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Scriptures is the means divinely ordained to bring men into closer
co
of his will. It is the medium of communication between God and
man.
When the Waldensian youth had spent some time in their schools
in the mountains, some of them were sent to complete their edu-
cation in the great cities, where they could have a wider range for
thought and observation than in their secluded homes. The youth
thus sent forth were exposed to temptation, they witnessed vice,
they encountered Satan’s wily agents, who urged upon them the
most subtle heresies and the most dangerous deceptions. But their
education from childhood had been of a character to prepare them
for all this.
In the schools whither they went, they were not to make con-
fidants of any. Their garments were so prepared as to conceal
their greatest treasure,—the precious manuscripts of the Scriptures.
These, the fruit of months and years of toil, they carried with them,
and whenever it could be done without exciting suspicion, they cau-
tiously placed some portion in the way of those whose hearts seemed
open to receive it. From their mother’s knee the Waldensian youth
had been trained with this purpose in view; they understood their
work, and faithfully performed it. Converts to the true faith were
won in these institutions of learning, and frequently its principles
were found to be permeating the entire school; yet the papist lead-
ers could not, by the closest inquiry, trace the so-called corrupting
heresy to its source.
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The Waldenses felt that God required more of them than merely
to maintain the truth in their own mountains; that a solemn respon-
sibility rested upon them to let their light shine forth to those who
were in darkness; that by the mighty power of God’s word, they were
to break the bondage which Rome had imposed. It was a law among
them that all who entered the ministry should, before taking charge
of a church at home, serve three years in the missionary field. As the
hands of the men of God were laid upon their heads, the youth saw
Waldenses
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before them, not the prospect of earthly wealth or glory, but possibly
a martyr’s fate. The missionaries began their labors in the plains and
valleys at the foot of their own mountains, going forth two and two,
as Jesus sent out his disciples. These co-laborers were not always
together, but often met for prayer and counsel, thus strengthening
each other in the faith.
To make known the nature of their mission would have insured
its defeat; therefore they concealed their real character under the
guise of some secular profession, most commonly that of merchants
or peddlers. They offered for sale silks, jewelry, and other valuable
articles, and were received as merchants where they would have been
repulsed as missionaries. All the while their hearts were uplifted to
God for wisdom to present a treasure more precious than gold or
gems. They carried about with them portions of the Holy Scriptures
concealed in their clothing or merchandise, and whenever they could
do so with safety, they called the attention of the inmates of the
dwelling to these manuscripts. When they saw that an interest was
awakened, they left some portion with them as a gift.
With naked feet and in coarse garments, these missionaries
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passed through great cities, and traversed provinces far removed
from their native valleys. Everywhere they scattered the precious
seed. Churches sprang up in their path, and the blood of martyrs
witnessed for the truth. The day of God will reveal a rich harvest
of souls garnered by the labors of these faithful men. Veiled and
silent, the word of God was making its way through Christendom,
and meeting a glad reception in the homes and hearts of men.
To the Waldenses the Scriptures were not merely a record of
God’s dealings with men in the past, and a revelation of the respon-
sibilities and duties of the present, but an unfolding of the perils and
glories of the future. They believed that the end of all things was
not far distant; and as they studied the Bible with prayer and tears,
they were the more deeply impressed with its precious utterances,
and with their duty to make known to others its saving truths. They
saw the plan of salvation clearly revealed in the word of God, and
they found comfort, hope, and peace in believing in Jesus. As the
light illuminated their understanding and made glad their hearts, they
longed to shed its beams upon those who were in the darkness of
papal error.
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The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4
They saw that under the guidance of pope and priests, multitudes
were vainly endeavoring to obtain pardon, by afflicting their bodies
for the sin of their souls. Taught to trust their good works to save
them, they were ever looking to themselves, their minds dwelling
upon their sinful condition, seeing themselves exposed to the wrath
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of God, afflicting soul and body, yet finding no relief. Thus were
conscientious souls bound by the doctrines of Rome. Thousands
abandoned friends and kindred, and spent their lives in convent cells.
By oft-repeated fasts and cruel scourgings, by midnight vigils, by
prostration for weary hours upon the cold, damp stones of their
dreary abode, by long pilgrimages, by humiliating penance and
fearful torture, many vainly sought to obtain peace of conscience.
Oppressed with a sense of sin, and haunted with the fear of God’s
avenging wrath, they suffered on, until exhausted nature gave way,
and without one ray of light or hope, they sank into the tomb.
The Waldenses longed to break to those starving souls the bread
of life, to open to them the messages of peace in the promises of
God, and to point them to Christ as their only hope of salvation. The
doctrine that good works can make satisfaction for transgression of
God’s law, they held to be based upon falsehood. Reliance upon
human merits intercepts the view of Christ’s infinite love. Jesus
died as men’s sacrifice, because they can do nothing to recommend
themselves to God. The merits of a crucified and risen Saviour are
the foundation of the Christian’s faith. The union of the soul to
Christ by faith is as real, as close, as that of a limb to the body, or of
a branch to the vine.
The teachings of popes and priests had led men to look upon
the character of God, and even of Christ, as stern, gloomy, and
forbidding. The Saviour of the world was represented as so far
devoid of all sympathy with man in his fallen state that the mediation
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of priests and saints must be invoked. How those whose minds