In the Year of our Lord 1552 the Subterranean dungeons of the city of Lyons were tenanted by two prisoners of strongly opposite character. In one of these dark, damp, and dismal vaults bound hand and foot, tormented not only by the vermin which infested this noisome abode, but by the fierce cravings of hunger, which the scanty prison allowance of bread and water seemed rather to stimulate than to satisfy, lay Jean Pierre Chambon, who having three years before, committed robbery and murder, had at length fallen into the hands of justice.
Shut out from the light of day, the sight of his fellow-men, save once in twenty-four hours, the jailer entered with the sparingly doled out portion of food, from which a dog might have turned away with loathing, this ruthless robber had for two weary months been fain to vent his impotent rage by impatient tossings on his mouldy straw making the gloomy walls resound with the clanking of his chains mingled with the blasphemies against God, and curses on the day of his birth, his parents, and all mankind.
But a few days before the period at which our relation commences, most unwonted tones disputed with the blasphemer, the hitherto undivided empire of those cavernous recepticals, the harmonious sounds of psalms and hymns were borne distinctly to his ear from neighbouring dungeons.
The year 1552 is, alas! marked in the annals of France as one of grievous Protestant persecution, and many pious Huguenots were incarcerated in Lyons, and in other parts of France, for their adherence to their holy faith. From them proceeded the unwonted sounds, which produced no other impression on Chambon, than a stirring up of the native enmity of his heart and impelling him to redouble his blasphemies whenever the accents of prayer or praise fell with distinctness on his ear: for he was rude and boisterous by nature, his heart was hardened by crime, and so entire was his ignorance of the Gospel, that although familiar with the name of St. Francis, he was wholly unacquainted with Christ the Saviour of the world. Such was the bodily and spiritual estate of this miserable man, when in the gracious providence of God, it came to pass that as all cells were over-filled with persecuted Gospel confessors, one of them, named Peter Bergier, a native of Geneva, was placed in the same dungeon with Chambon.
Bergier being engaged in commerce had come to Lyons in the course of business, probably little anticipating any evil results from his journey thither. He was a man of considerable property, was highly esteemed by his fellow-citizens, and specially happy in the possession of a devoted wife and promising family, yet none of those temporal advantages had so absorbed his affections as to induce him to neglect the higher and holier ends of his being. But like that merchant of whom the Saviour speaks he had been a seeker of ‘goodly pearls’ and having recognised in the Gospel the one pearl of great price he felt ready to part with all, even life itself rather than forego possession of it.
In being subjected to bonds and imprisonment for the truth’s sake, Bergier knew he did but share the lot of all Christ’s disciples, from apostolic times down to his own; yet was he not a little startled when he learned with whom he was to be imprisoned. Still more was he appalled when he heard the curses and blasphemies which flowed unceasingly from the evil treasure of the wretched Chambon’s heart, but the thought that for this soul Christ might have died changed his horror into compassion; his disgust into an earnest longing to contribute to the rescue of the lost one. Bergier began by beseeching, with all gentleness and kindness, his rude companion to desist from cursing and blaspheming, representing to him that these could not possibly help but would most assuredly injure him by heaping up wrath against the day of wrath on his devoted head, and he further entreated the unhappy man to join with him in prayer. Chambon replied that it was very true that his curses did not bring him any aid at all, but that Bergier’s prayers would bring himself as little. Thinking therefore the futility of his attempt to induce his wretched associate to pray for himself, Bergier was only the more fervid in intercessions for him, and at the same time he evinced his sympathy and goodwill towards him by performing (for he was unfettered) many little services for the manacled prisoner, and even by sharing with him the better food with which private friends in the city strove to lighten the privations of the martyr’s imprisonment. The result was that Chambon ceased to disturb, at least, the good man’s prayers, by the accustomed rude blasphemous interruptions and began by degrees to listen with patience, if not with interest, to what Bergier communicated to him from the Word of God.
With true Gospel wisdom, Bergier dwelt chiefly on the love of Christ in emptying Himself of His inherent glory for our sakes and in at length submitting to the bitterest sufferings and death even the death of the Cross, in order that none who believed in Him should perish, but that all, without exception, who turned their believing eyes on Him might be saved by free grace and receive the gift of eternal life. And lo! What bolts and bars, dungeon darkness, dungeon fare, manacled limbs, and hunger-wasted frame could not effect, was effected by the preaching of the Gospel. As a fire the words of free fervour enkindled repentance in the heart of this sin-burdened man, and as a hammer did they break in pieces his stony heart. Sighs after pardon and forgiveness burst from his labouring bosom, and his sins rose up before his mental vision in all their condemning enormity. Like Cain, he had committed murder, like him he was tempted to despair, but Bergier pointed out to him the mercy of God who willeth not the death of the sinner, but that he should turn to him and live. “What! even a murderer,” asked Chambon. “Yes,” replied Bergier, “for thus speaks the Lord by His prophet to those whose hands were full of blood, ‘Wash you, and make you clean,’ ‘Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes,’ ‘Cease to do evil, learn to do well,’ and ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.'” “But what good can I now do?” asked Chambon, “bound and fettered and appointed to death as I well know myself to be.” “You can believe God’s declaration,” replied Bergier, “and look to Him for the forgiveness of your sins. It was a criminal like you, one nailed hand and foot to the cross, appointed to death, and disabled from living a life of obedience, that said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom!’ Unto him the Saviour gave the comforting assurance: ‘To-day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.’ ‘Take that for your example and your warrant.'” “And do you really believe,” cried Chambon, on whose mind a ray of hope began faintly to dawn, “that I can be saved?” “Only believe and thou shalt be saved,” said Bergier, with solemn earnestness and straightway, kneeling down he began to pray aloud that Jesus Christ would have compassion on the repentant sinner and give him assurance of His grace. Chambon had fallen on his knees likewise and with folded hands and trembling voice joined in Bergier’s prayer, with the petition, “Lord Jesus, dear Saviour, have mercy on me. I am indeed unworthy of Thy notice and merit nothing but damnation, but Thou hadst mercy on the malefactor on the cross. Oh, have mercy on me also, even on me.” And now, as it was the first time in his life that he had really prayed, so he learned also now for the first time that prayer can help us. Even while he prayed the ray of hope grew brighter in his heart and the Holy Spirit which had by means of the Word begun the good work in his soul, carried it on by the same instrumentality to the day of redemption.
From that hour Chambon commenced as he himself afterwards expressed it, a new walk openly confessing himself the “chief of sinners,” bewailing his shameful life and horrid acts, he continued instant in prayer to God for mercy and pardon. At the same time, he drank in the Scriptures which Bergier repeated to him, as the thirsty earth drinks in the rain from heaven, until he at length attained, the firm assurance, that he too, all unworthy as he was in himself, had obtained, through the Lord Jesus Christ’s redemption by His blood, even the forgiveness of his sins, according to the riches of His grace. The lips of him, who was before a blasphemer and injurious, now overflowed with thanksgiving and praise, for the mercy which had been vouchsafed to him. He bore now every suffering with patience, acknowledging he had deserved much both from God and man, and professed a humble and devoted love for that God whom he had once refused to hear.
About the time when this entire change took place, in his inward man it pleased God, who is rich in mercy to appoint him some alleviation of his outward sufferings by the removal of his fetters, and his being furnished with better food. But far more than over such bodily comforts did the repentant sinner rejoice in—the acquisition of a Bible which some friends had sent to Bergier and which he gladly permitted his fellow-prisoner to read. A very little light fell into the dungeon through a small air hole and before this orifice, Chambon would stand hour after hour poring with extreme difficulty but unsatiated delight on the newly obtained treasures of the sacred page.
Bergier, who seems to have met sympathising abettors among the prison officials, found opportunity of communicating to other gospel confessors, who pined within the same walls, the great mercy which Chambon had experienced from the Lord, and in order to strengthen his faith and comfort his heart, they sent to him some books they had themselves received from pitying friends and accompanied by a letter of encouragement and exhortation. Chambon obtained through the kindness of one of the prison attendants writing materials and replied to those Christian prisoners in the following terms:—
“Time would fail me were I to attempt to rehearse all the mercies and benefits which the Almighty hath bestowed on one whose godless life and daring crimes deserved nothing but judgment at His hands. But thanksgiving and praise be to Him for the merciful chastisement with which He has graciously visited me in this world, that I might not be condemned in the next. For although my punishment is severe, I yet feel and confess that I deserve a thousandfold more. Hence I no longer regard my pains and torments as heavy to bear, but looking away from them endure all patiently, only wondering at all the goodness and mercy which God has displayed towards me. Wherefore I am ready and willing to undergo whatever further trials He may see fit to lay upon me, and will take them all patiently. But I earnestly entreat you to do me one kindness and that is to write to me how I may best prepare myself for death in case I be doomed thereto, and I further beg that you will not forget me in your prayers. “The Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, comfort you, and give you patience in your imprisonment.”
Thus it was with Chambon as with all Christians—old things are passed away and all became new. But the Lord showed him yet another distinguished mercy. His brother though wholly innocent of all participation in Jean Pierre’s bloodshedding, had been accused, arrested and imprisoned as an accomplice and worse than them all, had been put to the torture to make him confess himself guilty! Bergier having opportunity of meeting him occasionally in the cell of another prisoner availed himself of these opportunities to relate to him his brother’s change of mind, and to urge him to follow his example. And the Lord opened his heart so that he received the word with joy, and Bergier became the honoured instrument of his conversion also.
This was the greater joy to Chambon, as he justly felt himself to be the procuring cause of his brother’s misfortunes—he thus alludes to the circumstances in the already mentioned letter to his Christian fellow-prisoners: “I must also inform you of the great grace which God hath shown my brother and thus made him ample amends for the torture to which he was innocently subjected. He came into this prison with blinded eyes as well as I: but by God’s mercy and blessing and the instruction of our brother Bergier, he will leave it with the light of the knowledge of the Divine Word, so that his benefit is greater than his injury and if brother Bergier had never done any other good but this it would be a wondrous deed for I esteem it higher than if my brother had gained the whole world!”
Chambon continued to grow in grace, so that at length he was able to meet his fearful punishment with courage and hope. He was condemned to be broken on the wheel, and yet, notwithstanding the well known tortures which accompany this death, he listened to his sentence with composure, and bore its execution with patience. At the place of punishment he confessed, with much contrition, his many sins, in the hearing of the assembled multitude, and entreated their forgiveness for the scandal and offence he has occasioned even as he trusted God had forgiven him for Christ’s sake, for which grace he praised God with a loud voice and then quietly laid himself down to endure his fearful doom.
And what became of Bergier? He might easily have not only saved his life, but obtained permission to return to his home and family, had he been willing to purchase those favours by a recantation of his Protestant faith. But he remembered his Saviour’s declaration, “Whosoever will lose his life for My sake, shall find it,” and so he manfully “held fast that he had,” that “no man should take his crown,” continued steadfast in the faith without wavering, and was condemned to be burnt to death.
On his way to the place of execution, we are told the peace of God so illumined his countenance, that his friends deemed they had never seen him look so beautiful: and as he passed along in the condemned car, he greeted such as were known to him by bidding them a friendly good-night, whilst he at the same time entreated everyone whom he might unintentionally have offended, to forgive him, as he from the heart forgave all his fellow-creatures.
Unmoved by this touching evidence of Christian humility and love, a Romish priest called out to him, “Thou art going straight to hell, thy fitting dwelling-place,” to which the martyr replied, “The Lord forgive thee!”
A vast multitude having accompanied him to the scene of his sufferings, Bergier cast on them a compassionate look, exclaiming, “Oh, how great the harvest! Lord, send labourers into Thy harvest.” He then repeated the confession of faith, and cried out at its conclusion, “Oh, Lord, how sweet and lovely is Thy name!”
As they were binding him to the stake Bergier prayed, “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” And when the fire was kindled and the flames began to wrap him round, he looked upward and said, “I see heaven open!” These were the last words he was heard to utter. Smoke and flame choked his voice and his soul ascended to Him who had promised “Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.”
What gave Bergier this strength thus to hold out to the end? The same word and spirit which changed Chambon, the reckless, ruthless murderer into the humble, contrite and patient disciple, and thus united the murderer and the martyr. “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.” And this word and spirit are offered to all—to you, also, oh reader! Oh, lay then to heart the words of the Lord Jesus, “Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.”
—Watchman and Reflector.