 sweet songs of freedom it would rob them of the last 
 shreds of the real thing. The apostle of selection has 
 usurped the place of the apostle of election, and many 
 are eager to accept Darwin's natural selection who 
 hold up their hands in horror at Calvin's divine elec- 
 tion. The one does not know or care whether there is 
 intelligence and will back the selecting process; while 
 the other insists that behind the electing act is 
 the true and living God "Whose judgments are un- 
 searchable, and whose ways are past finding out." 
 
 Neither can the spirit of modern metaphysics wage 
 war upon the theological citadels of Geneva. The last 
 word of the best philosophy of to-day, the ultimate 
 category of a sane metaphysics, is Personality. All 
 knowable truth is knowable because a knowing mind 
 has foreknown it. History can be scientifically studied 
 and rationally stated because it embodies a rational 
 plan. Geology is a science because it finds, first con- 
 cealed and then revealed in its rocks and hills, the 
 records of a science-like order. Keplar traced the stars 
 and thought God's thoughts over again after Him ; 
 not more did Keplar, than does every other man who 
 f.nds truth knowable because it bears upon its face or 
 
52 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 hides within its folds the ordering purpose of Another. 
 Plato's "Eternal Geometer of the Universe" is none 
 other than Calvin's Eternal Fbreordainer "of whatso- 
 ever comes to pass." 
 
 That the course of Calvinism, like that of true love, 
 "has not run smooth" all the world knows right well. 
 That it is a bankrupt system of thought to-day, that 
 it was at best only a crude seventeenth century report 
 of theological progress, that the succeeding ages have 
 been sifting out its modicum of truth and have thrown 
 forever into the scrap-heap the great bulk of its offen- 
 sive dogmatisms, this is affirmed by the few and 
 echoed by the many until legion is the name of those 
 who, innocent if not incapable of a single independent 
 conception in their own right of what John Calvin 
 really did think or teach, are ready to accept the howl- 
 ing chorus of condemnation as unchallenged and con- 
 clusive. Let us not forget that whoever calls Calvin 
 infallible is as false to Protestantism and to the great 
 Protestant of Geneva as he who locates infallibility on 
 the banks of the Tiber ; let us remember that it has 
 been given to no saint or sage in all the course of time 
 to formulate into a finality the great truths of Divine 
 revelation ; let us not forget that with the developments 
 of the Kingdom of God in the world, under the gra- 
 cious tuition of the Spirit of all Turth, new light may 
 from time to time be expected to break forth from the 
 treasures of Divine truth ; let us remember, too, that 
 every age has its peculiar difficulties for him who 
 would perform the colossal task of constructive creed 
 building, and that the war-like tactics of self-defense 
 which were forced upon the reformer by the tyrannies 
 of King and Pope on the one side and by the vagaries 
 of Anabaptist and Libertine on the other, caused their 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 53 
 
 utterances to bristle with antagonisms, and sometimes 
 to exhibit the unhappy blemishes of unwarranted exag- 
 geration. Calvinism was Calvin's view of God and 
 the world. The sources of his thinking were higher 
 than the tops of his unstained Alps; his guidance was 
 surer than his own frail thought ; his vision was far 
 out toward the fugitive horizons of the infinite. The 
 fields of time were to his gaze outlined and bounded 
 only by the purpose of eternity. Men think and choose 
 and act ; they ponder and decide and go forth to the 
 doing of the deed ; they rise up in the morning and 
 after their little day's work is done they lie down tc 
 sleep through the long hours of the approaching night. 
 They are unconscious of millions of their fellows who 
 are living the same life, doing the same tasks, and 
 walking the same way; with mistaken and egoistic 
 pride they imagine that they are all alone in choosing 
 their own ways and ordering their own steps. But 
 the vision is as yet partial and incomplete. This is 
 chaos, not cosmos; this is confusion, not order. Every 
 toiler has his task assigned him, though he know it 
 not. Every traveler finds his path opening out before 
 him, and a voice, not his own, though he recognize 
 it not, calling him down along that way. His lot is 
 measured out; his days are numbered out before him. 
 The sphere within which he moves is large enough for 
 the widest, wildest wanderings of his weary feet, and 
 that sphere is of another's ordering. His choices are 
 to himself entirely free, for they are his very own ; his 
 determinations are spontaneous, for they are unforced, 
 and yet, far down in the subsoil of his subliminal self, 
 beneath the surface gaze of his superficial conscious- 
 ness, forces are at work, forces sent forth and con- 
 trolled by the hand of the Eternal, forces which men 
 
54 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 call heredity and environment and nature and Provi- 
 dence and the mysteries of Divine grace, forces which 
 in their own time, in their own silent and subtle but 
 ever effective way, quietly swing those free choiccis 
 and effectually bring those free actions around to the 
 accomplishment of the end eternally in view. And 
 each end in turn becomes a means to a higher end 
 until the ultimate end is merged and lost in the efful- 
 gent glory of Him whose wisdom foreordained the 
 course and whose power caused those Heaven-born 
 forces to go forth upon their prescribed orbits in space 
 and appointed errands in time. 
 
 If men call this sophistry, then only sophistry can 
 defend the crown rights of the Creator. If men deny 
 that this is genuine freedom, then the Calvinist is 
 quick to make reply that any other freedom means 
 anarchy in history and as many little deities each 
 supreme in his own petty sphere, as there are free 
 agents in the wide world of being. This "untenants 
 Heaven of its God," this breaks up every possible phil- 
 osophy of history into a wreckage of dismembered 
 fragments ; this turns into "the dream of a dreamer 
 who dreams that he has been dreaming" the splendid 
 vision of the poet. 
 
 "And I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs 
 And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the 
 suns." 
 
 In estimating the gross theological assets of John 
 Calvin's short life, how appalling is the magnitude of 
 the task! Certainly no one can read history and be 
 blind to the greatness of his work. He was neither 
 prince nor pope, and yet his work outshines that of 
 both. Denying and defying the Divine right of kings. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 55 
 
 he established a magistracy at Geneva more enduring 
 than any crown, more potent than any scepter, while 
 he touched with the magic wand of his theological 
 faith and genius the rock from which flowed out over 
 all the broad plains of modern history the life-giving 
 streams of equality before God and democracy among 
 men. 
 
 Historians argue whether he was greater as theo- 
 logian or as magistrate. We believe that his theo- 
 logical thought pre-determined his views of civil as 
 well as of ecclesiastical government. We believe that 
 his work was great and his fame enduring because, 
 first of all, he held to his Biblical conception of God, 
 and with relentless perseverance he carried it, with its 
 implications and applications, into his work as 
 preacher, as educator, as statesman, and as reformer. 
 
 Let men say what they will, Calvin's niche in the 
 pantheon of the world's few inmiortals is forever as- 
 sured. The record is wanting that he was ever for- 
 mally ordained, either as Roman Catholic priest or as 
 Protestant preacher, and yet the same living God who 
 could use Saul of Tarsus, unordained of man, in the 
 first century of the Christian era, and Dwight L. 
 Moody, unordained of man, in the nineteenth century 
 of the Christian era, used John Calvin, the pale, frail 
 layman of Geneva, to turn a new and mighty page in 
 the history of intellectual and spiritual Christianity, 
 and of civil and religious liberty. His work was not 
 creative, it was constructive. He did not originate, he 
 organized. His name has been "scarred with cal- 
 umny" ; his work has been traduced with ridicule and 
 slander ; his thinking has been combated, but it has 
 never been belittled except by little and impoverished 
 spirits. His intellectual powers have been conceded 
 
56 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 by all to have been of the very highest order, and they 
 were unselfishly consecrated with the best light his 
 age afforded to the God that gave them to him and 
 to the Lord whose service he espoused. 
 
 He dwelt aloft amid the cold and placid peaks of 
 God's eternal truth. In a most unusual way, he com- 
 bined the contemplative genius of the philosopher with 
 the practical genius of the man of affairs. He loved 
 and longed for quiet and yet he lived his life in con- 
 stant scenes of civil strife and theological controversy. 
 He was human with all his greatness, and his faults 
 and weaknesses, like those of every other great man, 
 seem all the greater because he was himself so great. 
 
 We devoutly believe that it was because he held 
 the theology which he taught that he was, under God, 
 the force he was, and that, under God, he did the work 
 he did ; and we devoutly believe that the truths of that 
 same logic-ribbed, bible-based, crimson-stained theol- 
 ogy will, under God, continue to produce, as it has 
 been for these four hundred years producing, men of 
 giant stature, men of heroic mould, men of stalwart 
 thought, men of genuine Christian faith and culture 
 and conduct and character, who, learning God's truth 
 in God's book, led by God's spirit in God's service, 
 will do well and faithfully their appointed work, and 
 will leave a beneficent legacy to the generations that 
 come after. 
 
Rev. Thomas Gary Johnscjn, D. D., 
 Richmond, Va. 
 
CALVIN'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO 
 CHURCH POLITY. 
 
 Thomas Gary Johnson, D. D., LL. D. 
 Richmond, Virginia. 
 
 ' Calvin did not originate the principles of ecclesi- 
 astical polity which he describes in his writings and 
 which he endeavored to establish in Geneva. Having 
 repudiated utterly the whole man-made polity of Rome, 
 he carried men back to the New Testament for the 
 God-given polity of the Church, He tried to draw 
 from the apostolic writings the divinely given prin- 
 ciples of church government, and to apply these prin- 
 ciples in the government of the church of Geneva. 
 
 Accordingly, in order to have clearness in the 
 treatment of the subject assigned us, we shall attempt, 
 first, to indicate, very briefly, the nature of the gov- 
 ernment given of God to the church in the apostolic 
 age; second, to show, very briefly again, how far the 
 church apostatized from the divinely-given type of 
 government ; and third, to set forth the part of Calvin 
 in exposing the apostasy and in leading back the 
 church toward the pattern shown in the mount of New 
 Testament teaching. 
 
 First, then, of the nature of the governuient given to 
 the Neiv Testament Church. 
 
 The government of the New Testament church is 
 easily distinguished from civil government. They 
 
58 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 differ in their instruments, aims, and ways of regard- 
 ing God, The instruments of civil government include 
 amongst them physical force, the sword being the 
 emblem of its power. The aim of civil government is 
 to conserve justice between man and man and to se- 
 cure the temporal well-being of the governed. God, 
 as regarded by civil government, is regarded in the 
 aspects and relations of Creator and moral Governor 
 of the universe. The instrument of New Testament 
 church government, on the other hand, was not the 
 material sword, not physical force, but the sword of 
 the Spirit, the word of God. The aim of the New 
 Testament church government was to further the 
 spiritual, and, chiefly, the eternal welfare of the gov- 
 erned. It aimed not at the conservation of justice, but 
 at the moral and spiritual improvement of the gov- 
 erned. It regarded God as Redeemer as well as Creator 
 and Governor of the universe. 
 
 The distinction between the two kinds of govern 
 ment had long been before God's people in a more or 
 less vague way; but was clearly developed by our 
 Lord and His apostles. Not only was the distinction 
 between them clearly developed ; the separation of the 
 two governments, in fact as in law, was brought about 
 by the teaching and providence in the apostolic age. 
 An independent and self-governing church, under God, 
 came to stand out over against the civil power as 
 embodied in the Graeco-Roman Empire, Christian 
 people found themselves in actual relations to two 
 commonwealths, one ecclesiastical and spiritual, the 
 other, the world power of Rome ; the one using the 
 word of God, the other using the sword material ; the 
 one seeking spiritual harmony with God and eternal 
 well-being, the other seeking temporal order and tem- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 59 
 
 poral well-being ; the one regarding God as in Christ 
 redeeming and saving His own, the other regarding 
 God, if at all, merely as the Creator and moral Gov- 
 ernor of the universe. At the end of the apostolic age 
 and during the next two centuries. Christian people 
 found these governments struggling with one another 
 — found the civil government trying to destroy all the 
 representatives of the ecclesiastical commonwealth; 
 found the ecclesiastical commonwealth trying to win 
 the heart's allegiance of all men, while leaving them 
 to become better citizens of a state rendered inhostile 
 to the church. 
 
 The peculiar power with which the church was dow- 
 ered, was, in part, that of bearing witness to Christ 
 and to His teaching, and, in part, that of authorita- 
 tively governing its members from the smallest to the 
 greatest, by the application of the Scriptures which are 
 the rightful constitution of the ecclesiastical common- 
 wealth. According to the New Testament, the mem- 
 bers of the church severally are to bear witness to 
 the truth of the Gospel, and severally are to rule them- 
 selves and others, so far as they can, by teaching and 
 admonition, in consonance with the same truth ; but 
 the church as a whole is to govern itself with all its 
 members through chosen and ordained organs — 
 through a "plurality of chosen representatives," offi- 
 cers organized into the form of courts or parliaments. 
 It is also to teach through such courts, but generally 
 through certain of these representative officers acting 
 singly. These representative rulers, in the New Tes- 
 tament, are called indifferently elders or bishops. In 
 the apostolic writings every elder is a bishop and 
 every bishop is an elder. These scriptural representa- 
 tive church rulers — presbyter-bishops — existed in the 
 
6o Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 later years of Paul in two classes, viz. : a class of 
 bishops called to rule only, and a class of bishops 
 called to labor in word and doctrine as well as to rule 
 — the passing- away of the apostles having necessitated 
 the development of representative teachers, and that 
 development having taken place naturally within the 
 sphere of the eldership. 
 
 A plurality of these representative rulers was to 
 be elected by every local church ; and they, after or- 
 ganization under a moderator, or president, were to 
 govern that church on the principles set forth in God's 
 word. When a matter of general concern should come 
 before them, they were to convene with representa- 
 tives of the church elsewhere, and with them deliberate 
 and conclude concerning the matter; as may be seen 
 from the example of the presbyter-bishops of Antioch 
 carrying the question, whether or not the Gentile con- 
 verts should be circumcised, to the synod at Jerusalem. 
 Thus the church was to govern itself, under God, and 
 in the light of His word by a graded series of courts, 
 made up of chosen representatives of two classes. 
 
 To summarize still more briefly: Ecclesiastical 
 government, according to the New Testament, is a 
 government in which the power is purely spiritual — 
 a power of interpreting, declaring, and applying the 
 will of Christ, the Head of the church, as that will is 
 revealed in the Scriptures. This power is used by 
 the members of the church in choosing their repre- 
 sentative officers. It is applied in governing by plu- 
 ralities of chosen representatives of two classes, teach- 
 ing elders, or teaching bishops, and ruling elders, as 
 they may be called indifferently, organized into courts, 
 or parliaments, or congresses, or synods, or assemblies, 
 or presbyteries, and these courts so related as to real- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 6i 
 
 ize the idea of unity. There is neither democracy nor 
 monarchy in the New Testament church government. 
 The principles of that poHty are those of the spiritual 
 republic — the principles of perfect representative gov- 
 ernment according to a divine constitution. 
 
 Second, of the Church's Apostatizing from the type 
 of government set up by the Lord Jesus Christ and His 
 apostles. 
 
 Unhappily the church did not long maintain its 
 divinely given type of government. Churchmen 
 thought they could improve on the divine plan. Under 
 the influence of the current civil government — that of 
 the empire — which had displaced the old Roman re- 
 public to the seeming advantage of the governed ; and 
 in the presence of many foes, internal and external, 
 it was deemed best to have rule by one strong presby- 
 ter-bishop rather than by a body of presbyter-bishops. 
 It was thought that one man — a dictator — could act 
 with more dispatch than a collective body ; and that 
 he could more easily and effectively stifle heresy in its 
 first outcroppings, or throttle schism in its nascency. 
 Accordingly, here and there, even before the end of 
 the second century, the prerogatives of the presbytery, 
 in certain congregations, in part were concentrated in 
 the hands of one presbyter; and to him the name of 
 bishop was more and more restricted. Thus came into 
 existence congregational monarchs — the bishops of the 
 Middle Ages in the first stage of their evolution. A 
 little later, some congregational bishops, partly by 
 the cession of further prerogatives on the part of the 
 presbytery, and partly by usurpation of still other par- 
 liamentary functions, grew into diocesan stature. To- 
 ward the end of the third century, certain diocesans 
 
62 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 grew by similar means into the stature of archbishops. 
 In the early part of the fourth century, a few of the 
 greater archbishops approached the patriarchal rank. 
 During the Middle Ages, the Pope of Rome came to 
 be, according to the papal theory, of right the absolute 
 monarch of the whole church. Actually he ruled as 
 an oppressive tyrant over the whole of western Chris- 
 tendom for centuries prior to the Reformation, though 
 not without various rebellions and insurrections against 
 his rule, some of which seriously threatened his over- 
 throw. 
 
 Meanwhile, along with the centralizing drift into 
 monarchy, the people were stripped by degrees of the 
 elective franchise. They had chosen their officers in 
 the apostolic church. After the development of the old 
 catholic bishop into his full-grown diocesan maturity, 
 he began, in the west, to appoint presbyters and dea- 
 cons who should labor in his bounds, taking the right 
 of electing them out of the people's hands. Mindful of 
 their ancient privilege of electing their officers, the 
 people sometimes anticipated action by the clergy on 
 occasion of a vacancy in the bishopric, by a more or 
 less tumultuous calling of the man of their choice. But 
 such popular action became rarer with the passing 
 centuries ; and, ere the depths of the Middle Ages had 
 altogether ceased. A vacancy in the episcopate was 
 filled by the choice of the cathedral clergy. The bishop 
 elect after obtaining the sanction of the pope, might 
 be ordained by the other bishops of the province. 
 Powerful civil rulers, throughout many decades and 
 over wide regions, bent this papal mode of filling offices 
 in the church, so as to place therein their favorites; 
 but, in general, after 1073, and thence down to the 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 63 
 
 Reformation, the papal theory found widespread 
 application. 
 
 Not only did the church forsake the representative 
 type of government for the monarchical, and the elec- 
 tive rights of the people for the papal method of filling 
 offices, but it essentially changed the nature of eccle- 
 siastical power. According to the New Testament, 
 church power is, as has appeared, declarative and min- 
 isterial. The church has the power only to find out, 
 declare, and do, the will of Christ. But in the Middle 
 Ages the church claimed a power magisterial and legis- 
 lative. It not only claimed the right ; it assumed to 
 exercise the power of sole authoritative interpreter of 
 Scripture, and forced its faulty interpretations as the 
 truth of God on the protesting consciences of multi- 
 tudes. Moreover, to Scriptures it added traditions, 
 which it made of superior authority to Scripture, since 
 it bent the word of God by the superimposed tradi- 
 tional rubbish. 
 
 Not only so ; the church of the Middle Ages joined 
 to the magisterial and legislative power, which it had 
 substituted for the ministerial and declarative power 
 of the New Testament church, the power of state — 
 physical force. It merged its peculiar character as a 
 kingdom whose one weapon is truth. 
 
 Once more ; amongst these changes, the ministry 
 of the New Testament, mere ofificials in the spiritual 
 commonwealth, had given place to a special priest- 
 hood, whose functions were not primarily to teach, to 
 rule, or to serve tables, but to ofifer sacrifice and ad- 
 minister sacraments. 
 
 Thus, while still retaining the names of the officers 
 of the New Testament church — bishops, elders, and 
 deacons, — the church of Rome had changed the genius 
 
64 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 of her government from representative to monarchial, 
 stripped the covenant people of the right of elect- 
 ing their officers, perverted the nature of ecclesi- 
 astical power and joined to it the pov\rer of state; and 
 substituted a special priesthood for the simple ofificers 
 of the New Testament church. 
 
 In the remarks just made, we have given only the 
 meagerest sketch of the apostasy of the Romish church, 
 from the type of government set up by our Lord and 
 His apostles ; but the limits of our time allow nothing 
 more ; and the sketch clears the way for, 
 
 Third, the discussion of our real subject, Calvin's con- 
 tributions to the church polity, or, the part of Calvin in 
 exposing Rome's apostasy and in expounding a type of 
 church government closely approximating the Nezv Tes- 
 tament type, and in leading a portion of the church hack 
 to it. 
 
 That member of a farmer's household contributes 
 not a little to the production of a good crop, who does 
 the most to clear the ground in which it is to be grown, 
 of obnoxious growths, breaks it up and makes it ready 
 for the reception of good seed ; and that one of the 
 great reformers whose exposition of the falsity of the 
 Romish system was most radical and effectively pub- 
 lished did not least to contribute to the correct polity. 
 It is to be doubted whether any reformer really con- 
 tributed more by this sort of preparatory work, to- 
 ward a rectified church polity, than Calvin. Calvin's 
 abilities to gather the facts of Scripture teaching and 
 to throw them into system was so pre-eminent that we 
 ordinarily think of him as an incarnation of construc- 
 tive genius. His genius for the destruction of the 
 false and vicious was not less great. The work of 
 demolition had been done, in part, indeed, in the gen- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 65 
 
 eration before Calvin. Luther had been stalking 
 among the fabrications of Rome, He had shattered 
 the columns and the walls. But it was given to Calvin 
 to crush into fine dust the foundations. Luther with 
 the flail of a Titan, had bruised, crushed and beaten 
 down many noxious Roman growths. It was left to 
 Calvin, with mattock keen as a scimitar, to uproot 
 them. Luther had swept ofif the huge tubercular ulcers 
 which bespoke the vanishing spirituality of the Romish 
 body, — had swept them off as if with a great two- 
 handed sword. It was left to Calvin to go after the 
 roots and the rootlets of the ulcers with a scalpel. 
 
 As far as men would submit to his surgery, Calvin 
 could take out the uttermost rootlets of these putrid 
 and cancerous ulcers. What he could do, he did. His 
 exposition of the unscriptural character of the Romish 
 church was thoroughgoing, complete and effective with 
 all the lovers of the truth who pondered it. The war- 
 fare which he made against the Roman scheme of 
 church government was, indeed, incidental to his es- 
 tablishment of his own system. Naturally, therefore, 
 he attacked the Roman scheme now in one of its as- 
 pects and now in another of them, the point of attack 
 being determined in every case by the corresponding 
 truth, of his own system, which he was just then in- 
 culcating. But if his attacks were incidental, and 
 against peculiar tenets, they were nevertheless radical, 
 reaching to the innermost springs of the open sores. 
 
 Hear this impeachment of the Romish church gov- 
 ernment of his day — an impeachment which he, by 
 previous exposition, had justified : "Now if anyone 
 will closely observe and strictly examine this whole 
 form of ecclesiastical government, which exists at the 
 present day under the Papacy, he will find it a nest of 
 
(i^ Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 the most lawless and ferocious banditti in the world. 
 Everything in it is clearly so dissimilar and repugnant 
 to the institution of Christ, so degenerated from the 
 ancient regulations and usages of the church, so at 
 variance with nature and reason, that no greater in- 
 jury can be done to Christ than by pleading his name 
 in defense of such a disorderly government. We (they 
 say) are the pillars of the church, the prelates of re- 
 ligion, the vicars of Christ, the heads of the faithful, 
 because we have succeeded to the power and authority 
 of the apostles. They are perpetually vaunting these 
 fooleries as if they were talking to blocks of wood ; but 
 whenever they repeat these boasts, I will ask them in 
 return, what they have in common with the apostles. 
 ... So when we assert that their kingdom is the 
 tyranny of Antichrist, they immediately reply, that it 
 is that venerable hierarchy, which has been so often 
 commended by great and holy men. As though the 
 holy fathers, when they praise the ecclesiastical hier- 
 archy, or spiritual government, as it had been delivered 
 to them by the hand of the apostles, ever dreamed of 
 this chaos of deformity and desolation, where the 
 bishops, for the most part, are illiterate asses, unac- 
 quainted with the first and plainest rudiments of the 
 faith, or, in some instances, are children just out of 
 leading strings; and if any be more learned — which, 
 however, is a rare case — they consider a bishopric to 
 be nothing but a title of splendor and magnificence ; 
 where rectors of churches think no more of feeding the 
 flock, than a shoe-maker does of ploughing; where all 
 things are confounded with a dispersion worse than 
 that of Babel, so that there can no longer be seen 
 any clear vestige of the administration practiced in the 
 time of the fathers." Thus speaks Calvin in Book 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses dj 
 
 IV, Chapter 5, Section 13 of the Institutes, a chapter 
 under the heading: "The Ancient Form of Govern- 
 ment Entirely Subverted by the Papal Tyranny," — a 
 chapter in which he has shown that all the "rights of 
 the people had been entirely taken away," — "Their suf- 
 frages, assent, subscriptions, and everything of this 
 kind" ; a chapter in which he shows that the elec- 
 tors of the clergy, whether canons of the cathedrals, 
 as in the case of bishops, or bishops in the case of 
 lower clergy, are governed by considerations far dif- 
 ferent from those held forth in I Timothy iii. 2-7, since, 
 instead of choosing to ofifice persons, "blameless in 
 character, monogamous, . . . apt to teach, . . .not 
 brawlers," they chose, commonly drunkards, fornica- 
 tors, gamblers, Simoniacs, — persons who force "them- 
 selves into the possession of a church, as into an 
 enemy's farm," who obtain it "by a legal process, who 
 purchase it with money, who gain it by dishonorable 
 services, who, while infants just beginning to lisp, 
 succeed to it as an inheritance transmitted by their 
 uncles and cousins, and sometimes even by fathers to 
 their illegitimate children,"f and persons who cannot 
 be present with the flock to which they are chosen 
 even if they would, having already many benefices, — 
 canonries, abbacies, bishoprics, it may be. 
 
 In Chapters VIII, X, and XI, of Book IV of the 
 Institutes, he shows in the same thorough way the 
 papal and prelatic, licentious and cruel perversion of 
 church power; that the hierarchy, throwing off the 
 role of teachers and ministers of the divine will as 
 revealed in God's word, have assumed to make and 
 impose laws of their own. Having exposed the per- 
 
 t Institutes, Book IV., Chapter 5, Section VI. 
 
68 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 version and contemplated the fruits of this usurped 
 legislative pov^er, he asks: "How can they vindicate 
 themselves, while they esteem it infinitely more crim- 
 inal to have omitted auricular confession at a stated 
 time of the year than to have lived a most iniquitous 
 life for a whole year together; to have infected the 
 tongue with the least taste of animal food on Friday, 
 than to have polluted the body by committing fornica- 
 tion every day ; to have put a hand to any honest labor 
 on a day consecrated to any pretended saint, than to 
 have continually employed all the members in the 
 most flagitious actions ; for a priest to be connected 
 in one lawful marriage, than to be defiled with a thou- 
 sand adulteries ; to have failed of performing one vow 
 of pilgrimage, than to violate every other promise ; not 
 to have lavished anything on the enormous, superflu- 
 ous, and useless magnificence of churches, than to have 
 failed of relieving the most pressing necessities of the 
 poor; to have passed by an idol without some token of 
 honor, than to have insulted all the men in the world ; 
 not to have muttered over, at certain seasons, a multi- 
 tude of words without any meaning, than to have never 
 ofifered a genuine prayer from the heart? What is it 
 for men to make the commandment of God of none 
 efifect, if this be not?"* 
 
 Calvin was not less careful in his criticism of the 
 church because of its having joined the power of the 
 sword with the power of the church and the Pope's 
 having become an earthly sovereign. In Book IV, 
 Chapter lo, of Institutes, sweeping back over his pre- 
 vious teaching, he says : 
 
 "While the Romanists boast of their spiritual juris- 
 
 * Institutes, Book IV., Chapter ic, Section X. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 69 
 
 diction, it is easy to show that nothing is more con- 
 trary to the order appointed by Christ, and that it 
 has no more resemblance to the ancient practice than 
 darkness has to Hght. 
 
 "Though we have not said all that might be ad- 
 duced for this purpose, and what we have said has been 
 condensed within small compass, yet I trust we have 
 so confuted our adversaries as to leave no room for 
 anyone to doubt that the spiritual power arrogated by 
 the Pope and all his hierarchy, is a tyrannical usurpa- 
 tion, chargeable with impious opposition to the word 
 of God, and injustice to his people. Under the term 
 spiritual power, I include their audacity in fabricating 
 new doctrines by which they have seduced the un- 
 happy people from the native purity of the word of 
 God, the iniquitous traditions by which they have 
 ensnared them, and the pretended ecclesiastical juris- 
 diction which they exercise by their suffragans, 
 vicars, penitentiaries, and officials. For if we allow 
 Christ any kingdom among us, all this kind of domina- 
 tion must immediately fall to the ground. The power 
 of the sword, which they also claim, as that is not 
 exercised over consciences, but operates on property, 
 is irrelevant to our subject ; though in this it is worth 
 while to remark, that they are all consistent with them- 
 selves, and are at the greatest possible distance from 
 the character they would be thought to sustain to the 
 church. Here I am not censuring the particular vices 
 cf individuals, but the general wickedness and common 
 pest of the whole order, which they would consider as 
 degraded, if it were not distinguished by wealth and 
 lofty titles. If we consult the authority of Christ on 
 this subject, there is no doubt that He intended to 
 exclude the ministers of His word from civil dominion 
 
70 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 and secular sovereignty, when He said : "The kings 
 of the earth exercise dominion over them ; but it shall 
 not be so among you."* His criticism is a demonstra- 
 tion that the ecclesiastic, as such, should not vi^ield 
 the power of the sword. On a kindred subject, the 
 proper relation of church and state, Calvin was not 
 indeed prepared for an adequate criticism, as will ap- 
 pear in the sequel. Believing that the church should 
 not possess the power of civil coercion, he believed, 
 nevertheless, that it was "the part of pious kings and 
 princes to support religion by laws, edicts, and judicial 
 sentences."! 
 
 In irrefutable fashion, he showed that the Romish 
 church had substituted for the officers of the New 
 Testament church, a special priesthood ; showed that 
 the monkish priests, — the mendicants and a few others 
 excepted, — spent their time in the cloister either in 
 chanting or muttering over masses, as if it were the 
 design of Jesus Christ that the presbyters should be 
 appointed for this purpose, or as if the nature of their 
 office admitted it ; he showed that they did not admin- 
 ister sacraments or execute any other branch of public 
 duty, whereas the New Testament presbyter must 
 tend his flock. He showed, also, that many of the 
 secular priests were mere mercenaries, who hired them- 
 selves to labor by the day in singing and saying masses ; 
 and that the vast majority of the priests were not at 
 all doing what God requires of the presbyter, viz., feed- 
 ing the church and administering the spiritual kingdom 
 of Christ. He showed that, in his day, there was in 
 point of character, no body of men more infamous for 
 
 *Book, IV., Chapter ii, Sections VII and VIII. 
 tBook IV., Chapter ii, Section XVI. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 71 
 
 profusion, delicacy, luxury and pruflij^acy of every 
 kind ; that no class of men contained more apt or 
 expert masters of every species of imposture, fraud, 
 treachery and perfidy ; that nowhere could be found 
 equal cunning- and audacity in the commission of 
 crime ; that there v^as scarcely one bishop and not one 
 in a hundred of their parochial clergy who, if sentence 
 were passed upon his conduct, according to the ancient 
 canons, would not be excommunicated, or, at the very 
 least, deposed from his office. 
 
 Thus Calvin showed the world of his day, so far 
 as it had eyes to see, that the government of the Rom- 
 ish church was wholly unscriptural and not only un- 
 scriptural but morally nasty and against reason and 
 nature. 
 
 In all his criticism of Rome, in revealing her can- 
 cerous growths, he was controlled by intensest honesty, 
 desire for correspondence with the objective facts. 
 And in this criticism he did great service to the cause 
 of true ecclesiology. Men who arc not aware that 
 they have putrid organs are not inclined energetically 
 to seek surgical aid. Men who do not feel the rotten- 
 ness in the political life around them are not w<jnt to 
 seek its cleansing. Recognition of the evil of the 
 Romish polity — a clear vision of it, — was needed, that 
 men might turn with adequate energy and persistence 
 to a nobler form of church government. 
 
 But his work nowhere stfjpi)efl with the rlestruction 
 of the false, the vicious and tlie monstrous. His was 
 pre-eminently a constructive genius. From his very 
 nature he must take the elements of truth accepted by 
 him and throw them into a system. Accordingly, as 
 early as the summer of 1536, he expressed his wish 
 that preachers, bishops, and elders should be chosen 
 
72 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 according to scriptural method and given their scrip- 
 tural functions ; and by the year 1542 he had the system 
 fully developed and in partial application in Geneva. 
 It is but just to observe here that it w^as in the sphere 
 of church polity that he did his constructive work with 
 least of aid from previous teachers this side the apos- 
 tolic age. When building his doctrine of trinity, he 
 wrought in the light of Athanasius and Augustine. In 
 setting up his doctrine of Christology, he worked in 
 the light of Leo I, and of the Chalcedon council. In 
 the realm of anthropology, Augustine had laid out and 
 graded the way. On the doctrine of the atonement, 
 Anselm had thrown a great light. On the doctrine of 
 the Lord's Supper, Ratramnus and Berengar. On jus- 
 tification by faith, Lefevre and Luther. But if Calvin 
 got suggestions touching the Biblical form of church 
 polity from Lambert, and Oecolampadius, he got little 
 more. With little help, he derived his system of eccle- 
 siastical government, for the most part, from the 
 scriptures of the New Testament, — a system forming 
 the approximately Biblical counterpart of his theologi- 
 cal system and helping to conserve that system when- 
 ever adopted by a body of God's people, an ecclesias- 
 tical system which insures the largest individual liberty 
 compatible with order and common well-being, sug- 
 gests analogous civil governments and has been a 
 powerful factor making for free representative govern- 
 ment in the state. 
 
 In this was his greatest contribution to church 
 polity, his eduction from the scripture of so many 
 elements of the New Testament plan of church 
 government. 
 
 To appreciate this contribution we must bring be- 
 fore ourselves the main features of the plan of govern- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 73 
 
 ment which he constructed, and which, with modifica- 
 tions he applied in the Genevan church, viz.: The self- 
 government of the church under the headship of 
 Christ; the stress laid upon the ecclesiastical discip- 
 line of all the members from the smallest to the 
 greatest; the exercise of the power of governing by a 
 consistory, or parliamentary court, consisting of elders 
 of two classes, viz. : ruling elders and elders who not 
 only rule but also labor in word and doctrine; and 
 the restoration of the bishop, presbyter, and deacon, 
 to New Testament dimensions and functions. 
 Taking up these features in their order : 
 
 First. The self-government of the Church wider the 
 headship of Christ. 
 
 Calvin taught that men may not "enjoin upon the 
 observance of the church anything that they have in- 
 vented themselves, independently of the word of God" ; 
 that "this power was unknown to the apostles and so 
 frequently interdicted to the ministers of the church 
 by the mouth of the Lord, that it was a marvel that 
 they have dared to usurp it, and still dare to maintain 
 it, contrary to the example of the apostles and in defi- 
 ance of the express prohibitions of God's word." He 
 taught that everything pertaining to the perfect rule 
 of a holy life, the Lord has comprehended in His law, 
 so that there remains nothing for men to add to that 
 summary; and that He has done this, firstly, that since 
 all rectitude of life consists in the conformity of all 
 our actions to His will, as their standard, we might 
 consider Him as the sole master and director of our 
 conduct; and secondly, to show that He requires of 
 us nothing more than obedience" — obedience to the 
 divine will. Turning, in heaven-born wrath from the 
 
f4 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 pernicious and impious ecclesiastical constitutions, the 
 traditions of men, "after the rudiments of the world," 
 "which were making the commandments of God of 
 none effect," — constitutions, which as he said, "ab- 
 solved in adultery and condemned in meat, that allowed 
 a harlot and interdicted a wife," — and that were so 
 contrived as to have a "show of wisdom in will-wor- 
 ship, and humility, and neglecting of the body," petty 
 inventions fitted to lead the minds of the vulgar, the 
 weak and the worldly-wise, captive, — turning from 
 these, Calvin taught that Jesus is King in Zion ; 
 that He gives the spiritual kingdom a complete consti- 
 tution in accord with which it is to govern itself; that 
 that law, once given to the church, remains forever in 
 force, — that law which reads "Whatsoever thing I 
 command you, observe to do it; thou shalt not add 
 thereto nor diminish therefrom" ; that the Lord's king- 
 dom is not to be taken away from Him, which is done 
 when He is worshipped with laws of human invention, 
 as when the church teaches, "for doctrine, the com- 
 mandments of men," or binds burdens on their backs 
 by rule not of Him ; that church order, indeed, includes 
 a variable element, as well as a fixed, the variable to 
 be determined by the power in the church to make 
 regulations ; but that in regard to such regulations care 
 must be taken that they be not considered necessary 
 to salvation, and so imposing a religious obligation 
 on the conscience, or applied to the worship of God, 
 and so represented as essential to piety that this power 
 of making regulations only about circumstances so 
 standing around enjoined actions that the divinely 
 enjoined actions cannot be separated from them, or at 
 least cannot be separated from them without loss of 
 decorum or order, — that this power is limited to mak- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 75 
 
 ing such regulations, for example, as, that certain 
 hours shall be appointed for public worship, quietness 
 and silence shall be observed under sermons, days shall 
 be fixed for the observance of the Lord's Supper, and 
 decorum observed in the administration of it, and regu- 
 lations for the preservation of discipline, as catechis- 
 ing, ecclesiastical censures, fasting and everything else 
 that can be referred to the same class, — regulations 
 touching ceremonies, rites, or discipline and peace; and 
 that in making of these the church must conform to 
 the general rules divinely given.* He teaches that 
 these regulations are to be regarded for the sake of 
 order and decorum and not for God's authority in 
 them. He thus teaches that the government of the 
 church is to be by divinely given constitution ; that it 
 is the Lord's kingdom and to be governed by His law. 
 As is implied in what has been said, Calvin dis- 
 tinguished sharply between civil government and eccle- 
 siastical government. He taught that the church has 
 no power of the sword to punish or to coerce, no au- 
 thority to compel, no prisons, no fines, or other pun- 
 ishments, like those inflicted by the civil magistrate ; 
 that the object of ecclesiastical power is not that he 
 who has transgressed may be punished against his 
 will ; but that he may profess his repentance by a vol- 
 untary submission to chastisement ; that the difference 
 between church and state is very great, the church not 
 assuming to itself what belongs to the magistrate, and 
 the magistrate being unable to execute that which is 
 executed by the church. This particular he illustrates 
 by the following example: "Ls any man intoxicated? 
 In a well regulated city he will be punished by im- 
 
 * Book IV., Chapter lo, Sections XXIX, XXX, XXXI, 
 
y(i Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 prisonment. . . . With this the laws, the magistrate, 
 and the civil judgment will be satisfied ; though it mav 
 happen that he will give no sign of repentance but will 
 rather murmur and repine against his judgment. Will 
 the church stop here? Such persons cannot be admitted 
 to the sacred Supper without doing an injury to Christ 
 and His holy institution. And reason requires that 
 he who has offended the church with an evil example, 
 should remove by a solemn declaration of repentance 
 the offence which he has excited." 
 
 But, while Calvin distinguished thus clearly and 
 sharply between church and state, holding that they 
 were independent of one another, each in its domain, 
 he saw no propriety in their separation. On the con- 
 trary, he believed that every civil government should 
 profess the true religion ; that it should "by punish- 
 ment and corporeal coercion, purge the church from 
 offences;" and that it should support and further its 
 good work as the first object of its own existence. 
 
 Here was a mistake of Calvin's. He believed that 
 God in Christ is head both of church and state; that 
 the office of civil government extends to both tables 
 of the Decalogue. This was a conception of his age, 
 inherited from the ages back to Constantine the Great, 
 which he was not able to shake off. But the logic of 
 the position is persecution by the state for that which 
 it esteems to be religious heresy. If the state has the 
 right to profess Christ as its head and to propagate 
 His religion, then it has the right to protect it from 
 heresy, the right to punish heresy with the forces at 
 its command. Duties are correlated with rights. 
 Naturally we find the Geneva state punishing with fine, 
 imprisonment, banishment or death, such men as 
 Gruet, Bolsec and Servetus. God has given to no 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses yj 
 
 Christian state such a right — the right of corporeally 
 "punishing for heretical opinion." 
 
 Calvin and his age were wrong in holding that it 
 was a concern of the state to enforce the observance of 
 the first table of the Decalogue ; that the state properly 
 could become Christian and make the protection, sup- 
 port and advancement of the church its highest aim ; 
 and that in the outworking of this aim it could use 
 physical coercion. 
 
 But we have him to thank for distinguishing be- 
 tween the civil and ecclesiastical powers and govern- 
 ments so clearly ; and showing that ecclesiastical gov- 
 ernment is of right only by the God-given constitution. 
 We have him to thank, too, for the emphasis he laid 
 on the duty of the church to govern itself. For while 
 he believed in the propriety of the union of church and 
 state, he was so convinced that the church should gov- 
 ern itself that he taught that it should do this at the 
 cost of self-support, if necessary. That is, he taught 
 that while the state should support the church, and 
 allow the church to govern itself in accord with its 
 divine constitution, yet, if it will not give this support 
 while conceding freedom, then the church should fore- 
 go state support that it may govern itself. 
 
 The first main feature, then, of Calvin's plan of 
 ecclesiastical government was the self government of 
 the church under the headship of Christ. In this 
 teaching he was vastly superior to the earlier reformers ; 
 he planted seed that had fruited in the weakening of 
 the connection between the church and the state 
 throughout all reformed Christendom ; he is making 
 to-day for the separation of the two powers in what- 
 soever quarters his influence has reached ; he is de- 
 veloping the reformed churches by the process of self 
 
78 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 government ; and should more and more enthrone 
 Christ as King de facto as he is King de jure, in the 
 universal church. 
 
 The second main feature was the emphasis laid upon 
 ecclesiastical discipline, the ecclesiastical discipline of all 
 the members of the church from the smallest to the 
 greatest. 
 
 Calvin valued discipline as second only to teaching. 
 The effort to introduce discipline was the primary 
 occasion of his expulsion from Geneva in 1538. He 
 was hardly settled comfortably in the church of the 
 strangers in Strasburg before he introduced it there. 
 When recalled to Geneva in 1541, he proceeded at 
 once to the work of establishing it firmly there. The 
 importance of discipline he formally sets forth as fol- 
 lows (Book IV., Chap. XII., Section 2) : 
 
 "As some have such a hatred of discipline as to 
 abhor the very name they should attend to the follow- 
 ing consideration, that if no society and even no house, 
 though containing only a small family, can be pre- 
 served in a proper state without discipline, this is far 
 more necessary in the church, the state of which ought 
 to be the most orderly of all. As the saving doctrine 
 of Christ is the soul of the church, so discipHne forms 
 the ligaments which connects the members together, 
 and keeps each in its proper place. Whoever, there- 
 fore, either desire the abolition of all discipline or 
 obstruct its restoration, whether they act from design 
 or inadvertency, they certainly promote the entire dis- 
 solution of the church. For what will be the conse- 
 quence, if every man be at liberty to follow his own 
 inclinations? But such would be the case, unless the 
 preaching of the doctrine were accompanied with pri- 
 vate admonitions, reproofs, and other means to en- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 79 
 
 force the doctrine, and prevent it from being- altogether 
 ineffectual. Discipline, therefore, serves as a bridle 
 to curb and to restrain the refractory, who resist the 
 doctrine of Christ ; or as a spur to stimulate the inac- 
 tive ; and sometimes as a father's rod, with which those 
 who have grievously fallen may be chastised in mercy, 
 and with the gentleness of the spirit of Christ. Now 
 when we see the approach of certain beginnings of a 
 dreadful dissolution in the church, since there is no 
 solicitude or means to keep the people in obedience to 
 our Lord, necessity itself proclaims the want of a rem- 
 edy ; and this is the only remedy which has been com- 
 manded by Christ, or which has ever been adopted 
 among believers." 
 
 In accordance with the teachings of Christ, Calvin 
 made three degrees of discipline, viz. : private admoni- 
 tion, admonition in the presence of witnesses, or before- 
 the church, and excommunication. Private admoni- 
 tion is to be employed universally when occasion de- 
 mands, and by all. But pastors and presbyters, beyond 
 all others should be vigilant in the discharge of this 
 duty ; being called by their office not only to preach tO' 
 the congregation, but also to admonish and exhort in 
 private houses, if in any instances their public in- 
 structions may not have been sufficiently efficacious, as 
 Paul inculcates, when he says that he taught "publicly 
 and from house to house" and protests himself to be 
 "free from the blood of all men" having "ceased not 
 to warn every man night and day with tears." Ad- 
 monition in the presence of witnesses is to be em- 
 ployed against public offences of less heinousness and 
 against private offences of an inferior sort when pri- 
 vate admonition fails. Excommunication is to be 
 employed only "for the correcting of atrocious crimes," 
 
8o Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 such as "adultery, fornication, theft, robbery, sedition, 
 perjury, false witness, and other similar crimes, to- 
 gether with obstinate persons, who after having been 
 admonished even of smaller faults, contemn God and 
 his judgments." 
 
 He represents the ends of discipline as : First, that 
 those who lead scandalous and flagitious lives may not, 
 to the dishonour of God, be numbered among Chris- 
 tians . . . for as the church is the body of Christ, 
 it cannot be contaminated with such foul and putrid 
 members without some ignominy being reflected upon 
 the head." The second is, "that the good may not 
 be corrupted, as is often the case, by constant associa- 
 tion with the wicked ; for such is our propensity to 
 err, that nothing is more easy than for evil example to 
 seduce us from rectitude of conduct." "A little leaven 
 leaveneth the whole lump." The third end is, "that 
 those who are censured, or excommunicated, con- 
 founded with the shame of their turpitude, may be led 
 to repentance." 
 
 On no point does Calvin lay more emphasis than 
 that discipline should be administered "with a spirit of 
 gentleness," "For there is," he says, "constant need 
 of the greatest caution, according to the injunction of 
 Paul, respecting a person who may have been cen- 
 sured," "lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed 
 up with over much sorrow ; for thus a remedy would 
 become a poison, but the rule of moderation may be 
 better deduced from the end intended to be accom- 
 plished ; for as the design of excommunication is that 
 the sinner may be brought to repentance, and evil ex- 
 amples taken away, to prevent the name of Christ 
 from being blasphemed and other persons tempted to 
 imitation ; if we keep these things in view, it will be 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 8i 
 
 very easy to judge how far severity ought to proceed 
 and where it ought to be stopped." 
 
 He inculcates earnestly the duty of trying to win 
 to a holy life the excommunicated. He made it the 
 church's duty to receive into communion again, upon 
 his repentance, one who had been excommunicated ; 
 and this also although the repentance were after a 
 second excommunication. "Such," he says, "as are ex- 
 pelled from the church therefore, it is not for us to 
 expunge from the number of the elect, or to despair 
 of them as already lost. It is proper to consider them 
 as strangers to the church, and consequently from 
 Christ, but this only as long as they remain in a state 
 of exclusion." He thought that the Anathema, or 
 devotion of a person to eternal perdition, ought to be 
 very rarely or never resorted to.* It was a principle 
 of his that correction should be tempered with such 
 moderation, as to be salutary rather than injurious to 
 the body. 
 
 He endeavored to make the discipline of the min- 
 ister of the gospel more severe than that of the people. 
 Against the Romish church he vindicated, indeed, the 
 minister's right to marriage, on the one hand, but on 
 the other, denied his right to exemption from the civil 
 courts, and taught that he should be afflicted with the 
 same civil penalties as laymen for misdemeanors. And 
 he held that as ensamples to the flock ministers were 
 under special obligations to live an approvable life. 
 
 He proposed, in short, to realize as far as possible, 
 the ideal of the church, without spot or wrinkle," — to 
 glorify God by the dominion of His word in the life 
 of the church — by the application of the power of God, 
 
 * Book IV.. Chapter XII, Section X. 
 
82 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 as well as the truth of God ; although he knew that the 
 church, while on earth, is mixed with good and bad, 
 and will never be free from impurity." 
 
 Touching Calvin's views of the importance of dis- 
 cipline, its proper ends, and the spirit with which it 
 should be administered, it would be hard to speak too 
 praisefully. They have done not a little to develop 
 the peculiar fibre of Calvinistic character. 
 
 Owing to the unhappy union of church and state 
 in which he and all his age believed, he was not en- 
 tirely happy in locating the power to be used in dis- 
 cipline; but this brings us to the third distinctive fea- 
 ture of his policy. 
 
 That this pozver for discipline and for all the func- 
 tions of government, is to be exercised by a consistory, 
 or parliamentary court, consisting of elders of two 
 classes, viz., ruling elders and elders who not only rule 
 but labor in word and doctrine. 
 
 Calvin teaches that, in order to the preservation 
 of the spiritual polity, God institutes a certain order ; 
 that for this end, there were from the beginning judi- 
 ciaries appointed in the churches to take cognizance of 
 matters, to pass censures on vices, and to preside over 
 the use of the keys in excommunication," that "this 
 order Paul designates in his first Epistle to the Corin- 
 thians, when he mentions "government," and in the 
 Epistle to the Romans, when he says "he that ruleth, 
 let him do it with diligence" ; that Paul is not here 
 "speaking of magistrates, or civil governors, for there 
 were at this time no Christian magistrates, but of 
 those who were associated with the pastor in spiritual 
 government of the church ; that in the First Epistle to 
 Timothy, also, he mentions two kinds of presbyters, 
 or elders, some who labor in the word and doctrine," 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 83 
 
 others who have nothing to do with preaching the 
 word, and yet, "rule well" ; that "by the latter class, 
 there can be no doubt that he intended those who were 
 appointed to the cognizance of manners and the whole 
 exercise of the keys ;" for that this power of govern- 
 ment "entirely depends on the keys, which Christ has 
 conferred upon the church in the eighteenth chapter 
 of Matthew, where He commands that those who shall 
 have despised private admonition shall be severely ad- 
 monished in the name of the whole church, and that 
 if they persist in their obstinacy, they are to be ex- 
 cluded from the society of believers. He argues that 
 since the admonitions and corrections cannot take 
 place without an examination of the cause, there is 
 necessity of some judicature and order." 
 
 Men can to-day demonstrate, and more compactly 
 than Calvin did, that the local church of the apostolic 
 church was governed by a parliamentary court of 
 elders, and that two or more churches united under a 
 superior presbytery. But it was Calvin's part to open 
 the way for this, and that way he opened. 
 
 In accord with these views, Calvin established con- 
 sistorial (or presbyterial) government in the Genevan 
 church. The Genevan consistory (or presbytery, as 
 we may call it) embraced, in Calvin's day, five pastors 
 and twelve elders. The duty of this body was to over- 
 watch, and to apply the power of God to, every mem- 
 ber of the Genevese church, from the least to the 
 greatest, according to individual need. It was never to 
 assume any of the rights of the civil power. In cases 
 of discovered crimes against the state, of such enor- 
 mity as to make corporal punishment necessary, it 
 was simply to lay the circumstances before the civil 
 government, "St belonging unto God to determine the 
 
84 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 powers of both." The severest punishment which 
 could be inflicted by the presbytery was excommuni- 
 cation from the communion of the faithful. 
 
 The civil government was long indisposed to con- 
 cede the right of excommunication to the church court ; 
 and there were numerous appeals from the church 
 court to the civil government; but after 1555 the church 
 enjoyed, without opposition, the right to inflict this 
 penalty. 
 
 Calvin's presbytery in Geneva was not, however, in 
 all respects, a close approximation to the New Testa- 
 ment presbytery. He knew very clearly the Bible 
 mode of inducting man into ecclesiastical office ; and 
 taught that the apostles ordained men to office in the 
 church according to the suffrages of the members of 
 the church to be served by them.* But in Geneva, 
 owing to the connection of church and state, the mem- 
 bers of the presbytery were not elected in the Biblical 
 way. Of the twelve ruling elders, two were taken 
 from the Little Council of the State, four from the 
 Council of sixty, and six from that of the two hun- 
 dred. They were chosen to their ecclesiastical func- 
 tions by the Little Council of the State, and confirmed 
 by the preachers. 
 
 The preachers were always elected first by the body 
 of preachers already in existence ; their election was 
 then submitted to the Little Council for confirmation. 
 In case the congregation had anything to object, it 
 was made its duty to state its objection to the syndics 
 that all might be satisfied with the choice. 
 
 It thus appears that the state had much to do with 
 the appointments of the members of the presbytery. 
 
 * Commentary on Matt. i3: 47. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 85 
 
 Under the circumstances this was natural. The state 
 had adopted the church. The court of the church was, 
 in one of its aspects, the state's court to handle its 
 ecclesiastical business, and the state was exercising its 
 prerogatives in electing these, its own, officers. Prac- 
 tically, however, this mode of filling ecclesiastical of- 
 fices was an infringement on the autonomy of the 
 church — a principle of which Calvin made much in 
 theory ; and it was out of harmony with Calvin's own 
 representation of the mode of filling offices in the apos- 
 tolic church. For he teaches, as has already appeared, 
 that in the apostolic church the apostles ordained those 
 whom the whole multitude of believers, "according to 
 the customs observed in elections among the Greeks, 
 declared by the elevation of their hands "to be the 
 object of their choice." * 
 
 The moderator of the Genevan presbytery was a 
 syndic, an executive officer of the state, an arrange- 
 ment which helped to express and to further the union 
 between the church and the state. 
 
 The dependence of the church upon the state for 
 support prevented the full development of the great 
 beneficent functions of the church court, in maturing 
 and supporting plans for the church's expansion. 
 
 A sort of subsidiary organ of ecclesiastical rule was 
 the Venerable Company, constituted of all the minis- 
 ters of the city and district of Geneva. It took the 
 general supervision of all strictly ecclesiastical af- 
 fairs, especially of the education, ordination, and in- 
 stallation of ministers of the gospel ; but as has ap- 
 peared, no one could be admitted to the ministry and 
 installed without the co-operation of the civil govern- 
 ment and the assent of the citizens. 
 
 * Book IV., Chapter III, Section XV. 
 
86 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 In regard to this presbyterial feature of Calvin's 
 polity, it must be said, that in both theory and prac- 
 tice, he gave to the communicant church members, too 
 little power in the choice of their rulers. He gave too 
 much power to the state. 
 
 He did not develop all the several functions of the 
 church court. Had he gotten rid of the belief in the 
 propriety of the connection of church and state, or 
 had he been forced to make a practical separation of 
 the church from the state, he would probably have 
 followed the Biblical plan in bringing into being the 
 organ for the government of the church — the presby- 
 tery composed of representatives of God's people 
 chosen by the people, and consisting of two classes, 
 elders who rule only, and elders who also labor in 
 word and doctrine. 
 
 The fourth main feature of Calvin's polity is his 
 restoration of the bishop, the presbyter, and the deacon, 
 to New Testament dimensions, and functions. He saw 
 clearly, with the reformers generally and with leading 
 Catholic and Anglican doctors, that the New Testa- 
 ment bishop is the New Testament elder, and that 
 the New Testament elder is the New Testament 
 bishop ; and he stripped the bishop of all diocesan 
 functions and made him an elder in his theory of him. 
 He also saw what many reformers did sot see, that of 
 the bishops or elders in the apostolic age, there are two 
 classes, — elders that rule only and elders that not only 
 rule but also labor in word and doctrine. 
 
 For centuries previous to Calvin's day, the ruling 
 elder had been extinct. Calvin brought him back into 
 existence and vindicated, as has appeared, his place 
 in the presbytery. He also showed that the mediaeval 
 deacon, — who was a priest in the tadpole stage of his 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 87 
 
 development, — was not a Biblical officer; and restored 
 the deaconate of the New Testament church — the 
 organ of the communion of the saints in things tem- 
 poral, — an administrative office under the general over- 
 sight of the presbytery. 
 
 In this constructive work of Calvin — in his exhibi- 
 tion of the church as of right self-governing under its 
 head, Christ; in his exposition of its right to govern 
 in accord with its divinely given constitution, all the 
 members from the smallest to the greatest ; in his ex- 
 position of the aims, means and proper spirit of dis- 
 cipline; in his restoration of the presbytery, — the di- 
 vinely appointed organ of church rule, according 
 to the New Testament ; in his reduction of ecclesias- 
 tical offices "to their New Testament character" — we 
 have a contribution to church polity not equalled since 
 the days of Paul. The errors in his system, including 
 union of church and state and the incoherencies in his 
 system springing from this error about the proper re- 
 lation of the church and state, were to be expelled from 
 his system by the truth in it. 
 
 To occasional successors, such as James Henley 
 Thornwell, it has been given to deepen and broaden 
 Calvin's correct ecclesiastical teachings in certain as- 
 pects ; but for the most part, it has been necessary for 
 them to walk in paths blazed by Calvin, unless they 
 would abandon God's word when diverging from Cal- 
 vin's track. His poineer work in the sphere of polity 
 was so ably done, that the direction has been fixed 
 for the unbiased student of God's word. 
 
 One thing more should be said: Though Calvin 
 had done work of such value in the sphere of polity, 
 he did not overrate the work or the sphere. He be- 
 lieved in a God-given polity as in a God-given doc- 
 
88 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 trine ; but he did not regard doctrine and polity as of 
 equal value. He recognized as a church of God every 
 society claiming to be a church, which held the essen- 
 tial doctrines taught in the scriptures, whether the 
 body had a presbyterian organization or not. He saw 
 in the Lutheran bodies, with or without bishops, 
 churches of God, and in the Anglican church, with its 
 bishops, a true church of Christ. He would have recog- 
 nized our Baptist and Methodist churches as true 
 churches of Christ, notwithstanding their imperfect 
 forms of polity. 
 
 In speaking thus, we must not be understood to 
 represent Calvin as rating church polity as of small 
 value. He considered it necessary for the well being 
 of the church, though not to the bare being of the 
 church. The cart-horse is a horse ; he has all the essen.- 
 tial marks of a horse ; but the Arabian courser, worth 
 two, three or four, ten thousands of dollars, has, we 
 know, other marks, not essential to the bare being of 
 a horse, but of capital value nevertheless. Calvin be- 
 lieved that the Arabian courser among the churches 
 must have representative government, — governmeni 
 by courts of presbyter bishops. 
 
 He not only gave to polity an approximately Bibli- 
 cal form, but estimated its relative value Biblically. 
 
 In his masterly exhibition and deadly criticisms of 
 the mediaeval Roman Catholic polity, he served the 
 church well. In his discovery in the Bible, and deduc- 
 tion therefrom, of the principles of representative 
 church government, he made practical the realization 
 of "The noblest, the manliest, the equalist, the justest 
 government on earth," — a government through the 
 best, — the true governmental counterpart to the most 
 humbling and exhalting, the most gracious and most 
 ethical theology, ever drawn from nature or revelation. 
 
CALVIN'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS 
 
 AND EXEGESIS OF THE 
 
 SCRIPTURES. 
 
 Dr. James Orr, 
 Glasgoiv, Scotland. 
 
 Few men have been more misunderstood than John 
 Calvin. His name, with multitudes to the present hour, 
 is a synonym for everything hard, gloomy, and repellent, 
 in religious thought. It is the fate of a great personality 
 to call forth strong antagonisms, as well as to inspire 
 intense attachments. Calvin could not have been the man 
 he was — massive in intellect, uncompromising in prin- 
 ciple, fixed and resolute in will — and could not have done 
 the work he did in Geneva and in Europe, without evok- 
 ing fiercest opposition, and drawing upon himself storms 
 of personal hatred. Yet without these qualities he would 
 not have sowered above his fellows as, next to Luther, if 
 ever next to him, the greatest moral force of the six- 
 teenth century, or have achieved the unspeakable service 
 he did to the cause of Protestantism. The man of whom 
 one of the most recent and ablest liberal theologians of 
 Germany, P. Werule, writes : "It is not so easy to be 
 done with the man who was the clearest, acutest theo- 
 logian of his age and the founder of the power of Pro- 
 testantism in Scotland, France, England and Holland. 
 
 . . Rigorously as he ruled Geneva, as heroically did 
 he lead half the Protestantism of Europe to a unity of 
 purpose, the power of which nothing could break;" of 
 
90 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 whom Mark Pattison said: "The Protestant movement 
 was saved from being sunk in the quicksand of doctrinal 
 dispute chiefly by the new moral direction given to it 
 in Geneva. . . . Calvinism saved Europe ;" of whom 
 John Morley declares that, in comparison with him, the 
 men included in the Positwist "New Calendar of Great 
 Men" are "hardly more than names wet in water;" of 
 whom Motley, the historian testified: "It would be 
 ridiculous to deny that the aggressive, uncompromising, 
 self-sacrificing, intensely believing, perfectly fearless 
 spirit of Calvinism, had been the animating soul, the mo- 
 tive power, of the great revolt. For the provinces to have 
 encumbered Spain and Rome without Calvinism, and re- 
 lying on municipal enthusiasm only, would have been 
 to throw away the sword, and fight with the scabbard 
 only." Is not a man the modern world can afford to dis- 
 pise. 
 
 It is entrusted to others to show how Calvin has 
 been misunderstood in his personal character and his 
 theological teachings. One can afford to smile at the pic- 
 ture some times drawn of Calvinism when one thinks of 
 Calvin's own Institutes, and recalls how one finds him 
 there entailing the paternal tenderness of God, recogniz- 
 ing as a work of God's Spirit the truth and wisdom that 
 shone in the minds of heathen says, exalting the love of 
 God in giving His Son for the reconciliation of the 
 world, and setting forth in glowing language the ideals 
 of Christian characters. Calvin went deep, indeed, into 
 the spiritual need of man through sin, and high in his 
 attribution of everything in salvation to the immediate 
 grace of God; looked at human life and salvation ever in 
 the light of the eternal purpose on which everything that 
 is or happens rests as on an immovable rock — for what. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 91 
 
 after all, is Calvin's doctrine of predestination but simply 
 the actual process of salvation viewed sub specie oeferni- 
 tatis; refused to give the name of true freedom to acts 
 of the soul enslaved by sin, or the name of true good- 
 ness to character or deeds that lacked the genuine spring 
 of goodness. But it was because his theology ploughed 
 thus into the depths that it was able to lay so strong a 
 foundation for individual and national character ; because 
 it soared thus into the heights that it was able to elevate 
 and strengthen as it did the intellect and will of those 
 who accepted it. The tree is known by its fruits, and it 
 may well be asked, with Froude, "how it came to pass that 
 if Calvinism is indeed the hard and unreasonable creed 
 which modern enlightenment declares it to be, it has pos- 
 sessed such singular attractions in past times for some of 
 the greatest men that ever lived. And how — being, as 
 we are told, fatal to morality, because it denies free will — 
 the first symptom of its operation, wherever it established 
 itself, was to obliterate the distinction between sins and 
 crimes, and to make the moral law the rule of life for 
 States as well as persons." 
 
 My immediate object is Calvin as an exegete of Scrip- 
 ture, and here, whatever debates may have arisen as to 
 Calvin's merits in other relations, I am happy in having al- 
 lotted to me a department of his work in regard to which 
 almost unbroken unanimity reigns. Calvin's theology may 
 be challanged, his character and work may be adversely 
 criticised, but a chorus of testimony from well-nigh every 
 school and shade of opinion in Christendom could be pro- 
 duced to the remarkable gifts of mind and heart dis- 
 played in his exposition of Scripture — to his breadth, 
 moderation, fairness, and modernness of spirit, in ex- 
 hibiting the sense and inward genius of holy writ. Reuss, 
 
92 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 one of the editors of his works, pronounces him "beyond 
 all question the greatest exegete of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury ;" and Tholuck, in an appreciation regarded as classi- 
 cal, extols "his simple, elegant style, his dogmatic free- 
 dom, the fact with which he treats his subject, his multi- 
 farious learning and profound Christian piety." I shall 
 not detain yoii by quoting opinions of others, but will 
 rather endeavor to show from the works themselves how 
 justly Calvin is entitled to the eulogies passed upon him 
 in this connection : 
 
 One testimony, however, I think I should not omit, 
 on account of the source from which it comes. The 
 theological antithesis to Calvinism is Arminianism, and it 
 is interesting to hear what Arminius himself had to say 
 of Calvin as an exegete. Here are the words of this 
 certainly unbiased witness : "Next to the perusal of the 
 Scriptures," he says, "I exhort my pupils to peruse Cal- 
 vin's commentaries, which I extol in loftier terms than 
 Helmick himself [Helmick was a Dutch divine] ; for I 
 affirm that he excels beyond comparison in the interpre- 
 tation of Scripture, and that his commentaries ought to 
 be more highly valued than all that is handed down to 
 us by the library of the fathers ; so that I acknowledge 
 him to those possessed above most others, as rather above 
 all men, what may be called an eminent gift of prophecy." 
 Let us see whether this judgment is not merited, 
 r'- First, with respect to Calvin's qualifications for the 
 work of interpreter, let me remind you that he was a 
 ripe scholar. His early education at leading universities, 
 of chiefly classical and legal, was very thorough. He 
 had a splendid command of Latin and of his own tongue, 
 French ; and at Bourges, in addition to his legal studies, 
 he acquired from Wolmar a knowledge of Greek. His 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 93 
 
 knowledge of Hebrew, acquired •from Grynoeus, is at- 
 tested not only by his numerous references to and com- 
 ments on Hebrew words, but by the fact that he assisted 
 his kinsman Olivetan in the production in 1535 (the year 
 before he went to Geneva) of a French translation of 
 the Scriptures from the Hebrew. In 1540 there appeared 
 at Geneva in Calvin's own name a translation of the 
 whole Bible into French. Patristic and scholastic learn- 
 ing he was master of. Few men of his age, if any, had a 
 nobler equipment. —^ 
 
 What was even more important than learning for his 
 task, Calvin had a deep and rich Christian experience. 
 After sore spiritual struggle, he had been brought to God, 
 as he tells us in the preface to his Commentary on the 
 Psalms, by "a sudden conversion" ; and his life thereafter 
 was one of habitual devotion and prayer, and earnest en- 
 deavor to know and to do God's will. Werule, before 
 quoted, writes of him : "Does anyone desire to know the 
 man as he lived with God and the world, let him read the 
 chapter in the Institutes on 'The Life of the Christian 
 Man.' That is the portrait of himself." 
 
 But next, one observes that Calvin of set purpose \ 
 made the Scriptures from the first his constant study, 
 and the text-book and basis of his work. We have seen 
 him assisting in translating the Scriptures. His labors 
 in Geneva began with expository lectures on the Epistles 
 of Paul and other New Testament books, and exposition 
 of Scripture was a principal feature of his work all 
 through. His mind was steeped in the Word of God, 
 not as a dead letter, but as a living spirit. His Insti- 
 tutes — a work wrought in glowing heat of spirit on the 
 anvil of an intense conviction for the practical purpose of 
 vindicating his persecuted brethren in France — is based 
 
94 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 on sound Scriptural exegesis. It is penetrated with the 
 language, the spirit, the ideas of Scripture. Calvin's 
 treatment is as far as may be from a dogmatic handling 
 of texts. Scripture is apprehended in the organic con- 
 nection of its truths. But Calvin has no use for anything 
 in theology which cannot be established by broad and fair 
 appeal to the written Word. This was the reason why 
 for a time he shrank from using the terms "Trinity" 
 and "Person" in the doctrine of the Godhead, while hold- 
 ing the truths which these terms denote. 
 
 Approaching nearer, one must take into account, and 
 cannot fail to be impressed by, the immense range of 
 Calvin's work in Scriptural exposition. It is not the 
 case, indeed, that his Commentaries cover the whole of 
 Scripture. They do not, nor were they produced in the 
 order of the books of Scripture. He began with the 
 Epistle to the Romans in 1540, while at Frankfort. Then 
 followed, at intervals, the remaining Pauline and other 
 Epistles of the New Testament. Acts belong to this 
 period; the Gospels are later the only book of the New 
 Testament not commented on is Revelation, which Cal- 
 vin frankly declared he did not understand. He lectured, 
 however, on Daniel, which was nearly as difficult, and 
 possibly felt that this superseded the necessity of a 
 second work of the kind of his Old Testament commen- 
 taries, the earliest were those on Isaiah, on Genesis, and 
 on Psalms. The remaining books of the Pentateuch ap- 
 pear in the form of a "Harmony," as also do the first 
 three Gospels. Calvin here shows a quite modern in- 
 stinct in separating the Synoptic Gospels from John for 
 treatment by themselves. The principal Commentaries 
 appear in both Latin and French versions. The latest 
 was the Commentary on Joshua, published shortly before 
 
Calvin Writing His Commentaries. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 95 
 
 his death. A good many books of the Old Testament are 
 left untouched, viz. : Judges, Ruth, Samuel and Kings, 
 Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and 
 the Song of Solomon. 
 
 In so wide a field of achievement it would be unrea- 
 sonable to look for an equal level of excellence. Some 
 of the expositions, as on Job, the Minor Prophets, Jere- 
 miah, Daniel, were taken down from Calvin's extempore 
 pulpit discourses, and in their character and style bear 
 traces of this popular origin. The Commentaries prepared 
 by Calvin himself are works of great thoroughness. His 
 chief repute rests on the Commentaries on the Pauline Z- 
 Epistles and on the Psalms. The Apostle of the Gentiles 
 never had a more sympathetic expounder, and the Com- 
 mentary on the Psalms, with its wonderful biographical 
 Preface, is a masterpiece, into which Calvin's whole soul 
 is poured. His own trials, as he says, helped him to un- 
 derstand David's. He calls the Psalms "an anatomy of 
 all parts of the soul, for no one will discover in himself 
 a single feeling, whereof the image is not reflected in this 
 mirror." Bishop Horsley speaks of Calvin as "a man of 
 great piety, great talents, and great learning," yet thinks 
 that, by his want of taste and poverty of imagination, he 
 was "a most wretched expositor of the prophecies." The 
 modern exegete will probably much prefer Calvin's so- 
 briety to the worthy bishop's elegance. Meanwhile, it 
 may be suggested that a man who could so excellently ex- 
 pound the Psalms was hardly likely to be wholly unfitted 
 to expound the prophets. 
 
 I ought perhaps to remark at this point, on the singu- 
 lar testimony which Calvin's Commentaries afford to the 
 ivide range and potency of his influence in the highest 
 circles. The Dedications to the Commentaries are here 
 instructive. They reveal Calvin as a European power. 
 
96 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 Already, when yet unknown, he had addressed his 
 Institutes to the French King, Frances L, in a Preface 
 which is recognized as one of the finest things in litera- 
 ture. Now, in maturer years, he dedicates his Com- 
 mentary on Isaiah, and again that on the Catholic Epistles, 
 to the youthful Edward VI. of England. His Commen- 
 tary on the Epistles to Timothy had been dedicated to 
 the Duke of Somerset, the Protector during Edward's 
 minority. With both Somerset and Edward he had cor- 
 respondence, and Cramner was in regular communication 
 with him. His Commentary on the Hebrews was dedi- 
 cated to King Sigismund Augustus of Poland ; the first 
 part of his commentary on the Acts, to Christian I. of 
 Denmark, and the second part to the son of that monarch. 
 His Commentary on Hosea was dedicated to Gustavus 
 Vasa of Sweden. His Commentary on the last four 
 books of Moses was dedicated to Henry IV. of France, 
 then a boy, with noble admonitions. His Harmony of 
 the Gospels was dedicated to the Council of Frankfort, 
 which received it with thanks ; and so with nearly all. 
 The language in these Dedications is marked by a dignity, 
 courtesy, and elevation of tone, an absence of the cus- 
 tomary flattery of the great, and a seriousness and direct- 
 ness of purpose, which give the compositions a character 
 all their own. Calvin wrote as one who sought nothing 
 for himself, and knew that what he gave was not un- 
 worthy of those to whom he gave it. His words were 
 not platitudes, but earnest exhortations, intended to pro- 
 duce an effect. 
 
 I pass to the qualities of the works themselves, which 
 give them their permanent value for the Church and for 
 mankind. Here, naturally, we have to recognize that, 
 with all his gifts, and depth of insight, Calvin was yet a 
 man of his own age. He had not at command the 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 97 
 
 elaborate critical apparatus which modern scholars re- 
 joice in. Textual criticism had scarcely commenced ; the 
 religions and civilizations of antiquity were known only 
 through the imperfect accounts of classical authors. It 
 was a time when the modern science of nature was yet 
 unborn (Calvin was ignorant, e. g., of the Copernican 
 astronomy) ; when "Higher Criticism," with its marvelous 
 feats of analysis, disintegration, and reconstruction of 
 of books, history, and legislations, was still undreamt of ; 
 when the wonders disclosed by Egyptian, Assyrian and 
 Babylonian exploration, lay yet centuries in the future, 
 the seals of the book of modern knowledge were yet un- 
 broken. What is to be said for Calvin is that he worked 
 with the classical, patristic, philological and other mate- 
 rials he did possess — and they were not slight — as faith- , 
 fully and successfully as any man in his generation could '■ 
 do ; but far better, that his exegetical labors were mainly 
 concerned with those ideas and teachings of the books of 
 Scripture which are largely unaffected by the changes in- 
 troduced by modern knowledge and discovery, — which be- 
 long to the abiding and unalterable side of the message of 
 the Bible. This is a lesson which our modern age ha? 
 perhaps yet to learn. For, if knowledge grows from less 
 to more ; if theology, too, in its human apprehension of 
 divine truths, necessarily becomes wider in its processes 
 and outlook; it is not less certain that the foundation of 
 God standeth, and that the great truths of God's char- 
 acter, man's nature, sin's ruin, Christ's Person and re- 
 demption, the Spirit's work in renewal — those truths 
 which are the living substance, the very warp and woof 
 of Bible teaching, — remain what they are as surely as 
 before science or criticism were heard of, — abide as truly 
 as do the great constellations in the mighty sky amidst 
 the changes of theoretical astronomy. 
 
98 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 This, specially, is Calvin's greatness as an expositor, 
 that it is ever the primary, not the secondary, matters that 
 interest him — that he deals with the eternal in Scripture, 
 with the living word that abideth. How small a thing, 
 after all, the ability to divide up a verse or chapter into 
 its supposed critical constituents, or to throw new light 
 on a historical statement or prophetic allusion from philo- 
 logical knowledge or some Babylonian or Assyrian par- 
 allel, compared with the insight that penetrates into the 
 very heart of divine revelation; the skill which expends 
 itself on the shape and chasings of the vessel which con- 
 tains the water of life, compared with the hand which 
 ministers the living water itself ! 
 
 With these inevitable limitations which belong to his 
 time, it is now to be remarked that Calvin exhibits many 
 of the qualities characteristic of the best modern exegesis. 
 The principles that guided him are laid down in his ad- 
 mirable prefatory "Epistle" to the Commentary_.i)iiJtbe 
 Roinans, and nothing could be sounder. He agreed with 
 his friend Grynoeus that "the principal point of an inter- 
 preter is a perspicuous brevity." This, he says, is in a 
 manner his whole charge, "to show forth the mind of the 
 writer whom he has taken upon him to expound." All 
 critics give him credit for a studious endeavor to adhere 
 to the historical and grammatical meaning of the text. 
 His mind is not overburdened by his learning or over- 
 ridden — or this only rarely — by theological prejudices. 
 He starts, as the good commentator always should, from 
 the text itself, from the meaning of the author in his own 
 place and time, and displays an acumen and sobriety in 
 his judgments as refreshing as it is rare. There is no 
 padding with Calvin. He knows what he has to do, and 
 sets about his work in a thoroughly practical and business- 
 like fashion. His feet are ever on the ground, however 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 99 
 
 loftily his thoughts may soar. "It is sacrilegious bold- 
 ness," he says, "to use the Scriptures at our pleasure, 
 and to play them as with a tennis-ball." 
 
 The result in Calvin is a singular ballance and moder- 
 ation in judgment, and a note of modernness in his work, 
 which impresses one the more the more closely he is 
 studied. He refuses what he thinks a weak argument, 
 even to support a sound doctrine, c. g., he will not allow 
 the Trinity to be deduced from the plural name, "Elohim." 
 He will admit Maccabean psalms, c. g., Ps. Ixxiv. He 
 interprets Ps. xlv. of the marriage of Solomon, though 
 he thinks there is a typical reference to Christ. His pro- 
 phetic interpretations start from the historical situation. 
 A few illustrations will set these characteristics of Cal- 
 vin's work more clearly before the mind than any general 
 statement can do. 
 
 In his Commentaries on Genesis and on the last four 
 books of Moses we find, of course, nothing of modern 
 critical learning. We hear nothing of J, E, D, and P ; 
 nothing about legends. The day for that kind of wisdom 
 had not yet come. Moses is unhesitatingly assumed to 
 be the author. There is not even a suggestion of explana- 
 tion of the fact, which one might suppose would have 
 struck him, of the alternating use of "Jehovah" and 
 "Elohim." In other respects his comments are singularly 
 opposite and correct. In his "Argument" to Genesis he 
 excellently shows that the main subject of the book is not 
 physical matters, but the purpose of redemption in Christ. 
 In speaking of the creation narrative, how true a note 
 does he strike in insisting that the language used is popu- 
 lar, and that scientific exactitude is not to be looked for ! 
 "He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite 
 arts," he says, "let him go elsewhere." "Moses wrote in 
 a popular style things which, without instruction, all or- 
 
100 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 dinary persons, imbued with common sense, are able to 
 understand. . . . Had he spoken of things generally un- 
 known, the uneducated might have pleaded in excuse that 
 such subjects were beyond their capacity. ... If the 
 astronomer inquires respecting the actual dimensions of 
 the stars, he will find the moon to be less than Saturn ; 
 but this is something abstruse, for to the sight it appears 
 differently. . . . He does not call us up into heaven, 
 he only proposes things that lie open before our eyes." 
 He justly denies the distinction of "image" and "likeness" 
 in man's creation, and dwells on the dignity of human 
 nature as evinced by God's counselling with Himself re- 
 garding him. "Truly," he says, "there are many things 
 in this corrupted nature which may induce contempt ; 
 but if you hightly weigh all circumstance^, man is, among 
 other creatures, a certian pre-eminent specimen of divine 
 wisdom, justice and goodness, so that he is deservedly 
 called by the ancients microcosm — a world in miniature." 
 Or take the laws of Moses. It is a great merit of 
 Calvin that he perceives so clearly the relation of the 
 ceremonial and political laws of Moses to the moral law 
 of the Ten Commandments, in which lay the real basis 
 of the nation's covenant with God. "It is not a little 
 important," he says, "that we should understand that the 
 ceremonies and the judicial ordinances neither change nor 
 detract from the rule laid down m the Ten Command- 
 ments; but are only helps, which, as it were lead us by 
 the hand to the due worship of God, and to the promotion 
 of justice towards men." "We are aware," he adds, "that 
 of old there was a constant controversy of the prophets 
 against the Jewish people, because whilst strenuously 
 devoting themselves to ceremonies, as if true religion 
 and holiness were comprised in them, they neglected real 
 righteousness. Therefore God protests that He never en- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses ioi 
 
 joined anything with respect to the sacrifices; and He 
 pronounces all external rites but vain and trifling, if 
 the very least value be assigned to them apart from the 
 Ten Commandments. Whence we more certainly arrive 
 at the conclusion to which I have adverted, viz., that they 
 are not, to speak correctly, of the substance of the law, 
 nor avail of themselves in the worship of God, nor are 
 required by the lawgiver Himself as necessary, or even 
 as useful, unless they sink into this inferior position." 
 Calvin, evidently, had no difficulty in understanding Jere- 
 miah in Ch. vii. 22 : "For I spake not unto your fathers," 
 etc. 
 
 As Calvin's views on the Sabbath are sometimes mis- 
 represented, it may be observed that in his comments both 
 on Genesis and on the laws, he takes the Sabbath to 
 be as old as the creation, and regards it as continuing to 
 the end of the world. It was probable (in the French 
 edition he thinks certain that it was observed by the 
 patriarchs, but "I am unwilling," he says, "to make this 
 a matter of contention." 
 
 As a New Testament illustration, I take his Judiciaries 
 remarks on the difficult (|uestion of Christ's human 
 knowledge. He discusses this in commenting on Luke ii. 
 40: "And the child grew, and waxed strong, filled with 
 wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him," and v. 52 : 
 "Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with 
 God and man." "If it takes nothing from His glory," 
 Calvin says, "that He was altogether 'emptied' (Phil. ii. 
 6), neither does it degrade Him, that He chose not only 
 to grow in body, but to make progress in mind" ; and 
 maintains that Christ's humiliation "no doubt includes, 
 that His soul was subject to ignorance." He rejects the 
 view of timid persons that this progress was only in 
 appearance, and declares : "We are not at liberty to sup- 
 
I02 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 pose, that knowledge lay concealed in Christ, and made 
 its appearance in Him in progress of time. ... If we 
 do not choose to deny, that Christ was made a real man, 
 we ought not to be ashamed to acknowledge that He 
 voluntarily took upon Him everything that is inseparable 
 from human nature." He guards himself from the in- 
 ference that ignorance implies sin. "We ascribe to 
 Christ," he says, " no other ignorance than what may fall 
 upon a man who is pure from every taint of sin." 
 
 I have already referred to the rigor with which Calvin 
 insists on an historical interpretation of psalms and pro- 
 phecies. Even the psalms, as the 2nd, the 45th, the iioth, 
 which are interpreted typically of Christ, are held in their 
 historical meaning to apply to David or other kings. "To 
 whom is that voice addressed?" he asks on Is. xl. 3, "Pre- 
 pare ye the way of the Lord." "Is it to believers? No, but 
 to Cyrus, to the Persians, and to the Medes, who held 
 that people in captivity." But this group of prophecies, 
 he thinks, "ought not to be limited to the captivity in 
 Babylon ; for they have a very extensive meaning, and 
 include the doctrine of the Gospel, in which chiefly lies 
 the power of 'comforting.' " The story of Hosea's wife, 
 with other passages, he interprets parabolically. 
 
 It is sometimes said that Calvin held free views on the 
 inspiration of Scripture, and did not scruple to admit 
 errors and discrepancies in the sacred text. I do not 
 think this is a correct statement. To Calvin, Scripture 
 is throughout the inspired word of God, and seeming dis- 
 crepancies are, as a rule, treated by him as seeming only, 
 and he has generally some sensible remarks to offer for 
 their reconciliation. This is seen in his comments on 
 the laws of Moses, or in his treatment of the discrepancies 
 alleged in such cases as the census of Ouirinius, the cure 
 of Bartimeus, and the narratives of the ressurection. 
 
Calvtn Memorial Addresses 103 
 
 Yet he does not overstrain, and acknowledges difificnlty 
 where it exists. In regard to the genealogies in Matthew 
 and Luke, he gives what he thinks to be the best solu- 
 tions, and warns those who desire more to remember 
 Paul's injunction to avoid disputing about geanealogies. 
 Referring to the mention of Jeremiah instead of 
 Zechariah in the quotation in Matt, xxvii. 9, he says: 
 "How the name of Jeremiah crept in, I do not know, 
 nor do I give myself much trouble to inquire. The pas- 
 sage itself plainly shows that the name of Jeremiah has 
 been put down by mistake, instead of Zechariah (xi. 13) ; 
 for in Jeremiah we find nothing of the sort, nor anything 
 that even approaches to it." On the discrepancy in 
 Stephen's speech. Acts vii. 16, with Genesis, as to the 
 purchase of a burial-place, he suggests that Stephen or 
 Luke drew on uncertain tradition rather than on Moses, 
 and made "a mistake in the name of Abraham." With 
 reference to New Testament divergencies from the He- 
 brew in quotations from Ch. Ixx. he remarks : "We know 
 that, in such a matter, the Apostles were not very scru- 
 pulous. In the thing itself, however, there is but little 
 difference." He gives considerable latitude to the for- 
 mula, "that it might be fulfilled." The critical acumen 
 of Calvin is seen in his refusal to acknowledge Paul as 
 the author of Hebrews, and in his hesitation about 2 
 Peter. 
 
 A few words may be said in conclusion on Calvin's 
 view of Holy Scripture as a whole, as growing out of 
 his insight into it, and experience of it. The subject is 
 discussed in several chapters of the first book of his 
 Institutes, and the authority of Scripture is there placed, 
 as rt came to be in many of the Reformed creeds, in the 
 inward witness of the Spirit. It is incontestable to Calvin 
 that, to the spiritually illuminated mind, the Scriptures 
 
I04 Calvix Memorial Addresses 
 
 bear internal evidence of their divine origin and authorit}-. 
 ''Scripture bears upon the face of it," he says, "as clear 
 evidence of its truth, as white and black do of their color, 
 sweet and bitter of their taste." Again, "Scripture, car- 
 ry'mg its own evidence along with it, deigns not to sub- 
 mit to proofs and arguments, but owes the full conviction 
 with which we ought to receive it to the testimony of 
 Spirit." This is 3trong language. In explanation, it 
 should be said that it is not to be understood as implying 
 the rejection of historical evidences — Calvin proceeds to 
 devote a chapter to these under the name of "secondary 
 helps" — or as suggestion that such evidence should be 
 made light of, or dispensed with. The meaning is that 
 the ultimate conviction of the credit of God's word in 
 the Scripture must spring from that experience of its 
 truth and power which the Holy Spirit alone can give. 
 There is profound truth in this, and it is well it is so, for 
 some of the historical arguments by which Calvin sup- 
 ports the credibility of Scriptures are now a little outworn. 
 The real criticism to be made on this resting of the 
 authority' of Scripture exclusk'ely on the internal witness 
 of the Spirit is that, at best, it can apply only to Scripture 
 taken as a w^hole, or in its general teaching, and can 
 hardly be employed for the settlement of critical and 
 exegetical questions, or the determination even of the 
 canonicity of disputed books — of such books, c. g., as 
 Esther, or Ecclesiastes, or Song of Solomon ; and Calvin 
 himself does not so employ it. He brings his full exe- 
 getical power to bear on every passage, and freely uses 
 what critical or historical aids he possesses to determine 
 points of difficulty. What he would perhaps say — ^what 
 at least we may now say for him — is, that, if Scripture be 
 attested by the subject-matter of its teaching, by its 
 inward harmony, light, power, and holiness, to be, or 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 105 
 
 contain, the word of God, we may then Hsten with defer- 
 ence to the further claims it makes of itself and its 
 authors, which extend its inspiration to the whole Book. 
 In practice there can be no doubt that Calvin treated 
 the Bible as through and. through inspired — the word of 
 God in all its parts. His own words in his exposition of 
 2 Tim. iii. 16, with which I conclude, are decisive on that 
 point. "This is a principle," he says, "which distin- 
 guishes our religion from all others, that we know that 
 God hath spoken to us, and are fully convinced that the 
 prophets did not speak at their own suggestion, but that, 
 being organs of the Holy Spirit, they only uttered what 
 they have been commissioned to declare. Whoever, then, 
 wishes to profit in the Scriptures, let him, first of all, lay 
 this down as a settled point, that the law and the prophets 
 are not a doctirne delivered according to the will and 
 pleasure of men, but dictated by the Holy Spirit. . . . 
 This is the [purport of] the first clause, that we owe 
 to the Scripture the same reverence which we owe to 
 God, because it has proceeded from Him alone, and has 
 nothing belonging to man mixed with it." Those who 
 seek countenance for a lowering of the authority of Scrip- 
 ture must seek it else where than in John Calvin. 
 
Rlv. R. a. Webb. D. D., 
 Louisville, Ky. 
 
CALVIN'S DOCTRINE OF INFANT 
 SALVATION. 
 
 Rev. R. a. Webb, D. D. LL. D, 
 Kentucky Theological Seminary. 
 
 By appointment of the last Assembly, I appear with 
 a brief in defence of Calvin against the charge of teach- 
 ing the actual damnation of some infants who die in 
 their infancy. 
 
 The accusation has been so widely and industriously 
 circulated that its truthfulness, with many, passes as a 
 matter of course, too well known to be disputed, too ob- 
 vious to be contradicted. 
 
 While Luther was essentially a "breaker," and 
 Protestantism is an everlasting debtor to him for shiv- 
 ering ecclesiastical medievalism, and emancipating the 
 religious mind ; it was devolved by Providence upon 
 Calvin to indoctrinate the Reformation, and give to the 
 movement that system of evangelical truth — those prin- 
 ciples and convictions — necessary to sustain it and save 
 it from final collapse. Protestantism is no stronger than 
 Calvinism, and the Reformation will last no longer than 
 Calvinism endures. 
 
 If, therefore, the name of the great Genevan — the 
 theologian of the Reformation — can be cleansed of any 
 aspersion, by what rises only to the rank of a plausible 
 exculpation, one would naturally expect a grateful Pro- 
 testant world to accept it with joy, and acclaim it with 
 delight. The spirit which could be pleased with a cloud 
 
io8 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 upon his great and serviceable name is nothing short of 
 inscrutible. 
 
 It is sought to sustain this charge against Calvin 
 in two ways. It is held, first, that certain quotations 
 from his (Writings ^warrant the {charge that the con- 
 sciously and avowedly held that some infants, dying in 
 infancy, are finally lost. Then it is held, in the second 
 place, that infant damnation is a logical and necessary 
 implicate of his theological system. 
 
 Now Calvin certainly taught the doctrine of Predesti- 
 nation, and with it classified all mankind as elect and 
 reprobate. From such a conclusion he did not shrink, 
 but boldly avowed it and defended it. 
 
 It is also indisputable that Calvin held that Predesti- 
 nation determined destiny, and that there was no way 
 by which any person could escape the fate fixed for him 
 by divine decree. 
 
 And it is equally certain that he taught that Pre- 
 destination was eternal, antedating the birth of every 
 human being; and consequently that all infants make 
 their advent into the world, either as elect infants or 
 as non-elect infants. From such a conclusion neither 
 he nor his disciples recoil. 
 
 We are compelled then to consider his views, first 
 as to elect infants, and then as to non-elect infants. 
 
 Elect Infants. 
 
 Concerning elect infants, dying in infancy, it is un- 
 deniable that Calvin taught two things : ( i ) the fact of 
 their salvation, and (2) the mode of their salvation. 
 
 As to the fact of their salvation we have this ex- 
 plicit assertion in his own language : 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 109 
 
 "Now, it is certain that some infants are saved; and 
 that they are previously regenerated by the Lord is be- 
 yond all doubt." — Institutes, Book IV., Chap. XVI., 
 Sec. 17. 
 
 There are other supplementary quotations which 
 could be made just as explicit upon this point; but this 
 is categorical enough to satisfy any fair mind, and there 
 is nothing in his writings which any one adduces in sup- 
 port of the contention that Calvin taught the damnation 
 of any elect infant. Indeed no one has the hardihood 
 to bring such an accusation against him. 
 
 But Calvin not only taught the fact of the salvation 
 of all elect infants ; he also showed the mode in which 
 they are saved; and thus differentiated himself from the 
 theology of his day, and laid down immortal principles 
 for all Protestant theology. He says : 
 
 "But, however this may be, we consider it as clear, 
 beyond all controversy, that not one of the elect is 
 called out of the present life, without having been pre- 
 viously regenerated and sanctified by the Spirit of God. 
 . . . We deny that it ought to be concluded from this 
 (that the word is in the instrument of conversion), that 
 infants cannot be regenerated by the power of God, 
 which it is as easy to him as it is wonderful and mys- 
 terious to us. Besides, it would not be safe to afifirm, 
 that the Lord cannot reveal Himself in any way so as 
 to make himself known to them." — Institutes, Book IV., 
 Chap. XVI., Sec. 18. 
 
 "If any of those who are the objects of divine elec- 
 tion, after having received the sign of regeneration, de- 
 part out of this life before they have attained years of 
 discretion, the Lord renevates them by the power of His 
 Spirit, incomprehensible to us, in such a manner as He 
 
no Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 alone foresees will be necessary." — Institutes, Book IV., 
 Chapter XVI., Sec. 21. 
 
 In these quotations, and in other places, he distinctly 
 rejects the Pelagian view, which, denying original sin, 
 grounded the salvation of dead children in their sup- 
 posed innocency and sinlessness; and he also rejects the 
 prevailing Romish view which grounded it in the bap- 
 tism of such as had received that ordinance. 
 
 As against both Pelagians and Romanists, Calvin 
 predicated infant salvation upon their election by the 
 Father, their redemption by the Son, and their regenera- 
 tion and sanctification of the Spirit. Such a program 
 made the salvation of the infant, as an infant, possible. 
 Calvin is entitled to the praise of having shown this 
 originally and clearly. 
 
 Non-Elect Infants. 
 
 While it is thus indisputably true that Calvin did 
 thus avow and explain the salvation of all elect infants, 
 dying in infancy, what did he hold concerning the fate 
 of non-elect infants? Did he hold that there were any 
 such infants? Did he hold that any such infants die 
 in infancy? Did he hold that any such infants are 
 finally damned? These are the questions over which 
 there is debate and controversy. 
 
 Concerning the first of these questions, Calvin cer- 
 tainly held that there were reprobate infants, for he dis- 
 tinctly taught that reprobation was eternal and antenatal, 
 and consequently that all reprobate persons make their 
 advent into this life as reprobate. 
 
 He certainly taught that all reprobate persons are 
 finally lost. But he did not teach that any reprobate 
 persons are lost as infants. He did not teach that any 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses m 
 
 reprobate persons die in infancy. He did explicitly teach 
 that some elect infants die in infancy and are saved 
 as infants; but he did not teach that any reprobate in- 
 fants die in infancy and are damned as infants. 
 
 But his accusers charge that this is precisely what 
 he did teach, namely, that some reprobate infants die in 
 infancy and are damned as infants. To prove this ac- 
 cusation they undertake to quote his language, and then 
 to support the quotations by showing that the doctrine is 
 a logical implicate of his system of theology. 
 
 I shall undertake to show that neither the quotations, 
 nor the system, warrant this accusation of the most 
 illustrious genius Protestantism has ever produced. 
 
 Concerning non-elect infants. To appreciate Cal- 
 vin's position a distinction must be drawn between con- 
 demnation and damnation. 
 
 Condemnation is the pronouncement of sentence ; 
 damnation is the execution of that sentence. It is the 
 office of the judge to condemn — to pronounce the crimi- 
 nal worthy of death ; it is the office of the sheriff to 
 carry that sentence into execution — to inflict the penalty 
 assessed by the court. A longer or shorter time may 
 intervene between the imposition of the sentence and the 
 execution of the same. 
 
 Now Calvin taught, unmistakably, that a judgment 
 of condemnation, predicated upon their original sin, was 
 passed upon all non-elect infants ; but he does not teach 
 that that sentence was executed upon any non-elect in- 
 fant while in its infancy, during the period of its moral 
 minority. 
 
 They are condemned when infants ; they are executed 
 only as adults. They are condemned on account of origi- 
 nal, or Adamic, sin ; they actually perish only on account 
 of actual, or personal, sin. 
 
112 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 This is the distinction which many of his critics over- 
 look. They hear him say that this class of infants are 
 guilty, depraved, condemned, and reprobate ; and then, 
 unwarrantably, leap to the conclusion that he must have 
 held that the judgment of death is executed upon some 
 non-elect infants while infants. 
 
 Calvin teaches infant condemnation, but he nowhere 
 teaches infant damnation. 
 
 He asserts that all persons who are not the subjects 
 of God's saving grace will finally be lost, but he ex- 
 plicitly, and throughout, teaches that all the reprobate 
 "procure" — (that is his own word) — "procure" their 
 own destruction ; and they procure their destruction by 
 their own personal and conscious acts of "impiety," 
 "wickedness," and "rebellion." 
 
 Now reprobate infants, though guilty of original sin 
 and under condemnation, cannot, while they are infants, 
 thus "procure" their own destruction by their personal 
 acts of impiety, wickedness, and rebellion. They must, 
 therefore, live to the years of moral responsibility in or- 
 der to perpetrate the acts of impiety, wickedness and re- 
 bellion, which Calvin defines as the mode through which 
 they procure their destruction. 
 
 While, therefore, Calvin teaches that there are repro- 
 bate infants, and that these will be finally lost, he no- 
 where teaches that they will be lost as infants, and zvhile 
 they are infants; but, on the contrary, he declares that 
 all the reprobate "procure" their own destruction by 
 personal acts of impiety, wickedness and rebellion. Con- 
 sequently, his own reasoning compels him to hold (to be 
 consistent with himself), that no reprobate child can die 
 in its infancy ; but all such must live to the age of moral 
 accountability, and translate original sin into actual sin. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 113 
 
 Calvin's critics seek to fasten the charge of infant 
 damnation upon him in two ways : ( i ) By quoting cer- 
 tain detached sentences from his writings, and (2) and 
 chiefly, by charging that it is a logical implicate of his 
 theology. 
 
 Quotations, 
 
 Concerning all these citations, I make the following 
 general remarks : 
 
 ( 1 ) They are relatively few in number ; too few to 
 justify the conclusion that Calvin consciously avowed 
 the dogma of infant damnation. Calvin's writings num- 
 ber more than fifty volumes, some of them dogmatic, 
 some exegetical, some controversial, some epistolary. 
 His critics have searched his multitudinous pages for 
 language which could be quoted in proof of the charge 
 that he taught the doctrine of the damnation of infants. 
 With all their diligence and zeal they have been able to 
 point out less than a dozen sentences, or parts of sen- 
 tences, in the thousands of pages which he wrote, which 
 even seem to support their charge. 
 
 (2) They were all passing utterances; mere obiter 
 dicta; made while addressing himself to other topics; 
 not one of them was written for the purpose of re- 
 vealing his mind on the dogma of infant damnation. It 
 is therefore unfair and illegitimate to hold him to a con- 
 struction of language which he employed in the develop- 
 ment of other subjects, and wrote when the fate of in- 
 fants was not present to his mind. 
 
 (3) All these citations have a context; and when they 
 are taken in connection with their immediate contexts. 
 
114 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 and also in connection with the whole system of truth 
 which he was inculcating, they are susceptible of a dif- 
 ferent interpretation from that which his opponents' put 
 upon them. 
 
 When, therefore, we consider the relative fewness of 
 these quotations, their purpose, occasion and contexts, 
 it is clearly improper to hold Calvin responsible for the 
 construction which his critics force upon them. 
 
 To test the charge that the doctrine of the damna- 
 tion of infants, as infants, is inferable from the language 
 which Calvin employed, I select a few of the most pro- 
 nounced and oft-quoted passages for examination. 
 
 The first of these passages is taken from his Insti- 
 tutes, Book II, Chap. I., Sec. 7, as follows: 
 
 "And therefore infants themselves, as they bring their 
 condemnation into the world with them, are rendered 
 obnoxious to punishment by their own sinfulness, not 
 by the sinfulness of another. For though they have 
 not yet produced the fruits of their iniquity, yet they 
 have the seed of it within them ; even their whole nature 
 is as it were a seed of sin, and therefore cannot but 
 be odious and abominable to God. Whence it follows, 
 that is properly accounted sin in the sight of God, be- 
 cause there could be no guilt without crime." 
 
 The subjects of these predications are not some in- 
 fants, but all infants, elect and reprobate alike and co- 
 equally. All mankind having sinned in Adam and fell 
 with him in the first transgression, all infants "bring 
 their condemnation into the world with them," "are ren- 
 dered obnoxious to punishment by their own sinfulness," 
 and "their whole nature is a seed of sin." This is but 
 the assertion of the well known doctrine of original sin — 
 the doctrine of the universal guilt and native depravity 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 115 
 
 of the entire race. It is but saying of all infants what 
 David specifically said of himself. But surely the predi- 
 cation of the guilt and corruption of the entire race is 
 not synonymous with the actual damnation of the entire 
 human family, for he has asserted over and over again 
 the salvation of some of the race. It is a non sequitur 
 to reason from the universal condemnation of mankind 
 to the actual damnation of some infants. Calvin does 
 say, with Paul, that all are "by nature the children of 
 wrath" — that all are guilty and corrupt and obnoxious 
 to God — but he does not here say that any reprobate 
 child dies in this state of condemnation and perishes as 
 an infant in hell before the "seed" that is within him 
 "produces the fruits of iniquity" — conscious actual sins. 
 
 A second favorite quotation of his accusers is made 
 from his Institutes, Book IV., Chap. XVI., Sec. 17: 
 
 "It is certain that some infants are saved." 
 
 It is argued herefrom that if Calvin so explicitly said 
 that "some infants are saved," he must have intended 
 to indicate that some other infants are not saved. An 
 affirmation about some is held to be equal to an antitheti- 
 cal denial about others. 
 
 In the place quoted, Calvin is arguing for the rite 
 of infant baptism. He is replying to the objection that 
 the ordinance ought not to be administered to babies be- 
 cause they cannot understand its import. He says : It is 
 perfectly certain and undeniable that some infants are 
 regenerated; neither we nor they understand how they 
 are regenerated ; but our ignorance of the modus operandi 
 does not obliterate the fact; and, consequently, if they 
 can be regenerated without their understanding the pro- 
 cess, it would be legitimate to give them the baptismal 
 sign of their regeneration, although they are unable to 
 
ii6 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 understand and appreciate the ordinance. The whole 
 context renders it perfectly certain that Calvin was not 
 here saying that some infants are saved in order to 
 imply that some are not. 
 
 Then Calvin's accusers bring forward his comment 
 upon Ezek. xviii. : "As to infants they seem to perish not 
 by their own fault but by the fault of another ; but there 
 is a double solution. Though sin does not yet appear in 
 them, yet it is latent ; for they bear corruption shut up 
 in the soul, so that before God they are damnable." 
 And to this they add a comment of like import upon 
 Isa. xiv. 21 : "When the Lord rejects the godless man 
 with his offspring, there is certainly no expostulation 
 which we can make with God. . . . This therefore 
 is to be held for certain, that all who are destitute of the 
 grace of God are included under the sentence of eternal 
 death ; whence it follows that the children of the repro- 
 bate, whom the curse of God follows, are subject to the 
 same sentence." 
 
 There is a distinction perfectly obvious between 
 damnability and damnation. One is a liability and the 
 other is an actual execution. Calvin does say in these 
 comments that all infants, elect and reprobate, are justly 
 "damnable," not only because of their Adamic connec- 
 tion, but also because sin is "latent" in them, because of 
 "the corruption shut up in the soul." But he does not 
 say that any child, as a child and while a child, is ac- 
 tually damned before what is "latent" becomes mani- 
 fest. Such an inference is a clear reading into his words 
 what he did not say, and forcing his language to yield 
 a meaning which he did not put into it. 
 
 It is literally and evangelically true that "all who are 
 destitute of the grace of God are included under the 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 117 
 
 sentence of eternal death;"' and it is likewise true that 
 "the children of the reprobate," who are also destitute 
 of grace, are subject to the "same sentence" of eternal 
 death, iiut surely there is a distinction between the 
 pronouncement of a sentence and the execution of that 
 sentence; and Calvin does not here say, directly or by 
 good and necessary consequence, that this sentence of 
 eternal death is executed upon reprobate children while 
 they are children. We need to be carrying this distinc- 
 tion with us all the while when reading the great Re- 
 former — the distinction between the pronouncement of a 
 sentence and the execution of that sentence. That sen- 
 tence is pronounced upon all indiscriminately ; it certainly 
 is not, Calvin being the expositor, executed upon all 
 universally and indiscriminately. 
 
 Another favorite passage which Calvin's accusers 
 quote with great confidence is the famous one which he 
 uttered in his controversy with Pighius: "If Pighius 
 holds that original sin is not sufficient to damn men, and 
 that the secret counsel of God is not to be admitted, 
 what will he do with children and infants, who, before 
 they have reached an age at which they can give any 
 such specimens (of good and evil deeds) are snatched 
 from this life? When the conditions of birth and death 
 were alike to those who die in Sodom and Jerusalem, 
 and there was no dift'erence in their works, why will 
 Christ, at the last day, with some standing at his right 
 hand, separate others at his left? Who will not adore 
 the wonderful decision of God whereby it comes to pass 
 that some are born at Jerusalem, whence soon they pass 
 to a better life, while Sodom, the entrance to the lower 
 region, receives others at their birth. Moreover, I by 
 no means deny that Christ awards the meed of righteous- 
 
ii8 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 ness to the elect, so the reprobate will then suffer for 
 their impiety and crimes," — De Acterna Dei Predestina- 
 tione. Tom VIII. 
 
 This passage gives me more trouble than any which 
 I have encountered. Pighius has denied that original 
 sin, by itself, is sufficient to damn any man. Calvin as- 
 serts against his opponent that original sin is intrinsi- 
 cally so heinous as to be, by itself, a just ground of 
 damnation. To make good his contention he points to 
 children and infants who are snatched away from this 
 life before they come to the years of moral responsi- 
 bility. Some of these dead children, he seems to say, 
 will, at the last day, stand on the right hand of Christ 
 and some on his left. Some of them, he seems to say, 
 will go from Jerusalem to a better life, and some from 
 Sodom to the regions below. This is the interpretation 
 which his critics put upon his language. 
 
 But let us remember that Calvin is in controversy 
 with Pighius over a very serious matter — whether origi- 
 nal sin is sin in a strict and proper sense, or only mis- 
 fortune and moral blemish. His contention is that origi- 
 nal sin is so heinous as to be intrinsically worthy of 
 damnation. This is his point — the sufficiency of original 
 sin, unsupplemented by actual sin, to damn men. He 
 will not tolerate the doctrine that original sin is a trifling, 
 blameless blemish. The proof of its malignity is that 
 children die in Jerusalem as well as in Sodom. Now 
 he adds, that, while I hold that original sin in sufficient 
 to damn men, I by no means deny that it is Christ who 
 bestows righteousness upon the elect, while the reprobate 
 "suffer for their impiety and crimes." But infants can- 
 not be guilty of impiety and crimes, while they are in- 
 fants ; and yet the reprobate suffer for their impiety and 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 119 
 
 crimes; so we must conclude that Calvin did not here 
 mean to convey the idea that reprobate infants stand on 
 the left of Christ as infants, or that they go down to 
 death through the gates of Sodom while they are still 
 in the irresponsible infant stage of life. In short, to make 
 him teach infant damnation in this place is to make him 
 clearly inconsistent with himself. It would be fairer to 
 construe the language as strong words, not sufficiently 
 guarded, in the emergencies of fierce and vital debate. 
 
 But the passage most confidently relied upon to prove 
 that Calvin held the doctrine of infant damnation is the 
 following from his Institutes, Book III., Chap. XXXIIL, 
 Sec. 7 : "I inquire again, how it came to pass that the 
 fall of Adam, independent of any remedy, should in- 
 volve so many nations with their infant children in eter- 
 nal death, but because such was the will of God." 
 
 Here the predication is that the fall of Adam, when 
 the gracious remedy is thought out of sight, involved 
 many nations, with their infant children, in eternal death. 
 This, say his critics, settles it ; for he distinctly says, "in- 
 fant children in eternal death," and that by "the will 
 of God." 
 
 But the context eliminates from the passage the whole 
 idea of infant damnation. The quotation is made from 
 that chapter of the Institutes in which Calvin answers 
 objections to Predestination. 
 
 The first objection is: God precludes Himself from 
 finding fault because reprobation antedates the actual 
 sinning of His creatures. To this, Calvin makes the sub- 
 lapsarian reply, that, while chronologically reprobation 
 precedes sinning, logically — at the moment of forming 
 the decree in the divine mind — mankind was conceived 
 as created and fallen. "If all whom the Lord predes- 
 
120 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 tinates to death are in their natural condition hable to 
 the sentence of death, what injustice do they complain 
 of receiving from him? ... If they have all been 
 taken from a corrupt mass, it is no wonder that they 
 are subject to condemnation. Let them not, therefore, 
 accuse God of injustice." 
 
 The second objection he gives his attention to is the 
 following: Reprobation necessitates the very sin for 
 which the reprobate are condemned. To this objection 
 he makes the following effective reply: God having de- 
 termined to pass by a corrupt and guilty sinner and leave 
 him in his natural state unregenerated by divine grace, 
 does thus doom him by the negative act of letting him 
 alone and leaving him to himself for the destiny of his 
 own making. 
 
 But to this resolution of this objection, some of his 
 critics took the ground that God made no decree con- 
 cerning the lost of any kind; that is, denied the decree 
 of reprobation outright. To this Calvin replied: If God 
 made no decree, concerning the lost, of one kind or 
 another — if the divine will was only negative and the 
 divine attitude neutral and non-committal — then, in that 
 case, under that supposition, how can his opponents ex- 
 plain the fact that the fall of Adam involved not only 
 Adam himself, but also many nations with their infant 
 children in eternal death?" 
 
 It is a Biblical fact that the fall of Adam did involve 
 not only Adam himself, but all his posterity, in a ruin, 
 independent of any remedy, would be eternal. Now this 
 consequence, he argues, was either (i) by nature, or (2) 
 by the will of God. He denies that the involvement of 
 the race in the fall of Adam was a naturalistic result, 
 and affirms that it was a judicial judgment of God. His 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 121 
 
 express language is: "This (the race's participation in 
 the sin of Adam), not being attributable to nature, it 
 is evident must have proceeded from the wonderful 
 counsel of God." 
 
 This is the purpose and the connection of the famous 
 sentence in which Calvin called the decree of reprobation 
 an "horrible decree." Think, says Calvin, the remedy 
 out the way — think the whole scheme of saving grace as 
 non-existent — then how could you explain the fact that 
 the fall of Adam involved "nations and their infant 
 children" in a death which would have otherwise been 
 eternal, except you say it was because God so willed it? 
 
 It is clear that Calvin has not asserted in this place, 
 said to be the strongest passage on the subject which can 
 be quoted, the doctrine of infant damnation. He has 
 said here that God has passed by some "nations with 
 their infant children" and left them to the doom of 
 "eternal death," but he has not here said that any repro- 
 bate infant dies in its infancy and is consigned to "eternal 
 death" while it is an infant. 
 
 Inferences. 
 
 But the main reliance of Calvin's accusers is upon 
 their logical deductions from his theological system. 
 Their interpretation of certain isolated passages from 
 his writings are made plausible because of their infer- 
 ences from his doctrine of Predestination. 
 
 He did hold that all mankind were united to Adam 
 by divine ordination ; that they sinned in him and fell 
 with him in his first transgression ; that all the race did 
 thus become guilty and depraved; that God did pro- 
 nounce upon the entire human family therefor a sentence 
 
122 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 of eternal death ; that children are consequently born 
 into the world under guilt and condemnation; that out 
 of this "corrupt mass" God did elect some to everlast- 
 ing life and pass by others with His saving mercy and 
 leave them in their estate of sin and misery; that this 
 Predestination was eternal and antenatal; that all in- 
 fants consequently make their appearance in the world 
 either as elect or reprobate, with final destiny determined ; 
 but he no where taught, by direction or by indirection, 
 that this sentence of eternal death is executed upon any 
 non-elect infant while in its infantile state. 
 
 There are two reasons why his theology would re- 
 quire him to hold, in order to be consistent with him- 
 self, that no reprobate infant can perish in its infancy. 
 
 I. He everywhere taught that the reprobate "pro- 
 cure" their own destruction. That is, they are the ac- 
 tive, conscious agents in bringing about their own doom. 
 
 In his last chapter on Predestination, in which he 
 closes and dismisses the subject, he contrasts the mode 
 in which the elect actually attain their predestined end, 
 and the mode in which the reprobate realize their pre- 
 destined death. The elect come to heaven by the ef- 
 fectual operation of the grace of the Spirit, but the 
 reprobate come to their dreadful doom by the effectual 
 operation of their own will. The elect are patients and 
 the Spirit is the agent of their salvation ; but the repro- 
 bate are agents and the Spirit is patient in their actual 
 damnation. 
 
 He heads this last chapter: "Election confirmed by 
 the divine call. The destined destruction of the repro- 
 bate procured by themselves" (Book UL, Chapter 
 XXIV.). This is his final thesis and last contention: 
 The benefits of election are procured for the elect by 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 123 
 
 divine vocation; but the destined destruction of the repro- 
 bate is procured by themselves. 
 
 How are these two decrees — election and reproba- 
 tion — executed in time and made manifest in experi- 
 ence? Calvin answers: Election is made manifest, re- 
 vealed, declared, developed in conscious experience by 
 the divine call ; the other decree — reprobation — is trans- 
 lated into history and experience by the reprobate them- 
 selves through their own personal and conscious acts of 
 sin — the destined destruction of the reprobate is pro- 
 cured by themselves." 
 
 He says : "The destined destruction of the reprobate 
 is procured by themselves" (Book HI., Chapter XXIV.). 
 Again : God does what He does to the reprobate be- 
 cause of "their impiety, wickedness, and ingratitude" 
 (Book HI., Chapter XXIV., Section 14). Again: "They 
 can do nothing but what is deserving of his curse" (Book 
 III., Chapter XXIV., Section 17). 
 
 In the execution of the decree of election, Calvin 
 predicates the divine causality ; but in the execution of 
 the decree of reprobation he predicates the causality of 
 the reprobate themselves. In other words : while origi- 
 nal sin was the ground of a universal, race-wide con- 
 demnation, actual sin is the necessary premise of actual 
 damnation. 
 
 This being true, it is a logical implicate of his 
 premises that no reprobate child could die in its infancy, 
 but must be kept alive by the providence of God to the 
 years of moral discretion, so that it could "procure" its 
 own destruction by translating the corruption which is 
 "latent" into sin of omission and commission. 
 
 2. A second premise of Calvin which precludes the 
 idea of his holding infant damnation is his doctrine of 
 resurrection and punishment. 
 
124 Calvin Memorial Addresses . 
 
 He says : "It would be as light punishment to be de- 
 stroyed by death, if they (the reprobate) were not to be 
 brought before the Judge whose infinite and endless 
 vengeance they have incurred, to receive the punishment 
 due to their rebellion" (Book III., Chapter XXV., Sec- 
 tion 9). 
 
 There is something incongruous and absurd in an in- 
 fant being "brought" before a Judge to answer for his 
 "rebellion" ! Yet this must be charged upon the great 
 Genevan, if we make him teach that any non-elect in- 
 fants die in infancy. That an infant eight days of age 
 should be engaged in a rebellion against God is some- 
 thing unthinkable. 
 
 The whole idea of punishment cannot be associated 
 with infants without shocking the very genius of Cal- 
 vin's theological system. Punishment, strictly speaking, 
 is that suffering which is inflicted upon a person because 
 of his guilt. For suffering to be punishment the subject 
 must be aware in conscience of the moral reason for 
 the infliction. A horse can be made to suffer because 
 he has a nervous system, but he cannot be punished be- 
 cause he has no conscience. An infant can be made to 
 suffer, because it has a sentiment nature; but it cannot 
 be punished, because its conscience has not been de- 
 veloped to the degree where it can appreciate the moral 
 reason for its suffering. 
 
 But the death of an infant must be either penal or 
 disciplinary. The death of a reprobate infant cannot be 
 disciplinary, because it is non-elect and outside the pale 
 of the scheme of grace; and its death cannot be penal, 
 because it cannot in conscience appreciate the moral 
 meaning of death. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 125 
 
 Therefore, we must conclude from Calvin's general 
 premises, that a reprobate infant cannot die as an in- 
 fant. 
 
 On the contrary we must conclude from his general 
 teaching about the justice and judgment of God, that 
 the divine providence must keep all reprobate children 
 alive until they can reach the years of their moral ma- 
 jority, and translate their original sin into actual sin, 
 so as to create a ground, in conscience and consciousness, 
 for their actual punishment. 
 
 It is a fair inference from his whole theology, that he 
 predicated actual damnation only upon actual transgres- 
 sion. 
 
 I. Calvin did, explicitly and avowedly, teach the sal- 
 vation of all elect infants which die in their infancy. 
 
 II. He taught, contrary to the Romanism and Pela- 
 gianism of his day, that the mode of the salvation of in- 
 fants was (i) by the election of the Father, (2) by the 
 atonement of the Son, and (3) by the vocation of the 
 Spirit. He said that the Spirit could regenerate, and 
 sanctify, and communicate, with infants in a manner in- 
 scrutible to us. 
 
 III. Concerning reprobate infants, he taught that 
 there were such infants ; that they were involved, with 
 their parents, in the Adamic fall and curse ; and that 
 they are all born into the world guilty, depraved, and 
 condemned. 
 
 IV. He did not teach that any reprobate infants die 
 in their infancy, and so have executed upon them the 
 sentence of eternal death while at an infantile and irre- 
 sponsible age. 
 
126 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 V. He did teach that all the reprobate "procure their 
 own destined destruction" by their overt and conscious 
 acts of disobedience ; and that their final damnation 
 would be predicated upon their evil deeds. 
 
 VI. He did teach that all the reprobate must appear 
 before God as a Judge, and receive the judicial punish- 
 ment due to their sins, which requires us to infer that 
 every one so dealt with must be morally full-grown. 
 
 Vn. Wherefore we must conclude that Calvin, to be 
 consistent with the ruling principles of his theology, must 
 have held that no reprobate child died in infancy; but 
 that, on the contrary, all such infants live to the age of 
 moral maturity, and "procure their destined destruction" 
 by "their impiety and crimes" and by their "rebellion" 
 against God. 
 
Rev. S. L. Morris, D. D., 
 Atlanta, Ga. 
 
THE RELATION OF CALVIN AND 
 CALVINISM TO MISSIONS. 
 
 By Rev. S. L. Morris, D. D., 
 
 Secretary of Home Missions of the 
 
 Presbyterian Church, U. S. 
 
 In its halls of fame, the world enshrines chiefly its 
 warriors, men whose glory is written in characters of 
 blood. In striking contrast with the world's ideals, 
 the grandest of all conquerors was the Prince of Peace, 
 who triumphed by the shedding of His own blood, 
 who rules the thought of men by the scepter of Truth, 
 who wins the allegiance of His subjects by the power 
 of Love. As a consequence, He alone will sway the 
 scepter of universal dominion. To Him every knee 
 shall bow, and every tongue make confession. The 
 means by which He shall eventually be crowned Lord 
 of All and "His glory spread from pole to pole," 
 through the agency of the church is missions — the 
 world-wide proclamation of the Gospel. 
 
 In keeping with its ideals are the heroes adjudged 
 by the world worthy of monuments at its hands. I 
 have stood by the equestrian statue of Charles II, near 
 St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh, while scarcely ten 
 paces distant, the only tablet to John Knox was a flat 
 stone in the pavement, marked "J. K.," over which 
 rattle the wheels of trafific, and resounds the tread of 
 the passer by. Geneva has erected monuments to Ser- 
 vetus and Rousseau, while even the reputed grave of 
 
128 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 Calvin, marked by a modest stone, engraved "J. C," 
 is at best only a guess at the last resting-place of the 
 great Reformer who sleeps in an unknown grave. 
 Nevertheless, Scotland is the real monument of John 
 Knox, and John Calvin's is every Republican Govern- 
 ment of earth, the public school system of all nations 
 and "The Reformed Churches throughout the world 
 holding the Presbyterian System." 
 
 The personality and glory of Calvin suffer by any 
 ■V attempt at eulogy. His cotemporaries vie with each 
 other in an effort to do him honor. Even his enemies, 
 by the closest scrutiny, reveal no glaring defects of 
 character. Ernest Renan, who unconsciously awards 
 him apostolic succession by saying, "Paul begat Au- 
 Wustine, and Augustine begat John Calvin," exalts 
 ICalvin himself as "the most Christian man of his 
 igeneration." 
 
 I. In discussing our appointed theme, "The Rela- 
 tion of Calvin and Calvinism to Missions," we shall 
 invite attention first of all to Calvin and missions. 
 
 The times of Calvin were polemic, rather than evan- 
 gelistic. It was the great Reformation period of 
 Church History, which afforded not so much the oppor- 
 tunity of evangelistic crusades for the conversion of 
 the world, as it required the heroic spirit of the martyr 
 in witnessing to the truth of God, exemplifying the funda- 
 mental root-meaning of witness (martyr) in the orig- 
 inal tongue. Not in the sense of sealing his faith with 
 his blood, but in the higher significance of suffering 
 mentally and spiritually for the faith, John Calvin was 
 a martyr to the truth. 
 
 Banished from Geneva at one period, persecuted, 
 his life in constant danger, and even when at the zenith 
 of his power and influence, unloved by Geneva, but 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 129 
 
 merely tolerated for the sake of his presiding genius 
 in afifairs of statecraft, he suffered not the momentary 
 pangs of a dying martyr, but the long-drawn-out agony 
 of life-martyrdom; as widely removed from the other 
 as anguish of soul exceeds the pangs of physical pain. 
 
 The spirit of evangelist and polemic alike is service 
 and sacrifice. I'he missionary, subjecting himself to 
 the hardships of heathenism, displays no higher type 
 of sacrifice and engages in no nobler service than the 
 soldier of the Cross, who stands for the defense of the 
 citadel of truth. The latter may even demand a 
 severer type of moral courage. Unquestionably the 
 maintenance of the truth is as important to the life of 
 the Church as the propagation of the faith in the ex- 
 tension of the Kingdom. 
 
 The choice of God for Calvin's sphere of service 
 fell in the direction of polemics. The battle he waged, 
 and the victory he won for the truth was more than the 
 winning of a heathen continent for Christ. It af- 
 fected the destiny of all nations, and stretches in its 
 far-reaching consequences unto all the generations of 
 the coming ages. 
 
 Still, at the same time, it was also permitted him 
 to exhibit the missionary spirit of Christianity. Occu- 
 pied by affairs of state, burdened with the responsibili- 
 ties of civic righteousness, charged with the duty of 
 theological instruction, yet he found occasion to under- 
 take a campaign for the conversion of South America. 
 In the Christian Retrospect and Register, Robert 
 Baird, upon the authority of the "Histoire Univer- 
 selle," gives the following account of the first mission 
 undertaken by Protestantism : 
 
 "To Calvin, the Reformer of Geneva, belongs the 
 credit of having first attempted, in the Protestant 
 
130 Calvin Memorial Addresses ^ 
 
 churches, to excite interest in behalf of a heathen 
 nation. An expedition was fitted out in the year 1555 
 by Villegagnon, a Knight of Malta, under the patron- 
 age of Henry II. of France, with the view of establish- 
 ing a French colony in the New World. The appro- 
 bation of the monarch was secured through the me- 
 dium of the excellent Admiral De Coligny, whose favor 
 Villegagnon propitiated by the secret understanding 
 that the projected colony should protect the Reformed 
 religion. Accordingly, Calvin was applied to, in order 
 to obtain ministers to embark with the expedition. 
 
 "After consultation with the other pastors of Gen- 
 eva, he sent two — Guillaume Chartier and Pierre 
 Richier, — who were afterward joined by several others. 
 Their object was, at once, to labor among the colonists 
 and to evangelize the heathen aborigines. The expe- 
 dition reached Fort Coligny, as it was named, on the 
 Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, in March, 1556. On their 
 arrival, the Genevan ministers proceeded to constitute 
 a church, according to the forms and rites of the Re- 
 formed churches, and celebrated the Lord's Supper. 
 But Villegagnon soon betrayed his true character and 
 disposition, and after cruelly maltreating the mission- 
 aries, forced them to re-embark and return to France." 
 
 One can scarcely avoid speculation as to what 
 "might have been," if the unfortunate mission had not 
 been thus prematurely wrecked. As Calvin's name is 
 associated with Augustine, the great theologian, might 
 it not also have been linked with Augustine the mis- 
 sionary in the conversion of a continent? If the seeds 
 of Protestant Christianity planted by him in South 
 America had germinated, who can say if the glory of 
 that misguided continent might not have shone with 
 all the lustre of Protestant North America? But, alas! 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 131 
 
 his missionary venture served no useful purpose, ex- 
 cept to exhibit his Christian spirit and benevolent atti- 
 tude toward world-wide evangelization in obedience 
 to the Great Commission. 
 
 Just as a premature blossom in the treacherous 
 Indian summer, though nipped by the early frosts ot 
 winter, is nevertheless a prophecy of the coming 
 spring; so Calvin's ill-timed evangelism was but the 
 guarantee of the evangelistic spirit of Calvinism, when 
 the springtime of favorable seasons should furnish 
 opportunity to flower out in the glorious harvest of 
 the world's conversion. 
 
 In the providence of God, his missionary zeal was 
 confined to the task of la3dng foundations in practical 
 home mission work, while foreign missions was rather 
 the future outcome of his spirit and principles. Though 
 the foundation of an edifice may not be as ornate and 
 attractive as the superstructure, yet it must be even 
 more substantial by reason of its supreme importance. 
 The glory of Calvin in the sphere of missions is the 
 glory of laying foundations ; and he must also share 
 the glory of the magnificent superstructure, supported 
 by so substantial a basis. If some twentieth century 
 Apostle Paul should convert South America to Protes- 
 tantism, and place a new continent in the galaxy of 
 evangelical Christianity, would that be more glorious 
 than the transcendent work of Calvin, whose well-nigh 
 inspired genius laid the foundations of North America's 
 future greatness, and made it such a potent factor in 
 the evangelization of the world as to justify the rally- 
 ing cry, "As goes America, so goes the world"? 
 
 II. This opens the way for the consideration of the 
 second part of our subject, "The Relation of Calvinism 
 to Missions." 
 
132 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 It might be pertinent to inquire first of all, What is 
 Calvinism? The system of Calvinism, by taking the 
 name of Calvin, introduces confusion into the thought 
 of men; for Calvinism has a two-fold significance. 
 From its theological side, it is a misnomer. The Five 
 Points of Calvinism reach back to Augustine and to 
 Paul. Renan was substantially right: "Paul begat 
 Augustine, and Augustine begat John Calvin" ; but a 
 profounder thinker than Renan traces Calvinism back 
 to Christ, and indeed to the prophets of Israel, and to 
 the tents of the patriarchs. Consequently, in its theo- 
 logical aspect, Calvinism is older than Calvin; just as 
 Christianity is older than Christ. In the sense that 
 Calvin was a Christian, Christ himself was a Calvinist. 
 It was Christ who affirmed, that "Many are called, but 
 few are chosen" ; and unhesitatingly declared that the 
 divine providence affecting individuals and nations 
 was determined and conditioned for "the elect's sake." 
 No Calvinist ever uttered stronger Calvinism than One 
 who said : "No man can come unto me except it were 
 given unto him of my Father." "All that the Father 
 giveth me shall come to me." "And I give unto them 
 eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall 
 any man pluck them out of my hand." 
 
 Only on its scientific side, as a Life System, is 
 Calvinism distinctly Calvinistic. The distinctive work 
 of Calvin was to bequeath to the world as his legacy 
 of thought that virile and logical S3'stem, which is the 
 creator of the modern world ; or, as the English his- 
 torian Green expresses it : "It is in Calvinism that the 
 modern world strikes its roots ; for it was Calvinism 
 that first revealed to the world the dignJiy and worth 
 of man." The keynote of his religious philosophy 
 was the individuality of the human soul in direct con- 
 tact and immediate communion with God. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 133 
 
 In the sweep of its mighty movement, it affected 
 alike the individual soul, the ecclesiastical system, and 
 the polity of the state. In religion, it swept aside 
 priests and intermediaries with their confessionals and 
 dispensaries of divine grace, and placed the soul in 
 immediate and direct touch with God, in its own indi- 
 vidual responsibility. The logical result in church 
 government was to sweep aside bishops and prelates 
 as obstacles and rubbish, and place the people, through 
 their elective representatives, in charge of the church 
 as sole rulers in the house of God. 
 
 James I. was astute enough to see the bearing upon 
 civil government of Calvin's system, when he stated: 
 "Presbytery agreeth as well with monarchy as God 
 with the devil" ; and we will not presume to take issue 
 with so eminent authority as His Majesty, King James. 
 History has since justified his foresight; for Calvinism 
 has swept aside scepters and thrones, and substituted 
 for autocratic monarchy popular republicanism in its 
 varying forms. 
 
 Bancroft, the greatest American historian, was 
 eminently justified in crowning John Calvin as the 
 "father^of America"; while D'Aubigne, the historian 
 of the Reformation, supports his position by declaring: 
 "Calvin was the founder of the greatest of republics. 
 The Pilgrims, who left their country in the reign of 
 James I., and, landing on the barren soil of New Eng- 
 land, founded populous and mighty colonies, were his 
 sons ; and that American nation which we have seen 
 growing so rapidly boasts as its father the humble 
 Reformer on the shores of Lake Leman." 
 
 Four considerations will be urged to justify our 
 contention that Calvinism is the most potent agency in 
 the evangelization of the world. 
 
134 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 I. In its theological aspect, Calvinism, existing 
 ages before Calvin, had its influence in the early days 
 of Christianity on the life and activity of the church. 
 In character it made men conspicuous in their differ- 
 entiation from other classes. In heroism and endur- 
 ance, it gave the world startling exhibitions of mar- 
 tyrdom in men who could kiss the chains binding them 
 to the stake, and sing hallelujahs as their souls de- 
 parted in chariots of flame. In zeal and activity, it 
 enlisted the rank and file of the church in a religious 
 enthusiasm, which went from house to house, and car- 
 ried the Gospel "To the uttermost parts of the earth." 
 
 The Apostle Paul is the classical illustration of the 
 spirit of the ancient church. Is it a mere coincidence 
 that Paul, recognized as the profoundest exponent of 
 Calvinism, is at the same time regarded next to the 
 Master himself, as the type and model of all mission- 
 ary effort? Opponents of Calvinism have not hesi- 
 tated to charge Paul with the responsibility of giving 
 the Calvinistic cast to the theological thought of the 
 church. Yet this same Paul is always exalted as the 
 greatest and grandest of all missionaries. How did 
 these elements in his character stand related as cause 
 and effect? Was it his thorough Calvinism that created 
 his intense missionary fervor^ or vice versa? The 
 question answers itself. 
 
 The Calvinism of the first century was as unques- 
 tionable as that of Paul himself, who gave cast to the 
 thinking of the first century. Sacred history, ere clos- 
 ing, itself gives significant glimpses of the missionary 
 spirit of the church while under the dominating influ- 
 ence of Calvinism. That was an exquisite touch which 
 records in the language of the Church's enemies, the 
 estimate of apostolic success, complaining: "These 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 135 
 
 that have turned the world upside down have come 
 hither also." It was not an ardent admirer of Paul 
 who testified to his credit, "That not alone at Ephesus, 
 but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath per- 
 suaded and turned away much people" from idolatry, 
 Paul himself gives a suggestive hint of the missionary 
 propaganda of the age by asserting, that they had 
 preached the Gospel "to every creature which is under 
 heaven." (Col. i. 23.) 
 
 The remarkable characteristic of the evangelism of 
 ancient Christianity was its propaganda in the face of 
 persecution, and even at the cost of martyrdom. The 
 twentieth century Christianity, "holding the wealth^ 
 of the world in its hands," propagates the faith by 
 putting a conservative percentage of its wealth into 
 the enterprise of evangelizing the world. The first 
 century Christianity, conspicuous for its poverty, put its 
 soul into the task, and poured its blood more freely than 
 to-day the Church, rolling in wealth, pours its money. 
 It was proverbial : "The blood of the martyrs is the 
 seed of the Church." 
 
 In the spirit of Paul, the church of that Calvinistic 
 age "Counted not its life dear unto itself." James 
 Anthony Froude could not be accused of partiality to 
 Calvinism, and yet his statement remains unchallenged 
 that Calvinism, as long as it was the creed of the 
 Church, made the grandest heroes of men, and gives 
 as illustrations, William the Silent, Luther, Knox, An- 
 drew Melville, the Regent Murray, Coligny, Cromwell, 
 Milton and Bunyan. The Calvinism which made 
 heroes and martyrs of men gave also through them 
 such an exhibition of missionary zeal and successful 
 propagation of the Gospel in those early days of Chris- 
 tianity as has never since been paralleled in the history 
 of the world. 
 
136 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 2. In its scientific aspect as a Life System, the in- 
 fluence of Calvinism on governments and society has 
 largely produced our modern Christian civilization, 
 whose chief glory is not the marvelous material devel- 
 opment, nor the dazzling scientific achievements of 
 the age, but the revival of a missionary zeal, which 
 seeks to rival the apostolic triumphs of Calvinistic 
 Christianity. 
 
 Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty Enlightening the 
 World is essentially a false conception in point of 
 fact ; but nearly always the false has some basis in 
 truth, Calvin moulded the thought of the Renaissance, 
 which in the political hemisphere of the state mani- 
 fested itself in the largest freedom of life and action 
 through the operation of modern republicanism. This 
 liberty, thus the product of Calvinistic thought and 
 ideals, reaching its highest development in republican 
 government, has in removing the bonds and shackles 
 by which the Church has been held in more or less 
 restraint, furnished the opportunity for the Gospel of 
 Christ to fulfil its divine mission in enlightening the 
 world. It was not liberty itself, but the Gospel which 
 was given its liberty, that is enlightening the world. 
 
 The torch lighted by John Calvin gave to the world 
 the twin-product of republicanism in the state and the 
 free Christian commonwealth in the Church. On its 
 political side, it found expression in the republicanism 
 of Geneva, Switzerland, Holland, Great Britain and 
 America, and in its ever-widening influence is being 
 felt to-day even in autocratic Russia and despotic 
 Turkey. On its ecclesiastical side, it reaches its full 
 stature in "the Reformed Churches throughout the 
 world holding the Presbyterian System," which, how- 
 ever, in its indirect influence modifies alike the inde- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 137 
 
 pendency of Congregationalism and the despotism of 
 Prelacy, attracting each to itself as the golden mean. 
 It was Calvinism which lifted Geneva from the 
 depths of civic and moral degradation, and placed it, 
 as a glittering gem of civil and religions liberty, on 
 the brow of Enrope, the first-fruits of a new philosophy 
 destined to revolutionize society and human govern- 
 ments. It was Calvinism which, through the instru- 
 mentality of John Knox, awakened Scotland to a 
 higher life ; which hurled the stool of Jennie Geddes 
 at tyrannical encroachments upon religious liberty, and 
 made the sturdy Scotch character the staunchest and 
 grandest national life the world has ever produced. 
 It was Calvinism which took off the head of Charles I. 
 and gave England in the Protectorate of Oliver Crom- 
 well the first full breath of constitutional liberty, and 
 at the same time furnished that larger protectorate to 
 struggling Protestantism throughout Europe, making 
 that era the brightest chapter in English history. It 
 was Calvinism which waged successfully under Wil- 
 liam the Silent, the unequal contest of Holland with 
 Spain, and created the Dutch Republic, which even- 
 tually hurled the Stuarts from the throne of England, 
 and guaranteed constitutional and religious liberty to 
 the English-speaking world. It was Calvinism which 
 founded in America the greatest of Republics, and 
 made it the Liberator of Cuba and the Philippines, 
 and the protector of the weaker members in the family 
 of nations. It is Calvinism which, through the agency 
 of Robert College on the Bosphorus and Presbyterian 
 missions in the East, is leavening the Ottoman Empire, 
 and giving- even the Turk a taste of constitutional 
 liberty. 
 
138 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 In the historic conflict of the ages, Calvinism was 
 vanquished in France, in the defeat of the Huguenots ; 
 and as a consequence France, the fatherland of John 
 Calvin, descended almost to the level of Spain. If 
 Spain had triumphed in Holland, in all human prob- 
 ability Calvinism would have perished from the earth, 
 and Holland would also have joined France and Spain 
 in a trio of degenerate nations. In that case, William 
 of Orange would never have turned the scale against 
 the Stuarts in Britain, and North America would read 
 its fate to-day in the stagnation of South America. So 
 that the glory of North America is due chiefly to the 
 triumph of Calvinism, jjusdfying Ranke, the historian, 
 in speaking of Calvin as "virtual founder of America." 
 
 Here the questron arises. What bearing has all this 
 on Missions ? "Much every way," chiefly because Cal- 
 vinism created the modern Anglo-Saxon world, and the 
 Anglo-Saxon is the greatest evangelistic force of Chris- 
 tendom. The Anglo-Saxon has created an empire of 
 missions — world-wide, on whose dominion the sun 
 never sets. The statistics of 1908 reveal a total gift 
 to foreign missions last year of $22,846,465, and of 
 this amount, the Anglo-Saxon contingent contributed 
 $19,266,880, nearly 90 per cent., leaving only $3,578,- 
 588 for the remainder of the world. If this were not 
 demonstration sufficient of the influence of Calvinism, 
 as an evangelizing force, it could also be further dem- 
 onstrated by statistics that the Calvinistic churches 
 lead the world in their gifts to missions. 
 
 3. The essential principles of Calvinism would lead 
 us a priori to infer that it would furnish the strongest 
 incentives to successful missionary effort. Nothing is 
 more reassuring and better calculated to arouse the 
 supremest effort for the advancement of the Kingdom 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 139 
 
 than a profound belief in the divine sovereignty of 
 God, who "sits on no precarious throne" and sends 
 his servants on no uncertain mission. In human gov- 
 ernments, that army will struggle most valiantly which 
 has implicit confidence in the competency of the gov- 
 ernment to direct its affairs, and its ability to execute 
 its purposes. Calvinism enthrones God in his sover- 
 eign omnipotence, controlling alike the worlds which 
 revolve in their orbits and the mote which floats in 
 the sunbeam, directing all the events of the universe 
 according to a divinely appointed plan, arranged in 
 the councils of eternity. 
 
 Is it any wonder that His subjects, persuaded that 
 they are executing the designs of God himself, toil in 
 the strength born of the conviction that though their 
 immediate designs may fail, and they themselves 
 perish, yet God himself lives and reigns, and will in 
 His own sovereign wisdom and appointed time bring 
 to pass His purposes of grace? Missions may chal- 
 lenge their faith, and make unrelenting draughts on 
 their resources and activities ; but what matters it, if 
 it be the sovereign purpose of God? 
 
 Distrust of self would ordinarily weaken and par- 
 alyze all effort, were it not for the fact that such 
 distrust flings the soul back upon God in its weakness, 
 and by an abiding faith in Him, obtains a strength that 
 is invincible. "When I am weak, then am I strong," 
 is the paradox of Calvinism. Will the impulsive, spas- 
 modic zeal, springing from self-confidence and reliance 
 on human means, stand the strain of long-continued 
 effort so well as one who makes God his confidence, and < 
 "endures as seeing Him who is invisible"? The firm 
 conviction, that we rest not on human but divine effi- 
 ciency, gives stability to our vacillating efforts, ancj ' 
 
140 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 makes us strong by the mighty hands of the God of 
 Jacob. These "shall mount up on wings as eagles, 
 they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk 
 and not faint," in the Herculean task of bringing the 
 world to Christ. 
 
 Not simply viewed from the standpoint of belief in 
 the divine sovereignty, does Calvinism thus evince its 
 superiority as a potent influence in world-wide evangel- 
 ization, but it is equally evident from the human stand- 
 point of the perseverance of the saints. If the stereo- 
 typed objection to Calvinism were true, that it is cold, 
 calculating, lacking in fervor, it would be more than 
 counterbalanced by the steady, persistent, unflinching, 
 perseverance of an undaunted faith, which holds on the 
 even tenor of its way in the face of opposition, despite 
 difficulties and discouragements, till it wrings victory 
 out of defeat. The fevered brain may produce momen- 
 tarily an unnatural strength, born of delirium ; but 
 will it endure the trials and press on in the race with 
 the steady gait of one in the full possession of robust 
 health ? 
 
 Calvinism finds its analogy, not in the whirlwind 
 
 of impetuosity, not in the fire of religious fanaticism, 
 
 I nor in ^le earthquake of spasmodic upheavals, but in 
 
 ! the "still small voice" that speaks conviction in the 
 
 ' silent depths of the soul. If, in the sphere of missions, 
 
 failure and disaster overtake his best efforts, and suc- 
 
 ^cess be long delayed, the Calvinist undeterred sees in 
 
 the analogy of nature how slowly and silently she 
 
 elaborates the best and grandest results of her mighty 
 
 plan by gradual processes and takes comfort in the 
 
 thought, that in the Kingdom of Grace, God works by 
 
 the same methods and executes His largest purposes by 
 
 the steady, irresistible perseverance of the saints, re- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 141 
 
 tnembering that though "the Kingdom of God cometh 
 not with observation," it comes none the less surely. 
 
 Tested by practical results, will an appeal to the 
 history of missions justify this contention, that the 
 principles of Calvinism pre-eminently qualify its adhe- 
 rents for leadership in evangelizing the world? 
 
 Among the Reformers, who led the way of Protes- 
 tantism in the first missionary venture, but the Calvin- 
 ists of Geneva? Who penetrated first the trackless 
 forests of the New World, carrying the Gospel to its 
 untamed savages, but Brainerd and Eliot? Who led 
 the modern missionary movement, which is awakening 
 all Christendom to the task of making Christ known 
 throughout the wide world? If the roll were called 
 of the Calvinists who have led the advancing hosts of 
 the Church, in its attack on heathenism, it would in- 
 clude well-nigh all the great names of history con- 
 spicuous for missionary enthusiasm and achievement. 
 Time would fail to enumerate William Carey, Henry 
 Martyn, David Livingstone, Robert Moffatt, Alexander 
 Dufif, Adoniram Judson, Robert Morrison, John h. 
 Paton, John Leighton Wilson, William H. Sheppard, ; 
 and a vast host of others, who "through faith subdued 
 kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, 
 stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of ! 
 fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness ! 
 were made strong, waxed valiant in fight", etc. \ 
 
 According to Dr. Moses D. Hoge, "the first mis- / 
 sionary since the Reformation sent forth by any church 
 in its corporate capacity, and ordained to labor in the 
 foreign field, was Alexander Duff (commissioned by 
 the Presbyterian Church of Scotland), whose name 
 stands as a synonym of whatever is heroic, self- 
 sacrificing and saintly in missionary character and 
 achievement." 
 
142 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 At the meeting of the AlHance in Glasgow, Prof. 
 Lindsay informed that august and venerable body, rep- 
 resenting the larger part of the Calvinistic forces of 
 the world, that, "The Presbyterian churches do more 
 than a fourth of the whole mission work among the 
 heathen that is done by all the Protestant churches 
 together," and mentioning three of the greatest de- 
 fnominations, asserted that, "The Presbyterian Church 
 [is doing more in the foreign field than all of them 
 'combined." 
 
 At the same meeting of the Presbyterian Alliance, 
 representatives of the Eastern Section of the Ecumen- 
 ical Methodist Conference appeared and made a most 
 cordial and pleasing address, expressing their fraternal 
 good will and appreciation of our principles and work 
 in the following complimentary language : 
 
 "Taking the world over, Presbyterianism in the 
 future must be looked to as one of the greatest and 
 most beneficent forces for the conversion and evan- 
 gelization of the generations of mankind on every con- 
 tinent. We do unfeignedly rejoice as we behold your 
 goodly array of churches, giving the noblest of their 
 sons, and consecrating their vast resources of learning 
 and wealth to the greatest, the mightiest of all enter- 
 prises, the conversion of the world to Christ," and the 
 address closes with the prayer that our "cherished 
 ideal of 'a free church in a free state' shall in every 
 nation under heaven be an accomplished fact, and every 
 citizen be taught that the chief end of man is to glorify 
 God and enjoy Him forever." 
 
 Is not the wisdom of Calvinism justified by the mis- 
 sionary achievements of its children? 
 
 4. In conclusion, it is Calvinism which furnishes 
 the only guarantee of the ultimate triumph of the 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 143 
 
 Gospel in extending the sceptre of Christ, till "The 
 kingdoms of the world shall become the Kingdoms of 
 our Lord and of his Christ." Others may indulge a 
 well-grounded hope based upon an abiding faith ; but 
 Calvinism plants itself on "The sure word of pro- 
 phesy," and maintains that the conversion of the world 
 is one of "The eternal decrees of God," revealed as 
 "Foreordained for his own glory," and must therefore 
 surely "come to pass." It has been prophesied, "that 
 at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and 
 every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lora 
 to the glory of God the Father," and it could not be 
 prophesied unless it had been predestinated ; for con- 
 tingent and doubtful events cannot be prophesied. 
 Prophecy is always and everywhere based on predes- 
 tination, and not upon mere fore-knowledge; for pro- 
 phecy is fore-knowledge revealed, which presupposes 
 the event, as a fixed and unchangeable decree. 
 
 The Son of God, in the 2nd Psalm, encourages him- 
 self in the predestined triumph of His Kingdom : "I 
 will declare the decree, the Lord said unto me. Thou 
 art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of 
 me, and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheri- 
 tance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy 
 possession." Let the heathen rage, and the world in 
 arms combine ; let the evil powers of the Kingdom of 
 Darkness assault the Citadel of Faith ; let all worlds 
 join in a universal rebellion against the Lord of Glory; 
 nevertheless the eternal decree shall stand ; for "He 
 that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh ; the Lord shall 
 have them in derison." The Lord God Omnipotent 
 proclaims from His eternal throne in the heavens : "Yet 
 have I set my King on my holy hill of Zion," and that 
 King, though still uncrowned and at the moment in 
 
144 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 the weakness of the flesh, even with the cross con- 
 fronting Him, could yet declare, "Upon this Rock I 
 will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not 
 prevail against it," 
 
 One of the ablest bishops of America recently pub- 
 lished, over his own signature, in the daily press, this 
 statement: "The world will either be all pagan or all 
 Christian ; I believe it will be all Christian." A thor- 
 ough Calvinist could not have consistently indicted 
 that statement. Planting himself on the sure word of 
 Prophesy, which grounds itself in predestination, he 
 would have announced : "I know whom I have be- 
 lieved." "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, 
 and from the river unto the ends of the earth." 
 
 No one will dispute the assertion of the author of 
 "The Creed of Presbyterians," "That friends and foes 
 alike award to the Presbyterian Church as its wreath 
 of thorns, or its diadem of glory, the distinction of 
 being the world's historic and leading representative 
 of the creed of Calvinism." Is that the explanation 
 also of the fact that in missions, "It has always led 
 the van of the advancing hosts of God?" 
 
 After quotations showing that, "The largest Protea- 
 tant family in the world is the Presbyterian," in elo- 
 quent language Dr. Smith gives a grand summary of 
 her missionary achievements : "More catholic and im- 
 posing even than the Presbyterian numbers is the 
 world-wide range of the Presbyterian empire. While 
 the adherents of other Protestant communions are 
 more or less massed in single countries, the Lutherans 
 in Germany, the Episcopalians in England, the Metho- 
 dists and Baptists in the United States, the line of 
 the Presbyterian Church is gone out through all the 
 earth. She thrives this hour in more continents, among 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 145 
 
 a greater number of nations, and peoples, and lan- 
 guages, than any other evangelical church in the world. 
 As her witnesses in Continental Europe, she has the 
 historic Presbyterian Reformed Churches of Austria, 
 Bohemia, Galacia, Moravia, Hungary, Belgium, France, 
 Germany, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, of Russia, 
 and Switzerland, and Spain. She is rooted and fruitful 
 in Africa, in Australia, in Asia, in Great Britain, in 
 North America, in South America, in the West Indies, 
 in New Zealand, in Melanesia, — the people of this faith 
 and order gird the earth. Presbyterianism possesses 
 a power of adaptation unparalleled by any other sys- 
 tem. It holds in steadfast array a great part of the 
 intelligence and moral vigor of the Christian world, 
 and from its abounding spiritual life are going forth 
 the mighty forces of Christian missions into all the 
 heathen world." 
 
 That was not a vain-glorious boast of the American 
 Presbyterian Church in its report to the Alliance of 
 Reformed Churches : "The missionary heralds of our 
 Pan-American Presbyterianism alone, which is but a 
 branch of the catholic Presbyterian Church, are scat- 
 tered from British Columbia to Ucatan ; they are in 
 Central America, and in Columbia ; Venezuela, British 
 Guiana, and Brazil ; they on the African Coast, from 
 Liberia to the Ogowe, and in the heart of the great 
 Congo Basin ; they are strong in Syria and Persia, and 
 side by side in India our separate columns are advanc- 
 ing under one Captain ; we are proclaiming glad tidings 
 in Siam and Laos, in Hainan and the Philippines, in 
 Cuba and Formosa ; we have long since 'partitioned 
 China,' not for political spoil, but for her own salva- 
 tion ; our united forces are teaching the Hermit Nation 
 that, as no man, so no nation, liveth to itself; we have 
 
146 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 proclaimed to the Sunrise Kingdom the Sun of Right- 
 eousness, whose rising shall know no setting. Our 
 strategic points are taken, our stations occupied, our 
 watch towers girdle the globe." 
 
 This is the 400th anniversary of the birth of John 
 Calvin — scholar, author, teacher, philosopher, states- 
 man, theologian, reformer, and, according to Ernest 
 Renan, "the most Christian man of his generation." 
 No man has been more misunderstood, misrepresented, 
 villified. What is to be the outcome of this world- 
 wide, quadricentennial celebration? Will the thought 
 of mankind re-examine his teaching and spirit, and yet 
 accord him substantial though tardy justice? Will he 
 at last come into his own ? Will the world of thought 
 revivify a system, which turned the current of cen- 
 turies out of its channel, destroyed despotism, broke 
 the yoke of oppression, created modern civilization, 
 and rescued the Church from dead forms and ushered in 
 the largest spiritual life? 
 
 Is there to be a revival of Calvinism under the 
 life-giving breath of the Spirit of God? Will the Cal- 
 vinism of the first century, which triumphed over 
 paganism backed by the power of the Roman Empire, 
 and "turned the world upside down," be paralleled in 
 a twentieth century evangelism rivaling apostolic 
 times? Will the revival of Calvinism be the signal for 
 the ultimate triumph of the Gospel? Will the renewal 
 of its youth and virile power manifest itself in the 
 dream of present-day Christianity, "The evangelization 
 of the world in this generation"? 
 
 May the glad shout of a redeemed world speedily 
 resound to the embattlements of heaven : "Hallelujah, 
 for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth" ; and may 
 heaven and earth unite in "bringing forth the royal 
 diadem to crown Him Lord of All." Amen and Amen. 
 
President GEORCiE H. Denny, 
 Washington and Lee University. 
 
CALVIN'S INFLUENCE ON EDUCA- 
 TIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 By President George H. Denny, 
 JVasIiiiigton and Lee University, Lexington, Va. 
 
 John Calvin was an organizing genius of the first 
 rank. Upon the altar of that kind of genius, provided 
 it is devoted to great ends, fame is apt to burn its in- 
 cense. That the genius of Calvin was devoted to great 
 ends is no longer a question of debate among thinking 
 men. It is true, however, that the modern world in esti- 
 mating his fame is inclined to picture him chiefly, if not 
 solely, as the organizer of a great system of theology or 
 as the apostle of a great movement that was destined 
 to give to a weary world civil and religious freedom. 
 But this myriad-minded and myriad-hearted man did 
 more than that. His organizing genius grappled with 
 another vital problem upon which human gratitude has 
 failed to lay the emphasis that it deserves. I refer to 
 his contribution to educational progress. Indeed, so little 
 emphasis has been placed upon this phase of his work 
 that it is difficult to find any literature* at all that even 
 attempts to deal with it. So far as I know, no elaborate 
 
 * Special assistance has been secured from the following 
 sources : Kuper's Lectures on Calvanisni; Walker's John Calvin; 
 Smith's Creed of Presbyterians; Westminster Addresses, Char- 
 lotte, 1897; McPhcrson, Presbyterianism and Education in the 
 Centennial Addresses, Philadelphia, 1888; Morris, Presbyterian- 
 ism and Edtication in the Proceedings Second General Council, 
 Philadelphia, 1880. 
 
148 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 and exhaustive discussion of Calvin's relation to modern 
 education has yet been undertaken. It will, therefore, 
 be understood that I approach my task with the utmost 
 hesitation. Surely, I do not claim to speak with final au- 
 thority. 
 
 That Calvinism and education are intimately asso- 
 ciated in fact, as well as in theory, is to be the thesis 
 of our present argument. Indeed, this intimacy of as- 
 sociation is such that it has long been true that the mere 
 mention of the one has served to bring to mind the other. 
 The church of Calvin has taken high rank as the church 
 of education. Wherever Calvinism has gone, it has car- 
 ried the school with it. It has been the sturdy champion 
 of intellectual, moral, and religious training in all its 
 phases, — from early childhood to mature manhood, — in 
 the home, in the Sabbath-school, in the grammar school, 
 in the high school, in the college, in the university, and 
 in the great training school of mature life and ex- 
 perience. Its critics have charged that it has emphasized 
 a partial and particular training, with special reference to 
 theology. That is not a true charge. Calvin did perhaps 
 think of theology as modern men think of a great light- 
 house. He recognized, too, that those who "fill its lamps 
 and trim its wicks" must be skilled workmen. But, 
 in recognizing this, he never forgot that a light-house is 
 constructed, not for the purpose of giving employment to 
 the few who are adjusting its machinery, but primarily 
 for the 'purpose of lending its signal to the multitude of 
 vessels adrift upon the seas. Calvinism has, therefore, 
 stood for the broadest and soundest training the world 
 has ever known. While many of these very critics have 
 themselves been championing some narrow theory that 
 would limit education to a mere fraction of man's per- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 149 
 
 sonality, the voice of Calvinism has been heard boldly 
 insisting upon the education of the zvhole man, in the 
 entire circumference of his possibilities, and not simply 
 along lines that will guarantee a larger money value when 
 taken out into the market of professional or mercan- 
 tile life. It is true that Calvin's plea for education did 
 not rest merely upon the flimsy fact that it contributes 
 to man's capacity for passionate gain-getting. His plea 
 for education rested upon the sterner fact that it may be 
 made to contribute to that richest and most potential asset 
 in the high life of any nation — character and conscience. 
 "We boast," says Bancroft, "of our common schools. 
 Calvin was the father of popular education — the inventor 
 of the system of free schools." Whether or not that is 
 true, it is an historical fact that Calvin, following Luther, 
 gave a powerful impulse to popular education. It is an 
 historical fact that the stream of influence that flowed 
 from Geneva, through Scotland and Holland, to this 
 country, was by far the strongest factor in establishing 
 the American common school system. It was also the 
 leading force in founding colleges, seminaries and aca- 
 demies of learning for the first two centuries of our na- 
 tional life. Calvin himself made this work the crowning 
 achievement of his large, spacious life. The founding of 
 the Academy of Geneva meant to him "the final step to- 
 ward the realization of a Christian commonwealth." He 
 held that the best method by which to preserve purity 
 in religion was to enlighten the understanding of men. 
 It is not our present purpose to trace the exact origin 
 or to review the exact history of the great educational 
 movement of Calvin's day. Certainly, high honor is 
 due to Luther, whose name is a synonym of a world-wide 
 revolution in education, and to Melancthon who came to 
 
150 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 be known as the "preceptor of Germany," to say nothing 
 of Zvvingli, Knox and others, who enriched and ennobled 
 the higher hfe of that day by their devotion to the ideal 
 of sound learning. But it was Calvin who first gave "a 
 local habitation and a name"' to this mighty impulse. It 
 was Calvin's genius and sacrifice that first gave to it 
 organization and system. While others were delaying 
 definite action, for lack of funds, and a cold world was 
 exclaiming, then as now, "Silver and gold I have none," 
 Calvin was establishing a great school and summoning 
 his fellowmen "to rise up and walk." It is just here that 
 the work of Calvin stands supreme. It is just here that 
 his great constructive mind and his superb executive 
 genius flowered into full bloom. In establishing a system 
 of education, he did another thing also that will never 
 hinder his reward. He established once for all that view 
 of education which makes God the central sun around 
 which must revolve every system of human thought and 
 every scheme of human training. 
 
 We shall now undertake to cite some of the specific 
 things that have determined the influence of Calvin on 
 education, and to assess at its true value the contribution 
 he has made to educational progress. 
 
 I. / submit that the system of doctrine formulated by 
 Calvin has constituted a pozverful factor in educational 
 progress. It may be fairly questioned whether any sys- 
 tem of theology has ever made so profound an impression 
 upon thoughtful men. Certainly, none has more insis- 
 tently involved the logical necessity of mental discipline 
 or more insistently demanded the spread of learning. 
 Calvinism reaffirmed the spirit of the Pauline theology 
 on which it fed and once more proclaimed the fact that 
 religion is not confined to the feelingr or to the will. It 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 151 
 
 laid a profound emphasis of Christian intcUigence. It 
 insisted that man must love God, not only with his whole 
 heart, but also zcith his zvholc mind. Calvin held that "a 
 true faith must be an intelligent faith." He understood 
 that the acceptance and the diffusion of his scheme of 
 doctrine must inevitably depend, not only upon the train- 
 ing of the men who were to expound it, but also upon the 
 intelligence of the great masses of humanity who were 
 to accept it. 
 
 The doctrinal scheme of Calvin has historically and 
 habitually created and demanded intellectual manhood. 
 The system itself has been, immediately and directly, a 
 great instrument of intellectual discipline, bringing into 
 requisition all literature, all science and all philosophy. 
 Wherever it has been properly expounded, it has been 
 a mighty factor in stimulating thought and intelligence 
 among the people. But its larger educational influence 
 has been due to the fact that it requires, for its accept- 
 ance and diffusion, mental discipline and intellectual cul- 
 ture. This fact pledged not only Calvin himself, but 
 also every man who accepted the system and believed 
 that it embraced divine truth, to the policy of educating 
 the masses of the people. No man can estimate to what 
 extent modern educational progress is the fruit of Cal- 
 vin's credal statement, even if it has perhaps "smacked 
 of a certain surcness of opinion and passion for its sort 
 of truth." 
 
 Such majestic themes as the doctrine of the absolute 
 sovereignty of God, the doctrine of the divine decrees, 
 the doctrine of the total depravity of the human race, and 
 the doctrine of the necessity of the regeneration of the 
 Spirit, — all of them bitterly assailed from Calvin's day to 
 the present time, — invite and summon the best powers 
 
152 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 of mental discipline and intellectual culture. Calvin un- 
 derstood the logic of the situation. He saw that, if his 
 system was to gain a foot-hold, it was necessary to train 
 the masses. He saw that it would require mental train- 
 ing to master such problems and to trace them out to all 
 that they logically involve. 
 
 The church of Calvin, therefore, has been a teaching 
 church. It has flourished as intelligence has flourished. 
 It has declined as intelligence has declined. If every 
 system of truth has its educational influence, certainly 
 a system, like that of Calvin, which makes the strongest 
 possible appeal to the human reason, throws its battle 
 lines immeasurably farther into the enemy's territory 
 than a system characterized by less logical clearness of 
 thought and less logical precision of statement. The day 
 has long since passed when any critic of respectable repu- 
 tation would dare question the fact that Calvin's system 
 of theology has trained a sturdy race of thinkers. What- 
 ever else it has done, it has laid stress on mental dis- 
 cipline. It has been a foe to popular ignorance, and 
 it has given incentive and inspiration to intellectual 
 progress wherever it has gone. 
 
 2. / submit that the system of church polity (and 
 incidentally of civil government) for which Calvin con- 
 tended, especially in its fully developed Presbyterian 
 form, has exerted a tremendous influence in the spread 
 of popular intelligence and universal education. Calvin 
 held that the church, under God, is a spiritual republic. 
 In spite of a personal aristocratic bias and a tempera- 
 mental antagonism to a pure democracy, it still remains 
 that, by the application of his fundamental principle of 
 the equality of all men before God, the logic of his con- 
 tention was that, in an ideal sense, the will of the people 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 153 
 
 is the source of authority ; that ultimate power rests 
 with the people who are responsible to God alone. 
 
 It is easy to infer the inevitable effect of Calvin's 
 contention in these matters upon the education of the 
 masses. Such a contention naturally shook the whole 
 civil, social and religious world to the centre. The logic 
 of his position irresistibly led to popular training. If 
 the people are, under God, sovereign, it is. clear that the 
 people, in Calvin's view, must be educated. Otherwise, 
 he was planning to live, and to cause the church to live, 
 under an ignorant sovereign. So also popular liberty, 
 based upon religious liberty, if it means anything at all, 
 means training in the rights and duties of freemen. Thus 
 the church of Calvin, from the beginning, has consti- 
 tuted one of the most effective instruments in the cam- 
 paign of education. The genius of its polity, as well as 
 the character of its creed, has been one of the foremost 
 factors in inaugurating modern programs for the train- 
 ing of the masses. 
 
 We have seen that through Calvin flowed the in- 
 fluence that established the great common-school system 
 of our own country. When the people sit as the court 
 of final appeal, the education of the masses rises above 
 any mere question of philanthropy or of expediency. It 
 becomes a question of law and order. It becomes a 
 question of the vitality and stability of constitutional 
 government, whether in church or in state. It becomes 
 a question of the integrity of democratic rule where- 
 ever it is found. The education of the people is the in- 
 exorable logic of the Calvinistic program, which has 
 wrought out for the modern world the best features of 
 its educational creed. Education is the weapon with 
 which to arm every warrior who in this conflict would 
 
154 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 contend for the individual freedom for which Calvin 
 fought. If the people are to rule, let them not be fed 
 on the husks of a shallow discipline, but provide for 
 them "bread enough and to spare" that they may be 
 trained to the high task of self-government. For no 
 government will be better than the people deserve and 
 are able to maintain. 
 
 3. / submit that tJie form of worship and the system 
 of religious instruction of ivhich Calvin zvas so stout a 
 champion have fostered popular intelligence and pro- 
 moted educational progress. The emphasis upon the 
 didactic feature in church worship and the catachetical 
 method in religious instruction, characteristic of the Cal- 
 vinistic scheme, have been conspicuous factors in the de- 
 velopment of a sturdy and intelligent faith. They have 
 played an important role in the mental discipline of all 
 who have felt the touch of their influence. That sound 
 mental training has resulted from the catachetical method 
 of instruction, for which Calvin contended, is too ob- 
 vious to require discussion. Of scarcely less import- 
 ance is the didactic element in church worship. The 
 Calvinistic form of worship is characterized by the ut- 
 most simplicity. There is a minimum of ceremony and 
 ritual. From the beginning, it has exalted truth to the 
 place in which art had long been enthroned. Calvin in- 
 sisted that special emphasis should be laid upon the 
 preaching of the word by trained men. Preaching was to 
 be emphasized as an important part of worship and as 
 an essential agency in the religious training of the people. 
 Calvinism has rigidly stood for a learned ministry by men 
 able to "rightly divide the word of truth." It is an out- 
 standing fact that instruction in the truth has disting- 
 uished its pulpits from Calvin's time to the present. It 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 155 
 
 may here be pertinently remarked that "epochs of great 
 intellectual and moral cjuickening have almost without 
 exception been epochs marked by great preaching. Such 
 epochs present the sermon as a characteristic form of 
 literature." It would be difficult to form an adequate 
 conception of the educational power of the pulpit. It 
 has been, directly and indirectly, perhaps the most potent 
 single factor in the world's intellectual progress. Calvin 
 has been perhaps its foremost champion. He saw that, 
 through the pulpit and the training school, the great un- 
 finished work of reaching the mind and the heart of the 
 world w^as to be accomplished. He believed that the 
 tmth addressed to the reason is the surest medium by 
 which to awaken the conscience of men. It is this em- 
 phasis upon the sermon that has distinguished the 
 church of Calvin, among all other churches, as pre- 
 eminently the church of religious training. This empha- 
 sis not only directly induced intellectual discipline, but 
 none the less certainly became a powerful indirect cause 
 of mental culture. The untrained human mind may in- 
 terest itself in ceremony and ritual; but it is evident 
 that the Calvinistic emphasis upon something more solid 
 than form and ceremony must, in the last analysis, de- 
 pend for its vitality, if not for its very existence, upon 
 human intelligence and human training. 
 
 4. / siibiiiit that the character or quality of training 
 which Calvin emphasised has pozverftilly influenced edii- 
 tational progress. There has been widespread miscon- 
 ception of Calvin's views concerning education. It has 
 been charged that his sole interest in education was from 
 the viewpoint of theology. It is charged that his ad- 
 vocacy of the study of the humanities was in the interest 
 of theology alone ; that his recognition of the value of 
 
156 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 training in language, in history, in philosophy was due to 
 the fact that these branches of study, in a large degree, 
 acknowledge theology as their crown. On the other hand, 
 it has been charged that he was actually hostile to science 
 and to art. 
 
 It has, however, been conclusively shown* that Cal- 
 vinism, so far from being hostile to science and art, has 
 actually fostered and stimulated them; that the principle 
 that underlies Calvinism demands and creates the scien- 
 tific spirit. It is a familiar fact that Calvinism raises, at 
 the very threshold of all enquiry, the question of the 
 origin, the relation, and the destiny of all that exists. It 
 holds that the universe, so far from being the sport of 
 chance or the passive issue of accident, obeys law and 
 order; that it is under the sway of unity, stability and 
 order, established by God Himself. It proclaims God's 
 decree as the foundation and origin of every natural, 
 moral and spiritual law. It is easy to understand how 
 such a scheme of philosophy gave a new impulse to, and 
 created a new love for, science. It is also true that 
 Calvinism, by means of its dominating principle and its 
 doctrine of "common grace," not only created a new love 
 for science, but actually restored to science its domain, — 
 proclaiming that "there is nothing either in the life of 
 nature, or in human life itself, which does not present it- 
 self as an object worthy of scientific investigation." Cal- 
 vinism, however, did more than merely give a new im- 
 pulse to science, create a new love for it, and restore 
 to it its domain. It also advanced its indispensable 
 liberty and delivered it from unnatural bonds. It restored 
 the long surrendered right of free enquiry, which Calvin, 
 according to Bancroft, "pushed to its utmost verge." It 
 
 * Kuyper : Lectures on Calvinism. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 157 
 
 announced to the world that neither the imperial crown 
 nor the papal tiara would be allowed "to clip its wings 
 or to wring its neck." Finally, it was Calvinism that, 
 having emancipated science, pointed the way to a solu- 
 tion of the unavoidable "scientific conflict" — not the so- 
 called conflict between faith and science, but "the conflict 
 of two scientific systems, proceeding from two kinds of 
 human consciousness, between those who contend that 
 the cosmos, as it exists to-day, is in a normal condition 
 and those who contend that it is in an abnormal con- 
 dition." It was Calvinism that proclaimed the right and 
 the liberty of each man to build science from the premises 
 of his own consciousness, — yet, at the same time, refus- 
 ing the scientific name to any man who dares to slip behind 
 his work any whimsical hypothesis of his own making 
 or to draw from it any whimsical conclusion of his own 
 fancy. Calvin saw no conflict between faith and science. 
 There is no such conflict. The fact that a man is not 
 afraid to open his eyes in the presence of nature con- 
 stitutes no reason in the view of Calvin why he should 
 be ashamed to close them in the presence of God. 
 
 Calvinism has stood in a similar friendly relation to 
 art. It has been charged that Calvinism, having no gen- 
 eral art-style of its own and depreciating the symbolic 
 form of worship, has not only been unappreciative of art, 
 but actually hostile to it. As a matter of fact, it has 
 fostered art, even though it has refused to embody its 
 religious spirit in monuments of its making. Not only 
 this, but it is a fact that "the highest interpretation of 
 the nature of art flows from the Calvinistic principle." 
 Calvin himself encouraged and commended the lawful 
 use of art. He held that "art reveals to man a higher 
 reality than is offered by this sinful world" ; that art 
 
158 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 originated with God, the sovereign Artist ; that it is not 
 simply the product of our own phantasy, nor of our own 
 subjective perception, that, in its highest conception it 
 has an objective existence, being itself the ex- 
 pression of a divine perfection. It was Calvin 
 who, by "releasing art from the guardianship and 
 unjustified tutelage of the church, first recognized the 
 fact that it had reached its majority," and first insisted 
 with emphasis that "all liberal arts are gifts of God," not 
 to the church alone, but by virtue of "common grace" 
 to the unregenerate world as well. It is not enough to 
 say, however, that Calvinism emancipated art ; that it 
 demanded for it strength to stand on its own feet, and 
 that it vigorously sought to extend its branches in every 
 direction. It did more than that. As a matter of histori- 
 cal fact, it actually advanced the development of the 
 arts. It is true that Calvinism built no cathedrals, no 
 palaces, and no amphitheatres. But it is also true that, in 
 literature, in painting and in music, Calvinism disclosed 
 to art an entirely new world. One example will suffice. 
 The world knows that, for two centuries, the Calvinistic 
 Dutch school of art "pointed the way to all the nations 
 for new conquests." We are not now discussing the 
 dififerentiating nature of Calvinistic art. It is sufficient 
 for our present purpose to claim for it that high quality 
 and that original genius which is its due. The point of 
 special emphasis is that, so far from being hostile to art, 
 as has been charged, it has been the patron, the foster- 
 mother, and friend of that which is best, most satisfying, 
 and most uplifting in art and in its highest develop- 
 ment. 
 
 Having answered thus briefly the charge that Cal- 
 vinism lacks catholicity in its attitude toward certain 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 159 
 
 realms of knowledge, and claiming for it, not only high 
 service, but also initiative, in the particular directions in 
 which its enemies have charged against it failure and 
 hostility, we are now prepared to say that Calvin's great- 
 est contribution to true educational progress, as we con- 
 ceive it, lies in another direction. We are prepared to 
 express the conviction that the greatest service which 
 Calvin was permitted to render mankind through educa- 
 tion has resulted from his insistence that the moral and 
 spiritual training of men is entitled to take precedence 
 over other kind of training. It is just at this point that 
 Calvin's influence has been most pronounced and vital in 
 the past, and it is just at this point that it is most ur- 
 gently needed in the crisis that confronts the church 
 to-day. 
 
 So far from being a matter of reproach, it is to the 
 lasting credit of Calvin that he held that education, 
 rightly conceived, must have in view the elevation of the 
 moral nature of man. This means, of course, that educa- 
 tion must stand for character. We know that intellectual 
 discipline does not necessarily involve moral training. 
 This, however, does not mean that the alternative is be- 
 tween a safe ignorance and a hazardous knowledge. 
 Ignorance is never safe, and hazard is no essential of 
 knowledge. Yet, we know that training may not only 
 be instrumental in making a "good man better," but also 
 in making a "bad man worse." We know that there 
 are such things as the honorable instinct of a savage 
 and the atrophied conscience of a prince. Calvin held 
 that sane and balanced training consists not merely in 
 the exercise of the reason, the memory and the imagina- 
 tion. He had sounded the depths of human experience 
 long enough and intelligently enough to know that the 
 
i6o Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 man whose soul is sordid and whose conscience is un- 
 responsive had never been led to the "tree of knowl- 
 edge." 
 
 We have fallen upon a time when the mad desire 
 for fame and wealth is apt to blunt, if not destroy, the 
 moral sense of the nation. We need the kind of training 
 that will point a better way. "Be poor and continue 
 poor," wrote a dying mother to her son, "while others 
 around you grow rich by fraud and by disloyalty. Be 
 without place or power, while others beg their way up- 
 ward. Bear the pain of disappointed hopes, while 
 others attain the accomplishment of theirs by flattery. 
 Wrap yourself in your own virtue. Seek a friend and 
 daily bread. And if in such a course of life you have 
 grown gray with unblenched honor, bless God and die." 
 That type of manhood is the nation's need. It was to 
 supply that need in his own day that Calvin fought and 
 sacrificed in the last years of his life. That was the 
 crowning task to which he set himself. He never lost 
 that vision until his fading life, glorified and strengthened 
 to the end, had pronounced upon it a final benediction. 
 
 It is being urged that the sense of honor is waning 
 in this country. Whenever we must plead guilty to this 
 charge, it will mean that we have stacked away, in some 
 unfrequented museum, as a useless relic, the teaching 
 and the ideal of Calvin, who insisted as strenuously as 
 any man could insist that an institution of learning is a 
 place which should train not only the intellect, but also 
 the character and the conscience of men ; who recognized 
 as clearly as any man could recognize the fatal blunder 
 of turning out upon the world a great host of college- 
 trained men, to constitute an aristocracy of knaves ; who 
 saw as clearly as any man could see that the most bril- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses i6l 
 
 liant intellect may co-exist with moral turpitude ; that the 
 dagger is not less a dagger because of its polished blade 
 and its jeweled hilt; that education without character is 
 abnormal and abortive, and could only be a curse to man- 
 kind. "Upon what," exclaimed a great pioneer in Ameri- 
 can education, "shall be based the training of the Ameri- 
 can college?" I answer, upon the thesis of John Cal- 
 vin ! For upon that thesis, and that alone, can be con- 
 structed an educational fabric that will enable the col- 
 lege graduate to demonstrate to the world which he is 
 expected to fashion and mold that it is not heredity, nor 
 accident, nor intellect, nor circumstance, but character 
 and conscience that constitute the governing force of na- 
 tional and personal life. 
 
 Calvin also held that the main thing in all true educa- 
 tion, a thing never to be lost sight of, is the spiritual 
 development of man. This theory needs a new emphasis 
 in this day of the apotheosis of mere intellectual culture 
 when vasts multitudes of men are talking the flexible 
 language of the various modern systems of pseudo- 
 religious diplomacy. Intellectual culture may enable a 
 man to "weigh the stars and bridge the ocean." It may 
 give him the power to "foretell the path of the whirl- 
 wind" or to "calculate the orbit of the storm." But Cal- 
 vin knew that no amount of intellectual culture could 
 guarantee that God moves in the texture and the fiber 
 of a human soul. There was no limping in Calvin's logic. 
 That was one of the overwhelming things that made him 
 great. 
 
 Calvin doubtless foresaw that the spirit of Pilate would 
 live again in that class of men who are forever asking, 
 "What is the truth?" and forthwith attacking every- 
 thing that challenges their intellectual vanity. Hap- 
 
102 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 pily, he did not foresee that these attacks would be 
 justified as a mere exercise of "academic freedom." 
 We witness to-day the strange contention that it is 
 unreasonable to teach the principles of the Christian 
 religion to the youth of our country, and yet that it is 
 perfectly reasonable to teach doctrines of history, sci- 
 ence and philosophy, which undermine the Christian 
 faith. That is the kind of "academic freedom" whicn 
 a certain modern brand of "science" defiantly pro- 
 claims. Of course, the votaries of science are at lib- 
 erty to put nature on the rack, and, having so done, 
 they are at liberty to torture her to the betrayal of 
 her inmost secrets. But it is a different matter, when 
 they "rashly rend the veil," and presume to "enter the 
 Holy of Holies." It is a different matter, when they 
 make bold to say that "God is merely a rotating globe." 
 It is a different matter, when they "think by searching 
 to find out God," or dream of "understanding the Al- 
 mighty to perfection." It is a different matter when 
 they undertake to apply their tests and solvents to the 
 laws of the spiritual kingdom These are the things 
 that have been hidden from the wise and the foolish 
 and revealed unto babes. 
 
 Calvin did a great work when he emancipated sci- 
 ence from the unjustified interference of the church. 
 It seems that the church must now emancipate itself 
 from the unjustified interference of "science." A 
 pseudo-science is insiduously seeking to take posses- 
 sion of some of its colleges. It is seeking to nail to 
 their mastheads flags without religious color. It is 
 demanding that there shall be no longer any open and 
 avowed recognition of the Eternal as the most impor- 
 tant member of their faculties and as their rightfu' 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 163 
 
 head. It is asserting that, after all, the Calvinistic 
 program of religious training is "puerile and visionary 
 and narrow and useless." What shall our answer be? 
 Shall we give up the battle? Or shall we join the 
 issue? The church could adopt no course so incon- 
 ceivably fatuous as to surrender the inmost fortifica- 
 tion in the line of her defenses. The church will adopt 
 no such course. It will marshal its forces for this su- 
 preme struggle ; and to this crusade we may, if we 
 will, hear the clear call of Calvin summoning us to 
 make our last stand for that kind of education which, 
 first and foremost, recognizes God as the supreme mo- 
 tive and the supreme end of every scheme of training. 
 
 5. But, it zvill be asked, zvhat concrete evidence is 
 there to shozu that Calvin's influence on education has 
 actually done what has been claimed for it? Where are 
 the visible signs of this influence, in addition to Cal- 
 vin's acknowledged contribution to the inauguration of 
 the modern common school system? Granting that 
 the Calvinistic scheme of doctrine and polity and form 
 of worship have, in a general way, caused the spread 
 of popular intelligence, and granting that Calvinism, 
 while friendly to education in all of its phases, stands 
 pre-eminently for that type of moral and spiritual 
 training which is so much needed in modern times — 
 has it, in any definite and special way, succeeded in 
 influencing educational progress? Has the church of 
 Calvin undertaken to educate, apart from the imme- 
 diate power and influence of its doctrine, its polity, and 
 its form of worship? Has its educating power ex- 
 tended beyond the home, the Bible school, and the 
 pulpit? Has it actually established and maintained 
 schools and colleges? 
 
164 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 We have seen that, while Calvinism itself educates, 
 it is also, on the other hand, in a special way, depend- 
 ent on education. We know that Calvin himself, — one 
 of the best trained men of his day in language, in sci- 
 ence, in law, in philosophy, and in theology, — crowned 
 his Genevan work by founding a great school, the 
 Academy of Geneva ; that this school, second only to 
 the Institutes, became the dynamo that furnished the 
 electric power of the Calvinistic ideal and spirit, first 
 to France and Switzerland, and then to England, to 
 Scotland, to Holland, to Germany, to Italy, and in- 
 directly to our own country. Here was an institution 
 whose earnest spirit might well serve as a model for 
 the colleges of our own day in the fundamental par- 
 ticular that study, and not college life, was made the 
 object of chief concern. Calvin had no theory that 
 the college life should be allowed to swallow up the 
 college curriculum ; that the college life should be 
 allowed to become the main circus instead of the side- 
 show ; that the college itself should be allowed to be- 
 come a kind of country club. His aim was to send out 
 young men who had dreamed dreams and seen visions 
 — young men who had connected themselves with the 
 dynamo and become storage batteries charged with 
 power. 
 
 As a matter of fact, from the very beginning, insti- 
 tutions of learning have followed Calvinism wherever 
 it has gone. "Wherever Calvinism gained dominion," 
 says Bancroft, "it invoked intelligence for the people, 
 and in every parish planted the common school." That 
 statement correctly describes the entire spirit of the 
 Calvinistic faith and propaganda. I shall cite one fa- 
 miliar and matchless example of this spirit by recalling 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 165 
 
 to you the world-famous siege of Leyden. To the 
 heroic survivors of that siege, the Prince of Orange, 
 in recognition of their patriotic courage, "offered eithei 
 a reduction of taxes or the establishment of a school of 
 learning." They chose the school. Their Calvinistic 
 faith put education first, and money second. Thus be- 
 gan the historic University of Leyden. That is the 
 spirit of Calvinism that has caused it to establish 
 schools and colleges throughout the civilized world. 
 We shall not pause to call the roll. Statistics are a 
 despair to a speaker and a terror to an audience. It i& 
 a roll of honor and a catalogue of achievement. 
 
 But we may be permitted here to say that, in our 
 own country, the number of institutions of all grades 
 founded or controlled or maintained by men of the 
 Calvinistic name and affiliation is vastly in excess of 
 despair to a speaker and a terror to an audience. It is 
 not generally recalled in recent years that the ancient 
 universities of Harvard and Yale, as well as Princeton, 
 were founded by Calvinists. From that early day, 
 through the subsequent period, when the famous "log- 
 college" rose into form under Calvinistic influence, un- 
 til recent years when colleges of almost every name 
 and faith have sprung up throughout the entire nation, 
 the history of the Calvinistic faith and effort in this 
 direction has been characterized by the most honorable 
 and remarkable record of any church in the world. It 
 constitutes an inspiring and brilliant array of achieve- 
 ments which, in spite of certain present discourage- 
 ments, to which we shall in a moment refer, furnish 
 ground for hope and inspiration to all who believe in 
 Christian training and love the church to whose creed 
 and life Calvin made so large a contribution. 
 
i66 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 6. Finally, let us enquire, zvhat arc the important 
 lessons and duties zuhich such an educational history and 
 such an educational policy impose upon us in the present 
 time, and especially in this section for zvhich zve are so 
 largely responsible f There is no question that the Cal- 
 vinistic emphasis upon moral and spiritual training is 
 as sorely needed to-day as ever before in the history 
 of the Christian church. There is also no question 
 that such a type of training, from the viewpoint of 
 the church, has found its most fruitful seed-plot in the 
 Christian college. Unless we are stupidly blind, we 
 must recognize that the Christian college to-day faces 
 a situation that will put to a final test its power to 
 survive in the historic form in which it has hitherto 
 existed. The recent rise and the phenomenal growth 
 of the tax-supported system of higher education brings 
 squarely into the arena an issue that must be met. 
 There is in many quarters a constantly growing sen- 
 timent, at times expressing itself in a demand, that 
 the state shall be permitted to do the entire work of 
 training our youth, theology alone being excepted. 
 Enormous and constantly increasing sums of money 
 are being annually appropriated by the state for the 
 maintenance and the expansion of its schools. It would 
 be difficult to find a normal man so blind that he can- 
 not see that many of these schools are destined in the 
 next quarter of a century to witness a development in 
 equipment, in standard of scholarship and in power of 
 achievement that will challenge the wonder of the 
 world. 
 
 What does this mean? What relation has it ta 
 the problem of Christian education? Is the church 
 ready to surrender the field? These are vital ques- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 167 
 
 tions that go to the heart of perhaps the most serious 
 problem before the church to-day. If a rigid emphasis 
 upon definite Christian training is essential to the 
 life of the church, is it likely that there will be a less 
 insistent demand for such training in the future? The 
 state is wise in its day. It is doing its duty to edu- 
 cation. It is a calumny to charge that a Christian 
 commonwealth is consciously fostering a God-less edu- 
 cation. In some of these institutions the Christian 
 religion is a matter of both philosophy and feeling. 
 But the state professedly does not in all cases attempt 
 to guarantee positive Christian training. Certainly, 
 that is the logic of the present-day definition of reli- 
 gious liberty in certain quarters. Thus we see reli- 
 gious training in many localities gradually being 
 forced out of the public schools. Here and there we 
 see teachers of philosophy dynamiting the citadel oi 
 orthodox faith, and this situation is by no means con- 
 fined to the tax-supported college. "If we console our- 
 selves," says Kuyper, "with the thought we may with- 
 out danger leave secular science in the hands of our 
 opponents, if we only succeed in saving theology, ours 
 will be the tactics of the ostrich. To confine yourself 
 to the saving of the upper room, when the rest of the 
 house is on fire, is foolish indeed." Do we propose 
 to abandon altogether what we believe to be the true 
 theory of education, based upon positive religious 
 training, to a theory of education that cannot, in the 
 nature of the case, guarantee to do this work? Shall 
 we agree to divorce education from religion? Shall 
 we say that Calvin was wrong when he insisted that 
 "religion should never retire from the precinct of the 
 human intellect" ? Shall we say that Calvin was wrong 
 
1 68 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 when he insisted that the Bible should be enthroned 
 as the true basis of the best culture, as the true founda- 
 tion of the best individual life, as the true charter of 
 the best national liberty? Shall we say that Calvin 
 was wrong when he insisted that all culture, all indi- 
 vidual life, all national liberty, apart from and inde- 
 pendent of the Bible, is evanescent, unsatisfying and 
 illusive? To the policy of Christian training, the 
 church of Calvin is, by principle and by conviction, 
 irrevocably pledged. 
 
 There has been in this country, especially in the 
 last quarter of a century, a "progressive loosening" of 
 the historic alliance between Christianity and educa- 
 tion. It is true that powerful influences from without 
 the church are hastening this tendency. But let me 
 ask a candid reply to this question: Are there not 
 still more powerful negative influences within the 
 church contributing to the same end? Or, to put it in 
 a different way, has there been a sufficiently powerful 
 positive influence within the church to check this 
 movement? I know that it is charged that it is the 
 college, and not the church, that is responsible for 
 this situation. If that is true, let me ask: Why is 
 the college seeking this divorce? Does not the real 
 fault lie, in the final analysis, with the church itself i' 
 I have frequently heard it suggested that some of oui 
 colleges have not been true to the church. Is it not 
 also fair to ask whether the church has been true to 
 its colleges ? It is an easy matter for church courts to 
 censure college trustees and to bring charges of infi- 
 delity. But I make bold to say that such college infi- 
 delity, if there is such infidelity, would naturally be 
 due to the infidelity of the church itself. The church 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 169 
 
 deserves to have just so many colleges as it will ade- 
 quately support, and no more. 
 
 We need to learn the lesson that church neglect and 
 non-support of its institutions constitutes no necessary 
 or legitimate element of church control. We need to 
 remember that our colleges are, after all, controlled by 
 mere human beings, generally intelligent human be- 
 ings, who know the needs and the demands of modern 
 education, who recognize that educational efficiency 
 and academic sincerity are, and ought to be, essential 
 to the success of an institution of learning; who can- 
 not fail to see that, in these days of fierce competition, 
 any institution that sails under false academic colors 
 v;ill "go to the wall," and, in fact, ought to go to the 
 wall. Our church colleges may perhaps in some cases 
 be forced to consider whether, — in view of the fact that 
 the church is willing to allow them to languish, to give 
 them a stone when they are asking for bread, to refuse 
 their urgent cry for equipment and to leave them help- 
 less amid increasing demands upon them and amid the 
 fierce and unequal competition with their more power- 
 ful tax-supported rivals, — it is not, after all, their real 
 duty to consider actual academic inefficiency and in- 
 sincerity quite as criminal as technical or theoretical 
 ecclesiastical infidelity, and, in their despair and agony, 
 to sacrifice what has long ago become, in fact, a mere 
 rope of sand. I use the language, "technical or theoret- 
 ical infidelity," in no loose sense. I mean to say that 
 the breaking of the technical organic bond need not 
 imply the actual loss of the college. For a college can 
 be distinctly Christian without formal ecclesiastical 
 connection. I mean also to say that no college, how 
 ever closely bound to the church by organic ties, can, 
 
170 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 by that fact alone, claim to do more efficient Christian 
 service than any other Christian college which differs 
 from it in no other respect than in its legal ownership. 
 It is altogether wrong to assume that a college, in order 
 to be Christian, must be technically "denominational" ; 
 and it will be educational and ecclesiastical suicide for 
 our church to be transfixing some of its noblest insti- 
 tutions on such a fallacy. Nothing could be more 
 short-sighted than a policy of neglecting and repudiat- 
 ing and disowning an institution for no other reason 
 than its failure to wear the denominational label. 
 
 I hold no brief for any institution that yields to 
 temptation. I do not defend it. But I am here to say 
 that a starving man is apt to waive questions of strict 
 propriety and make a break for bread wherever he finds 
 it. It may be the duty of the college to languish in its 
 organic church connection and to die a martyr to its 
 unhappy fate. I do not attempt to sit in judgment on 
 that high ethical problem. But we are now asking: 
 What of the duty of the church ? Whenever a college 
 seems to be drifting from organic control, the church 
 raises its cry of alarm. Perhaps it passes resolutions 
 of censure. It denounces as a crime the fact that it seems 
 to be drifting, and the immediate apparent cause of its 
 drifting. But the real cause, and the ultimate cause, 
 hcliind the fact, fails to create a ripple on the surface of 
 its composure save the plaintive cry of some discour- 
 aged college president. No college drifts because it 
 wants to drift. Every college would prefer, for a mul- 
 titude of reasons, not to drift, and no college has ever 
 drifted, or will ever drift, except for cause. 
 
 Now I have more than consumed the time allotted 
 to me. I have frankly expressed my views, in good 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 171 
 
 spirit, and, I hope, on large grounds. Certainly, I have 
 had in mind no concrete case. I have tried to discuss 
 the broad principles involved, without thought of any 
 individual institution, certainly without thought of my 
 own institution, which has enjoyed a stable, uniform 
 and consistent policy and method of government since 
 1782. 
 
 I have stressed this matter because I believe that it 
 is vital. I can see no other sure or rational way by 
 which to check this growing tendency to break the or- 
 ganic connection between the church and the college 
 than to create a sentiment in the church that will in- 
 sist upon church support as equally binding upon the 
 church as college fidelity is upon the college. Then, 
 and not until then, will the college be happy in its 
 alliance with the church, or the church justified in its 
 alliance with the college. If, therefore, our church 
 would rescue higher education, it must seek to imbibe 
 more of the spirit of Calvin, who was willing to sacri- 
 fice something for his convictions. If our church clt 
 sires to re-establish in a more effective form its historic 
 alliance with higher education and to continue true to 
 its past history, it must study the life of Calvin in 
 the light of the struggles and the sacrifices made by 
 him to inaugurate and to perpetuate a system of edu- 
 cation adequate to the great work he had planned. 
 
 I have no time to discuss the other educational 
 evils that need to be corrected. I will refer, however, 
 in a word, to the pathetic and needless rivalries that 
 exist between our own church colleges. At best, the 
 struggle is difficult, with the tax-supported schools 
 overwhelming them and the church neglecting them. 
 But, with our own forces divided and needlessly wai 
 
172 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 ring- against each other, the struggle oecomes indeed 
 disheartening. I recall the fact that, years ago, I lis- 
 tened to a powerful appeal from a college president of 
 our own church, urging the church to support its col- 
 leges. I sympathized with his appeal. But I was sur- 
 prised to hear, a little later, that the very college over 
 which he presided was engaged in fierce competition, 
 not so much with the tax-supported schools as with 
 other schools of our own church. The pathos of such 
 needless jealousy and inconsistency can only be men- 
 tioned as one of those singular symptoms of impendiui^ 
 suicide which, I fear, may be more readily deplored 
 than corrected. 
 
 I am not to be understood as urging the church 
 to neglect the tax-supported college. Far from it. On 
 the contrary, I am persuaded that the attitude of the 
 church toward some of these institutions, in which 
 there is a religious atmosphere, both sincere and in- 
 spiring, has been in the past oftentimes unfriendly, not 
 to say unchristian. Yet in many of these institutions 
 are to be found great groups of students from Chris- 
 tian homes. Our attitude should be friendly and help- 
 ful. The church can look after its own in the state 
 school without disloyalty to the church school, li 
 cannot fail to look after its own in any school without 
 disloyalty to itself. 
 
 The church of Calvin owes it to its heroic past, so 
 full of educational achievement, to its present, so full 
 of educational need, and to its future, so full of educa- 
 tional opportunity, to re-establish and to re-enforce the 
 alliance between religion and learning. It is time for 
 the church to review the reasons why it is in the edu- 
 cational business at all. It is time for the church to 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 173 
 
 cease regarding its institutions as mere ornaments in 
 its crown, in which it is chiefly interested as objects oi 
 selfish pride, of complacent boasting, or of ruinous 
 controversy. It is time for the church to reckon more 
 closely with the economic side of this proposition and 
 to provide for its schools, or to cease to undertake to 
 operate them ; to wipe away any possible ground for 
 the increasingly familiar accusation that "denomina- 
 tional" education is a synonym for an "inferior" edu- 
 cation ; to remember that the world will judge the 
 quality of the religion for which it stands, by the edu- 
 cational efificiency and sincerity of the colleges by 
 which it is represented. It is time for the church- 
 colleges to dismiss any idea that they exist for their 
 own glory, for the fame of their faculties, or for the 
 sentimental interest of their alumni ; to cease this in- 
 ternal warfare, this needless rivalry; to get together and 
 not live apart ; to enquire whether they have standards, 
 ideals and equipment that justify their academic 
 existence. 
 
 Our church is laying great plans and building great 
 hopes. That is the right and proper policy. It is also 
 a sacred duty. But I do not hesitate to say that no 
 plan that we can lay, no hope that we can build, will 
 be abiding, if we neglect the foundation-stone of every 
 plan and of every hope. I come to you from the battle 
 lines. I speak words of soberness when I say that 
 our church needs the conviction, the spirit, the devo- 
 tion, the sacrifice, and the faith of Calvin to awaken it 
 and to inspire it to do its full duty in this direction. 
 B^very form of activity in which we engage as a church 
 — from our great work in the foreign field all the way 
 down the line — will finally and inevitably depend, for 
 
174 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 its full success, upon the policy we adopt in this matter 
 of Christian education. Calvin understood this. Knox 
 understood it. Shall we of this time, the heirs of so 
 great a past, standing on the threshold of the greatest 
 opportunity, the greatest need and the greatest crisis, 
 which has confronted the church, fail to understand the 
 situation, to grapple with it, and to act upon it? Thcic 
 is no present duty of our church greater or more in- 
 sistent. There is no present duty that we owe to the 
 memory of Calvin more sacred than this duty of 
 purging ourselves of the blame resting upon us in 
 view of our growing neglect and growing indifference 
 towards a situation, which is to-day both a standing 
 reproach and a standing peril to our church. 
 
Hon. Frank T. Glascjow, 
 Lexington, Va. 
 
CALVIN'S INFLUENCE UPON THE 
 
 POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 OF THE WORLD. 
 
 By Frank T. Glasgow 
 Lexington^ Virginia. 
 
 John Calvin died May 27, 1564, in the 55th year of 
 his age; and a quaint writer adds, "He left behind him 
 only $170 in money; but an incalculable fortune in fame 
 and consequential influence." 
 
 In this man, we are told by one, "lies the origin and 
 guaranty of our constitutional liberties." 
 
 And again : "It is admitted by all scientific students," 
 says Kuyper, "that Calvinism has led public law into new 
 paths ; first in Western Europe, then in two continents, 
 and to-day more and more among all civilized nations." 
 
 Let us inquire how far these claims are well-founded. 
 
 Quoad our subject, or to be more exact, in relation, 
 to human government, what is Calvinism? 
 
 Fundamental as was the doctrine of Justification by 
 Faith, this we conclude was not Calvin's distinguishing 
 tenet. But going back to a broader generalization, the 
 thoughtful student of Calvin's Institutes (said to be one 
 of the most remarkable products of the human mind in 
 any age, and the backbone of the Reformation), cannot 
 fail to recognize the accuracy of the statement, that Cal- 
 vin's distinctive and dominating principle, in the widest 
 sense manifestly was, the Sovereignty of the Triune God! 
 God's sovereignty over his whole creation; in all spheres 
 
1/6 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 and kingdoms, visible and invisible. Sovereignty in na- 
 ture ; sovereignty in the state ; sovereignty in society ; 
 sovereignty in the church, and sovereignty in the indi- 
 vidual. 
 
 According to Calvin, had not sin entered, God would 
 have remained the sole King of all men, everywhere, and 
 forever. 
 
 With sin present, a representative government is the 
 ideal form, that of the Republic. 
 
 Calvin's doctrine of sin and depravity has been the 
 greatest of all levellers. "It concludes all men under sin ; 
 from the slave in his hovel to the King on his throne." 
 In the light of this tremendous fact, all earthly distinc- 
 tions disappear ; the foundation of the privileges of birth 
 and caste crumbles and the lustre of all earthly grandeur 
 is dulled. 
 
 Thus, all men owe to God the same supreme al- 
 legiance ; and the offer of mercy is made to all men 
 upon the same terms and conditions. If all men are 
 equal before God's law, all men are equal before man's 
 law. Hence emerges clearly to view the fundamental 
 axiom of Modern Democracy, that "all men are created 
 equal, and vested with certain inalienable rights." This 
 great principle, therefore, properly limited, is Calvin's, 
 rather than Jefferson's ! ... It irresistibly follows 
 that "to have placed man on a footing of equality with 
 man, so far as purely human interests are concerned, is 
 the immortal glory which incontestably belongs to Cal- 
 vin !" 
 
 "And Freedom reared in that August sunrise, 
 Her beautiful bold brow." 
 
 Sir James Stephen, the eminent English Statesman, 
 churchman, and jurist, and professor of Modern His- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 177 
 
 tory in the University of Cambridge, in speaking of the 
 organization effected by the General Synod of France 
 in 1559, says: "A great social revolution had thus been 
 effected. Within the centre of the French monarchy, 
 Calvin and his disciples had established a spiritual re- 
 public, and had solemnly recognized as the basis of it, 
 four principles, each germinent of results of the highest 
 importance to the political commonwealth. 
 
 These principles were: 
 
 First. That the will of the people was the one legis-^ 
 lative source of the power of their rulers. 
 
 Second. That power was most properly delegated by 
 the people to their rulers. 
 
 Third. That in ecclesiastical government, the clergy 
 and the laity were entitled to an equal and co-ordinate 
 avithority; and. 
 
 Fourth. That between the church and the state, no 
 alliance, or mutual dependence, or other definite relation 
 necessarily or properly existed." 
 
 Calvin's church organization, Green calls, a "Chris- 
 tian Republic;" a "Christian state, in which the true sov- 
 ereign was not pope or bishop, but the Christian man." 
 
 Calvinism therefore stands throughout for a system 
 of popular government according to law. It provides a 
 true authority, resting humanly speaking on the consent 
 of the governed. By its deep conception of sin it has 
 laid bare the true root of state-life, and has taught us 
 two things: 
 
 First, that we should receive with gratitude the in- 
 stitution of the state from God's hand; and at the same 
 
178 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 time that we must be ever watchful against the danger, 
 which, from human weakness, lurks in the power of the 
 state. 
 
 Wm. C. Preston, of South Carolina, wrote: "Cer- 
 tainly it was a most remarkable and singular coincidence 
 that the constitution of the Presbyterian Church should 
 bear such a close and striking resemblance to the political 
 constitution of our country." Dr. Smith, however, in his 
 wonderful book, "The Creed of Presbyterians," a work 
 which, with us I am sure, stands second only to our 
 standards, says: that when "the fathers of our Republic 
 sat down to frame a system of representative govern- 
 ment, their task was not so difficult as some have im- 
 agined. They had a model to work by. As Chief Jus- 
 tice Tilghman says: "The framers of the Constitution 
 of the United States borrowed very much of the form 
 of our Republic from the constitution of the Presbyterian 
 Church of Scotland.' " 
 
 We need not therefore be surprised to find that one 
 of our last and greatest expounders of constitutional law 
 (John Randolph Tucker), in his masterful work on the 
 constitution, gives us concrete Calvinism as applied to 
 the fundamentals of human government, thus: 
 
 "Man's title to his liberty is from his Creator. It 
 consists in the selfuse of endowments bestowed on him, 
 under trust responsibility of God. God ordained society 
 as the school of the race ; and government, as the organic 
 force, was ordained to preserve social order, and con- 
 serve the liberty of man." 
 
 These things being conceded, "the related order of 
 these social elements is: Man trustee of his liberty for 
 God; society the Divinely ordained trustee for man; and 
 government the Divinely ordained trustee for society. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 179 
 
 Man is the object of all this Divine arrangement. They 
 (government and society), are ordained for him; he not 
 cieated for them. His good is the ultiiiiatuin of all their 
 use of power; and their power is only legitimate in title, 
 or in exercise, when it does justice to him in the pro- 
 tection of his right and liberty. Man has not only the 
 right of self-preservation, but God has made it his duty. 
 It is his primal duty therefore to see that the Divine 
 means ordained for his protection shall not be perverted 
 to his injury or destruction." 
 
 "To sum up, power and right are correlated; both 
 are divinely ordained. Political power is vested in trust 
 for man; right is vested in man in trust for God. Right 
 is primal, power is ancillary. Right is the end, powcf 
 and means. Right is the good to be secured, power the 
 minister, the servant of right. The divine constitution 
 is not jus Divimuii rcguiii, but jus Divinum houiinum. 
 
 "This political philosophy is not the result of social 
 compact ; but is the logical consequence of that intense 
 individuality of man, arising out of his sole responsi- 
 bility to God ; to conserve and develop which society 
 and government were divinely ordained." 
 
 Let us remember that religious and civil liberty, whilst 
 having no organic connection, yet have a strong natural 
 aflinity, the one for the other. And that, ''by the side 
 of every religion is to be found a political opinion con- 
 nected with it by affinity. If the human mind be left 
 to follow its own bent, it will regulate the temporal and 
 spiritual institutions of society in a uniform manner; and 
 a man will endeavor, if I may so speak, to harmonize 
 earth with heaven." 
 
i8o Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 In entering this discussion, we cannot pause even 
 to glance at the early life of this great man; nor to trace 
 his wonderful and chequered career. "The sixteenth cen- 
 tury is the greatest century in Christian times ; the epoch 
 where (so to speak) everything ends and everything be- 
 gins. Nothing is paltry, nothing small, not even a little 
 city of 12,000 souls, lying unobserved at the foot of the 
 Alps." 
 
 We must content ourselves therefore with concentrat- 
 ing our gaze at once upon this marvelous expounder 
 of Truth, human and divine, as we find him in Geneva ; 
 in Geneva, well-styled the "Thermopylae of Protestan- 
 tism and Freedom !" 
 
 "The history of the political emancipation of Geneva 
 is interesting in itself. Liberty, it has been said, has 
 never been common in the world. It has not flourished in 
 all climates; and the periods when a people struggles 
 justly for liberty, are the privileged epochs of history." 
 
 Under the heroic, patient and consecrated Farel, God 
 was preparing Geneva for Calvin. At the same time, he 
 had Calvin in the school of preparation for Geneva. The 
 union of these two natures and forces (predestined for 
 each other), could not fail to produce remarkable results 
 in the world. 
 
 For years, and even centuries, persistent and peri- 
 lous efforts had been made at Geneva for a firm estab- 
 lishment of freedom. She had had her martyrs of 
 liberty, and her martyrs of faith. "Her career illustrates 
 the great maxim, that political freedom and Christian 
 truth must advance hand in hand, for the salvation of 
 nations, and salvation of souls." To convert the spark 
 of evangelical fire already in Geneva, into a pure, daz- 
 zling light, there was need of an intellect of vast depth. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses i8i 
 
 a will of vast energy, and a faith of vast power. God 
 sent the man endowed with these gifts, in the person of 
 John Calvin. In the quiet of due Tillet's library at Agou- 
 leme was the forge where the new Vulcan had prepared 
 the bolts, which later he systematized, and finally scat- 
 tered broadcast on every side from Geneva. 
 
 We now fix our eyes on Calvin during the period of 
 his great labors in Geneva, beginning in 1541. He is 
 conducting most remarkable enterprises ; as pastor, 
 preacher, teacher, and reformer! We see his wonderful 
 school now firmly established. The teacher is giving full 
 swing to his great and ripe powers. Thousands of pil- 
 grim pupils, from all over Continental Europe and the 
 British Isles, sit at his feet ; some fleeing from oppres- 
 sion at home ; others fleeing for the hope of the true 
 light set before them. This continues for many years. 
 He prosecutes the great work with tremendous vigor, 
 masterful skill and untiring energy to the end of his 
 life. 
 
 Says Bancroft : "More truly benevolent to the human 
 race than Solon, more self-denying than Lycurgus, the 
 genius of Calvin infused enduring elements into the insti- 
 tutions of Geneva, and made it, for the modern world, 
 the impregnable fortress of popular liberty, the fertile 
 deedplot of Democracy." 
 
 Had Calvin done nothing more than to make govern- 
 ment "of the people, by the people, and for the people" a 
 startling and triumphant reality in the earth, he would 
 have deserved well of mankind. 
 
 This achievement marked the opening of a new chap- 
 ter in the history of humanity. 
 
 From Geneva his influence radiated into every cor- 
 ner of Christendom. "Calvin's true home, "Schaflf says, 
 
1 82 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 "was the Church of God." He broke through all na- 
 tional limitations. "There was scarcely a monarch or 
 statesman or scholar of his age with whom he did not 
 come in contact. Every people of Europe was repre- 
 sented among his disciples. He helped to shape the re- 
 ligious character of churches and nations yet unborn. 
 The Huguenots of France, the Protestants of Holland 
 and Belgium, the Puritans and Independents of England 
 and New England, the Presbyterians of Scotland, and 
 throughout the world, yea, we may say, the whole Anglo- 
 Saxon race, in its prevailing religious character and 
 institution, bear the impress of his genius, and show the 
 power and tenacity of his doctrines and principles of 
 government." 
 
 Says Rufus Choate, the great American lawyer: "In 
 the reign of Mary, from 1553 to 1558, a thousand learned 
 Englishmen fled from the stake at home, to the happier 
 states of continental Protestantism. Of these, great 
 numbers — I know not how many — came to Geneva. I 
 ascribe to that five years in Geneva an influence which 
 has changed the face of the world. I seem to myself to 
 trace to it as an influence on English character, a new 
 theology, new politics, another tone of character, the 
 opening of another era of time and liberty. I seem to 
 myself to trace to it the great civil war in England, 
 the Republican constitution framed in the cabin of the 
 Mayflower, the theology of Jonathan Edwards, the bat- 
 tle of Bunker Hill, the Independence of America." 
 
 Thus, "the light of Calvin's genius shattered the mask 
 of darkness, which superstition had held for centuries 
 before the brow of religion" and human government. 
 
 It is not possible for us here to indicate, much less 
 trace all the channels through which his influence ran, 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 183 
 
 to refresh and water the earth, and to "make glad the 
 city of our God." Calvin played on a harp of a thousand 
 strings ; and the music of his playing echoed, wherever 
 heard, in the hearts of untold thousands of brave, God- 
 fearing spirits. We see the fruits of his influence tak- 
 ing shape in France, in the Netherlands, and in Scotland. 
 We see his influence, "under God create the Dutch Re- 
 public, and make it the first free nation to put a girdle 
 of empire around the world." 
 
 "The one man, who was the principal instrument in 
 the hand of Providence in reforming Scotland, was John 
 Knox. He had learned his theology at the feet of Cal- 
 vin at Geneva ; and had known, as a galley-slave, the 
 tender mercies of Romanism. He was one of the six 
 clerical "Johns" who composed the first General As- 
 sembly of Scotland. 
 
 His was the voice which taught the peasant of the 
 Lothians that he was a free man ; the equal in the sight 
 of the God with the proudest Peer or Prelate that had 
 trampled on his forefathers !" For whilst Calvin's doc- 
 trine of sin "abased the pride and humbled the preten- 
 sions of the great, his doctrine of predestination exalted 
 the lowly. To the arrogance and pride which went with 
 earthly power, the simple peasant, conscious within him- 
 self of his high calling of God in Christ Jesus, could op- 
 pose a yet higher pride. 'Though his name did not ap- 
 pear in the Register of Heralds, it was recorded in the 
 Piook of Life.' Though unknown among men beyond the 
 limits of his lord's estate, he was known in the coun- 
 cils of Heaven. His name was among those whom the 
 Father from all eternity had given to the Son in an ever- 
 lasting covenant. He had been bought with a great price, 
 had been saved with a great salvation. For in his stead 
 the Prince of Glory had died upon the tree !" 
 
184 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 Marvelous indeed then was the transformation "when 
 the great doctrines learned by Knox from the Bible in 
 Scotland, and more thoroughly at Geneva while sitting 
 at the feet of Calvin, flashed upon the sober mind of 
 Scotland! It was like the sun rising at midnight! Says 
 Carlyle: 'This that Knox did for his nation, we may 
 really call a resurrection as from death.' 'John Knox,' 
 says Froude, 'was the one man without whom Scotland 
 as the modren world has known it, would have had no 
 existence.' Knox made Calvinism the religion of Scot- 
 land; and Calvinism made Scotland the moral standard 
 for the world." 
 
 " 'Here,' said Melville over the grave of John Knox, 
 'here lies one who never feared the face of man.' And 
 if Scotland still reverences the memory of the reformer, 
 it is because at that grave her peasant and her trader 
 learned to look in the face of nobles and kings and 'not 
 be ashamed.' He it was that raised the poor commons 
 of his country — into men whom neither king, noble nor 
 priest could force again to submit to tyranny." 
 
 Allow me here to pause a moment, to say this much of 
 of the true Scotchman : Wherever we see him in his- 
 tory, he is loyal both to truth, and to liberty. He is 
 also loyal to the faith and traditions of the fatherland. 
 For, whilst solving the world's problems, and extending 
 Anglo-Saxon liberty and Christian civilization around 
 the globe, he ever "carries with him his Confession of 
 Faith, his catechism, Bible and Psalm-book ; and from his 
 dwelling or his Kirk, in his native Pentland Hills, or in 
 the Appalatchian wilds ; or on the banks of the St. Law- 
 rence, the Ganges or the South Sea Islands, his simple 
 praise ascends to Heaven, in words and music born in the 
 land of the bluebells and the heather." 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 185 
 
 Later, if we again ask, who brought the final great 
 deliverance to English liberty, we are answered by 
 history. That illustrious Calvinist, William, Prince 
 of Orange, who, as Macaulay says, "found in the 
 strong and sharp logic of the Geneva school something 
 that suited his intellect and his temper; the keystone 
 of whose religion was the doctrine of predestination ; 
 and who with his keen logical vision, declared that if 
 he were to abandon the doctrine of predestination, he 
 must abandon with it all his belief in a superintending 
 Providence." 
 
 "On two great leaders, William, Prince of Orange, 
 and (second only to him in the great crisis), Marshall 
 Schomberg, a Hollander and a Frenchman, be it said 
 to the everlasting glory of their countries, the liberties 
 of the world were then, under God, depending: the 
 one, William, almost unable to sit on his gray horse 
 from physical weakness and loss of blood ; the other, 
 venerable with years and honors, who there, in the 
 Boyne waters, gave his noble life, a sacrifice for the 
 welfare of mankind !" 
 
 We see then what element fought the battle of the 
 Boyne. "The very watchword of William's army was 
 'Westminster' ; the word which was before, and has 
 ever since been stamped on the symbol of the Calvin- 
 istic churches." 
 
 As to the effect of William's victory and reign as 
 William III. of England, Macaulay says: "It has 
 been, of all revolutions, the most beneficent ; the high- 
 est eulogy that can be pronounced upon it is this, that 
 it was England's best ; and that for the authority of 
 law, for the security of property, for the peace of our 
 streets, for the happiness of our homes, our gratitude 
 
i86 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 is due, under Him who raises and pulls down nations 
 at his pleasure, to the Long Parliament, to the Con- 
 vention and to William of Orang-e." 
 
 "It was the battle of the Boyne (in Ireland in 
 1690) that decided the fate of Protestantism, not only 
 for Great Britain, but for America ; and for the world, 
 indeed; for had William been defeated there. Protes- 
 tantism could not have found a safe shelter on the 
 face of the earth." 
 
 Where learned our ancestors, the immortal prin- 
 ciples of the rights of man ? Of human liberty, equal- 
 ity, and self-government, on which they based our 
 Republic, and which form to-day the distinctive glory 
 of our American civilization? History here likewise 
 gives answer. 
 
 According to D'Aubigne, Luther transformea 
 princes into heroes of faith, but soon settled down at 
 peace with them. The reformation of Calvin, on the 
 other hand, was addressed particularly to the people. 
 It was ever advancing, and ever contending with the 
 rulers of this world. And wherever Calvinism was 
 established, it brought with it not only Truth, but 
 Liberty, and all the great developments which these 
 two fertile principles carry with them. 
 
 Says Bancroft: "Calvinism was revolutionary. It 
 taught as a divine revelation the natural equality of 
 man." "It is the essential tendency of Calvinism," 
 says Doyle, the eminent Oxford scholar, "to destroy 
 all distinctions of rank, and all claims to superiority 
 which rest on wealth or political expediency." "Cal- 
 vinism is essentially Democratic," says Buckle. "A 
 democratic and republican religion," it is called by 
 DeTocqueville, one of the ablest political writers of 
 the century. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 187 
 
 "Calvinism, therefore, opposes hereditary mon- 
 archy, aristocracy, and bondage." John Richard 
 Green, the author of the greatest history of the Eng 
 h"sh people yet written, belonged to the Anglican 
 church. Yet he says : "It is in Calvinism that the 
 modern world strikes its roots ; for it was Calvinism 
 that first revealed the worth and dignity of man. 
 Called of God, heir of heaven, the trader at his counter, 
 and the digger in his field, suddenly rose into equality 
 with the noble and the king." "In that mighty eleva- 
 tion of the masses," he says again, "which was em- 
 bodied in the Calvinistic doctrines of election and 
 grace, lay the germs of the modern principles of human 
 equality." 
 
 And even Castelar, an eloquent unbelieving Span- 
 iard, grudgingly admit, that "Anglo-Saxon democracy 
 is the product of a severe theology learned by a few 
 Cliristian fugitives in the gloomy cities of Holland and 
 Switzerland, where the morose shade of Calvin still 
 wanders. And that it remains serene in its grandeur, 
 forming the most dignified, most moral, most enlight- 
 ened and richest portion of the human race." 
 
 "Before proving its power in the new world, Cal- 
 vinism had fought and won the fight for freedom in 
 the old. Not only in Scotland, as we have seen, but 
 also in England and Holland it had challenged and 
 conquered tyranny." To the Puritans, declares Hume 
 (a hater of Calvinism), England owes "the whole free- 
 dom of her constitution. . . . The battle that saved 
 England to constitutional liberty was fought and won 
 by Calvinists." Of Holland the same writer says: 
 "The Reformation had entered the Netherlands by the 
 Walloon (Calvinistic) gate." 
 
i88 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 Seventeen years before Calvin's birth, America was 
 discovered. It waited well nigh two hundred years 
 for important settlements. Europe was not ripe ; the 
 hour had not yet struck. By and by, however, the 
 mighty exodus began ; and God sent some of his best 
 across the waters first, to lay the foundations for the 
 future. These were Huguenots, Dutch, Puritans, 
 Scotch, and Scotch-Irish! Had there ever before in 
 the world's history been a nation founded by such 
 people as these? 
 
 At the time of the Revolution the estimated popu- 
 lation of our country was 3,000,000. Of this number 
 900,000 were of Scotch or Scotch-Irish origin ; 600,000 
 were Puritan English; while over 400,000 were of 
 Dutch, German Reformed, and Huguenot descent. 
 That is to say, two-thirds of our Revolutionary fore- 
 fathers were trained in the schools of Calvin ; embrac- 
 ing the New England colonists, and the Scotch-Irish 
 immigrants, pronounced by the learned author of 
 "American Christianity" the most masterful races on 
 the continent. 
 
 According to Bancroft, "The revolution of 1776, 
 as far as it was efifected by religion, was a Presby- 
 terian measure. It was the natural outgrowth of the 
 principles which the Presbyterians of the old world 
 planted in her sons, the English Puritans, the Scotch 
 Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Cal- 
 vinists, and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians of Ulster" ; 
 and may I add, in her daughters? For "Calvinism has 
 moulded her own type of womanhood ; worth without 
 vanity; self-sacrifice, with self-righteousness; zealous 
 service, without immodesty; strong convictions, with- 
 out effrontery, and human loveliness, heightened and 
 softened by heavenly-mindedness." 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 189 
 
 The first Declaration of Independence, certainly 
 the first body of resolutions to that efifect, was sent 
 forth by the Mecklenburg Assembly, in session in 
 Charlotte, N. C, composed of twenty-seven staunch 
 Calvinists, of whom nine were ruling elders, and one 
 a Presbyterian preacher. 
 
 It strikes us now as strange, that, as late as August, 
 1775, Thomas Jefferson said : *T would rather be in 
 dependence on Great Britain, properly limited, than 
 on any nation on earth, or than on no nation." And 
 that Washington, in May 1776, said: "When I took 
 command of this army (in June, 1775), I abhorred 
 the idea of independence." These great and brave 
 patriots, however, soon gravitated to the point before 
 reached by the Mecklenburgers, and demanded inde- 
 pendence. But the children of the Covenanters were 
 in advance ! There is not a doubt, says Bancroft, that 
 the first voice publicly raised in America "to dissolve 
 all connection with Great Britain, came not from the 
 Puritans of New England, nor from the Dutch of New 
 York, nor the Planters of Virginia ; but from the 
 Scotch-Irish Presbyterians." 
 
 So intense, universal and aggressive was their zeal 
 for liberty, that the struggle of the colonists for inde- 
 pendence was spoken of in England as "The Presby- 
 terian Rebellion," An ardent colonial devotee of King 
 George wrote home: "I fix all the blame of these 
 extraordinary proceedings upon the Presbyterians. 
 They have been the chief and principal instruments in 
 all these flaming measures. They always do and ever 
 will act against government, from that restless and 
 turbulent anti-monarchical spirit which has always 
 distinguished them everywhere." And when news of 
 
190 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 "these extraordinary proceedings" reached England, 
 Horace Walpole said in the English Parliament, 
 "Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian 
 Parson." 
 
 But "the influence of the free spirit of Calvinism 
 in favor of the liberties of the colonies was not con- 
 fined to the American continent. It was working heroi- 
 cally on the other side of the Atlantic. Two great 
 Scotchmen, David Hume and Adam Smith, were 
 everywhere proclaiming it in their own effective way, 
 and compelling men to hear it. In the House of 
 Commons, also, it was boldly and eloquently upheld 
 by Erin's gifted son, Edmund Burke, as well as by 
 Charles James Fox, of whom Dr. Johnson said, 'Here 
 is a man who has divided a kingdom with Caesar, so 
 that it was a doubt which the nation should be ruled 
 by, the sceptre of George HI. or the tongue of Mr. 
 Fox.' " 
 
 "The Calvinistic philosophy had also taken a firm 
 hold of the popular mind in Germany, where Kant, 
 imbued with its liberty-loving spirit, was loosening 
 the foundations of despotism, and suffering persecu- 
 tion for his valiant defence of the American cause. 
 France, too, was all aglow with the free, bounding, 
 restless spirit of Calvinism, where Rousseau, in spite 
 of the immorality of his life, and the crudity of his 
 theories, was conducting, through his political science, 
 the same political warfare as that in America. His 
 influence in advocating the rights of man contributed 
 very largely to the forming of the alliance between 
 France and the colonies, and to the unfurling of the 
 royal standard alongside that of the blue flag of the 
 Covenanters, hoisted again in a new form over the 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 191 
 
 American continent. It was Calvinistic France and 
 Calvinistic America that were going- forth in loving 
 unity to fight on Western soil for the cause of human 
 freedom. 
 
 "Thus Calvinism in Europe, and Calvinism in 
 America were leagued together for the promotion of 
 the one great purpose. Their several currents, civil 
 and spiritual, philosophical and religious, had run to- 
 gether and were sweeping on in one great stream, 
 bearing the colonies on to liberty. Out of Calvinistic 
 Protestantism had arisen the great leaders who had 
 issued their rousing calls to the nations for deliver- 
 ance from mental and political bondage, and had com- 
 bined their forces for securing the one great object. 
 Rousseau had inflamed the youthful spirit of France 
 with an intense desire for republican simplicity, and 
 Edwards had summed up the political history of 
 America, when he gave Calvinism its political en- 
 thusiasm, by declaring virtue to consist in universal 
 love." 
 
 In view of all this, can it surprise us when we find 
 D'Aubigne saying: "Calvin was the founder of the 
 greatest republic"? And that the American nation, 
 which we have seen growing so rapidly, "boasts as 
 its father, the humble Reformer on the shores of Lake 
 Leman"? Or when we hear the famous French critic 
 and historian, Taine, declare of the Calvinists : "These 
 men are the true heroes of England. They foundea 
 England, in spite of the corruption of the Stuarts, by 
 the exercise of duty, by the practice of justice, by ob- 
 stinate toil, by vindication of the right, by resistance 
 to oppression, by the conquest of liberty, by the re- 
 pression of vice. They founded Scotland; they founded 
 
192 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 the United States, and at this day they are, by their 
 descendants, founding Australia, and colonizing the 
 world." 
 
 And so we find that for three and a half centuries 
 now, "Calvinism has been producing in the social 
 conditions of the nations that have received it, trans- 
 formations unknown to former times. And still at 
 this very day, and now perhaps more than ever, it 
 imparts to the men who accept it, a spirit of power, 
 which makes them chosen instruments, fitted to pro- 
 pagate truth, morality and civilization to the ends of 
 the earth." 
 
 May we not, therefore, in concluding, justly claim 
 that this turn in the tide of the world's history, "could 
 not have been brought about, except by the implanting 
 of another principle in the human heart, and by the 
 disclosing of another world of thought to the human 
 mind? That only by Calvinism did the 'Psalm of 
 Liberty' find its way from the troubled conscience to 
 the lips, and that Calvinism has, in fact, captured ana 
 guaranteed constitutional liberty to mankind?" 
 
 This tree (to adopt the figure of another) may 
 have, to prejudiced eyes, a rought bark, gnarled stem, 
 and boughs twisted often into knotted shapes of un- 
 graceful strength ! But, remember, Calvinism is not 
 a willow-wand of yesterday ! These boughs have 
 wrestled with the storms of a thousand years; but 
 they hang clad with all that is richest and strongest 
 in the civilization and Christianity of human history. 
 This stem has been wreathed with the red lightning 
 and scarred by the thunderbolt, and all over its rough 
 rind are the marks of the battle axe and the bullet. 
 This old oak has not the pliant grace and silken soft- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 193 
 
 ness of a greenhouse plant! But it has a majesty 
 above grace, and a grandeur beyond beauty. Its roots 
 may be rugged and strangely contorted ; but some of 
 them are rich with the blood of glorious battlefields ; 
 some are clasped around the stakes of martyrs ; some 
 hidden in solitary cells and lonely libraries, where deep 
 thinkers have mused and prayed, as in some apocalyptic 
 Patmos ; while its great tap-root runs back, until it 
 twines in living and loving embrace around the Cross 
 of Calvary ! 
 
Rev. Sam'i. A. King, D. D., 
 Austin, Texas. 
 
HOW FAR HAS ORIGINAL CALVIN- 
 ISM BEEN MODIFIED BY TIME? 
 
 Rev Samuel A. King, D. D. LL. D., 
 
 Austin Theological Seminary. 
 
 This year of grace, 1909, is being made notable by 
 celebrations of the four hundredth anniversary of the 
 birth of John Calvin. 
 
 In this session of our Assembly one of the most ' 
 elaborate of these is being conducted, and not only the 
 members of the body but also great audiences of in- 
 terested listeners have been edified and delighted by ad- 
 dresses in which the history, the personality, and the work 
 of the great Genevan reformer have been presented by 
 chosen speakers from our own and other lands. 
 
 The all but world-wide celebration of this anniversary 
 bears eloquent witness to the greatness and the worthi- 
 ness of a man whose figure was tall enough to cast his 
 shadow, across the space of four eventful centuries, 
 whose influence is recognized in the world to-day, and 
 will be potent in directing the currents of human thought 
 and the movements of men through all coming time until 
 the great consummation, when it shall be announced in 
 a ransomed earth and a rejoicing heaven that the King- 
 doms of this world have become the Kingdom of our 
 Lord and of His Christ. 
 
 In this our celebration the subject assigned to me is 
 one that does not give occasion for an attractive and 
 popular address; mine is rather a prosaic task which re- 
 
196 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 quires the statement, and to some extent the discussion 
 of doctrinal tenets and systems — those things which many 
 have chosen to designate as the "dry bones of theology." 
 
 I have been asked to discuss the question, "How far 
 has Original Calvinism Been Modified by Time?" 
 
 It is fitting to observe, at the outset, that "Calvinism" 
 did not originate at the period of the Reformation, nor 
 with Calvin, the greatest theologian of the Reformation. 
 It is well known that the specific doctrines which con- 
 stitute the essence of the system denominated "Calvin- 
 ism" were elaborately set forth by Augustine, born A. D. 
 353, more than eleven hundred years before the birth of 
 Calvin, and the system usually styled Calvinistic, is by 
 many, and notably by Dr. Charles Hodge, almost uni- 
 formly spoken of as the Augustinian doctrine. Neither 
 did this system originate with the illustrious bishop of 
 Hippo. Every distinctive doctrine of Calvinism is set 
 forth in the inspired writings of Paul, especially in the 
 Epistles to the Romans and the Ephesians. And these 
 were not new doctrines when propounded by the great 
 apostle of the Gentiles. The catchy cry in our times, 
 "Back to Christ," in most cases is an expression of the 
 thought that by going back to the personal teachings of 
 our Lord an escape can be had from the "hard doc- 
 trines" of Paul. But when recourse is had to the words 
 of Christ it will be found that the same doctrines con- 
 cerning God's sovereignty, man's depravity, and efifica- 
 cious grace, are as plainly taught by Christ Himself in 
 Matt, xi., Luke iv., and John vi., xvii., as in any of 
 the writings of Paul. This much for what is really 
 "Original Calvinism." 
 
 To define the phrase in its popular and present day 
 use, it has been suggested by a distinguished theologian 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 197 
 
 that original Calvinism may mean either "the Calvinism 
 of John Calvin himself, as outlined in his Institutes; or 
 as contained in the broad concensus of the Reformed 
 Confessions ; or the common teaching of the doctors of the 
 "Great Age." 
 
 In trying to deal with this subject, I shall consider 
 as "original" the Calvinism of the Institutes, and under- 
 take to show that there are "modifications" of two 
 classes. 
 
 (i) Those in which there have been advances made 
 in the way of fuller statement, or more precise expres- 
 sion of some of the doctrines, in the Reformed Con- 
 fessions than is found in the Institutes; and 
 
 (2) Proposed "Modifications" in which there has 
 been a departure from some of the doctrines, or such 
 a weakening of them as to seriously affect their sound- 
 ness as part of the system. 
 
 Taking up in order the subjects thus outlined, it is 
 well known that the Institutes contain a complete sys- 
 tem of theology. We find in them all the "departments" 
 which are commonly styled theology proper, anthropo- 
 logy, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. In re- 
 gard to some of these the views of Calvin and of Cal- 
 vinists are virtually in harmony with those held by the 
 great body of evangelical Christians. It is only in some 
 of these departments that we find the doctrines which are 
 essentially and distinctively "Calvinism." 
 
 And here I quote a passage from Principal Cunning- 
 ham, which is pertinent and suggestive: He says: "The 
 more we have studied these subjects the more have we 
 become convinced that the one fundamental principle of 
 Calvinism — that, the admission of which constitutes the 
 
198 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 real line of demarcation between Calvinists and Anti- 
 Calvinists is, the doctrine of predestination in the more 
 limited sense of the word, or of election, as descriptive 
 of the substance of Scripture with regard to what God 
 has decreed, or proposed from eternity to do, and does 
 or effects in time, for the salvation of those who are 
 saved ; and that every man ought to be held by others, 
 and ought to acknowledge himself to be a Calvinist, 
 who believes that God from eternity chose some men — 
 certain persons of the human race — absolutely and uncon- 
 ditionally to salvation through Christ, and that He ac- 
 complishes this, or executes this decree in time by effect- 
 ing and securing the salvation of these men in accordance 
 with the provisions of the Covenant of Grace." 
 
 (i) In treating of the "Modifications" of the first 
 class, I would place : First, the Sub-lapsarian doctrine of 
 the decrees, as it has developed and formulated since the 
 time of Calvin. 
 
 Dr. B. B. Warfield (in New Schafif-Herzog Enc.) 
 names three "varieties of Calvinism," namely, "Supra- 
 lapsarianism, Infra-lapsarianism, and Postredemptionism, 
 all of which take their start from a fundamental agreement 
 in the principles which govern the system. The differ- 
 ence between these various tendencies of thought within 
 the limits of the system turns on the place given by each 
 to the doctrine of election, in the logical ordering of the 
 'decrees of God.' " 
 
 Accepting this classification as correct it may be ex- 
 plained, in brief, that the Supra-lapsarian holds that God 
 elected some and rejected others out of uncreated men; 
 that the decree of election preceded (in the order of 
 thought) the decree to create and to permit the fall. The 
 Infra (or Sub) lapsarian holds that out of the mass of 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 199 
 
 men regarded as created and fallen, God chose some to 
 salvation ; while the Postredemptionist holds that out of 
 the race of men regarded as created, fallen and re- 
 deemed, God chose those to whom the universal redemp- 
 tion should be applied. 
 
 In this connection the term redemption is employed 
 in the narrower sense of the "impetration of the redemp- 
 tion by Christ." 
 
 The extreme Supra-lapsarian scheme implies that God 
 created some men to be saved and others to be "vessels 
 of wrath" — that in the order of thought election and 
 reprobation precede the purpose to create and to permit 
 the fall. This "hard doctrine" is thought by many to 
 be Calvinism, pure and simple, and much of the prejudice 
 against our doctrine is due to this mis-apprehension. The 
 fact is, it was never held by any considerable number 
 of Calvinists. There are no Supra-lapsarian confessions, 
 and while some do not distinctly pronounce against either 
 there is no reformed creed that can be quoted as in favor 
 of Supra-lapsarianism. At the present day it would not 
 be unsafe to say that not one in a hundred of Calvinists 
 is a Supra-lapsarian. 
 
 The Sub-lapsarian view is that out of the mass of men, 
 all fallen, guilty, depraved, God chose a great number 
 to be saved through the redeeming work of Christ and 
 the effectual application of its benefits by the Holy 
 Spirit. Dr. Warfield says: "Not only does no confes- 
 sion close the door to Infra-lapsarianism, but a con- 
 siderable number explicitly teach Infra-lapsarianism, 
 which thus emerges as the typical form of Calvinism." 
 
 I have counted this as one of the "modifications" of 
 the Calvinism of the Institutes for the reason that it is 
 a disputed question as to which of the two views was 
 
200 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 held by Calvin himself. I think it fair to conclude that 
 neither Supra nor Sub-lapsarian can claim him or con- 
 fidently appeal to the Institutes. The question had not 
 been raised in his day. His great task was to uphold 
 the doctrine of God's sovereign election of such as are 
 saved, unconditioned by foresight of faith, or good 
 works, or anything in the creature. Hence, with this 
 great thought uppermost in his mind it is not strange 
 that he employed language that could be construed by 
 Supra-lapsarians as favoring their extreme view, while 
 in other cases his words can be plausibly pleaded by 
 those who hold the view now prevalent. Doctrines are 
 more fully apprehended and clearly stated as the result 
 of controversy, and in the fires of controversy waged 
 since Calvin's day have been forged the more exact 
 formulas in which the Sub-lapsarian doctrine and others 
 of the system are now set forth. 
 
 In strictly systematic theology the subject just dis- 
 cussed belongs to the department of soteriology, but it 
 is intimately related to an important feature of anthropo- 
 logy, namely, the probation in Adam, the fall, and the 
 effects of Adam's first sin on his posterity. 
 
 If the decree of election contemplates men as fallen, 
 as being in "an estate of sin and misery," it is an im- 
 portant inquiry as to how they came into this hapless 
 condition. This estate, in all its elements, is accounted 
 for by the doctrines of the Federal theology. Hence I 
 hold that : 
 
 (2) The Second of the Modifications of the original 
 Calvinism of the Institutes is the view known as the 
 "Federal Scheme" according to which we "sinned in 
 Adam and fell with him," as being not simply the natural 
 but Federal head of the race. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 201 
 
 This doctrine, elaborated by Cocceius, born ninety- 
 four years after Calvin, was wrought into the system of 
 theology of the Westminster Assembly, and has been ably 
 expounded by such men as Turretin, and Witsius on the 
 Continent ; Chalmers and Cunningham in Scotland ; and 
 by the two Hodges, Breckinridge, Thornwell, and Dab- 
 ney in America. 
 
 Dr. A. A. Hodge says: "In Holland, England and 
 Scotland, Calvinism has been modified in form by the 
 Federal Scheme, introduced by Cocceius and the West- 
 minster divines." 
 
 Dr. Shedd says that "Turretin marks the transition 
 from the cider to later Calvinism — from the theory of 
 the Adamic Union to the Adamic representation. 
 
 I think it manifest that in this Federal Scheme we 
 have a modification of the theology of Calvin, a fuller 
 and clearer view of our relation to Adam, and of the 
 ground of our condemnation as having "sinned in him 
 and fallen with him" as our covenant representative. 
 
 I think that Calvin came near to this, but did not 
 clearly perceive and grasp it. 
 
 Why should we wonder that he did not see all the 
 truth? He himself modestly said: "God hath never 
 favored His servants with so great a benefit that they 
 were all endued with full and perfect knowledge in 
 everything." The wonder is that he had so much more 
 full and perfect knowledge than any other of his age! 
 
 Dr. Thornwell, a great admirerer, in his analysis of 
 Calvin's Institutes, says: "Federal representation was 
 not seized as it should be, but rather a mystic realism in 
 place of it." 
 
 We find some germs of the doctrine in the Institutes, 
 but that is all. In Book II., Chapter I., on the "Fall of 
 
202 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 Adam the Cause of the Curse on all Mankind, and 
 the Doctrine of Original Sin," he defines this last as 
 "an hereditary pravity and corruption of our nature, 
 diffused through all the parts of the soul, rendering us 
 obnoxious to the divine wrath, and producing in us those 
 works which the Scripture calls the works of the flesh." 
 In the same chapter he says, "Our ruin must be imputed 
 to the corruption of our nature." 
 
 Again he says: "When it is said that the sin of 
 Adam renders us obnoxious to the divine judgment, it 
 is not to be understood as if we, though innocent, were 
 undeservedly loaded with the guilt of his sin, but because 
 we are all subject to a curse in consequence of his trans- 
 gression, he is therefore said to have involved us in 
 guilt. Nevertheless we derive from him not only the 
 punishment, but also the pollution to which the punish- 
 ment is justly due." 
 
 In Section 7, he says: "The Lord deposited with 
 Adam the ornaments He chose to confer on the human 
 nature, and therefore when he lost the favors he had 
 received he lost them not only for himself but for us 
 all." Later he says, "These ornaments were given, not 
 to one man only, but to the whole human nature." Here, 
 and especially in the last two quotations, we find the 
 germs of the Federal connection, but they are obscured 
 by that predominant idea of the realistic union with 
 Adam which Dr. Thornwell calls a "mystic realism." 
 
 Calvin lays the principal stress on the corruption of 
 the nature. He finds here a ground sufficient for the 
 guilt and the punishment in which men are involved. He 
 does not clearly grasp the truth that the sinfulness of 
 our estate consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, and 
 (as the result of that) the want of original righteous- 
 ness and the corruption of the whole nature. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 203 
 
 The "present truth" which Calvin was zealous to 
 maintain, as against the contentions of his great op- 
 ponent Pighius, as well as others, was the transmission 
 and universal prevalence of a depraved moral nature ; 
 to this he gave special prominence and not to the im- 
 putation of Adam's sin which was not then a matter of 
 controversy. 
 
 The doctrine of the "immediate imputation" of 
 Adam's sin was not clearly articulated in the time of 
 the reformers. It was brought out later in the discus- 
 sion of the "Mediate Imputation" theory of Placeus. 
 When the Westminster Confession was written the dis- 
 tinction between immediate and mediate had not emerged, 
 as it did a little later. The statement of doctrine in 
 the Confession, Chapter VI., is not so definite as in the 
 answers to questions 16 and 18 of the Shorter Catechism. 
 In the latter the guilt of Adam's sin is the first element 
 in the sinfulness of our lost estate. Following this (and 
 as a penal consequence of this), are the want of original 
 righteousness, and the corruption of the whole nature. 
 It logically follows that guilt is the cause of depravity — 
 depravity the consequence of guilt. 
 
 The fact noted above, that the catechism states more 
 clearly the doctrine of imputation than does the confes- 
 sion may perhaps be accounted for by the fact, to which 
 Principal Cunningham calls attention, that a year in- 
 tervened between the completion of the Confession and 
 that of the Catechisms. In that time the Westminster di- 
 vines may have become familiar with the discussions on 
 the Continent over the placcan theory of "Mediate Im- 
 putation," and hence were led to make a more precise 
 statement in the Catechisms. If this were the case it is 
 another instance in which the formulated statement of 
 
204 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 a doctrine is modified into a more perfect form as a re- 
 sult of the closer examination 'brought about by 
 controversy. 
 
 In this matter of our relation to Adam and the con- 
 sequences resulting therefrom we have seen how the 
 "Federal Scheme" enables us to deal with all the facts. 
 This scheme, as found in the Scriptures and wrought 
 into the Westminster Confession, enables us to clearly 
 grasp and arrange into system all the facts and doctrines 
 concerning the ruin in Adam and the redemption in 
 Christ. Two great covenants, the first, that of works ; 
 the second, of grace, like the two pillars of Jachin and 
 Boaz, stands at the door of the Temple of Truth, and 
 through these we must pass in order to learn what we 
 are to believe concerning anthropology and soteriology. 
 
 The development of Federal theology, and its articu- 
 late confessional statement, may be justly esteemed as 
 the most important "modification" of "Original Cal- 
 vinism" since the days of Calvin. 
 
 (3) The Third modification, of the first class, we 
 may consider as having been developed in Scotland. 
 This old land is the "Mother Country" of modern Pres- 
 byterianism. There have been sharp and protracted con- 
 troversies regarding doctrine waged by Scottish theolo- 
 gians, and there have resulted therefrom some modifica- 
 tions in the matter and form of particular doctrines of the 
 Calvinistic system. 
 
 In the limits I must observe I cannot undertake to 
 treat of these in detail, even were I sufficiently informed 
 to do the subject justice. I shall avail myself of some 
 information furnished by Dr. James Orr, whom we have 
 been privileged to have with us on this occasion, and 
 who has favored us with an able and appreciated address. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 205 
 
 In a magazine article in which he had specially in 
 view to give some notes on the doctrinal position of the 
 United Presbyterian Church, he outlines the various con- 
 troversies that have been waged over doctrinal issues. 
 
 He says, "Our controversies move uniformly around 
 two poles — the assertion of the sovereign grace of God 
 in salvation, on one hand (including election to eternal 
 life and the special bearing of the atonement of Christ 
 on the saving of His own) ; and the assertion of the ful- 
 ness and freeness of the proclamation of the gospel to 
 sinners, on the other, on the ground of the deed of gift 
 or grant of Christ to mankind — sinners, as such (a uni- 
 versal as well as a special aspect in Christ's atonement). 
 The former side of doctrine comes from the general Cal- 
 vinistic strain of the Westminster theology ; the latter 
 strives to a broader conception of the gospel than the 
 Westminster Standards contain, and ultimately reaches 
 it in the statements of our Declaratory Act of 1879." 
 He adds, "It may be thought by some that the older 
 and more distinctive note in our theology has been al- 
 together left behind. That, we believe, is a mistake. 
 Divested of the forms, and minute, and sometimes hair- 
 splitting, distinctions in which our fathers invested it, 
 the doctrine of sovereign grace in the calling, regenera- 
 tion, and final salvation of a sinner — moving back, as this 
 must do, on an eternal counsel of God in which it was 
 embraced — is not to be got rid of, or expunged from our 
 theology without serious impoverishment and harm. But 
 even brighter than this in the testimony of our church 
 shines its witness to the full, free, and unrestricted char- 
 acter of Christ's salvation, as based on the all-suflficiency 
 of His atoning sacrifice, and the will of God gifting 
 Him to mankind." 
 
2o6 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 I will only note Dr. Orr's outline of the various stages 
 of the controversy without attempting to embody his 
 luminous statement of particulars under each head. 
 
 He says, "The course which controversy has fol- 
 lowed as between these two poles of doctrine may be 
 thus indicated: 
 
 (i) There was a struggle for the recognition of the 
 freeness of the gospel message as based on the gift of 
 men universally — to "mankind-sinners as such," as the 
 phrase was. 
 
 (2) The next stage shows the other pole in the as- 
 cendant in the act against Arminian Errors, the object 
 of which was to assert the special suretyship and rela- 
 tion of Christ in His death to His own people — that is 
 to those whom God has given Him, and who are ac- 
 tually saved by His atonement. 
 
 (3) The third period is that of attempted adjustment 
 of these two sides, with, again, a special prominence to 
 the universal relation of Christ's work to mankind. This 
 is the period of atonement controversies in the secession 
 church, ending in the separation from the church of the 
 Rev. James Morrison and his sympathizers (1841-3) and 
 in the vindication of Drs. Balmer and Brown. 
 
 (4) The last stage is that of the definite triumph of 
 the larger and more Scriptural view in the assertion 
 (from which the church had hitherto held back), in the 
 Declaratory Act of 1879, of the love of God to all man- 
 kind, His gift of His Son to be the propitiation for the 
 sins of the whole world, and the free offer of salvation 
 to men without distinction on the ground of Christ's 
 perfect sacrifice. This may, as the article affirms, be 
 in consistency with the church's earlier teaching, but the 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 207 
 
 truth had certainly (especially as regards the love) never 
 been so fully or unambiguously expressed. The Act con- 
 tains other adjustments, helping to bring the statements 
 of the creed into fuller harmony with the living faith 
 of the church." 
 
 It may be here remarked that controversies in our 
 country have followed much the same lines as those in- 
 dicated above, and the results have not been widely dif- 
 ferent. Our ministers, who accept the old Standards 
 without any revision or Declaratory Statement, feel no 
 hesitancy in extending "the free offer of salvation to men 
 without distinction on the ground of Christ's perfect 
 sacrifice," and they feel that they can do this "in consis- 
 tency with the church's earlier teachings," and in har- 
 mony with "the living faith of the church" and of the 
 greatest among Calvinistic theologians. 
 
 In years past there were protracted controversies con- 
 cerning "limited atonement" and "general atonement," 
 but the most staunch advocates of the first were ready 
 to avow that Christ's sacrifice furnished the basis for a 
 universal offer of salvation ; while zealous champions of 
 the second were free to admit that in the divine purpose 
 are effectually called. Many of the differences were more 
 verbal than essential. Each party looked too exclusively 
 on one side of the shield. 
 
 Proceeding now to consider the second class of "modi- 
 fications" — those which modify "original Calvinism," we 
 will notice : 
 
 (i) First, the views advanced by the French theo- 
 logians of the Saumur School. 
 
 I quote again from Dr. Warfield: "The first im- 
 portant modification of the Calvinistic system which has 
 retained a position within its limits was made in the 
 
2o8 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 middle of the seventeenth century by the professors of 
 the French School at Saumur, and is hence called Sal- 
 murianism of Amyraldism, or hypothetical universalism." 
 Dr. Warfield has elsewhere remarked that "It is odd 
 that all the modifications of Calvinism — if we include 
 Pajon's views — had their expression at Saumur." 
 
 Two of the most noted professors of this school were 
 Placeus and Amyraut. We have already taken note of 
 the Placean theory of Mediate Imputation. Amyraut 
 propounded the theory denominated "Hypothetical Uni- 
 versalism." The leading features of his scheme were that 
 the motive impelling God to redeem men was benevo- 
 lence, or love to men in general — that He sent His Son 
 to make the salvation of all men possible — that salva- 
 tion is offered to all men if they believe on Christ, and 
 that all men have natural ability to repent and believe — 
 but this ability is counteracted by a moral inability — and 
 that out of the mass of depraved but redeemed men 
 God determined to give efficacious, saving grace, to a 
 certain number of the human race. The advocates of 
 this view belong to the class of post-redemptionists. 
 
 Dr. Charles Hodge says of this scheme that, "It was 
 designed to take a middle ground between Augustinianism 
 and Arminianism, but that it is liable to the objections 
 which press on both systems." 
 
 He also says that "this theory soon passed away as 
 far as the Reformed Churches in Europe were con- 
 cerned. Its advocates either returned to the old doctrine, 
 or passed on to the more advanced system of the Ar- 
 minians. In this country it has been reviewed and ex- 
 tensively adopted." 
 
 Dr. Hodge forcibly sets forth the objections to the 
 scheme. Dr. Dabney suggests as a chief objection that 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 209 
 
 "It represents Christ as not purchasing for His people 
 the grace of effectual calling, by which they are per- 
 suaded and enabled 'to embrace redemption, whereas 
 Scripture represents that this gift, along with all other 
 graces of redemption, is given us in Christ, having been 
 purchased for His people by Him." Dr. Warfield says, 
 "This modification received the condemnation of the 
 contemporary reformed world." 
 
 I am treating somewhat at length this Saumurian 
 view of redemption for the reason that "in this country 
 it has been revived and extensively adopted," and that 
 nearly "all the modifications of Calvinism find their ex- 
 l)ression at Saumur." It has been wrought into the New 
 England and the Cumberland theology, which will later 
 claim out attention. 
 
 In this, as in most unsound systems of doctrine, its 
 chief dangerous tendency lies in the element of truth it 
 contains. No system that is totally erroneous is to be 
 feared. In this scheme God's universal benevolence is 
 emphasized, and also the fact that the atoning sacrifice 
 of Christ is sufficient for all the world. Now, God's 
 general benevolence is not questioned by any, and neither 
 Calvin nor any later Calvinist has doubted or denied that 
 the merit of Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for all men, 
 or that the offers of the gospel are to be made to every 
 man. But according to the system under review, while 
 all men are made salvable by the atoning death of Christ, 
 it does not make certain the salvation of any. Calvinists 
 of the straitest sect, like Dr. Shedd and Dr. Dabney, 
 hold that Christ's satisfaction is unlimited in its suffi- 
 ciency, but that its efficacious application is limited to 
 those who are the subjects of "particular redemption." 
 Dr. Dabney well says that "Had God elected all sinners 
 
210 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 there would have been no necessity to make Christ's 
 atoning sacrifice essentially different. Remember, the 
 limitation is precisely in the decree, and no where else. 
 The vagueness and ambiguity of the term atonement has 
 very much complicated the debate. This word is used 
 sometimes for satisfaction for guilt, sometimes for the 
 reconciliation ensuing therefrom, until men on both sides 
 have forgotten the distinction. The one is cause ; the 
 other, effect. The only New Testament sense the word 
 atonement has is that of reconciliation. But expiation 
 is another idea. Expiation, in itself considered, has no 
 more relation to one man's sin than another. As it is 
 applied in effectual calling, it becomes personal, and re- 
 ceives a limitation. But in itself, limitation is irrelevant 
 to it. Hence, when men use the word atonement, as they 
 often do, in the sense of expiation, the phrases "limited 
 atonement," "particular atonement" have no meaning. 
 Redemption is limited, i. e., to true believers, and is 
 particular. • Expiation is not limited." 
 
 To the same effect Dr. Shedd says: "Atonement 
 must be distinguished from redemption. The latter term 
 includes the application of the atonement. It is the term 
 'redemption,' not 'atonement,' which is found in those 
 statements that speak of the work of Christ as limited 
 by the decree of election." "The use of the term re- 
 demption is attended with less ambiguity than that of 
 atonement, and it is the term most commonly employed 
 in controversial theology. Atonement is unlimited, and 
 redemption is limited." 
 
 These quotations are from the works of great "mas- 
 ters in Israel" who held and taught the Calvinism of the 
 Reformed Confessions. The views they expressed are 
 held in our Presbyterian Church to-day. We do not 
 
Calvin in His Study. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 211 
 
 believe, with those who have adopted or absorbed the 
 Saumur theory, that Christ, by His expiatory death, 
 merely made all men salvable, and that He had no special 
 purpose to have any in particular. While we believe that 
 His expiation is sufficient for all, it is efficient for the 
 reconciliation (the at-one-ment) of the people given to 
 Him, who, being the object of God's "everlasting love" 
 have therefore with "loving-kindness" been drawn by 
 efficacious grace to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered 
 to all men in the Gospel. 
 
 Thorough Calvinists, while gladly proclaiming that 
 "whosoever will may come, and take of the water of 
 life freely" do fully accept the doctrine that "the Lord 
 Jesus, by His perfect obedience and sacrifice of Him- 
 self, hath fully satisfied the justice of His Father; and 
 purchased not only reconciliation, but an everlasting in- 
 heritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom 
 the Father hath given unto Him." He not only makes 
 their salvation possible, but "He saves His people from 
 their sins" — not only from the penalty, but from the polu- 
 tion and the power of sin. 
 
 (2) The Second modification of this class is found 
 in what is styled the New England Theology. 
 
 This name is given to theological tenets that have 
 been widely accepted and given shape to the doctrinal 
 views of many Presbyterians and Congregationalists 
 in the United States. 
 
 The name is derived from the fact that the men 
 who promulgated these tenets were New England 
 divines. 
 
 "The term must be used in a sense sufficiently wide 
 and vague to include different types of doctrine his- 
 torically associated with various individual divines, 
 
212 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 and with the Andover, New Haven, and East Windsor 
 (now Hartford) Schools." Many distinguished names 
 are found among the advocates of this theology, among 
 them, Edwards, Bellamy and Hopkins, "the great tri- 
 umvirate," and in recent times, Leonard Woods, Ly- 
 man Beecher, Albert Barnes, N. W. Taylor and 
 Edwards A. Park. 
 
 The principal tenets of this type of theology may 
 be summarized as follows: 
 
 All the acts of God, even those which seem to be 
 the sternest, are forms of infinite benevolence, and 
 are reducible to a choice of the greatest and highest 
 good of universal being. God is a sovereign, that is. 
 He does what He chooses to do because His choice 
 is infinite benevolence, securing the greatest and high- 
 est well-being of the universe. 
 
 Holiness and sin are not passive states, but they 
 are acts of the will. They are free acts and imply that 
 the agent's power to render obedience, and avoid dis- 
 obedience to the moral law, is commensurate with 
 his obligation to render the one and to avoid the 
 other. Man's sinfulness is a consequence of Adam's 
 apostasy. The sin of Adam is not literally "imputed"' 
 to us. We are not punished for it, although, on ac- 
 count of it, we suffer evils which represent God's 
 abhorrence of sin, and signify His determination to 
 inflict the legal penalty on those who persist in com- 
 mitting it. We, however, do not suffer a legal penalty 
 for any sin which does not consist in our free choice. 
 
 "The term 'original sin' is not a favorite one with 
 the New England theologians. It is entirely disap- 
 proved by one class of them, and is variously defined 
 by other classes." As to the Atonement: the suffer- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 213 
 
 ings, and especially the death of Christ, were sacri- 
 ficial ; were not the penalty of law, but were equiva- 
 lent to it ; were representative of it, and substituted 
 for it. The demands of the law were not satisfied by 
 it, but the honor of the law was promoted by it as 
 much as by the infliction of the legal penalty on 
 the elect. The distributive justice of God was not 
 satisfied by it, but His general justice was statisfied 
 perfectly. 
 
 The atonement was designed for the welfare of 
 all men; to make the salvation of all men possible; to 
 remove all the obstacles which the honor of the law 
 and distributive justice presented against the non- 
 elect, as well as the elect. The atonement is useful 
 on men's account, and in order to furnish new motives 
 to holiness, but it is necessary on God's account to 
 enable Him, as a consistent Ruler, to pardon any, even 
 the smallest sin, and therefore to bestow on sinners 
 any, even the smallest favor. 
 
 As to man's natural ability: Not without the com- 
 mon influence, but without the supernatural influence of 
 God, a man has, in the proper sense of the word, the 
 power to repent of his sin ; but it is infallibly certain 
 that he never will use this power in repenting. His 
 natural ability does not lessen his dependence on the 
 special interposition of the Holy Spirit for any, even 
 the smallest degree of holiness. 
 
 It will be readily seen that this system is a 
 "modification" of the Calvinism of the Reformed 
 Confessions. 
 
 According to these views God did not "for His oivn 
 glory fore-ordain whatsoever comes to pass," but had 
 supreme regard to the "well-being of the universe." 
 "This is the greatest happiness" theory. 
 
214 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 In its Anthropology there is a decided slant to- 
 wards Pelagianism ; a denial of the sinfulness of states 
 as well as of acts — a virtual acceptance of the dictum 
 that "all sin consists in sinning," or in personal, vol- 
 untary transgression, and obligation is limited by 
 ability. 
 
 The imputation of the guilt of Adam's sin is dis- 
 carded, and it is fairly implied that the "consequences" 
 of his fall come upon his posterity rather as calamities 
 than as penal inflictions visited on us because we 
 sinned in him and fell with him. 
 
 In this scheme the atonement is not strictly vicari- 
 ous — Christ's death did not "fully satisfy the justice 
 of His Father," nor "pay the debt we owe." We have 
 rather the indefinite universalism of Amyraut, the 
 "moral influence" theory of Abelard, and the "govern- 
 mental theory" of Grotius. In the doctrine of the 
 atonement "the life is in the blood," and the old, old 
 story "satisfies our longings" because Christ "bore our 
 sins in His own body on the tree," and hath "re- 
 deemed us to God by His blood." 
 
 (3.) The Third modification to be noted is in the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian theology. This is invested 
 with special interest because of the recent union of 
 the Cumberland Presbyterian Church with the Pres- 
 byterian Church, U. S. A., and the doctrinal basis on 
 which it was effected. 
 
 The Cumberland Presbyterian Church began its 
 existence in A. D. 1810, with a single presbytery. A 
 S3mod consisting of three presbyteries was formed in 
 1813, and a general assembly in 1829. A Confession 
 of Faith was adopted by the synod in 18 14, and this 
 was revised and adopted by the general assembly in 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 215 
 
 1883. This Confession, as said by Dr. M. B. DeWitt, 
 is "a modification of the Westminster Confession." 
 It was an attempt, as in the case of the Saumur School, 
 to find a middle ground between Calvinism and Ar- 
 minianism — to introduce a "Medium Theology.' That 
 it did "modify" the old Confession is easily discovered 
 by reference to the teachings concerning the Decrees 
 of God, the Covenant of Grace, the work of Christ, the 
 Mediator, Divine Influence (substituted for Effectual 
 Calling), Repentance, Faith, and Regeneration. 
 
 While this was a Presbyterian Church, it was not 
 Calvinistic, as is evidenced not only by its Confession, 
 but also by the testimony of competent men within 
 and without its fold. Dr. A. B. Miller, a distinguished 
 Cumberland Presbyterian minister, wrote: "Nothing 
 that can be said negatively of the doctrinal system of the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church is more true or more 
 characteristic of it than that it is un-Calvinistic." 
 Again he says: "The Confession, as adopted in 1829, 
 and still more fully as revised in 1883, is in irrecon- 
 cilable antagonism to the obvious and historic sense 
 of the Westminister Confession." Dr. W. H. Roberts, 
 in 1889, in a carefully prepared paper, said of the Cum- 
 berlanders : "Presbyterians in government they are, 
 but Calvinists in doctrine they are not." In the same 
 paper he designates tlierti as a "distinctly Arminian 
 body," and that "Cumberland revision led inevitably 
 to Arminianism." 
 
 Dr. F. R. Beattie said of the Cumberland Presby- 
 terian Church that "It modified the doctrine of the 
 Confession in regard to predestination, so as to be- 
 come virtually Arminian ; while it retains a Presbyte- 
 rian polity. It is really an Arminian Presbyterian 
 Church." 
 
2i6 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 Dr. B. B. Warfield, in his able discussion of the 
 revision of the Confession, A. D. 1903, speaks of the 
 historically Cumberland view as "the distinctive Ar- 
 minian view" ; and in reference to the "Supplemental 
 Report" of the Cumberland committee he says : "What- 
 ever else this document leaves obscure, or does its 
 best to obscure, this at least it makes clear: that the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church is Arminian to the 
 core — that is to say, so far as it is represented by this 
 representative document." 
 
 These testimonies as to the unCalvinistic character 
 of the Cumberland Presbyterian Confession are ot 
 special interest in view of history that has been made 
 since 1903. Up to that time, in large sections of our 
 country, as in the State in which it has been my lot 
 to labor in the ministry for more than fifty years, the 
 Cumberland and our "old Presbyterian" Churches ex- 
 isted side by side. They, and we, recognized the fact 
 that we did not hold the same beliefs — that our 
 churches were separated by distinct doctrinal lines, 
 marked out in our respective Confessions of Faith. 
 Yet we worked, and preached, and prayed together in 
 Christian fellowship, "agreeing to disagree" in the 
 points which separated us, and "endeavoring to keep 
 the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." But we 
 are now confronted with a changed condition. In the 
 year 1903 the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., adoptea 
 a revision of the Confession together with a Declara- 
 tory Statement, and two additional chapters. The 
 large and able committee which prepared these, acted 
 under the instruction that "the revision should in no 
 way impair the integrity of the system of doctrine set 
 forth in the Confession, and taught in the Holy 
 Scriptures." 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 217 
 
 I am one of those who beUeve that the committee 
 kept within the bounds assigned. While I must say, 
 in candor, that I do not think the revision was needed 
 or helpful, yet I agree with those who have contended 
 that it did not materially "impair the integrity of the 
 system of doctrine set forth in the Confession." 
 
 But later developments have given special interest 
 to this revision. In the year of its adoption, 1903, 
 negotiations were set on foot looking to a union of the 
 U. S. A. Church with the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church. After full consideration, and observance of 
 all the required preliminaries, the union was effected 
 on a basis mutually agreed upon, and in 1906 the two 
 assemblies formally announced the consummation. 
 
 This union was effected on "the doctrinal basis of 
 the Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church, 
 U. S. A., as revised in 1903, and of its other doctrinal 
 and ecclesiastical standards," with aclaiowledgment of 
 the Scriptures as the only infallible rule of faith and 
 practice. 
 
 A series of Concurrent Resolutions were also 
 adopted, in the first of which it was declared that "in 
 adopting the Confession, as revised in 1903, it is mu- 
 tually recognized that such agreement now exists be- 
 tween the systems of doctrine contained in the Confes- 
 sions of the two churches as to warrant this union — 
 a union honoring alike to both." It was also recog- 
 nized that liberty of belief exists by virtue of the 
 Declaratory Statement, which is part of the Confession 
 of Faith of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., and 
 which states that the ordination vows of ministers, 
 elders, and deacons requires the reception and adoption 
 of the Confession only as containing the system of 
 
2i8 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures. This Hberty 
 is specifically secured by the Declaratory Statement as 
 to Chap. Ill, and Chap. X, Sec. 3, of the Confession. 
 It was also recognized that the doctrinal deliverance 
 contained in the Brief Statement of the Reformed 
 Faith, adopted by the General Assembly, U. S. A., in 
 1902, reveals a doctrinal agreement favorable to re- 
 union." 
 
 In a final deliverance by the assembly in 1906, after 
 reciting the language concerning liberty of subscrip- 
 tion, it is asserted that "inasmuch as the two assem- 
 blies meeting in 1904 did declare that there was then 
 a sufficient agreement in the systems of doctrine con- 
 tained in the Confessions of the two churches to war- 
 rant the union of the churches, therefore the change of 
 doctrinal Standards resulting from the union involves 
 no change of belief on the part of any who were min- 
 isters, ruling elders, or deacons in the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church." 
 
 I have adduced this record because in treating the 
 subject assigned me I have felt obligated to note the 
 historical facts recited. I feel that it is a delicate task 
 to deal with these matters of such recent date, and in 
 which the parties are contemporary and fellow-laborers 
 with ourselves. The facts involved are these : 
 
 (a) The Cumberland Confession, in the judgment 
 of men who accept it and of others, is not Calvinistic. 
 
 (b.) The revision by the U. S. A. Presbyterian 
 Church, it was claimed, did not impair the integrity 
 of their system of doctrine ; 
 
 (c.) Yet, that church and the Cumberland con- 
 curred in a declaration that between the two churches 
 such agreement now exists as to warrant a union. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 219 
 
 (d.) When the union had been effected the Assem- 
 bly declared that it involved no change of belief on 
 the part of Cumberland Presbyterian ministers, elders, 
 and deacons, and this implies, of course, the liberty to 
 teach and preach the doctrines of the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Confession, as heretofore. 
 
 We are now confronted by this condition : A great 
 number of ministers and churches have been sud- 
 denly transformed from Cumberland Presbyterians to 
 U. S. A. Presbyterians ; adopting the Westminster 
 Confession, but at liberty to hold and disseminate the 
 teachings of the Confession to which they had form- 
 erly subscribed. 
 
 It is not my purpose or desire to criticize unkindly 
 the action of the U. S. A. Presbyterian Church in re- 
 ceiving those other brethren into their fold on the 
 basis on which the union was effected, or to discuss 
 the concessions they found themselves willing to make. 
 They had a right to judge of the propriety of the course 
 they thought it best to pursue, and to put their esti- 
 mate on the Cumberland Standards and to judge of 
 their conformity to their own. 
 
 Yet I feel warranted in saying that in my humble 
 judgment, in this recent transaction with the accom- 
 panying deliverances, there is one of the most serious 
 and far-reaching modifications of the Calvinistic system 
 of doctrine of which history takes account. 
 
 For the people, and the ministry, and the splendid 
 work of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., we of the 
 Southern Church have no feeling other than fraternal 
 and cordial esteem. It is a great body of Presbyte- 
 rians, the largest in the world. Among its trusted 
 leaders there are many men whom we delight to honor. 
 
220 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 Dr. Patton and Dr. Warfield are great defenders of 
 the faith, and we count their names worthy to be 
 "writ large" in the same column with those of our own 
 illustrious Thornwell and our colossal Dabney. On 
 this occasion another of their distinguished men, Dr. 
 H. C. Minton, has been one of our guests of honor, 
 and he has favored us with an address which in its 
 grasp of a great theme, displayed the hand of a mas- 
 ter; in language and style it was as elegant as 
 Macaulay's, and in delivery superbly eloquent. It is 
 worthy of an honored place among the classic gems 
 of Calvinistic literature. 
 
 In speaking of the course pursued by the great 
 Church in which these honored brethren are standard 
 bearers, if I have "nothing extenuated" in the recital 
 of historic facts, I am unconscious of having "set down 
 aught in malice." 
 
 And now, Moderator, and brethren, I thank you 
 for the patient attention you have given to this long 
 address. I can only plead in apology for its length 
 that the subject assigned me was exceeding large. It 
 is no light requirement to trace the course of theologi- 
 cal thought through a period of four hundred years. 
 At last, my task, however inperfectly, is done. 
 
 This Assembly, notable by reason of the Calvin 
 celebration, is nearing its closing session. I trust 
 that we may go hence with hearts inspired by a larger 
 reverence for the great man whose character and work 
 have been kept before us during these busy sessions, 
 and that we will hold with a grip that knows no 
 weakening, the System of doctrine contained in that 
 old Confession which, in these days of change, our 
 Church retains without a revision of its statements or 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 221 
 
 modification of its articles of faith. In no spirit of 
 vain-glory we may assert the claim that this Confes- 
 sional System of doctrine best agrees with the teach- 
 ings of Scripture, the dictates of reason, the testimony 
 of consciousness, and the facts of history. It solves 
 more questions, it involves fewer difficulties it gives 
 more solid ground for faith and hope, and it more 
 exalts and glorifies God, than any doctrine which 
 contradicts it. It is the doctrine emblazoned on the 
 banner that has been borne in the forefront of God's 
 Sacramental host in the days of the Church's most 
 glorious history ; it has ever strengthened the mission- 
 ary and sustained the martyr ; it has made strong the 
 hands of God's battling heroes and inspired with hope the 
 hearts of His suffering saints. 
 
 This doctrinal banner will be the rallying center 
 for an ever-increasing number of the soldiers of the 
 cross, and the song of which it has been the sentiment, 
 will be sung, although mid toils and tears, until the song 
 and the singers become a part of the worship and the 
 worshippers when the host of the redeemed shall, 
 with the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice 
 of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunder - 
 ings, sing: 
 
 Alleluia : for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ! 
 
V 
 
Rev. BENJA..MIN B. Wakfield, D. D., 
 Princeton, N, J. 
 
PRESENT DAY ATTITUDE TO 
 CALVINISM. 
 
 Rev. Benj. B. Warfied, D. D., LL. D., 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary. 
 
 The subject upon which I am to address you in- 
 volves the determination of a matter of fact, about 
 which it is not easy to feel fully assured. What is the 
 present-day attitude towards Calvinism? The answer 
 to this question is apt to vary with the point of sight 
 of the observer, or rather with the horizon which his 
 eye surveys. 
 
 Our learning- to-day is "made in Germany," our 
 culture comes to us largely from England. And the 
 German learning of the day has a sadly rationalistic 
 tendency ; which is superposed, moreover, on a 
 Lutheran foundation that has an odd way of cropping 
 up and protruding itself in unexpected places. Simi- 
 larly, English culture is not merely shot through, but 
 stained through and through, with an Anglican color- 
 ing. Lutheranism was ever intolerant of Calvinism. 
 Anglicanism was certainly never patient of it. Natur- 
 alism is its precise contradictory. He who breathes 
 the atmosphere of books, therefore, — whether books 
 of erudition, or .books of pure literature — is apt to 
 find it stifling to his Calvinism. 
 
 There is, of course, another side of the matter. 
 There are very likely more Calvinists in the world to- 
 day than ever before. Even relatively, the professedly 
 
224 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 Calvinistic churches are, no doubt, holding their own. 
 There are important tendencies of modern thought 
 which play into the hands of this or that Calvinistic 
 conception. Above all, there are to be found every- 
 where humble souls, who, in the quiet of retired lives, 
 have caught a vision of God in his glory, and are cher- 
 ishing in their hearts that vital flame of complete 
 dependence on him which is the very essence of 
 Calvinism. 
 
 On the whole, however, I think we must allow, 
 especially when we are contemplating the trend oi 
 current thought, that the fortvuies of Calvinism are 
 not at their flood. Those w^hose heritage it was, have 
 in large numbers drifted away from it. Those who 
 still formerly profess it, do not always illustrate it in 
 life or proclaim it in word. Are there any "Calvinists 
 without reserve" left among the acknowledged leaders, 
 at least, of French-speaking Christendom, blood of 
 whose blood and bone of whose bone Calvin himself 
 was? Outside of the little band of the followers of 
 H. M. Kohlbriigge, are there any left throughout the 
 broad stretches of those German lands in which Cal- 
 vinism was once able to give so good an account of 
 itself? Even in Scotland, we have been told by Dr. 
 Hastie that, so far as the greater churches are con- 
 cerned, the race of Calvinists, of strict construction at 
 least, practically died out with William Cunningham 
 and Thomas J. Crawford. Happily in sturdy little 
 Holland, amid wide-spread blight, there is still a fruit- 
 ful stock, and the Free Churches of the Netherlands 
 especially show yet a vigorous Calvinistic life: they 
 possess to-day, in fact, in Abraham Kuyper and Her- 
 man Bavinck, a theologian of genius and a theologian 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 225 
 
 of erudition worthy of the best traditions of Holland's 
 great past. Here in America, the impulse received 
 from the great teachers who illuminated the middle of 
 the nineteenth century — Charles Hodge, Robert J. 
 Breckinridge, James H, Thornwell, Henry Boynton 
 Smith, William G. T. Shedd, Robert L. Dabney, Archi- 
 bald Alexander Hodge — I enumerate them in chrono- 
 logical order — we are thankful to say is not yet ex- 
 hausted. There remains, then, undoubtedly a rem- 
 nant according to the election of grace. But the condi- 
 tion of a remnant, while it may well be a healthful one — 
 bearing in it, as a fruitful seed, the promise and po- 
 tency of future expansion — is little likely 'to be a 
 happy one. Unfriendly faces meet it on every side ; 
 if doubt and hesitation are not engendered, at least 
 an apologetical attitude is fostered ; and an apologetical 
 attitude is not becoming in Calvinists, whose trust is 
 in the Lord God Almighty. In such a situation Cal- 
 vinism seems shorn of its strength, and is tempted to 
 stand fearful and half ashamed in the marts of men. 
 I have no wish to paint the situation in too dark 
 colors. I fully believe that Calvinism, as it has sup- 
 plied the sinews of evangelical Christianity in the 
 past, so is its strength in the present, and is its hope 
 for the future. Meanwhile, does it not seem, in large 
 circles at all events, to be thrown very much on the 
 defensive? In the measure in which you feel this to 
 be the case, in that measure you will be prepared to 
 ask with me for the causes and significance of this 
 state of things. 
 
 We should begin, I think, by recalling precisely 
 what Calvinism is. It may be fairly summed up, I 
 suppose, in these three propositions : Calvinism is 
 
226 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 theism come to its rights. Calvinism is religion at 
 the height of its conception. Calvinism is evangeli- 
 calism in its purest and most stable expression. 
 
 Calvinism, I say, is theism come to its rights. For 
 in what does theism come to its rights but in teleo- 
 logical view of the universe? For, though there be 
 that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, — 
 as there are gods many and lords many conceived of 
 men — yet to the theist, there can be but one God, of 
 whom are all things and unto whom are all things. 
 You see, we have already slipped into the Calvinistic 
 formula : The will of God is the cause of things. I 
 do not say, you will observe, that theism and Calvinism 
 have points of affinity, lie close to one another: Tsay 
 they are identical. I say that the theism which is 
 truly theism, consistently theism, all that theism to 
 be really theism must be, is already in principle Cal- 
 vinism ; that Calvinism in its cosmological aspect is 
 nothing more than theism in its purity. To fall away 
 from Calvinism, is to- fall away by just so much from 
 a truly theistic conception of the uiliverse. Of course, 
 then, to fall away in any degree from a pure theism in 
 our conception of things is just by that much to fall 
 away from Calvinism. Wherever, then, in our view 
 of the world an imperfect theism has crept in, there 
 Calvinism has become impossible. 
 
 Calvinism, I have said, again, is religion at the 
 height of its conception. For whatever else may enter 
 the conscious religious relation, — a vague feeling of 
 mystery, a struggling reaching out towards the infinite, 
 a deep sentiment of reverence and awe, a keen recogni- 
 tion or dull apprehension of responsibility, — certainly 
 its substance lies in a sense of absolute dependence 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 227 
 
 upon a supreme being. I do not say, you will observe, 
 an absolute feeling of dependence, which in the 
 Schleiermacheran meaning-, at least, of a feeling with- 
 out intellectual content, were an absurdity. What i 
 say is, that religion in its substance is a sense of abso- 
 lute dependence on God, and reaches the height of its 
 conception only when this sense of absolute depend- 
 ence is complete and all pervasive, in the thought and 
 feeling and life. But, when this stage is reached, we 
 have just Calvinism. For what is Calvinism but the 
 thetical expression of religion, conceived as absolute 
 dependence on God? Wherever we find religion in 
 its purity, therefore, there Calvinism is implicit. I do 
 not say, observe again, that an approach to Calvinism 
 is traceable there, in less or greater measure. I say, 
 there Calvinism is, — implicitly indeed, but really — 
 present. Religion in its purity is Calvinism in life ; 
 and you can fall away from Calvinism only by just in 
 that measure falling away from religion, and you do 
 fall away from Calvinism just in proportion as you 
 fall away from religion in its purity. 
 
 It is, however, dreadfully easy to fall away from 
 religion at the height of its conception. We may as- 
 sume the truly religious attitude of heart and mind 
 for a moment ; it is hard tO' maintain it and give it 
 unbroken dominance in our thought, feeling and ac- 
 tion. Our soul's attitude in prayer, — that is the reli- 
 gious attitude at its height. But do we preserve the 
 attitude we assume towards God in prayer when we 
 rise from our knees? Or does our "amen" cut it oflE 
 at once, and we go on about our affairs in an entirely 
 different mood? Now, Calvinism means just the pre- 
 servation in all our thinking and feeling and action of 
 
228 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 that attitude of utter dependence on God which we as- 
 sume in prayer. It is the mood of religion made deter- 
 minative of all our thinking and feeling and willing. 
 It is accordingly conterminous with religion in the height 
 of its conception. Wherever, therefore, religion in any 
 measure loses hold of the reins of life and our im- 
 manent thought has slipped away from its control, — 
 there Calvinism has become impossible. 
 
 I have said again, Calvinism is evangelicalism in 
 its pure and only stable expression. When we say 
 evangelicalism, we say sin and salvation. Evangeli- 
 calism is a soteriological conception : it implies sin 
 and salvation from sin. There may be religion without 
 evangelicalism. We may go further: religion might 
 conceivably exist at the height of its conception, and 
 evangelicalism be lacking. But not in sinners. Evan- 
 gelicalism is religion at the height of its conception as 
 it forms itself in the hearts of sinners. It means utter 
 dependence on God for salvation ; it implies, therefore, 
 need of salvation, and a profound sense of this need, 
 along with an equally profound sense of helplessness 
 in the presence of this need, and utter dependence on 
 God for its satisfaction. Its type is found in the pub- 
 lican, who smote his breast and cried, "God be merci- 
 ful to me a sinner !" No question there of saving him- 
 self, of helping God to save him, or of opening the 
 way to God to save him ; no question of anything, but, 
 I am a sinner, and all my hope is in God my Saviour! 
 Now this is Calvinism ; not, note once more, some- 
 thing like Calvinism or an approach to Calvinism, but 
 just Calvinism in its vital manifestation. Wherever 
 this attitude of heart is found and is given expression 
 in direct and unambiguous terms, there is Calvinism. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 229 
 
 Wherever this attitude of mind and heart is fallen away 
 from in however small a measure, there Calvinism has 
 become impossible. 
 
 For Calvinism, in this soteriological aspect of it, is 
 just the perception and the thetical expression and de- 
 fense of the utter dependence of the soul on the free 
 g^race of God for salvation. All its so-called hard fea- 
 tures — its doctrine of original sin ; yes, speak it right 
 out, its doctrine of total depravity and the entire in- 
 ability of the sinful will to good ; its doctrine of elec- 
 tion ; or, put it in the words everywhere spoken against, 
 its doctrine of predestination and preterition, or repro- 
 bation itself — mean just this and nothing more. Cal- 
 vinism will not play fast and loose with the free grace 
 of God ; it is set upon giving to God and to God alone, 
 the glory and all the glory of salvation. There are 
 others than Calvinists, no doubt, who would fain make 
 the same great confession. But they make it with re- 
 serves; or they painfully justify the making of it by 
 some tenuous theory which confuses nature and grace. 
 They leave logical pitfalls on this side or that ; and 
 the difference between logical pitfalls and other pit- 
 falls is that the wayfarer may fall into the others, but 
 the plain man, just because his is a simple mind, must 
 fall into these. Calvinism will leave no logical pitfalls; 
 and will make no reserves ; and will have nothing to 
 do with theories whose function it is to explain away 
 facts. It confesses with a heart full of adoring grati- 
 tude that to God and to God alone belongs salvation 
 and the whole of salvation ; that he it is and he alone 
 who works salvation in its whole reach. Any falling 
 away in the slightest measure from this great con- 
 fession is to fall away from Calvinism. Any in- 
 
230 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 trusion of any human merit, or act, or disposition, or 
 power, as ground or cause or occasion, into the process 
 of divine salvation, — whether in the way of capacity to 
 resist or abihty to improve grace — of the opening of 
 the way to the reception of grace, or of the employ- 
 ment of grace already received — is a breach with Cal- 
 vinism. Calvinism is the casting of the soul wholly 
 on the free grace of God alone, to whom alone belongs 
 salvation. 
 
 Such is the nature of Calvinism. And such being 
 the nature of Calvinism it seems scarcely necessary 
 to inquire why its fortunes appear from time to time, 
 and now again in our time, to suffer some depression. 
 It can no more perish out of the earth than the sense 
 of sin can pass out of the heart of sinful humanity; than 
 the perception of God can fade out of the minds of 
 dependent creatures ; than God himself can perish out 
 of the heavens. Its fortunes are bound up with the 
 fortunes of theism, religion, evangelicalism; for it is just 
 theism, religion, evangelicalism in the purity of their 
 conception and manifestation. In the purity of their 
 conception and manifestation ! There is the seat of 
 the difficulty. It is proverbially hard to retain, much 
 more to maintain, perfection. And how can precisely 
 these things be maintained at their height? Consider 
 the currents of thought flowing up and down in the 
 world, tending — I do not now say to obliterate the 
 perception of the God of all: atheistic naturalism, ma- 
 terialistic or pantheistic evolutionism — but to blunt or 
 obscure our perception of the divine hand in the se- 
 quence of events and the issues of things. Consider 
 the pride of man, his assertion of freedom, his boast 
 of power, his refusal to acknowledge the sway of an- 
 
Calvin Memori7\l Addresses 231 
 
 other's will. Consider the ingrained confidence of the 
 sinner in his own fundamentally good nature and his 
 fidl ability to perform all that can be justly demanded 
 of him. Is it strange that in this world — in this par- 
 ticular age of this world — it should prove difficult to 
 preserve not only active, but vivid and dominant, the 
 perception of the everywhere determining hand of God, 
 the sense of absolute dependence on him, the convic- 
 tion of utter inability to do even the least thing to 
 rescue ourselves from sin — at the height of their con- 
 ception? Is it not enough to account for whatever 
 depression Calvinism may be suffering in the world 
 to-day, to point to the natural difficulty in this mate- 
 rialistic age, — conscious of its newly realized powers 
 over against the forces of nature and filled with the 
 pride of achievement and of material well-being, — of 
 guarding our perception of the governing hand of God 
 in all things in its perfection, maintaining our sense 
 of dependence on a higher power in full force, and 
 preserving our feeling of sin, unworthiness and help- 
 lessness in its profundity? Is not the significance of 
 the depression of Calvinism, so far as it is real, then, 
 merely that to our age the vision of God has become 
 somewhat obscured in the midst of abounding material 
 triumphs, the religious emotion has in some measure 
 ceased to be the determining force in life, and the evan- 
 gelical attitude of complete dependence on God for 
 salvation does not readily commend itself to men who 
 are accustomed to lay forceful hands on everything 
 else they wish and do not quite see why they may 
 not take heaven also by storm ? 
 
 Such suggestions may seem to you rather general, 
 perhaps even somewhat indefinite. They appear to me 
 
232 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 nevertheless to embody the true, and the whole, ac- 
 count of v^^hatever depression of fortunes Calvinism 
 may be suffering to-day. In our current philosophies, 
 whether monistic evolutionism or pluralistic pragma- 
 tism, theism is far from coming to its rights. In the 
 strenuous activities of our materialized life, religion 
 has little opportunity to assert itself in its purity. In 
 our restless assertion of our personal power and worth 
 evangelicalism easily falls into the background. In 
 an atmosphere created by such a state of things, how 
 could Calvinism thrive? We may, of course, press on 
 to a more specific account of its depressed fortunes. 
 But in attempting to be more specific, what can we do 
 but single out particular aspects of the general situa- 
 tion for special remark? It is possible, indeed, that 
 the singling out of one of these aspects may give clear- 
 ness and point to the general fact. It may be worth 
 while, therefore, to attend to one of these special 
 aspects for a moment. 
 
 Let us observe this, then — that Calvinism is only 
 another name for consistent supernaturalism in reli- 
 gion. The central fact of Calvinism is the vision of 
 God. Its determining principle is zeal for the divine 
 honor. What it sets itself to do is to render to God 
 his rights in every sphere of life-activity. In this it 
 begins and centers and ends. It is this that is said 
 when it is said that it is theism come to its rights, since 
 then everything that comes to pass is viewed as the 
 direct outworking of the divine purpose ; that it is re- 
 ligion at the height of its conception, since then God 
 is consciously felt as him in whom we live and move 
 and have our being; that it is evangelicalism in its 
 purity, since then we cast ourselves as sinners, without 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 233 
 
 reserve, wholly on the mercy of the divine grace. It 
 is this sense of God, of God's presence, of God's power, 
 of God's all-pervading activity — most of all in the 
 process of salvation — which constitutes Calvinism. 
 When the Calvinist gazes into the mirror of the world, 
 whether the world of nature or the world of events, 
 his attention is held not by the mirror itself (with 
 the cunning construction of which scientific investiga- 
 tors may no doubt very properly busy themselves) but 
 by the Face of God which he sees reflected therein. 
 When the Calvinist contemplates the religious life, he 
 is less concerned with the psychological nature and 
 relations of the emotions which surge through the 
 soul (with which the votaries of the new science of 
 the psychology of religion are perhaps not wholly un- 
 fruitfully engaging themselves) than with the divine 
 source from which they spring, the divine object of 
 which they take hold. When the Calvinist considers 
 the state of his soul and the possibility of its rescue 
 from death and sin, he may not indeed be blind to 
 the responses which it may by the grace of God be 
 enabled to make to the divine grace, but he absorbs 
 himself not in them but in it, and sees in every step 
 of his recovery to good and to God the almighty work- 
 ing of God's grace. The Calvinist in a word is the 
 man who sees God : he has caught sight of the in- 
 effable Vision, and he will not let it fade a moment 
 from his eyes. God in nature, God in history, God in 
 grace ; everywhere he sees God in his mighty step- 
 ping, everywhere he feels the working of his mighty 
 arm, the throbbing of his mighty heart. The Calvinist 
 is, therefore, by way of eminence the supernaturalist 
 in the world of thought. The world itself is to him 
 
234 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 a supernatural product ; not merely in the sense that 
 somewhere, away back before all time, God made it ; 
 but that God is making it now and in every event that 
 falls out, in every modification of what is that takes 
 place, his hand is visible, as through all occurrences 
 his one increasing purpose runs. Man himself is his, 
 created for his glory, and having as the one supreme 
 end of his existence to glorify his Maker, and haply 
 also to enjoy him forever. And salvation in every step 
 and stage of it is of God. Conceived in God's love, 
 wrought out by God's own Son, in a supernatural 
 life and death in this world of sin, and applied by 
 God's Spirit in a series of acts as supernatural as the 
 virgin-birth and the resurrection of the Son of God 
 themselves, it is a supernatural work through and 
 through. To the Calvinist thus the church of God 
 is as direct a creation of God as the first creation itself. 
 In this supernaturalism, the whole thought and feeling 
 and life of the Calvinist is steeped. Without it there 
 can be nO' Calvinism: for it is just this that is 
 Calvinism. 
 
 Now the age in which we live is anything but super- 
 naturalistic. It is distinctly hostile to supernaturalism. 
 Its most striking characteristic is precisely its deeply 
 rooted and wide-reaching naturalism of thought and 
 sentiment. We know the origin of this modern natur- 
 alism ; we can trace its history. What it is of more 
 importance to observe, however, is that we cannot 
 escape its influence. On its rise in the latter part of 
 the seventeenth century, a new era began, an era in 
 which men have had little thought for the rights of 
 God in their absorption in the rights of man. English 
 deism, French encyclopedism, German illuminism — 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 235 
 
 these are some of the fruits it has borne in the progress 
 of its development ; and now it has at length run to 
 seed in our own day in what arrogates to itself the 
 name of the New Protestantism — that New Protestant- 
 ism which repudiates Luther and all his fervid ways 
 and turns rather for its spiritual parentage to the reli- 
 gious indifferentism of Erasmus. It has invaded with 
 its solvent every form of thought and every activity 
 of life. It has given us a naturalistic philosophy (in 
 which all being is evaporated into becoming), a natu- 
 ralistic science (the single-minded zeal of which is to 
 eliminate design from the universe), a naturalistic poli- 
 tics (the first fruits of which was the French Revolution, 
 and its last may well be an atheistic socialism), a natural- 
 istic history (which can scarcely find place for even hu- 
 man personality among the causes of events), and a natu- 
 ralistic religion which says "Hands off!" to God, if 
 indeed it troubles itself to consider whether there be 
 a God, or if there be a God whether he be a person, 
 or if he be a person, whether he can or will concern 
 himself with men. 
 
 You, as ministers of the gospel, have been greatly 
 clogged in the prosecution of your calling by this na- 
 turalism of current thought. How many of those to 
 whom you would carry the message of grace, do you 
 find preoccupied with a naturalistic prejudice ! Who 
 of your acquaintance really posits God as a factor in 
 the development of the world? How often have you 
 been exhorted to seek a "natural" progress for the 
 course of events in history? Yes, even for the history 
 of redemption. So, even in the region of your own 
 theological science, a new Bible has been given to you ; 
 not offered to you merely, but violently thrust upon you 
 
236 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 as the only Bible a rational man can receive, — a new 
 Bible reconstructed on the principle of natural 
 development, torn to pieces and rearranged under 
 the overmastering impulse to find a "natural" order 
 of sequence for its books, and a "natural" 
 course of development for the religion whose 
 records it preserves. But why stop with the Bible? 
 Your divine Redeemer himself has been reconstructed 
 on the same naturalistic lines. For a century and a 
 half now, — from Reimarus to Wrede — all the resources 
 of an age pre-eminent for scholarship have been bent 
 to the task of giving you a "natural" Jesus. Why talk 
 here of the miracles of the Old Testament or of the 
 New? It is the Miracle of the Old Testament and the 
 New which is really brought into question. Why dis- 
 pute as to the virgin-birth and the resurrection of 
 Jesus? It is to the elimination of Jesus himself, as 
 aught but a simple man of his day, in nothing, except 
 perhaps an unusually vivid religious experience, dif- 
 ferentiated from other Galilaean peasants of his time, 
 that the naturalistic frenzy of our age is set upon. 
 And so furiously has the task been driven on that 
 the choice that is set before us at the end of the day is 
 practically between no Jesus at all, or a fanatic, not 
 to say a paranoiac, Jesus. In this anti-supernatural- 
 istic atmosphere, is it strange that men find the pure 
 supernaturalism of the Calvinistic confession difificult, 
 — that they waver in their firm confidence that it is 
 God who reigns in heaven and on earth, that in him we 
 all live and move and have our being, that it is he 
 and not ourselves who creates in us every impulse to 
 good, and that it is his almighty arm alone that can 
 rescue us from sin and bring to our helpless souls 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 237 
 
 salvation? Is it strange that here too men travel the 
 broad road beaten smooth by many feet, and the Calvinis- 
 tic gate seems so narrow that few there be that find it, 
 and the Calvinistic way so straitened that few there 
 be who go in thereat? 
 
 But let us make no mistake here. For here too 
 Calvinism is just Christianity. The supernaturalism 
 for which Calvinism stands is the very breath of the 
 nostrils of Christianity: without it Christianity can- 
 not exist. And let us not imagine that we can pick 
 and choose with respect to the aspects of this super- 
 naturalism which we acknowledge. That we may, for 
 example, retain supernaturalism, in the origination of 
 Christianity, and forego the supernaturalism with which 
 Calvinism is more immediately concerned, — the superna- 
 turalism of the application of Christianity. Men will not 
 believe that a religion the actual working of which in 
 the w^orld is natural, can have required to be ushered 
 into the world with supernatural pomp and display. 
 These supernaturals stand or fall together. A super- 
 natural Redeemer is not needed for a natural salva- 
 tion : if we can and do save ourselves, it were grossly 
 incongruous that God should come down from heaven 
 to save us, trailing clouds of glory with him as he 
 came. The logic of the Socinian system gave us at 
 once a human Christ and an autosoteric religion. The 
 same logic will work to-day, and every day till the 
 end of time. It is only for a truly supernatural salva- 
 tion that a truly supernatural redemption, or a truly 
 supernatural Redeemer is demanded — or can be be- 
 lieved in. 
 
 And this reveals to us the real place which Cal- 
 vinism holds in the controversies of to-day, and the 
 
238 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 service it is to render in the preservation of Chris- 
 tianity for the future. Only the Calvinist is the con- 
 sistent supernaturalist : and only consistent superna- 
 turalism can save supernatural religion for the world. 
 The supernatural fact, which is God ; the supernatural 
 act, which is miracle; the supernatural book, which is 
 the revealed will of God; the supernatural redemption, 
 which is the divine deed of the divine Christ; the su- 
 pernatural salvation, which is the divine work of the 
 divine Spirit, — these things form a system, and you 
 cannot draw one item out without shaking the whole. 
 What Calvinism particularly asserts is the superna- 
 turalism of salvation, as the immediate work of God 
 the Holy Spirit in the soul, by virtue of which we 
 are made new creatures in Christ our Redeemer and 
 framed into the sons of God the Father. And it is 
 only he that heartily believes in this supernaturalism 
 of salvation who is not fatally handicapped in meeting 
 the assaults of that anti-supernaturalistic world-view 
 which flaunts itself so triumphantly about us. Conceal 
 it from ourselves as we may, defeat here lies athwart 
 the path of all half-hearted scemes and compromising 
 constructions. This is what was meant by the late 
 Dr. Henry Boynton Smith, when he declared roundly: 
 "One thing is certain, — that infidel science will rout 
 everything excepting thoroughgoing Christian ortho- 
 doxy. The fight will be between a stiff tUoroughgoing 
 orthodoxy and a stiff thoroughgoing infidelity. It 
 will be, for example, Augustine or Comte,' Athanasius 
 or Hegel, Luther or Schopenhauer, J. S. Mill or John 
 Calvin." 
 
 This witness is true. We cannot be supernaturalis- 
 tic in patches of our thinking, and naturalistic in its 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 239 
 
 substance. We cannot be supernaturalistic with re- 
 gard to the remote facts of history and naturalistic 
 with regard to the intimate events of experience. We 
 cannot be supernaturahstic with regard to what oc- 
 curred two thousand years ago in Palestine, and simply 
 naturalistic with regard to what occurs to-day in our 
 hearts. No form of Christian supernaturalism can be 
 ultimately maintained, in any department of life or 
 thought, except it carry with it the supernaturalism of 
 salvation, and a consistent supernaturalism of salva- 
 tion is only another name for Calvinism. Calvinism 
 thus emerges to our sight as nothing more or less than 
 the hope of the world. 
 
Rev. a. M. Frasek, D. D. 
 Staunton, Va. 
 
HOW MAY THE PRINCIPLES OF 
 
 CALVINISM BE RENDERED 
 
 MOST EFFECTIVE UNDER 
 
 MODERN CONDITIONS? 
 
 By A. M. Eraser, 
 Staunton, Virginia. 
 
 The task assigned to me is constructive and practical. 
 It is not explanatory, nor historical, nor apologetic. I 
 am not asked to tell what Calvinism is, nor to relate what 
 it has done, nor to prove that it is true. While I may 
 refer to these themes in the course of my remarks, my 
 main purpose is different. Accepting Calvinism as we find 
 it, assuming that it is true, noting what is peculiar and 
 dominant in modern conditions, forecasting the future as 
 best we may, I am asked to suggest a way by which that 
 system of truth which has wrought mightily in the past 
 may so adjust itself to these modern conditions as to 
 yield the best results. 
 
 My diffidence in this undertaking is increased by the 
 thought that in this question the entire Calvin celebration 
 culminates. A mere sentimental celebration of the past 
 is alien to the spirit of Calvinism, which seeks only to 
 glorify God and serve humanity. If, therefore, our re- 
 view of the past does not yield a substantial contribution 
 to the present, the celebration will so far have failed of 
 its object. 
 
 It will aid our efforts to solve this difficult problem 
 if we can get a fuller interpretation of the question pro- 
 
242 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 posed, "How May the Principles of Calvinism be Ren- 
 dered Most Effective Under Modern Conditions?" What 
 are the "Modern Conditions" referred to? What is 
 meant by "the Principles of Calvinism"? What is in- 
 tended by making them "effective" ; or, in other words, 
 what is the "effect" which it is desired that Calvinism 
 shall produce? Let us then, as a preparation for the 
 main question, first consider these three preliminary ones. 
 
 I. What are the "Modern Conditions" referred to? 
 What is there in the present attitude of thought and life 
 that distinguishes this age from other ages in which Cal- 
 vinism has won its victories and done its work? 
 
 I. The first of these I would mention is the materialis- 
 tic tendency of Natural Science. Natural Science pro- 
 ceeds upon the correct principle that it must concern it- 
 self only with observed and recorded facts and with those 
 theories which may reasonably be deduced from such 
 facts, and that moreover it must confine itself to those 
 facts which are perceived through the senses. But the 
 phenomena of spirit not being cognizable by the senses, 
 those phenomena are not properly within the purview of 
 Natural Science. Just here two dangers emerge. The 
 exclusive absorption of the attention with material facts 
 leads to the ignoring of those other spiritual facts which 
 are the proper subjects of another science, and so there 
 results a one-sided development of thought. Or else, 
 departing from its own guiding principle to confine itself 
 to its own established facts. Natural Science draws in- 
 ferences and makes confident assertions concerning 
 spiritual phenomena, which confessedly it does not and 
 cannot observe. Consequently it neglects God and Spirit 
 or denies the existence of either. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 243 
 
 This science, not always equally materialistic, but 
 always with a powerful tendency in that direction, holds 
 a commanding and ascending position in the schools. 
 It is fascinating to the young, it colors literature, it 
 controls the practical arts, and in a circle far wider than 
 that in which its facts are known, it causes a feeling of 
 uneasiness lest the foundations of the faith have been 
 shaken. 
 
 2. Another factor of the modern situation is the de- 
 structive criticism of the Bible. The postulate of a 
 divinely inspired, infallible, sufficient revelation from 
 God is essential to Christianity. The Bible is valuable 
 not merely because it contains a revelation of God, for 
 in a measure natural theology might take the place of 
 that. Nor is it valuable merely because it contains the 
 purest and most correct system of ethics, for in a measure 
 moral philosophy might supply the deficiency there. The 
 Bible is distinguished in that it offers a scheme for 
 the forgiveness of sin, and in that it tells how good morals 
 may be achieved and spiritual life acquired. In this, it is 
 not to be classed with other religious books and flattered 
 as the best of books. Its position is unique and tran- 
 scendant. It is "the Book." 
 
 Modern criticism begins by denying or discrediting 
 the possibility of a supernatural origin for the Bible. 
 Proceeding with a learning that is not always the pledge 
 of wisdom, with an ingenuity that is too often divorced 
 from discretion, and with an industry which "the children 
 of light" would do well to emulate, it subjects every 
 word of the sacred volume to a merciless manipulation 
 and it ransacks the archives of all the ages and the places 
 mentioned in the Bible in the eflfort to prove a purely 
 natural and human origin for it. Not abashed by its 
 
244 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 experience in the past, in which similar results, reached 
 by similar methods, have been ignominiously overthrown 
 by fuller knowledge, and in favor of historic Chris- 
 tianity, it continues to proclaim its conclusions with a 
 confidence that intimidates all those who have not equal 
 learning and better judgment, or who have not the inward 
 and incontestable witness of the Spirit. 
 
 3. Another obtrusive fact in the confusion of modern 
 conditions is the prevalence and growth of Socialism, 
 whether as an economic, ethical, or religious theory. The 
 goal of Socialism is a state of society in which there 
 shall be sometlting approaching an equal distribution 
 among men of the enjoyment of the world's wealth. 
 Sometimes this is advocated as a policy of statesmanship, 
 and so it is economic in its character. Sometimes it 
 is urged as the dictate of justice, and so is ethical. Some- 
 times it is claimed to be an inference from the universal 
 brotherhood of man as taught in the Bible, and so it 
 becomes religious. Socialism is fostered, on the one 
 hand, by some of the most generous impulses of the 
 human heart, drawn out into active expression by beau- 
 tiful visions of self sacrifice and of a universal better- 
 ment of humanity. It is fostered, on the other hand. 
 by some of the most powerful and dangerous forces of 
 human nature, the hunger, the nakedness, the suffering, 
 the sense of wrong of an oppressed and intelligent 
 poverty, provoked and aggravated by the surfeiting 
 and waste, the pride and tyranny, the vulgar display and 
 even the religious professions of wealth. There may 
 have been as much poverty in the world before as there 
 is to-day, and as much dense crowding and unhappiness 
 of the poor. There may have been as much arrogance 
 and coldness and cruelty of wealth. But never before 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 245 
 
 have these conditions been accompanied by such intel- 
 hgence of the poor, caused by free education, free speech, 
 and marvellously cheapened literature. One result of all 
 this is a startling attitude towards religion — an admira- 
 tion, amounting almost to reverence, for Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, but an envenomed hostility to the church. 
 
 4. Another modern movement with which Calvinism 
 must reckon is a nascent civilization in the Far East. 
 In China and Japan and Korea there arc kindred races 
 comprising more than one-fourth of the human family. 
 They occupy lands opulent in those natural resources by 
 which great nations may be sustained. They are charac- 
 terized by a virile personality and an intelligence of the 
 highest order that has lain fallow and has gathered sub- 
 stance through many ages. At a single vault they leap 
 into the arena of the great nations of the world. At 
 once they master all the domain of knowledge which 
 the West had laboriously acquired through centuries. In 
 fifty years, "a cycle of Europe" is acquired by Cathay. 
 They awake to the consciousness of undeveloped power. 
 They not only challenge the prestige of western powers, 
 but, breaking with their own paganism, are ready to em- 
 brace Christianity or "modernism," whichever shall first 
 arrest their attention and win their allegiance. If Chris- 
 tianity is embraced, millenial conditions are accelerated, 
 but if they choose modernism, the redemption of the 
 world is indefinitely postponed. 
 
 5. Another feature of the modern world which de- 
 mands the attention of the church, though it is excep- 
 tional in this age only in the degree and manner of its 
 self assertion, is sensuality. When we consider the 
 brazen immoralities of that which calls itself "high so- 
 
246 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 ciety," and its impudent defiance of most sacred insti- 
 tutions and conventionalities ; when we think of the grow- 
 ing pruriency of fiction and of the stage, and the prosti- 
 tution of marriage to the ends of convenience and of 
 lust; when we see how the same spirit has invaded the 
 very chair of ethics in some of the strongest institutions 
 of learning in the land, and those set to teach morality 
 express doubt as to the reality of virtue; and when we 
 witness the inroads upon the church of those forms of 
 worldliness whose perils lie in the same direction, we 
 see abundant cause for apprehension lest sensuality may 
 have a powerful hold on modern life. 
 
 6. Still another condition is the decline of family re- 
 ligion and of the religious instruction of the young in 
 the home. The excellent sermon on this subject preached 
 by the Moderator at the opening of this Assembly leaves 
 nothing more to be said about that at this time. 
 
 7. This sketch is not complete but only suggestive, 
 yet it should not be concluded without a glance at the 
 bright side. There is more consecration of wealth and 
 more evangelistic and missionary activity in the church 
 to-day than there has ever been since the days of the 
 early church. There is more systematic study of the 
 Scriptures and of problems of church work than there 
 has ever been. There are as fine examples of Christian 
 conscience in public life as the world has ever seen. 
 There is the strongest sense of the spiritual unity of 
 Christendom. 
 
 II. What is meant by "the Principles of Calvinism"? 
 The principles of Calvinism are its essential parts as 
 opposed to its accidental parts. They are that without 
 which Calvinism would cease to be Calvinism. They are 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 247 
 
 the germinal and regulative principles out of which it 
 springs and by which it is moulded. We must dis- 
 tinguish between the principles of Calvinism and that 
 complete system of belief which Calvin himself held. 
 We must distinguish between the principles of Calvinism 
 and any creed held by any Christian organization calling 
 itself Calvinistic, just as we distinguish between the 
 principles of Republican government and any one form of 
 Republican Government. The government may be Re- 
 publican in its general plan and yet may embody mon- 
 archical or other features inconsistent with its central 
 principle. And so Calvinism, powerful, acute, accurate 
 logician as he was, was nevertheless finite and fallible. 
 In the carrying out of his principles he may have been 
 unconsciously influenced to some extent by education 
 and by the circumstances of his life, and so he may 
 have held some views that could not be reconciled vv^ith 
 his other opinions. For a stronger reason we conclude 
 that Calvinistic denominations, in the elaboration of their 
 doctrinal formulas, may have produced creeds that were 
 not logically consistent throughout. There may even 
 be some denominations which hold to the radical prin- 
 ciples of Calvinism and yet so far fail in the application 
 of those principles in constructing their creeds as to 
 deny some tenets which are characteristic of Calvinism 
 and themselves repudiate the name. 
 
 With these general comments, and without pausing 
 to defend my statement, I submit for your approval an 
 outline sketch of the principles of Calvinism. It in- 
 cludes a belief : 
 
 I. In an objective personal God, who is infinitely in- 
 terested in each individual of his creation, and is im- 
 mediately accessible to each, and to whom each is im- 
 mediately responsible. 
 
248 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 2. The utter wreck of man's spiritual nature by sin, 
 totally disabling him for holiness and alienating him 
 from God. 
 
 3. The absolute dependence of ruined man upon the 
 mercy of God for devising, executing, revealing and per- 
 sonally applying whatever scheme of restoration may be 
 possible for man. 
 
 4. The granting to the believer of a restoration 
 through the atonement of Christ, so complete that the 
 image of God is regained and every trace of sin is lost, 
 and of such a nature as to be forever indestructible, 
 
 5. The establishment of a fellowship between God 
 and the individual redeemed, so free, so unrestrained, 
 that the whole life is fertilized by divine impulses, and 
 all the resources of life are brought under spontaneous 
 contribution to the glory of God. 
 
 How deeply do the "five points of Calvinism" enter 
 into this scheme! It enables us to understand what 
 Guizot said of Calvin, that his mind moved in the circle 
 of three chapters of his Institutes. The subjects of 
 those chapters are : 
 
 1. Man's need of the Bible in order to obtain peace 
 with God. 
 
 2. Reason can satisfactorily prove that the Scriptures 
 are a revelation from God. 
 
 3. Man's absolute dependence upon the influences 
 of the Holy Spirit in order to understand aright and to 
 appropriate what the Bible contains. 
 
 The outline I have drawn perhaps also gives us Dr. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 249 
 
 Kuyper's point of view when he says in one place that 
 the distinctive tenet of Calvinism is "The exalted thought 
 that although standhig in high majesty above the crea- 
 ture, God enters into immediate fellowship with the 
 creature" ; and when he says again, "The persuasion that 
 the whole of a man's life is to be lived as in the divine 
 presence has become the fundamental thought of Cal- 
 vinism"; and again when he says, "The assurance of 
 eternal Salvation" was the inspiration of the fortitude and 
 the courage of those who suffered martyrdom for the 
 faith and who achieved the victories of Calvinism. 
 
 The principles of Calvinism I have given are those 
 which pertain to the doctrines of grace, to which I must 
 be confined this morning. But it should be noted in 
 passing that out of these principles of grace there grow 
 principles of church government sufficient for discipline, 
 and principles of worship, simple, whole-hearted and ma- 
 jestic, and other principles which regulate one's moral 
 and intellectual life, and his domestic, social, industrial 
 and civil relations. 
 
 III. What is meant by rendering these principles 
 "effective"? What is the effect we should wish Calvin- 
 ism to produce? 
 
 I submit that the effect we should desire is not to 
 make the gospel popular. Christ did not do that. It 
 is not to adorn religion with artificial attractions, to 
 appeal to the taste or imagination or even the intellect, 
 and so to make it pleasing to the natural heart, for "then 
 is the offense of the Cross ceased." It is not to multiply 
 adherents, admirers, professors and financial supporters. 
 Of what advantage is it that we have plethoric church 
 rolls and houses of worship crowded with enthusiastic 
 listeners if men do not forsake sin and selfishness for 
 
250 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 God and service, and if there be in men no power to 
 transform the Hfe and no foretokens of the perfect Hfe 
 of heaven? The effect we should desire is the creation 
 of spiritual life in man. It is the bringing of men by 
 regeneration into the spiritual kingdom of God, and it is 
 the developing in them by santification of a character 
 consonant with the nature of the spiritual kingdom and 
 an anticipation of the heavenly and eternal state. 
 Through individuals so affected we should seek to mold 
 communities and through communities to impress the 
 nation. And thus in ever widening circles we should 
 send out saving influences to the uttermost parts of the 
 earth. 
 
 IV. And now we reach the main question. "How 
 May the Principles of Calvinism be Rendered Most 
 Effective Under Modern Conditions?" 
 
 In this discussion we must assume that the principles 
 of Calvinism are correct. As a matter of fact we do 
 absolutely believe they are correct. We are Calvinists not 
 from heredity, nor from education, nor from environ- 
 ment, but from individual conviction of the truth of Cal- 
 vinism. What have we then? Here is a positive, well 
 definied, divine arrangement for the redemption of man 
 and for restoring him to the image, the fellowship, and 
 the service of God. All this is contained in the Bible. We 
 believe it is correctly reproduced in the Calvinistic state- 
 ment. While then there is no rescinding of this ar- 
 rangement by divine warrant and no modification of it, 
 while there is no change in the nature of God and no 
 change in the nature of man, we are compelled to act 
 upon the assumption that it is a permanent arrangement 
 adapted to all conditions of humanity in all ages. In- 
 spired revelation is not progressive but fixed. Our un- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 251 
 
 derstanding of it may increase and become better clarified-, 
 but here we have no question as to the substantial correct- 
 ness of our interpretation. Thus Calvinism contains an 
 economy ordained in the wisdom of the Most High for 
 meeting and controlling all possible developments of hu- 
 man life and thought. 
 
 It may be interesting and useful to us to examine the 
 changing phases of human society and ascertain what 
 in them is most congenial with Calvinism, and what 
 Calvinism may use. For instance, the radical principle of 
 Socialism is but the perversion of a principle for which 
 the world is indebted through Calvinism to the Bible. 
 Calvinism teaches us that God is equally accessible to 
 all men and that all men are equally responsible to God. 
 There is then a sort of equality among men which they 
 must recognize. But Socialism goes to the impossible 
 extreme of making that equality absolute, and so ob- 
 literates distinctions which the Creator Himself es- 
 tablished. Take another illustration. There are more 
 than two hundred million Moslems in the world who 
 believe in fatalism, and there are more than four hun- 
 dred million Chinese who believe in some form of pre- 
 destination. These together comprise more than one- 
 third of the human family and more than a half of the 
 unevangelized races, and all this large proportion of the 
 population of the world holds to a more or less perverted 
 form of a doctrine which is distinctive of Calvinism, 
 the sovereignty of God. Or take another illustration. 
 Calvinism, with a better grace than any other religion, 
 can say to Natural Science, You have shown the 
 world more than it has ever known before of the splen- 
 dor and beauty of creation. You have taught the world 
 more clearlv than it has ever known before how the 
 
252 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 beautiful order of the universe has been wrought out 
 by a plan. Is it not more reasonable to believe that the 
 explanation of this world is the presence of a master 
 intelligence rather than the operation of an unconscious 
 force ?" 
 
 But after all we must at last confront the fact 
 that we may not depend and need not depend on any 
 natural easy process. Calvinism if it be God's truth 
 has in it a divine energy intended to overcome and fitted 
 to overcome every kind and degree of opposition. The 
 opposition of to-day may differ in form but does not dif- 
 fer in substance from that of other days. That opposi- 
 tion arises from vicious reasoning and a depraved heart. 
 It was a false philosophy and a corrupt society which 
 Calvin confronted and overcame. Guizot says, "The 
 principal and most formidable characteristics of the six- 
 teenth century were its political disturbances, its public 
 immorality and its ardent intellectual outburst, and Cal- 
 vin was simultaneously resisting all of them." That was 
 a greater task than we have to-day, because the political 
 disturbances, at least, are no longer a feature of the 
 conflict. The proclamation of the truth accompanied by 
 the gracious working of God was ever the means by 
 which the opposition was subdued. Christ said, "Preach 
 the Gospel, and lo, I am with you." On Pentecost Peter 
 narrated the story of Jesus of Nazareth, and the Holy 
 Ghost fell on the multitude and thousands were converted. 
 At Antioch, they preached "the Word" and they 
 preached "the Lord Jesus," and "the hand of the Lord 
 was upon them," and "a great number believed and 
 turned unto the Lord." 
 
 A small group of propagandists, with the world against 
 them, with the prestige of heathenism and Judaism in op- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 253 
 
 position, with the most powerful mihtary government of 
 history actively hostile, clogged by subtle and false phil- 
 osophies within, nevertheless transfused the Roman em- 
 pire with Christianity. The teachings of Christ, the ser- 
 mons recorded in the Acts, the Epistles, which did this 
 work, contain those doctrines which have been formulated 
 in Calvinism. If such is the force of this truth when it is 
 preached "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power," 
 what may it not accomplish? 
 
 When the Reformation came in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, both false doctrine and corruption of character 
 were entrenched in the citadel of the church itself. The 
 revolt was not only against corruption. It went deeper 
 and challenged the doctrinal errors which made that 
 corruption possible. The doctrine of th^. Reformation 
 did not crystallize in Luther. Under God, all honor to 
 Luther for his initiative, his lion-hearted courage, his 
 indefatigable labors, his strongly loving and strongly hat- 
 ing nature and for his sublime leadership. But the doc- 
 trine of the Reformation did not come to its crystalline 
 form in Luther, but in Calvin. The believers in Cal- 
 vinism, strong in their knowledge of the truth, in the 
 presence of God's Spirit, and in their assurance of eternal 
 life, whether they were found in Germany, in the Nether- 
 lands, in Switzerland, in France, in Spain, or in Great 
 Britain, blanched not before church or state or any hu- 
 man tribunal. They faltered not for fire or sword, or 
 axe, or rope, or rack or any instrument of torture that 
 man or devil could devise, they feared not to assail sin 
 or error, and again the victory was won against fallacious 
 reasoning and immoral conduct. 
 
 Calvinism is the most powerful evangelistic agency 
 ever employed. In the seventeenth, eighteenth and nine- 
 
254 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 teenth centuries, revivals of religion, notable for the in- 
 tensity of feeling stirred, the number of people affected 
 and the nature and permanency of the results that fol- 
 lowed, swept over Great Britain and the United States. 
 The stock of the preaching was Calvinistic. 
 
 In local communities, a character for piety, for in- 
 dustry, for integrity, for heroism, for altruism, for in- 
 itiative has been imparted and transmitted for many 
 generations. Every type of moral character has been 
 reached and regenerated by it. The dissolute, the drunk- 
 ard, the burglar, the liar, the indifferent, the violently 
 hostile, the ignorant, the highly educated, the moral, the 
 phlegmatic, the emotional, the supercilious, all alike 
 come under conviction of sin and helplessness and cry, 
 "What must I do to be saved" ? And all alike being con- 
 verted cry with Thomas, "My Lord and my God," and 
 with Saul of Tarsus, "Lord, what wilt thou have me 
 to do?" 
 
 All of this being true and the question being, "How 
 may the principles of Calvinism be rendered most effec- 
 tive under modern conditions?" the answer is two-fold: 
 I. Let Calvinism in its integrity be boldly avowed 
 and aggressively pressed. It is not a time for cowardice, 
 "Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion ; put on 
 thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the Holy City." 
 Let not the church be afraid of it nor afraid to preach 
 it. As some one has said, "The truth needs no care- 
 takers, it needs only witnesses." Let not the truth be sup- 
 pressed or concealed. Let it not be compromised nor 
 amended at the dictation of its enemies. Let it not be 
 glossed to please an unbelieving world. It has always 
 done its work in the open field and not in hiding and not 
 by indirection. It has done its work as a whole and 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 255 
 
 not as a mutilated system. Then let it be proclaimed 
 with confidence. 
 
 To say that men will no longer hear doctrinal preach- 
 ing is a mistake. Only let the preacher himself find a 
 throbbing life in the theme, and let the truth live 
 in his own being, and he will make it live in 
 the lives of his hearers. The street preacher is not 
 afraid of this truth and he has his reward. Thousands 
 turn away from discussions in the pvilpit of current events 
 and social topics, and political issues, and merely ethi- 
 cal questions, and try to fill themselves with the husks of 
 occult and puerile philosophies. 
 
 Following this suggestion we shall need several things : 
 
 I. A ministry thoroughly and boldly in sympathy 
 with Calvinism. Let the emphasis of theological instruc- 
 tion continue to rest upon the chair of systematic theo- 
 logy and increase the emphasis. Let all the learning of 
 the college, the university, and the theological Semi- 
 nary be focused upon a doctrinal education. Let the 
 doctrine be supported by sound exegesis on the one hand 
 and sound philosophy on the other. Give us a scholar- 
 ship in the ministry, capable of stating the truth, thor- 
 oughly informed as to its history and its bearings on 
 other knowledge and on life, and able to defend the truth 
 at every point of attack. Why should we not have a 
 learning in the pulpit as broad, as deep, as accurate, as 
 highly tempered as any to be found in professors chairs, 
 in the laboratories of science, or in the researches of the 
 field and the forest? If Buckle's observation be correct 
 that the tendency of Arminianism is to produce scholars, 
 and the tendency of Calvinism is to produce thinkers, 
 we need to give special attention to this suggestion. 
 
256 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 Yet, far be it from us to disparage personal piety 
 as a requisite for the ministry. As between the minister 
 whose knowledge of the truth and conviction of it are 
 only intellectual, and the man whose "life is hid with 
 Christ in God," evermore give us the man who has ob- 
 tained his knowledge at first hand, from communion 
 with God and from the Spirit's illumination of the word. 
 
 But not only should the minister be in contact with 
 the truth and with God, in order that he may bring the 
 influence of both to bear on human life he must be in 
 sympathetic contact with humanity. The Good Shep- 
 herd was responsive to every human impulse and should 
 not the under shepherd know and feel all that is in man? 
 More than in any previous age does the man of God 
 need to be a man among men, acquainted with their con- 
 ditions and sharing those conditions, loving and being 
 loved, ministering a Christ-like sympathy and help to 
 every kind of man. 
 
 In many cases these three phases of ministerial edu- 
 cation, the scholastic, the spirtual and the practical, may 
 be united in the same person. The ministry as a whole 
 should be distinguished by all of them. 
 
 Then, with the best and most practical men in the 
 pulpit, let the voice of the people and high ideals in 
 Presbytery make it not only possible but imperative that 
 preaching shall be something more than merely emo- 
 tional, or evangelistic, or hortatory, or ethical and never 
 dryly dogmatic. Let it be all the counsel of God, the 
 word of God "which liveth and abideth forever," the 
 most effective implement of evangelism, the surest 
 ethical foundation. 
 
 2. Denominational institutions of learning. By de- 
 nominational institutions is meant not necessarily those 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 257 
 
 under ecclesiastical control. A school may be under 
 ecclesiastical control and altogether negative in religious 
 character. A school may not be under ecclesiastical con- 
 trol and yet saturated to the core with the denominational 
 spirit. A school is denominational only when the in- 
 fluence of its instruction and its school life is positively 
 and strongly denominational. Far hence with the 
 thought that a man cannot be an instructor of the highest 
 order because he has decided religious beliefs. Away 
 with the suggestion that Calvinism may not furnish 
 teachers who are the equals of any other teachers. And 
 again let us give no heed to the claim that successful in^ 
 struction is hindered, when there are parallel efforts made 
 for the spiritual conversion of the student and his sound 
 indoctrination. Let not the Syren voice of money allure 
 us to destruction upon such rocky shores. 
 
 Let all the facts of science be fearlessly told, whether 
 of geology, biolog}^, sociology, archaeology or compara- 
 tive religion. "The truth needs no caretakers." But back 
 of all science place the fact, 'In the beginning God 
 created the heavens and the earth," and let the terminus 
 of all science be, "For Thy glory they were and are 
 created." Let Calvin and Calvinism be given their right- 
 ful place in history. Why should there be any more scut 
 sitiveness about assigning Calvinism its proper place in 
 modern history than there is in discussing the Mecklen- 
 burg Declaration or the responsibility for the loss of 
 Gettysburg? Let the science of government be so taught 
 that the contribution of Calvinistic principles to civil 
 liberty and to right theories of government may be clearly 
 seen. Let ethics and political economy acknowledge 
 their indebtedness to it. Let the Bible be taught in all 
 its bearings upon individual life, and marriage, and the 
 
258 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 family and the state. And let not a pseudo-liberality 
 lead us to suppress the denominational name and inten- 
 tion of our schools. The eloquent Dr. Moses D. Hoge 
 once remarked, "Presbyterians are the only people who 
 make that mistake." 
 
 3. A revival of catechetical instruction in the family 
 and in the Sabbath school, and a rebuilding of the family 
 altar. The stream is not apt to rise higher than its 
 source nor to be purer than its fountain head. Not only 
 should the rythmical clauses of the catechism be given 
 to the memory as the molds for future thought, but all 
 explanations of Scripture, all moral lessons, all parental 
 counsel, all wooings of the heart for Christ should be 
 given with a distinct consciousness of the Calvinistic 
 point of view. Then continue to develop the Sunday 
 school along the lines already adopted, until it shall be- 
 come as effective in its sphere as the public school is 
 in its. 
 
 4. Once more, we need with all of this, not less but 
 more catholic spirit, a sincere, generous, loving appre- 
 ciation of our fellow Christians of whatever denomina- 
 tional name and of whatever creed, because of their ser- 
 vice to the truth and because of the souls they have 
 brought to a common Master. 
 
 II. The second answer to the principal question is 
 that we should seek, and not cease our seeking till we 
 obtain, copious, deep, wide-spread outpourings of the 
 Holy Spirit. The truth alone without the supernatural 
 grace of God's Spirit has no saving and sanctifying 
 efficacy, whatever natural power it may have. In all 
 the great genuine movements of the church the presence 
 of the Spirit of God has overshadowed all other circum- 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 259 
 
 stances. What we need for modern conditions is the 
 ahnighty supernatural working of God, causing the 
 truth to dispel the darkness, and converting hostility into 
 loving submission and worship. The occasion calls for 
 patience and prayer. 
 
 For any distrust of the truth, for any compromise 
 with the world, for any recreancy to duty, "let the min- 
 isters of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar, 
 and let them say. Spare thy people, O Lord, and give 
 not thine heritage to reproach." "Then will the Lord 
 be jealous^^d pity His people. Yea, the Lord will an- 
 swer and say^^nto His people, Behold, I will no more 
 make you a reproach among the heathen." When the 
 divine challenge comes, "Awake, awake ; put on thy 
 strength, O Zion ; put on thy beautiful garments, O 
 Jerusalem, the holy city," let the church say, "Awake, 
 awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as 
 in the ancient days, in the generations of old." 
 
 "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered." 
 
 "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest 
 Joseph like a flock ; Thou that dwellest between the Cher- 
 ubims, shine forth. 
 
 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up 
 thy strength, and come and save us." 
 
 "Turn us again, O Lord God of Hosts, cause Thy 
 face to shine and we shall be saved." 
 
Dr. Charles Merle u'Aubicne, 
 Paris France. 
 
JOHN CALVIN— THE MAN AND 
 HIS TIMES. 
 
 By Dr. Chas Merle d' Aubigne, 
 NcuiUy-snr-Seine, France. 
 
 John Calvin was born on the loth of July, 1509, in 
 the small town of Noyon, in Picardy. His grandfather 
 was a cooper, and owned a small house on the banks of 
 the river Oise. His father, Gerard Cauvin — the name 
 was later Latinized into Calvinus, Calvin — attained by 
 his perseverance and industry to an honorable situation. 
 He was Secretary to the Bishop of Noyon, and Notary 
 to the Chapter of the Cathedral. His mother, Jeanne 
 Lefranc, was noted as a goodlooking and pious woman. 
 John Calvin had four brothers, and two sisters. Two of 
 them followed him later on to Geneva, and settled down 
 near their more famous kinsman. 
 
 Young Calvin showed from his boyhood "a strong 
 mind, a quick and inventive intelligence." He was de- 
 stined by his father, whose relations with the clergy were 
 constant, to the church, and received, when he was only 
 tv/elve years of age, the benefice or living of the chapel 
 Gesine in the cathedral of Noyon. Such an occurrence 
 was by no means imcommon at a time when John of 
 Lorraine was made Bishop at the age of four, and Odet 
 de Chatillon, Coligny's brother. Cardinal at sixteen. 
 
 In 1523, when he was fourteen, young John was 
 sent to Paris as a companion to some youths of the noble 
 family of Montmor. He and his friends were received 
 
262 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 into the college of La Marche and, a few months later, 
 into that of Montaigu, whose principal was the celebrated 
 Beda, later on one of the fiercest opponents of the dawn- 
 ing Reformation. 
 
 In that college the fare was meagre, the discipline 
 severe the work unremitting and the dirt indescribable. 
 From 4 o'clock in the morning till 9 at night, lessons 
 went on almost uninterruptedly, with half an hour's 
 break twice a day, to partake of a hasty meal. 
 
 But the scanty diet was made up by abundant flogging. 
 In that college they whipped for yes, and they whipped 
 for no. The whip was the great means of education. 
 "It was administered," says Erasmus, who was also a 
 pupil of the school, "with all the ferocity which one 
 can expect from the hand of the executioner." 
 
 As to cleanliness, I cannot enter into details. Let me 
 only mention the fact that it was forbidden in Montaigu 
 to the pupils to put their hands to their heads during 
 meals — for fear of what might fall therefrom ! 
 
 How did young Calvin fare in that unpropitious 
 school-house? The order does not seem to have dis- 
 agreed with his temperament, and no doubt he trained 
 himself there to the austere discipline, and ceaseless work 
 which were his rule all through life. He was ardent 
 in his studies, marvellously quick to learn, unflinchingly 
 severe with himself and others. It was no doubt for 
 that reason that he was given by his comrades the nick- 
 name of "Accusative." 
 
 However, Calvin's student years in Paris would have 
 been barren indeed had it not been for his meeting, in 
 the College of La Marche, a master who was to be to 
 him more than a teacher, a friend, and finally, curious 
 to state, a disciple. Mathurin Cordier was not only one 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 263 
 
 of the best Latin linguists of his time, the reformer of 
 the study of that language, but a pedagogue of keen in- 
 sight, and what is better still, a pious heart and earnest 
 Christian. Speaking of the continual flogging, which 
 was the habit of his time, he says : "Why do you con- 
 strain, beat and torture. If you want to instruct easily? 
 Begin by God and heavenly things. . . .The name of 
 Jesus Christ — pour it drop by drop into your pupil's 
 heart. Inculcate into them the word of God, that they 
 may be touched by some spark of the divine love. Re- 
 move the pack of rods, and approach the brand and little 
 flames of piety." 
 
 Such was the teaching which Calvin imbibed in the 
 college of La Marche for many a month. We cannot 
 doubt that it was received into well prepared ground. 
 The reformer never forgot what he owed his old master. 
 Years later he dedicated to him one of his commentaries^ 
 and called him to be the master of the school which he 
 had founded in Geneva. 
 
 In 1528, he was then nineteen, Calvin has finished his 
 course in arts, and, instead of preparing for the church, 
 we find him for five years studying laws, and then litera- 
 ture in the universities of Orleans, Bourges and Paris. 
 
 At the time when the young and promising student 
 betook himself to the Aliua Mater on the banks of the 
 Loire, the University of Orleans was in the full bloom of 
 its prosperity. There Erasmus had taught Latin, Alean- 
 der Greek, and the German Reuchlin Hebrew. There 
 the famous lawyer, Pierre de I'Etoile, "The Prince of 
 Laws," as he was called, lectured to the crowd of stu- 
 dents attracted to the fair city from all parts of the world. 
 It was a motley crowd, composed of princes, dukes, and 
 counts, as well as of the sons of the rich burghers of the 
 
264 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 city. It was also a joyous crowd. The students went 
 by the name of "The Dancers of Orleans," and "there 
 were," says a chronicler, "more than forty games of ball 
 where the Prince of Orleans, later King Louis XII., 
 played with the citizens, the Doctors with their pupils." 
 "And as to breaking their heads with study," adds the 
 famous Rabelais, "they did not do much of that, for fear 
 of injuring their sight." 
 
 It needs scarcely be said that young Calvin had less 
 consideration for his eyes. On the contrary, he appears 
 to us, at that early age, that tremendous worker, that 
 indefatigable student he remained all his life. "He often 
 worked till midnight," says his biographer, Theodore 
 Beza — and let it be remembered that the time for rising 
 then was four or five in the morning. He ate little at 
 supper to be free in his mind, and in the morning, as 
 soon as he awoke, he was used to sit in bed, recalling what 
 he had studied the night before." "There can be no 
 doubt," Beza adds, "that such sleepless nights gravely in- 
 jured his health, and occasioned that weakness of the 
 bowels which after causing him several illnesses, brought 
 about his premature death." "He possessed," says the 
 same biographer, "an incredible memory, which retained 
 every point, and forgot nothing. He could remember 
 the most insignificant details of what had taken place 
 years before. Later on, when he taught, or preached, 
 he never had before him the slightest manuscript, and, 
 when interrupted while dictating a letter or a commen- 
 tary, he could begin again straight way, without being 
 told where he had left off." 
 
 With such readiness and such toil, Calvin progressed 
 rapidly. "Under Pierre de I'Etoile," says Beza again, 
 "Calvin profited so well and in such a short time, that 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 265 
 
 they did not hold him a scholar, but one of the ordinary 
 doctors, and in fact, he was more often a teacher than a 
 listener." 
 
 Three years later, in 1531, when Calvin was twenty- 
 two, these laborious studies culminated in a work which 
 placed him, at the very outset of his career, in the front 
 ranks of the humanists of his time. It was a commen- 
 tary on the "De dementia" of Seneca. Whether there 
 was in the choice of such a subject, a sort of protest 
 against the persecution which was then raging, and a dis- 
 guised appeal to the magninimity of the King, is uncer- 
 tain. Calvin shows himself in the book, a perfect master 
 of the Latin language, a singularly elegant, mature and 
 searching writer, and a scholar of almost incredible eru- 
 dition. He quotes no less than fifty-five Latin authors, 
 and some of them almost unknown. 
 
 Such constant study would not seem to have left Cal- 
 vin, during his student days, much time for relaxation 
 and social intercourse. He was, so he says himself, "of 
 a shy and retiring disposition," but it would be a great 
 mistake — a mistake that has been often made — to see 
 in him a sombre and lonesome hermit, a hater of his 
 fellowmen, and of their society. On the contrary, we 
 find him in Orleans, in Bourges and in Paris, the center 
 of most interesting groups of young men. He enter- 
 tained with them the closest relations, and with some 
 the friendship continued intimate and warm to the end 
 of his life. 
 
 But already, Calvin was something more than a hard 
 working student, than an elegant and learned humanist. 
 If you go to the quaint old town of Bourges, they will 
 
266 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 show you, almost under the shade of the old Cathedral — 
 one of the marvels of architecture — on a little square, 
 "la Pierre de Calvin" Calvin's stone. From there, the 
 future reformer is supposed to have preached to the 
 people assembled in the market place. A little further, 
 you will see a sort of bow-window jutting out from the 
 wall of an old convent, that is "la Chaire de Calvin," 
 Calvin's pulpit. And in the immediate neighborhood of 
 the town, a rickety old stone bridge over a small stream 
 retains to this day the name of Calvin's bridge, "le Pont 
 de Calvin." 
 
 Now I will not vouch for the perfect trustworthiness 
 of every one of these local traditions — yet it seems ab- 
 solutely certain that Calvin did preach the gospel at 
 Bourges, even in his student days, and probably near that 
 very bridge, to the villagers of the neighboring hamlets. 
 Liquieres, Asnieres, whose descendents trace back to him 
 their Protestant faith. What was it then that brought 
 about the great change, which made of the former can- 
 didate to Holy Orders and of the classical scholar a 
 preacher of God's word, and the great reformer of 
 French speaking and of many other countries? The 
 question of Calvin's conversion is not an easy one to 
 solve. He was somewhat shy in speaking of his inner 
 life, and we do not have from others trustworthy records 
 of his change of mind. Yet when we consider the time 
 in which he lived, and the men with whom he associated, 
 it is not difficult to make out under what influences took 
 place that momentous evolution. 
 
 The year young Calvin arrived in Paris, 1523, is the 
 very one in which the great movement produced by the 
 Biblical studies of Lefevre and by the events taking place 
 in Germany, was becoming irresistible. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 267 
 
 On the throne of France was Francis I., the gallant 
 and handsome King. His beauty, his intelligence, his 
 bravery, made him the most chivalrous prince of his time. 
 None could surpass him in the art of riding a stallion, 
 or of weilding a lance in a tournament. Courageous, 
 and even foolhardy on the field of battle, he was an in- 
 tense lover of art, the promoter of learning and of litera- 
 ture, and the builder of the most exquisite gems of 
 Renaissance architecture. Francis was no friend of the 
 Monks. Their ignorance and coarseness repelled him, 
 and gladly would he have welcomed a reformation in 
 the church, had he not discerned in the Protestants an 
 austerity which was a rebuke to his licentiousness, and a 
 love of freedom which would have been a check on his 
 immoderate thirst for domination. 
 
 Next to Francis, not on the throne, but very near it, 
 was his sister, the charming and graceful Marguerite de 
 Valois, duchess of Alencon, and later on Queen of 
 Navarre. To her natural beauty, she added a quick in- 
 telligence, a great taste for letters — she was a good poet — 
 and what is better still, a real tenderness and earnestness 
 of soul. In a court noted for its levity, she set the ex- 
 ample of a pure life, and if all her writings are not 
 irreproachable, her private conduct never gave rise to the 
 slightest suspicion. 
 
 It was under Marguerite's protection that old Lefevre 
 d'Etaples, doctor of the University of Paris — a man who, 
 though he never formally joined the Reformed Church, 
 yet can in truth be called "The Father of French Protes- 
 tantism" — that Lefevre published his famous commen- 
 tary on the Epistles of St. Paul. In that book, Lefevre 
 affirmed in 15 12 — note the date, five years before the 
 posting up of Luther's theses in Wittenberg — over 
 
268 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 against the traditions of the Roman Church the sov- 
 ereign authority of the word of God, and absolute in- 
 efficacy of good works and merit for salvation. In the 
 following years, Lefevre followed up that courageous 
 act by publishing in French a translation of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, in 1 52 1 the gospels, in 1524 the other books of the 
 New, and in 1528 the whole of the Old Testament. 
 Briconnet, Bishop of Meaux, the friend of Marguerite 
 de Valois, sedulously propagated at his own expense, 
 those books in his diocese, and many of them penetrated 
 into Paris./ 
 
 The effect of the reading of the Bible in the vulgar 
 tongue was extraordinary and very rapid. "Such a desire," 
 says a chronicler, "was begotten in the hearts of many 
 to know the way of salvation, that the artisan, wool- 
 carders, combers and others had no other thought, while 
 working with their hands, than to confer about the word 
 of God, and to seek it in their consolation." 
 
 Very soon a host of distinguished men assembled 
 around the old teacher. Michel d'Avande Marguerite's 
 private chaplain, Gerard Roussel, the preacher, Leclercq, 
 the pastor of the little congregation at Meaux, the noble 
 Louis de Berquin, as learned as he was courageous, and 
 above all, William Farel, from Gap in Dauphine. 
 
 All these men, and we can add women, were not only 
 Calvin's contemporaries, living in Paris at the very time 
 when he was persuing his studies, but many of them be- 
 came his friends and correspondents. Can you wonder 
 that a young man of that independence, culture and 
 earnestness of purpose, thrown into the company of such 
 men, should have opened his mind to the ideas they were 
 advocating with such courage and intensity. 
 
 But very soon a formidable opposition breaks out 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 269 
 
 against the innovators. Not only are Lefevre's com- 
 mentaries censured and all translations of the Bible con- 
 demned to be burned, but the reformers themselves are 
 ruthlessly persecuted. Lefevre and Fare! flee from Paris 
 to save their lives. Fourteen members of the congrega- 
 tion of Meaux are arrested and burned, after having 
 had their tongues cut off. Their pastor, Jean Leclercq, 
 has his fist hewn away, his nose torn with red hot pin- 
 cers, his arms and breast lacerated, and then he is led 
 to the stable to be burned. Suddenly a cry is heard in 
 the crowd : "Vive Jesus Christ et ses enseignes." "Hur- 
 rah for Christ and His marks!" It is Leclercq's own 
 mother rejoicing over her son's death for his Master. 
 John Calvin was in Paris at the very time of Leclercq's 
 and his friends' martyrdoms. We can readily imagine 
 what impression they made upon the young man whose 
 faith in the church of his birth was already more than 
 shaken. Add to that, Calvin's intimate friendship with 
 Pierre Robert Olivetan, the translator of the French 
 Bible, who first of all introduced him into the study of 
 Holy Scripture, and the influence of the German Mel- 
 chinr Wolmar, Professor in Bourges, a decided Lutheran, 
 that is a Protestant, who taught him Greek, the Greek of 
 the New Testament, and you have, humanly speaking, 
 a sufficient explanation of his change of mind. "Search 
 the Scriptures," Olivetan used to say to this young 
 friend ; "give yourself up entirely to the study of God's 
 word." 
 
 God's Holy Word! The French as well as the Ger- 
 man and Swiss, and every other Reformation has no 
 other origin, and it is on that anvil that were forged the 
 arms which were soon after to overthrow the power of 
 the Roman Church, and open the kingdom of God to 
 thousands of believers. 
 
270 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 So decidedly is Calvin on the side of the new evange- 
 lical ideas, that on his return to Paris in 1531, he mixes 
 with no others than with the little persecuted flock. 
 Very soon Calvin is known in the congregation, he is 
 consulted, he preaches to them, he defends them against 
 certain enthusiasts who would, if they were allowed free 
 course, ruin the cause. He gradually comes to the front 
 rank, which is his, and is recognized as the ablest ex- 
 ponent of a religion founded, not upon tradition, but on 
 the authority of the Scriptures. 
 
 On the first of November, 1533, the rector of the 
 University of Paris, Nicholas Copp, had to deliver a dis- 
 course for All Saints' Day. He took for his subject a 
 rather unusual topic for a doctor of medicine: "Christian 
 Philosophy." In this discourse, the orator opposes the 
 gospel of the law and to the merit, speaks of "the im- 
 mense good will of God towards us men," of "the as- 
 surance of salvation based on the promise of Christ alone, 
 and ends by declaring those blessed "who are persecuted 
 for justice sake and are called heretics, imposters, se- 
 ducers and accused." The allusion was too direct, and 
 the proclamation too hardy. The Sarbonne did not mis- 
 take the purpose, and trembled with rage. The prisons 
 were immediately filled with Lutherans, ready to be sent 
 to the stake. 
 
 And who was the author of that masterpiece of elo- 
 quence as well as of courage? It was our reformer him- 
 self. The fact is certain to-day, the manuscript, or rather 
 the first page of it, has been found in Geneva, written 
 in Calvin's own hand. The Rector Copp, little accus- 
 tomed to handle theological subjects, but sharing the new 
 evangelical ideas, had asked his young friend to compose 
 the address for him. Responsible for that daring act, 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 271 
 
 he had to flee from Paris, and Calvin himself barely 
 escaped the Inquisitor's hands. He was let down, they 
 say, by his friends in a basket from the window, while 
 the baliff Morin was walking up the staircase. 
 
 Then began for Calvin a wandering life, which lasted 
 three years, and ended only when he settled in Geneva. 
 At the end of 1533 he is in Angouleme in the South 
 West with Canon du Tillet, who became for a time his 
 intimate friend. Shortly after, we find him visiting 
 old Lefevre at Nevac, and preaching to a few peasants 
 in a cave near Poitiers. Then again he is in Basel and 
 in Strasburg. Then again he is in Italy, at the court of 
 the Duke of Fevare. There he had the satisfaction of 
 winning over to the reformed faith the Duchess herself, 
 of the Royal house of France, sister-in-law to the King, 
 one of the most remarkable women of that remarkable 
 time. 
 
 But those three years were not only spent in journey- 
 ing, and in friendly intercourse with the humble and the 
 great. From the day in which he had found himself 
 before the little assembly of worshippers in Paris, in the 
 home of the pious merchant, Etienne de la Forge, Cal- 
 vin had felt the need of the hour ; a complete and syste- 
 matic exposition of Christian doctrine such as he had 
 found it in the Scriptures. And through all his journey- 
 ings, he kept his object well in view and worked at it 
 perseveringly. 
 
 In 1535, while Calvin was in Basel, the King of 
 France who needed for his fight against the Emperor 
 Charles, the help of the German princes, mostly favor- 
 able, as you know, to the Reformation, sedulously pro- 
 pagated the notion that the Protestants, whom he was 
 at the time bitterly persecuting, were nothing, as he said, 
 
272 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 but a pack of enthusiasts, enemies of public order, 
 furious madmen, excited by the father of Hes." That 
 was too much for the man, who in Paris, and elsewhere, 
 had been witness of the ardent faith, blameless conduct, 
 and heoric deaths of the French believers. He rapidly- 
 put the finishing stroke to the great work he had been 
 preparing, and seizing his pen, which by this time, had 
 become that of a master, he wrote that famous preface 
 to his Institutes, which begins in this strain : 
 
 "It is your office. Sire, to turn away neither your ears 
 nor your heart from such a just defense, principally 
 when the matter is about such a great cause as the glory 
 of God. How it shall be maintained on earth, how His 
 truth shall retain honor and integrity, how the reign of 
 Christ shall remain supreme. O matter most worthy of 
 your ears and of your royal throne! For that alone 
 makes the rear king, if he deems himself the servant of 
 God in the government of his kingdom." 
 
 Did the lighthearted and futile king ever read Cal- 
 vin's eloquent and impassionate address? After all, it 
 is of little consequence. Those words, burning with the 
 love of the oppressed and with jealousy for the glory of 
 God, reached over the king's head all the thinking world, 
 and that was what Calvin wished to attain. They carried 
 the young man's fame to the most remote regions, and 
 dubbed him a master in theology and a leader of men. 
 
 Such is tHe man, who at the age of twenty-six — it is 
 hardly credible — wrote the Institutes. He is as well pre- 
 pared to play his part on the scene of the world as a 
 man can be. Brought up in the very bosom of the 
 church, he has known from his youth its weakness and 
 abuses. All the light that human intelligence can shed, 
 has been poured into his mind. Unlike Luther, shut up 
 
St. Peter's Cathedral, 
 Geneva. 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 273 
 
 in his convent, he has been placed in contact with the 
 greatest men of his age. He has mixed in their society, 
 and absorbed their learning. 
 
 A prodigious worker, a rigorous ascete, he is full of 
 youthful buoyancy, fluent in conversation, ardent in dis- 
 cussion, quick in lively and often witty repartee, he 
 astonishes every one by the enormous quantity of knowl- 
 edge he has stored up in his mind. Of a rather retir- 
 ing disposition he has a magnetic attraction for all who 
 meet him, so that those who have seen him once, want to 
 see him again. Above all, by the experiences of his own 
 life, by witnessing the faith of the new believers, by his 
 study of the word of God, he has obtained a full grasp 
 of the truth such as it is in Christ, and he is burning to 
 communicate it to others. 
 
 In a word, by this time Calvin is thoroughly 
 equipped, ready for the task that God had prepared for 
 him. How he came by that task, and how he accom- 
 plished it, is what remains for us to see. 
 
 In 1536, Calvin arrived in Geneva. Geneva, ''the 
 fair city by the blue lake and the rushing Rhone, on 
 which Mont Blanc, the giant of the Alps, looks down 
 through all the centuries from his dome of everlasting 
 snow," is a little town hedged in between the mighty 
 empires of France, Germany, Italy and Spain. It is 
 tmder the suzerainty of its powerful neighbor, the Duke 
 of Savoy, represented by the Bishop, but, for almost a 
 century, its citizens have striven to shake off that yoke, 
 and to obtain complete freedom. At the same time, 
 thanks to the influence of its aflies, the Swiss, the re- 
 formation has been introduced into the town and the 
 
274 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 citizens have not been slow to see that the break with the 
 Bishop and with Rome would be the strongest guarantee 
 of their political independence. 
 
 In 1532, William Farel, the fiery Farel, the disciple 
 of Lefevre, and his friend Viret, arrive in Geneva and 
 begin to preach. Three years later, a crowd of people in- 
 vade the Cathedral, pull down the images of the Saints, 
 and expel the priests from their stronghold. In 1536, 
 the reformation of the church is solemnly voted by all 
 the citizens assembled in council. "It is decided," so 
 run the minutes, "and by a general show of hands con- 
 cluded, promised and sworn that we will all unanimously, 
 with the help of God, live in this Holy evangelical law 
 and word of God, as it is announced to us, casting off 
 all masses, ceremonies, papal abuses, images, idols and 
 the like, and that we will live in union and righteous 
 obedience." 
 
 The victory seemed complete for the cause of the 
 gospel in the little town; but those who knew the actual 
 state of things, were not buoyant as to the future. Many 
 of those who had acclaimed the change, had done so 
 more for political reasons than from religious conviction, 
 and besides, the scandalous living of the clergy had for 
 years propagated among the people a license and im- 
 morality which were incompatible with the profession 
 of the gospel. Farel, himself, inimitable as he was as a 
 preacher of the reformation, and irresistable in his con- 
 demnation of the errors of Rome, did not possess those 
 qualities of organization, of wise and prudent states- 
 manship which were necessary at this point. He felt it, 
 and looked about him for a helper. 
 
 It was at this juncture that one day of July, 1536, the 
 rumor went abroad that a young French doctor, already 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 275 
 
 famous for his writings, had arrived in the city. Cal- 
 vin, on his return from Italy, wels on his way to Basel. 
 His intention was to spend only one night in the city. 
 But, Farel, having heard of his arrival, saw that he 
 was the providential man to organize the reformation in 
 Geneva. He instantly betook himself to the inn where 
 Calvin was staying, unfolded to him the situation of the 
 church, and asked him to remain. Calvin was very re- 
 luctant to consent. He pleaded his plans, his studies, 
 his taste for quiet and retirement. The more Farel 
 presses him the more he is terrified at the prospect which 
 opens up before him. "Then," says Calvin himself, 
 '"Farel, trembling with a holy wrath, stands up, and with 
 his thundering voice, said : Tn the name of the Almighty 
 God if you allege your studies, and refuse to give your- 
 self up with us to this work of the Lord, I declare it 
 unto you, God will curse you, for you are seeking your- 
 self rather than Christ.' " ''And that word," adds Cal- 
 vin, "so disturbed and terrified me that I desisted from 
 my journey, as if God, Himself, from above, had 
 stretched out his hand to arrest me." 
 
 It was thus Calvin was given to Geneva, and Geneva 
 to Calvin. Henceforward the man and the city, the 
 city and the man are one. 
 
 His entrance on his new sphere of work was in a 
 way dramatic, but it was far from sensational. Strange 
 to say, the minutes of the Town Council do not as much 
 as mention the reformer's name. On the 5th of Sep- 
 tember of the same year, we find the following item: 
 "Master William Farel exposes the necessity there is of 
 the lectures begun in the Cathedral by that Frenchman, 
 'ille Gallus,' and asks that he be retained and fed." The 
 good councillors were evidently not greatly impressed by 
 
2/6 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 the arrival of "that Frenchman," or by the honor done 
 to their city thereby, for five months later we find again 
 in the same minutes the following: "Here is spoken of 
 Calvinus, who as yet has received nothing, and is de- 
 cide that he be given six crowns (about as many dol- 
 lars). Six dollars for five months' work! I do not know 
 whether many of the fathers and brethren here present 
 would be content with such a salary. , . . And Cal- 
 vin has been accused of riotous and expensive living ! 
 
 Calvin's immediate task was to apply the principles 
 of the Reformation to every day life of the citizens of 
 Geneva. "When I first came," he wrote later, "ser- 
 mons were preached, the idols had been sought out and 
 burned, but there was no other reformation." It ap- 
 peared to him there was no great advantage in throw- 
 ing ofif the bondage of Rome, if men did not accept the 
 law of Christ and become a holy people. During the 
 first years of the Reformation, and up to Calvin's ar- 
 rival, no discipline had been applied to admission to the 
 Lord's table. Every man and woman, whether believer 
 or not, sinner or saint, approached it as he or she felt in- 
 clined to do, and without even the preparation that was 
 required in former times by the confessional. Calvin in- 
 sisted that the church should have the power to exclude 
 the undeserving and that its censures and excommunica- 
 tions should be upheld and enforced by the arm of the 
 state. 
 
 Another object which Calvin aimed at with all the 
 perseverance and tenacity which were in his nature was 
 to obtain in the small city that perfect unity of faith on 
 which alone it seemed to him possible to build up a re- 
 public worthy of God. For that reason a confession 
 of faith was drawn up, the dififerent councils 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 277 
 
 were first asked to adhere, and then all the citizens by 
 batches of ten, were invited to follow their lead. 
 
 That was, as we see to-day, going decidedly too far. 
 The church has not the right to enforce religious faith 
 on all the citizens of a community, and the state has not 
 the right to use its power to carry into efifect the censures 
 of the church. But if Calvin erred, he erred for con- 
 science sake. His ideal of a community in which all 
 should be members of the church and of a church in 
 which all should be saints, was an impossible one to 
 realize and especially by the enactments of the law. But 
 it was a high ideal, and we can only thank God, and 
 bless Calvin's memory for having placed it once at least 
 before our eyes. 
 
 For the present, the carrying out of the program, 
 proved to be above the j^owers even of such a man as he. 
 It would have been difficult under any circumstances and 
 in any community. Among such a stiff-necked people 
 as the Genevese (I can only say so, since I am one of 
 them) and considering the licentiousness which had pre- 
 vailed in the city for years, it was an utter impossibility. 
 The opposition to the reformers and to their regulations 
 waxed stronger and stronger, and on the 23rd of April, 
 1538, two years only after he had arrived there, Calvin 
 and his friend Farel, for he also had remained in Geneva, 
 were banished from the town. "Well," they exclaimed, 
 on hearing the sentence, "so much the better! If we had 
 served men, we should have had a sorry recompense, but 
 we serve a greater Master, and He will give us our re- 
 ward." 
 
 * t- * * * * 
 
 In the old German town of Strassburg, whither the 
 Reformer betook himself, he found, it must be owned, 
 
278 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 a more congenial atmosphere than on the shores of 
 the bhie Leman. Strassburg- was earnest, God-fearing 
 and studious city. Around the Church of St. Thomas 
 nestled a group of men who were among the most re- 
 markable of their time. Bucer and Capito, the two 
 great and learned reformers, Matthew Zell, the popu- 
 lar preacher, Jacob Sturm, the eminent statesman, and 
 John Sturm, the renowned pedagogue. Truly a 
 unique group of men! Moderate, intelligent, full of 
 faith but also prudence, they led their people on pro- 
 gressively and without break from the darkness of 
 Rome to the full light of the Gospel. 
 
 In Strassburg, Calvin was at the same time, pastor 
 and professor. The salary was small — one florin a 
 week — and at one time Calvin was so poor, that he 
 was obliged to sell all his books ; but the opportunities 
 for intercourse as well as for study were incomparable, 
 and Calvin, we may be sure, made good use of them. 
 
 In the meantime, things had not been going on well 
 in Geneva. The pastors who had succeeded Calvin were 
 decidedly inferior to their task, and several had to be 
 dismissed. Of the four magistrates who had deposed 
 him, three went wrong, and one was beheaded. Every 
 one felt that Calvin alone was strong enough to r&- 
 establish order and decency, and he was unanimously 
 recalled. 
 
 "For the next twenty-three years," says one of his 
 biographers, "Calvin was the dominating soul of that 
 little city. He had many and hard battles still to 
 fight, but his influence grew stronger and stronger, 
 until he bore down all opposition, moulded Geneva in 
 most things after the pattern of his own heart, and 
 raised it at last to the dignity of becoming a model for 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 279 
 
 the other Reformed Churches, as well as the mother- 
 city of them all. John Knox has described it as "the 
 most perfect school of Christ that ever was on earth, 
 since the days of the Apostles." "In other places," he 
 adds, "I confess Christ to be truly preached, but man- 
 ners and religion to be so sincerely reformed, I have 
 not yet seen in any other place beside." 
 
 Now for his contests with the Libertines of 
 Geneva, as well as with the divers heretics he had to 
 do with, Calvin is accused of a great many things. He 
 is held up for his high-handed dealing and for his 
 tyranous disposition, he is accused of having been 
 unduly sensitive, and jealous of his authority. Now, 
 I admit that he did sometimes overstep the mark. I 
 grant that he allowed himself to be carried away by 
 his nervously overstrung and passionate temper, — let 
 him who has never been ruffled in his life cast the first 
 stone. But when I remember how he was constantly 
 provoked by the vilest gang of calumniators, when I 
 consider that his health was the most miserable that 
 one can imagine, and that at a certain period of his 
 life he was overcome by four illnesses at the same time, 
 "I rather wonder," to quote Prof. Doumergue's words, 
 "at the spirit of moderation and conciliation which he 
 manifested in the midst of these crises of pain, and 
 how he possessed his soul by a patience, which showed 
 all the more the power of divine grace, that it could be 
 less attributed to his human nature." 
 
 And as to the burning of Michel Servetus, with 
 which he has been so much reproached, let it be re- 
 membered that the Spanish anti-trinitarian was con- 
 demned, not by Calvin alone, but by the Council of 
 Geneva, composed at that time of men by no means 
 
28o Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 subject to the Reformer's influence, and that that con- 
 demnation was approved of by all the leading re- 
 formers previously consulted. Far from urging the 
 judges to excessive severity, Calvin, it is well known, 
 pleaded for a milder form of punishment. If, there- 
 fore, Servetus' death was an error, and we think it 
 was, it was not Calvin's error alone, but that of his 
 generation, and it is as unjust to brand him as a blood- 
 thirsty tyrant, as it is to judge him from our own 
 standpoint of liberty and toleration, which is the result 
 of centuries of evolution. 
 
 However, to know the real Calvin, and admire him 
 as he deserves to be admired, we must look away from 
 this phase of his life, and consider him as the pastor, 
 preacher and teacher of men. In that respect, he was 
 incomparable. Not only did he preside weekly at the 
 Consistory and the Pastor's meeting, visit the citizens 
 in their houses, and especially the sick, preach daily 
 every second week, inspect the famous school and 
 academy which he had founded, lecture to the students, 
 but he carried on his strong shoulders the care of all 
 the churches. His sermons, — we have three thousand 
 of them, — were immediately taken down by fast 
 writers, published and translated into many languages. 
 So were his Commentaries on almost every Book of 
 the Bible, which he dictated at home to his secretaries. 
 And if you remember that besides all this, Calvin 
 found time, in his spare hours to carry on an immense 
 correspondence with the leading men and churches of 
 the times, — the complete collection of all his writings, 
 published in our days, fills 58 folio volumes, — you feel 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 281 
 
 giddy at the thoug-ht of what that man accompHshed 
 and you can only praise God that he raised up such 
 an admirable defender of our faith. 
 
 Who can say what ardor, what perseverance, what 
 indomitable energy and what tenderness of heart he 
 displayed in that immense religious propaganda whose 
 very life and soul he was up to his last breath? What 
 a wonderful apostolate that was, for more than a quar- 
 ter of a century among the princes and the peasants, 
 the learned and the ignorant. In France alone, more 
 than 2,000 churches were organized by his care, in 
 England he advises King Edward and the Duke of 
 Somerset, in Scotland he inspires John Knox, in 
 Poland he opposes the anti-trinitarians, and he is in 
 touch with all the heads of the German Reformation, 
 working perseveringly for the great object he had at 
 heart : the union of all true believers. 
 
 In Geneva, very soon after the founding of the 
 academy, hundreds of students flocked together from 
 all parts of the world, attracted by the fame of that 
 institution, and by him who was its leading spirit. 
 After having listened to his sermons, and imbibed his 
 teachings, these men returned to their several countries 
 inflamed with faith and zeal, and set to their work of 
 preaching the Gospel with the ardor and courage of 
 martyrs. To him, these pastors and confessors looked 
 for council and encouragement, and it was a letter from 
 him they expected to strengthen them when tortured, in 
 prison, or marching to the stake. They loved and re- 
 spected him as a father, and we can understand his proud 
 answer to those who upbraided him for having no chil- 
 dren of his own : "Children," he said, "I have them by 
 the thousand in all the Christian world!" 
 
282 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 But such constant care and ceaseless toil soon told 
 upon his already enfeebled constitution. Calvin was 
 never a strong man, and during ten years of his life, in 
 order to retain the clearness of his mind, he never ate 
 more than one meal a day. During the later years, he 
 was a constant sufferer. The doctors have ascribed to 
 him, as has just been said, four serious illnesses at 
 the same time ; pleurisy, consumption, nephritic pains 
 and gout, besides countless minor ailments. "He had," 
 says his contemporary and friend, Theodore Beza, 
 "such a feeble body, so weakened by watches and too 
 great sobriety, that no one who saw him could think 
 that he could live at all." And yet all that feebleness 
 and pain did not prevent him from working for others 
 to the very last weeks of his life. 
 
 In the beginning of 1564, his friends felt that the 
 end was near. On the 6th of February, while he was 
 preaching, he was taken with such a violent fit of 
 hemorrhage, that he was obliged to stop several times 
 during the sermon. On the 27th of April, the Council 
 having heard that he "was pressed by illness even 
 unto death," decided that they would go to his house 
 to hear what he would have to say to them. Calvin, 
 receiving this official visit, thanked the members of 
 the Council for having supported him in his too vehem- 
 ent affections and in his vices, but protested before 
 God that he had always announced to them the word 
 of the Lord. Finally he exhorted them to honor God 
 more and more, for it is He alone, he added, who main- 
 tains the state. The next day, his leave-taking from 
 his colleagues, the other ministers, was even more 
 touching. "I have had many infirmities," he said, 
 "which you have had to bear, and even all that I have 
 
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Calvin Memorial Addresses 283 
 
 done was worth nothing. The wicked will lay hold 
 of this word, but I repeat it : all that I have done was 
 worth nothing. I am a miserable creature. But I can 
 say that I had the will to do good, and my faults have 
 always displeased me, and the root of the fear of 
 God has been in my heart." 
 
 A few days later, old Farel, aged 75, came on foot 
 all the way from Neuchatel, to take leave of his friend. 
 From that time up to the day of his death he prayed 
 continually. Jn the fits of acute sufferings, he was 
 heard to murmur: "O Lord, Thou bruisest, but I will 
 suffer in patience, for it is Thy hand that has done it." 
 
 On the 27th of May, 1564, at about eight in the 
 evening, so quietly that up to the last moment he was 
 able to converse with those around him, Calvin passed 
 away. "And that was how," writes Beza, "the greatest 
 light in the church went out at the time when the sun 
 ceased to illuniine the earth." 
 
 The next day his body was carried to the common 
 cemetery without any pomp or ceremony whatever. 
 According to his own wish, no monument, not even 
 a stone, marked the place of his tomb ; only on the 
 minutes of the Consistory was marked the following 
 item: "On the 2'jtJi of May of tJie present year Calvin 
 zuent to God/'. That was the only eulogy pronounced at 
 the death of that mighty man of God, let us rather say, 
 of that faithful servant of the Lord. 
 
 Such is the man whose birth, 400 years ago, we are 
 celebrating and whose powerful mind moulded the 
 faith and discipline of Presbyterian churches all over 
 the world. A character of wonderful complexity, 
 varied, many-sided, and therefore very difficult to 
 fathom and thoroughly comprehend. 
 
284 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 He is constantly pre-occupied with his work, bent 
 upon his ckity, "The man," says a writer, "of his task, 
 the man of the Church, the man of the Christian 
 world." And yet he is not opposed to relaxation and 
 repose. He is tender in his affections, a good and lov- 
 ing husband, true to his friends. 
 
 At times, we find him austere and grave ; we should 
 like to see him more genial, more open to the delight 
 of art, to the enjoyment of the beautiful. But when 
 we penetrate below that rugged and apparently un- 
 artistic surface, we are delighted to discover, here 
 and there, in his writings, a very delicate taste and a 
 high appreciation of the beauties in nature and in the 
 arts of man, and we understand what he says of him- 
 self that he was "of a temperament inclined to poetry." 
 
 He is conscious of his power and, in a measure, 
 jealous of his authority, but Calvin is very far from 
 being the despot some have made him out to be. He 
 is ready to avow his mistakes and faults, he is gener- 
 ous and large-hearted towards his opponents, pro- 
 vided they make the slightest concession, and he, the 
 master of masters, the man before whom the greatest 
 avow their inferiority, he is humble. That is recog- 
 nized even by such a man as the French writer, Fer- 
 dinand Buisson, who is by no means one of his 
 admirers. 
 
 Before everything, Calvin is the man of one idea, 
 and of one book. The book is the Holy Scriptures, the 
 idea the glory of God. It is told of him, that often, 
 in the middle of a conversation or of a discussion, he 
 would pause one moment, take off with one hand his 
 black cap, and with the other, point to heaven, saying: 
 "All for the glory of God." In that gesture, Calvin is 
 
Calvin Memorial Addresses 285 
 
 entirely. Absolutely disinterested, he lives and dies a 
 poor man, and all that he left behind him, including 
 all his books, did not amount to $300. "The power of 
 that man," used to say Pope Pius IV., "is that money 
 is nothing tO' him." 
 
 But what was something to him, what was all in 
 his life, that was the glory of his Divine Master. 
 Calvin never did what he wished, one can say that 
 he always did the contrary of what he felt inclined to 
 do. In Basel, when he published his Institutes, in 
 Geneva when Farel forces him to take up the reins of 
 ecclesiastical government, later on when the Genevese 
 want him back to their town, and every sense within 
 him rebels against the very idea, he was not seeking 
 his own will. "I know them," he exclaimed, speaking 
 of the citizens of Geneva, "they are insupportable to 
 me and I to them. I shudder at the very thought of 
 seeing them again." 
 
 To drive him out of that retired life and make of 
 him an actor in the great tragedy of the world, it re- 
 quired more than human intervention. "It needed," 
 as Michelet puts it, "an evident moral necessity, the 
 violence of conscience and of heaven, the tyranny of 
 God." "Cor mactatum in Sacrificiuni offcro," "I ofifer 
 my heart in sacrifice," he said, on returning to Geneva, 
 and that was what he placed on his coat of arms : a 
 hand holding out a heart and presenting it to God. 
 
 An instrument in the hand of the Almighty, — he 
 may have erred at times, — no one is infallible, — he 
 may sometimes have mistaken the instrument for Him 
 who alone must wield it ; but without doubt, that per- 
 suasion that he was an instrument in God's hands, 
 made of Calvin what he was, and enabled him to ac- 
 
286 Calvin Memorial Addresses 
 
 complish, not in Geneva, or in France alone, but in 
 the world, that tremendous task, for which we cannot 
 be too thankful. 
 
 i 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
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