Do you have a favorite soup? Chicken noodle, or clam chowder, or spicy bean soup? Most of us are a bit fussy about our soup and want it prepared just the way we like it. Why are we talking about soup when we left off with the armies all gathered around Geneva? Soup was important to the poor believers inside the city. They had little food and the soup that was served to William Farel one night about this time had an extra ingredient added.
You must first understand that a stranger had appeared in Geneva. She attended the gospel meetings and told the believers that she had been forced to leave France because she was persecuted for believing the gospel. She now had nowhere to live.
Claude Bernard was touched by her story and hired her to be a maid. The three gospel preachers, William Farel, Peter Viret and Anthony Froment, were living with Claude, and he could well use a maid in the house.
One day the maid brought dinner as usual for William, Peter and Anthony. She had made some thick spinach soup.
“I like the thin soup of the household better,” said William. “I will have my soup with the family.”
Anthony was just helping himself to the soup when someone arrived to tell him that his wife and children had just arrived in Geneva. Without even tasting the soup, he ran off to find them. Peter, who was still recovering from his stab wound, was the only one left to eat. The maid, Antonia, told him she had made the thick soup to help him get better. Scarcely had he finished his soup when Antonia ran into the room looking wild. She urged him to drink water but would not tell him why. Peter drank the water and soon became very ill.
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Claude Bernard was very upset as his friend seemed to be dying. Finally the truth flashed upon Claude’s mind, and he made a search for Antonia. She was nowhere to be found. Claude set off to catch her and before long brought her back. Antonia finally confessed that she had poisoned the soup and had been led to do so by some of the priests who had remained in the city.
Peter, although violently ill for some time, finally recovered. He felt the ill effects of the poison, however, for the rest of his life. But the work of God continued and more people in the city were converted. Idols were carried out of the churches and the Word of God sounded out clearly. Neither armies nor persecution nor poison nor hunger had put out God’s lights that were now brightly shining in Geneva. God’s eyes were continually on His dear children.
If you are saved, then His eyes are right now, as you are reading, upon you just as lovingly as they were upon His own in Geneva. “The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers” (1 Peter 3:1212For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. (1 Peter 3:12)).