Christlike in thought, in deed, in character, but chiefly in preparing them for and taking them to the heaven of a future world; that personal righteousness is in itself of any great importance; that obedience to the law of love to God and man is the paramount obligation; but that to believe certain dogmas and to observe certain rites is indispensable to acceptance with God here and hereafter. Nor does it appear from any of them that the church can or ought to attempt to institute an order of social and civil life essentially higher and better than that which now exists more fraternal, beneficient, and divine; or that the church has any authority or commission to lead all other agencies and activities in bringing the kingdom of righteousness, brotherhood, and peace into the world. In this particular there is little to give the Reformed Lutheran Church pre-eminence; little to justify the claim made for it, that its rise and the movement it represented marked one of the most important and noteworthy events in human historythe opening of a transcendently glorious era in the progress of mankind.

6. But if the movement thus represented is not entitled to the celebrity and renown generally ascribed to it by reason of its ecclesiasticism, its general policy in relation to civil government, its theology, or its maintenance of a high standard of personal and social righteousness, is it entitled to them for any reason that can satisfy a highminded Christian man; one who is resolved to test all things by the principles of eternal truth as seen

in the light that shines upon the ways of men from Bethlehem and Calvary? I believe it is. And upon the ground that it was in a certain definite and highly important sense a veritable arraignment of a tyrannical usurpation which had held the world. in thrall a thouand years; the breaking away from a despotism that for ages had throttled human thought and speech and shut the gates of knowledge as well as of mercy on mankind; the beginning of the end of a system of religious bigotry and domination which can never again rise to supremacy while time endures. Moreover it finds equal or perhaps greater justification and cause for being honored on the positive side. Its proclamation of the right of private judgment in matters of religion, of liberty of conscience, and of an open Bible for all men, prepared the way for a new era to the coming dwellers on the face of the earth, and made straight and plain the high road for all lovers of freedom, of truth, of righteousness, of man, and of God, to walk in evermore. What if those making this proclamation were not aware of the length and breath and height and depth of meaning contained in what they affirmed; what if they shrank from the application and use of the principles they avowed, builded better than they knew, and were unconscious of what their utterances would lead to as the years went by! It matters not. The proclamation was made and was destined to stand. The truth was set free and it has gone forth, East, West, North, South, and will go, till it encircles the globe and gains the victory, in all lands and

climes, among all peoples. "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform." He spoke to these German Reformers. Something of His word they heard and sent it abroad to quicken and redeem the world. All honor to them for their hallowed ministry. All praise to God, the Giver of all good, who called them to that ministry and directed it to great and glorious issues for mankind.

DISCOURSE XXIII.

PRESBYTERIANS, CONGREGATIONALISTS, AND REGULAR BAPTISTS.

"I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” — Rom. xi. 25, 26.

John Calvin, a native of Noyon, near Paris, France, was a contemporary of Martin Luther and his fellow-reformers, whose labors and testimonies in the cause of religion were reviewed and judged in my last Discourse. In a very important sense he was their co-adjutor — one of the great leaders of the movement called Protestantism, whose influence will be felt and whose names will be honored as long as the world shall stand or the memory of noble deeds endure. As already indicated he differed from Luther on certain points of doctrine, and especially upon that of Election and Reprobation. He was more radically anti-Romanistic than his German colleague, though not more uncompromising in his testimony against Papal usurpation and corruption. Не was a strong-minded, learned,

logical, consistent theologian, who disdained to shrink from the legitimate conclusions of his own premises or to equivocate in stating and defending them. The first churches founded by him or through his influence took on his distinctive theological character; were composed of what have since been termed High or Extreme Calvinists, which, in my judgment, are the only true or self-consistent Calvinists.

It was not long, however, before a considerablenumber of Calvin's disciples, or of those who were deemed such, began to question some of his more radical opinions and finally to reject them altogether, resulting in the formation of churches and denominations which, though representing more moderate views, still claimed to belong to the Calvinistic family, and may be regarded accordingly. While avowing belief in the widely known "Five Points" of him whose name they bear, they claim the right of interpreting them as their judgment and moral sense may dictate, responsible only to God for the conclusions to which they in good conscience come. In matters ouside of strict theology — in church government, in ceremonial observance, etc., they differ much from each other and separate into varying parties, sects, or schools of ecclesiasticism, respectively. Thus we find that there are Calvinistic Episcopalians, Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, scattered here and there throughout Protestantdom, each maintaining a distinctive organization based upon doctrines, principles, ceremonials, or modes of administration, irrespective of