Imatges de pàgina
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around them has been urged in excuse-and the duty of glorifying God by cheerfulness and mirth, so long as no intemperance or revelry disturbs the serenity of their deportment. But the best argument in their favour is the example of many of the early Christians, who may perhaps have handed down to them a practice, which partook of the leaven of Paganism, and made the line too faint between holiday and holy-day.

"From incidental notices scattered over Tertullian's works, we collect," says the Bishop of Lincoln," that Sunday, or the Lord's day was regarded by the primitive Christians as a day of rejoicing." In our own country, the day of public worship was observed with so little strictness in the time of the Reformers, that an act was passed in the reign of Edward VI., not to suppress, but to regulate Sunday sports. Subsequent acts, which absolutely have the effect of legalizing some games and recreations, were enrolled under the government of James I. and Charles I. That spiritual improvement, and field, or in-door sports are consistent one with the other, is no easy matter to prove, and it must remain equally hard to reconcile the conscience to that sort of liberty, which is in direct violation of the precept, and the object for which one day in seven was set apart for sacred purposes, first by the Jewish, and afterwards by the Christian Church.

If we are to sanctify the day in earnest, it can

only be done by honouring the Lord the whole day, "by not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasures, nor speaking thine own words'."

The evening of my first Sabbath in the valleys was closed as it should be. Mr. Bert assembled his household to family prayer; a chapter of the Testament was read, a hymn was sung, and the Divine blessing and protection were implored. Our host and his family, the female servant as well as his children, joined in the Scripture lesson,

"The nature of these solemn duties seems sufficiently to indicate the manner in which we ought to spend the large portion of that day, which cannot be devoted, or, at least, which never is devoted to the public service of the sanctuary. How utterly shocked should we have been by the inconsistent conduct of our Lord's disciples, had we found them rushing forth from their retirement, from that spot hallowed by their Saviour's presence, to mingle in the round of worldly business, or in scenes of frivolity and amusement, or in the haunts of unhallowed and guilty pleasure. Are there then any among us, who, after performing the public services of the day, think themselves entitled to spend the remainder of it entirely in such a manner as may best suit their interests, their convenience, their pleasure, and never feel that they are thus flagrantly transgressing the solemn command of Him, who hath wholly sanctified it to himself? But how, it is often said, how is the whole length of the day to be consumed in religious exercises? Is it to be spent in the abstraction from all enjoyment, from all recreation, from all pleasurable amusement? This question is generally put by those who feel the Sabbath to be an intolerable burden, who know nothing of religion but its empty forms, who give nothing of religious service to God, but what they dare not withhold."Irvine's Sermons, Preached in the Temple Church, Lond

verse by verse, and I thought I never heard French sound so well, as when it was recited by the servant with the Italian pronunciation, and even with a slight patois termination of final vowels.

For example, the 34th verse of John iii. was read as if annonce was a word of three, and donne of two, syllables.

"Car celui que Dieu a envoyé annonce les paroles de Dieu: car Dieu ne lui donne point l'Esprit par mesure."

The patois version of the same verse runs thus:

66

Perqué quel que Diou ha mandà annoncia le parole de Diou, perqué Diou l'i donna pâ le Sprit per mesure."

In reading the metrical lines of the Psalms of David, the Vaudois almost always sounded the final mutes, especially if it helped the rhythm; as Chaucer meant the word yarde to be pronounced in the second of those beautifully descriptive lines

"Her yellow hair was braided in a tress
Behind her back, a yardé long I guess."

CHAPTER IV.

The Office of Pasteur-Chapelain to the Protestant Ambassadors at Turin. Silk-worms-Tirata-San Giovanni. Angrogna.

JUNE 29 to July 4. My brother arrived at La Torre, and the domestic party was further increased by the accession of M. and Madame Bonjour, the son-inlaw and daughter of M. Bert. M. Bonjour occupies the important station of chaplain to the three Protestant Ambassadors at the Court of Turin, the British, the Prussian, and the Dutch, and no man is more qualified to fill it. But for this appointment, the Protestants resident in Turin would not have the benefit of public service. It is prohibited to celebrate the rites of the reformed Churches except in the privileged house of a foreign minister; and the three Ambassadors not only give a stipend to the chaplain of 1000 francs each, but permit the service to be performed in the French language, and according to the forms usually adopted in the churches of the valleys, and provide a room large enough for the accommodation of a numerous congregation. I should pronounce the movement, which led to this appointment, to be one of the

most important in regard to the Protestant cause, which has taken place in Italy for many ages. It involves concessions and recognitions, the extent of which was not perhaps contemplated when they were first made.

The ministers of the Protestant powers above mentioned, having resolved to nominate a clergyman, who should be the common chaplain of the three legations, fixed upon M. Bonjour, who, previously to his new charge, was the master of the Latin school at La Torre, and in the line to succeed to one of the first Vaudois parishes that might become vacant. It was of consequence, therefore, to him, that his appointment to the chaplaincy at Turin should not throw him out of the order of succession, or vitiate his claim to fill up a vacancy in the Waldensian Church. Therefore, when the Count Waldbourg Truckses, the Prussian minister, wrote to the officers of the Table, 27th June, 1827, to request that body to sanction the choice of himself and colleagues in the election of M. Bonjour, they signified their provisional approbation, and guaranteed the rights of that clergyman, until the meeting of the next Waldensian synod. When the synod assembled in the following year, September 1828, the matter was brought formally before the assembly, and became the subject of the 18th article.

"It having been proposed to this assembly to take into consideration the application, made by

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