The worship appears to have been quiet and dignified; the scenes of St. Gervais, at any rate, were not repeated here. The quarter in which the cathedral stood, its imposing and solemn aspect, the composition of the congregation, the magistrates, who doubtless were present in large numbers, the grave countenance of the reformer, partly explain this decorum. But the character of his speech, calm, simple, rich in thought, luminous, and illuminating all the subjects of which he treated, concise, awe-inspiring, and convincing, without the vivid and popular flashes of Farel, doubtless contributed thereto to a great extent. Nevertheless Calvin kept back nothing. ‘We protest before you all,’ he said, ‘that we are not obstinate on the question about bread, leavened or unleavened; that is a matter of indifference which is left to the discretion of the Church. If we decline to administer the supper, it is because we are in a great difficulty which prompts us to this course.’ Then he spoke of the divisions, the bands of men, the blasphemies, the profligacies, disorders, abominations, mockery of God and his Gospel, the troubles and the sects which prevailed in the town. ‘For,’ he said, ‘in public, and without any kind of punishment being inflicted for it, a thousand derisive speeches have been uttered against the Word of God and likewise against the supper.’[635] He then stated unreservedly the motives which deterred him from celebrating the communion. But he does not appear to have gone further. He had doubtless more than once in his discourses transgressed the limits of moderation; but it seems that the solemnity of the occasion and the dignity of the pulpit led him to suppress those violent phrases with which his speech sometimes bristled. He had a difficult task to accomplish. He was bound to make these people understand the obligations imposed on them by the profession of Christianity. Every member of a society has, in fact, certain duties to discharge, which are essential to the very existence of the community; in the same way, every member of the Church owes to it an edifying and blameless life. Christians form but one body, and it is a matter of concern to each of its members that God should be honored in them all. Evident hypocrisy and shameless depravity, in any man making profession of being a Christian, are an injury to the whole Christian society. Union with God is incompatible with a state of sin; vice and virtue are two things which never go together. To regard as a trifle and a matter of indifference the implacable opposition which exists between truth and falsehood, between holiness and licentiousness, so that the one or the other may be pursued without any ground for preference, is the degradation of humanity and the scandal of scandals. If this mode of thought prevail, the Christian Church is in a state of suffering; it must be defended, it must be saved; and a Church unwilling to be defended would be in a very unhealthy condition.