This consolatory letter, written by Calvin to Monsieur
de Richebourg, shows the caring heart of the young minister of the
gospel. Calvin was only thirty-one years old at the time he penned this
letter, and he was away on an important mission to Ratisbon, Germany
where he represented the city of Strasbourg at an ecclesiastical
gathering. Two deceased men are mentioned in Calvin’s benevolent letter:
(1) Louis, the young son of Monsieur de Richebourg; and (2) Claude
Ferey, the distinguished Professor at the Academy of Strasbourg and
Louis’ personal tutor. Sadly, both men were carried away by the Plague
that swept through Strasbourg with deadly consequences in April, 1541.
Calvin writes:
The son whom the Lord had lent you for a season,
he has taken away. There is no ground, therefore, for those silly and
wicked complaints of foolish men: O blind death! O horrid fate! O
implacable daughters of destiny! O cruel fortune! The Lord who had
lodged him here for a season, at this stage of his career has called him
away. What the Lord has done, we must, at the same time, consider has
not been done rashly, nor by chance, neither from having been impelled
from without; but by that determinate counsel, whereby he not only
foresees, decrees, and executes nothing but what is just and upright in
itself, but also nothing but what is good and wholesome for us… Keep Reading...
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