The Calvin Celebrations.—In view of the fact that July witnesses the 400th anniversary of Calvin’s birth, almost all the Presbyterian Church Supreme Courts have had a part of a day set apart for the delivery of speeches on the career and theological eminence of the great Reformer. The English Presbyterian Synod, the Original Secession Synod, the Established and the United Free Church Assemblies (joint service in St. Giles’, Edinburgh), the Free Church Assembly, and the Irish Presbyterian Assembly, all commemorated him in this way. Some of the papers were decidedly able, even as reported in the curtailed newspaper reports; others paid a sort of left-handed compliment to Calvin.
Calvin among the Philistines.—”The Philistines do not understand me,” said John Bunyan on one occasion, and the words of the immortal allegorist came into our mind on reading some of the press articles on Calvin. The Scotsman leader writer no doubt meant to be complimentary, but he interlarded his
encomiums with what literary writers term purple patches. Such devices may be suitable enough where the interests of truth are not involved, but when men play with the reputation of the departed dead, either as to their character or the truths they taught, such meaningless extravaganzas become highly reprehensible. Many a man has raged furiously against the doctrines taught by Calvin who never read a line of his works, and gentlemen of the Press, as a rule, are not deeply-read theologians, nor students of Calvin’s works. His commanding position in theology dwarfs to comparative insignificance his detractors and critics.
Calvin and Luther.—In a letter to Henry Bullinger, Calvin makes the following references to Luther, who had made a strong attack on some of the Reformers, including Calvin. “I hope you will remember,” he writes, “in the first place, how great a man Luther is, and in how many excellent endowments he excels; with what fortitude and constancy, with what dexterity and efficacious learning, he has hitherto applied himself both to overthrow the kingdom of anti-Christ and to spread the doctrine of salvation. It is a frequent saying with me that if Luther should even call me a devil, my veneration for him is, notwithstanding, so great that I shall ever acknowledge him to be an illustrious servant of God, who, though he abounds in extraordinary virtues, yet labours under great imperfections. I wish he would endeavour to restrain the violence with which he boils over on all occasions, and that he would always direct the vehemence which is natural to him against the enemies of truth, and not brandish it also against the servants of the Lord.”
Received pamphlet, The Twentieth Century Secession Church, an Address by Alex. Heron, S.S.C., Edinburgh, and volume, Religious Life in Ross, literary remains of the late Rev. Gustavus Aird, D.D., Creich, edited and supplemented by the late Rev. John Noble and others.