Protestant, as a name, seems to have been first given to a particular class early in the sixteenth century. Its origin, at all events, dates from the protest which was signed at Spires, in Germany, on April 25th, 1529. After that day, it became a common thing to speak of all who protested against Popery as Protestants. The name, therefore, now includes people of many nations who thus made a public resistance to Rome.
When the monarch on the throne was Roman Catholic, the Protestants were the objects of his hatred and oppression. In some reigns they come much more prominently forward as a people than in others. Sometimes, also, a more public stand was made than at others, or a leading man of unusual talent could not refrain from raising his voice in the land. There were, here and there, at various times, brave and noble men whose writings were scattered broadcast through many countries, and who exercised a mighty influence over multitudes of souls.
Persecutions of the most heartless and sanguinary character marked the life of that cruel despot, Louis XIV., during the years that he sat upon the French throne. The people against whom the king’s rage was directed, had committed no crimes against their sovereign, other than to hold religious meetings of their own, which were different from what the king wished. He enjoined popery upon all his subjects, and they protested against its errors, and refused to submit to the king’s religion.
So was it with other papists in power, when it pleased them to persecute or put to death. A common way of maltreating the Huguenots was by demolishing the building in which they usually met. When the sovereign stooped to inflict this indignity, the people simply shewed by their actions that brick and mortar were not essential to the faithful. They met in the ruins of that which once had given them shelter, or afar off in lonely caves, beyond the reach of the enemy’s ear to hear, or eye to see.
Nor did the preacher cease to preach when he had no longer a comfortable building around him. Many pious and devoted men continued to minister to the people, according to the light they themselves possessed, and suffered in consequence. Such an one was Monsieur Homel, a Huguenot, whose continued preaching was considered a crime not to be tolerated. He was therefore arrested, imprisoned, tried, and condemned. The sentence which was given was that most barbarous one of being broken to death on the wheel.
The person about to die in this way was bound in a half-circular form upon a wheel, while he received repeated blows from a heavy iron bar, till all the principal bones in his body were broken. Forty times the massive iron fell on the defenseless Homel, and then he was left for his life to ebb slowly away. During as many hours as he had suffered blows, that dying believer lingered in his agony. Then death mercifully ended his pain, and gave him the paradise of God as his happy exchange.
The Lord kept this dear sufferer in perfect peace, and proof against all the wiles of the enemy. He knew that recantation would have put a stop to the continuance of torture, yet yielded not in the least. Great firmness was given, enabling him to endure to the end. An affectionate wife was the sorrowful witness of that which he bore for the name of Christ. It must have been with an aching heart—even if in spirit she was glad in the Lord—that she sought to comfort and to encourage her husband. The one who had been her companion in life was fast departing, but she seemed fully to understand that it was to be “with Christ which is far better.”
The words which fell from the lips of that patient sufferer, during his last hours, were very touching. “I count myself happy,” he said, “that I can die in my Master’s service. What! did my glorious Redeemer descend from heaven and suffer an ignominious death for my salvation; and shall I, to procure a miserable life, deny my blessed Saviour, and abandon His people?” Though his sorrowing wife had the pain of seeing her husband on the wheel, she was thus wonderfully comforted in the hour of her sorrow. Even while his enemies were breaking his bones, rapturous words from the lips she loved fell upon her ears. On the wheel he said to her, “Farewell once more, my beloved spouse! Though you witness my bones broken to shivers, yet is my soul filled with inexpressible joy.”
Even after the cruel persecutors had done their work of torture, and death in mercy had set the suffering victim free from their grasp, yet their malice was not spent, for they then proceeded to vent their wrath upon the lifeless body. Happily for Homel, however, his spirit was far beyond the reach of their vile touch. The indignities put upon the empty tabernacle were powerless to affect him then. He had gone to be with Christ, in whose eternal presence there could be “no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.”
Thus nobly did a Christian man lay down his life for the Lord for whom he counted all else but loss. Yes, though his dearest on earth stood by his side, and he knew that he should soon see her no more, his thoughts were occupied with Christ. The earthly tabernacle was being destroyed in a most painful way, yet its dissolution only made manifest the light that shone within. And so the words of triumph from his lips were but the overflowings of his inward joy and peace. Homel’s wife was left a sad and desolate widow, but she had been a privileged witness of her husband’s victory.
My dear reader, whoever thou art, hast thou found this peerless Treasure before which every other possession pales? Naught and worthless, empty and without value, are all earth’s stores, if the Saviour be unknown. Natural affection brings its joys and its sorrows, earthly relationships yield both pleasure and sadness; but the love of Christ alone can satisfy the soul. Ah, if your heart is seeking only the joys of this present life, let me warn you of their vanity, and entreat you, in all sincerity, to turn to that which is real. Nothing but a living, perfect Person will answer to the needs of your soul. That holy One you will find by faith at the right hand of God—the living One who was dead, but is “alive for evermore.”
Let not the sinner forget that, long years ago, the blessed Son of God suffered on the cross for sin. Far beyond what mere man could ever endure, were the unparalleled agonies of the cross of Christ. He “suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” Will you, dear unsaved one, allow the Saviour to bring you there?—into the presence of God, without spot or stain, because able to say with other believers, “His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.”
“By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.”