842 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
attention to them. Calvin, however, had a lively sense of the wonders of creation and expressed it more than once. " Let us not disdain," he says, " to receive a pious delight from the works of God, which everywhere present themselves tp view in this very beautiful theatre of the world " ; and he points out that " God has wonderfully adorned heaven and earth with the utmost possible abundance, variety, and beauty, like a large and splendid mansion, most exquisitely and copiously furnished, and exhibited in man the masterpiece of his works by distinguishing him with such splendid beauty and such numerous and great privileges." ^
He had a taste for music and poetry, like Luther and Zwingli. He introduced, in Strassburg and Geneva, congregational singing, whicli he described as "an excellent method of kindling the heart and making it burn with great ardor in prayer," and which has ever since been a most important part of worship in the Reformed Churches. He composed also a few poetic versifications of Psalms, and a sweet hymn to the Saviour, to whose service and glory his whole life was consecrated.
NOTE.
Calvin's " Salutation a le'sus Christ " was discovered by Felix Bovet of Neuchatel in an old Genevese prayer-book of 1545 (Calvin's Liturgy), and published, together with eleven other poems (mostly translations of Psalms), by the Strassburg editors of Calvin's works in 1867. (See vol. VI. 223 and Prolegg. XVIII. sq.) It reveals a poetic vein and a devotional fervor and tenderness which one could hardly expect from so severe a logician and polemic. A German translation was made by Dr. E. Stiihelin of Basel, and an English translation by Mrs. Henry B. Smith of New York, and published in Schaff's Christ in Song, 1868. (" I greet Thee, who my sure
^ Institutes, bk. I. ch. XIV. 20. This whole chapter on Creation is replete with admiration for the' beauty and order of God's universe. " Were I desirous," he says (21), "of pursuing the subject to its full extent, there would be no end; since there are as many miracles of divine power, as many monuments of divine goodness, as many proofs of divine wisdom as there are species of things in the world, and even as there are individual things either great or small."
§ 1G6. CALVIX'S PEUSOXAL CHAltACTElJ. 84C'
Redeemer art." New York etl. p. 078 ; London ed. p. 549.) We give it here in the original old French : —
" le te sultie, mon certain Redempteur, Ma vrai/ejianc' et mon seid Salvateur, Qui tant de luhcur, D'ennui/s et de douleur As endure' pour inoy : Oste de noz cueurs Toutes vaines hinrjueurs, Fol souci/ et esmoy.
" Tu es le Roy misericordieux ; Puissant par tout et regnant en tous lieux ; Vueille done regner En nous, et domine.r Sur nous entierement, Nous illuminer, Ravyr et nous mener A ton luiut Firmament.
" Tu es la vie par laquelle vivons, Toute sustanc' et touteforc' avons : Donne nous confort Contre la dure mart. Que ne la craignons point, Et sans desconfort La passons d'un cueur fort Quand ce viendra uu point.
" Tu es la vraye et perfaite douceur, Sans amertume, despit ne rigueur : Fay 710US savourer, Aymer et adorer, Ta tresdouce bont<f; Fay nous desirer, Et tousiows demeurer En ta douce unite'.
" Nostre esperanc' en autre n'est qu'en toy, Sur ta promesse est fonde'e nostre foy : Vueilles augmenter, Ayder et conforter Nostre espoir tellement, Que bien surmonter Nous puissons, et porter Tout ni(d patiemment.
844 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
"A toy crijons comme povres hanys, Enfans d'Eve pleins de manx injinis : A toy souspirons, Gemissons et plorons, En la valle'e de plows ; Pardon requerons Et salut desirous, Nous confessans pecheurs.
" Or avant donq, nostre Mediateur, Nostre advocat et propiciateur, Tourne tes doux yeux Icy en ces has lieux, Et nous vueille monstrer Le haut Dieu des Dieux, Et aveq toy '€s cieux Nous faire tons entrer.
" 0 dehonnair' , o pitoyabl' et doux, Des ames suintes aniyabl' espoux, Seigneur lesus Christ, Encontre L'antechrist Memply de criiaut^, Donne nous L^esprit De suyvir ton escript En vraye verity."