YEARS passed by and Farel labored on. We hear of him at Montbeliard, again at Metz, and at Geneva, in Germany, and in various French towns near the borders of Germany and Switzerland. At last, in 1553, when he was 64 years old, the tidings reached Geneva that Farel was dying at Neuchatel.
Calvin, who so fervently loved him, hastened to his side. He stayed with him for a few days, and then he left him. He could not bear to see him die. But the Lord answered the prayers of many of His people, and Farel recovered. In a little while he was preaching as before.
In the year 1560 some of the people of Gap arrived at Neuchatel, and entreated him to come amongst them once more.
The old man set off, with a Bible and a staff, and was soon preaching by the hill sides, in the mills and fields, and in the streets and markets.
Having preached for a while in the marketplace of Gap, he was entreated to preach in a large chapel. Very soon, however, an edict was passed by the French Government, forbidding all such preaching, excepting in private houses. But as the chapel was the only place capable of containing the crowds who came to hear, Farel preached there still.
An order was sent to the king’s proctor at Gap to seize the heretic preacher. But the proctor had himself believed the blessed tidings of the love of God and he would not lay hands upon Farel. Another proctor was sent, and with a company of officers and many armed sergeants, he proceeded to the “Chapel of the Holy Dove.” The sergeants knocked loudly at the door, which was shut and locked. As no one opened it, they forced it in, and found the chapel crowded from end to end. But every eye remained fixed upon the preacher. No one moved, and Farel preached on. The sergeants made their way through the crowd, rushed upon the pulpit, and seized the preacher, “with the crime in his hand.” “The crime” was the Bible.
He was carried off and locked up in a dark dungeon. By what means the gospelers succeeded in rescuing him from his prison I cannot tell you. But by some means or another, he was carried off by them in the course of the night. They took him through the dark streets to the ramparts, and, like one of old, “he was let down the wall in a basket.” Other gospelers were waiting to receive him, and they conducted him safely back to Neuchatel.
But the next year we find him again amongst the hills of Dauphine. Another edict had been passed, allowing the gospelers to meet in the open air, provided the king’s officers were allowed to be present. Just as in the old times the village people had flocked to the holy cross on the hill at the Tallard, so now they came from far and near to hear of Him who hung upon the cross of Calvary to put away their sins.
And amongst them came none other than the old Bishop of Gap. We are told by a priest, who wrote the story of those days, how this old man rose up when the sermon was over, and cast upon the ground the miter he had worn and the crosier he had carried for five and thirty years. He trod them under his feet, and said he would follow the Lord Jesus with William Farel.
Very soon was he put to the test. Terrible massacres of the gospelers had begun in the neighborhood of Gap. The little flock of believers met together, and decided to leave their homes and fly to a place of safety. They set out, four hundred in number. At the head of the band marched the two old men William Farel and Gabriel de Clermont, once Bishop of Gap.
But the seed which had been sown sprang up when the gospelers were gone. And from that day to this light has never been extinguished in Farel’s beloved Dauphine.
In the spring of 1564 a letter was brought to Farel from his beloved friend John Calvin.
“Farewell,” wrote Calvin, “farewell, my best and truest brother. Since it is the Lord’s will you should live when I am gone, never forget our friendship, which, so far as it has been useful to the church of God, will bear fruit in eternity. Do not, I entreat, weary yourself by coming to see me. I breathe with difficulty, and I expect every moment to depart hence. I am well satisfied that I live and die in Christ. To you and the brethren, once more, farewell.”
Farel set off at once for Geneva. He found Calvin still alive. Once more they spoke together of the Lord whom they loved. And a few days later Calvin was absent from the body and present with the Lord.
Fares task, too, was nearly done. He was now 75 years old. His ceaseless labors might have worn out many a stronger man. But till his Master called him hence, he would work on.
When Calvin was gone, Farel set out on his last journey to Metz. It was still at the peril of his life that he went there “to sow his tares,” as said the bishop. But he was fearless as ever; and his preaching at Metz was with a power and freshness that cheered and stirred up the persecuted flock.
After one of these sermons he sank down exhausted. It was as much as his friends could do to carry him back to Neuchatel. There he lay for some time, too weak to move. But his room was thronged with those who loved him for his work’s sake, and who came once more to look on his beloved face, and to hear his last words.
On September 13, 1565, he passed away into the presence of his Lord. It was 15 months after the death of Calvin, and he was about 76 years old.
He was buried in the churchyard of Neuchatel. But his grave is now unknown, except to Him who will ere long call him forth to meet Him in the air.
Those who visited him in this last illness had had a foretaste of heaven which they could never forget. Christ had been magnified in his body, both by life and by death.
“Those who saw him,” we are told, “went away glorifying God.”
He had given directions that his body should be laid in the churchyard, “until that God shall call it forth from the corruption here below, and bring it alive into the glory of heaven.”
There was great mourning for “Father Farel.”
Thus do we end our story of one who sought no higher honor here below than to be a workman “approved of God,” who desired no other joy than that the Lord Jesus Christ should be glorified. “It is not,” he said, “the wealth, and the honor, and the pleasure of this world that are set before us, but to serve the Lord, and that alone.”
And according to his faith, so was it to William Farel. He had the love of those to whom Christ was dear, but besides that, his reward here below was reproach and shame, insult and hatred, suffering, and toil. And whilst the names of Luther and Calvin are everywhere spoken of and their history everywhere told, there are comparatively few who have heard of the fifty years’ labor of William Farel. Few men perhaps have been, in proportion to their work, so speedily forgotten. Whilst Luther’s books are everywhere to be had, the few writings of William Farel are almost unknown.
There may be perhaps one reason for this which we little like to own. But is it not true that the message with which Farel was sent is one from which the heart of man will shrink, not only in Popish countries, but in Protestant countries also! F. B.