‘And in the tumult and excess
Of act and passion under sun,
We sometimes hear—oh, soft and far,
As silver star did touch with star,
In kiss of Peace and Righteousness,
Through all things that are done.'
E. B. BROWNING.
THE little group of men and women whose fortunes we have been following fade away from our vision. The mists of time rise up between us and them, and we see them no more. They pass from us with lives uncompleted, with stories half told. But then no story ever is, or can be, all told upon earth. Out of the complex fullness of real human lives, flitting, fleeting, imperfect glimpses are all we can hope to catch—still more, all that we can present to others.
One more such glimpse, and we have done. Nearly fifty years have passed away since the ashes of the martyr of Constance were flung into the Rhine. They have been years of terrible suffering for those who reverenced his name and followed his faith. It is true that three times, with heroic courage, the little kingdom of Bohemia hurled back from her frontiers the invading host of crusaders; and that the soldiers and servants of the Cup extorted a measure of toleration from the Council of Basle. But Rome accomplished by art, of which she has ever been so consummate a mistress, what the arms of her votaries failed to effect. She divided her adversaries, and used the more moderate party, the Calixtines or Utraquists, to crush those who had gone further than themselves in the path of reform. The fierce fanaticism engendered by persecution, the extreme views of a section of the Taborites, and the excesses they perpetrated, contributed not only to their own undoing, but to that of their more sober brethren. Again the land was the scene of woe and bloodshed, again martyr-piles were kindled, and tortures and cruelties without number inflicted.
‘Amidst the confusion of those troublous days, those who feared the Lord and thought upon His name spake often one to another.' The men who had drunk deepest of the teachings of Huss searched the Scriptures diligently, praying earnestly for the Divine guidance, and finding out more and more of the mind and will of God. Whilst doing this, they drew many disciples to themselves, or rather to their Divine Master. In spite of continual persecution, they grew and multiplied. ‘These Brethren,' as they called each other, arose chiefly from amongst the Taborites, through whom they received the traditional teachings of Huss; but they had little in common with the fierce brethren of the Cup who fought under Zisca and Procopius. They were truly Christ-like, gentle, loving, forgiving, doing infinitely good to all, and harm to none.' Being reviled they blessed, being persecuted they suffered it, being defamed they entreated. Blameless and harmless in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, even their adversaries were obliged to confess that they were indeed the children of God.
Rorkyzana, the Archbishop of Prague, favored them secretly; and his nephew, Gregory, a humble and holy man of God, was their most beloved and trusted leader. He obtained from his uncle a place of refuge for them, in the district called Litiz. There they sought to know the will of the Lord with prayer and supplication, and with much study of His word. At last it became clear to them that the fullness of the time was come for a decisive separation from the corrupt Church of their day. They determined to organize their own communion upon a simple and primitive basis. But they were minded to do nothing rashly; they were anxious to retain all that was good, all that was apostolic, all that was harmless even, in the constitution of the Church they were forced to abandon. So they met upon a certain day to elect. elders, one or more of whom was intended to receive Episcopal consecration, by the laying on of the hands of those who were competent to bestow it.
Around a table, in a simple, quiet room, sit a little company of men, most of them advanced in years. A few are priests, the rest laymen of various ranks, including peasants unlearned in human lore, but mighty in the Scriptures: We see amongst them, for the last time, the good knight, Sir Hubert Bohun, his head white with the snows of more than sixty vivid, varied, toilsome years, but his eye still bright with the fire of the olden days, softened now and sanctified by long and close communion with God. Beside him sits a young man whom he has adopted and maintained at the University of Prague, a German, the son of one named Robert,' of Constance, and already a devoted pastor and eloquent preacher. His own two sons, and his beloved brother-in-arms, Baron Václav of Chlum and Pihel, are with him also in Litiz, though they do not share in this first solemn act of the infant Church.
Sir Hubert's grandson, a handsome boy named Prokop, enters the room, and at a signal from the president of the little assembly takes his place beside an urn which lies on the table. With an awed and reverent air he draws from it a slip of folded paper, which he presents to the president; then does the same in turn to each of those present. They receive it in solemn silence; the lips of most are moving in prayer, and no doubt the hearts of all are lifted up to God. Three of these slips bear upon them the one word ‘Est,' the rest are blank. Those who draw the first are to be the elders, —if God so will, the bishops of the Church.
Sir Hubert Bohun has drawn a blank. No matter. It is honor enough for him, though unknown and unnoticed in history, to have been amongst the Beginners of the Church of the United Brethren.' When those that turn many to righteousness shine as the stars forever and ever, no part of the Church of Christ will contribute a more glorious galaxy to the grand illumination than the beloved and honored Church of the Unity.' It was in its own land pre-eminently the Church of Martyrs. After loving, serving, and suffering there for nearly three hundred eventful years, it sent forth that goodly shoot, that fruitful bough hanging over the wall, which, under its modern designation of the Church of the United Brethren of Bohemia and Moravia,' has become preeminently the Church of Missionaries.
There rests no stain upon the white banner of ‘The Unity.' Never have the Brethren done violence to any; seldom, if ever, have they even resisted wrong. Those who most detest their principles have had to bear witness once and again that God was in them of a truth.
Nor is their work done yet; either in their own beloved Bohemia, or through the length and breadth of the world, where there is no land, however remote and inhospitable, untrodden by the feet of their missionaries. We shall read the whole story of earth in the illumining light of its completion, ere we know all that God has done, is doing, and will yet do through the harvest which has sprung from the ashes of the martyr of Constance.
Well, therefore, may we join the Churches of the Brethren in the words of prayer and praise that conclude their beautiful Easter Morning Litany:
‘Keep us in everlasting fellowship with our brethren and our sisters who have entered into the joy of their Lord; and with the whole Church triumphant; and let us eternally rest with them in Thy Presence.
‘Glory be to Him who is the Resurrection and the Life: He was dead, and, behold! He is alive for evermore; and he that believeth in Him, though be were dead, yet shall he live.
‘Glory be to Him in the Church which waiteth for Him, and in that which is around Him, forever and ever. Amen!'
THE END.