John Calvin was born on July 10, 1509, at Noyon, in Picardy,
Northern France. Although the Calvins, his ancestors, had been
bargemen on the Oise, his father was notary apostolic,
procurator-fiscal of the county, clerk of the church court,
and diocesan secretary. Young Jean Calvin was eight years old
when Luther nailed his theses to the door of the castle church
in Wittenburg. The new religion gaining very quickly a footing
in France, the youth became influenced by it when studying in
Paris at the College de la Marche. He held meetings with
Protestants in a cave at Poitiers. His precocity was
remarkable. At the age of twenty-three he wrote his first
book, a commentary on Seneca's "Treatise on Clemency." At
twenty-five he revised a translation of the French Bible. At
twenty-seven he published the first edition of his mighty
work, "The Institution of the Christian Religion," a treatise
which has been styled "one of the landmarks of the history of
Christian doctrine." At twenty-eight Calvin was the foremost
man in Geneva, and was already one of the most remarkable
reformers in the world. His career has rarely been paralleled.
Calvin died on May 27, 1564.


_I.--THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE CREATOR_


Our wisdom consists almost exclusively of two parts: the knowledge of
God, and of ourselves. But, as these are connected together by many
ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes, and which
gives birth to the others. Our weakness, ignorance, and depravity remind
us that in the Lord, and in none but Him only, dwell the two lights of