Calvin ascended the pulpit. The words which he uttered, instead of resembling those which were heard in the political gatherings of Greece and Rome, bore rather the impress of the sermon on the mount, addressed by Jesus Christ to his disciples assembled around him. We may enter the church of St. Peter’s any day that we like, and our judgment will soon be formed on these questions.
Calvin has a word about the young, which is still a word in season for our day.
‘Wherewithal,’ said he one day, ‘shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. If we desire that our life should be pure and simple, we must not each one devise and build up what seems good to himself; but God must rule over us and we must obey him, by walking in the way which he appoints for us. And if in this passage it is the young man that is spoken of, we are not to suppose that it does not also concern the old. But we know what the ebullitions of youth are, and how great is the difficulty of holding in check these violent affections. It is as if David said—The young go astray like the beasts which cannot be tamed; and they have such fiery passions that they break away just at the moment when they seem to be well in hand. But if they followed this counsel to take heed to themselves according to the word of God, it is certain that though their passions naturally break through restraint, we should see in them modesty and a quiet and gentle demeanor. Let us not put off remembering God till we are come to the crazy years of old age, and till we are broken and worn out in body.’[[171]]
The same day Calvin addressed those who loved money, and pointed out the way to find true happiness. ‘I have rejoiced, says David, in the way of Thy testimonies as much as in all riches. What must we do to taste this joy? It is impossible,’ says Calvin, ‘that we should know the sweetness of the word of God, or that the doctrine of salvation should be pleasant to us, unless we have first cut off all those lusts and sinful affections which too much prevail in our hearts. It is just as if we expected to get wheat to grow in a field full of briars, thorns, and weeds, or to make a vine flourish on stones and rocks where there is no moisture. For what is the nature of man? It is a soil so barren that there is nothing more so; and all his affections are briars, thorns, and weeds, which can only choke and destroy all the good seed of God.’[[172]]
Sermon To Worldlings.
On another occasion Calvin addressed the friends of the world; and quoting these words of David—‘I am a stranger on the earth, hide not thy commandments from me,’ he added, ‘There are some who in imagination make their permanent nest in this world, who expect to have their Paradise here, and feel no want of the commandments of God for their salvation. They are satisfied if they have their meat and drink, if they are able to gratify their appetites, have pleasures and delights, be honored and held in respect. This is all they ask for, and they rise no higher than this perishable and decaying life. Suppose a man given up to avarice, to uncleanness, to drunkenness, or to ambition, and although he should never hear a word of preaching, although he should never be spoken to about Christianity or the life eternal, for all that he would be quite content. To such men indeed it is irksome, it is to talk of gloomy things, to speak to them of God. They would like never to hear his name mentioned nor receive any tidings of him. But as for David, it is as if he said—If I had regard only to the present life, it would be better that I had not been born, or that I had been a hundred times destroyed. And wherefore? Because we are merely passing through this world and are on our way to an immortal life.’[[173]]
Subsequently he deals with another class of characters; he directs his attention to those who have only sudden and transitory fits of devotion, and who only turn to God by fits and starts. ‘We ought not to have fits (bouffées), as many persons have, for glorifying God; and with whom, lift but a finger, it is all reversed. There may be some to-day who will feign that they are very devout. What a fine sermon! they will say. What admirable doctrine? And to-morrow how will it be with them? They will for all this go on mocking God and uttering taunts against his Word; or if God should send them adversity, then they will be fretted with him. True, the present life is subject to many vicissitudes; to-day we may have some sorrow; to-morrow we may be at ease; afterwards some sudden trouble may fall upon us; and then once more we come right. But notwithstanding this succession of changes, men must not bend to every wind; but while passing over the waves of the sea must be strong in that righteousness and uprightness which is the word of God.’[[174]] ...
Calvin was struck with that exclusive self-love which exists in man. He believed, as was said by Pascal, a man whose intellect in many respects resembled his own, that ‘since sin occurred man has lost the first of his loves, the love for God; and the love for himself being left alone in this great soul, capable of an infinite love, this self-love has extended itself and overflowed into the void left by the love for God; and thus he has loved himself alone and all things for himself, that is to say, infinitely.’ Calvin energetically demands of man love to God. ‘If a man,’ says he, ‘is so sensitive that he is moved to avenge himself the moment he is wounded, and yet does not trouble himself at all when God is insulted and his law thrown to the ground, does it not show clearly that he is altogether fleshly, yea, more, that he is brutal (tenant de la brute)? It is a common characteristic of men, that if any wrong is done to them, they will be disturbed about it to the end. Let the honor of a man be touched, he flies immediately into a rage, and cares for nothing but to proceed against the offender. Let a man be robbed, his anger will be unappeasable. He is concerned about his purse, his meadows, his possessions, his houses, whichever it may be, and he will feel that he is wronged. But the man who has well regulated affections will not have so much concern for his own honor or for his own property as for the justice of God when this is violated. We ought to be affected by offences committed against God rather than by what merely concerns ourselves. There are very few who care at all about those offences. And if there be some who will say, “It grieves me that people thus sin against God,” and who nevertheless allow themselves to do as much evil or more than others, they show plainly that they are mere hypocrites. They persecute men rather than hate vice, and they prove that what they say is only feigning.’[[175]]
Calvin in treating of other subjects appears full of grace and simplicity. Surrounded as he was by violent enemies, he felt a lively sympathy with David when in his Psalms he gives utterance to that cry of anguish,—‘O Lord, how are mine enemies multiplied!’ Calvin likewise knew what it was to be hated by furious enemies.
The Wandering Sheep.