Calvinism a life-system - pagina 40

CALVINISM A LIFE SYSTEM.

36

Western

of

Europe.

Israel

If

flourished in the days

of Babylon and Egypt, however high

its

standard, the

and the development of our human race was the hands of the sons of Abraham but in

direction

not

in

those of the Belshassars and the Pharaohs.

Again, this

does not pass from Babylon and Egypt on

leadership

to Israel but to Greece

and Rome.

However high the

stream of Christianity had risen when Islam made appearance, of

in

the 8th and 9th centuries the followers

Mahomet were our

the issue of the world.

Romanism

still

teachers and with them rested

And

maintained

though

itself for

t'he

hegemony

the higher development, which

owe

neither

Germany

we

of

a short time after

peace of Munster, no one questions the

the

its,

are

now

fact,

that

enjoying,

we

to Spain nor to Austria, nor even to the

of that time, but to the Calvinistic countries

of the Netherlands and to England of the

1

6th century.

Under Louis XIV, Romanism arrested this higher development in France, but only that in the French Revolution it

might exhibit a ghastly caricature of Calvinism, which

its

in

sad consequences broke the inner strength of France

as a nation,

and weakened

The fundamental from

its

international significance.

idea of Calvin has been transplanted

Holland and

England to America, thus driving

our higher development ever more Westward, until on the shores of the Pacific ever

God

the

future

has ordained.

may

it

now

reverently awaits whatso-

But no matter what mysteries

yet have to disclose, the fact remains

that the broad stream of the development of our race

runs from Babylon to San Francisco, through the five stadia of Babylonian-Eg}'ptian,

Greek-Roman,

Islamitic,

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