To get up regularly at 5 a.m., and see the first grey streaks of morning, to watch the grey turn to pearl, the pearl to copper, to amber, to gold, and then to see the whole heaven flecked with blushes and gattled with fire; to watch the rising sun slowly climb the eastern hills and see the first gleam of light glistening on the snowy peaks around you; to start on your day’s tramp while the air is fresh and bracing, and while all Nature is smiling as though earth held no tomb; to walk for hours and hours, climbing peaks and crossing glens; to sit down at noon on the flower-fringed bank of a limpid stream, and listen to the music of its rippling waters while you eat your cold lunch; and, after dinner is over, to lie in the sun for an hour or two and read the legends, poetry and history inseparably linked with the mountains, lakes and valleys that you have been admiring all the morning; to walk on until night, and then eat with an appetite that reminds you of your schoolboy days of old, when you ate all that was cooked and then called for more; to go out after supper and reflect on God’s handiwork, with floods, snows, rocks, mountains, glens, forests round and heaven’s bright stars above you,—to enjoy all this, and more, as I have done, were enough to put the tongue of praise in the mouth of the dumb, to wake well-springs of joy in the desert places of the heart, and send never-failing streams of rejoicing through the garden of life.
CHAPTER XXI.
BAPTISTS IN FRANCE.
IN the early part of this century two English Baptists began to preach the Gospel in Switzerland and France. The burden of their preaching was free salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, and to their joy something of a religious revival began to manifest itself. It seems however, that these brethren did not give Believer’s Baptism its proper place, and hence many of their disciples, looking upon it as a matter of no special importance, for the sake of peace kept it constantly in the background. The result was, that though many were converted and gathered into churches through the labors of these good Baptist brethren and their disciples, in 1830 only two little churches in the northern part of France were willing to be known as Baptists.
About this time Prof. Rostan of Marseilles, left his home for the United States, where he became a Baptist. In 1832 he returned to France under the auspices of the Missionary Union, intending to spend his life in preaching the Gospel to his own people. He opened a hall in Paris, and a goodly number of attentive and serious hearers gathered about him, some of whom often accompanied him to his home to receive further instruction. Mr. Rostan also sought interviews with prominent and influential men, to explain to them the object of his mission. He was generally well received, and was invited to give a series of lectures on Christianity before the “Society for Promoting Civilization.” Being pious, cultivated and zealous, there was every reason to hope that he would accomplish a great work, but his lamented death in December 1833 put an end to his earthly labors.
The Missionary Union at once sent out an appeal to young ministers, and Mr. Isaac Willmarth, then of the Newton Theological Seminary, who loved France, and especially Paris, because there, while a medical student he was led to Christ, presented himself, and was at once appointed to carry on the work. He reached Paris in June 1834. The following year a small church was organized and soon after two theological students were received into the church, and placed themselves under Mr. Willmarth’s instructions. Through a Colporteur whom he knew in Paris, Mr. Willmarth was brought into relation with the few Baptists of Northern France, who were much gratified at receiving a visit from the American Missionary, and who were not a little surprised to hear from him of the large number of Christians in America, who not only held to Believers’ Baptism, but, as a result of this, to restricted Communion also.
In the latter part of 1835 the mission was reinforced by two other American Missionaries, Rev. E. Willard, and Rev. D. N. Sheldon, both of Newton Theological Seminary. The chief object of this reinforcement was the establishment of a mission school, with special reference to the training of candidates for the ministry. Mr. Sheldon remained in Paris and in June 1836, Mr. Willmarth and Mr. Willard, wishing to be near the few Baptists of Northern France, removed to Douai, a town near the borders of Belgium, having a population of twenty thousand, and containing a small Baptist church. The following year Mr. Willmarth, on account of failing health, found it necessary to return to the United States, and two years later Mr. Sheldon returned also. Mr. Willard, left alone in France, continued his labors, giving special attention to training of young men for the ministry, in which work he was very successful.