walked
with him to the church. Outside the building--for worship had not
commenced--were numerous little conversational parties; and around it
lay the Vaudois dead, sleeping beneath the shadow of their giant rock,
and free, at last and for ever, from the oppressor. They had found
another "exodus" from their house of bondage than that which King
Charles Albert had granted their living descendants. We entered, and
found the schoolmaster reading the liturgy. This service consists of two
chapters of the Bible, with at times the reflections of Ostervald
annexed; during it the congregation came dropping in,--the husbandmen
and herdsmen of the Val Lucerna,--and took their seats. In a little the
elders entered in a body, and seated themselves round a table in front
of the pulpit. Next came the pastor, habited, like our Scotch ministers,
in gown and bands, when the regent instantly ceased. The pastor began
the public worship by giving out a psalm. He next offered a prayer,
read the ten commandments, and then preached. The sermon was an
half-hour's length precisely, and was recited, not read; for I was told
the Waldenses have a strong dislike to read discourses. The minister of
La Tour is an old man, and was trained under an order of things
unfavourable to that higher standard of pulpit qualification, and that
fuller manifestation of evangelical and spiritual feeling, which, I am
glad to say, characterize all the younger Waldensian pastors. The people
listened with great attention to his scriptural discourse; but I was
sorry to observe that there were few Bibles among them,--a circumstance
that may be explained perhaps with reference to the state of the
weather, and the long distance which many of them have to travel. The
storm had the effect at least of thinning the audience, and bringing it
down from about 800, its usual number, to 500 or so. The church was an
oblong building, with the pulpit on one of the side walls, and a deep
gallery, resting on thick, heavy pillars, on the other. The men and
women occupied separate places. With this exception, I saw nothing to
remind me that I was out of Scotland. One may find exactly such another
congregation in almost any part of our Scottish Highlands, with this
difference, that the complexions of the Vaudois are darker than that of
our Highlanders. They have the same hardy, weather-beaten features, and
the same robust frames. I saw many venerable and some noble heads among
them,--men wh