THE Waldensian colony in the Uruguay republic, from which I am now writing, was founded forty years ago by some landowners.
MISSIONARY H. H. BRAND AND HIS CHINESE SCHOOL, HILO, HAWAII.
Mr. Pendleton, an Episcopal minister at Montevideo, went over to Italy for the purpose of forwarding the scheme. The colonists were three months crossing the water. As is generally the case in such enterprises, the beginning was marked by hardships and dangers. Aside from Indian robbery, the enmity of a priest made the fanaticism of his parishioners a menace to the existence of the colony. His sermons abounded in allusions to the weeds which had entered the country, and which it was the duty of all to root out by day or by night. Some of the colonists were assassinated. It seems that the enemies of "heresy" went so far as to plot the destruction of the whole colony in one night. A man who played at mass for the priest, and passed for a Catholic, ventilated the plot, and it was thus brought to the ears of the government at Montevideo. Mr. Pendleton went to the president for help. The priest was sent for and was seen no more in that region. As a token of appreciation, the Waldenses gave the president a copy of their history.
At the present time the colony has doubled and trebled, and scattered in various directions.
It has schools and churches and ministers. Temporally it has done well; morally it has won the respect of the authorities, and has given a better idea of Protestantism than would otherwise exist among Catholic populations.
Comparisons are odious; still it may not be forbidden to wish that the day might again come when the Waldensians would be evangelists of the world. Historians tell us how they used to send out missionaries two by two, an aged man and a young man. After four years of missionary travel, the latter could hope to be given charge of a home church. Their work was so efficient in the darkest days of papal rule that one of them could travel from Milan to Cologne, and stop every night at the home of a brother in the faith.
Says Pierre Gilles: "Each one of these barbes (i. e., uncles, a name used to avoid the suspicion raised by the word pastor), besides the exercise of his ministry, was taught some practical avocation. Especially were they apt and clever in the practise of medicine and surgery, a profession which they followed in order to help charitably their own people, and to cover the expenses of their long and dangerous tours."
The same author, who was pastor in the Waldensian valleys in 1644, mentions the relations which these people had with the Reformers, and which I thus sum up: When the barbes, or pastors, of the valleys heard about the Reformation in Germany and Switzerland, they sent out representatives to gain information about the matter. These men visited Zwingle, Œcolampadius, Bucer, and others whom God was using for the reformation of the church. These men were highly pleased with the zeal and piety with which the Waldensians had maintained the pure religion for so many centuries and amid such dangers. However, they exhorted them to correct some defects which still existed among them. After several consultations and visits back and forth, a general meeting was appointed at Angrogne, Sept. 12, 1532, where the matter was fully presented and discussed.
They differ on free moral agency, predestination, oaths, auricular confession, fasting, celibacy, etc. The sixth point read thus: "6. On10Sunday, things earthly must be set aside for the spiritual service of God." It is difficult to tell from this whether the Waldenses had no day for religious rest, or whether they had until that time retained the Sabbath of the Lord, the seventh day of the week. The latter is the more plausible conclusion, as their ancient confessions prove that they considered the Ten Commandments a rule of faith, without excepting the fourth precept.
The final message is now being presented in this colony. Will the sons of the heroic Waldenses of yore be as eager to return to the truth as their fathers were to retain what light the Lord had committed to them?
