The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 224

Crowds flocked to the service. Not only the chapel, but the antechambers
and halls were thronged. Thousands every day assembled—nobles,
statesmen, lawyers, merchants, and artisans. The king, instead of
forbidding the assemblies, ordered that two of the churches of Paris
should be opened. Never before had the city been so moved by the word
of God. The spirit of life from heaven seemed to be breathed upon the
people. Temperance, purity, order, and industry were taking the place of
drunkenness, licentiousness, strife, and idleness.
But the hierarchy were not idle. The king still refused to interfere
to stop the preaching, and they turned to the populace. No means
were spared to excite the fears, the prejudices, and the fanaticism of
the ignorant and superstitious multitude. Yielding blindly to her false
teachers, Paris, like Jerusalem of old, knew not the time of her visitation
nor the things which belonged unto her peace. For two years the word
of God was preached in the capital; but, while there were many who
accepted the gospel, the majority of the people rejected it. Francis had
made a show of toleration, merely to serve his own purposes, and the
papists succeeded in regaining the ascendancy. Again the churches were
closed, and the stake was set up.
Calvin was still in Paris, preparing himself by study, meditation, and
prayer for his future labors, and continuing to spread the light. At last,
however, suspicion fastened upon him. The authorities determined to
bring him to the flames. Regarding himself as secure in his seclusion, he
had no thought of danger, when friends came hurrying to his room with
the news that officers were on their way to arrest him. At that instant a
loud knocking was heard at the outer entrance. There was not a moment
to be lost. Some of his friends detained the officers at the door, while
others assisted the Reformer to let himself down from a window, and he
rapidly made his way to the outskirts of the city. Finding shelter in the
cottage of a laborer who was a friend to the reform, he disguised himself
in the garments of his host, and,

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