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JOHN CALVIN : LIFE, LEGACY AND THEOLOGY -<br />
PROF. M. M. NINAN<br />
Later, in a letter, <strong>John</strong> recalled the time: “Since I feared that these personal worries might aggravate<br />
her illness, I took an opportunity, three days before her death, to tell her that I would not fail to fulfill my<br />
responsibilities to her children.” She immediately responded by saying, “I have already entrusted them<br />
to God.” When I said that this did not relieve me of my responsibility to care for them, she answered, “I<br />
know that you would not neglect that which you know has been entrusted to God.”<br />
On the day of her death, <strong>John</strong> was impressed with her serenity. “She suddenly cried out in such a way<br />
that all could see that her spirit had risen far above this world. These were her words, ‘O glorious<br />
resurrection! O God of Abraham <strong>and</strong> of all of our fathers, the believers of all the ages have trusted on<br />
Thee <strong>and</strong> none of them have hoped in vain. And now I fix my hope on Thee.’ These short statements<br />
were cried out rather than distinctly spoken. These were not lines suggested by someone else but<br />
came from her own thoughts.”<br />
An hour later she could no longer speak <strong>and</strong> her mind seemed confused. “Yet her facial expressions<br />
revealed her mental alertness.” <strong>John</strong> recalled later. “I said a few words to her about the grace of Christ,<br />
the hope of everlasting life, our marriage <strong>and</strong> her approaching departure. Then I turned aside to pray.”<br />
Before long she quietly “slipped from life into death.”<br />
<strong>John</strong> was grief-stricken. He wrote to his friend Viret, “You know how tender, or rather, soft my heart is.<br />
If I did not have strong self-control I would not have been able to st<strong>and</strong> it this long. My grief is very<br />
heavy. My best life’s companion has been taken from me. Whenever I faced serious difficulties she<br />
was ever ready to share with me, not only banishment <strong>and</strong> poverty, but even death itself.”<br />
To his friend Farel he wrote, “I do what I can to keep myself from being overwhelmed with grief. My<br />
friends also leave nothing undone that may bring relief to my mental suffering . . . May the Lord<br />
Jesus . . . support me under this heavy affliction.”<br />
<strong>John</strong> <strong>Calvin</strong> was only 40 when Idelette died, but he never remarried. Later he spoke about her<br />
uniqueness <strong>and</strong> pledged that he intended henceforth “to lead a solitary life.”<br />
Idelette deBure <strong>Calvin</strong>’s wife was full of heartache, but, never a complainer, she brought joy <strong>and</strong><br />
peace wherever she lived. <strong>John</strong> had known much about God the Father as Sovereign. Through her<br />
life <strong>and</strong> in her death Idelette taught him a little about the Holy Spirit as Comforter.<br />
<strong>Calvin</strong> takes over Geneva<br />
In October 1549, he was again required to preach twice on Sundays <strong>and</strong>, in addition, every weekday<br />
of alternate weeks. His sermons lasted more than an hour <strong>and</strong> he did not use notes. An occasional<br />
secretary tried to record his sermons, but very little of his preaching was preserved before 1549. In<br />
that year, professional scribe Denis Raguenier, who had learned or developed a system of shorth<strong>and</strong>,<br />
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