hrist was present in name, but absent in reality.

In the administration of the church there were many serious defects. The
meeting of the synods was very difficult, partly because of the suspicions
of the government, and partly from the unwillingness of the communes to
bear the expense connected therewith. Again, the synods themselves answered
but imperfectly to the design of their institution, and their influence on
the spiritual state of the church very small. The Table, in its turn,
forgetting that its duties were essentially religious, sunk insensibly into
a kind of higher tribunal for secular affairs. The same tendency showed
itself in the bosom of the consistories.

However, amidst these deep shades some gleams of light, the heralds of
better things, began to show themselves. The first of these hopeful signs
was due to the liberality, as regards its beginning, of Madame Geymet, who
in the year 1826 laid the foundation of a hospital for the poor Waldensians
at La Torre. Madame Geymet was encouraged warmly by Pastor La Bert, the
then moderator of the Waldensian Church, and Pastor Cellerier, of Geneva,
who made a collection in aid of the object. The Count Waldburg Truchsesse,
Prussian ambassador at Turin, obtained help from Prussia; Dr. Gilly, by
means of the committee in London, sent large help from this country.
Holland, France, and Russia also joined in the effort; so that at length
the brave projector had the satisfaction of seeing _two_ hospitals grow out
of her once ridiculed scheme. The second hospital was erected at Pomaret,
for the especial benefit of the valleys of San Martino and Pragela.

Another means of awakening at this time arose from the arrival of some
young ministers, who had just left the foreign academies, especially that
of Lausanne, where the influence of a spiritual revival had been
particularly felt. A visit paid to the different parishes of the valleys in
1826 by Felix Neff and Pastor Blanc, of Mens, resulted in much spiritual
fruit.

These were but streaks of morning light, however. Long years had to pass,
and many painful struggles to be engaged in, before the Sun of
Righteousness shone clearly with His beneficent rays on the thick woods and
the shady corners of these lovely valleys. Among those who have been the
means of promoting the revival of true religion in the Waldensian Church
stand out conspicuously the names of Dr. Gilly and General Beckwith. The
former paid his first visit to