Almighty God." On the other hand, Strasburg yielded up the reformer with difficulty. It allowed him to retain his office, confirmed him in his rank as citizen, and wished him to hold the stipend which had been assigned him; but the latter he refused to accept; "there being nothing," says Beza, "that he less desired than riches."

His treatment of those who had been his enemies is worthy of all praise. It would have been easy for him, in this hour of general enthusiasın on his behalf, to have secured their expulsion from the city; but he was not forgetful of the command, "Be not overcome of evil; but overcome evil with good." "I might," he says, "have gained applause by severity towards them, and have put them all to rout with ease; but I abstained, and I pray God to keep me in the same moderation."

Alexander Morus, rector of the academy of Geneva, and one of the most celebrated preachers of the seventeenth century, gives the following as an address of Calvin's to the council of Geneva after his restoration:-" If you desire to have me as your pastor, correct the disorders of your lives. If you have with sincerity recalled me from my exile, banish the

crimes and debauchery which prevail amongst you. I certainly cannot behold, without the most painful displeasure, within your walls, discipline trodden under foot, and crimes committed with impunity. I cannot possibly live in a place so grossly immoral. Vicious souls are too filthy to receive the purity of the gospel, and the spiritual worship which I preach to you. A life stained by sin is too contrary to Jesus Christ to be tolerated. I consider the principal enemies of the gospel to be, not the pontiff of Rome, nor the heretics, nor seducers, nor tyrants, but such bad Christians; because the former exert their rage out of the church, while drunkenness, luxury, perjury, blasphemy, impurity, adultery, and other abominable vices overthrow my doctrine, and expose it defenceless to the rage of our enemies. Rome does not constitute the principal object of my fears; still less do I apprehend from the almost infinite multitude of monks. The gates of hell, the principalities and powers of evil spirits, disturb me not at all; I tremble on behalf of other enemies more dangerous; and I dread abundantly more those carnal covetousnesses, those debaucheries of the tavern, of the brothel, and of gaming; those infamous remains of ancient

superstitions; those moral pests, the disgrace of your town, and the shame of the reformed name. Of what importance is it to have driven away the wolves of the fold, if the pest ravage the flock? Of what use is a dead faith without good works? Of what value even truth itself, where a wicked life belies it, and actions make words blush? Either command me to abandon a second time your town, and let me go and soften the bitterness of my affliction in a new exile; or let the severity of the laws reign in the church. Re-establish there the pure discipline. Remove from within your walls, and from the frontiers of your state, the pest of your vices, and condemn them to a perpetual banishment.”

Upon his return to Geneva the labours of Calvin in the service of God were more abundant than ever. Three times in a week he delivered lectures on theology, and every alternate week he preached daily. On the Thursdays he presided in the consistory, or court of morals, and on the Fridays he had to be present in what was called the congregation, an assembly of the clergy for the collation and the exposition of Scripture. He gave the council all the benefit of his advice in all matters of

importance. He carried on a correspondence which extended over all Europe, as the fame of his learning and piety had spread everywhere abroad. In addition to his copious commen taries on the Scriptures and other elaborate writings, he manifested an extraordinary faithfulness in the discharge of his pastoral labours. In him the flesh was subdued to the spirit; the soul overmastered the body. Indeed the fire within seemed to burn too intensely for a constitution naturally delicate, and gradually consumed and wasted away the fragile frame. It was one of his first cares after his recall to procure the establishment of a regular system of ecclesiastical polity. With the assistance of six other commissioners appointed for the purpose, he prepared a formulary of discipline, which included the power of censure and excommunication, and which, though meeting with considerable resistance from many, at length received the sanction of the people. So valuable also were his services to the magistrates of Geneva in constructing the new code of laws which the revolution in the state had rendered necessary, that Montesquieu has said of him, "The Genevese ought to bless the

moment of the birth of Calvin, and that of his arrival within their walls."

A striking testimony was borne to the worth of the reformer in the year 1542, when Geneva suffered from a visitation of the plague. A hospital outside the city was erected for the unhappy persons stricken with the pestilence. It was felt desirable that the victims of the sore disease should be visited, and their spiritual requirements attended to; but many drew back from the perilous duty. Calvin, however, stepped forward, and offered to attend at the hospital as the spiritual adviser and comforter of the sick. But the magistrates interfered; they would not consent that a life so valuable should be risked in a service which might prove fatal. That their fears on his account were not groundless, is attested by the melancholy fact that the person on whom the duty devolved died stricken by the plague.

It was in this same year that refugees flocked to Geneva from France and Italy, driven thither by the fierce hand of persecution; and Calvin used every effort to provide for their wants, both temporal and spiritual. For the benefit of those foreigners who did not understand the French language, he opened churches