The L. P. Stone Lectures for 1898–1899

CALVINISM

Six Lectures Delivered
in the Theological
Seminary at Princeton

by

ABRAHAM KUYPER, D.D., LL.D., M.P.

Professor in the Free University, Amsterdam
Member of the States General of Holland

New York Chicago Toronto

Fleming H. Revell Company

Publishers of Evangelical Literature

Index

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Lectures on the L. P. Stone-foundation,
Princeton N. J. U. S. A. 10 Oct. 1898 s.s.

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First Lecture

Calvinism a Life-system

Second lecture

Calvinism and Religion

Third Lecture

Calvinism and Politics

Fourth Lecture

Calvinism and Science

Fifth Lecture

Calvinism and Art

Sixth Lecture

Calvinism and the Future

First Lecture

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Calvinism a Life System

A traveller from the old European Continent, disembarking on the shore of this New World, feels as the Psalmist says, that “his thoughts crowd upon him like a multitude”. Compared with the eddying waters of your new stream of life, the old stream in which he was moving seems almost frostbound and dull; and here, on American ground, for the first time, he realizes how so many divine potencies, which were hidden away in the bosom of mankind from our very creation, but which our old world was incapable of developing, are now beginning to disclose their inward splendour, thus promising a still richer store of surprises for the Future.

You would not, however, ask me to forget the superiority which, in many respects, the Old World may still claim, in your eyes, as well as in mine. Old Europe remains even now the bearer of a longer historical past, and therefore stands before us as a tree rooted more deeply, hiding between its leaves some more matured fruits of life. You are yet in your Springtide,—we are passing through our Fall;—and has not the harvest of Autumn an enchantment of its own?

But, though, on the other hand, I fully acknowledge the advantage you possess in the fact, that (to use another simile) the train of life travels with you so immeasureably faster than with us,—leaving us miles and miles behind,—still we both feel that the life in Old Europe is not some thing separate from life here; it is one and the same current of human existence that flows through both Continents.

By virtue of our common origin, you may call us bone of your bone,—we feel that you are flesh of our flesh, and although you are outstripping us in the most discouraging way, you will never forget that the historic cradle of your wondrous youth stood in our old Europe, and was most gently rocked in my once mighty Fatherland.

Moreover, besides this common parentage, there is another factor which, in the face of even a wider difference, would continue to unite your interests and ours. Far more precious to us than even the development of human life, is the crown which ennobles it, and this noble crown of life for you and for me rests in the Christian name. That crown is our common heritage. It was not from Greece or Rome that the regeneration of human life came forth;—that mighty metamorphosis dates from ...