the humblest surroundings of a Scottish peasant's home, through the influence of their united love by the grace of God; and in this world, or in any world, all their children will rise up at mention of their names and call them blessed." 116 III THE CREED TESTED BY ITS FRUITS (Continued) AMERICA'S DEBT TO CALVINISM. If the average American citizen were The founder asked, who was the founder of America, of America. the true author of our giant Republic, he might be puzzled to answer. We can imagine his amazement at hearing the answer given to this question by the famous German historian, Ranke, one of the profoundest scholars of modern times. Says Ranke, "John Calvin was the virtual founder of America." If this be true, every American should know it. Let us see. At the time of the Revolution the estimated population of our country was rial of our Republic. Early mate- 3,000,000. Of this number 900,000 were of Scotch or Scotch-Irish origin, 600,000 were Puritan English, while over 400,000 were of Dutch, German Reformed, and Huguenot descent.1 That is to say, two thirds of our Revolutionary forefathers were trained in the school of Calvin. Since these two thirds included the New England colonists and the Scotch-Irish immigrants, pronounced by the learned author of American Christianity” “the two most masterful races on the continent the two streams", as Dr. F. W. Gunsaulus says, "apparently most effective and important in the creation of great things, intellectual and spiritual, in our American life ",3 their preponderance in influence was even more marked than in numbers. 1 W. H. Roberts, Council, 1899 ", p. 94. 992 66 Proceedings Seventh General 2" Hist. of American Christianity", by Leonard Woolsey Bacon (1900), p. 292. 3 The American Monthly Review of Reviews, February, 1901, p. 167. 120 |