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Waldenses
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and at the peril of their lives they stood up to resist her corruptions.
While, under the pressure of long-continued persecution, some com-
promised their faith, little by little yielding its distinctive principles,
others held fast the truth. Through ages of darkness and apostasy,
there were Waldenses who denied the supremacy of Rome, who
rejected image worship as idolatry, and who kept the true Sabbath.
Under the fiercest tempests of opposition they maintained their faith.
Though gashed by the Savoyard spear, and scorched by the Romish
fagot, they stood unflinchingly for God’s word and his honor. They
would not yield one iota of the truth.
Behind the lofty bulwarks of the mountains,—in all ages the
refuge of the persecuted and oppressed,—the Waldenses found a
hiding-place. Here the lamp of truth was kept burning during the
long night that descended upon Christendom. Here for a thousand
[71]
years they maintained their ancient faith.
God had provided for his people a sanctuary of awful grandeur,
befitting the mighty truths committed to their trust. To those faithful
exiles the mountains were an emblem of the immutable righteous-
ness of Jehovah. They pointed their children to the heights towering
above them in unchanging majesty, and spoke to them of Him with
whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning, whose word
is as enduring as the everlasting hills. God had set fast the moun-
tains, and girded them with strength; no arm but that of infinite
power could move them out of their place. In like manner had he
established his law, the foundation of his government in Heaven and
upon earth. The arm of man might reach his fellow-men and destroy
their lives; but that arm could as readily uproot the mountains from
their foundations, and hurl them into the sea, as it could change one
precept of the law of Jehovah, or blot out one of his promises to
those who do his will. In their fidelity to his law, God’s servants
should be as firm as the unchanging hills.
The mountains that girded their lowly valleys were a constant
witness of God’s creative power, and a never-failing assurance of his
protecting care. Those pilgrims learned to love the silent symbols
of Jehovah’s presence. They indulged no repining because of the
hardships of their lot; they were never lonely amid the mountain soli-
tudes. They thanked God that he had provided for them an asylum
from the wrath and cruelty of men. They rejoiced in their freedom