upon. He also transcribed portions of
his own meditations on the Scriptures, and gave them away for
distribution from hand to hand amongst the people.

When it was found that his instructions were much appreciated, and
that numbers of people assembled to hear him read and exhort, he was
strongly urged to undertake the office of public instructor amongst
them, especially as their ministers were being constantly diminished
by execution.

He had been about five months in the Cevennes, and was detained by a
fall of snow on one of the mountains, where his abode was a sheepcote,
when the proposal that he should become a preacher was first made to
him. Vivens was one of those who most strongly supported the appeal
made to Brousson. He spent many hours in private prayer, seeking the
approval of God for the course he was about to undertake. Vivens also
prayed in the several assemblies that Brousson might be confirmed, and
that God would be pleased to pour upon him his Holy Spirit, and
strengthen him so that he might become a faithful and successful
labourer in this great calling.

Brousson at length consented, believing that duty and conscience alike
called upon him to give the best of his help to the oppressed and
persecuted Protestants of the mountains. "Brethren," he said to them,
when they called upon him to administer to them the Holy Sacrament of
the Eucharist--"Brethren, I look above you, and hear the most High God
calling me through your mouths to this most responsible and sacred
office; and I dare not be disobedient to his heavenly call. By the
grace of God I will comply with your pious desires; dedicate and
devote myself to the work of the ministry, and spend the remainder of
my life in unwearied pains and endeavours for promoting God's glory,
and the consolation of precious souls."

Brousson received his call to the ministry in the Cevennes amidst the
sound of musketry and grapeshot which spread death among the ranks of
his brethren. He was continuously tracked by the spies of the Jesuits,
who sought his apprehension and death; and he was hunted from place to
place by the troops of the King, who followed him in his wanderings
into the most wild and inaccessible places.

The perilous character of his new profession was exhibited only a few
days after his ordination, by the apprehension of Olivier Souverain at
St. Jean de Gardonenque, for preaching the Gospel to the assemblies.
He was at once conducted to Montpell