THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT OF THE WALDENSES.
By James Mair
THERE was nothing more remarkable about the early Waldenses than their missionary spirit. This characterized in a peculiar degree the followers of Peter Waldo, but the same spirit pervaded all the people of the same faith, wherever they lived, in those dark ages, and by whatever names they were called—Vaudois, Paulicians, Patarins, Cathari, Leonists, Lollards, Albigenses, poor men of Lyons, etc. It was by sending out missionaries, two by two on foot, to visit their brethren dispersed in France, the north of Spain, Flanders, England, Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, Grotia, Dalmatia, and Italy that they kept alive the little piety which existed in the world at that day. These missionaries knew where to find their brethren; they went to their houses, held little meetings, administered the ordinances, appointed deacons, and sustained the faith and hopes of the tempted and persecuted ones. It is said that these missionaries could go at one period from Cologne to Florence, and stay every night at houses of brethren. It is on account of the great number of missionaries which those little and poor churches in the valleys sustained that we read of there being sometimes one hundred and forty or one hundred and fifty ministers at the meeting of their synods. But few of them were needed at home, they were mostly engaged in the foreign work. It is also remarkable that all the men whom God raised up from time to time in France and other countries for more than six hundred years before the Reformation, seem to have more or less to do with the Waldenses, such as Peter Waldo, Peter Bruys, Henry of Louisiana, Lollard, who labored with such zeal to dispense the truth in England, and who was burned at Cologne. But not only did preachers go out from the valleys, to proclaim the Gospel, but humble, pious pedlers, of whom there were many in the middle ages, scattered the truth by carrying some leaves of the Word of life, or some manuscript tracts, beneath their merchandise, which they engaged those whom they found to be favorably disposed to secure and read. The following beautiful verses from Whittier are descriptive of this traffic of the Waldensian pedlers:— O lady fair, these silks of mine
Are beautiful and rare—
The richest web of the Indian loom,
Which beauty's queen might wear.
And my pearls are pure as thy own fair neck,
With whose radiant light they vie.
I have brought them with me a weary way;
Will my gentle lady buy?
And the lady smiled on the worn old man,
Through the dark and clustering curls
Which veiled her brow as she bent to view
His silks and glittering pearls;
And she placed their price in the old man's hand,
And lightly turned away,
But she paused at the wanderer's earnest call—
My gentle lady, stay.
O lady fair, I have yet a gem
Which a purer luster flings
Than the diamond flash of the jeweled crown
On the lofty brow of kings,—
A wonderful pearl of exceeding price,
Whose virtue shall not decay,
Whose light shall be as a spell to thee
And a blessing on thy way.
The lady glanced at the mirroring steel,
Where her form of grace was seen,
Where her eyes shone clear, and her dark locks waved
Their clasping pearls between.
Bring forth thy pearl of exceeding worth,
Thou traveler gray and old;
And name the price of thy precious gem,
And my page shall count thy gold.
The cloud went off from the pilgrim's brow,
As a small and meager book,
Unchased with gold or gem of cost,
From his folding robe he took.
Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price,
May it prove as such to thee!
Nay—keep thy gold—I ask it not—
For the Word of God is free!
The hoary traveler went his way,
But the gift he left behind
Hath had its pure and perfect work
On that high-born maiden's mind;
And she hath turned from the pride of sin
To the lowliness of truth,
And given her human heart to God
In its beautiful hour of youth.
And she hath left the gray old halls,
Where an evil faith hath power,
The courtly knights of her father's train,
And the maidens of her bower;
And she hath gone to the Vaudois vales,
By lordly feet untried,
Where the poor and needy of earth are rich
In the perfect love of God. The above extracts and poem are taken from Robert Baird's (D.D., New York) "Protestantism in Italy, and the History, Present State, and Prospects of the Waldenses," published by W. Collins, Glasgow and London, in 1847. When we read of the sufferings and persecutions of these followers of Christ and their zeal to maintain the truth and spread it through Europe, their example may well be a lesson to us when we contrast our condition with theirs.—James Mair.