Mr. Green's ministry. At one time the week-ending prayer meetings held at farm-houses attracted large numbers and were thought worthy of mention in a leading religious paper. "Amidst the difficulties of present-day rural causes, with the help of lay preachers and the gracious perseverance of some earnest adherents, the light is kept burning and the holy fire still maintained." The graveyard surrounding the chapel, skirted by the beautiful common, has been in use for near ninety years and its tomb stones and wooden grave rails-the latter much decayed-record the names of the departed, young and old; some with pathetic verse or incident. The graves of its ministers and their kindred are on the east side. The headstone of one of the former reads: "In memory of the Revd. John Westcott, Minister of this Chapel for thirteen years, who after a course of eminent usefulness departed this life Octr. 7, 1848 in the forty-second year of his age. Hannah (his wife) Jan. 27, 1892 aged 86 years." Inside the Chapel is a tablet to Revd. rr. Green. T. R. HOOPER.
A Modern Estimate of Calvinism
It is impossible to read Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion without acquiring a deep admiration for the author. There is a majestic quality about this massive work which wins approval even where it does not carry conviction. In its primary form the work was comparatively small in bulk-514 octavo pages containing six chapters dealing briefly with the themes of the Apostles' Creed-but Calvin continued to expand, elaborate and reconstruct his work until within a few years of his death. The argument reveals a rich mind, almost as familiar with Patristic as with Biblical writers, moving with certainty among the ultimate problems of religion. It is the work of a logician, an intellectualist, although there are not wanting illustrations which suggest that now and then Calvin's heart escaped from the control of his head. The systematic theologian occasionally gave place to the preacher, concerned less with consistency than with the earnest appeal of Divine truth. Calvin reared a noble edifice of thought: the dominating unity of his theology was projected, so to speak, into his presentation of it, and the result is a marvel of system and order.
F. Townley Lord, "A Modern Estimate of Calvinism," Baptist Quarterly 4.2 (April 1928): 82-89.
Probably no modern survey of theological truth has exercised so powerful an influence. Whether men have accepted or rejected the Calvinistic position they have done it with enthusiasm. Historians have not been stinting in their praise of Calvin's influence. Morley declared "to omit Calvin from the forces of Western evolution is to read history with one eye shut." Mark Pattison went even further, "Calvinism saved Europe." Enthusiastic eulogies of the system have in recent times been given by Hastie (Theology of the Reformed Church) and especially Kuyper (Calvinism)-this latter a fascinating book which relates Calvinism to religion, politics, science and art, and ventures a prophecy on "Calvinism and the future." There is ground for Froude's question: "How came it to pass, if Calvinism is the hard and unreasoning creed which modern enlightenment declares it to be, it has possessed such singular attraction in times past for some of the greatest men that ever lived?" Whatever be our verdict upon Calvinism in relation to the theological approach of to-day, we cannot withhold our tribute of praise for its effect in strong and virile Christianity when strength and virility were so greatly needed in Europe. The most ardent Calvinist would not claim for Calvin great originality of view. It would be possible to trace his ideas of the Trinity and the Person of Christ in the great Ecumenical Councils of the Church, to find his conception of the Evangelical doctrines in the common heritage of Protestantism, while Calvin himself was careful to acknowledge his indebtedness to Augustine on the idea of predestination (although he went beyond the African bishop in his presentation of the doctrine). His greatness, as Orr points out, lay in the unity of view which he imparted to these doctrines, "moulding them into a logically articulated system under the guidance of the determining idea of God's sovereignty." The strength of Calvin's presentation is shown in the fact that historically it has undergone considerable modification without sacrificing its essential principle.
A preliminary point a:r b~ mentioned as interesting to Baptist readers, VIZ, Calvin's Idea of the Sacraments and especially Baptism. The Sacraments are "outward signs by which the Lord seals in our consciences the promises of His good will towards us, to support the weakness of our faith, or a testimony of His grace towards us, with a reciprocal attestation of our piety towards Him." The office of the Sacrament is the same as the Word of God: both offer Christ and His heavenly grace to us, but they confer no benefit without the medium of faith. Without the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit they can produce no effect on the recipient, and characteristically, Calvin declares that they produce an effect only in the elect. Baptism is a sign of initiation by which we are admitted into the society of the Church, in order that, being incorporated into Christ, we may be numbered among the children of God. Faith derives three benefits from Baptism: the assurance of cancelled sin, the experience of the efficacy of Christ's death and resurrection power, and the assurance of such unity with Christ that we are partakers of all His benefits. The unworthiness of the minister does not affect the validity of the baptism; we are baptised in the name of God, and not in any human name. . . . a point Calvin had to uphold against the Anabaptists as Augustine had previously upheld it against the Donatists. As we should expect from a man of his great scholarship, Calvin recognised the force of the philological and historical arguments for immersion, but regarded pouring and sprinkling as equally valid, and left it a matter of liberty according to habit and custom. His loyalty to what he regarded as Church practice impelled him to accept infancy as the proper period for the administration of baptism. Paedobaptism, he held, conferred a double benefit: it ratified to pious parents the promise of Christ's mercy to their children, and engrafted them into the body of the Church, acting after-ward.
