John Calvin and the Influence of Protestantism on National Life and Character. By Sir Alfred T. Davies, K.B.E., C.B. London: Henry E. Walker, 107 Fleet Street, Ludgate Circus, E.C.4. Price 2/6.
It is not often John Calvin gets such appreciative treatment at the hands of prominent educationists as he has received at the hands of Sir Alfred. It is a real pleasure to read such a book as this and it is hoped it will have a wide circulation. It is not uncommon in our day to hear the great men whom God honoured and were a blessing to His Church to be made the target at which sharp arrows are shot by mere pigmies. Sir Alfred takes a wide sweep in his appreciation and has no hesitation in placing John Calvin on a high pedestal. Prof. Lamont, of Edinburgh University, backs up Sir Alfred Davies in a short introduction in which he says: “The conspiracy against John Calvin takes the form of a parrot-cry repeated for the most part by people who for their lives could give an outline neither of Calvin’s thought nor his influence in history. This conspiracy finds a suitable atmosphere in an age which alike in its general culture and in its lust for pleasure, has been striving to evade responsibility to God. They who take part in the parrot-cry of disparagement of Calvin are not merely serving the ends of the Roman See. They are serving the ends of the godlessness which has brought the world to its present plight. Calvin was a great man of God, one of the greatest, and Sir Alfred Davies has rendered a service to the truth by countering the campaign of falsehood against one to whom we owe our freedom and love of the truth more than to any other person of recent centuries. The self-complacency of our age is appalling. It has always been a tap-root of human sin, but there is even less excuse for it to-day when we have experienced so much that well might have aroused us from sleep.” We have pleasure in heartily commending this small book to our readers and especially to the young people of our Church.
Sir Alfred’s interest in profits from the sale of this book has been generously handed over to the furtherance of the work of the Evangelical Library, 55 Gloucester Road, London, S.W.7.