Rise and Establishment of Protestantism at Geneva - James Aitken Wylie

frugal manner of life. They felt less the privations
they had then to bear, and were able to support
with dignity the misfortunes of the State.
Moreover, as the result of this economy, the wealth
of the citizens was rapidly developed, and the State
reached a prosperity it had never known in former
days. Each citizen laid by religiously a certain
portion of his earnings, and the years of greatest
calamity were precisely those that were signalized
by the greatest beneficence. Instead of receiving
support from other States, Geneva sent its charities
to the countries around, becoming a storehouse of
earthly as of heavenly bread to the nations. These
citizens, who wore plain blouses, and sat down to a
meal correspondingly plain, entertained during
many years, with liberal Christian hospitality, the
refugees of religion--nobles, scholars, statesmen,
and men of birth. The Genevan citizen,
independent in means, and adding thereto that
mental independence which the Gospel gives,
could not but be a being of conscious dignity, and
of character inherently grand, whom no call of
devotion or heroism would find unprepared.
466