French Reformation
191
proceedings and congratulating themselves that the work now begun
would be continued to the complete destruction of heresy.
The gospel of peace which France had rejected was to be only
too surely rooted out, and terrible would be the results. On the 21st
of January, 1793, two hundred and fifty-eight years from the very
day that fully committed France to the persecution of the Reformers,
another procession, with a far different purpose, passed through the
streets of Paris. “Again the king was the chief figure; again there were
tumult and shouting; again there was heard the cry for more victims;
again there were black scaffolds; and again the scenes of the day were
closed by horrid executions; Louis XVI, struggling hand to hand with
his jailers and executioners, was dragged forward to the block, and
there held down by main force till the ax had fallen, and his dissevered
head rolled on the scaffold.”—Wylie, b. 13, ch. 21. Nor was the king
the only victim; near the same spot two thousand and eight hundred
human beings perished by the guillotine during the bloody days of the
Reign of Terror.
The Reformation had presented to the world an open Bible, un-
sealing the precepts of the law of God and urging its claims upon
the consciences of the people. Infinite Love had unfolded to men
the statutes and principles of heaven. God had said: “Keep therefore
and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the
sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely
this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”
Deuteronomy
4:6
. When France rejected the gift of heaven, she sowed the seeds of
anarchy and ruin; and the inevitable outworking of cause and effect
resulted in the Revolution and the Reign of Terror.
[231]
Long before the persecution excited by the placards, the bold and
ardent Farel had been forced to flee from the land of his birth. He
repaired to Switzerland, and by his labors, seconding the work of
Zwingli, he helped to turn the scale in favor of the Reformation. His
later years were to be spent here, yet he continued to exert a decided
influence upon the reform in France. During the first years of his
exile, his efforts were especially directed to spreading the gospel in
his native country. He spent considerable time in preaching among
his countrymen near the frontier, where with tireless vigilance he
watched the conflict and aided by his words of encouragement and
counsel. With the assistance of other exiles, the writings of the German