tain of vapour; anon the curtain rises, the mist rolls away, and
green valley and tall mountain flash back again upon you, thrilling and
delighting you anew. What variety and melody of sounds, too, exist among
the hills! The music of the streams, the voices of the peasants, the
herdsman's song, the lowing of the cattle, the hum of the villages. The
winds, with mighty organ-swell, now sweep through their mountain gorges;
and now the thunder utters his awful voice, making the Alps to tremble
and their pines to bow.

Such was the land of the Vaudois; the predestined abode of God's Church
during the long and gloomy period of Anti-christ's reign. It was the ark
in which the one elect family of Christendom was to be preserved during
the flood of error that was to come upon the earth. And I have been the
more minute in the description of its general structure and
arrangements, because all had reference to the high moral end it was
appointed to serve in the economy of Providence.

When of old a flood of waters was to be sent on the world, Noah was
commanded to build an ark of gopher wood for the saving of his house.
God gave him special instructions regarding its length, its breadth, its
height: he was told where to place its door and window, how to arrange
its storeys and rooms, and specially to gather "of all food that is
eaten," that it might be for food for him and those with him. When all
had been done according to the Divine instructions, God shut in Noah,
and the flood came.

So was it once more. A flood was to come upon the earth; but now God
himself prepared the ark in which the chosen family were to be saved. He
laid its foundations in the depths, and built up its wall of rock to the
sky. A door also made He for the ark, with lower, second, and third
storeys. It was beautiful as strong. Corn, wine, and oil were laid up in
store within it. All being ready, God said to his persecuted ones in the
early Church, "Come, thou and all thy house, into the ark." He gave them
the Bible to be a light to them during the darkness, and shut them in.
The flood came. Century after century the waters of Papal superstition
continued to prevail upon the earth. At length all the high hills that
were under the whole heaven were covered, and all flesh died, save the
little company in the Vaudois ark.

CHAPTER V.

STATE AND PROSPECTS OF THE VAUDOIS CHURCH.

Dawn of the Reformation--Waldensian Territory a Portion of
Ita