Now while the clouds around Geneva were dark and heavy with the armies still waiting to attack, the city inside was full of sunshine. The city council asked the priests that remained to give answer from the Bible that their religion had been right. The priests replied that they were only poor men and could not. Finding that the whole city was not taking the believers’ part, the council ordered that only the Bible should be taught and that the idols and religious services of the priests should be stopped.
There was, all this time, a large group of religious ladies who had followed the priests and had remained shut away from the world in their own buildings. The religious ladies were fierce haters of the gospel and had cheered whenever they felt the preachers had been defeated. The council now ordered that these buildings had to be opened to the Word of God as well. The religious ladies were furious but had little choice.
Our friend, Claudine, the grand lady who had been saved when Anthony first came to Geneva, had a sister, Blaisine, who lived with these religious ladies. At this time Claudine visited her sister and spoke to the younger ladies who were also present.
“Poor ladies,” Claudine said, “do you know that God has said that His yoke is sweet and easy, and He has said, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’? He has not said to shut yourselves up in prison and torment yourselves as you are doing.”
Claudine’s words stopped when the ladies shut the door in her face. The religious ladies then discussed how best to stop the gospel believers. Sister Blaisine was the only one who did not answer. She looked as though she was thinking hard. The older ladies sent for her aunts, whom they begged to reason with Blaisine. Blaisine had been told that it was her sister, Claudine, who had come to talk to her, so she rose up joyfully to see her. It seems that the religious ladies had thought it all right on this occasion to tell a lie, for it was not Claudine, but her aunts who had come.
“Oh, Blaisine,” her aunts said, “we know that you just wish to be married.” Blaisine only smiled at them and returned to her lonely room. The other ladies looked upon Blaisine with disgust from then on.
Some time later, Baudichon, still fighting the Lord’s battles, came with other men and gave notice that any of the religious ladies who wished to leave could do so now and join their families. Many of the ladies shrieked and cried and gathered around the head lady. Baudichon knew that Blaisine was longing to escape, but she dared not show herself at first.
“Are you sister Blaisine?” they asked one lady after another.
“Indeed not!” was the reply. “Neither do I wish to be.”
Finally poor Blaisine dared to take a few steps toward the men who had come to rescue her. The head lady flew at her and tried to drag her back, but Blaisine was led out to safety. How happy Claudine must have been to teach her sister more of the precious truths of the Bible!
The other religious ladies now planned to leave Geneva. They would no longer stay in a town with such heathens! The duke of Savoy offered them a safe place to go and early one morning they left Geneva and, sadly, left the truth of the Word of God.
The council of Geneva now visited the empty building and found no less than 1700 eggs, three large barrels of flour and oil. These things were a great treasure to the starving people.
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Now that you have heard this strange story of how these religious ladies refused the good news of God’s salvation, I ask you to seriously consider if the same gospel has found a welcome in your own heart. Is it possible that you have avoided someone who was sure to speak to you about the loving Saviour? Have you ever wished the preaching would not be so long so that you could go about with your fun? Perhaps you have been satisfied that you are better, at least, than your neighbors. Or maybe you are proud that you were born into a family of Christians. None of these things will do. The same words written to the religious ladies of Geneva and to the worst man in prison are also written to you: “Ye must be born again” (John 3:77Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:7)).