FRANCE, ITALY, AND SWITZERLAND.
By D. T. Bourdeau
ENCOURAGING news is coming in from France. At Branges the leading brethren are having skirmishes, and report victories. They go systematically from house to house among their acquaintances, commencing with the minister, and are gaining in strength, courage, and hope, and in their desire to see the work go forward. At Valence a spirit of courage and labor prevails in the church. One has been added to their numbers, and the way is opening for a course of lectures. A colporter writes me from Ardèche, near Valence: “I have lately seen a number of Les Signes des Temps, for which you have the honor of writing. Many of your articles have greatly interested me. Having been for more than twenty years a Biblical colporter for the Society of London, you can believe, my honored brother, that my desire is to search the Scriptures more and more, and to not remain a stranger to any Bible question. Can you, dear brother, send me all the numbers of your journal from the month of July, with the tract entitled, ‘Is man Immortal?’” From Bastia, Corsica, the good news comes that our evangelist, Bro. J. D. Comte, has lately baptized three persons, and that he hopes to soon baptize a military officer and his wife, who will shortly go to Algiers, Africa, by order of the French government. Is the providence of God opening the way for the truth to penetrate that French colony? God is going before us in France, and is inviting us to follow on, and by his grace push on the work to certain victory. Through the co-operations of my dear brother and others whom God is fitting up for the work, we design to respond without delay. The prospects in Italy are no less encouraging. After leaving Bari, I held one meeting at Barletta, where I met the same fervent affection, and appreciation of the truth I had met at Bari. This greatly strengthened my attachment for the Italian people, most of whom have so long been in the most dense, degrading, and benumbing darkness of papacy. I left my interpreter, Bro. Biglia, and Eld. Volpi of Bari at this point to carry forward the good work, and went to the valley of Piedmont, in Northern Italy, where I propose soon to make an effort, with the aid of Bro. Adémar Vuilleumier, a Swiss colporter who is preparing for the ministry. Doors are opening in the islands of Sardinia and Sicily (Italy), and even at Rome there is an agitation on the Sabbath question among Protestant ministers, etc., some of whom favor the ancient Sabbath, while others are sufficiently liberal to not oppose those who would keep it. May we not hope to see faithful witnesses to God's truth raised up at the very seat of the Beast, where the noble Paul was beheaded, where the man of sin has so long reigned and exercised his cruel and oppressive power, and where for the cause of Christ blood has flowed in torrents? France and Italy have been regarded as hard fields. In many respects they have been so in reality; and they have been made more so, to a great extent, by missionary operations started on a wrong basis,—inviting people to attend meeting by promising them pay, thus making converts who are strangers to the spirit of sacrifice, who do not learn to bear their own weight, but who remain babes, demanding constantly the attention of the minister. It requires no small effort to turn back this tide, and set things on a proper basis; but I believe it can be done, at least with those for whom there is hope. On the other hand, there are redeeming features in these countries. People who have been so long shut away from the light, will appreciate it and make rapid progress in walking in it when it comes. I have also visited Geneva, and am of the conviction that labor must be bestowed in that city very soon, to draw out our Swiss colporters in the most promising part of French Switzerland, canvass many French cities and villages, and thus open the way for public labor, and form a connecting link between France and Switzerland.