John Calvin

edition of his noted work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, one of the most important books of that time. In the following year, 1536, he settled at Geneva, lecturing there as Doctor of Divinity. This he was induced to do by what he considered a Divine menace' on the part of his friend, the reformer Farel, who threatened to lay the curse of God on Calvin and his studies if he refused to aid the struggling Church of Geneva. It was,' said Calvin, as if God had seized me by His awful hand from Heaven.' With the exception of three quiet, studious years at Strasburg, where he married and spent his time in the critical study of the New Testament and portions of the Old, it was at Geneva that he passed the remainder of his ever busy and often troublous life. There he held his frequent controversies with the Lutherans concerning the nature of Christ's Presence in the Lord's Supper.

His writings alone, occupying in their popular English translation no less than fifty-one Svo. volumes, are proofs of indefatigable industry. He read yearly more than one hundred and sixty divinity lectures, preached a still greater number of sermons, and answered, either by word of mouth or by writing, the doubts and questions which almost daily were submitted to him by pastors of Reformed Churches. But, in addition to these labours, he founded at Geneva a form of Church government similar to what is now known as the Presbyterian. Zealously regarding it as his duty to God and to his neighbour, he aimed at directing not only the judicial affairs of the city, but also at regulating the social life of the citizens-no easy task, even to his stern spirit and unyielding will. On account of his arbitrary government he was styled, by the more liberal-minded of the Reformers in the city, the Protestant Pope of Geneva.'. A dark blot on his character is the share which he had in the death of one of his theological opponents, a Spaniard named Servetus, who had taken refuge at Geneva while endeavouring to escape from France to Italy. By Calvin's order he was imprisoned as a heretic, and after a tedious trial of two months was condemned to be burnt to death. Calvin wished a less cruel mode of death to be inflicted; but the sentence was carried out the very day after it was passed, October 1553.

After many years of suffering, the result chiefly of undue study at the university, Calvin died in 1564. His tenets, known as the Five Points of Calvinism,' are:-1. Predestination (i.e. some to eternal life; others to eternal death). 2. Particular Redemption (i.e. that Christ died only for a chosen few). 3. Original Sin. 4. Irresistible Grace (the opposite to which is Freewill). 5. Final Perseverance (i.e. those effectually called can never fall away). To quote the words of the present Bishop of Winchester,- The acute but overbold mind of Calvin moulded into full proportion a system which has proved the fertile source of discord to all succeeding generations. . . . Much of his scheme was sound and admirable; but it was so made to bend and square itself to its author's strong view of predestination, that it lost the fair proportions of Catholic truth. . . . Discussions on subjects such as this do not, perhaps, so much need acuteness and subtilty as humility and charity.'

The tenets of Calvin were adopted by many Englishmen who took refuge in Geneva during the persecution in the reign of Mary. Of the influence which these clergy and laymen exercised in the newly-reformed Church of England after their return in Elizabeth's reign, it does not

come within the limits of the present brief account to speak. With regard to the much-discussed question of how far our 17th Article of Religion is Calvinistic in its doctrine, we again quote from Bishop Harold Browne - It seems worthy of consideration whether the Article was not designedly drawn up in guarded and general terms, or purpose to comprehend all persons of tolerably sober views.' And again, speaking of the different interpretations given to this 17th Article:'It were, indeed, much to be wished that such differences might cease; but from the days of St. Augustine to this day they have existed in the universal Church, and we can scarcely hope to see them utterly subside in our own portion of it.'

Among the Reformed Churches in which Calvin's doctrines and polity prevail are the Scotch, the French Protestant, the Dutch, the Swiss Protestant, and others in Germany and North America.

Heroes.

A Labourer's Daughter), authoress of the Pearl of Days).

Short Sermon.

THE OBSERVANCE OF APPOINTED FEASTS AND ORDINANCES.

BY H. W. BELLAIRS, M.A., VICAR OF NUNEATON.

Isaiah, i. 14. Your appointed feasts my soul hateth.'

OD appointed certain feasts to be observed by the Jews: for example, the Sabbath, the Passover, the Feasts of Pentecost, of Trumpets, of New Moons. God appointed these feasts Himself, directing His people to observe them, under great and heavy penalties; and yet we find Him saying in the text by the mouth of Isaiah His Prophet, Your appointed feasts my soul hateth.' How is this? Religious feasts were common among the Eastern nations at the time when God appointed His feasts among the Jews; they have been common among all people at all times. No religion can permanently exist without them. They are the instruments which bind the worshipper to the Object of his worship, celebrate His praises, commemorate His mercies, deprecate His wrath, implore His pardon and favour; they are means of communion with Him, each feast celebrating some particular relation between God and His people. Thus the Feast of the Sabbath, instituted first to celebrate the work of creation, was instituted anew to the Jews, to celebrate some of God's special mercies to them. The Passover was to celebrate the escape of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage by God's aid. The Feast of Pentecost was to celebrate God's care over the fruits of the earth, and His giving the law at Mount Sinai.

Now the Jews, when Isaiah wrote the words of our text, had forgotten the objects for which God had appointed these feasts; nay, further, they not only had forgotten, but they had perverted the objects. The object which God had in view in appointing them was to draw the Jews closer to Himself. Each feast, celebrating an act of God's love towards them, was intended to draw out their love to God, by teaching them to meditate upon that act of love, and to praise God for it. But they kept the feasts and forgot God's love, therefore the life of the feast was lost; and further, instead of celebrating God's praises in the feast, they either made it an object of worship in itself, by attributing to it virtues which it did not possess-making it their idol; that is, substituting the observance of it, or the worship of it, for the worship of God. The effect of this was very terrible. The very feasts which God had appointed for the spiritual good of His people were made by them the instruments of sin. The Jews did the same with their other religious exercises; they gave alms, not to relieve the poor, but to be seen of men. They fasted, not to bring the flesh into subjection to the spirit, but to win public admiration. They said long prayers, not to bring God's Spirit into their souls, but to gain influence by religious ostentation. In this way their 'religious' acts became irreligious, and their services became not merely dead forms, but dead forms in which corruption reigned. No wonder, then, that God by His Prophet said to them in terms of warning and reproof, Your appointed feasts my soul hateth.'

The desecration of the appointed feasts and religious services of the Jews appears to have reached its height in the days of our blessed Lord, and called forth His severe maledictions upon the Pharisees: 'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!' Ye blind guides!'' Ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter!' Ye are like whited

Short Sermon.

sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness.'

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But we are Christians,' some readers perchance will say; 'the subject is not applicable to us.' Let us see if it is not. God by His Church has appointed feasts and seasons for Christians: for example, the Lord's Day, the Eucharist or Holy Communion, Lent, Easter, Whitsuntide, Ascension Day, each intended to celebrate God's mercies in some especial way; each ordained to draw out our love to God from the commemoration of some particular act of God's love to us. If, then, we forget to celebrate God's mercies in these feasts and ordinances, we lose the life of them; or if we attribute an efficacy to them which they do not possess, regarding perhaps the observance of them as of itself true religion, or even as a certain evidence of true religion, we change the nature of them, i.e. we make them idols, inanimate forms, worshipping in them a dead image, instead of worshipping through them the living God.

Such reflections, proper for all times, are especially appropriate for such seasons as these through which we are passing now. Passion Week, with its note of deep sorrow and penitence; and Easter, with its voice of joy and gladness. Each of these seasons has its proper spiritual object. Lent, to teach us the vileness of our own hearts, the necessity of searching them to the core, in order to discover the sources of our ill-deeds- -to lead us to exercise ourselves in the work of godly discipline, that we may grow stronger in self-control and more capable of self-sacrifice-to raise our affections to God for His mercies to us in the Passion and Death of our dear Lord, and to bring us in faith and love to the foot of our Redeemer's Cross. Easter, to bid us rejoice in the Resurrection of Christ-to see in His Resurrection not only the type but the pledge of our own resurrection, and to make us feel that as He died and rose again for us, so we should die to sin and rise again unto righteousness, continually mortifying all our evil and corrupt affections, and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living.

Like the feasts appointed by God for the Jews, these objects may be forgotten or perverted. If a man fasts or worships with no spiritual object in view, or if he fasts or prays for ostentation, or if he regards his fastings or prayers as in themselves so much true religion, substituting such acts for the worship of God in and by those acts; he not only loses but he perverts the objects of these seasons, and he must expect the same answer from God as is contained in the words of our text,

Your appointed feasts my soul hateth.' Of the observance of any religious ordinance, of the Lord's Day, of Holy Communion, of alms, of prayers, of all religious services, the same may be said. They are not in themselves religion or evidences of religion. They are indeed symbols of religion, instruments of religion, means of grace, by which and through which, if properly used in the faith of Christ, God in His love and mercy visits the souls of those who use them, enabling such souls day by day to effect greater conquests of sin, to make still more and more progress in holiness, to secure a deeper living union with God, to grow more and more in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.