William Farel was a faithful man of God during the struggle of light
against spiritual darkness in Switzerland
William Farel was a faithful man
of God during the struggle of light against spiritual darkness in Switzerland. In the year 1536 he learned that John Calvin had come to Geneva.
Farel had been long praying for
help; he believed that God had now sent it. He had read Calvin’s Institutes,
and in his mind Calvin was the very man to consolidate the work so well begun.
Farel contacted him and learned to his dismay that Calvin could stop only one night.
"Why seek elsewhere for
what is now offered you? Why refuse to edify the church of Geneva by your faith, zeal, and knowledge?"
Calvin shrank from it, saying at
last, "I cannot teach:on the contrary, I have need to learn. There are
special tabors for which I wish to reserve myself. This city cannot afford me
the leisure I require."
"Study, leisure, knowledge!
What, must we never practice? I am sinking under my task:pray help
me."
Calvin said he was weak and
needed rest.
"Rest! Death alone permits
the soldiers of Christ to rest from their labors;"
Calvin said he was timid. He
could not battle with such strong spirits as the men of Geneva.
"Ought the servants of
Jesus Christ to be so delicate as to be frightened at warfare?"
Calvin was moved at the thought
that he should be a coward but begged to be let go his way.
Farel reminded him of Jonah and
the punishment he received but still could not get Calvin’s consent. Then
Farel, as if inspired, put his hand on Calvin’s head and with a piercing look
said, "May God curse your repose! May God curse your studies, if in such a
great necessity as ours you withdraw and refuse to give us help and
support"
Calvin broke down and shook in
every limb. He felt as if God had seized him. He must obey. He was won for Geneva,
Calvin, once settled in Geneva, soon took the lead. He had a very difficult task. The whole populace was now
supposed to be Protestant and nominally Christian, but many were unconverted.
Calvin attempted to enforce at least morality on the people, but many rejected
even this. They desired to please themselves and to be religious only as far as
it suited them. On this account Calvin with Farel and Courad (a minister from Paris) said they could not give the Lord’s supper to some of the people. The council, being
appealed to, met and ordered the three ministers to leave Geneva.
The foregoing, slightly altered,
taken from Lights and Shadows of the Reformation presents briefly the
conditions existing in those stirring times. The exercises of these men, who
sought to be faithful with the light they had, brought them into conflict with
the almost overwhelming tide of Romish tradition and practice. God in His mercy
delivered many from mere religion to salvation through Christ and His work on
the cross of Calvary.
It appears from records,
however, that Calvin was not clear on some vital doctrines, teaching that by
baptism all became a part of the church and insisting that baptism was "to
give us an entrance into the church of God" and the Lord’s supper was
"to keep us in it."
Farel’s faithfulness toward
Calvin, leading him to step into the crisis that then existed when he felt his
great weakness and would excuse himself to less strenuous work, is worthy of
recognition. William Farel was not martyred as so many of God’s faithful ones
were in those times. But he often suffered for the truth’s sake, and had not
the Lord come in and protected him he would have been killed on a number of
occasions.
Farel’s pronouncement of a curse
upon Calvin’s lethargy and self-consideration reminds us of what we read in the
song of Deborah and Barak after the battle and victory over the Canaanites
recorded in Judges 5:23. "Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD,
curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of
the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty." They could sit by
complacently and let others carry on and fight for the Lord.
Oh, how much the Lord’s people
might do to help the cause of Christ even in this day, by prayer communication,
and helpful encouragement.
Zebulun and Naphtali jeoparded
their lives and were commended (Judges 5:18). Two women, Deborah and Jael (the
wife of Heber), were also commended for faithful service in their own spheres.