PREFACE. THIS address was delivered June 6th, 1844, at the General Meeting of the Evangelical Society of Geneva. The Rev. Frederic Monod, deputy from the Evangelical Society of France, afterwards addressed the meeting, and in concluding spoke as follows: "I should not do justice to my feelings, if, before sitting down, I did not pray the committee of this Society to take into consideration, whether it would not be for the interest of the work of God in France, to have the address of our brother M. Merle printed separately, and circulated extensively among our churches. The evil pointed out in this address, is an evil which menaces—which advances on us more every day, and I know of nothing more suited to point it out, and consequently also to combat it." (See Report.) It is in compliance with this request that this address, which is not given in the Report, is published by the author in France, and he feels himself constrained to add two remarks:First, the following pages were never intended for publicity of this description; being nothing more than notes thrown rapidly together on the paper. Again, very far from exhibiting a new and particular idea, as some people have supposed, they verify or prove an ecclesiastical fact, a fact which has long been recognized by the most respectable authorities, as could easily have been shown, had it not been thought necessary to be sparing of quotations. * * The address was published in the original language in Paris. See publishers' Preface.-TR LUTHER AND CALVIN; OR, THE TRUE SPIRIT OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. GENTLEMEN : THE times are pressing. We must proceed to what is useful; and not lose ourselves in much speaking, but search, according to the apostolic precept, for what may truly contribute to the edification of the Church. It is this thought which induces me to bring before you the following question: What is it, in our French reformed churches, that has characterized the year that has passed since our last anniversary? It is, unless I am deceived, the manifestation anew of principles which have often been designated by the name of parties opposed to us, but of which from the heart we wish to speak in a friendly style, and shall therefore call them (making use of a name which is dear to us) the principles of Lutheranism. Lutheranism and Reform* have distinctive characters; but they are not separated so much by errors as by diversities. God willed that diversity, that the work of the Reformation might be complete. His powerful hand, intending from the beginning to cause immense bodies to move round the sun, endowed them with opposing forces, the one of which tends to take them away from the centre, and the other to draw them closer to it. From these apparent contradictions, he produced the course of the universe, and the admirable unity of the celestial system. It was the same in the times of the reformation. Opposing tendencies were necessary for that work; and these same tendencies it is which imprinted upon it such admirable unity. "In the garden of my master, sings a Christian author.† Shall we, gentlemen, only perceive * It is almost unnecessary to remind the reader that the word Reformation applies to the whole work of the 19th century, and the words Reform and Reformed apply especially to the work of Zwingle and Calvin. † Tersteegen. there one flower? Ah! let us beware, careless gardeners that we are, of tearing up indigenous plants whose nature is peculiarly adapted to our soil, to our climate, and of planting in their stead exotics which require a different soil, and which may perish among our hands. Yes, gentlemen, let us comprehend it well; there is not only friendship-there is not only agreement between Lutheranism and Reform-there is more than all that-there is unity. There exists, above all, between them a profound unity, which results from both being animated by the same living faith. They believe equally in the complete incapacity of man to do good; they believe in God manifested in the flesh; in expiation by his blood; in regeneration by his Spirit; in justification by faith in his name; in charity and good works by the power of his fellowship. But it is not this unity of identity of which we wish now to speak. We go much farther. We propose to show that Lutheranism and Reform are one even by their diversities, from which we shall draw the conclusion, that in place of effacing the greater part of these differences, and more especially those of Reform, which we should defend, they ought to be carefully preserved. Such is our thesis. Yes, gentlemen, those individuals deceive themselves strangely, who, knowing how to reckon the very different characteristics which at the present day distinguish Lutheranism and Reform, would cry out with painful surprise, "How then! friends fewer, enemies more!" The body and the soul are very different in their attributes, nevertheless they are but one single being. Man and woman have quite opposite capacities and duties, and notwithstanding they are but one flesh. In Christ the human and divine natures were certainly distinct, but nevertheless there is only one Saviour. In the same manner, gentlemen, Lutheranism and Reform, though very different, are but one unity. Do they talk of their strifes? Ah! gentlemen, are there never then strifes between the body and the spirit, between the husband and the wife? Did none exist even in Christ between his human and divine nature? 66 My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour!" cried his human nature, shuddering at the approach of the cross. Strife, but strife overcome, far from being contrary to unity, is essential to it, at least upon the earth. I believe, gentlemen, that with Lutheranism and Reform the happy moment in which strife is overcome and unity triumphs is neary arrived, if imprudent friends of the former do not seek to bend the latter under its laws. Observe that Reform, which is the friend of proselytism, does not proselytize in Lutheranism; it loves it, respects it, and leaves it to its own strength, or rather to God's. But, wonderful to be told! it is Lutheranism (certainly neither that of Germany or Geneva), it is Lutheranism passive in its character, which advances heedlessly, and apparently wishing to deprive us of our patrimony, and to substitute itself in the place of the tricentennial work of our reformers. To bring about unity, |