7. What effect should such a life have on us as we study it?




V.

FOUNDATION STONES.--A.D. 1550.


During the first half of the Sixteenth century the Church struggled
strenuously for a more complete organization. The Word of God was
quietly circulated and believers in Jesus Christ were growing numerous.
But hitherto they had to worship God at their own fireside or burn at
the stake. In the humble cottage, while the raging storm kept spies
away, the father read from the Book of God to his children as they
huddled around the turf fire, and the mother sang Psalms to the little
ones as she knit their stockings or baked the oaten bread. Thus pious
parents instilled into their sons and daughters the truth of Christ
which stirred their blood, and prepared a generation to emerge from the
bondage of Papacy.


THE FIRST COVENANT--1557.

During these times the Church was found chiefly in groups of Christians
who met secretly for prayer. A company of devout believers came
together to spend the evening hours, or the Sabbath day, in the worship
of God. The meeting was called a Society. In these places prayer was