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PREFACE.

HS volume treats of no common man and no ordinary times. Here and there, through D'Aubigne's Histories, are glimpses and pictures of a man whose life was second to o other reformer in brave adventure and hersIC In it was gathered most of the romane targ urance of the Swiss reform. Taman vij Farel. Michelet als me Bayırt of the Cad E. e brinner fan Cam, ed um e atter f the China Lee"1"

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others; but such works are either not translated, or they are not readily obtained. To supply their want

is the design of the present effort. The author cannot complain, as Calvin once did, of a forest of materials,' for he is not writing in an old European library, where the original documents are stored; and yet there is at hand much material which he has not used. If it be thought that the author has done little more than copy and rearrange the pictures found in D'Aubigné's 'Histories,' he will be content. The other works consulted are chiefly these: The Swiss Reformer; or, a Life of William Farel, from the German of Melchior Kirchhofer (abridged); Life of John Calvin, by T. H. Dyer; Life and Times of Calvin, by Paul Henry, D.D.; Wilhelm Farel und Peter Viret, von Dr. C. Schmidt; Letters of John Calvin, compiled by Dr. Jules Bonnet.

In opening these admirable Letters,' we at once perceive the fragrance of Farel's name along with that of Viret. Toward these men Calvin poured forth his brotherly love, acknowledging himself lonely and almost helpless without their presence. Although his 'upright brother' of Neufchatel dropped in so many times to see him, yet, of these six hundred and eighty-three letters, about one-eighth are written to Farel. Often they seem to have been written just for love, or relief to Calvin's own mind. Calvin tells him his faults, when he finds any; and although that indefatigable soldier of Christ, my guide, my counsellor,' is so independent an host in himself, and so likely to be provoked if any fellow-rider

should seize the rein of his impetuous spirit, yet he is willing to be restrained when he sees that the checking hand is that of Calvin or Viret. Boanerges is still the apostle of love. His friendship and character can bear the severe test of long familiarity. It is very touching to find the strong theologian of Geneva dreading the prospect that Farel, the aged father, might die first of the two, and even praying that the venerable missionary might have the longer lease of life. He thought Farel had the fortitude to endure the separation. But the old man, who had seen the beginning of the reformer's ministry at Geneva, saw with distress the end of it, and nobly wished to die in his stead. And when the dying Calvin pointed with failing hand to the archives of the correspondence that, during a quarter of a century, he had kept up with the most illustrious personages of Europe,' did he not think of William Farel as his ‘soundhearted brother and matchless friend,' who had morally forced him to labour in Geneva? To 'the good man Master William' he wrote the last letter of this collection, and, perhaps, of his life, giving him one more adieu before he went to God.

The man who thus was loved, was surely worthy of those epithets of endearment which Calvin lavished upon no other friend. The great theologian and the great sixteenth century were thus heart and hand together, and after death their names should not be separated. If, in our day, the advocate of the richest and grandest theology is called a 'Calvinist,' there is an

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calling the ardent missionary of our When the Calvinistic churches are Farel-like in their labours, bright will be the dawn of the hastening millennium.

To understand the Reformation in France and Switzerland, one needs to know William Farel; and to know him, there must be some attention paid to his times and contemporaries. His biography is a history. In this work he does not stand forth alone, for along with him are presented some of his partners in labours, in perils, and in sufferings. If, in this volume, the reader shall find any refreshment for his faith, or stimulus to his zeal, or renewed reason for confidence in the final victory of the gospel over all perverseness of religion, the author's present effort will not be in vain.

W. M. B.

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