Protestantism in Switzerland - James Aitken Wylie

immersed in darkness, but destined soon to become
the brightest luminary in that brilliant constellation,
was the light travelling. But the mountains of the
Oberland, which are the first to catch the natural
day, and to flash their early fires all over
Switzerland, were the last to be touched with the
Reformed dawn now rising on Christendom. With
the light brightening all round, they remained in the
darkness.
The herdsmen of these cantons saw with grief
and alarm the transformation which was passing
upon their country. The glory was departing from
it. They felt only horror as messenger after
messenger arrived in their mountains and told them
what was transacting on the plains below; that the
altars at which their fathers had worshipped were
being cast down; that the images to which they had
bent the knee were being flung into the flames; that
priest and monk were being chased away; that the
light of holy taper was being extinguished, and that
silence was falling on those holy orisons whose
melodies welcomed the morn and greeted the
departure of the day; that all those rites and
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