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ings were forbidden under pain of death, and was asked by whose authority he had come. He held up the com

mission of his Lord, and said that since that edict had been published, such meetings had been held at Lyons and other places, and that certain ministers had preached before the king. The vice-mayor requested him to refrain from preaching until the governor and the Parliament of Grenoble had been duly informed of his intentions. Farel exhorted him to listen to the gospel, which must condemn those who opposed it, and would save all who embraced it. He was honourably conducted back to his inn, and on that evening baptized a child.

The next evening all public meetings and the use of the churches were forbidden to the reformed party. But one meeting was held on the following morning. As Farel was coming out of church, a servant of the vicemayor handed him the order in trembling haste. In the afternoon the friends met for prayer, and resolved to continue stedfast in the faith for which so many had been martyrs. They demanded of the vice-mayor a written. statement of his proceedings, in order to make an appeal to the king and his cabinet.

From a dusty corner some one has lately drawn an old copy of the 'Annals of the Capuchins' of Gap. These friars gave no little space to the visit of the aged reformer, and their story is tinged with the colour of their strong prejudices. It runs, that Farel, already an old man, wishing to preach in his native province, before God summoned him from the world, went and took up his quarters in a corn-mill at the gates of his native town— they do not mean Fareau, but Gap-and then he 'dogmatized' the peasants from a French Bible which he explained in his own fashion.' Ere long he began to

preach in the very heart of the town, in the chapel of St. Columba. The magistrate forbade his preaching, and the Parliament of Grenoble wished to have him burnt.' Farel refused to obey; and upon this, the vicemayor, a zealous Catholic, along with several policemen, went to the chapel where Farel was preaching. The door was shut; they knocked, but nobody answered; they broke in and found a considerable throng; no one turned his head; all were listening greedily to the preacher's words. The officers went straight to the pulpit; Farel was seized, and with the crime' (the Bible) in his hands, he was led through the crowd and shut up in prison. But the followers of the new doctrine were already to be found among every class of people; in the workman's garret, in the tradesman's shop, in the noble's castle, and sometimes even in the bishop's palace. During the night the reformers, either by force or by stratagem, took the brave old man out of the prison, carried him to the walls, and let him down by a basket into the fields. Accomplices' were waiting for him, and he escaped with their help.

Not long after his return home, Farel had cheering news from the much persecuted church at Gap, for the brethren kept their pledges of faithfulness. Fabri and Viret were labouring in that region with great success. The plague broke out fearfully at Lyons, and extended to other places; but they took advantage of it to let the gospel win its way by its consolations. They were allowed to visit the houses of Romanists, and point the sick to the Saviour. Fabri wrote, Neither life, nor wife, nor children are so dear to me as my Lord Jesus and his Church.'

While Farel was absent, Neufchatel was favoured with a visit from the Duchess of Longueville; whether the

same Joanna who had so long been trifling at the court of Francis I., we cannot say, but it seems probable that she was, and that she was greatly changed. Her son was with her. The ministers counselled with her in settling several church questions. A synod was held, and the custom of letting the churches choose their pastors was confirmed. Much was done to promote better discipline, and to found schools in destitute parishes. She corresponded with Calvin, and he praises her courage and stedfastness in the faith. In France her house had been a refuge for the persecuted.

She visited Landeron, a town in her canton. The Papal party had only one vote in their majority over the reformed party. The duchess wished to have Protestant service performed, the next morning after her arrival, by a preacher who attended her and the young duke. The people were assured that no allusion would be made to Popery, nor any one be compelled to attend, as the service was for her and her retinue. It was intimated that she, being the ruler of the land, had a right to the free exercise of her religion, especially as she gave her subjects the same liberty. But all this was in vain. The authorities were the first to take up arms, and, with covered heads, they rudely threatened to throw the preacher from the pulpit. She again urged that their sovereign should not be thus prevented from hearing the gospel, which they need not hear unless they chose; but her condescension availed nothing. The alarm-bell was rung, the inhabitants armed themselves, surrounded the chapel, and compelled the duchess to put a stop to the preaching. Farel, on his return, was greatly annoyed by this outrage; but he thought the priests more to blame than the people.

J

CHAPTER XXII.

THE CALL TO GLORY.

(1564-1565.)

OHN CALVIN was dying near the age of fifty-five, and the dear old man of seventyfive was very anxious about him. Farel wrote thus to one of his friends:

I have

not yet heard any certain report of the departure of our brother, Calvin, so dear and so necessary to us; but the current rumours and the state in which I left him afflict me greatly. Oh that I could be put in his place, and that he might be long spared to serve the churches of our Lord, who, blessed be His name, caused me to meet with him when I little expected it, and retained him, against his own purpose, at Geneva, to employ him there in His service, and ordered other things in a most wonderful manner, and, strange to say, by my instrumentality, for I pressed him to undertake. affairs harder than death. And sometimes he besought me, in the name of God, to have pity on him, and to let him serve God ardently in the way in which he had always been employed. But seeing that what I demanded was according to God's will, he did violence to his own will, and has accomplished more and more rapidly than

How

any one else, and has even surpassed himself. glorious a course he has run! God grant that we may run as he has, according to the grace given unto us!'

Lord's will that you

It seems Farel heard more definitely that his friend was still alive, and expressed his intention to visit him. Calvin knew what an effort this would cost the aged pastor, and thus wrote to him: Farewell, my best and truest brother. Since it is the should survive me in this world, never forget our friendship, which, so far as it has been useful to the Church of God, will bear fruit for us in heaven. Pray do not weary yourself by coming hither on my account. My breath is weak, and I expect that every moment will be the last. I am contented that I live and die in Christ, who is the reward of the people, both in life and in death. To you and the brethren, still once more,

farewell.'

This letter could not stay the feet of the good old man. He went to Geneva with the feeling, 'Oh that I might die for him!' He wept, prayed, spent his last night, and took his last leave of him, whom he ever regarded too great for him to call a son, and the next day returned home. Not many days after, Calvin fell asleep in Christ, May 27, 1564. It is not probable that Farel stood with the multitude who followed him to his burial, when the republic was laying in the grave one of its wisest counsellors, the city one of its truest guardians, the Church its chief pastor, the academy its highest teacher, and many of the people their faithful comforter. One may now stand in the very pulpit of St. Peter's, from which his commanding voice was heard; but we seek in vain for any monument to his memory. There is a doubt about the very place where his body was laid,

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