We must now return to William Farel. It was with a feeling of terror that his family heard of his being on his homeward road. The tidings of his strange doings at Paris and at Meaux had reached them long before. And now he was once more amongst them in the old home. The great Alps, the deep green valleys, the mountain villages around him, as in old times. But to him all was changed. He could see in his beloved Dauphine only the souls who were perishing in darkness, without the knowledge of Christ. As soon as he arrived, he gave to all around the blessed message with which God had sent him. As he had given it at Paris and at Meaux, so now he gave it at Les Farelles, at Gap, and at every village round. He preached in the streets and fields, in mills and farmyards, on the rocks by the river side, on the slopes of the mountains. Wherever two or three could be gathered to hear, he was there with his Bible and his voice of thunder, preaching and teaching Jesus Christ.
It was but a very little while before his brothers, Daniel, John-James, Walter, and Claude, believed, and were saved. The priests arose in fury. A young man, not a clergyman at all, thus to preach! To preach heresy, and to preach anywhere and everywhere! “He is neither a priest nor a monk,” said the bishop of Gap. He was summoned before the bishop and the magistrates of Gap, and banished from the district. But the word of the Lord could not be banished. Besides his four brothers, many appear at this time to have turned to the Lord. Amongst these there may have been a boy called Anthony Boyve, whose home was in Dauphine.
Remember this boy Anthony: you will hear of him again. There were some, too, who had already believed the blessed tidings before William Farel came. How was this? Not far from the castle of Les Farelles was the old castle of Chastelard. A family lived there of the name of Coct. The old lord of Chastelard had several sons. His second son, Anemond, was a knight, who seems to have traveled about, and in the course of his travels to have met with William Farel. Most likely they had known one another as boys, and had met again at Paris. From William Farel, Anemond had learned to know the Lord Jesus Christ. He had then returned into Dauphind, where he had told the glad tidings to those around his home. Amongst those who believed was a priest of Grenoble, called Peter Sebville. This priest was already preaching the gospel with great power when William Farel arrived in Dauphine. We are told he was “a preacher of great eloquence, of an honest and good heart, not taking counsel with flesh and blood.” But the young knight, Anemond, was no longer there. Just about the time that William left Meaux, Anemond had gone to Wittemberg, in Germany, to make acquaintance with Luther. And from thence he had traveled to Zurich, in Switzerland, to see Zwingli.
Who was Zwingli? You have not heard of him before. I cannot now tell you the whole of his history, but will say, in few words, that he had been, since the year 1518, the preacher in the cathedral of Zurich, in Switzerland. He had begun, like Luther in Germany, to understand that sinners are saved by the death of Christ; and having by degrees gained light from the Bible, he had spoken boldly against some of the evil teaching of popery. It would seem that he had at first opposed the popish teaching, not so much because it was contrary to the Bible, but because he thought it opposed to reason and good sense; and when he first was appointed preacher at Zurich, he does not appear to have himself passed from death to life, though he was already known as inclined to Portestanism. It is, alas! very easy to be a Protestant, and to see that popery is foolish, and even wrong, without having faith in Christ, or love to God. There were numbers of people at that time, and there are greater numbers now, who could argue to any extent against the errors of popery, but with hearts as far from God, and as much at enmity with Him, as the hearts of Leo X and the most depraved of the monks.
It would seem, however, that a year later, in 1519, Zwingli was brought, through a dangerous illness, to come himself to Christ as the Savior.
Just at the time when Farel left the city of Meaux, the news had been spread abroad that Zwingli had caused all the images and relics in the churches of Zurich, and of the surrounding villages, to be taken away and destroyed. He had, therefore, made one great step. But he was still singing mass, and observing other popish forms. This he did, not so much because he thought it right himself, but for fear of giving offense to the priests by leaving it off. He possessed much of a not uncommon quality, for which many people then, and many in later times, praised and admired him. They called it wisdom and moderation. Farel would have called it “the prudence of the flesh.” But whilst we can see now how Zwingli erred on the side of “fleshly prudence,” we can also observe that Farel was not always on his guard against the zeal and energy of the flesh. In this respect Zwingli and Farel stood in contrast to one another. Zwingli was always, to a great extent, a popular man, as he was careful and skilful in not arousing men to anger. He acted cautiously and by degrees.
William Farel might sometimes have given less offense by learning more of the meekness and gentleness of Christ. At the same time, the blessing of Luke 6:2222Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. (Luke 6:22) belonged rather to Farel than to Zwingli, “Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil for the Son of Man’s sake.” There has been but one Servant of God, who could be perfectly meek, and perfectly devoid of the fear of man, and of the wisdom and prudence of the flesh, as well as of the violence and hastiness of the flesh. We shall look in vain for another.
It would appear that Farel continued his preaching for some months with great diligence, amongst the mountain villages. He knew the rocks and caverns so well, and had so accustomed himself, when a boy, to climbing the mountains, that it was easy for him to find safe hiding-places. “The crosses, persecutions, and devices of Satan,” he said, “of which I have been forewarned, have not been wanting; they are even much severer than I could have borne of myself. But God is my Father; He has provided, and always will provide me the strength which I require.” It was a joy to the heart of Farel to see many sinners saved through the preaching of the word.
But Bedier and Duprat had not forgotten “that firebrand of discord,” who had escaped them at Paris. They sent warnings to the bishop of Gap, and a search was made for the heretic preacher. William Farel was not to be found. He had meantime traveled westward, across the Cevennes mountains, and had reached the distant province of Guyenne. There he preached for a short time. But the priests and monks were soon on the watch. Again Farel found himself pursued by a host of enemies, and again he escaped from their hands. His friend Anemond de Chatelard had written to him, entreating him to come to Switzerland. Under the sheltering care of God, he traveled on, hiding in woods and mountain clefts, till, in December, 1523, he reached the old city of Basle.