be encouraged. To such I would say,—always have a tract at hand. Most of the poor, or their children, can read. Coalmen, dustmen, butchers' and bakers' servants, would feel pleased at being asked if they can read. Ask them to lend it to their neighbours. I will only add, that there is much in the manner of giving a tract; and at all times, in our dealings with the world, or our intercourse with servants, we should not so much talk religiously, as act religiously.

As there are many weighty reasons why I conceal my name, and place of abode, I trust it will be excused. I therefore conclude, with real good wishes to your Society, and all others that have in view the glory of God and the good of souls.

A HYMN.

How vast the treasures we possess ;
How rich thy bounty, King of grace!
This world is ours, and worlds to come;
Earth is our lodge, and heaven our home.

All things are ours, the gifts of God,
The purchase of a Saviour's blood;
While the good Spirit shews us how
To use and to improve them too.

If peace and plenty crown my days,
They help me, Lord, to speak thy praise ;
If bread of sorrows be my food,
These sorrows work my lasting good.

I would not change my blest estate,
For all the world calls good or great;
And while my faith can keep her hold,
I envy not the sinner's gold.

Father, I wait thy daily will;
Thou shalt divide my portion still;
Grant me on earth what seems thee best,

Till death and heaven reveal the rest.

LUTHER.

The Rev. F. Leo, who is now in England, from Germany, has a Prayer Book which belonged to Martin Luther. There is written in it with Luther's own hand the following prayer:

Take from me that which turns me away from thee.

FRIENDLY VISITOR.

No. LXI.

OCTOBER, 1823.

Price one penng, or 7s. per hundred.

VOL. V.

PRINTED AND SOLD BY A. Foster, KIRKBY LONSDALE ; And sold by Seeley, Fleet Street, London; Timms, Grafton Street, Dublin; the Religious Tract Society, at their Depository in East Register Street, Edinburgh: and by all other booksellers:

Of whom may be had, in stiff printed covers, the four first volumes; 1s. 4d. each: also the numbers for the four first years, bound in two volumes, sheep and lettered, 3s. 4d. each.

THE VAUDOIS OR WALDENSES.

God has always had a people on earth, who have kept the faith of his holy word. Even in the darkest and worst ages, a remnant has been left, to shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. There are few countries, however, in which divine truth has flourished from the first ages until now. The candlestick has been removed from one country into another. The sins of a Church have tempted God to withdraw the blessings of the Gospel, and to send them elsewhere. Look at the seven Churches of Asia. How favoured was their lot! How rich their means of grace! How hopeful their state! But now, alas! and indeed for many hundred years, the threatenings of Christ have been fulfilled, and they sit in darkness and the shadow of death.

There are however people, with whom the blessings of the Gospel have been continued from the days of the Apostles themselves until now. And amongst these the Vaudois* stand most eminent.

* The reader must pronounce the word Vaudois as if it was written Vaudwa.

K

I intend to lay before my readers a short outline of their history.

The Vaudois now form the united Church of the Waldenses and Albigenses. They dwell chiefly in the vallies of Piedmont between Italy and France. It is supposed that they received the Gospel from St. Paul himself. We know that he lived two years in Rome, and certainly he spared no pains to spread the Gospel through the Roman states, in which Piedmont was then included. As the Epistle to the Romans was sent from Corinth, and Paul purposed to go from thence by Rome into Spain, it is most likely he would pass through Piedmont. But be this as it may, certain it is, that this people received the Gospel long before the power of the Pope was set up; and all writers both friends and enemies bear witness to the long standing of their Church. Beza makes out, that through them the pure Gospel was maintained in Europe during Popish times. He speaks of them as "forming the remains of the pure and primitive Church." It cannot be shewn, that they ever conformed to the Romish communion, though they underwent the most dreadful persecutions. The Monk Belvidere who was sent on a Mission by the Pope into these vallies, complains in common with other Missionaries, that they never could effect the conversion of a single Vaudois: and the only reason he gives is, "that such heretics had ever existed in these vallies." An Inquisitor, afterwards sent on the same errand among this people, declares, "that of all sects which either have existed, or can exist, there is none more dangerous to the Romish Church than the Vaudois; and that for three reasons:-because it is the most ancient of all; because it is spread the widest; and because these religionists have a great shew of piety; are just and upright in their dealings; believe of God

only what ought to be believed; and receive all the articles of the Apostles' Creed." Such is the high testimony even of an enemy. And indeed from all that ancient writers have said; from all that pious persons who have visited them from England have lately seen, of their doctrine and discipline, there is every reason to believe, that they are the only Church which has been kept unspotted from the world since the days of the Apostles, and has needed no reform from the errors of antichrist. Indeed, so remarkable has been their purity, that Mr. Faber and other divines, who have written on prophecy, consider them to be the "two witnesses" (Rev. xi.) who were to hold forth the true light of the Gospel, during the 1260 years of the Church's depression under the power of the little horn of Daniel.

Now, one might have supposed, that a people so harmless and holy, would be allowed to pass their days in safety and peace; but as it was in the beginning, so it has ever been since, "they that are born after the flesh, persecute them that are born after the spirit." About thirty bitter persecutions have been endured by them, through the space of 200 years; beginning about the middle of the fifteenth century. The Inquisition was the grand means of attempting their utter destruction. As my readers often hear of that tremendous engine of Popish power, the Inquisition, I shall give some account of it in a future number.

Orders were given from Rome that the Vaudois were unworthy to keep company with other Christians. Their goods were to be taken from them, and their houses pulled down. All princes and chiefs were to deliver them over to the Inquisitors, and to be severely punished if they shewed them the least favour. But all this was found to be in vain. Still they multiplied under their trials. Power was next