CXXXIV.—To John Cavent.[494]

Consolations on the death of his wife and mother.

[June 1545.]

Very dear Brother,—I have no doubt that Master Christopher[495] will have done his duty by delivering to you the letters which contained information of the death of your wife and mother. If it be hard to bear their loss, you have good cause to find consolation in our Lord, who enabled them to glorify his name in their death, and who gave them strength in the hour of need, and who, I do not doubt, will give you grace to view all these things aright. As to your children, there would have been some means of sending them to you, through M. de Falais, and he would willingly have undertaken the charge, for the honour of God, and at my request; but he himself is excluded from the country, and is now at Strasbourg, where I found him in bad health; for if weakness had not prevented him he would have come hither. It is, therefore, necessary to find out some other way of sending them, and, meanwhile, it behoves you to have patience, anxiously commending them to God, who will not permit them to remain long in this captivity. Moreover, I beg you to tell our brother, Master Peter, not to fail to visit me some day. And now, after affectionately commending myself to both of you, and to all our friends, I pray our gracious God to have you in his keeping, directing you by his Spirit, so that your labours be acceptable to him and useful to his Church, which has great need of them.—Most sincerely your good friend and brother,

John Calvin.

[Fr. orig. autogr.—Library of the Comp. of Neuchatel.]