Bless me in this life with but the peace of my conscience; command of my affections the love of Thyself and my dearest friends; and I shall be happy enough to pity Caesar!  These are, O Lord, the humble desires of my most reasonable ambition, and all I dare call happiness on earth:  wherein I set no limit to Thy hand or providence; dispose of me according to the wisdom of Thy pleasure.  Thy will be done, though in my own undoing.

* * * * *

JOHN CALVIN

INSTITUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

John Calvin was born on July 10, 1509, at Noyon, in Picardy, Northern France.  Although the Calvins, his ancestors, had been bargemen on the Oise, his father was notary apostolic, procurator-fiscal of the county, clerk of the church court, and diocesan secretary.  Young Jean Calvin was eight years old when Luther nailed his theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenburg.  The new religion gaining very quickly a footing in France, the youth became influenced by it when studying in Paris at the College de la Marche.  He held meetings with Protestants in a cave at Poitiers.  His precocity was remarkable.  At the age of twenty-three he wrote his first book, a commentary on Seneca’s “Treatise on Clemency.”  At twenty-five he revised a translation of the French Bible.  At twenty-seven he published the first edition of his mighty work, “The Institution of the Christian Religion,” a treatise which has been styled “one of the landmarks of the history of Christian doctrine.”  At twenty-eight Calvin was the foremost man in Geneva, and was already one of the most remarkable reformers in the world.  His career has rarely been paralleled.  Calvin died on May 27, 1564.

I.—­THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE CREATOR

Our wisdom consists almost exclusively of two parts:  the knowledge of God, and of ourselves.  But, as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes, and which gives birth to the others.  Our weakness, ignorance, and depravity remind us that in the Lord, and in none but Him only, dwell the two lights of wisdom, of virtue, and of piety.  It is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until after he has contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself.

It is beyond dispute that there exists in the human mind, and indeed by natural instinct, some sense of deity.  As Cicero, though a pagan, tells us, there is no nation so brutish as not to be imbued with the conviction that there is a God.  Even idolatry is an evidence of this fact.  But, though experience teaches that a seed of religion is divinely sown in all, few cherish it in the heart.  Some lose themselves in superstitious observances; others, of set purpose, wickedly revolt from God; and many think of God against their will, never approaching Him without being dragged into His presence.