Suffering For Salvation

I'm alone and I'm lost in the middle of a desert with no water. Every step that I take makes my mouth feel drier and drier. I keep telling myself that there is probably an oasis on the other side of the that sand dune but there never is. This is my worst nightmare come true and I have nothing else to do but suffer until my body withers away into nothing. This is how I feel when I read a sermon by John Calvin. Calvin gave this sermon in the streets of Genvea, "which was the center of his labor, where he hoped to establish a more rigid moral discipline and to spread the faith". 

I imagine that he often had to use fear of suffering to help convince people to follow him. Most people during this time were probably not very highly educated so he needed to focus on something that they could understand and that was the suffering of man. Of course, Calvin does quote scripture in his sermon but this was because he was highly devoted to the scriptures and it helped maintained his credibility.  

Because Calvin was a protestant, he uses an inner method to become closer to Christ instead of using an outward method like the Catholic church used. This method was through the suffering and percussion of man one could become closer to Christ. As I mentioned earlier, I think most of these people at this time knew a lot about suffering because of all diseases and other factors that made life terribly difficult during this time. Through Calvin's teachings, people felt a sense of hope in knowing that their suffering was not in vain and that someday they could receive salvation.