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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadThe Worlds Greatest Sermons by Grenville Kleiser: 233. John Calvin
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Calvin
1509-1564
Biographical Note
John Calvin was born in 1509, at Noyon, France. He has been called the greatest of Protestant commentators and theologians, and the inspirer of the Puritan exodus. He often preached every day for weeks in succession. He possest two of the greatest elements in successful pulpit oratory, self-reliance and authority. It was said of him, as it was afterward said of Webster, that “every word weighed a pound.†His style was simple, direct, and convincing. He made men think. His splendid contributions to religious thought, and his influence upon individual liberty, give him a distinguished place among great reformers and preachers. His idea of preaching is thus exprest in bis own words: “True preaching must not be dead, but living and effective. No parade of rhetoric, but the Spirit of God must resound in the voice in order to operate with power.†He died at Geneva in 1564.