, 1859-12-27

thank God for John Calvin. To be sure, be
burned Servetus but the Puritans, or at least,
their immediate descendants, hung the witches;
George Washington held slarcs; and wherever
you 20 up mud down history, you find men, not
angels. OF course, you find imperfect men;
but you find grcat men men who have marked
their own Age, and moulded the succeeding;
men to whose might Of ability and TO whose dis
Interested suffering forthose about them, the
succeeding generations owe tha largest ahare
Of their blessings; men whose lips and lives
tod has made the channel through which his
choicest gifts come to their 1ellow-beings. John
Calvin was one Of ofthese-perhaps the profound.
est intellect Of his day; certainly, one Of the
largest statesmen of his generation. His was
the sta!esmanlke mind that organized Puritan.
ism, that put ideas iuto the shape Of institutions,
and in that way organized victory, when under
loyola, Catholicism, ayailing Itself Of the
AhreFdest aud keeuest machinery. made it, re!
action assault upon TIA new idea OF the Protest.
antreligion. Il IN that struggle Western Europe
caule ont victorious, We owe it more TO the
state.nsnahiD Of Calvin than to the large, Ger
man heart Of Luther. We owe to Calvin-at
least, it is not unfair TO- claim, nor mprobablein in
tue sequence Of erents to suppose, that a large
Ahare Of those most eminent and excellent char-
nctersstics Of New England, which have made
her what she is, and sared her for the future,
came from the brain of John Calvin.
Luthers biography is to be read in books.
has gathered up every trait and every triae-.
the miuuiest-of his ifc, and you may read it
spread out With loving admiration on a thousand
pages of biography. Calviu's life il written in
Scotland aud New England, in the triumphs Of
the people against priestcraft and power. To
owed Kepuhlicaulsm- Repubtanism Of the
Church. The instinct of his own day recog-
nized that distinguishing this element
Of CalTinism. You see il in the Wit Of Charles
the Second, when be said, "Calvinism is a re-
igion unfit for q gentleman" 1t was unfit for
gentleman Of that day for it wa> a religion
OF tue people. 1t recognized-tirst since the
earliest centuries OF Christianity the nealt
Of God beats through eyeryhuman heart, and
that when you mass up the millions with their
!nstinctire. fair-play sense Of right, and their
tsap
serTatire tendency Of what are called the
thoughtful and educated classea: We owe this
eEemeut, good or bad, to Calriuism.
Then We owe to it second element, marking
the puritans most largely, and that is action.
Ihe Puritan was not a man Of speculation. lie
found broadcast in the centuries behind. His
specu1stions were oil old. You nligh find them
ia the lectures of Abelard; you meet with them
in the radicaltsm Of Wat Tyler; you find them
all over the confined of Europe. The distinction
between bis case and that OF others was, simply
A1A~ AE pldCNEEN HuAt At UEuEft0. 11t QeIlef- l
ed God. He- actually ltlirrtd Aias-just as |
much us if be eaw demonstrated before his eyes
The truth uf the principle. For it is very easy
thing to say the difficulty is to do. fyou will
tell q man the absolute truth, that II be will |
plunge into the ocean, aud only kept his eyes
fixed on heaven he will never sink-you Gun de- |
nloustrate it ia. .him-you can prove it to him |
By weight aud neas1re-each man of thous-
and viii believe you, as they say; and then they
will plunge into toe water, aud nine hundred
and nincty-nine will throw up their arms to
will keep his hands by his body,
believing God, aud aoat-aud he is the Puritan.
Every other man wants to get hold Of some
thing TO stay himself not on faith in Gods eler-
na principal of natural or religious law, but on
Lis ueightor he wants TO lean on somebody; he
wants to catch hold of something. The Puri-
tan puts his hands to his side and his eys upon
Learen, and floats down The eenturies-Faith
personiied. - Hend<A Phillips.