Protestantism in France From Death of Henry IV to the Revolution - James Aitken Wylie

These worshipping assemblies were usually
convened at night, the more effectively to avoid
pursuit. When they met in a wood, as very often
happened, they hung lamps on the boughs of the
trees, that they might see the passages of Scripture
which were read, and the psalms that were sung.
Afterwards, when the congregations had swelled to
thousands, they met during day, selecting as their
rendezvous the mountain-top, or some vast stretch
of solitary moor. Their worship, how simple in its
outward forms, but in spirit how sublime, and in its
accessories how grand! the open vault above, the
vast solitude around, the psalm and prayer that rose
to heaven amidst the deep stillness, the dangers that
environed the worshippers -- all tended to give a
reality and earnestness to the devotions, and impart
a moral dignity to the worship, compared with
which the splendor of rite or of architecture would
have, been but desecration. The Protestant Church
of France had returned to her early days. It was
now with her as when Calvin administered to her
the first Communion on the banks of the Claim
This was her second birthday.
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