What can the past tell us of the future of Christianity? Prophecy is notoriously fallible, especially for far distant years. Historians have seen so many predictions disproved by the event that they are wary of venturing upon the dangerous role of forecasters. Yet trends have a way of continuing. We may not be able to depict with accuracy the details of things to come. We may, however, by observing the directions which movements have been taking in the recent past and by noting the forces which are operating to modify them be able to foretell the main courses which they are to follow for the decades immediately before us. Certainly those who essay to shape policies must attempt such analyses. By their knowledge of the past historians should be of assistance in providing both facts about what has transpired and conjectures to aid in plotting the paths to be pursued.

On account of its influence upon many generations of Protestants, Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion may be regarded as the classical statement of the Protestant Christian faith. It reflects more clearly than any other book produced by the Reformation the thought which inaugurated the whole Protestant movement.

On April 10, 1931, the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, acting under the doctrine of cypres, decreed that henceforth Andover Theological Seminary should forever be relieved of subscription to1 its creed and that “hereafter no professor should ever be called into question because of inconsistency with the creedal requirements of its Constitution and Statutes.”