Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

365
He had found a place of great usefulness in a city where he could act as
mediator between Germany and France, and benefit both countries; his
Sunday services were crowded; his theological lectures attracted students
from France and other countries; he had married a faithful wife, and
enjoyed a peaceful home. The government of Strassburg appreciated him
more and more, and his colleagues wished to retain him.
Melanchthon thought he could spare him less at the Colloquies of Worms
and Ratisbon than anybody else. Looking to Geneva he could, from past
experience, expect nothing but severe and hard trials. “There is no place in
the world,” he wrote to Viret, “which I fear more; not because I hate it, but
because I feel unequal to the difficulties which await me there.” f608 He
called it an abyss from which he shrank back much more now than he had
done in 1536. Indeed, he was not mistaken in his fears, for his subsequent
life was an unbroken struggle. We need not wonder then that he refused
call upon call, and requested Farel and Viret to desist from their efforts to
allure him away. f609
At the same time, he was determined to obey the will of God as soon as it
would be made clear to him by unmistakable indications of Providence.
“When I remember,” he wrote to Farel, “that in this matter I am not my
own master, I present my heart as a sacrifice and offer it up to the
Lord.” f610 A very characteristic sentence, which reveals the soul of his
piety. A seal of Calvin bears this motto, and the emblem is a hand
presenting a heart to God. Seventeen years later, when he looked back
upon that critical period of his life, he expressed the same view. “Although
the welfare of that Church,” he says, “was so dear to me, that I could
without difficulty sacrifice my life for it; yet my timidity presented to me
many reasons of excuse for declining to take such a heavy burden on my
shoulders. But the sense of duty prevailed, and led me to return to the
flock from which I had been snatched away. I did this with sadness, tears,
and great anxiety and distress of mind, the Lord being my witness, and
many pious persons who would gladly have spared me that pain, if not the
same fear had shut their mouth.” f611 He mentions especially Martin Bucer,
“that excellent servant of Christ,” who threatened him with the example of
Jonah; as Farel, on Calvin’s first visit to Geneva, had threatened him with
the wrath of God.
His friends in Geneva, the Council and the people, were convinced that
Calvin alone could save the city from anarchy, and they made every effort