Protestantism in France From Death of Francis I to Edict of Nantes - James Aitken Wylie

concerning the way in which many of these
congregations arose. Some poor but honest citizen
would learn the way of peace in the Bible; he
would tell it to his next neighbor; that neighbor
would tell it in his turn; and in a little while a small
company of simple but fervent disciples would be
formed, who would meet regularly at the midnight
hour to pray and converse together. Ere their
enemies were aware, half the town had embraced
"the religion;" and then, taking courage, they
would avow their faith, and hold their worship in
public. As the rich verdure spreads over the earth
in spring, adding day by day a new brightness to
the landscape, and mounting ever higher on the
mountain's side, so, with the same silence, and the
same beauty, did the new life diffuse itself
throughout France. The sweetness and joy of this
new creation, the inspired Idyll alone can
adequately depict -- "Lo, the winter is past, the rain
is over and gone: the flowers appear on the earth;
the time of the singing of birds is come, and the
voice of the turtle is heard in our land. The fig-tree
putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the
grape give a good smell."
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