Rise and Establishment of Protestantism at Geneva - James Aitken Wylie

something of the authority of an ancient prophet,
he commanded the young traveler to remain and
labor in Geneva, and he imprecated upon his
studies the curse of God, should he make them the
pretext for declining the call now addressed to
him.[4] It was the voice not of Farel, but of God,
that now spoke to Calvin; so he felt; and instantly
he obeyed. He loved, in after-life, to recall that,
"fearful adjuration," which was, he would say, "as
if God from on high had stretched out his hand to
stop me."[5]
Calvin's journey was now at an end. He had
reached the spot where his life's work was to be
done. Here, in this grey city, clinging to its narrow
rocky site, the calm lake at its feet, and the glories
of the distant mountains in its sky, was he for
twenty-eight years to toil and wage battle, and
endure defeat, but to keep marching on through toil
and defeat, to more glorious victory in the end than
warrior ever won with his sword, and then he
would fall on sleep, and rest by the banks of that
river whose "arrowy" stream he had crossed but a
few minutes before, he gave his hand to Farel, and
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