ENGLISH travelers on the Continent are so accustomed to limit their residence entirely to Paris, or some other large town, that the real France, which lies outside such towns, is almost totally unknown to them. Arid yet it is the inhabitants of the country who most truly represent the nation, rather than the townspeople, from whom they differ on many essential points. Paris life and Paris character―pleasure-loving, blasé, immoral, and infidel―have very little in common with the honest, thrifty, hard-working inhabitants of the provinces, amongst whom it is our pleasure to live and work. There being no class in England that exactly corresponds with them, it is difficult to represent to English readers the character of these twenty-five millions or so, who live by the cultivation of the land. “Farmers” is the nearest term in English to represent them, though in fact they are, as a rule, proprietors of the land rather than rent payers; but the term “peasant proprietor,” though more accurate, has never been accepted in English.
Their simple independent character renders them very accessible to Gospel preaching. They are nominally Roman Catholics, just because they know of nothing else, but they dislike everything which is distinctly Catholic, whether church, priest, or doctrine. They are only too keen in exposing the absurdities of fasting, mass-buying, and the confessional; but at the same time they are not sufficiently interested in spiritual things to take the extreme step of what they call “changing one’s religion.” They, therefore, content themselves in a general way with believing in God and in Christ, and endeavoring to live a fairly moral, honest life, simply because they know nothing else. They accept tracts with pleasure, buy Bibles and Testaments readily, but as a rule they do not gather much as to the way of salvation from what they read. The capacity for spiritual things seems to have been so long unexercised in them that it has become inert or atrophied. What is really wanted is the simple, plain-spoken explanation of the Gospel, and for this the opportunities are just unlimited. Imagine a tract of country as large as Sussex or Kent, and as densely populated―in other words, about fifty miles long by twenty broad―without a single pastor or evangelist of any kind, and you will have an idea of the mass of people to the northeast of the village where we are living, a mass of people, practically without Christ, and with not much likelihood of ever hearing about Him in this world.
It was, therefore, with extreme pleasure that some months ago we received an invitation from some of the people themselves to go over to one village and hold a magic lantern service. We hired the largest room available in the place, which at its utmost capacity would barely hold one hundred persons, but with those at the window and entrance trying to see and hear, almost double that number assembled. Considering the difficulties in the way of imperfect speaking, and want of accommodation, the attention was excellent. We, therefore, returned a fortnight afterwards, and have continued ever since every two or three weeks, the interest of the people being now fairly gained, and the magic lantern no longer necessary. One young man is, I think, truly converted, others are decidedly impressed, and several have bought Testaments and hymnbooks.
Shortly after beginning in this village, a similar opportunity presented itself in another locality about five miles further off, where a peasant proprietor who had a large barn, put it at our disposal, and in a similar way the people flocked in readily to listen to the Gospel.
I find by experience that lantern scenes of the Life of our Lord are the best means for commencing work in a new village. Not only does it fix the attention on the one central fact―the Life and Atonement of our Lord―but it enables Catholics to realize better than anything else that we actually do believe in Him. To English ears this may seem strange, but Romish priests have so reiterated to their hearers that all Protestants are freethinkers and Deists, that it requires very strong evidence to put away such prejudices and to convince people that we really do believe in and worship the Lord Jesus.
It was painfully touching to listen to one fairly-educated man of between sixty and seventy, who said, “I have long been desirous to find the real truth; this is my chief desire.” But to realize what the blank of such a man’s soul is, it must be remembered that his life, like that of the thousands round about him, has been somewhat as follows.
He has been educated at the national school of the village, where, as may be supposed, the religious teaching is very limited. At the age of ten or eleven he attended the priest’s catechism class for twelve months, so as to “pass his first communion.” One of the chief items of this religious instruction being on the matter of how to swallow the wafer without biting it. Those twelve months represent the whole religious teaching he has ever had in his life; and, that having been got through, he has taken up the general dislike of Romanism he meets with all around him, and, except for his marriage, he has never or rarely been inside the walls of the village church again. He has thus spent fifty long years absolutely without religion of any kind, but he has a vague feeling at heart that he would be all the better if he could get hold of some kind of truth ; but where to find it, he does not know.
Still, to such a one, who is a stranger to even religious phraseology of every kind, the entrance of the light is slow. It requires much patience and love to deal with such a man; and, as we feel that a mere Gospel meeting once a month is quite inadequate for such work, my wife and I have decided to go and live in this last-mentioned village, so as to be able, by means of visiting, to get into closer contact with honest seeking souls. This will in no way diminish our interest in the work of helping Romish priests; and, if we can get one of their number to come and help us in practical evangelistic work, so much the better.
I must again express my thanks to the readers of FAITHFUL WORDS for the interest they take in our efforts ; and I only wish I could persuade large numbers, many of whom would be far better qualified than ourselves, to come and take their part in such testimony for the Master.
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We again remind our readers of Mr. Hathaway’s work in caring for priests of the Roman Church, who either have left that system of religion, or who are honestly exercised as to their path before God. Such men sorely need a friend. They are cruelly persecuted. And to them Mr. Hathaway’s house is a home. This means the cost of living, and at times of clothes, perhaps of railway fares.
Mr. Hathaway serves his Lord and Master solely for love, but he needs us to assist him with the gold that perishes.