Waldenses
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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 sacred pages, 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.
They saw that under the guidance of pope and priest, multitudes
were vainly endeavoring to obtain pardon by afflicting their bodies
for the sin of their souls. Taught to trust to 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 of God,
afflicting soul and body, yet finding no relief. Thus conscientious souls
were 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, thousands
vainly sought to obtain peace of conscience. Oppressed with a sense of
sin, and haunted with the fear of God’s avenging wrath, many suffered
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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 these 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 atone for the transgression of God’s law they held
to be based upon falsehood. Reliance upon human merit intercepts
the view of Christ’s infinite love. Jesus died as a sacrifice for man
because the fallen race 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 dependence of the soul upon Christ is as
real, and its connection with Him must be 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 was represented as so far devoid of sympathy with man in
his fallen state that the mediation of priests and saints must be invoked.