Chapter 4
Mission to Berne.
WITH great joy Jacques Roger’s friends welcomed his return to Dauphiné, at the close of his military career. Many of the Protestants, who had before looked but coldly on him, now seeing his continued zeal for God, laid aside their prejudices, and received him with open arms. The fanatical prophets, Bosméand and Jolicœur, however, still opposed to the utmost his teaching, and tried to frustrate his efforts to re-establish order in the assemblies. In the midst of his difficulties God, “who comforteth those that are cast down,” comforted His faithful servant―this was at the close of the year 1709―by giving him the sympathy and companionship of a true yoke fellow, Martel, the only preacher who had, like himself, opposed the fanatics. A zealous. Protestant also, named Pierre Meffre, much encouraged Roger at this time, by introducing him to other assemblies, whom he had not yet visited; and he had the satisfaction of seeing many gathering soberly around him to hear the Word of God, and also of seeing the false teachers increasingly lose their hold upon the people.
Full of unwearying energy in the service he had taken up, Roger in the following year set forth to visit the province of Dauphine in its full extent. The tour which he proposed was no easy matter, in days when traveling was a very different thing from what it is now. It also involved pastoral visits to about eighty thousand people, for most of the Protestants of France had now congregated together in that district. Roger, however, habitually looked to Him who is above all difficulties, and with the joy of the Lord for His strength, set forth on his long and tedious circuit.
Truly, God had well fitted His servant physically for the arduous work to which He had called him. Endowed with an iron constitution, Jacques’ strong, broad-built frame seemed to defy fatigue. He was of middle height, rather inclined to embonpoint, and, like Paul, there was not much to commend the preacher in outward appearance. His features were too strongly marked to have anything of beauty in them, and his face was surmounted by the unbecoming perruque of the period; but every feature and movement betokened unmistakable energy of character, and the whole impress and bearing of his form were those of one who had a determined purpose, from which neither man nor devil could turn him. With staff in hand, he would walk from daybreak to nightfall through the sultry heat of summer without any apparent distress, eagerly pressing forward to arrive in time for some night meeting, where his presence was expected. We can picture him, as we write, journeying over rugged paths, dressed, from time to time, in different disguises, sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback, the ample folds of his cloak, concealing the lower part of his face, the better to avoid recognition; and too pre-occupied with his mission to give more than a passing glance at the natural beauties of the scenes through which he hasted.
Roger, having pushed his way as far as Mens, in the Upper Dauphine, lingered there some little while, great numbers being eager to hear the Word of God. The reformed faith had taken deep root in these mountain districts, and more than one bold soldier of Jesus Christ had gone forth from this secluded spot to stand in the forefront of the battle.
Here also Roger found the great adversary of the truth at work seeking to distract souls from occupation with Christ and His service. An adventurer, named Chapon, sought to incite the people to rebellion against their persecuting sovereign, Louis XIV., and the Duke of Savoy―at this time at war with the King of France―seeing in the proposed movement an opening to annoy the enemy in his own dominions, and perhaps to oblige him to withdraw his troops from the frontier, secretly supplied Chapon with sums of money to further his cause.
Roger was greatly grieved to find many of the Protestants, of whom he had hoped better things, led astray by this turbulent agitator, and earnestly pleaded with them to withdraw from such an unchristian like course. Through God’s mercy, he succeeded so well in opening their eyes to the evil they were drifting into, that Chapon soon found himself without followers. Greatly mortified by his failure, he decamped, carrying off with him a large sum of money with which the too credulous Huguenots had entrusted him.
Roger, being left in undisturbed possession of the field, with deep thankfulness of heart, devoted himself to the preaching of the Word, and rejoiced to see ever-increasing numbers coming under the sound of the gospel. But meetings, numbering between four and five thousand people, could not well be hid in a corner. The attention of the ever-vigilant Papists was attracted; troops were sent up to surprise and disperse them, and the preacher escaped by little short of a miracle. The door being closed against him, Roger thought it advisable to return to the Lower Dauphine.
The extreme inclemency of the weather added much to the difficulties of this journey. We find him for a whole night pressing forward under torrents of rain, which soaked him to the skin; on another occasion in danger of being drowned when fording a swollen river; and, again, escaping pursuit from a band of soldiers.
Arrived at the termination of his journey, Roger was comforted to find that the zeal of the faithful had increased in his absence but he had soon to realize that the hatred of his enemies had also strengthened with time. As in the days of Paul, emissaries of Satan were found with zeal enough for him whom they served, to bind themselves under a great curse that they would slay the ambassador of God. Two bigoted Roman Catholics took a solemn oath to capture this modern apostle of Christ, either dead or alive. For four months they dogged his steps, but the Lord proved Himself Roger’s shield and buckler, his refuge and fortress, and preserved him for future years of service. One morning his enemies actually surprised him in his retreat, and yet, through God’s gracious care, he was able to affect his escape in perfect safety; though within easy reach of their firearms.
Thus passed days and weeks of constant danger, but Roger calmly pursued his course, living each day as if it had been his last, for he felt that there was but a step between him and death; and he was blessed with the assurance that he was treading the path that the Saviour had marked out for him.
A number of Protestants at this time, pressed beyond endurance by the renewed enforcing of the most cruel edicts of the government, fled the country―rich and poor, physician, lawyer, merchant, artizan, and laborer alike forsook their native land, each cherishing the hope of again returning in more peaceful days. Alas! how vain a hope for many!
Under these painful circumstances, those who remained in France, turned their eyes towards the Protestant Governments of Europe, thinking that, after God, through them alone help could be obtained.
It seemed an auspicious moment, when a treaty of peace was being drawn up between Louis XIV, and the Protestant powers, and the persecuted Huguenots hoped to prevail on their co-religionists to insert in this treaty a clause, ensuring liberty of conscience.
To this end, towards the close of the year 1711, the Protestants of Dauphine sent Roger, as their deputy, to Berne, to request the lords of that city to plead their cause at the Protestant courts. He was glad to seize the opportunity, as he passed through Geneva, of again seeing his valued old friend, Pictet, and of renewing for a short time his former happy intercourse with him. Pictet was not at all sanguine as to the result of the journey to Berne, and did his best to persuade Roger to abandon his purpose, and to return to his labors in France, in which he had ever taken a profound interest. But Jacques Roger was not of a disposition to easily give up any project which he had undertaken, and also felt himself in honor bound to fulfill his mission.
Arrived at Berne, he sought out the French colony, consisting of some two hundred families, who had taken refuge there at the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Having explained the purport of his visit to the pastors and elders of the church, they obtained for him an audience with the lords of Berne. These, in their turn, gave him a gracious reception, and promised to use such influence as they had, with the Protestant churches of Germany, to induce them simultaneously with those of Switzerland, to plead the cause of their, persecuted brethren in France.
Roger in thus seeking the patronage and protection of the governments of this world, forgot that the church has at all times suffered much spiritual damage, when she has had the support of that world, which, whatever religion it may profess, is nevertheless rejecting Christ.
Well satisfied with the result of his mission, Roger wrote to that effect to his friends in Dauphine, adding that the lords of Berne had regretted that the honorable gentlemen who had sent him as their representative had not signed the letters accrediting him as their envoy. This remonstrance quickly brought a letter to the consistory of Berne, in which Roger is thus introduced: “Allow us, sirs, to take the liberty of commending to you le sieur Roger, whose piety is so commendable, and whose ardent zeal has produced most excellent fruits, worthy of all praise.”
Jacques Roger spent a happy and profitable winter among the many Christians at Berne—a quiet breathing time in his life of incessant toil and continual danger. Never forgetful of the dear suffering people in France, he took advantage of his sojourn among Swiss brethren to seek to draw the Christians of both nations into closer intercourse with one another. For their mutual comfort and edification, he established a regular epistolary correspondence between them, and found men of God, even as far distant as England, willing to join in this labor of love. The continual exchange of letters led to most blessed results in leading souls into closer fellowship with the Lord, and with one another; it served also to prove to Christians, at a distance, that the reformed faith still had a vigorous hold on the soil of France, and that all the Protestants there had not been “converted,” as the Roman Catholic Church basely asserted.
With the opening spring, the mountain passes and rough roads became again practicable for the sturdy traveler, and Roger proposed setting forth on his return journey. Many at Berne, however, who had learned to love and value him during his stay among them, earnestly sought to dissuade him, fearing for the safety of their friend in the very disturbed state of France. While Roger so far yielded to their in-treaties as to delay his start, civil war broke on in Switzerland, and he found all his sympathies and interests, for the time being, engrossed by his co-religionists there in their struggle for liberty.
This sorrowful war was provoked by the Abbot of St. Gall, who, taking a leaf from the book of Louis XIV., and reckoning on his support, manifested intentions of seriously infringing on the religious freedom of the Protestants of Tockenbourg, who were under his sway.
The injustice and violence of his actions threw the cantons who professed the reformed faith, into a state of great agitation. From all the principal towns came earnest expostulations in favor of the oppressed people, and when, at length, they rose in rebellion, Berne and Zurich hastened to make corn mon cause with them, while the five Roman Catholic cantons quickly sided with the persecuting Abbot of St. Gall.
And now our brave Huguenot preacher again comes on the scenes in an anomalous, warlike character. It is difficult to reconcile his action at this crisis with his former anxiety to hold fast the Christians in France from taking arms against those who oppressed them Perhaps on this occasion a sense of gratitude to the country which had so generously sheltered the Huguenots in their flight, over powered other considerations, and blinded him to a more spiritual perception. However that may be, Roger, seeing how great an advantage the aid of the French refugees would be to their Swiss brethren in this emergency, not only encouraged them to offer their services to the Protestant army, but himself accompanied them to the scene of action as chaplain.
“The refugees paid nobly with their blood for the hospitality they had received,” writes an historian, “and their heroic courage helped not a little to the happy issue of the battle of Villemergen, which obliged the five cantons to sign the peace of Arace.”
At the close of the campaign, the French pastors conducted Roger before their excellencies of Berne, who, in many courteous terms, expressed their appreciation of his conduct. Then, before the consistory, he was asked, “What are your intentions as to the future?” “I desire to continue my studies, with the view of becoming a minister,” replied Roger, “as my friends dissuade me from returning to France at present.”
He was told that their excellencies wished to provide for him in temporal things, but that there were two objections to his ordination; firstly, that according to their ecclesiastical rules none could receive the imposition of hands who were unacquainted with the original languages in which the Holy Scriptures were written; and secondly, they feared that if they ordained a minister for France, they would draw upon themselves the opprobrium of their formidable neighbor.
Roger replied with dignity, “I do not desire that on my account established order should be broken, nor do I wish that the honored republic, from whom I have received so much favor, should bring any reproach upon herself for my sake.”
The timidity of the lords of Berne as to France seemed to be without much foundation, for, at this period, the great king, humbled and conquered, was obliged to submit to the terms imposed on him by the Protestant allied nations, and to sign, in the following year, the treaty of Utrecht. This was precisely the moment for them to press for the religious liberty of the persecuted Huguenots, as Roger and others had implored. But, alas! the poor down-trodden Christians of France had to prove how vain is the trust in princes! Any remonstrance that was made as to the cruelties shown them, was given in so tardy and timid a manner as to pass unheeded, and persecution held on its relentless course.