The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-04-18
CALVIN THE "A THEIR
 OF MODERN MISSIONS
Eloquent the Southeast Aabama Presby tery at Dothan on The Life and Work of The s
 Great Reformer.

vinists's life is furnished In the form of church government, into which the reformed faith, led by Calvin, organfx- ed itself. We fnd &all reformed churches organized on, the basis of uni- versal outrage to all believers. All power and responsibility were thrown on what others were pleased to call the laymen. Neither prince nor priest could command him to act. nor could they act for him in his personal duty to God. The church. thus organized, became God-given, power, through which the saved soul could act in con cert to fulfill the mission to which each one felt called of God. \ C.. To preach the gospel of peace until all Kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
 Was It not this Idea Of this person al responsibility to Jesus Christ that led the great apostle of us Gentfles to say; Woe is me. if I preach not the gospei"? Did he not lay the same sery- Ice on each member of cnrist's body when he said: Follow me as I follow Christ"7 For ye gre not your own. ye are bought with q price. therefore. giorify God in your bodies and spirits which are God's.- If by Godss grace
 T am what I am. then whatever l am, and all am, I am Gods.
 Calvin. as we BeNeve. preached the same doctrines of Eface as preached by Paul. He restored the same church polity established by Paul. These doctrines made Paul the greatest mis- sionary since Christ and made John Calvin the greatest missionary since Paul. It took the early church more than 800 years to lose its missionary zeal and 1t only lost this zeal as it lost its purity of doctrine and became ps,est psr ridden and prince rid when comparing himself with tne other disciples, T have Iabored more abundantly than they all {. so as compared with all other men and churches might. Calvin and his follow CTS say today. we have labored more abundantiy than they all? Because, for more than 200 years after there was scarcely an effort made by the Pro- testant world to spread the oospel. save that made by the Reformed churches And of what is called mod
 ern missions, this church has always stood in the forefront Of the great leaders of the mission world, there are very few who did not get their first Inspiration and have their zeal con staantly sustained by the doctrines of grace as efpounded by>Caiyin; witness, Carey. Judson and Dun in India. Pat ton in South Sea Islands, Moffett and Livingston in Africa, Jonathan Ed wards to American Indians, and Nor rison in China. Caivanisfic Sources.
 In the matter of financial support. the disciples Of Calvin are not less distinguished in the annals of modern missions. At least three-foourths of the money for foreign missionary ef- forts are drawn from CaIyantstio hA 1aF0 a ntx.. always been, and are now. far in the lead of all other Protestants in press- ing, on the conquering of the heathen world for Christ. Our historian, Ban. croft. says: '-The Light of Calyin's genius shattered the mask of dark
 ness which superstition had held be- fore the brow. of reIigton.". Tain, the famous French critic. declares of the Calvanists. These men are the heroes of England. They founded Eng land in spite of the corruption of the Stuarts; they founded Scotland; they founded the United States. and at=this day their descendants are founding Austh alia and coiouizing, the world ' Rufus Choate, in speaking Of the five years of the reign of Mary Stuart, in which vast numbers of the learned men of England fled to Geneva and were pupils of Calvin, said; T ascribe
 
 ence which has changed the face of the world" Green, in his History of the English People. calls Calvin's church organization Christian State in which the true sovereign, was not Pope or Bishop, but the Christian man. Sas- teila, the Spanish historian. says the Anglo-Saxon democracy is the product of severe theology. learned by few Christian fugttives in the gloomy cities of Holland and Switzerland, where the morose shades of Calvin still wander This democracy. he further says, sti1l remains severely in its gradeur, forn- ing the most dignified, the most moral,
 the most enlightened and richest por- | ton of the human race. We say, not only so. but we see this same Anglo l Saxon democracy, the product of Call wins genius and doctrine today. fur nishing 90 per cent of the missionaries
 and mission money that is used to l evangelize the world. It is useless to multiply quotations. The consensus of history connects John Calvin and his followers as pre.eminentiy the lead | CTS, not only of modern missions. but
 also of modern civilization and prog | ress. As this influence he yielded principally through his pupils. whom | he sent out from Geneva as mission | aries. It is useless to argue against facts, when we see the propagation ot
 a certain doctrine and the influence of
 a certain man uniformly followed by
 certain results among all nations and | all races for long periods Of time. it | were foolish to try to disconnect these
 results from the doctrine and the
 man. Ranke says that Calvin twas
 the virtual founder of America" We | say that in a broader and much more | exclusive sense, Calvin is the Father