| “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you” (1 Peter 4:14). |
| Many years ago, back in the 15th and 16th centuries, the gospel was not known widely as it is today. Rather, people were taught that they had to earn their salvation by doing good works, and were even told to pay money for their salvation. |
| But then God raised up men who looked into the Bible, and began to preach the truth of salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus. One of these early reformers, as they were called, was a Frenchman named Louis Berquin. He was born about 1490, and as a young man began to read his Bible, and to listen to those who spoke against the bad teaching that so many believed. As a young man he accepted the Lord Jesus as his Savior, and began to preach to others about Him. Because Louis Berquin was a nobleman, he was rich, and also an educated man. He was trained as a lawyer, and was well known to Francis I, the king of France at that time. Several times he was arrested and imprisoned for his faith, but was released through the influence of the king’s sister Marguerite. Finally the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church prevailed, and Louis Berquin was sentenced to be burned for his preaching and writing. |
| When he came to the place where he was to be executed, he came in his best clothes, rode down the street on his best horse, and in every way behaved as if he were going to visit the king. But it was not the king of France whom he was preparing to visit; he was going to be with the Lord Jesus. Many thought that he was throwing his life away, for he was not yet forty years old when he died in this way. But that is not the end of the story. |
| A young man, also born in France, had been sent by his father to study in Paris, and there he came under the influence of the reformers. He was present when Louis Berquin was burned for his faith, and was amazed at Berquin’s calmness and joy on such an occasion. He went away from that scene saying to himself, “That man has got something, and I want what he has!” The young man was John Calvin. A few years later he too accepted the Lord as His Savior, and went on to further the work of the Lord in Geneva, Switzerland. Louis Berquin did not die in vain, for indeed “the spirit of glory and of God” rested upon him, and John Calvin could see it. |
