ng
that by his pen he could best serve the cause of reform, he desired to
find a quiet retreat for study, and there, through the press, instruct and
build up the churches. But Farel's solemn admonition came to him as a call
from heaven, and he dared not refuse. It seemed to him, he said, "that the
hand of God was stretched down from heaven, that it lay hold of him, and
fixed him irrevocably to the place he was so impatient to leave."(348)

At this time great perils surrounded the Protestant cause. The anathemas
of the pope thundered against Geneva, and mighty nations threatened it
with destruction. How was this little city to resist the powerful
hierarchy that had so often forced kings and emperors to submission? How
could it stand against the armies of the world's great conquerors?

Throughout Christendom, Protestantism was menaced by formidable foes. The
first triumphs of the Reformation past, Rome summoned new forces, hoping
to accomplish its destruction. At this time, the order of the Jesuits was
created, the most cruel, unscrupulous, and powerful of all the champions
of popery. Cut off from earthly ties and human interests, dead to the
claims of natural affection, reason and conscience wholly silenced, they
knew no rule, no tie, but that of their order, and no duty but to extend
its power.(349) The gospel of Christ had enabled its adherents to meet
danger and endure suffering, undismayed by cold, hunger, toil, and
poverty, to uphold the banner of truth in face of the rack, the dungeon,
and the stake. To combat these forces, Jesuitism inspired its followers
with a fanaticism that enabled them to endure like dangers, and to oppose
to the power of truth all the weapons of deception. There was no crime too
great for them to commit, no deception too base for them to practise, no
disguise too difficult for them to assume. Vowed to perpetual poverty and
humility, it was their studied aim to secure wealth and power, to be
devoted to the overthrow of Protestantism, and the reestablishment of the
papal supremacy.

When appearing as members of their order, they wore a garb of sanctity,
visiting prisons and hospitals, ministering to the sick and the poor,
professing to have renounced the world, and bearing the sacred name of
Jesus, who went about doing good. But under this blameless exterior the
most criminal and deadly purposes were often concealed. It was a
fundamental principle of the order that the end justifies the means