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when he touches upon the more awful parts of the Divine dealings to men , does it with pain and from a consciousness of duty , and with feelings full of pity for the offender . " M . Bert professes the usual doctrines of orthodoxy , but I soon found that he was no bigoted sectarian or dogmatist upon any subject .
On Sunday , October 29 th , I went to Bobio , six miles up the Valley of Lucerna , to hear M . Muston , who is secretary to the " Table , " or Committee of the Synod . His discourse was on a Future Judgment , —a good practical sermon . As there was here , as at La Tour , not the slightest trace of the peculiarities of orthodoxy in the prayers , hymns , or sermon , I took the liberty of remarking to M . Muston , with whom I dined , that from all I had heard of the Vaudois in England , I was greatly astonished to hear nothing in
their services in which all sects , even an Unitarian Christian like myself , could not cordially join . I had expected , for example , that more prayers would be addressed to Christ than in the Common Prayer of the Church of England , the occurrence of which formed the principal ground of our separation . Whereas , I had not heard any prayers addressed to any other Being than the Father . " Do you never address any part of your worhip to the Son ?" " In my opinion , " replied M . Muston , " it would be idolatry . We know
him only in the gospel dispensation as a man , sent by God for the salvation of our souls ; although it be true , that by reasoning from the extraordinary nature of his miracles and the sublimity of his doctrine , we discover something of the Divinity ( or of his divinity ) , * nous decouvrons quelque chose de la divinitiS He appears to us in the gospel uniformly as a man , and he himself gave us a model for our prayers in which the Father alone is addressed , and declared , that " this is life eternal to know thee , the only true God , and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent . ' Can we do better than follow
his instructions and example ? There are mysteries we cannot comprehend , but our concern is to worship God and imitate Jesus Christ , and obey his precepts . " " Do the Vaudois then , " I inquired , " consider nothing more to be necessary to constitute a Christian than a belief in one God , and in Jesus Christ as the Messiah ? " " Certainly not , " replied Muston M . " Are not those the terms laid down in the gospel ? And I cannot conceive , " he added , " why Protestants should be divided into so many sects . I speak my sentiments freely on this subject to the members of M . Malan ' s church , and I
put the matter lately in such a light to one of them , who came to see me , that he was unable to reply to me . I think spiritual pride and a want of forbearance must be at the bottom of it . " I observed , that in England the church established by law , and most of the other sects , represented their own peculiar views essential to the character of a Christian , and to acceptance with God . " There they are wrong , " said he : " that is what I should not like . I should agree more nearly with you than with any other sect . We are in accordance upon all that is essential . "
On Sunday , November 5 th , I again heard M . Bert . The subject was the Duty of Parents to their Children . It was the day on which was announced the re-opening of the central or " qrande Scole , " and of the other ten elementary schools in M . Bert's parish , after the long vacation which is given during the vintage season . In the first of these schools ,
supported at the expense of the whole parish , with the aid of foreign Protestants , a somewhat superior kind of instruction is given ( to a limited number of sholars ) , but so as not to interfere with the classical school , for the Valleys at large , kept at La Tour . In the other ten schools , kept at the expense of each of the ten sections , or ?« quattiers" into which the pa-
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The JVahlemes . 565
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1827, page 565, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1799/page/13/
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