recognised in Melancthon that other "himself" who was associated with him in his rough mission. Without Melancthon, Luther would have none the less moved Germany, quite prepared since John Huss to hear his resounding voice, and to effect its moral deliverance. Without Melancthon, Luther would always have been the intrepid Christian who placed at Wittenberg the gospel above the briefs and the thunders of the Vatican, and who refused at Worms to put Leo X. upon the same altar as Christ. This is true, for Luther had in the same degree courage and faith; but would he have been able without his mild friend Philip, as he called Melancthon, to organise reform in the north and in the south of Germany? to be the legislator of the innumerable churches, which, at his voice, being separated from Rome, rose in every direction from the banks of the Rhine to those of the Danube? Would he have been able to accomplish, notwithstanding his indefatigable activity and powerful ardour, the immense and never-to-be-forgotten enterprise which began the religious enfranchisement of the half of Europe?

In speaking thus at length about Luther and Melancthon, we do not make a useless digression; on the contrary, we convey the justest idea of what the French Melancthon and Luther, Beza and Calvin, were to each other. Fre quently, and with justice, have Luther and Calvin been compared, while account has been taken of the differences in character and situation which the lives of the two reformers present. The same parallel can be established, with still more propriety, between Melancthon and Beza."

Both of them were less fierce in fight, less vehement in their language, and more capable, not of feebleness, but of flexibility, than the illustrious chiefs whose much beloved disciples and successful successors they were. Inferior to their masters in the genius and the power of speech, they wanted none of those eminent qualities of heart and intelligence which were required for their apostleship. Their vast learning, their profound knowledge of antiquity, sacred and profane, their literary talents, the readiness of their elocution, the charm and the delicacy which formed the distinctive mark of their minds, and the natural feature of their persons, combined, through the distances of place and time, to create in Melancthon and Beza a brotherhood, which is a double homage rendered to their revered memories.

II. Beza, who may be styled the coadjutor of Calvin, was born at Vezelsi, in the present department of the Yonne, on the 24th of June 1519. His family belonged to the nobility of the robe, which then began to oppose the honour of the toga to that of arms by virtue of the maxim, Cedant arma togae. Peter Beza, his father, was president of the Baili-wick at Vezelai. By his marriage with Mary Bourdelot, he had Theodore, upon whom an uncle, Nicolas Beza, councillor of the Parliament at Paris, did not delay to lavish his affection. He, foreboding much intelligence in his nephew, sent him, when he was of age to commence his studies, to Orleans, and afterwards to Bourges, to obtain lessons from the celebrated Melchior Volmar, one of the most renowned scholars, and perhaps the most skilled Grecian of the sixteenth century. We must, in passing, pay our respects to this Melchior Volmar. He had the glory of reckoning John Calvin among the number of his scholars. It was, perhaps, the influence of Volmar which determined the destiny of Calvin. Compatriot and passionate admirer of Luther, Volmar knew how to inspire into his disciples the sentiments which were in his own heart. Of the students who crowded around his chair, the Lutheran doctor made profound Hellenists, and at the same time, he gained for the Reformation secret proselytes. It was, indeed, a fortunate coincidence which afforded, as a master to Beza, the future support of the religious legislator of Geneva, the eminent man whose instructions Calvin himself received, and in whose hopes he had shared.

Recalled into Germany by Luther in 1535, Melchior Volmar could not completely initiate the young Beza in the new doctrines which announced the awakening of thought. Placed under the direction of new masters, he

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brilliantly terminated his studies; but since Volmar was no more with him, they had taken a profane tendency, which effaced for many years the traces of the grave lessons of the German doctor.

Rich, of an agreeable exterior, surrounded by enticements, and solicited by the intoxicating voice of pleasure, Beza modelled his existence upon that of the amatory poets, whose charming and unrestrained poems he recited with enthusiasm. Ovid, Catullus, and Horace filled his memory with their verses, and peopled his imagination with the picture he formed for himself of their lives. He was himself a Latin poet of a rare elegance, and several productions of his youth are justly cited among the best inspirations of the Latin muse in modern times. It is well known that the sixteenth century possessed a certain number of Latin poets, that the Rome of Augustus would not have disavowed. Among them can be reckoned George Buchanan, the friend and disciple of the Scotch Calvin, John Knox. The son of the Baillii of Vezelai thus passed a youth which Protestants have no interest in representing as exemplary.

Roman Catholic writers, including Bossuet, by a mistake which approaches the ridiculous, have wished to triumph over the irregularities which signalised the youth of Beza. He wrote, they say, licentious poems, and his manners were only too conformable with his lyre. Have they not perceived that the argument they employ tells only against themselves. Until Beza embraced the doctrines of Calvin, so long as he remained attached to the Romish Church, he walked not in the footsteps of Christ and his apostles, but of pagans, very forgetful of the laws of morality. It is true also, that after Beza got a glimpse of the truth after his arrival at Geneva, he bitterly regretted his errors, threw into the fire the poems which recalled them to him, and became from that day the Christian of pure manners, the grave coadjutor of him who seemed to personify austerity, the guide after Calvin's death, of the Reformation, and of Geneva his country and his citadel, his house and his sanctuary. Beza, the Roman Catholic, was the singer of licentious pleasures, of drunkenness and voluptuousness. Beza, the Protestant, was the translator of the Psalms of David, and the finisher of Clement Marot's work; he was the poet, who may be censured on the ground of merit, but not on that of the faith which animated him, and of the religious zeal by which he was transported. Beza, the Protestant, in the innumerable works which attest an immense erudition and labour, was the defender of his faith, the apologist of his creed, the historian of his Church, the biographer of his master Calvin, and the panegyrist of his brethren, the martyrs of the Reformation! As a Protestant, he was during half a century the venerated support of the Calvinistic republic of Geneva, the indefatigable organiser of the the new Church in Sweden, in France, and in Holland; he sufficed and had devotion for every task-pastor, director of the Genevese academy, professor and writer-he spoke, he preached, he pleaded, he acted, without a single day of repose. He undertook numerous voyages, he took part in councils, interviews, and conferences. Yes; the Protestant Beza fulfilled his mission with so much conscientiousness and zeal, with so much ardour and force, that we can understand why the Jesuit Maimbourg (1620-1666), in his history of Calvinism, and other Roman Catholic writers, strive to cast a stain upon his name. Unfortunately for them, they can blacken his fame only when as a Papist he was theirs.

III. In defending the memory of Beza against malicious, and, still more, unskilful attacks, we have in some measure related his life; it is only the facts which we have not specified. We shall, therefore, relate some dates and other particulars. The splendid renown of Calvin, his authority, his natural power, the indescribable authority and irresistibility which still seems attached to his name, as formerly to his person, have perhaps caused some anmerited neglect of the wise and courageous men, who, at the side of the

great reformer, took part in the foundation of the Protestant Church of Geneva and France. Beza has been a little sacrificed to Calvin. The Germans are juster than we, or at least they have taken care not to be so forgetful: they put Luther still higher than we (the French) place Calvin; but whatever proofs of gratitude, of respect, and of admiration they lavish on the great men of Wittemberg and of Worms, they honour the memory of Melanethon, and render to him more justice than we do to Beza. We understand how Geneva, which may be said to owe to Calvin every thing—her political constitution, her national liberty, as well as her religious faith-should manifest exclusiveness in her enthusiasm for him, who may be called her Moses and her Lycurgus; but should France forget the signal services which Beza has rendered to her? Let us leave Calvin to Geneva; but just as Scotland is proud of her Knox, as Holland boasts of her Marnix, let us also in our turn manifest affectionate gratitude towards our Beza.

There are in the historical destiny of certain men acts of injustice, which we should point out when we meet them. For example, is that not a culpable forgetfulness which weighs down the names of William Farel and Peter Vinet, formerly and justly popular.

Let us return to Beza, and rapidly trace the principal events with which he was concerned in his long and laborious career.

Beza directed his eyes towards the Saviour in the midst of the anguish of a malady which brought him to the gates of death. Restored to health, he remembered the mysterious visit which faith had paid him. He resolved to unite his existence to that of a young woman, Claudine Denosse, whom previously he had wished only to seduce. Did the words and the principles of Volmar come back to his memory? Was he drawn towards reform by the writings of Calvin, which were disseminated in France, despite the rigours of parliaments and bishops? We cannot decide, but it is beyond dispute that Theodore Beza made profession of the Calvinistic faith, upon his arrival at Geneva in A.D. 1548, when he was twenty-nine years of age. It is from this date that his life, which God preserved to an extreme old age, presents the image of the most solid virtues, and the combination of the most precious qualities.

The slanderers, whom we have already mentioned, have not failed to ascribe to the departure of Beza for Geneva an ignominious reason. They have spoken of a condemnation of the parliament of Paris, which branded the fugitive. The condemnation is surely of the ancestors of Basile! Only instead of being anterior to the arrival of Beza in Switzerland, it was pronounced two years later, on the 31st of May 1550, and could in no way brand the condemned, since it fell upon him because of his flight and sojourn among strangers, because he, according to the authentic expression of the decree," had departed from France."

Truth must be very antagonistic to certain systems, when it is thus insulted and trampled under feet!

IV. In the young convert, Calvin found the assistance which he needed Beza was recommended to him by letters from Volmar, who wrote to his two disciples from the depths of Germany, to divide between them his desires and his blessings. The vivid and lucid intelligence, and the varied learning of Beza powerfully aided Calvin and redoubled his energy; alas! the physical strength of the reformer did not correspond with the invincible ardour of his soul. The latter, while it consumed itself, realised the fable of the phenix; while devouring, it was born again from its own ashes; but the former was rapidly exhausted. Geneva, if it had not been blinded by an enthusiastic contemplation, would have perceived the progress daily more visible of the malady which caused Calvin's death, and would have trembled through fear. In this consideration consists the greatest eulogy which should be paid to Beza. He who would have said at Geneva, that she could lose her tutelary genius and survive the loss of Calvin, survive free, powerful, honoured, in her

faith, in her self-government, and in her influence, would have been accused of madness. And yet God caused things to happen in this way. Calvin died. scarcely fifty-four years old, and he designated on his deathbed Beza as his successor, as the inheritor of that moral authority which Geneva granted him, and which was his sole despotism; and the great reformer fell asleep in tranquillity and confidence, entrusting to his much-loved successor the care of continuing and causing to prosper his work of enfranchisement and regeneration.

He had already, long before his last illness, placed him at the head of the academy which he had founded, and pointed him out to his colleagues in the ministry for the presidency of the Consistory, although Beza was then ten years younger than himself, and had been a minister only for a short time. The profound glance of Calvin, the intuition which is the inheritance of lofty souls and great minds, led him, without hesitation. to choose the most worthy to be after him the representative of the French Reformation.

The man whose eyes he had just closed, the venerated master who had just expired in his arms, was to be obeyed by Beza in his last wishes. Although he somewhat dreaded this responsibility, he took counsel from his courage, and sought for his courage in his faith. He had already rendered eminent services to Geneva, and to the Calvinistic church in general.

Translator of the Bible, poetical interpreter of the Psalms after Marot, who died before the accomplishment of his work, Beza had added to his labours and the duties of his pastoral charge the fatigues, both of the negotiator and of the religious and the political polemic. Some excursions into France, some visits to the Queen of Navarre, Jeanne d'Albret, whom he aided by his counsels, preceded his best known journey to the court of France at the time of holding the celebrated Conference of Poissy (9th September till 9th October 1561).

Calvin, overwhelmed with infirmities, could not himself, to his great regret, go to defend the cause which had for its adversaries the disciples of Ignatius Loyola, and the house of Lorraine, "always gaping," as Robert Estrenne says, "with a great appetite for the blood of the Reformers. Calvin entrusted to Beza the honour and peril of this defence. It is well known the court of the Medicis and the Guises only saw in the convocation of this conference a means of gaining time, and of preparing what an Italian libeller, Capilupi, who was hired by Lorraine to make an apology for the massacre of St Bartholomew, called "an ingenious stratagem.' If the Huguenots had not been in arms, and as powerful as their adversaries, Beza would, without doubt, have terminated the conference, as John Huss and Jerome of Prague had closed the Council of Constance. The times were indeed a little different. The soul of John Huss revived in Luther, and at Worms his adversaries did not dare to kindle the funeral pile, although audacity would not have failed them, if they had had the power.

A word pronounced by Beza at the time of the Conference of Poissy should be related. The Papists jeered at the Reformers, and predicted the approaching fall of the new church; the Genevese Jericho was to tumble down when the Guise (fanciful) cherubim should come to sound the trumpet. To all these pleasantries, which did not even spare the gospel, Beza replied, “It is a forge which has used up many hammers."

V. Beza was still at Paris when the odious ambuscade of Vassy caused the civil and religious war to break forth. After the example of the mild and Entrepid Zwingle, Beza, who had the soul of a hero, wished to share in the dangers of the struggle. He followed the Protestant army as almoner. He was beside Prince Condé at the battle of Dreux, lost by the Reformers, who left on the field their chief, who was made prisoner, and murdered in cold blood by Montesquieu, the worthy favourite of the prince who was to be Henry III. More fortunate than Zwingle at the battle of Cappel, Beza came

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forth safe and sound from a battle in which he only took part by pouring out consolations and prayers for the soldiers of the Reformation.

A short time after his return to Geneva, Beza, by the death of Calvin. became the arbiter of Protestant Rome. It would be useless to enter here into a dry nomenclature of the conferences and synods, the holding of which summoned Beza in Switzerland and Germany, and brought him into relations of friendship, and sometimes into rivalry of controversy, with the most illus trious disciples of Luther, of Zwingle, and of Ecolampadius. Let us only mention the Conferences of Berne, because they had for Geneva a result of immense importance. The Dukes of Savoy coveted the rich and industrious city, which had shaken off their yoke. Geneva, in order the better to secure its future independence, concluded with the Canton of Berne, the most im portant and populous canton of Helvetia, a perpetual alliance, offensive and defensive. Beza had the honour of being the plenipotentiary of the Genevese republic. Before his death he was to have the satisfaction of aiding to frus trate the last and vain attempt of the ancient lord to resume his sovereignty, and to see the duke recognise, on account of that failure, the self-government and the absolute independence of Geneva, an engagement which he made a treaty placed under the protection of France. This memorable event took place in 1602. The treaty, the execution of which was watched over and guaranteed by Henry IV., had for its French negotiator our illustrious coreligionist, Maximilien Sully. It was fully observed during nearly two centuries; it was swept away by a thing which swept away everything-the French Revolution.

Beza had a strong constitution, and his health seldom failed him. Some days of repose restored to him all his vigour. He had executed during thirtythree years the functions which the death of Calvin had devolved upon him when at last he began to feel the attacks of old age and disease. In 1597 he renounced preaching, to which he had devoted himself without interrup tion for nearly fifty years. In 1600, he abandoned completely his pastoral duties. The rumour of the venerable minister's death having been already spread by the Jesuits, who were Beza's bitter foes, he gave to it a most spirited denial in a small work called " Beza Brought to Life Again."

The Jesuits had to exercise patience during other ten years. On the 13th of October 1605, Beza, in the eighty-seventh year of his age, went, surrounded by blessings and marks of respect, to join his Master and predecessor at the right hand of Him to whose service he had so long devoted himself.

Calvin and Beza could appropriate to themselves before the Saviour the testimony of having, within the limits of human power, practised the bely precept of the gospel law," Go and preach."

They taught up to their last breath, and no one among their brethren ent say that he, through grace, has merited, more than either of these two ser vants of Christ, the crown of immortality.

HOW TO IMPROVE OUR CONGREGATIONAL SINGING, As singing to God's praise is the only portion of our congregational services in which the people take part audibly, one would naturally suppose that greater (or at least as great) attention would be paid to the efficient pe formance of this duty, than to any other part of the service. Any person however, who has the slightest knowledge of, or taste for music, and wh is familiar with the manner in which this duty is performed in the congre gations of our body, as well as in those of most of the other Presbyterian denominations in Scotland, can give ample evidence that this is far from being the case. How often do we find thegrand doxologies and fine devotional sent ments of David sung to the most inappropriate tunes, and in such a dragging drawling manner, that one would think it was a very weariness and burden