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objects which it afforded ; . but now the sight seemed a new faculty , so greatly was its sphere extended without a single perceptible wreath of vapour to obscure the outline , and mingle and confound the forms of the objects of its perception . But the scene soon changed ; the whole plain assumed a dark and nighttike appearance , and the single isolated Mount lost the last rays of the declining sun . Not so , however , the loftier and more distant Alps . The curtain had not yet fallen ; another and more splendid scene was
yet to be witnessed . I stood m the midst of an amphitheatre of mountains , whose gigantic forms stood wrapped in the mantle of night , all except their aspiring heads , which , crowned with the snows of ages , still reflected from one to the other the parting beams of the sun , changing from a golden to a crimson hue . From the want of twilight in this Southern latitude , and from the great height at which the sun is seen in mountainous countries illuminating the superior regions , while the inferior are involved in deep shades , the scene before me assumed somewhat of the appearance of a brilliant
illumination in the upper chambers of a lofty palace , while night was reigning undisturbed below . ( Where comparisons fail , the mind resorts to any which have a single circumstance of resemblance . ) Some unseen hand passed from apartment to apartment , extinguishing one light after another until the empire of darkness was universal . So it is in nature . But the Almighty would not have it to be so in his great spiritual building . When one light was extinguished after another , until the darkness became palpable , in a solitary watch-tower a feeble glimmering flame was still preserved , by means of which , when the time was come , a blaze of light
might again be kindled in every portion of his house . This tower was repeatedly assailed by those who " hated the light because their deeds were evil , " in the hope of extinguishing it in the blood of his watchmen by whom it was guarded . But although their efforts appeared at one time to be on the eve of success , yet the enemies of the light were finally compelled to retire in discomfiture , and to acknowledge that if this flame were not of celestial origin , it was at least unquenchable by any human means . To see how this watchfire was burning , and with what care its flame was tended and cherished , was the object of my visit to this secluded spot . And I am now to give an account of the state in which I found it .
On Sunday , Oct . 15 th , I paid my first visit to the parish church of La Tour . It stands in a remote , retired situation , a mile and a half from the village , in the midst of a grove of chesnut trees , and with little beyond it but the pathless mountains , a situation which was , no doubt , selected for the same reason which induced our persecuted Presbyterian ancestors to build their chapels in the most retired streets and alleys , that the house of God might not become the first object of fanatic rage . This church is capable of containing about one thousand four hundred persons and was well filled . It is the only church among the Waldenses which possesses an organ . It
was deemed by many too great an innovation on the ancient simplicity of their worship , and it now remains silent . Indeed , there is a studied plainness both within and without . The service , which was entirely in the French language , commenced with the reading of three or four chapters out of Ostervald ' s Bible , accompanied with the practical reflections of that eminent Swiss divine , which are in general plain and good . This part of the service was performed by the clerk as we should call him , but the Vaudois call him the rSgent , i . e . schoolmaster , the office of reader being connected with that of master of the central school of the parish . His place was at a little bookstand \ n front of the small deal table which is used for the Lord ' s
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415 The Waldenses .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1827, page 416, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1797/page/24/
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