Note 39 — Chapter VIII

Since the return of M. Vernier to France this little church has been without a pastor, “as sheep without a shepherd.” Its members had recourse only the more directly to the “Shepherd and Bishop of their souls,” and great blessing, it is said, has attended the gatherings there. The Elders of the church and others lead the devotions, and address the congregation. The Church is now crowded, as never before, in a great measure by the very poor, the “outcast” population, whose usual habit it is to abstain from church-going altogether. This fact gives rise to ridicule on the one hand, to rejoicing and thankfulness on the other; for these are the very persons whom it is acknowledged are the hardest to reach. In a recent meeting of members of that church a grave discussion took place on the question whether women should be allowed to pray in the church in the evening or “after meetings.” (It will be remembered that it was the prayer of a woman in one such after meeting which was the occasion of the rupture in that church, followed by the retirement of its pastor.) The question was referred to M. Aimé Humbert, whose brief and pregnant answer seems a prophesy of the future solution not of this alone, but of many other questions—“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty.”