THE year before the flight of Charlotte and Elizabeth to Cassel, a stranger was remarked in the congregation of John de Labadie. He had travelled from Holland to hear the great preacher, and to make acquaintance with him. He found in Labadie even more than he expected, and went back to Utrecht filled with the enthusiasm which took possession of so many who had but once seen or heard the reformer of Protestants.
This Dutchman was John von Schurmann, one of the Precise of Utrecht, brother to the learned Anna.
In consequence of this visit of John von Schurmann to Geneva, it came to pass that five years later, in 1666, Dr. Voet and Lodensteyn, stirred up by Anna von Schurmann, invited Labadie to come to Middelburg, not far from Utrecht, to be the pastor of the French Protestant congregation in that town. Anna wrote herself to implore Labadie to come to Holland, and " to revive at Middelburg the zeal for holiness which Teelinck had formerly awakened there." She also entreated him to pay her a visit on the way.
The people of Geneva were loth to lose their preacher, but Labadie considered it a call from God. On March 3rd, 1666, they dismissed him with the honourable testimony "that he had laboured diligently with both hands for the edification of the Church ; namely, with sound doctrine and sound practice, setting a glorious and excellent example of zeal for holiness, of love, and of uprightness, behaving himself as a true scholar of Jesus Christ, the chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls."
As before, Labadie had gathered round him many friends and disciples, and had so attached them to himself, that they went with him, as a matter of course, to his new field of labour. Three of these friends lived always in his house, and were earnest fellow-workers with him in gathering out the awakened from the slumbering Protestants. These three were named Yvon, Dulignon, and Menuret.
They travelled as secretly as possible, on account of the numerous enemies who were lying in wait by order of the Jesuits.
They had taken a solemn pledge in the words that follow : (1) "1 promise to sanctify myself more and more, to renounce the world, with its desires, its goods, its enjoyments, and its pleasures, in order to follow in the steps of Jesus Christ—poor, despised, and persecuted, bearing His cross and His shame. (2) To give myself up to God and His gospel, firstly practising His precepts myself, and then aiding others to practise them, as God shall give me the means to do so, thus, after reforming myself, taking to heart the condition of others, and to this end exposing myself to persecution, poverty, disgrace, and suffering, and to the hatred and contradiction of the unholy and unchristian world."
Thus would Labadie reform the Reformed. It is easy to remark upon the self-assertion, and the belief in human efforts and resolutions, which betray themselves in this pledge. But it is a happier task to consider the true, loyal love to Christ which marked Labadie and his friends. As yet they had not learnt the complete dependence upon Him, from which a holy and blessed life proceeds. But they longed to follow Him fully, and the Lord owned their love and faithfulness. They shine out from the dark background of those evil clays with a glorious radiance, and many who saw their light, glorified their Father in heaven.
Labadie willingly accepted the invitation of Anna von Schurmann, and spent ten days at her house in Utrecht, which lay in the direct road to Middelburg.
Many changes had passed over Anna. Once a beautiful girl, and a marvel of learning and science, she was now a lonely woman of fifty-nine years old. The visit of Descartes had produced the effect she desired. She had given herself up more completely to the study of the word of God.
When forty-one years old, she was left by the death of her mother at the head of the household, consisting of her brothers, and two aged aunts. Not only did a large amount of household work fall to her lot, but also the care of the two invalid aunts, who lived to about the age of ninety, and in course of time became totally blind.
For their sakes she gave up her hours of study, and devoted herself to them and to her brothers. In order to provide them with change of air, she had moved from place to place, and when at last they died, and she was fifty-three years old, she returned to Utrecht and to her beloved teacher Dr. Voet, with her only remaining brother John, of whose visit to Geneva we have just heard.
Two years after his return from Geneva John died, and Anna had now been left alone for two years in bier house at Utrecht.
We can well believe that the visit of Labadie and his three friends was a time of great refreshing Lo Anna. It seems to have been an era in her life, second only to that when she first knew and delighted to know that she " belonged to the Lord Jesus."
It cannot be denied that she was also carried away n some measure by the enthusiasm which took possession of so many who met with Labadie. The salts of Christian in the Pilgrim's Progress in some hospitable house, must have been literally acted out n those ten days, spent by the friends in reading, and prayer, and holy conversation.
Labadie then proceeded to Middelburg.