Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/51

Rh Afterwards, various transactions of the synod during the past May were communicated. M. Schott admonished the congregation to make themselves acquainted with these, and particularly with all the affairs of the church, because this was the business of all good members. The details then followed, many of sufficient interest even for strangers. In the synod of one hundred persons, dissimilarity of views had been openly expressed, with the maintenance of the most perfect harmony, both as to individual temper and the business of the synod. Not a single word had been said which could cause regret. In the congregations of the Free Church, amounting to above forty, some deviated from others in sundry usages and institutions; but unity in the main object and intention had remained undisturbed. I was much pleased with a little man who seemed to be the finance minister of the Free Church, and who, with much tact and good humor, rendered an account of the not very brilliant state of the central fund, and admonished “the brethren and sisters” to a more liberal contribution.

The meeting closed by the singing, in an excellent style, the beautiful old hymn Agnus Dei. The chapel was, on this occasion also, very well filled, although not so numerously as in the morning.

The Free Church in the Canton Vaud originated in the revolution of 1845, when the new, self-constituted government required that the clergy of the national church should read from the pulpits, in the presence of their congregations, a long proclamation in vindication of its accession to power and its mode of action. A great number of the clergy refused to obey this command,