i read this in a book i was using for a school assignment:
“during the last nine years of his life, after the expulsion of the libertines, calvin withdrew more and more from the political sphere and devoted himself to spiritual labors. this was the period of the triumph of his principle. he preached two or three times a week, lectured every third day, presided in the consistory on thursdays, and fulfilled the other duties of his pastoral office. his pen was unceasingly busy, writing new books, revising old ones, conducting the extensive correspondence, a selection of which in his published works fills twelve large volumes, taking part in the controversies of the time, chief of which were the Sacramentarian Controversies. His body was in Geneva but his heart was in the church of God everywhere. his reputation in europe was rising to dizzy heights. his theological writings, especially his Institutes and the famous commentaries on the Old and New Testements, gained for him a renown as an accomplished author, both as to matter and style. among his correspondents were kings, nobles, and persons of highest positions in all countries; his advice was sought in matters small and great. his name was a familiar one in courts and conslaves. his letters were prized as literary treasures as well as for the worth of their contents. not a church was in difficulty, hardly a martyr went to the stake, but received from him some message of guidance or consolation. Geneva became an asylum for the persecuted like no other city, and numbers of persons of rank, learning and piety, found refuge within its walls. John Knox reisded in Geneva. he revered him as a father…Calvin should interest himself in France, which from a single congregation in 1556 had increased, largely due to his influence, by the year 1561 to two thousand one hundred and fifty churches…”
what a paragon for prospective pastors. sDg.
