Although this decree of the council showed great impartiality and a certain amount of good sense, we cannot put in the same rank the two classes whom it affected. The huguenots, seeing that the Holy Scriptures call that a _doctrine of devils_ which commands men '_to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving_,'[820] did what the Word of God directs, while the evil priests indulged in the most scandalous disorders. Negative protestantism, however, is not true piety; and hence it was that the evangelical christians of Zurich and Berne, taking advantage of the frequent journeys the Genevans made to these two cities on public or private business, were constantly urging them to receive the true essence of the Gospel. In the visits they made to each other, in their friendly walks on the shore of the lake of Zurich or on the hills which overlook the Aar, these pious reformers of German Switzerland said to the huguenots: '_The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost._[821] Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, but born as a man, has become our Redeemer by his death and by his resurrection. He alone satisfies completely the religious wants of mankind. Unite yourselves to Him by faith, and you will experience in yourselves that the pure religion of the Gospel is not only the first among all religions professed by men, but, as coming from God, is perfect.' [Sidenote: PLAN FOR PREACHING AT ST. VICTOR.]