This is an excellent translation, very well researched and footnoted, with an extensive bibliography. The editing work is flawless. Every detail is well done, including good paragraph breaks for easy flow, good fonting, and quality binding. It makes the full depth of these important sermons available in a very readable format.

As with all of these Cambridge "Political Writings" series, this book is perhaps better title "Essential Political Writings" or "Basic Political Writings", for it is far far from comprehensive, in fact it contains only a chapter of one of Calvin's "Institutes" and a small piece by Luther. Yet as is also the case with this Cambridge series, it is an excellent translation with a very good introduction. This is a very useful text and is as essential for academics as it is fascinating for the generally curious. Highly recommended, as long as the buyer does not believe it is a one-stop-shop for the "secular" (whatever that word means in then 16th century) thought of these two reformers with regard to government.

Concerning John Calvin, James Arminius wrote," Next to the study of Scriptures... I exhort my pupils to peruse Calvin's Commentaries,...for I affirm that he excels beyond comparison in the interpretation of Scripture, and that his commentaries ought to be more highly valued than all that is handed down to us by the library of the fathers.... This book containing several sermons based on the epistles to Timothy and Titus shows Calvin the pastor at his finest edifying the body of Christ with sound doctrine based on a proper interpretation of Scripture.

Is war justifiable for a Christian? This is one of several "hard questions" John Calvin answers from the Bible in this book. John McNeill has edited the works of Calvin to indicate what he has to say on the various aspects of government. Calvin wrote at a time when he was exiled from his native France due to religious persecution. He discusses the role government has in carrying forth God's will in human society. Magistrates have a high calling from God he maintains. He says anyone going against a legitimate authority is opposing God because scripturally all authorities have been placed by God. However, those in authority have an obligation to serve as unto God and are accountable to Him for this stewardship. In answer to the question of war, Calvin says it is the responsibility of those in authority to declare war at certain times. He uses a logical inference from the Scriptures to back up his claim. This book provides helpful insight into the mind of one of the great Reformers. While his writings were done during an era of monarchy, they have application still.

After reading two of Joyce McPherson's other books, I knew I was in for a treat when I picked up River of Grace, the biography of John Calvin. While the language is easily understandable for a child, it holds the interest of the adult. I have even seen my husband, who rarely picks up a book, reading this one. John Calvin is famous as a theologian, but I found out lots of things that I didn't know about him. It made his life come alive for me.

This Was John Calvin, by Thea B. Van Helsema

At the beginning of a Bible-school class last fall on the history and shaping of Western thought, Russ Pulliam, asked each of the students who they thought of as one whom God had used in shaping the modern world as we know it today. I knew that we might be asked to do a little research and writing on the name we chose, so I chose carefully.

Since studying Reformation Church history, I have developed a growing appreciation and interest in the life and ministry of John Calvin. I have heard the name mentioned many times but confess that I knew little of the events of his life and of his significant contribution to understanding the whole of what the Bible teaches. I have heard of only a few names mentioned with such admiration and sometimes animosity as this Genevan pastor. Before I passed judgment on the man or his teachings, I resolved to learn what I could on my own and was surprised that I could find only a couple of biographies claiming to present factual information on the events of his life.

The first biography I read was written by Theodore Beza, Calvin's successor as Pastor of the Church of Geneva at St. Pierre's Cathedral. Written back in the 1500's, one can imagine the added difficulty in understanding what Beza related to his generation about Calvin. The strength of the book comes in the fact that the author, Beza, wrote from his own personal knowledge of Calvin from the time Beza was a twelve-year-old boy neighbor until the day Calvin died. No other biography on Calvin that I know of can make that claim.

But, reading This Was John Calvin, I found it much easier to get to know the man and the times in which he lived. The author has provided an excellent volume that condenses the life of Calvin and relates the principal events of the Reformation of the Church in one easily read volume. Much research has been put into this little book. The quotations from Calvin's letters have been carefully and appropriately quoted. This gives the reader a close enough view of Calvin's thoughts and responses so as to conclude that he was both a man with the same frailties as any other man, but also a choice servant of the Lord, "a vessel unto honor, meet for the Master's use." (II Timothy 2:21)

The book contains the story of a man arrested by God to be used not only in the reforming of an entire city during a time of intense persecution where 50,000 of his French countrymen were burned alive for their faith, but also in the summarizing and systematizing of that reformed faith for which his countrymen gave their lives to the benefit of generations to come. Some have said Calvin's magnum opus, Institutes of the Christian Religion, is the best statement of reformed faith ever written. Having read of the turmoil and trials during which this book was written, I have an even greater appreciation for the book I am to study in an upcoming theology class. Written and revised, added to again and again and revised, Calvin worked on this volume for a period of over 25 years, in sometimes unsettled state, suffering from poor health, voluntary poverty, the death of his son weeks after his birth, the death of his daughter when delivered prematurely, the death of his wife, the exposure of adultery in his wife's daughter, of his brother's wife, being rejected from his pulpit and the city of Geneva only to be begged later to return; these are but a few of the great trials through which God seasoned Calvin's studies of the Word of God with supernatural blessing and his articulation of them for all generations with the same seasoned grace.

To the life that has been torn and turned upside-down by the providence of God, friend, you will find much consolation and comfort reading about this man who handled the providences of God with many tears, yet with an unwavering faith in the Master of those providences. Calvin could have well said with the Psalmist, "All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten you." (Psalm 44:17) The trials through which Calvin was brought only bore the peaceable fruit of righteousness and an example that goes on to this very day encouraging the hearts of the faithful to endure hardness as good soldiers and to uphold the truth of Scripture to the end no matter what the cost.

In his own words Calvin speaks of how he viewed his life when faced with the decision to return to the pulpit in Geneva from which he was forced to leave only three years before. This statement could summarize his whole life, a living sacrifice upon the altar of service to God. "When I consider that I am not in my own power, I offer my heart a slain victim for a sacrifice to the Lord . . . I yield my soul chained and bound unto obedience to God."

Before you make up your mind for yourself what exactly to think of this man, read for yourself, and my promise to you is that you will not be disappointed, provided you are truly among the faithful.

The narrator's off-beat view of the world is wonderful. It's great that the mistakes made in this twisting investigation are pointed out by the narrator himself. The vivid portraits given by the narrator of the characters involved in the mystery are wonderful. I enjoyed every minute of this book.

John performs his poems so well that now when I read them they perform themselves. His stuff is wonderfully accessible to all of us who begin our critiques with "Well, I'm not a poet, but..."

These poems span the years, and when I open the book halfway, I get to the ones I most recognize. They cover the ground from alien childhoods to bebob to breasts to North Dakota. John spaces out on wonderfully familiar and funny topics. There's nothing here so la-di-dah or refined that a middle-aged, middle-west, middle-smart guy can't understand.

I have only good things to say about the man John Piper, both as a theologian and pastor. I was however, a little disapointed with this book. I love all three of these Christian heros and was very excited to read about their lives and ministries especially agaist the backdrop of their blatent failures. Piper however, spends more time molding their lives into three preset themes he wishes to discuss then their lives themselves. His chosen themes are Sovereign Joy, Sacred Study, and The Divine Majesty of the Word.

This book is certainly not a biography (something that is tipped off by its 150 pages of large type) but is interesting if you wish to read about all of the aformentioned ideas. It certainly is a quick read and worth the edification. I would reccommend though that after this book you read some of the men themselves to get a fuller picture of their lives and more importantly, how they display God's glory.

Most reviewers have hit upon the highlights of this book. I do not feel the need to repeat it.

This book is a set of mini-biographies of the lives of three flawed saints. I emphasize the word "flawed" because one of the things I appreciated most about this book was how it emphasized each man's weaknesses and sin. These were flawed saints. There is no saint who is not flawed. When it comes to heroes, there is an easy downward slip from the desire for imitation to the discouragement of intimidation to the deadness of resignation. Seeing their weaknesses and how God's grace triumphed in them is to see Christ's strength perfected in weakness.

And seeing how they sang of their sovereign joy of God in the midst of incredible opposition both from the world and their sin gives me hope; for I am flawed, I am imperfect, and I struggle with sin. But oh, I sing for my Sovereign Joy! There is hope in these pages that even men of God sin, but God pulls them out of the mirey clay as an example of His grace, not their greatness.

While I wish Piper could have gone a little bit deeper, I found in his book enough to meditate upon, and a spark has ignited a desire to learn more about these men in order to see their God, their Sovereign Joy.

John Piper's series of biographies, The Swans Are Not Silent, of which this is the first book, is so named for multiple reasons that come out in the preface. When Augustine was handing over his administrative duties to an assistant named Eraclius, Eraclius was asked to give a message. As Augustine sat silently on the bishops throne behind, Eraclius said, "The cricket chirps, the swan is silent." This is how I feel looking at the way that God has impacted men like Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Owen, and even Piper. Being motivated by the grace that God has shown them in their lives and learning from their lessons, as I go out to the world with the motive of Paul that is seen in so many of these great men in history, "Him we declare, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom so that we may present everyone mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28 ESV)," my words feel like the chirps of crickets next to the songs of these gifted swans. Sometimes, one of the best ways to let their songs be sung is to let them sing them for themselves through the words that they wrote and the testimony that they left. That is what John Piper has done in this book, and it has definitely had its desired effect.