brethren; your Master calls for full fidelity to his example.”
A loud but solemn “Amen” followed this earnest exhortation, and the service, nearly the last in those regions for about a century and a half, closed with the following hymn:
Thee, the good Lord, we now adore:
The evil Lord disown,
Blessings, not curses, deign to pour
On all thy saints alone.
Lord, bless the bread, the wine, that we
Thy death, thy life, may know;
And that thy grace through them may be
Thy presence as we go.
Let married love continue, Lord,
As Paul and Peter say;
And brethren with sweet accord
In prayer pursue thy way.
Bless the baptized, the perfect, all
Believers; let them see
Antichrist slain; and with him fall
Sin and its slavery.
This hymn, compiled chiefly through the preponderating Waldensian influence, happily presented and harmonized the meeting points of the various denominations. Pietro and Solomon met immediately after the ordinance. “I comprehend it all now,” exclaimed Ben Gerson; “and although I cannot participate in your creed, yet I sincerely pray for a blessing on your earnestness and philanthropy. We shall all blend in the great oneness whereof we are infinitesimal atoms.”
