Waldenses
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with the humble blessings of daily life. Little children learned to look
with gratitude to God as the giver of every favor and every comfort.
Parents, tender and affectionate as they were, loved their children
too wisely to accustom them to self-indulgence. Before them was
a life of trial and hardship, perhaps a martyr’s death. They were
educated from childhood to endure hardness, to submit to control, and
yet to think and act for themselves. Very early they were taught to
bear responsibilities, to be guarded in speech, and to understand the
wisdom of silence. One indiscreet word let fall in the hearing of their
enemies might imperil not only the life of the speaker, but the lives
of hundreds of his brethren; for as wolves hunting their prey did the
enemies of truth pursue those who dared to claim freedom of religious
faith.
The Waldenses had sacrificed their worldly prosperity for the
truth’s sake, and with persevering patience they toiled for their bread.
Every spot of tillable land among the mountains was carefully im-
proved; the valleys and the less fertile hillsides were made to yield
their increase. Economy and severe self-denial formed a part of the
education which the children received as their only legacy. They were
taught that God designs life to be a discipline, and that their wants
could be supplied only by personal labor, by forethought, care, and
faith. The process was laborious and wearisome, but it was whole-
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some, just what man needs in his fallen state, the school which God
has provided for his training and development. While the youth were
inured to toil and hardship, the culture of the intellect was not ne-
glected. They were taught that all their powers belonged to God, and
that all were to be improved and developed for His service.
The Vaudois churches, in their purity and simplicity, resembled the
church of apostolic times. Rejecting the supremacy of the pope and
prelate, they held the Bible as the only supreme, infallible authority.
Their pastors, unlike the lordly priests of Rome, followed the example
of their Master, who “came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”
They fed the flock of God, leading them to the green pastures and living
fountains of His holy word. Far from the monuments of human pomp
and pride the people assembled, not in magnificent churches or grand
cathedrals, but beneath the shadow of the mountains, in the Alpine
valleys, or, in time of danger, in some rocky stronghold, to listen to
the words of truth from the servants of Christ. The pastors not only