The preparations for his journey had not allowed Calvin to reply immediately to Bernard. The letter of this Genevese pastor was not altogether agreeable to him. Bernard’s application to him of a prophecy referring to Jesus Christ (_the head-stone of the corner_), was in his eyes a piece of flattery which could only disgust him (_usque ad nauseam_, he wrote to Farel). However, he knew his man, and so the more willingly took his letter in good part. He wrote to Bernard from Ulm, March 1, that the arguments which he advanced for his return had always had great weight with him; that he was most of all terrified at the thought of fighting against God, and that it was this feeling which never allowed him entirely to reject the call; that he thanked him for his entreaties, and that, seeing his kind intentions, he hoped that the feeling of his heart corresponded to his words, and he promised on his own part all that could be expected of a friend of peace, oppose to all strife. ‘But, at the same time,’ he added, ‘I beseech you, in God’s name, and by his awful judgment, to remember what he is with whom you have to do, the Lord, who will call you to give to him an exact account at the judgment day, who will submit you to a most rigorous trial, and who cannot be satisfied with mere words and empty excuses. I ask of you only one thing—that you consecrate yourself sincerely and faithfully to the Lord.’[48] Thus is it always; his own great motive the will of God; and as to Bernard, he must be a true servant of God. The truth before every thing. Calvin, meanwhile, was gradually becoming familiar with the thought of returning to Geneva. The same day (March 1) he wrote, it is true, from Ulm to Viret, and said to him, ‘There is no place under heaven that I more dread;‘[49] but he added, ‘The care required by this church affects me deeply; and I do not know how it happens that my mind begins to lean more to the thought of taking the helm.’ The decisive blow had been struck by Farel. It was he who, in 1541, restored to Geneva this Calvin whom he had first given to the city in 1536. About the end of February the Reformer received from his friend a letter so pressing and so forcible, ‘that the thunders of Pericles seemed to be heard in it,’ according to the expression of Calvin’s friend, the refugee Claude Feray, who at the Reformer’s request wrote to Farel and thanked him ‘for this vehemence so useful to the whole Christian republic.’[50] No one knew better than Farel that Calvin alone could save Geneva. The Reformer now, therefore, began to change his attitude. Hitherto he had turned his back on the town that called him; from this time he set his face towards the city of the Leman. Almost at the same time Bullinger and other servants of God from Berne, from Basel, and from Zurich, prayed the council and the pastors of Strasburg not to oppose the return of the Reformer. [Sidenote: Victims Of The Plague.]