THE WAYS OF GOD.
However, in our opinion, the articulants, though chargeable with carelessness and incompetency, were not guilty of treachery. On the other hand, it is not fair to attribute to the friends of Farel and Calvin some odious acts of which they were completely innocent. It has been alleged that on the third day after the execution of Jean Philippe, the most religious persons ‘publicly celebrated their victory by a feast at the town hall.’ Strong evidence would be necessary to establish a fact so adapted to arouse in honorable men aversion and indignation; but not a single document is known in which it is mentioned.[837] We are bound to say, however, that the verdict of contemporaries was more severe than our own. ‘These men,’ says Theodore Beza, ‘having been cast away like vile dregs, the city began to ask again for its Calvin and Farel.’[838] All was in course of preparation for their return to it. Some vacancies having been made in the council by the blows which had just been struck, men were appointed who were friendly to the Reformation, and from that time their party formed the majority. The far-seeing intelligence of Calvin had foretold that the ascendency of his adversaries would be of short duration; and his word was fulfilled.
The ways of God are deep and mysterious. Two years previously the work of the reformer appeared to be brought to a stand in Geneva. His victorious enemies held up their heads in the general council; their power seemed invincible; and the few citizens who dared to declare themselves on the side of the banished ministers found themselves threatened and prosecuted, and were compelled to retire into silence or to flee their country. The reformers were wandering about as exiles in the cantons of Switzerland, not knowing where to seek refuge. But time passed on, and the state of things was altered. The authors of the proscription sank beneath the weight of their faults, and were proscribed in their turn. Geneva was weary of leaders without intelligence, and rejected them. No longer able to face the perils gathering around it, the city will soon recall and receive as liberators the men whom she has driven away as enemies of her freedom. Calvin, on his part, had found in exile not weakness but strength. God had removed him to a vaster scene, where his horizon was widened. His thought had been elevated, his soul strengthened and purified. He had seen Germany, and had played a part, not one of the least, in her great assemblies; he had held communication with Melanchthon, and established a connection between the German Reformation and that of the Swiss cantons and of France. The differences between the two great movements had grown less; the communion of spirit had been strengthened. On both sides a reciprocal influence had been felt. In the next volume we shall see Calvin return to his post a greater and stronger man, more master of himself, no less firm and no less determined, once more to undertake his task and to conduct it to a happy end.
END OF THE SIXTH VOLUME.
530 BROADWAY, NEW YORK,
November, 1876.
ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS’
NEW BOOKS.
Forty Years in the Turkish Empire.