of the Alps, with their wives and children; the unhappy mothers carrying the cradle in one hand, and with the other leading such of their offspring as were able to walk. Their inhuman invaders, whose feet were swift to shed blood, pursued them in their flight, and as night came on slew great numbers of them before they could reach the mountain. Those that escaped were reserved for a fate not more enviable. Overtaken by the shades of night, they wandered up and down the mountains covered with snow, destitute of the means of shelter from the inclemency of the weather, or of supporting themselves under it by any of those comforts which Providence has destined for that purpose: benumbed with cold, they fell an easy prey to the severity of the climate; and when night had passed away, there were found in their cradles, or lying upon the snow, four-score of their infants deprived of life, many of the mothers also lying dead by their sides, and others just expiring. During the night, their enemies were busily employed in plundering the houses of every thing that was valuable, which they conveyed away to Jura. A poor woman belonging to the Waldenses, named Margaret Athode, was next morning found hanging from a tree.'

This frightful inundation of the wrath of man, upon the fair and peaceful vales of the Waldenses, seems, after having deluged Piedmont with the "blood of the saints," to have rolled away from them for a time, and left them to revive under the

refreshing and soul-cheering beams of the "Sun of Righteousness," who truly ariseth on those persecuted for His sake, "with healing in His wings."

The Valley of Loise was desolated by one sweeping and dreadful destruction. Its trembling inhabitants had fled to their caves in the mountains, on the report of the persecutors' approach, but it did not avail them. Four hundred children alone, it is said, were suffocated by the fires their enemies kindled round their places of retreat: and Perrin says, it is commonly reported, that more than three thousand persons perished in the Valley of Loise, or among the mountains, upon this occasion.

This bloody sacrifice to the spirit of Antichrist being performed, the persecutors then proceeded to other parts, still holding it the service of God to root out these heretics from the earth. An army of eighteen thousand men came in battle array against the peaceful vallies of Piedmont. The terrified inhabitants at first fled unresistingly to their mountains; but, taking courage, they armed themselves with cross-bows and wooden targets, and, seizing the mountain passes, defended themselves with courage, and repulsed the sanguinary invaders.

A similar success attended their next defence against a smaller force and the Duke of Savoy, finding how useless it was to fight against God," who aided, supported, blessed, and pro

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tected His people,-resigned his intention of expelling them by fire and sword, and the Waldenses were permitted to "dwell safely," until in their peaceful vales they heard the glad tidings, that the light which had there shone in darkness, had broken out in other lands, in full, free, glorious brightness, and the dwellers in Piedmont beheld with holy joy the bright morning of the Reformation dawn in brilliancy over a darkened world.

CENTURY XVI.

COMMENCEMENT OF THE REFORMATION.

We are now come to an era in the History of the Church, to a Protestant of all others the most interesting.

In the three preceding centuries you have seen a few such enlightened men as Waldo, Wickliffe, and Huss, rise up to show Christianity in her primitive garb to the world, and, failing in removing from men's minds the veil that hung over them, leave their names to be revered, and their sentiments to be adopted by the few, but in the general to share the contempt and opprobrium bestowed on the unsuccessful advocates of truth in the dark ages of the Christian era: but now the set time was come,' when God decreed that truth should triumph, and the vast fabric of ecclesiastic power, reared on the subjugation of men's reason, judgment, and conscience, be shaken to its very basis by an Augustine Monk, unknown to the world and to fame. You are all acquainted with the name of Luther, and know that to him, we who

profess the Protestant faith, owe our deliverance from popish slavery; you have long beheld the thraldom of the church, you are now to see it liberated. In the sixteenth century the Reformation was commenced, which finally produced such mighty and unlooked-for results. In the course of this history we shall trace, I trust gratefully, the wonder-working hand of Providence, see the Lord "subduing all things unto himself," and fulfilling his word of promise, "I will work and who shall let it."

First, however, I shall endeavour to give some account of those preliminary circumstances which advanced the Reformation of the Church, and contributed to Luther's success.

Corruption and darkness had, as it were, gained their highest point in the Catholic Church at this period. The vices of the clergy, the enormous power of the popes, their ambition and pride, and all the disorders arising therefrom, made some Reformation generally wished; and at the election of that ambitious prelate, Julius VI. he was obliged to swear that he would within two years, call a council to effect some reform. But reform was not the thing the pope desired, and consequently the council of Pisa was dissolved without having effected any thing. This pope, so renowned for the wildness of his ambition, died A. D. 1513, leaving behind him that which the annalist of the true Church, the Church of Christ, would only record to point out a man who dared to act in defiance