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conflict, and come forth as the evangelists of their beloved Italy."

The present state of the Vaudois resembles that of the Christians of Judæa on the cessation of persecution and the conversion of the persecutor:-" Then had the Churches rest; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.” * A delightful revival of true religion, of Christian union, and of zeal for the spread of the Gospel, is manifest among them. The time of rest and freedom is diligently improved by them, in efforts for the circulation of the Scriptures and the evangelization of their Italian countrymen. We see the fruits of this in the new churches and congregations at Turin, Nice, Pinerola, and Genoa. The improvement of their College for the training of their pastors and evangelists, the multiplication of schools, and various other schemes of Christian benevolence, in which they are aided and encouraged by Christians in England, Ireland, Scotland, and America; all indicate revived vitality in the Church, and warrant the hope that God, who has so marvellously preserved this humble Church of the Valleys, has great and glorious purposes to accomplish by its instrumentality. The call of God to the Vaudois Church now is, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy

Acts ix. 31.

cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited." *

The duty of the Christian Church in England and America to help the Vaudois Church, is too manifest to require to be enforced. Its marvellous preservation and isolation in Italy for so many centuries, shows clearly that it is the purpose of God to make it the missionary Church of Italy. Her present state of revived energy is but the commencing preparation for the accomplishment of this glorious work. Let not Christians who seek the good of this primitive Church, attempt organic changes in it, or its fusion by such means into other peculiar forms of ecclesiastical polity, let them not attempt to urge her forward by forcing on her new schemes of action, or by independent action on their own part, but rather to aid to cooperate with and through the agency of the Vaudois Church, in the great work in which it is engaged. A writer who has lately visited the Valleys justly remarks:-"The Church of the Vaudois is now, we thank God, rising to new and vigorous life, even as the Churches of this land did in the last half century; and with this cheering fact on the one hand, we can point with unmixed satisfaction on the other, to the efficiency of her constitution, and to the scriptural character of her standards and her worship." "On * Isaiah lx. 1; liv. 2, 3.

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the admission of the Vaudois Church being a perfectly well-organized Christian Society, sound in doctrine and practice, let it even be granted that for some reasons it might be expedient, in ordinary times, to assimilate her more closely to some one or other of the Churches of the Reformation, I hold that even if ever such expediency could exist at all, it cannot do so at the present moment. These are not ordinary times. the attention, all the zeal, all the time, all the activity, all the energy of the Vaudois Church, is demanded for the help of their struggling country; and shall we divert their attention for a moment from these pressing claims at this crisis in Italy, in Europe, and the world, to little party discussions about forms of government, and ritual service, leading them to spend their strength in empty contests among themselves, on points, which however important in some respects, are in the main indifferent? I cannot conceive any greater triumph of the enemy of truth than if he should succeed in drawing off the attention of the Vaudois Church from the work of evangelization in Italy, and fixing it on a series of organic changes, whatever these might be, in the midst of their own body."* To these judicious observations, we add the no less important remarks of the late Dr. Gilly:-" It is for this perseverance in the right path that we believe God has blessed them, not only in their own valleys and persons, but in the nation and country to which they belong. The *The Rev. D. T. K. Drummond.

kingdom of Sardinia is the only one prosperous and constitutional State in Italy where there are national improvements and a prospect of progressive advancement in freedom, commerce, and political importance. May we not say, it is for the sake of the Waldensian Church, that the Sardinian States are enabled, by the Lord of hosts and the King of kings, to take an honourable place among the kingdoms of the world? And from the indications of the past and of the present, may we not also prognosticate the future glorious position of the Waldenses in the Gospel kingdom upon earth? 'As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river side, as the trees which the Lord hath planted.' But even should they not themselves rise higher among the Churches of Christendom, they have borne their testimony, they have performed their part, and they have kept alive a lamp in the wilderness, from which many a golden candlestick may yet set up a stronger, if not a purer light."

CHAPTER XIII.

TIMES OF REFRESHING IN THE DAYS OF WYCLIFFE-
THE MORNING STAR OF THE REFORMATION.

THE question has often been boastfully asked by members of the Church of Rome, in reference to the Protestant Church, "Where was your Church before Luther?" insinuating, by such an inquiry, that the true Church of God in England had no existence before, and that it owed its existence to the labours of the German Reformer. Whereas, there is no fact which admits of stronger proof than that of the existence and growth of true Christianity and of an Apostolic and National Church in this country, from the earliest ages up to the time of its corruption and subversion by the Church of Rome. The Reformation, as the meaning of the word indicates, was not the creation, but the reforming of our Church; the restoration of the Church to Apostolic purity of faith, from which it had been turned away by the errors and tyranny of Rome. The learned historian, Sharon Turner, truly remarks, "Protestantism is Catholic Christianity, reformed from Papal corruptions. Romanism is sectarianism, compared with Apostolic Christianity." Blackstone, than whom few knew

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