the beginning missionary in character, the light of the Gospel was received in Poland, Bohemia, Gaul, in many parts of the German States, and in our own country. Wycliffe, justly called 'the Morning Star of the Reformation,' Jerome and Huss, the Bohemian confessors and martyrs, and others, there is good reason for affirming, received the light of the Gospel which they so widely spread among their countrymen, from the persecuted and scattered members and missionaries of the Church of the Valleys. Such facts entitle the Waldensian Church to the high honour of being regarded as the cradle of the Reformation; the Mother Church of all the Reformed and Protestant Churches of the Reformation."

"Remember," said the venerable Peyrani, the Moderator of the Vaudois Church, to Dr. Gilly on his first visit to the Valleys, "remember that you are indebted to us for your emancipation from Papal thraldom. We led the way. We stood in the front rank, and against us the first thunderbolts of Rome were fulminated. The baying of the blood-hounds of the Inquisition was heard in our valleys before you knew its name. They hunted down some of our ancestors, and pursued others from glen to glen, and over rock and mountain, till they obliged them to take refuge in foreign countries. A few of these wanderers penetrated as far as Provence and Languedoc, and from them were derived the Albigenses, or the (so-called) heretics of Albi. The province of Guienne afforded shelter to the persecuted

Albigenses. Guienne was then in your possession. From an English province (Guienne) our doctrines found their way into England itself, and your Wycliffe preached nothing more than what had been advanced by the ministers of our Valleys 400 years before his time."

CHAPTER XII.

TIMES OF REFRESHING TO THE WALDENSIAN CHURCH.

THE Almighty, who calls his Church faithfully and boldly to confess the truth, and to suffering for it, never fails to impart strength and consolation to "help in time of need.” We see this remarkably verified in the history of the Waldensian Church. What St. Paul says of himself and of his fellow-labourers in the Gospel may in truth be adopted as the motto of the humble Church of the Valleys: "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." There were times when they were brought low by oppression, and their destruction seemed inevitable, but then God proved their "Saviour in the time of trouble."+ To some of these seasons we propose now to refer, as "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord."

How often, as the history of this Church testifies, † Jer. xiv. 8.

2 Cor. iv. 8, 9.

were they favoured with these blessed seasons of the refreshing influences of the Holy Spirit, in their gathering together, in times of severe persecution, in their mountain retreats and valley fastnesses! How many are the spots, yet pointed out, where this scattered flock of Christ assembled stealthily to hear the Word of Life from the lips of their pastors, to seek the bread of their souls at the hazard of their lives, and to enjoy "the communion of saints." These were scenes on which angels looked down with delight; these are spots sacred still to many a Christian visitor, where, as many a simple record testifies, were enjoyed "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord."

Thus also, when tidings reached the Valleys of the success of their missionary labours-for from the beginning they were a missionary and evangelizing Church when some of these faithful missionaries, whom they were accustomed to send forth two and two, returned, bearing the glad tidings how God had blessed their labours in making known Christ and his great salvation to those before in darkness,-though, as often happened, the solitary missionary only returned, telling that his companion had been left in prison or had gained the martyr-crown, though some natural tears they shed, the humble Church of the Valleys joyed over their absent or lost brother as a suffering hero for Christ, as "counted worthy to suffer for his name's sake." Yet much more on such occasions did they joy that they were honoured as a Church in making

"manifest the savour of the knowledge of Christ in every place," in "turning sinners from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." + Many were these pure and happy seasons of joy and refreshing vouchsafed to them in the times of their greatest depression and persecution.

The same may be said of those times of rest from persecution - few and far between granted to this suffering Church. Often did this happen to them at times the most unexpected, and was the result of circumstances and events which manifested the special interposition of God bringing to nought the counsels of their enemies, saying in effect, "Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it." Such seasons of rest from persecution were welcomed as "times of refreshing," when "they trimmed their lamps," the better to enlighten others sitting in darkness. Then they sought to recover those driven from the fold by the craft and cruelty of Popish oppressors to strengthen the weak, to comfort the mourners, to restore their ruined temples, to renew their vows of fidelity to God and each other, to animate each other to increasing godliness, to courage and zeal in maintaining and spreading abroad "the Gospel of the grace of God." Such seasons were to them "times of refreshing" and the revival of pure religion. We can only notice some of the more prominent of these seasons occurring at † Acts xxvi. 18.

* 2 Cor. ii. 14.

Isa. lxv. 8.