PETER WALDO, the founder of the Waldenses, was, at the time of his conversion, a wealthy merchant of Lyons. This was in the twelfth century, when merchant-princes were less common than at the present day, and he lived in the fullest enjoyment of his opulence without anxiety, or even thought concerning the future of his deathless soul.
But he was shaken out of his listless condition in the following remarkable manner. One evening, while at supper with a. party of friends, one of his companions suddenly fell lifeless to the floor. This striking fatality exerted so powerful an influence over his mind that he resolved to abandon all other occupation, and give his attention entirely to the salvation of his soul. In the language of the Lord, he deter-mined to "seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness."
There was, in those dark days, no evangelic ministry that he might attend, and he knew of no one who could point out to him the "way of salvation." The priests, instead of having "compassion on the ignorant and them that are out of the way," were themselves densely ignorant and widely "out of the way." But, fortunately, his attention was turned just at this time to the Holy Scriptures, and he applied himself diligently to learn from them the way of life and peace. He read for himself from the Vulgate, in Latin, God's way of salvation and remedy for sin. He also employed learned men to translate the Gospels and other portions of the sacred Scriptures into the language of the people, that every man might read for him-self, in "the tongue wherein he was born, the wonderful works of God."
In this happy employ, he got to understand clearly the simple gospel of God, and found abiding peace for his soul.
The fruits of his faith soon became manifest. He distributed freely of his wealth to the poor, and sought to gather a company of men, like-minded with himself, who should give them-selves wholly to the spread of the gospel among the neglected multitudes around them. For this purpose, he had multiplied copies of the Scriptures in the Romance languages (the art of printing had not yet been invented), which from the Gospels and other portions soon ex tended to the whole Bible. He, with his fellow-laborers, displayed great zeal and devotion in their most blessed work, and did not, at first, separate themselves from the communion of the Roman Catholic Church. They aimed, it seems, to constitute themselves a spiritual society within the bosom of the Church, though influenced only by truth drawn immediately from the "Scriptures of truth."
A writer remarks : "But an influential union of laymen, associated for the purpose of preaching to the people—a union which made the sa-cred Scriptures themselves the source of religious doctrine—could not long escape opposition and persecution. The archbishop of Lyons forbade Peter Waldo and his companions to expound the Scriptures and to preach. But they did not think they ought, in obedience to this magisterial decree, to desist from a calling which they were conscious was from God. They declared that they were bound to obey God rather than man, and persevered in the work they had begun.
"The anathema of the pope, however, soon drove Waldo from Lyons. His flock were scattered, and 'went everywhere preaching the Word.' Many of them found an asylum in the valleys of Piedmont, where they took with them their new translation of the Bible. They there united with others of the same faith, and are known in history as the Waldenses, or Vaudois. Waldo himself, after many wanderings, carrying with him everywhere the glad tidings of salvation, settled at length in Bohemia, where the fruit of his labors was seen, after many days,' in the rapid extension in that country of the principles of the Reformation, and where, in the fourteenth century, as many as eighty thousand persons are said to have been put to death for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.'"
This, reader, in brief, is the story of the con-version and after-life of one called out from the rich and learned—the class of whom Scripture says "not many" such "are called." Awakened in the midst of a scene of activity by the sudden cutting off of one of his companions, the rich merchant of Lyons was brought to see the uncertainty in which his own life hung, and his unpreparedness of soul for such a summons. He realized that God might at any moment say to him, as He had said to another rich man long before, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee!" And when awakened, he enquired of the fountain-head of truth, "What must I do to be saved ? " And there, in the Scriptures, "which testify of Christ," he discovered the answer of God : "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." This grace and love of God which then filled Waldo's heart, caused him to employ his energies and means to make known to others what he had found in Jesus ; and Waldo then became prominent in that other class of which Scripture says, "They that turn many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars for ever and ever."
Reader, let not this man, living in the "dark-ness of the Dark Ages," rise up in the judgment to condemn you. He had no brother Andrew to " bring " him to Jesus ; no evangelist Philip to " guide " him to the Lamb of God. There was no "messenger with him "— no " interpreter " to show unto him God's righteousness as revealed in the gospel of His grace (John 1; Acts 8; Job 33). You have advantages and privileges he did not and could not have at the time in which he lived. Beware lest when these souls, saved in the bygone ages of medieval darkness, sit down in the kingdom of God, you find yourself "THRUST OUT!”