Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/161

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LIFE IN THE OLD WORLD.
177

During our hours of rest in this city, we have read the conclusion of St. Paul's chapters on predestination. His meaning, taken as a whole, seems to us, to be this. The election between people and people, man and man, is relative. The one is called earlier, the other later, to enter into the kingdom of God. If the first called misuse the call, he is cast off, and another takes his place. But the first can be replaced, if he will, and if he seek to be so, and thus all Israel becomes blessed.

The reading of these passages has produced a good and tranquilizing effect upon me. St. Paul's doctrine here, is no other than that love will, and that conscience must, agree with the prophet in believing in a just God and Lord, who “hath wrought and done it, calling the generations, even from the beginning.”

Zurich, September 6th.—We arrived two days since at Zürich, the cheerful city; known for its hospitality to strangers, its freedom, and science, the Athens of Switzerland, as it is often called. We traveled in the early morning from Lucerne over the Albis. The air was cold; snow had fallen during the night on the mountains. We traveled by omnibus. A couple of gentlemen, our fellow-travelers, spoke of a revolution which had broken out the preceding day in Neufchatel. “The mountain is said to have come down into the city (les montagnes sont descendues sur la ville), and seized it in the name of the King of Prussia.” Every body expressed amazement at the occurrence. What if that should turn something more than the Swiss revolution, which Voltaire characterized as a tempest in a glass of water, or lead to a