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JEAI^ EREDERIC O B Z H L I N 
 
 lmdon/..Fu/l?' ly J.MsJcTr. Zl3vr7vtr^ StrvO-JSBO. 
 
BRIEF MEMORIALS 
 
 OF 
 
 JEAN FREDERIC OBERLIN, 
 
 PASTOR OF WALDBACH, IN ALSACE ; 
 AND OF 
 
 AUGUSTE BARON DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN; 
 
 TWO DISTINGUISHED ORNAMENTS OF THE FRENCH 
 PROTESTANT CHURCH ; 
 
 WITH AN 
 
 INTRODUCTORY SKETCH 
 
 OF THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE, FROM THE 
 PRIMITIVE AGES TO THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. THOMAS SIMS, M. A. 
 
 Author of " Christian Records*'—" Sermons partly illustrative of the 
 Devotional Services cf the Church of England,*' SjC, S^c. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JAMES NISBET, BERNERS STREET. 
 
 MDCCCXXX, 
 
>viv 
 
 LONDON : — J. DENNE-tT, LEATHER LANE. 
 
 GIFT 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 England and France have been, for many 
 ages, not only rivals, but, with occasional 
 intervals of repose, enemies set in array. 
 Their statesmen have opposed each other in 
 the cabinet, with the zeal and subtilty usual 
 amongst political antagonists. Their heroes 
 have met on the plain, and displayed the 
 valour as well as the skill of accomplished 
 combatants. Such hostility, attended as it 
 has ever been with far-spread evils, and 
 scenes of inexpressible calamity, cannot, 
 under any result, but awaken many painful 
 associations. But there is a rivalry, neither 
 tarnished by the arts of refined policy, nor 
 stained by the gore of battle-fields-7-the 
 rivalry in acts of humanity — the contest of 
 Christian philanthropists, who strive to sur- 
 pass each other in " doing good." 
 
 Amongst such characters, Jean Frederic 
 Oberlin, a Lutheran clergyman, and the late 
 a2 . 
 
 ^ M8175S8 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 Baron de Stael, are justly entitled to distinc- 
 tion for their unwearied consecration of the 
 faculties, both of mind and body, to the alle- 
 viation of human suffering*, and the diffusion 
 of religious knowledge amongst the poor: 
 and it is partly with a view to do justice to 
 persons of such undoubted excellence in a 
 foreign country, but chiefly in order to stimu- 
 late persons at home to renewed efforts, and 
 to point out a few paths of beneficence as yet 
 scarcely trodden, that I have undertaken the 
 grateful task of compiling these brief memo- 
 rials. 
 
 The biography of individuals, whose bene- 
 volence included so wide a sphere, will neces- 
 sarily comprise a succinct view of the general 
 state of Christianity in France at the present 
 moment ; and the Historical Sketch prefixed, 
 will,, it is hoped, put the reader in pos- 
 session of the principal features of religion 
 in France, in ancient as well as modern 
 days. 
 
 When on a journey to the Valleys of Pied- 
 mont, in the year 1823, in company with two 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 other gentlemen,^ I had the pleasure of be- 
 coming acquainted with the venerable pastor 
 Oberlin ; nor can I easily forget the Chris- 
 tian affection with which he first met and 
 accosted my friends and myself, when, led 
 by his grandson, on account of the dimness of 
 his sight, the aged Pastor stopped us for a 
 few moments, and addressed us in the court 
 before we entered his house. A noble sim- 
 plicity was at once conspicuous in his person, 
 his address, his words, and the sentiments he 
 uttered ; and it was, of course, very delightful 
 to see and to hear one, whose long life had 
 been graced by a series of benevolent exer- 
 tions, and had been equally distinguished 
 for patience, zeal, self-denial, and generous 
 sympathy. 
 
 . Even during his life-time, scattered ac- 
 counts of his extraordinary labours had 
 found their way into various publications in 
 England, France, and Germany, Sirfce his 
 decease, still more complete notices relative 
 to his philanthropic efforts have appeared in 
 different languages. That in the '' Chris- 
 
 * William Plenderleath and Durbin Brice, Esqrs. 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 tian Observer" was drawn up by the author 
 of the present work. More recently, an in- 
 teresting volume, entitled, *' Memoirs of Jean 
 Frederic Oberlin," has been published, con- 
 taining various documents, at full length, re- 
 lative to events and circumstances, which, in 
 the following work, are more briefly describ- 
 ed, or but slightly alluded to. 
 
 As Oberlin's sphere of exertion lay in a 
 sequestered mountainous district, his life 
 seems calculated to excite deep interest, 
 not only amongst Clergymen who have the 
 care of country parishes, but amongst bene- 
 volent individuals of the laity resident in 
 villages, and even amongst the peasantry. 
 And therefore, well knowing, from personal 
 observation, that numerous and extensive 
 districts in the United Kingdom are sus- 
 ceptible, and actually in need of> many of 
 the improvements, rural, social, and religious, 
 which Oberlin introduced at the Ban de la 
 Roche, I have been anxious to interweave 
 frequent and copious remarks, bearing di- 
 rectly upon such improvements in this coun- 
 try. Keeping this object in view, it appeared 
 
PREFACE, VU 
 
 to me desirable that the volume should be 
 prepared in such a form as to be calculated, 
 from its size and price, for extensive circu- 
 lation. 
 
 • "Whilst the life of Oberlin seems to pre- 
 sent, in many respects, a model for the in- 
 troduction of improvements into country 
 villages ; the numerous and truly noble 
 efforts of the Baron de Stael, will distinctly 
 shew what benefits may be conferred upon 
 populous cities, and even a whole kingdom, 
 by young men of rank and fortune, when; 
 with a strong and constant bias of the mind 
 towards comprehensive, yet well-digested, 
 and feasible plans of beneficence, they at- 
 tempt to stem the swelling current of na- 
 tional crime. 
 
 Various circumstances — amongst others, 
 doubtless, fluctuations in commerce, distress 
 in agricultural districts, and consequent want 
 of employment — have, for some years past, 
 increased the amount of general, and espe- 
 cially of juvenile delinquency. At such a 
 crisis, one of the most encouraging symptoms 
 
Vlll PREFACE.: 
 
 would be, an addition from amongst the 
 ranks of the younger Nobility and Gentry 
 of the land, to the number of those genuine 
 Christian patriots, who, by their prudent 
 zeal, and active benevolence, endeavour to 
 promote the happiness of their fellow-sub- 
 jects, and secure the welfare of the realm, 
 by advancing the interests of religion at 
 home, as well as abroad ; watching, with 
 wakeful vigilance, over the concerns of the 
 people, of every class and condition; and 
 adorning the station which they themselves 
 occupy, and the sphere in which they move, 
 by their virtues and their piety. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 INTRODUCTORY SKETCH OF THE HIS- 
 TORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE 1 
 
 BRIEF MEMORIAL OF J. F. OBERLIN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Oherlin is educated at Strashourg — Description 
 of Ban de la Roche — Pastoral Efforts of 
 Stubei — Adult Schools , . . , . . . . 25 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 Oherlin becomes M, Stuher^s Successor at Ban 
 de la Roche—His Method of Preaching and 
 Catechising — Establishes Schools, School- 
 Libraries, and Infant- Schools 34 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Improvement of the Parish Roads at Ban de 
 la Roche — Improvements in Agriculture — 
 Introduction of Manufactures — Plans of Do- 
 mestic Economy/ .......... 48 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Page 
 Female Parochial Assistants — OherlirCs Cor- 
 
 respondence with the British and Foreign 
 
 Bible Society 63 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Oherlin's Extra- Parochial Exertions ^-^ He aids 
 Missionary Attempts — Promotes the Distri- 
 . bution of the Scriptures in France . . . • 73 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Oberlin's Love of Peace -^Eccentricities — Hu^ 
 manitif — Piety • * 79 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Oberlin*s Death — Affecting Funeral — Conclud- 
 ing Remarks, . ... . . . . . . .86 
 
 A BRIEF MEMORIAL OF AUGUSTE BARON 
 DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 M, De Stael educated at Paris — His Mother 
 exiled — His hiterview with Napoleon — Is 
 banished — Returns to Paris — An active 
 Member of the Paris Bible Society .... 99 
 
CONTENTS. Xl 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Page 
 Demoralized State of Paris—'M* De Stael co- 
 operates with various Societies for raising the 
 Standard of Morals in Paris, and generally 
 in France — A Society for Christian Missions 
 amongst the Heathen formed 106 
 
 -■ CHAPTER III. 
 
 M, De Stael visits England with the Duke de 
 Broylie — Publishes " Let f res sur VAngle^ 
 terre*^^ Promotes Agricultural Improvements 
 in Switzerland — An Advocate of oppressed 
 Christians in the Canton de Vaud— Travels 
 in France to promote the Interests of the 
 Bible Society 127 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 M, De StaeVs Effort for the Abolition of the 
 Slave-tradc'^His Marriage^ Jour iney to Rome 
 — Return t6 Switzerland ^Death — Charac- 
 teristic Traits — Concluding Observations . .136 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 No. I. 
 
 Actual State of the Protestant Churches 
 throughout France, with Remarks. . . .149 
 
 No. II. 
 Act of Self' Dedication 104 
 
1m CONTENTS. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 Page 
 An Easy Method of instructing Adults to 
 
 read = 170 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 A Prayer which M, Oberlin and his Wife were 
 accustomed to use together . • 174 
 
 No. V. ."•'^- 
 
 Monument to Oberlin*s Memory, and an Institu- 
 tion to perpetuate Infant Schools at Ban de 
 la Roche ;...,.. Z78 
 
 '. Im<V\?. 
 
 ■r;Vv.:K 
 
AN 
 
 INTRODUCTORY SKETCH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE. 
 
 As the names of the two distinguished Philanthro- 
 pists, whose efforts form the substance of this vo- 
 lume, are intimately connected with the progress 
 of pure religion in France in modern days, it 
 seems very suitable to prefix a Sketch of the 
 History of Christianity in France, from the 
 prinutive ages to the present time. 
 
 I. The extensive conquests of the Romans appear 
 to have given the early Christian teachers great 
 facilities in their attempts to introduce the Gospel 
 into different countries. From Judsea it soon 
 
2 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 spread to Rome, and afterwards to Great Britain y 
 Spain, and France — then called Gaul — in the 
 West. 
 
 As early as the second century there were 
 flourishing Christian churches at Lyons, and at 
 Vienne,* a small city, about 15 miles from Lyons, 
 on the banks of the Rhone. They had been 
 founded by Greek Christians, apparently in con- 
 sequence of the commercial intercourse esta- 
 blished between Smyrna and Lyons. 
 
 . In the year 177 a cruel persecution of the 
 churches of Lyons and Vienne took place, an 
 account of which was afterwards transmitted 
 to the Christians of Asia Minor and Phrygia, in 
 an Epistle by Ireneeus, from Lyons. From 
 this valuable document we learn that there were 
 in all forty-eight martyrs. One of them was a 
 
 * I saw this city in the year 1814, and observed old 
 buildings there of Roman origin, as well as Roman 
 Catholic churches and convents that had suffered from 
 the French Revolution, The unhappy Governor by whom 
 our Lord was unjustly condemned, Pontius Pilate, hav- 
 ing been banished by the Emperor Caligula for mal- 
 administration, committed suicide in this city. 
 
CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE. d 
 
 young nobleman, named Vettius Agathus, who 
 cheerfully avowed himself a Christian, and so 
 ably defended the cause of his fellow-Christians, 
 that he was styled their advocate. Pothinus, 
 the venerable bishop, above 90 years of age, was 
 extremely ill-treated, and, within two days, died 
 in prison. Attains of Pergamos, was an aged 
 Christian, and a chief pillar of that church. 
 He was taken round the amphitheatre, preceded 
 by a written accusation, " This is Attains the 
 Christian." After having been imprisoned, and 
 tormented in public, he was thrown to the wild 
 beasts, with a pious and charitable physician, 
 named Alexander, a Phrygian by birth, but who 
 had long resided in Gaul. Sanctus, of Vienne, 
 a deacon, replied to questions respecting his 
 name, country, and condition, ** I am a Chris- 
 tian, which is to me name, and country, condition, 
 and every thing." When plates of hot iron were 
 applied to his body, he remained unmoved. 
 He, and Maturus, a Neophyte, were dragged 
 by wild beasts in the amphitheatre, and then 
 burnt to death upon hot iron bars. Blandina, a 
 female, being tormented in various ways, exhi- 
 bited surprising fortitude, constantly refused to 
 honour the pagan idols, encouraged a youth of 
 b2 
 
4 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 15 years, named Ponticus, amidst his sufferings, 
 and, being exposed to the rage of a wild bull, at 
 length expired. The enemies of the martyrs 
 afterwards collected their lacerated remains, 
 burnt them, and threw their ashes into the 
 Rhone, vainly hoping to prevent the accom- 
 plishment of their hope to partake of the future 
 resurrection of the just. 
 
 The writer of the admirable epistle already 
 alluded to, Irenseus, afterwards became a Bishop, 
 and died a martyr at Lyons. From a letter 
 which he wrote to his friend Florinus, it appears 
 that Irenseus had been brought up in his youth 
 under Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna ; ^^ I can 
 describe,** says he, *^ the very spot in which- 
 Polycarp sat and expounded, the manner of 
 his life, the figure of his body, the sermons 
 which he preached to the multitude ; how he re- 
 lated to us his converse with John, and the rest 
 of those who had seen the Lord ; how he men- 
 tioned their particular expressions, and the things 
 he had heard from them of the Lord, of his mi- 
 racles, of his doctrines. These things, through 
 the mercy of God, I heard with seriousness ; I 
 wrote them — not on paper, but on my heart ; and 
 
CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE. 5 
 
 €ver since, through the grace of God, have a 
 genuine remembrance of them." — In this a beau* 
 tiful example for young persons in every age and 
 land ! He was so desirous to instruct the people 
 of Lyons when a presbyter, that though his na- 
 tive tongue was Greek, he applied himself to the 
 study of the barbarous Celtic language of Gaul. 
 And, in this instance also, he remains a pattern — 
 a pattern to those Clergymen who undertake 
 the care of parishes where a language foreign to 
 their own prevails, as in Ireland ; a country 
 where, as in Wales, the services and sermons 
 ought, in many districts, to be both in English and 
 the Irish Celtic dialect, until the latter shall fall 
 into disuse. When Irenseus became at length Bi- 
 shop of Lyons, like his predecessor, Pothinus, 
 he became also a martyr, in the reign of Severus. 
 Being taken, with several of his friends, to the 
 top of a hill, there were crosses placed on the 
 one hand, and idols on the other. The choice 
 was then offered to them, either to worship the 
 idols and live, or be crucified. They chose the 
 latter alternative, and suffered martyrdom.* The 
 
 * There is a church in the ancient part of the city of 
 Lyons, still called the Church of Ireiia3us. The bodies 
 £)f Irenieus, and other martyrs, are said to lie underneath. 
 
O SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 writings of Irenseus have been always esteemed 
 a treasure in the Christian church. He was the 
 first, it is said, who proposed the word Lateinos, 
 written in Greek letters, as the probable inter- 
 pretation of the mysterious number 606 in the 
 13th chapter of the Revelation of St. John; an 
 interpretation which, if just, appears to refer 
 the prediction to the corrupt ecclesiastical system 
 of Rome — the Church of Rome being distinctively 
 the Latin Church, in which the services are still 
 obstinately retained in Latin, though to its mem- 
 bers in general an unknown tongue. 
 
 Whilst the historic facts just adduced shew, 
 that when Roman conquest and commercial in- 
 tercourse had paved the way for the introduction 
 of the Christian religion into Gaul, pious Greek 
 Christians availed themselves of the door of 
 access thus opened, and sent Christian teachers 
 from beyond the Alps, and even from beyond the 
 Adriatic, to impart the benefits of the Gospel to 
 
 It is the most ancient church in the city, constructed, ap- 
 parently, on the foundations of another still more ancient. 
 The arches and windows are circular ; the floor is com- 
 posed of brick. 
 
CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE, ' 
 
 the Colonies established at Lyons and Vienne, 
 and to their less civilized and enlightened fellow- 
 creatures in the adjoining regions, their conduct 
 remains a legacy and an example bequeathed to 
 other ages ; and the Church of Smyrna presents, 
 in this respect, an instructive lesson to such a 
 Church as that of England, and such a city as 
 that of London, as well as other great commer- 
 cial cities of the British empire, from which 
 ships sail to the remotest quarters of the world. 
 The great religious Societies, the Bishops, and the 
 Nobility connected with the United Church of 
 England and Ireland, cannot indeed neglect the 
 high and honourable duty that devolves upon 
 them to make more strenuous efforts than hitherto, 
 without incurring deep and fearful responsibility, 
 standing as that Church does, as a Princess 
 amongst the Reformed Churches in Christendom. 
 
 Other churches, besides those of Lyons and 
 Vienne, were founded in France, during the se- 
 cond century ; and in the third, Christianity 
 spread very rapidly throughout the various pro- 
 vinces of Gaul; and by the labours of many 
 pious men, especially Saturninus the first Bishop 
 of Toulouse, churches were planted in Paris, Tours, 
 
8 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Aries, and Narbonne. In proportion as these 
 triumphs of the Gospel were achieved, the gradual 
 destruction of Druid ism, which had long prevailed 
 in Gaul, took place,^ as well as a departure from 
 the Pagan forms of worship introduced by the 
 Romans. Thus was pure and unadulterated 
 Christianity generally prevalent in Gaul during 
 the first three or four centuries ; and so eminent 
 were some of the preachers of that country, that 
 when Pelagian errors began to spread in Britain, 
 Lupus, Bishop of Troyes, and Germanus, Bishop 
 of Auxerre, came from Gaul for the express pur- 
 pose of withstanding those false religious opinions ; 
 which they did by preaching in the churches, and 
 in the open country, to immense crowds. 
 
 In the fifth century, the Franks under their 
 kings, particularly Clovis, conquered Gaul and 
 expelled the Romans. Through his Queen Clo- 
 tilda's influence, both Clovis and his army pro- 
 fessed themselves Christians and were baptized at 
 Rheims. In France, however, as in other coun- 
 tries, — there is too much reason to fear — super- 
 stition and error gradually gained ground; 
 the clergy became more ignorant, idle, and 
 worldly ; the people more corrupt, and the 
 
CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE. 9 
 
 churches more under the influence of the church 
 of Rome; although image-worship — one of the 
 worst features of Popery — was not countenanced 
 in France so late as the eighth century, when 
 Charlemagne assembled a council at Frankfort, 
 which condemned the use of images. Charle- 
 magne, however, as well as Pepin his Father, 
 made such enormous grants of territory and power 
 to the Popes, that they became able to tyrannize 
 over the churches of Italy and other countries, 
 and usurp a dominion over the Christian world, 
 foretold, as well as strongly condemned, by the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 11. At length, the gross mist of superstition 
 having for some centuries enveloped the churches 
 of France, Divine Providence raised up Christian 
 ministers of great piety and zeal to recal the 
 deluded people to the knowledge of that holy 
 religion which had once shone in its genuine 
 purity amongst their ancestors. The principal of 
 these were Peter de Btuys, a priest of Toulouse, 
 Henry, a monk, Esperon, and Peter Waldo. The 
 three former were preachers of extraordinary zeal 
 in the south of France, who strenuously resisted 
 the encroachments of papal error. The celebrated' 
 b3 
 
10 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 Peter Waldo was a rich merchant of Lyons, whose 
 mind became particularly impressed with the im- 
 portance of religion from witnessing the sudden 
 death of one of his friends after supper. He, in 
 consequence, read the Latin New Testament, 
 called the Vulgate, with great attention, and 
 discovered, as the fruit of his research, that the 
 religion of the church of Rome was totally dif- 
 ferent from that revealed in the Scriptures. As 
 the Latin tongue had long ceased to be the vulgar 
 tongue in France, and had been superseded by a 
 dialect composed of Latin, Frank, &c. intermix- 
 ed, he translated — or, as the historian Mosheim 
 thinks, employed a priest whose name was Ste- 
 phanus de Evisa, about the year 1 160, to trans- 
 late the four Gospels, with other books of Holy 
 Scripture, into the language spoken in that vici-, 
 nity. Another work, composed of sentences from 
 the ancient doctors, was also compiled. These 
 efforts led the way to a reformation of religion, to 
 a great extent. Waldo became a public teacher 
 of religion, and a liberal distributor of alms to the 
 poor who flocked to hear him. His numerous 
 followers were, in fact, usually, and long after- 
 wards, called '* the poor men of Lyons;'' scorn- 
 fully called so ; although they might well deem 
 
CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE. 11 
 
 themselves happy if entitled to the benediction 
 pronounced by their Saviour on *' the poor in 
 spirit," and those " persecuted for righteousness* 
 sake."* Their assemblies at length awakened op- 
 position from the Archbishop of Lyons, and Waldo 
 and his disciples were compelled to retire from 
 the city. He went to Dauphine, where his 
 preaching gained many converts. Being driven 
 from thence he retired into Picardy. After very 
 successful labours he was compelled to depart ; 
 he then went to Germany, and lastly to Bohemia, 
 in 1176, his followers settling at Satz and Laun, 
 on the river Eger. There he terminated his 
 laborious career in the year 1179. The descen- 
 dants of his disciples in Bohemia were fellow- 
 sufferers with the disciples of a later Reformer, 
 John Huss. The Christians now called " Mora- 
 vians," or, " United Brethren," are a branch 
 from the old Lyonnese Waldenses who retired 
 
 * They were also, probably, called Waldenses, after 
 Waldo ; but the Waldenses of Piedmont appear, from 
 the testimony of Roman Catholic authors, to have existed 
 as a body apart from the church of Rome, before the ap- 
 pearance of Waldo. The term Waldenses, or Valdenses, 
 is derived from the valleys they inhabited ; and Beza's 
 opinion was, that Peter Waldo's name was derived from 
 the Waldenses, not their's from his. 
 
 b4 
 
12 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 to Bohemia; one of whose Bishops, Stephen, 
 (settled near Austria, and afterwards a martyr at 
 Vienna,) with one of his colleagues, consecrated 
 the three first bishops of the church of the " United 
 Brethren."* Indeed there is reason, from ancient 
 documents, to believe, that the disciples of Waldo^ 
 particularly Barthelemi de Carcassonne, a Bishop, 
 planted churches in Bulgaria, Croatia, Dalmatia, 
 and Hungary, in the course of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury ; and that the first effort of that charitable 
 and illustrious man at Lyons, proceeded step by 
 step to such an extent, that many kingdoms, and 
 amongst others Great Britain, as the seat of the 
 Lollards, derived the benefit of Christian illumi- 
 nation in a dark and superstitious age. 
 
 As Waldo was a rich merchant, it will not be 
 considered a misplaced observation, I hope, to 
 
 * Before Peter Waldo became a Reformer, and even 
 before Peter de Bruys, a priest of Toulouse, and Henry, 
 a monk of Toulouse, had formed large bodies of Seceders 
 from the Church of Rome, many of the French clergy 
 had opposed the innovations imposed by Pope Gregory 
 VII. and Pope Nicolas II. Persons in holy orders, 
 therefore, could not be wanting amongst the Albigenses 
 and Waldenses of France. The episcopacy of the Wal- 
 denses is discussed at large in Peyran'a Historical De- 
 fence, pp. 482 — 505, 
 
cifRiSTrA:t^iTY iisr frakce. 13^ 
 
 remark, that the opulent merchants of our great 
 commercial cities have it in their power to assist 
 materially in the propagation of that holy religion 
 to which they, like other classes of persons, are so 
 much indebted, as a religion favourable to civili- 
 zation, and to those moral principles by which 
 honourable commerce is sustained. They might 
 with great facility support, by liberal contribu- 
 tions, the societies that aim to extend the benefits 
 of Christianity to uncivilized nations ; assist mis- 
 sionaries, by such support, to translate the Scrip- 
 tures into various languages ; give those disitt** 
 terested men a free passage in their ships to dis- 
 tant quarters of the globe; and encourage the 
 efforts of discpeet chaplains at the factories. 
 
 From the labours of Waldo and his associates 
 there sprang up an immense body of Christians 
 averse to the corrupt doctrines of the church of 
 Rome. They existed in Picardy under the appel^ 
 lation of Picards, and in the South of France, 
 from the Pyrenees to the Alps, under that of 
 Albigenses.* They were in correspondence with 
 
 * They were so called from the town of A\bU The 
 English having possession of Guienne, adjoining the 
 
14 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 the Waldenses of the Valleys of Piedmont, who 
 had maintained the same unshaken opposition to 
 the prevailing errors in religion. So numerous 
 were the Albigenses, that they attracted the at- 
 tention and indignation of the court of Rome, and 
 Pope Innocent III. instigated the Roman Catholics 
 of France to undertake a crusade for their exter- 
 mination. The cruel wars carried on against them 
 for this purpose, under the Counts de Montfort, 
 lasted for thirty years, and the tribunal of the 
 Inquisition was invented by Dominic the Monk, 
 for the purpose of torturing them, 
 
 III. These sufferers having borne their testimony, 
 under accumulated sufferings, in the thirteenth 
 century, it pleased God, at the era of the Refor- 
 mation, to raise up another fresh body of preachers 
 and people, Hugonots as they were often styled — 
 Protestants in the later acceptation of that term — 
 to testify anew against the various and enormous 
 corruptions by which Christianity had been dis- 
 
 territory of the Albigenses, for about 300 years, tlie doc- 
 trines of the Albigenses spread amongst thera, and were 
 introduced into England. Those who embraced thera 
 were called Lollards, or Psalm-singers, 
 
CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE. 15 
 
 figured in France. At that period Olivetan, a 
 Vaudois minister of Piedmont, translated the 
 Bible into French, and the Vaudois defrayed the 
 expense of printing it for the use of the Infant 
 Reformed Church of France ; whilst Calvin, a 
 native of Picardy, instructed students for the 
 ministry in that church at Geneva. 
 
 Preachers of extraordinary abilities appeared at 
 this time as reformers in France. James le Fevre, 
 Gerard leRoux, and William Farel, — the latter dis- 
 tinguished for his powerful eloquence, — preached 
 the reformation at Meaux, under the sanction of 
 Brissonet, bishop of that see. John le Clerc be- 
 came the founder of a reformed church at Metz, 
 in Lorraine, and afterwards died there, a martyr 
 for the truth he preached. Aymond de Lavoy was 
 a minister, and afterwards a martyr at Bordeaux. 
 Peter Viret, a Swiss reformer, remarkable for his 
 enchanting eloquence, at the request of the French 
 protestants, preached the doctrines of the Refor- 
 mation in the cities of Lyons and Nismes. He 
 was afterwards invited by Jane, Queen of Navarre, 
 — who countenanced the reformers, whom her re- 
 latives the kings of France persecuted, — to preach 
 at Beam, where he died. 
 
16 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY' OF 
 
 During this struggle between truth and error, 
 Francis I., Henry II., Henry III., and Francis II., 
 encouraging rather than repressing the bigotry of 
 the Roman Catholic priesthood, many martyrs fell 
 victims to their hatred in various provinces of 
 France ; and, amongst others, 
 Peter Bonpain, minister of Aubigny, at Paris ; 
 Husson, an apothecary of Blois, condemned by 
 the parliament of Rouen for dispersing religious 
 books ; 
 John TAnglois, an attorney at Sens, at the re- 
 quest of his uncle Barville, archdeacon of that 
 cathedral ; 
 Lewis de Marsae, an officer of noble birth, at 
 
 Lyons ; 
 Simon Lalve, at Dijon ; 
 Peter Serre, once a Roman Catholic priest, at 
 
 Toulouse ; 
 Philippa de Luns, the young widow of a Gascon 
 
 nobleman, at Paris ; 
 Du Bourg, a celebrated counsellor, in the same 
 city. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, the severe oppo- 
 sition from those in power, such multitudes had 
 been induced to renounce the communion of the 
 
CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE. 17 
 
 church of Rome, that in the year 1560 there were 
 above 2000 reformed congregations. 
 
 In consequence of the unrelenting enmity of 
 the Popes, and their adherents in France, espe- 
 cially the dukes of Guise, who were bent 
 on the exth-pation of the Protestants, a civil 
 war ensued; the Protestants defending them- 
 selves under the command of the celebrated 
 admiral de Coligny, and the king of Navarre, 
 during the minority of Charles IX. and regency 
 of Catherine de Medicis, against the dukes of 
 Guise and their partisans. 
 
 Great and numerous calamities were the result. 
 Many thousands perished on the field of battle. 
 Various persecutions also took place. Three 
 hundred Protestants were shut up in the church 
 at Tours, and afterwards put to death. At Meaux 
 400, in Provence 1500, at Rheims 500 Pro- 
 testants fell victims. 
 
 This war was followed by a deceitful peace, 
 during which Catherine de Medicis, and her son 
 Charles IX.,. perfidiously laid the plan for the 
 Bartholomew massacre at the time of the young 
 
18 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 king of Navarre's marriage with a Roman Catholic 
 princess. During this massacre, in the year 
 1572, Coligny fell a victim at Paris, with about 
 6000 Protestants. From Paris the destruction 
 spread to other parts of the kingdom. About 
 6000 were slain at Rouen, 1000 at Orleans, 1600 
 at Lyons, 200 at Meaux, and great numbers in 
 other places.* 
 
 The civil war was renewed after these atro- 
 cities, during which many thousand Protestants 
 died of famine at the siege of Rochelle. At 
 length, Henry, king of Navarre, succeeded, under 
 the title of Henry IV., to the French crown, and 
 became a Roman Catholic, but granted religious 
 liberty to the Protestants by the celebrated Edict 
 
 * Doubtless many humane persons in France, though 
 tinctured themselves with superstition, condemned so 
 atrocious an act as that of the massacre on St. Bartho- 
 mew's eve- Amongst others distinguished for humanity 
 on that occasion, the following names should be recorded. 
 The viscount d'Orthe, commandant of Bayonne, replied 
 to Charles IX. that the soldiers in garrison, uniting in 
 feeling with their general, were unwilling to be execu- 
 tioners. The count de Tende, commandant of Provence, 
 sent a similar reply. The bishop of Dijon, — and he was 
 not the only prelate, I believe, who did so, — received 
 those Protestants who sought shelter in his palace. 
 
CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE. 19 
 
 of Nantes. This edict Louis XIV. revoked in 
 1685, and thus opened a new source of cala- 
 mities in France. The Protestant ministers were 
 sentenced to banishment, their churches de- 
 stroyed, the people condemned to the galleys, 
 expelled from offices and employments, and com- 
 pelled to wander to other countries to exercise 
 their trades, whilst dragoons were quartered in 
 their houses to annoy and torture them. 
 
 IV. Thus, deprived of the exercise of their 
 religious privileges, the Protestants who remained 
 in France seldom met for public worship, and 
 then, at night, in woods and desert places where 
 they might be unobserved by their enemies. 
 During that mournful period, when their pastors 
 were liable to death by the law for discharging 
 ministerial duties, a minister named Paul Rabaut, 
 at imminent risk of life, visited the scattered Pro- 
 testant communities in Languedoc, baptized their 
 children secretly, and preached to them. Louis 
 XVI. however, when public opinion in France was 
 becoming adverse to persecution, granted the Pro- 
 testants, in the year 1787, privileges of which 
 they stood in need. Subsequently, the French 
 revolution fell with terrible force upon the once 
 
20 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 gorgeous and tyrannical church of France, and 
 occasioned the murder or exile of its bishops 
 and priests, and the forfeiture of ecclesiastical 
 property.* 
 
 * Before the Prench revolution, the Gallican, or French 
 Roman Catholic Church, consisted of 19 archbishoprics and 
 118 bishoprics, which were abolished at that period. By 
 the Concordat between the late emperor Napoleon and 
 the pope, 10 archbishops and 50 bishops were ajjpointed* 
 At the Revolution the churches were closed or sold, and 
 converted into stables and storehouses. When Napoleon 
 deemed it politic to re-establish, not in its pristine, but 
 with a moderate degree of power, that religion which had 
 been rejected by the republic, the allowance to the 
 clergy, decreed from the public treasury, consisted of 
 about £1,000. a year to a bishop, and £40. to a parish 
 priest. In 1814 that sum amounted to 18 millions of 
 francs, but the greater encouragement given to the clergy 
 by the late Louis XVIII. and the present king of 
 France, Charles X., has raised it to 40 millions. An 
 immense portion of this is appropiated to cathedrals and 
 the dignitaries of the church. The inferior priests, who 
 have from 750 to 1,000 francs, have also perquisites at- 
 tached to the discharge of some of their peculiar func- 
 tions, which they receive from their parishioners. There 
 were formerly as many as 10,000 priests, monks, and 
 nuns, at Paris. The number of priests at present scarcely 
 amounts to 800 ; in 1817 the ecclesiastics of every de- 
 scription in that city, together with nuns, did not exceed 
 3,320. The nomination of bishops is retained as a pre- 
 rogative of the king ; the pope has that of institution. 
 The " Diocesan Seminary" at Paris, in which young 
 men are edxicated for the church, contains 300 students, 
 
CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE. 2i 
 
 It was re-established, however, by the late 
 emperor Napoleon, who also granted to the Pro- 
 testants that pecuniary support from the State 
 which he afforded to Roman Catholics, and the 
 same support has been continued by the kings 
 
 of whom 150 are in the College near the church of 
 St. Sulpice, and 150 at a preparatory College at Issy, 
 
 The " Seminaire du Saint Esprit" is under the super- 
 intendence of the priests of the mission, and contains 40 
 students intended to supply parishes in the French co- 
 lonies. The " Seminaire des Missions ^trangeres" is 
 established for the instruction of missionaries who are to 
 be sent to India and China. 
 
 The "Institut des Freres des Ecoles Chretiennes" is an 
 institution for training schoolmasters. There are about 
 700 schools for boys in various parts of France, in which 
 those freres, or brethren, are the masters. They partly 
 resemble monks, but are not permitted by the French 
 laws to take vows of perpetual celibacy. Convents were 
 abolished by the revolutionary laws, but nuns, whose 
 object is the care of the sick in hospitals, or the instruc- 
 tion of female children, have since received support from 
 the government. They are not permitted, however, to 
 take perpetual vows. Napoleon authorised 1253 con- 
 vents in the kingdom. Louis XV III, and Charles X. 
 have permitted the additional number of 478. Of these 
 convents, there are about 30 in Paris. Amongst the 
 various orders, the Sisters of Charity stand pre-eminent 
 for usefulness. In number the Sisters of Charity are 
 about 4000 in France, and 400 in the city of Paris, con- 
 tinually engaged in teaching female children, or attend- 
 ing the sick in hospitals or in private houses. 
 
22 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF 
 
 of France who have succeeded to the crown 
 since his fall.* 
 
 In the year 1815, however, an ebullition of 
 sanguinary rage, the effect of mixed but corrupt 
 political and religious feelings in the enemies of 
 the Protestants, occasioned the massacre of not 
 less than 300 Protestants in the city of Nismes, 
 and it is probable that great numbers perished in 
 the department of the Gard. 
 
 A remarkable event occurred at Lyons, in the 
 years 1825 and 1826, namely, the secession of 
 about 1500 Roman Catholics from the church of 
 Rome to the reformed church. f The seceders are 
 chiefly of the class of mechanics at Lyons. The 
 number of 1500 also includes 80 peasants at the 
 small village of Ste. Consorce near Lyons, which 
 contains 120 inhabitants. A dispute on parochial 
 matters, and temporary privation of Roman Ca- 
 tholic service at church induced these peasants 
 to examine the catechism of the Protestants, and, 
 
 * No. I. in the Appendix contains a condensed state- 
 ment, relative to the actual condition of the Protestant 
 churches throughout France, with remarks. 
 
 t I obtained the information communicated when at 
 Lyons, from the most authentic source. 
 
CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE. 23 
 
 approving of it, they joined the reformed church. 
 At the town of Tarare, about 10 Roman Catholics 
 united themselves to about 100 old Protestants^ 
 who reside there. An aversion to the political 
 and religious tenets of a body of violent Jesuits ap- 
 pears, in a great measure, to have induced many at 
 Lyons to express their dislike of popery, and their 
 preference for the Protestant faith. They adopted 
 a change of religious opinions without cordially 
 receiving all the essential truths of the Gospel. 
 Others were actuated by motives more strictly 
 pious, and after a candid search after truth. The 
 secession took place within the space of about 
 twelve months. Examples of the same kind 
 occur now but rarely. It appears that the se- 
 ceders were at first too readily admitted members 
 of the reformed church. The instruction given 
 them was too superficial. At present, however, 
 one of the pastors gives private weekly instruc- 
 tion in the evening, and explains the Scriptures. 
 
 A Letter written by a merchant of Lyons, 
 (M. Mollard) about the same period, and which 
 contained his reasons for embracing Protestantism, 
 was the effect rather than the cause of the more 
 general secession, which had previously com- 
 menced. With a view to guard against the ope- 
 
24 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY, &C. 
 
 ration of unworthy motives in the seceders, it is 
 a general rule amongst the Protestants that no 
 pecuniary relief shall be given to the poor pro- 
 selytes till three years after their first declaration 
 of their attachment to the reformed faith ;* except 
 in very peculiar cases, in which the pastors may, 
 at their discretion, consider a deviation from the 
 rule expedient. 
 
 Such have been the remarkable vicissitudes to 
 which the Christian Religion in ancient times, the 
 churches of the Albigenses, during the dark ages, 
 and the Protestant church since the Reformation, 
 have been subject; vicissitudes in which it does 
 not seem difficult to trace alike privileges and 
 judgments — " the goodness'' as well as " the se- 
 verity of God ;" vicissitudes that present so many 
 ' warning lessons to all Christians to improve 
 seasons of tranquillity, and means of grace, when 
 vouchsafed, lest those seasons should be ex- 
 changed for those of discord and calamity, and 
 those means, however abundant, should be re- 
 moved. 
 
 * How far such a mode of proceeding may be proper 
 in the present circumstances of Ireland, when proselytes 
 to the Protestant faith present themselves, those can 
 probably best determine whose local knowledge and 
 peculiar situation both enable and require them to decide* 
 
A 
 
 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 OF 
 
 JEAN FREDERIC OBERLIN, 
 
 PASTOR OF WALDBACH. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OBERLIN IS EDUCATED AT STRASBOURG DESCRIP- 
 TION OF BAN DE LA ROCHE — PASTORAL EFFORTS 
 OF STUBER — ADULT SCHOOLS. 
 
 The Lutheran Clergyman, renowned not 
 only in France, but in other countries, for 
 his unwearied efforts of philanthropy, and 
 usually called Pastor Oberlin, was born at 
 Strasbourg, in the year 1740. His father 
 was a respectable schoolmaster in that 
 city. Being of an ardent disposition, he 
 began to be fond of military exercises in 
 C 
 
26 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 his youth; but, partly by his father's per- 
 suasion, partly by the example of his elder 
 brother, Jeremiah James Oberlin, who was 
 afterwards distinguished for his researches 
 as an antiquary and philologist, he applied, 
 as he grew up, to literary pursuits. 
 
 "When a student at the University, he fre- 
 quently attended the sermons of Dr. Lorentz, 
 a devout preacher at Strasbourg, whose 
 evangelical statements of Christian truth, 
 although in unison with the doctrines taught 
 by the Reformers, were not approved of by 
 some of the learned professors. From that 
 Clergyman's sermons he appears to have de- 
 rived much benefit; and on the 1st of Ja- 
 nuary, 1760, in his twentieth year, he drew 
 up and adopted a solemn act of self-dedica- 
 tion^ to God, at Strasbourg, which he re- 
 newed on the 1st of January, 1770, at 
 Waldbach, in the Ban de la Roche. Having 
 finished his studies, he was ordained minister, 
 but he remained some years without taking 
 the actual charge of a parish. In the capa- 
 
 * See Appendix, No. II. 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 27 
 
 city of private tutor in the family of a dis- 
 tinguished medical man, he acquired a know- 
 ledge of medicine particularly useful to him 
 in the wild district called the Ban de la 
 Roche, where he undertook pastoral duties 
 in 1767, when a pious Lutheran Clergyman, 
 named Stuber, removed to Strasbourg, 
 
 The Ban de la Roche is an elevated terri- 
 tory, at the distance of 12 leagues from 
 Strasbourg. La Roche was a castle, around 
 which a ban (or district) lay, containing 
 about 9,000 acres ; also denominated Stein- 
 thal, or Stoney Valley. It is a valley con- 
 nected with an isolated range of mountains 
 of volcanic origin, called Champ de Feu, de- 
 tached from the chain of mountains called 
 the Vosges, It comprises two parishes, 
 namely, Waldbach and Rothau, In that 
 of Waldbach there are five separate villages, 
 and three churches; the names of the vil- 
 lages, Waldbach, Foudai, Belmont, Belle- 
 Fosse, and Zolbach. M. Oberlin's parish 
 was Waldbach,* and he resided in the vil- 
 
 * Before the year 1806, M. Oberlin discharged 
 
 c2 
 
28 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 lage of that name, which stands at an ele- 
 vation of 1,800 feet above the level of the 
 sea. This territory belonged to Protestant 
 Noblemen, as feudal lords of the soil ; and, 
 in the reign of Louis XV. was inhabited 
 by about 100 families, partly refugees on 
 account of religion ; who enjoyed that re^ 
 ligious liberty which was an article of sti- 
 pulation upon the union of Alsace to France. 
 
 The Ban de la Roche was the seat of de- 
 plorable ignorance when M. Stuber became 
 the pastor, in 1750. The schoolmasters were 
 rather in need of instruction themselves 
 than competent to teach children, and the 
 school-rooms were in a wretched condition, 
 M. Stuber selected some young men, more 
 competent to become superintendents (for 
 the name of a schoolmaster had become dis^ 
 reputable) of the schools. By the liberality 
 of a friend, he was also enabled to give 
 rewards, in addition to their small stipends, . 
 
 the pastoral duties of Rothau as well as Waldbach, 
 From that period his second Son (Charles Conserve) 
 undertook the pastoral care of Rothau. 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 29 
 
 to those whose pupils made the best pro- 
 gressi He had spelling and reading lessons 
 printed for their use ; by which means the 
 children learned so fast, that their elder 
 brothers and sisters, and even their parents, 
 expressed a wish to be instructed. The 
 consequence was, that Adult Schools were 
 formed during the winter evenings, and 
 part of every Sunday. So fully did Oberlin 
 follow up the system commenced by his 
 predecessor, that I was assured by his son-- 
 in-law, the Pastor GraiF, that all the adults 
 of his parish, which contains about 4,000 
 souls, could, without one exception, read 
 the Scriptures. 
 
 When M. S tuber procured 50 copies of 
 the Bible from Basle, he divided each into 
 three parts, and thus had 150 books in 
 use at the same time ; — a plan which, in 
 some circumstances, might be advantage- 
 ously followed, especially in schools; chil- 
 dren being apt to destroy a Bible by care- 
 less treatment, before they have made great 
 progress in reading it. 
 
30 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 After a residence of six years^ the wise, 
 pious, and benevolent Stuber removed to 
 the town of Barr; but in four years re- 
 turned to his former charge in the Steinthal, 
 to the great joy of the parishioners, who had 
 witnessed the difference between a zealous 
 and a less devoted minister. At lengthy in the 
 year 1767, being invited to a new pastoral 
 charge, St. Thomas's Church, at Strasbourg, 
 this pious Clerg^y/man, who had buried his 
 wife at Waldbach, left the Ban de la Roche. 
 
 The happy attempt of M. Stuber to in- 
 duce even adults to learn to read, must 
 not be passed by without one or two ob- 
 servations. 
 
 It is a subject to be deplored, that^ even 
 at the distance of three centuries from the 
 Reformation, such multitudes may be found 
 in the parishes of England, Ireland, and 
 Wales, who are unable to read the Bible in 
 the vulgar tongue, although those founders 
 of our Reformed Church, Tindal, Cran- 
 mer, Latimer, .Ridley, and others, died 
 martyrs for their zeal in securing that 
 
f)^ 3, F, OBERLXN, 31 
 
 great privilege for its members. It is pro- 
 bable, however, that, in numerous instances, 
 the ignorant poor, who received no edu- 
 cation in their youth, would avail themselves 
 of the means of learning, if affectionately 
 and judiciously proposed to them. The case 
 of M. S tuber is not singular. In the even- 
 ing schools kept by the Masters of Welsh 
 Circulating Schools established by the Rev. 
 Griffith Jones, the adults constituted often 
 two-thirds of the scholars. The late Rev. 
 Mr. Charles succeeded in inducing great 
 numbers of adults in Wales to learn, and 
 many were able to read in the course of 
 three months after they commenced. In 
 Ireland, also, the grown up inhabitants 
 are often eagerly desirous to learn to read 
 the Testament in the Irish tongue. Not 
 less so were the Wendens — a Slavonian 
 race inhabiting Upper and Lower Lusatia, 
 Silesia, &c. when the New Testament was 
 translated into their language above a cen- 
 tury ago* 
 
 Such encouraging facts may well lead to 
 similar efforts in parishes^ in any part of the 
 
32 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 United Kingdom^ where past negligence 
 has left many of the adults in a state of 
 ignorance. Were those winter evenings, or 
 Sunday afternoons, which are too often 
 mis- spent at the ale house, thus beneficially 
 employed, they would lead the poor to de- 
 grees of present happiness, of which they 
 are not now aware, whilst they might be 
 the means of rendering them ornaments to 
 the Christian church on earth, and of pre* 
 paring them for the joys of the church tri- 
 umphant. 
 
 It is to be feared that, in the generality 
 of instances, Clergymen, and other benevo- 
 lent persons, seldom think of the import- 
 ance of education, except in reference to 
 children. The condition of uninstructed 
 adults who cannot read the Word of God, 
 is strongly entitled, however, to their con- 
 sideration and solicitude. The simple fact, 
 that persons of mature and even ad- 
 vanced age, baptized within the pale of a 
 Reformed Church, should be found in our 
 parishes, debarred, through ignorance, from 
 perusing '* the words of eternal life," is 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 3S 
 
 appalling to the compassionate and religious 
 mind. And the more so, because the art of 
 reading may be so easily acquired, if only 
 some of those hundreds or thousands of 
 Sabbaths, of which they must hereafter 
 render an account, were occupied in ac- 
 quiring it. Doubtless, amongst other ob- 
 jects of inquiry by an Incumbent, that of 
 ascertaining who amongst his parishioners 
 are unable to read should never be omitted ; 
 that this preliminary step may be followed 
 by appropriate measures to enable and per- 
 suade all under his pastoral care to avail 
 themselves of such a benefit as religious 
 education.* 
 
 * See in Appendix, No. III. a simple method of 
 facilitating the instruction of the adult poor. 
 
 c8 
 
34 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 OBERLIN BECOMES M. STUBER S SUCCESSOR AT BAN 
 
 DE LA ROCHE HIS METHOD OF PREACHING AND 
 
 CATECHISING ESTABLISHES SCHOOLS, SCHOOL- 
 LIBRARIES, AND INFANT-SCHOOLS. 
 
 Dreary and secluded as was the situation 
 of Ban de la Roche, the benevolence of 
 Oberlin induced him to become Stuber's 
 willing successor. In the following year he 
 married a young lady of Strasbourg,^ an 
 orphan, Madeleine Salome Witter, who 
 cheerfully entered into her husband's plans 
 of beneficence — plans in the prosecution of 
 which he had to encounter those prejudices, 
 usually attendant on ignorance, which lead 
 the ill informed to imagine that old practices 
 are always safe, and that whatever has 
 the appearance of innovation must be per- 
 
 * See Appendix, No. IV. 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN, 36 
 
 nicious. By prudence and kindness, how- 
 ever, these prejudices were gradually dis- 
 pelled. But before I explain the nature 
 of those plans, which, as a friend to the 
 temporal prosperity of his poor and wretched 
 parishioners, he adopted, it will be well to 
 look at him in the character of a religious 
 pastor* 
 
 He preached in each of his churches in 
 its turn, the people of Waldbach following 
 him when he officiated in one of the other 
 villages. His sermons were adapted to 
 the comprehension of the peasantry ; and he 
 often wisely blended illustrations from na- 
 tural objects, and anecdotes from the lives 
 of eminent Christians, with his instructions, 
 and was thus able to gain and fix the at- 
 tention of the people. From the Bible, 
 above all, he cited largely upon every sub- 
 ject he brought into the pulpit. When not 
 able to write his sermons at full length, he 
 drew up large schemes. He usually re- 
 peated his discourses from memory, like 
 most foreign Clergymen, Roman Catholic 
 and Protestant ; but sometimes took up a 
 c4 
 
36 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 subject less studied, when circumstances 
 seemed to render it more suitable. 
 
 On the Sunday afternoon he catechised 
 youth, and his instructions were then still 
 plainer than in the morning. It is the judi- 
 cious method of many foreign Protestants, 
 and was that of Oberlin, not merely to ask 
 children questions in the Catechism,^ but to 
 make each subject the basis for valuable 
 explanations, remarks, and exhortations; 
 a method exceedingly desirable, even in so 
 short a Catechism as that of the Church of 
 England, and by which there would be the 
 advantage of not only making difficult words 
 and subjects intelligible, but of awakening 
 the consciences and affections of young per- 
 sons, and persuading them not to rest satis- 
 fied with committing the answers of the Ca- 
 techism to memory, but, by divine grace, 
 to become truly religious in heart and life. 
 
 * Since this account of Oberlin was penned, I 
 have read with pleasure the Rev. Mr. Gilly's ** Horas 
 Catecheticae," where the duty of catechising is 
 strongly and ably advocated, and various useful 
 suggestions are introduced. 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. W 
 
 It cannot but be deeply regretted, that in 
 consequence of the little care taken, in 
 many parishes, properly to explain and en- 
 force the doctrines and duties contained in 
 the Catechism, and the solemn nature of 
 baptismal engagements, the renewal of vows 
 at the rite of Confirmation is an affair of 
 little seriousness with many young persons, 
 neglected by some altogether, attended by 
 others after slight preparation, and, when 
 distance from the place of Confirmation 
 renders a longer or shorter journey neces- 
 sary from the villages^, is frequently more 
 injurious than beneficial — evils of serious 
 magnitude, and not to be disregarded. 
 Doubtless the remedies may, when diligently 
 sought, be found with little difficulty ; and 
 amongst these, judicious zeal in communi- 
 cating catechetical instruction will ever hold 
 a prominent place. 
 
 Every Friday^, M. Oberlin had service iii 
 the German language, for those persons in 
 his villages who were little acquainted with 
 French; a practice to which something 
 similar (but on the Sunday rather than 
 
38 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 any other day) seems much wanted in those 
 parts of Ireland where the natives still 
 usually converse in the Irish language. 
 
 As a farther proof of his paternal regard 
 for his parishioners, I may add, that he 
 sent circular and minute questions to all 
 of them, relative to their attending at church, 
 observing the Lord's-day, sending children 
 to school, paying their debts, practising 
 industrious and economical habits, &c. &c. 
 All this he did for the purpose of exciting 
 their attention to what he deemed requisite 
 both for their religious and worldly pros- 
 perity. 
 
 For his own guidance, and more perfect 
 acquaintance with the state of his populous 
 parish, he had even formed a sort of 
 moral register, in which he had inscribed, 
 by private marks, the names of his pa- 
 rishioners under various heads, as drunkards, 
 bad managers, idlers, &c. &c. Although 
 many Clergymen might prefer laying up 
 such a moral register in the memory, rather 
 than putting it into the form of a book, there 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 3d 
 
 is another kind of register which seems to 
 be highly requisite, namely, one containing 
 the names of the boys and girls in the 
 schools, with separate columns for the name, 
 the day and year when baptized, the time 
 of admission into the school, the time of 
 leaving it, when confirmed, trade or oc- 
 cupation, whether a communicant, where 
 resident, if removed from the parish. If 
 such registers were commonly adopted, and 
 were Clergymen and Sunday School Teach- 
 ers to inquire, with affectionate solicitude, 
 about those educated in their schools, after 
 they have embarked in the world, or entered 
 into service, numbers might be preserved 
 from present and eternal ruin, who are now 
 lost to their friends, to society, and the 
 Christian church, partly because no con- 
 necting links were kept up between them 
 and their spiritual pastors or teachers, 
 from the moment that, at the most criti- 
 cal period of life, they left the parish and 
 the Sunday-school for untried situations in 
 an ensnaring world. 
 
 The attention of M. Stuber to the in- 
 
40 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 struction of the ignorant has been already 
 described : that of his successor is also 
 well worthy of notice. Notwithstanding the 
 objections of some parishioners, who were 
 unwilling to lay out money in building a 
 school-house in each of the five villages, 
 they at length acceded to M. Oberlin's wish, 
 from a conviction of the benefits that would 
 accrue, after he had, partly from his own 
 moderate income, and partly from the 
 kindness of friends at Strasbourg, built one 
 school-room without any expense to his pa- 
 rishioners. All in these schools were above 
 the age of seven, and were taught reading, 
 writing, arithmetic, and the elements of 
 geography, agriculture, astronomy, and 
 sacred and profane history. The principles 
 of religion the pastor reserved to himself to 
 teach. 
 
 That the children might be excited to dili- 
 gence, they were required to meet from all the 
 villages, once a week, at Waldbach, where 
 progress was ascertained by an examination 
 and comparison, which must naturally have 
 excited diligence, previously, amongst the 
 
DP J. F. OBERLIN. 41 
 
 Scholars. The elder children often had pas- 
 sages relative to husbandry to copy. There 
 was also established a lending-library ; and 
 books, after being kept for use three months 
 at one school were sent to another. Oberlin 
 went even farther than some ministers might 
 deem expedient, for the instruction of youth 
 as well as their parents ; for, besides a coJ- 
 lectibn of indigenous plants, the properties 
 and uses of which were of course explained, 
 he even procured books on natural his- 
 tory, and an electrical machine, in ordet 
 to enlarge the minds of his people with re- 
 spect to the wonders of nature and art. He 
 also published an Almanack, divested of 
 superstitious and silly remarks, that the 
 people might not be deluded by the false- 
 hoods of pretending astrologers. 
 
 Whilst the care 6f youth thus engaged, 
 even that of infants did not escape the vigi- 
 lant and benevolent mind of Oberlin: and 
 it appears that the peculiar attention to 
 children from two to six or seven years of 
 age, in rooms called ** Salles d'Asile" at 
 Paris, and in ** Infant Schools" in England^ 
 
42 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 must be traced up to Oberlin's parish as 
 their source and first model. He was fear- 
 ful lest the little children should be ex- 
 posed to danger, or should contract early 
 habits of idleness and vice, when their pa- 
 rents were engaged in husbandry, or at a 
 trade ; he was therefore induced to hire 
 rooms, in which the children might amuse 
 themselves, and be instructed, under the 
 control of mild and affectionate women, as 
 Conductrices, and whose task consisted in 
 requiring them to speak French, instead of 
 the vulgar Patois; in teaching the elder 
 ones to sew, spin, knit, and sing ; in explain- 
 ing geographical cards, and prints of na- 
 tural and of sacred history ; and preventing 
 harm or mischief during the play-hours.'*^ 
 
 I may be permitted to observe, in this 
 place, that if the plan of introducing English, 
 instead of Irish, Welsh, and Gaelic, were 
 practised in similar schools — that is Infant 
 Schools, before the children have practised 
 those dialects — not only would the result 
 
 * See a farther notice in Appendix, No. V. 
 
OP J. F. OBERLIN. 4d 
 
 be advantageous to children in Ireland, 
 Wales, and the Highlands, in the com- 
 mon affairs of life, but be favourable to 
 the promotion of the Protestant religion, as 
 taught in the Established Church ; and not 
 only so, it would have a tendency to 
 strengthen the foundations of the British 
 Empire ; for diversity of language helps to 
 perpetuate ancient feuds, dissensions, pre- 
 judices ; but by means of unity of language, 
 the subjects of one realm become more 
 fully sensible that they are one people, 
 not separate tribes ; they feel that they have 
 one common interest, because they possess 
 and value common privileges ; and speaking 
 the same language, they gradually imbibe 
 the same general ideas. The same remarks 
 appear to me to apply to all the foreign 
 dependencies and colonies of the empire, 
 in which it would seem to be very wise po- 
 licy to render the English language as 
 prevalent as possible. It may secure foreign 
 possessions longer than the power of the 
 sword can do so, and reconcile those who 
 learn it to British sway. 
 
44 
 
 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 I may add, that when it is the object to 
 teach English to children who have for 
 some years practised speaking another lan- 
 guage — their mother tongue — the most effec- 
 tual way to introduce the former amongst 
 a population, and gradually supplant the 
 latter, is to teach both languages in pre- 
 cisely the same books and lessons ; first 
 teaching children to read their provincial 
 language — Irish, for example^ or Welsh — 
 and then instructing them in English, in 
 parallel passages. Experience corroborates 
 the remark, for it has shewn that attempts 
 to teach the Wendens, already alluded to, 
 German, were unsuccessful till the people 
 had first learned to read the Wendish 
 tongue ; whilst they afterwards felt desirous 
 to enlarge their knowledge by learning 
 German. The example of Wales has, in 
 like manner, shewn that the knowledge of 
 English has become far more prevalent 
 since the establishment of Sunday-schools 
 for teaching Welsh ; those who had learned 
 the latter language thirsting for an acquaint- 
 ance with the English also, and having ac- 
 quired the habit of application to books. 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 45 
 
 The facts are of the highest importance in 
 reference to promoting civilization and reli- 
 gion in Ireland, where, on the very low cal- 
 culation adopted by the Commissioners on 
 Education in their First Report laid before 
 Parliament, one million and a half usually 
 speak Irish ; and to whom it is expedient, — 
 as Archbishop Daniell, and Bishop Bedell, 
 and their associates, who translated the 
 Scriptures and Common Prayer Book into 
 Irish well understood, — that instruction 
 should be imparted, in the first place, through 
 the medium of their native tongue,'* 
 
 But to return to M. Oberlin's parish. 
 Whilst the Ban de la Roche presented 
 a spot on the surface of France, favoured 
 in a peculiar degree with the benefits of 
 education, that large kingdom, generally 
 speaking, has not risen to so high ^ 
 
 * These, and other points, are discussed in an 
 ^mpie and luminous manner, in a work, entitled 
 ** Historical Sketches of the Ancient Irish, ^' by- 
 Christopher Anderson ; a work highly deserving of 
 the perusal of all ejigaged in benefiting Ireland, 
 especially the Clergy of that country. 
 
46 
 
 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 standard in respect to the education of 
 the poor, as might be hoped, and even 
 expected, in so highly civilized a country. 
 This will appear by the following table. 
 
 Northern 
 Departments 
 
 Southern 
 Departments 
 
 Population. 
 
 Communes 
 without 
 Schools. 
 
 Communes 
 
 with 
 
 Schools. 
 
 Number 
 
 of 
 Scholars. 
 
 13,663,914 
 17,936,086 
 
 4,401 
 9,663 
 
 15,701 
 
 8,669 
 
 740,846 
 375,931 
 
 31,600,000 
 
 14,069 
 
 24,370 
 
 1,116,777 
 
 From the above statement, it appears 
 that above fourteen thousand communes, or 
 villages, are still unprovided with schools 
 for the poor, and that only one in twenty- 
 eight of the population is under a course 
 of instruction. It also appears that educa- 
 tion is in a much more flourishing state in 
 the North than in the South of France. In 
 connexion with this point, I may subjoin, 
 that the Northern Departments excel the 
 Southern in agriculture and commerce, and 
 yield a larger revenue to the Crown, whilst 
 the proportion of crimes is much greatei 
 in the South of France. Education is, 
 apparently, both a cause and effect of the 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. ^ 
 
 greater prosperity of the North. Happy 
 will it be for many desolate districts of that 
 large and interesting country, if the achieve- 
 ments of Oberlin, in his secluded sphere, 
 which have now become a matter of great 
 publicity, should gradually induce many 
 other persons, in the several provinces, to 
 imitate his laborious zeal and unwearied 
 benevolence, more especially in his atten- 
 tion to the education of children. 
 
48 BRIEF MEMORIAI^ 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 IMPROVEMENT OF THE PARISH ROADS AT BAN Di; 
 
 I.A ROCHE IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURE 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF MANUFACTURES PLANS OF 
 
 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 
 
 There was a feature in M. Oberlins 
 philanthropic efforts peculiarly characteris- 
 tic ; I mean that regard to the temporal 
 prosperity of his poor parishioners, which 
 he displayed with so much ingenuity and 
 perseverance, by improvements in rural 
 affairs, the introduction of manufactures, 
 and plans of domestic economy. Each of 
 these three classes will require explanation. 
 
 He perceived that one of the urgent 
 wants of the parish was that of good roads, 
 without which no communication with the 
 main road, and with neighbouring towns, 
 could be kept up for more than six mojiths 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 49 
 
 in the year. The people being thus deprived 
 of many advantages, he tried to persuade 
 them to form a road for half a league, and 
 build a bridge ; a proposal to which they 
 were averse till he pointed out to them that 
 they would be amply repaid by taking their 
 produce to market, and bringing back Other 
 articles. Under his superintendence the 
 work was so effectually carried on that a 
 communication was opened with Strasbourg 
 at all seasons of the year. They afterwards, 
 under his direction, improved the roads 
 from one village to another; raised walls 
 to prevent the good soil on the declivities 
 from being washed away by rains ; turned 
 the streams that were carrying off that soil 
 into proper channels; and built convenient 
 cottages instead of their former wretched 
 cabins. 
 
 Another principal improvement he intro- 
 duced was that in the system of agriculture, 
 — often a difficult task, and requiring much 
 patience and perseverance, on account of the 
 prejudices common amongst country people. 
 Well knowing this, Oberlin resolved to 
 D 
 
9® BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 appeal to their eyes instead of their ears; 
 and having two gardens in which there 
 were paths through which the parishioners 
 were accustomed to pass, he brought them, 
 with the help of an intelligent servant, 
 into so high a state of cultivation, that the 
 people, wondering at the contrast between 
 their pastor's ground and crops and their 
 own, anxiously inquired the reason. Oberlin, 
 after first directing their thoughts to the 
 God of seasons and Giver of all good, 
 cheerfully explained to them those agricul- 
 tural processes by which they might hope 
 to obtain similar success. Such, for a long 
 time, has been the result of his instructions, 
 that those travellers who visit the Steinthal 
 must be delighted, as I was, to see even 
 the hill behind Waldbach decked with va- 
 rious crops, beautiful in appearance as well 
 as beneficial to the proprietors. It will be 
 desirable, however, to illustrate, by some de- 
 tails, the nature of the improvements. 
 
 So barbarous was the state of cultivation, 
 that, previously to the year 1709, the 
 people lived chiefly on wild pears and 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 51 
 
 apples. The famine of that year induced 
 them to think of clearing the forest and 
 planting potatoes. The potatoes at length 
 degenerated in quality, and became unpro- 
 ductive. Fields that once yielded from 
 120 to 1 50 bushels, produced only 30 or 40 ; 
 and thus, whilst the population were increas- 
 ing, the means of sustaining that population 
 were rapidly decreasing. Whilst the people 
 supposed that the ground was unfavourable 
 to that root, M. Oberlin's more correct know- 
 ledge of the principles of agriculture 
 enabled him to meet the evil by obtaining 
 different sorts of potatoes for planting from 
 Germany, Switzerland, and Lorraine. Such 
 excellent potatoes were in consequence pro- 
 duced as to be much sought for at Stras- 
 bourg market. The people were also in- 
 structed to use a smaller number of potatoes 
 in planting, by cutting each into several 
 pieces, every piece containing what is called 
 an eye. It is generally thought, that with- 
 out the above improvements, the inhabitants 
 would have been reduced to dreadful ex- 
 tremity in those years of dearth, 1812, 
 1816, and 1817. 
 
 d2 
 
62 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 As this Memoir of the venerable Pastor 
 of Waldbach may be read by some who 
 possess, or whose friends possess, landed 
 property in Ireland, I should deem it wrong 
 to pass on without offering a few sugges- 
 tions; and which I may feel, perhaps, the 
 more justified in offering, when I state, 
 that I have personally witnessed the de- 
 plorably careless, and even injudicious man- 
 ner in which the cultivation of the ground 
 is often carried on in that country. 
 
 That the potatoe is the chief article of 
 subsistence in Ireland is a serious evil, since, 
 the labour of a few days or weeks being 
 sufficient to obtain the quantity requisite 
 for the support of a family, this simple cir- 
 cumstance fosters that indolence which is 
 the source of many other bad habits, and, 
 by encouraging early and indiscreet mar- 
 riages, produces a too rapid increase of 
 population. The gradual substitution of 
 other food, to acquire which shall demand 
 more time and industry from the peasantry, 
 appears therefore to be highly desirable. 
 Whilst the potatoe does continue to be the 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 53 
 
 principal food of the inhabitants, however^ 
 it should be a wholesome not a degenerate 
 root, otherwise low fever, and other com- 
 plaints, must be occasionally prevalent. To 
 guard against the degeneracy of that root, 
 a fresh importation of potatoes of a good 
 sort from England, Scotland, or the different 
 soil of another county, should be obtained 
 from time to time. Masters of vessels may 
 not always find the price given a sufficient 
 inducement to bring cargoes to Irish ports 
 on speculation. The peasantry in the inte- 
 rior may also neglect to go to a considerable 
 distance to procure potatoes for planting. 
 For these reasons, the agents of landed pro- 
 prietors may be well induced to assist in 
 getting such supplies from distant parts oc- 
 casionally. Landed Proprietors and Clergy- 
 men cannot be made too sensible, however, 
 that whilst the culture of the potatoe in 
 undue proportion will lead to a redundancy 
 of population, for a reason already assigned, 
 the potatoe is a root that materially exhausts 
 the soil, and consequently lessens its power 
 to support the population, except under a 
 more judicious system of alternate crops 
 
64 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 than the careless mode of Irish farming 
 usually exhibits.} Indeed I may be allow- 
 ed, perhaps, to add, that the prosperity of 
 Ireland would be much advanced if the 
 introduction of a taste and wish for better 
 food, better clothing, and better cottages, 
 should induce her inhabitants to postpone 
 marriage to a proper period of life ; if the 
 institution of Savings' Banks, in different 
 districts, should dispose them to lay by 
 money for use when they marry at such 
 suitable age; and if those correct religious 
 principles should become more prevalent, 
 which are essential as a preservative from 
 immorality before, and a directory of con- 
 duct after marriage. But though I could 
 not well forbear inserting the above remarks, 
 on points which I think materially affect the 
 welfare of the Sister Country, it is time to 
 return to Pastor Oberlin, whose improve- 
 ments in these and other matters present 
 an instructive pattern for proprietors, clergy- 
 men, and other influential inhabitants of 
 Ireland. 
 
 Finding the Ban de la Roche deficient in 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 5& 
 
 many raluable trees and plants, Oberlin ob- 
 tained different sorts of fruit-trees, profitable 
 grasses, and vegetables which were unknown 
 in that neighbourhood. Flax, for instance, 
 became an object of cultivation, and, for 
 that purpose, he procured seed from Riga. 
 It succeeded well; as did clover in some 
 places ; and these three crops — clover, flax, 
 and potatoes — were found well adapted to 
 the granitic sand of the Steinthal. By his 
 advice the people were more careful in 
 saving manure for the land ; they formed 
 artificial water-meadows ; and even ploughed 
 in green crops to improve the soil for crops 
 of greater value. They were also taught 
 the properties of wild indigenous plants, 
 serviceable for health, food, and the useful 
 arts ; the advantages attending feeding cows 
 in the stable and farm yard with grasses 
 and vegetables cut for them, instead of per- 
 mitting them to tread great part of the 
 grass in fields whilst eating the rest; and 
 the imprudence of letting cattle graze on 
 bad pastures, which might be more profitably 
 converted into arable land. In process of 
 time, nurseries having been formed, and the 
 
56 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 art of grafting introduced, a small Agricul- 
 tural Society was instituted in connexion 
 with that of Strasbourg, which, in 1805, 
 voted 200 francs, to be divided amongst 
 those peasants of the Steinthal, who ex- 
 celled in planting nursery-grounds and 
 grafting fruit-trees. Oberlin himself offered 
 a prize in order to improve the breed of 
 cattle, and devoted two hours of Thursday 
 morning, once a fortnight, to giving young 
 men instructions useful to them, both as 
 Agriculturists and as Christians. Thus at- 
 tending to the temporal interests of his 
 parishioners, as a patriotic philanthropist, 
 he so gained their confidence and esteem 
 as to be able the more effectually to secure 
 their attention to his instructions as their 
 minister. 
 
 So steadily, yet so rapidly, did civiliza- 
 tion advance at the Ban de la Roche, under 
 the superintendence of this indefatigable 
 benefactor, that his friends at Paris and 
 Strasbourg deemed it proper to collect 
 documents on the subject, and submit them, 
 without his knowledge, in the year 1818, 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 57 
 
 to the Central Agricultural Society at Paris. 
 On hearing the statement of the Count de 
 Neuf-ch^teau, who had actually seen the 
 improvements in question, the Society pre- 
 sented M. Oberlin with a Gold Medal. The 
 Count states, in his *' Memoires de la Socle te 
 Roy ale et Centrale d' Agriculture," that there 
 are waste lands still in France upon which 
 5,000 new villages may be established, and 
 adds, that whenever such Home- Colonies 
 shall become desirable, Waldbach should 
 be regarded as one of the best models^ since 
 amongst the 30,000 or 40,000 villages 
 already existing in that country, there is not 
 one where social economy, under its various 
 aspects, has been brought to so high a point 
 of perfection.^ I feel induced to add, that 
 
 * The expediency of such Home-Colonies on 
 those waste lands of Ireland which might be trans- 
 formed by draining from a state of bog into good 
 land, has occurred to many persons. The canals 
 formed by such a well directed process of draining, 
 would also facilitate internal commerce. In Sir 
 John Sinclair's " Code of Agriculture'' the immense 
 quantity of land that remains still unimproved in 
 Ireland is stated from documents, and the proper 
 process of cultivation carefully pointed out. M. 
 
 d3 
 
58 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 if Oberlin's parish had possessed an advan- 
 tage which many in France, Ireland, Wales, 
 and other countries do, that of being on 
 the sea- coast, it would probably have ex- 
 hibited proofs of his activity and benefi- 
 cence, in the adoption of sea-weed as an 
 excellent manure, and the cultivation of 
 those profitable plants to which it is favour- 
 able; in the establishment of a well-con- 
 ducted fishery, that the riches of the sea 
 might not, as in many places, be almost 
 wholly lost; and, perhaps, even in some 
 judicious attempt to render it, on a greater 
 or smaller scale, a place of commerce. I 
 shall be forgiven this observation, when it is 
 recollected how often, for want of thought, 
 local advantages are little appreciated, per- 
 haps wholly neglected. 
 
 Oberlin's improvements coincide with the principles 
 of Sir John Sinclair's *' Code/' Those, whether 
 in Great Britain or Ireland, who are studious of the 
 temporal happiness of the poor in the country, may 
 consult, with advantage, the experiments and calcu- 
 lations detailed in a small pamphlet by Mr. Wm. 
 Allen, of the Society of Friends. In the Nether- 
 lands Home-Colonies have been formed, to which 
 the beggars have been transferred. 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 59 
 
 The introduction of manufactures was one 
 of Oberlin's favourite objects. The popula- 
 tion, at first scanty, having at length reached 
 the number of 3,000 souls, became too nu- 
 merous for agricultural employment. De- 
 ducting from that number 1,000 young 
 and aged persons, there remained still 2,000 
 able to work, whilst 5(K) were as many as the 
 cultivation of the ground required. What 
 were the 1,500 to do ? In addition to straw- 
 platting, knitting, and dyeing, by means of 
 plants, M. Oberlin introduced cotton-spin- 
 ning, and gave prizes to those women who 
 were the best spinners. This branch of 
 industry succeeded so well, that it once 
 produced, in a single year, the sum of 
 32,000 francs. In the year 1814, M. Le- 
 grand, of Basle, attracted to the neighbour- 
 hood by M. Oberlin's well-earned reputation, 
 persuaded his two sons to remove from the 
 Department of the Upper Rhine, and esta- 
 blish their silk-ribbon manufactory in his 
 parish. They did so at the village of Foudai. 
 By means of such seasonable occupation, 
 many hands have been employed ; and it has 
 been the practice of this respectable family 
 d4 
 
60 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 to allow the children to work at the ribhon- 
 looms in different houses, under the eye of 
 their parents, instead of being exposed to 
 the influence of bad example, when, as 
 in some manufactories, withdrawn from that 
 salutary check. 
 
 Anxious to render his parish independent 
 of other places, the wise pastor of Wald- 
 bach clothed some clever boys, and sent 
 them as apprentices to Strasbourg, that they 
 might learn to be masons, blacksmiths, 
 joiners, glaziers, and cartwrights. The con- 
 sequence was, that money, instead of being 
 spent in other places for work done as for- 
 merly, remained in the parish; which was 
 a matter of consequence, where poverty had 
 been once very general. 
 
 This was not the case at an after-period, 
 for by attention to Domestic Economy, 
 in its various branches, which M. Oberlin 
 endeavoured constantly to inculcate, the 
 people were better able both to gain and tc 
 lay by money. As some of the people had 
 incurred small debts of which payments 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 61 
 
 might, to their great inconvenience, be de- 
 manded at any time, he persuaded them to 
 form a society apart, for the purpose of 
 putting a small but stated sum into a fund, 
 by means of which they might gradually pay 
 off those debts. Agricultural implements 
 being very scarce, a shop was opened for 
 selling them at cost price, and credit given 
 till after harvest. A lending fund was also 
 established, to which those who borrowed 
 were compelled to return the money ad- 
 vanced as a loan at a prescribed time, 
 otherwise they were -not entitled to borrow 
 again for a limited period. It would have 
 been still better, of course, if they had, 
 instead of borrowing, been able to take 
 out money from a fund, constituted of 
 their own savings, as may be done by those 
 who put money into Savings' Banks in 
 England ; and I cannot forbear to add, that, 
 probably, under a well arranged parochial 
 system, comprising (1.) full wages for the 
 labourer, instead of part-payment from 
 the poor's-rate ; (2.) a Friendly Society, to 
 which the contributions shall be made, and 
 from which money shall be derived in case 
 
62 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 of sickness, or old age, according to approved 
 tables of calculation ;* (3.) a Savings' Bank ; 
 (4.) a fund for the liquidation of small debts 
 already contracted ; and (5.) such an exem- 
 plification of Christian charity, as will be 
 noticed presently towards orphans; that 
 fruitful source of evils to England — the 
 poor's rate — injurious alike to the prosperity 
 of landlords, tenants, and tradesmen, and to 
 the morals of the poor, might be abolished 
 by degrees in many parishes, if not in all.f 
 Perhaps, also, the necessity of establishing* 
 that rate in Ireland might be obviated by 
 the same means. 
 
 * The " Hampshire Friendly Society'' has pub- 
 lished such approved Tables, on the principles con- 
 tended for in the Rev. Mr. Beecher's Pamphlet on 
 Friendly Societies. 
 
 f Clergymen, and others, who wish to ascertain 
 the possibility of diminishing or even abolishing the 
 poor's rate in their respective spheres, will naturally 
 study the pages of that patriotic and philanthropic, 
 as well as eloquent writer, Dr. Chalmers, in his 
 *^ Christian and Civic Economy.'' 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 63 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FEMALE PAROCHIAL ASSISTANTS — OBERLIN*S COR- 
 RESPONDENCE WITH THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN 
 BIBLE SOCIETY. 
 
 It becomes now my pleasing task to state 
 the eflScient aid which M. Oberlin received 
 from some persons of a benevolent disposi- 
 tion in his parish ; not only from the family 
 of Legrand, already mentioned, of whom the 
 father kindly devoted time to the inspec- 
 tion of schools, but even from females, and 
 those in ver^y humble stations of life. Not- 
 withstanding the pious affectionate preach- 
 ing, and practical efforts of the Pastor of 
 Waldbach, the levity and worldly-minded- 
 ness of numbers of his parishioners conti- 
 nued to create anguish in his mind; but 
 others, happily, afforded full proof that they 
 had imbibed a portion of their Pastor's be- 
 nevolence ; for when parents died, their 
 
64 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 friends and neighbours kindly took charge 
 of their orphan children ; the young people 
 also cheerfully assisted the aged and sick 
 in their field-work, and, if a cottage was to 
 be built, fetched the mat^ials. Again, if 
 a poor man's cow died, the people combined 
 to help him to buy another. One young 
 person even refused to enter the marriage- 
 state, that she might dedicate her time and 
 strength, and the surplus of her gains, after 
 a moderate allowance for herself, to the re- 
 lief of the necessitous, and the support of 
 religious institutions, such as the Bible So- 
 ciety, and that for Missions. An account of 
 other female fellow- helpers, cannot be better 
 given than in the form of an extract from 
 a letter, written by M. Oberlin, Nov. 3, 
 1804, to acknowledge the receipt of £30. 
 sent from the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society to purchase Bibles. '* Among the 
 large number of individuals and families to 
 whom a Bible is a most welcome gift, I first 
 put down such characters as are most active 
 in promoting the Redeemer's kingdom, and 
 doing good to the bodies and souls of their 
 fellow-creatures. 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 65 
 
 1. The first Bible shall be given as a pre- 
 sent to Sophia Bernard, who is one of the 
 most excellent women I know, and, indeed, 
 an ornament to my parish. While un- 
 married, she undertook, with the consent 
 of her parents, the support and education 
 of three helpless boys, whom their inhuman 
 father had often trampled under his feet, 
 and treated in a manner too shocking to 
 relate, when, nearly starving with hunger, 
 they ventured to cry out for food. Soon 
 afterwards she proved the happy means of 
 saving the lives of three Roman Catholic 
 children, who, without her assistance, would 
 have fallen a prey to want and famine. 
 Thus she had the management of six chil- 
 dren, to whom several more were added, be- 
 longing to parents of three several denomi- 
 nations. She then hired a house and a ser- 
 vant girl, and supported the whole of the 
 family entirely by her own work, and the 
 little money acquired by the industry of the 
 children, whom she taught to spin cotton. 
 At the same time she proved the greatest 
 blessing to the whole village where she 
 
66 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 lived ;^ for it is impossible for any one to be 
 more industrious, frugal, clean, cheerful, 
 and edifying by her whole conduct ; more 
 ready for every good word and work ; more 
 mild and affectionate, and more firm and re- 
 solute in dangers than she was. ... A 
 fine youth, of generous disposition, made her 
 an offer of marriage, and, as she appeared 
 unwilling to accept him, declared that he 
 would wait ten years, if necessary, to gain 
 her hand. She then acknowledged that her 
 motive for refusing him was the grief it 
 would occasion her to part from her little 
 orphans. ' He who takes the mother, takes 
 the children also,' replied the young man. 
 On this condition the marriage took place, 
 and all the children were brought up under 
 their mutual care in the most excellent man- 
 ner. They have lately taken in some other 
 orphans, whom they are training up in the 
 fear and love of God. Though these excel- 
 lent people pass for rather rich, yet their in- 
 come is so limited, and their benevolence 
 
 * Foudai. 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 67 
 
 SO extensive, that they sometimes hardly 
 know how to furnish themselves with a new 
 suit of necessary clothes. I intend to give 
 them a Bible, because their own is very 
 often lent out in different Roman Catholic 
 villages. 
 
 " 2. A second Bible I intend to give to 
 an excellent woman, named Maria Schepler, 
 who lives at the opposite end of my extensive 
 parish, where the cold is more severe, and 
 the ground unfruitful, so that nearly all the 
 householders are poor people. . . . Though 
 distressed and afflicted in her own person 
 and circumstances, yet she is a mother, be- 
 nefactress, and teacher to the whole village 
 in which she lives, and to some neighbouring 
 districts too .... She also has brought up 
 several orphans, without receiving the 
 smallest recompence ; keeps a free school for 
 females, and makes it a practice to lend her 
 Bible to such as do not possess one.* 
 
 * M. Oberlin afterwards had Bibles for the pur- 
 pose hi lending to Roman Catholics, from whom 
 some priests would have taken them away, if they 
 had been the owners. In some cases this practice 
 may succeed in Ireland. 
 
68 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 " 3. A third Bible I intend to present to 
 an excellent widow, Catherine Scheidecker, 
 who is, like the former, a mother to orphans, 
 and keeps a free-school; so also does ano- 
 ther young woman, who instructs little chil- 
 dren in a neighbouring village in such know- 
 ledge as may render them useful members 
 of society."* 
 
 It is worthy of particular notice that the 
 active benevolence of ladies in England, 
 and still more recently in France, and other 
 countries, in promoting the interests of the 
 Bible Society and Missionary Societies, by 
 Auxiliary Associations, and personal com- 
 munication with the poor, appears, like some 
 majestic river traced to a small rivulet in the 
 mountains as its source, to have derived its 
 origin from the humble efforts of these 
 women in the Ban de la Roche; for when 
 the late Rev. Mr. Owen, Secretary to the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, visited 
 
 * Her name was Catherine Banzet. She, from 
 kindness, attended to teach in all the knitting- 
 schools. 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 69 
 
 M. Oberlin's parish, in the autumn of 1818, 
 he had an interview with Sophia Bernard 
 and Catherine Scheidecker, which he de- 
 scribes by writing, "Maria Schepler, the 
 second on the list of this memorable trio, 
 had, I found, been removed to her rest : 
 the two . . . who now stood before me, 
 remained to fill up the measure of their 
 usefulness in the work of their Lord- Never 
 shall I forget the manner in which these in- 
 teresting peasants received me, when, ad- 
 dressing them by name, I told them that 
 I had known them nearly fourteen years, 
 and that the account of their services, com- 
 municated to us by the pastor whom they 
 so greatly assisted, had been instrumental in 
 stirring up the zeal of many to labour after 
 their example. ' Oh, Sir,' said Sophia 
 Bernard, the tears filling her eyes at the 
 time, ' this does indeed humble us,' adding 
 many remarks in relation to their obscurity, 
 the imperfection of their works, and the 
 honour they considered it to labour for Him 
 who had done so much, yea, every thing, for 
 them." I had the satisfaction of seeing 
 Catherine Scheidecker, at Foudai, in the 
 
TO BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 year 1823. She left this world for abetter 
 in 1826. Sophia Bernard had died some 
 time before our arrival. It was delightful 
 even to look at the house pointed out as 
 that in which she had resided, and unos- 
 tentatiously exercised such genuine benevo- 
 lence. 
 
 It is evident, upon a careful examination 
 of St. PauFs Epistles, and especially the 
 16th chapter to the Romans, that not only 
 many laymen, but females also, assisted him 
 and other preachers in the apostolic age, 
 by religious exertions adapted to their age, 
 sex, and circumstances. The necessity of 
 such co-operation must forcibly present 
 itself to the minds of many Clergymen en- 
 trusted with large parishes in the present 
 day, when the population often far exceeds 
 the number that a Rector and Curate can 
 attend to, and the church accommodate ; and 
 when an increase of schools, charitable as- 
 sociations, and domiciliary visits is urgently 
 called for, unless the benefiting the mass 
 of the lower orders be resigned, through 
 culpable remissness or unmanly despon- 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 71 
 
 dency, to the pious efforts of dissenting 
 ministers and their lay co-adjutors. That 
 principle which is universally recognized as 
 promotive of success in a manufactory — the 
 division of labour — appears to be essential 
 also in the management of a large parish; 
 and unless many heads, eyes, hands, and feet, 
 be employed, besides his own, as those of 
 the superior and superintendent, the Rector 
 will achieve but little, compared with what 
 ought to be accomplished, under the fearful 
 responsibility attached to his office and 
 station. 
 
 Before I quit the subject of M. Oberlin's 
 female parochial assistants, some notice is 
 due to the excellent woman, Louisa Schepler, 
 who resided 50 years in his house, and to 
 whose friendly attentions other travellers, as 
 well as myself, have been indebted. She 
 had been received an orphan into his house 
 in her 15th year. On the death of his wife, 
 in 1784, she undertook the management of 
 the house, and the care of his children, but 
 would never accept a pecuniary remunera- 
 tion. Her own little property she devoted 
 
72 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 to charitable purposes, and her plain ward- 
 robe. After M. Oberlin's death, a letter 
 was found addressed to his children, and 
 commending this faithful Louisa, who had 
 been their nurse and their instructress, to 
 their attention till her death. The venerable 
 pastor informs them, that in former years, 
 after having instructed children in different 
 villages in religion, and taught them to sing 
 hymns, she has, upon her return over bad 
 roads, in inclement weather, though ex- 
 hausted, wet, or chilled with cold, attended 
 to them, when young children, and to house- 
 hold affairs. Fully sensible how much they 
 owed to such a friend, M. Oberlin's chil- 
 dren, upon his death, proposed to Louisa 
 to give her an equal share of their father's 
 little property; but this she refused, and 
 only requested that she might remain an in- 
 mate in the family, and be allowed to add 
 the honoured name of Oberlin to her owji. 
 She is still at Waldbach, in the house of 
 Mr. Rauscher, the present minister, who 
 married a daughter of M. Oberlin. 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 73 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OBERLIN S EXTRA-PAROCHIAL EXERTIONS HE 
 
 AIDS MISSIONARY ATTEMPTS PROMOTES THE 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF THE SCRIPTURES IN FRANCE. 
 
 Having thus seen what that venerable 
 man's plans and arrangements were within 
 the sphere of his parish, we may now pro- 
 ceed to examine the nature and extent of 
 his extra-parochial connexions and efforts. 
 His intercourse with individuals, in person 
 or by letter, was considerable for a man so 
 secluded from the world. For many years 
 past that celebrity as a philanthropic pastor, 
 which he acquired but did not seek, brought 
 many travellers to his beloved Steinthal. 
 Some respected clergymen whom I have 
 the happiness to know, were of that number; 
 the Rev. Dr. Steinkopff, and the Rev. 
 Francis Cunningham. The late Rev. Mr. 
 £ 
 
74 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 Owen has been already mentioned. I met 
 a young minister from Berlin also, who tra- 
 velled for the purpose of religious research, 
 I believe at the expense and under the 
 auspices of his Sovereign. The late Count 
 de Lezay-Marnesia, Prefect of the Lower 
 Rhine, often consulted him when sceptical 
 objections to revealed religion arose in his 
 mind, and was as pleased to yield as Oberlin 
 was to obtain the victory in argument. His 
 correspondence as well as conversation con- 
 tributed likewise to the extension of his use- 
 fulness, for which that combination of origi- 
 nality and piety which he possessed seems 
 to have eminently fitted him. When anxious 
 to console a lady who had been much afflict- 
 ed, he ingeniously began his letter by saying, 
 " that he saw two stones intended to imitate 
 the precious stones ; both alike as to colour, 
 and equally transparent, yet materially dif- 
 fering in brilliancy. What was the reason? 
 The reason was this, that the one was cut so 
 as to present only a few sides, (facettes,) 
 whilst the other contained ten times as many. 
 These sides were formed by a very violent 
 operation in the art of cutting and polishing 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 73 
 
 them. Had each of them been endued with 
 life, that which had most endured the effects of 
 the cutting and polishing instruments would, 
 no doubt, have envied the lot of that which 
 had suffered only a tenth part of the same 
 operation. But when that was once over, 
 the actual difference between the two ap- 
 peared conspicuous. The one quite eclipsed 
 the other. And does not this well illustrate 
 the words of our Saviour, * Blessed are 
 they that mourn, for they shall be com- 
 forted?' — blessed, if considered in them- 
 selves and apart ; blessed, if compared with 
 those who have not undergone so many 
 trials.'' Happy were those Christians in past 
 days, who, under the severe pressure of 
 affliction, had the benefit of epistolary com- 
 munication from such experienced guides as 
 a Bradford, a Leighton, and, in later times, 
 a Newton of Olney; and really, though 
 not equally favoured, were those who re- 
 ceived lines of consolation from a Fenelon 
 in the Roman Catholic, an Oberlin in the 
 Lutheran Church ! 
 
 His connexion with Foreign Societies 
 e2 
 
76 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 forms another very prominent feature in M. 
 Oberlin's life. The condition of the Negro 
 Slaves deeply affected his mind ; so much 
 so, that he and his wife agreed to sell their 
 plate, and send the proceeds towards sup- 
 porting missionaries who had gone to instruct 
 them in Christian principles. Deeming it 
 right (an opinion which many humane per- 
 sons may be disposed to controvert) to ab- 
 stain from the use of coffee and sugar raised 
 by the labour of slaves, he exercised self- 
 denial in this respect, although before ac- 
 customed to the use of both articles. 
 
 From the first year of the establishment 
 of the British and Foreign Bible Society, a 
 correspondence was opened wHh Pastor 
 Oberlin, and a small Committee, consist- 
 ing of himself, his son Henry, and M. 
 Daniel Legrand, was formed at Waldbach, 
 which became the central point for dissemi- 
 nating the Scriptures through France. More 
 than 10,000 Bibles and New Testaments 
 were circulated in that country through this 
 channel, before the Paris Bible Society was 
 formed. During a journey in the South 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 77 
 
 of France, in 1815, for the purpose of pro- 
 moting the interests of that Society, his ex- 
 cellent son Henry caught a severe cold 
 from rendering assistance in extinguishing a 
 fire iii some town, and, returning to the Stein- 
 thal, died of consumption, amidst the re- 
 grets of his friends and neighbours. 
 
 It is a practice at the Ban de la Roche to 
 meet on a particular evening, and, after 
 reading part of the Scriptures, to pray for 
 God's blessing on the parish, and on all reli- 
 gious institutions. A collection is after- 
 wards made, according to the means and dis- 
 position of each person,* and put into a 
 box, to be sent to the Treasurers of the 
 Bible and Missionary Societies. It appears 
 to me, I confess, that such a mode of col- 
 lecting offerings is to be preferred to soli- 
 citing penny a-week subscriptions from per- 
 sons in the humbler classes, who might de- 
 rive religious benefit themselves were they 
 to meet occasionally for intercession, and 
 
 * Oberlin instructed and exhorted his parishion- 
 ers to put by weekly a sum for charitable pur- 
 poses. 
 
78 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 whose gifts would be bestowed with less reluc- 
 tance when offered spontaneously, and, though 
 discreetly, in the glow of benevolent affec- 
 tion. Where the poor have been invited, 
 and induced to present such offerings, the 
 pleasing result has often been that piety, 
 morality, economy, and contentment have 
 followed; and whether the Clergyman and 
 his parishioners prefer supporting the ^* So- 
 ciety for Promoting Christian Knowledge," 
 or the *' British and Foreign Bible Society," 
 or both; — the '* Society for the Propagation 
 of the Gospel,'^ or the ** Church Missionary 
 Society," or the ** Prayer Book and Homily 
 Society," and other benevolent institutions, 
 it is, evidently, in exact unison with the 
 spirit of Christianity, and with the tenor of 
 the Church of England Liturgy, that such 
 plans of beneficence should be supported, 
 and intercessory prayers, of which there are 
 many suitable in our formularies,^ offered 
 up for their success. 
 
 I 
 
 * *^ The Prayer for all conditions of Men," the 
 
 Third Collect for Good Friday, the 67th Psalm, the 
 
 ** Prayer for Christ's Church militant on Earth," 
 
 and others. 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 79 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OBERLIN S LOVE OF PEACE ECCENTRICITIES 
 
 HUMANITY PIETY. 
 
 The great leading traits in Oberlin — hum- 
 ble piety and ingenious active benevolence — 
 have been sufficiently conspicuous in the 
 foregoing pages ; but it will not be unin- 
 teresting to bring forward to view some of 
 those lesser lines, those peculiarities of mind 
 and heart which combined to constitute the 
 originality which he so evidently possessed. 
 Amongst these may be mentioned his love 
 of peace. 
 
 There had been a dispute between the 
 lords of the manor and the peasantry, 
 respecting certain rights connected with 
 the forests, which had lasted above 80 years. 
 
80 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 The worthy Prefect of the department of 
 the Lower Rhine, M. de Lezay-Marnesia, 
 anxious to put an end to it, intreated M. 
 Oberlin to use his influence for that purpose. 
 He did so, both by noticing occasionally in 
 conversation the evils resulting from pro- 
 tracted law-suits, and by inculcating from 
 the pulpit that charity which "suffereth 
 long," and *' seeketh not her own." The 
 minds of his parishioners being at length 
 prepared for the desirable arrangement, an 
 agreement was signed, and the pen used was 
 presented to him as a small trophy of the 
 triumph. 
 
 Another instance of his love of peace oc- 
 curred when one of his parishioners was 
 about to be way-laid by neighbours, for 
 taking a female child, daughter of his wife, 
 who was a Roman Catholic, to be baptized 
 by a Roman Catholic priest. M. Oberlin, 
 by his presence and persuasion, protected 
 the man and woman from the act of violence 
 designed against them. To a poor Jew, who 
 had come to sell articles, he shewed similar 
 kindness ; for when he heard the menaces 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 81 
 
 and loud reproaches which some of his pa- 
 rishioners uttered against the stranger, he 
 blamed them for such unworthy conduct, 
 and led the man by the hand into his own 
 house for safety. Such feelings in the peo- 
 ple were expressed, probably, before his ad- 
 -fnirable instructions raised them to the 
 knowledge they afterwards attained. 
 
 Amidst the tumult of political storms, the 
 love of peace prevailed in his breast, and 
 even his parish was a place of shelter from 
 their violence. Several refugees from Stras- 
 bourg, of different religious opinions, fled 
 there at a crisis of alarm ; and his compassion 
 in receiving them subjected him to a public 
 trial. The Court, however, not only ac- 
 quitted him of the charge of wishing his 
 parishioners to become partisans of Jo- 
 seph II. but expressed regret that so use- 
 ful a public character had been interrupted 
 amidst his laborious avocations. Who can 
 avoid expressing a wish that a similar pa- 
 cific temper may become more prevalent 
 amongst Christians of different religious per- 
 suasions in all countries, especially that agi- 
 £3 
 
82 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 tated country, Ireland ? It is a temper per- 
 fectly compatible with earnestness in incul- 
 cating what they believe, upon examination, 
 to be the vital truths of religion. No 
 political differences should be permitted to 
 dry up the stream of Christian charity; 
 but, on the contrary. Christian charity 
 should, in a great degree, diminish, and 
 even destroy, the asperity attendant on poli- 
 tical differences. Thus will the public tran- 
 quillity, domestic peace, private happiness, 
 the honour of Christianity, and the exten- 
 sion of truth and piety be most effectually 
 promoted. 
 
 Though M. Oberlin received with grate- 
 ful delight the doctrine of the Atonement by 
 a Saviour's meritorious death, yet solitude — 
 often the nurse of ingenious but fanciful 
 theories — the perusal of mystical works, a 
 decay of mental vigour, and an excess of 
 charity, appear to have led him to adopt a 
 few eccentricities in opinion, which fidelity 
 requires I should notice. He endeavoured, 
 for instance, to represent, on a printed 
 and partly coloured paper, what he sup- 
 
OF J. P. OBERLIN, 83 
 
 posed to be the different degrees of happi- 
 ness or misery which men shall enjoy or 
 endure after the present life; and in illus- 
 trating this subject he referred to the temple 
 of Solomon, the Valley of Hinnom, &c. as 
 symbols. He very obligingly presented me 
 with one of those printed papers ; and I 
 clearly perceived, from part of his conversa- 
 tion, that he supposed that souls in another 
 state of existence, (in Purgatory, in fact.) 
 might derive benefit from the prayers of 
 survivors. Whilst an unscriptural excess of 
 charity led to this erroneous opinion, it 
 should be mentioned, that he kept a long 
 list of persons, still living, for whom he 
 wished, or was requested, to intercede in 
 prayer. It struck me as a proof of eccen- 
 tricity, as well as of the simplicity of his 
 character, that texts of Scripture were 
 affixed to the doors of apartments ; thus ful- 
 filling, in the very letter, the precept given 
 to the Jews in Deut. vi. 9. 
 
 His friend Lavater's System of Physiog- 
 nomy, and Gall's System of Phrenology, 
 found an admirer in the Pastor of Waldbach ; 
 E 4 
 
84 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 who also felt inclined to judge of the cha- 
 racter and dispositions of individuals by 
 the preference they gave to one and ano- 
 ther amidst a variety of shining stones of 
 various colours. Numerous proofs, however, 
 have been already given, that the ingenuity 
 of Oberlin's mind was often directed to 
 pursuits whichj if not strictly of a spiritual 
 nature, were of substantial benefit to his 
 parishioners; and, in connexion with this 
 point, I may mention, that he had a public 
 fountain constructed ; that he procured a 
 large and a small fire-engine for general 
 use ; and that intent, like his Divine Master, 
 on administering benefit to the bodies as well 
 as souls of men, he gave medicines to the 
 sick. The room in which I slept at his house 
 had all the appearance of having been his 
 dispensary ; and there also I found a profile 
 of his predecessor, M. S tuber. His consi- 
 derate care induced him, afterwards, to send 
 a young man to Strasbourg, to study medi- 
 cine, and return to the Ban de la Roche ; 
 as well as females, who, on their return, 
 might act as experienced mid wives. But 
 whether engaged in works of great or in- 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 85 
 
 ferior importance, of a spiritual or of a 
 merely charitable kind, religious principle 
 was the main-spring that actuated his ardent 
 mind; for his two favourite maxims were, 
 *' Rien sans Dieu" — '* Tout au Sauveur," 
 " Nothing without God"—'' All to the Sa- 
 viour." Such was his dependence upon 
 God, such his devatedness to the Redeemer, 
 — doubtless amidst numerous imperfections, 
 — during his long and active life. 
 
86 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OBERLINS DEATH — AFFECTING FUNERAL- 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 After a laborious ministerial career of 
 59 years at Waldbach, the venerable Ober- 
 lin died there, on the 1st of June, 1826, 
 at the age of 86. Death had been long 
 the subject of his contemplation. Even in 
 his act of self-dedication to God, in 1760, 
 and renewed, 1770, affecting devotional 
 and truly evangelical petitions occur on that 
 subject. The death of his wife, in 1784, 
 led his mind to still more solemn views 
 of death, and increased his desire to de- 
 part and to be with Christ, exempt from 
 the sorrows and defects under which he 
 mourned ; a desire which regard to the wel- 
 fare of his children, and of the people com- 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 87 
 
 mitted to his charge, forbade him too fondly 
 to indulge. His great weakness having 
 compelled him to resign the pastoral func- 
 tions to his son-in-law, M. Graff, M. Ober- 
 lin, unable to go out often, employed his 
 time chiefly in exercises of devotion, and 
 in writing on different subjects ; and re- 
 marks on Cicero's Treatise ** on Old Age'' 
 were among the last things he wrote. He 
 was suddenly seized with rigours, on Sun- 
 day, the 28th May, 1826, and occasionally 
 fell into a swoon, through weakness; but 
 when he returned to himself he often ex- 
 claimed, '* Lord Jesus, receive me shortly ; 
 yet thy will be done." On the 31st he was 
 much weakened by convulsions; yet he 
 testified continually by signs, and sometimes 
 by words, his affection for his children, his 
 friends, his faithful servant Louisa, and his 
 parishioners. On that night he uttered 
 many plaintive cries, yet, in the intervals 
 of relief, affectionately pressed the hands of 
 his children to his heart. At length, the 
 power of speech having failed, and his 
 limbs become very cold, he regained strength 
 enough to take off his cap, join his hands, 
 
88 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 and raise up his eyes to heaven. That last 
 effort having been made, his eyes closed, and 
 never afterwards opened, and in about five 
 hours afterwards he breathed his last. 
 
 Seldom has a funeral- ceremony been so 
 deeply interesting as that of M. Oberlin, 
 which took place on the 5th of June. Num- 
 bers of persons wishing to have a last sight 
 of so venerable a benefactor, a glass was so 
 fixed in the coffin as to allow the body to 
 be seen. The President of the Consistory 
 placed the ecclesiastical robes upon it, the 
 Vice-president placed the Bible, and the 
 Mayor attached to the funeral pall the red 
 ribbon — the decoration of the Legion of 
 Honour— presented to him by Louis XVIII. 
 for his beneficent exertions. The coffin was 
 borne by the Mayors and Elders, the oldest 
 inhabitant carrying a cross before it, which 
 Louisa had given to be placed upon his grave. 
 So great was the concourse, that the first 
 who walked in the procession had arrived at 
 the church of Foudai, before the last had 
 quitted Waldbach, though a mile and a half 
 apart. On approaching the village, a new 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 89 
 
 bell, given by M. Legrand, sounded for the 
 first time. The coffin being taken into the 
 church, the President of the Consistory of 
 Barr read from the pulpit a paper, penned 
 by M. Oberlin as far back as 1784, after his 
 wife's death, at a time when he appears, 
 probably under the pressure of melancholy 
 thoughts, to have expected that his own 
 decease was likely to take place shortly. 
 This paper refers to a few incidents in his 
 own life, to his beloved chihlren, who he sup- 
 posed would be left fatherless, and to his 
 parish. The following passage, which occurs 
 in it, exhibited to the mourning people the 
 tender regard which their pastor had che- 
 rished towards them even forty-two years 
 before his decease, and must no doubt have 
 deeply affected their minds. ** Nor will God 
 forget or abandon thee, my dear parish ! He 
 has towards thee, as I have often said, 
 thoughts of peace and mercy. All things 
 shall go on well. Only cleave to him, and let 
 him order every thing. O let my name be 
 forgotten in the midst of thee, and let that of 
 Jesus, whom I have proclaimed, be remem- 
 bered ! He is thy pastor ; I am but his ser* 
 
90 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 vant. He is that good Master, who, after 
 having ifitted and prepared me from my youth, 
 sent me to thee that I might be of some use. 
 He alone is wise, good, all-powerful, and 
 merciful ; I am but a poor, weak, miserable 
 man. Oh! my friends, pray that you may 
 all become his dear sheep. There is salva- 
 tion in none other than Jesus Christ; and 
 Jesus loves you, seeks after you, and is ready 
 to receive you : go to him such as you are, 
 with all your sins and infirmities ; he alone 
 can deliver you from them and heal you ; he 
 will sanctify and perfect you. Live unto 
 him : as you die one after another may you 
 die in him ; and may I meet you, and accom- 
 pany you with songs of triumph into the 
 mansions of bliss, before the throne of the 
 Lamb ! Adieu, dear friends, adieu ! I have 
 loved you much, and the very severity which 
 I have deemed it necessary to use on some 
 occasions, had for its first and principal 
 reason, an anxious solicitude to make you 
 happy. May God reward you for your ser- 
 vices, your benefits, and for the deference 
 and submission you have shewn to his poor 
 and unworthy servant; and may he forgive 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 91 
 
 those who have opposed me, and given me 
 pain and trouble; doubtless they knew not 
 what they did. Oh! my God, let thine eye 
 watch over my dear parishioners, let thine 
 ear be open to hear them, and thy hand 
 stretched forth to protect them. Lord Jesus, 
 thou hast entrusted to me, weak and sinful 
 as I am, this parish; oh! suffer me to re- 
 commit it to thine hands ; give it pastors 
 after thine own heart, and never forsake it ; 
 over-rule all things for its weal ; enlighten 
 all the people, lead them, love them, bless 
 them, and let young and old, superiors and 
 private individuals, pastors and parishioners, 
 meet in thy paradise. Amen, amen. O God, 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, likewise add 
 
 amen i 
 
 r> 
 
 IP The affecting memorial, from which the 
 
 above is an extract, having been read, the 
 President also read the 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th 
 verses of the 103d Psalm, and the 14th verse 
 of the 7th chapter of Revelation, which 
 Oberlin had selected as texts for funeral 
 discourses, and on which suitable remarks 
 were made by the President, M. Jaegle, and 
 
92 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 Vice-president M. Braunswald. A Barris- 
 ter, M. Stoeber, then read some pathetic 
 stanzas in German, and M. Bedel, of Schir- 
 meck, aph^^sician, pronounced a brief eulogy. 
 The grave, to which the remains of the vene- 
 rable Oberlin were then committed, lies 
 under a weeping willow that had been planted 
 over the grave of his son Henry. 
 
 At the close of this account of so affec- 
 tionate a village pastor, I will add a few 
 apposite remarks, which seem naturally to 
 arise. 
 
 1. — A striking contrast may be traced be- 
 tween a late great usurper — Napoleon — and 
 this his humble subject, the Pastor of the 
 Ban de la Roche. The former, in his mad 
 career of ambition, exhibited the character 
 and acts of a destroyer, and, after extorting 
 the applause of undiscerning millions, died, 
 unlamented by the wise and good, on a dis- 
 tant rocky island in the ocean : the latter, on 
 the contrary, after exemplifying, in his un- 
 ambitious course, in a sequestered district, 
 the graces of the Christian benefactor, died 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. vd 
 
 surrounded by his family, regretted by his 
 friends, revered by Christians in other king- 
 doms, and bequeathing the legacy of so bright 
 an example to ministers of various Christian 
 communions, that memoirs of his life, as an 
 instructive model, already appear in different 
 European languages. Respecting the deso- 
 lating conqueror, we may ask, in the language 
 of sacred writ, ** Is this the man that made 
 the earth to tremble, that did shake king- 
 doms V But of the benevolent pastor, Ober- 
 lin, it may be said, without exaggeration, 
 '' Mark the perfect man, and behold the up- 
 right, for the end of that man is peace." 
 
 2. — It is one of the advantages resulting 
 from the intercourse between England and 
 the Continent, since the peace consequent 
 upon the fall of Napoleon, that by an inter- 
 change of visits and communications, not only 
 many beneficial plans relative to the diffusion 
 of the Scriptures, the formation of schools, 
 the publication of religious books, &c., have 
 been adopted in France, after England's ex- 
 ample; but, as in this instance of Oberlin, 
 and various other instances, that valuable 
 
94 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 hints may be derived from the exertions of 
 foreigners for the perfecting our own institu- 
 tions, and enlarging our individual efforts. 
 And to those who, like myself, have seen the 
 venerable subject of this memoir, or have 
 communicated particulars of his life to the 
 public, it cannot but be a pleasure to cherish 
 the hope, that benefits may arise to our own 
 country, and especially to the poor in our 
 numerous villages. 
 
 It would, indeed, be a source of great satis- 
 faction, if the perusal of such a memorial as 
 that I have just penned, should induce some 
 of the clergy who live in secluded districts, 
 abounding in ignorance and poverty, and 
 even others who occupy stations amidst popu- 
 lous city-parishes, to look around with an eye 
 more intent on search after opportunities of 
 usefulness within their prescribed districts. 
 For it cannot be disguised, that both in towns 
 and villages there are often evident proofs 
 that the whole of the population have not 
 been brought within the sphere of notice and 
 instruction. Frequently, indeed, an immense 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 95 
 
 proportion of those who are nominally mem- 
 bers of the Church of England, are without 
 any closely-connecting tie with either their 
 minister or church. The contemplation of 
 such a life as that of Oberlin, may well stimu- 
 late clergymen to consider what untried 
 methods may be yet adopted to lessen the 
 sufferings, dispel the ignorance, and save the 
 souls of those entrusted to them. And I 
 hope that it will not be deemed presumptuous 
 on my part to offer such an observation, on a 
 point deeply momentous under various as- 
 pects, 
 
 3. — There is something beautifully com- 
 prehensive, I think, and well-regulated in the 
 Christian benevolence of Oberlin. Oberlin 
 did not restrict his kindness and compassion 
 to his parish in the mountains, regardless of 
 the spiritual wants of his countrymen in ge- 
 neral, and of the heathen. Nor did he, on the 
 other hand, whilst solicitous for the prosperity 
 of Missionary Societies, established on behalf 
 of the heathen, slacken his attention to the 
 welfare of his own parish or family. His 
 charity began at home, but did not end there : 
 
9U BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 his family and parish were its first objects ; it 
 extended afterwards to the state of France, 
 comparatively unenlightened by the Scrip- 
 tures ; it passed the bounds of France to 
 other lands : negroes under the yoke of sla- 
 very, and pagans under the influence of idola- 
 trous superstitions, awakened his sympathies 
 and obtained a share of his prayers and 
 efforts. His benevolence was thus proved 
 to be of a genuine stamp, solid in its texture, 
 substantial in its results, and thoroughly im- 
 bued with the spirit of Christianity. In this 
 point also what a pattern to other pastors ! 
 
 4. — The combination of activity with the 
 love of retirement and reflection, was also 
 very conspicuous in pastor Oberlin. With- 
 out much time devoted to thought and devo- 
 tional retirement, his activity would have 
 greatly impaired the spirituality of his affec- 
 tions; and great as his labours were, they 
 would have been less profitably directed, and 
 less sanctioned with the divine blessing. 
 Whilst, on the other hand, had his time been 
 almost wholly consumed in study, and even 
 devotional exercises, the wants of his nume- 
 
OF J. F. OBERLIN. 97 
 
 rous parishioners would have been deplorably 
 neglected ; nor would his life, probably, ever 
 have been adverted to as an extraordinary 
 example to others. Even admitting that he 
 descended to many particulars which it may 
 not be expedient for a modern clergyman to 
 notice, the great lines of his example still 
 present themselves for imitation, without any 
 danger lest a minister should be absorbed in 
 secular benevolent projects. 
 
 5. — It is pleasing to discover, by written 
 documents, that, vast and extensive as the 
 exertions of Oberlin were, and continued with 
 astonishing perseverance for above half a 
 century, yet, so far from trusting to his good 
 works as meritorious of the divine favour, his 
 reliance was placed on the atonement and 
 righteousness of his Redeemer. Conscious 
 of his own sinfulness before God, he humbled 
 himself and intreated mercy; and, sustained 
 by the hope of that mercy, cheerfully engaged 
 in a series of efforts, from grateful love to 
 his Saviour and compassionate regard to the 
 welfare of his fellow-creatures ; thus furnish- 
 ing a reproof to those who unscripturally 
 F 
 
98 BRIEF MEMORIAL, &C. 
 
 suppose that their benevolent contributions 
 and efforts can entitle them to God's favour, 
 although performed without respect to the 
 merits of a Redeemer, and from another and 
 lower principle than love to his name. 
 
BRIEF MEMORIAL. 
 
 OF 
 
 AUGUSTE BARON DE STAEL- 
 HOLSTEIN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 M. DE STAEL EDUCATED AT PARIS — HIS MOTHER 
 
 EXILED HIS INTERVIEW WITH NAPOLEON IS 
 
 BANISHED RETURNS TO PARIS — AN ACTIVE 
 
 MEMBER OF THE PARIS BIBLE SOCIETY. 
 
 The amiable young nobleman, and true 
 Christian philanthropist, whose name stands 
 at the head of this chapter, was born at 
 Paris, the 30th August, 1790 ; and, during 
 his early years, was educated by his accom- 
 plished mother^ — well known by her literary 
 publications — with the additional advantage 
 f2 
 
100 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 of being often near his grandfather, that 
 distinguished statesman, M. Necker. He 
 studied afterwards at Geneva and at Paris, 
 under the tuition of M. Schlegel, a friend 
 of the family, and now Professor at the 
 University of Bonn. 
 
 When he was only 1 3 years old, the un- 
 merited hatred and base political jealousy 
 of Napoleon, occasioned the exile of his 
 mother and the family from France. After 
 a journey to Prussia, they returned to the 
 family mansion at Coppet, near Geneva, to 
 inter the remains of M. Necker. 
 
 M. de Stael was at a College in Paris, 
 being 15 years of age, and about to enter 
 the Polytechnic School, when his mother was 
 again banished from France. 
 
 About this time he was placed under the 
 care of the able and amiable pastor of 
 Satigny, near Geneva, M. Cellerier Pere, 
 for the purpose of being instructed in reli- 
 gion ; and he appears to have [always re- 
 tained a pleasing remembrance of that 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL, lOl 
 
 period of his life, and of that excellent 
 minister's affectionate regard. Madame de 
 Stael, his mother, also entertained great 
 respect for M. Cellerier, as is evident from 
 a beautiful description, in one of her vo- 
 lumes, of the simple and sublime manner 
 in which public worship was conducted by 
 that pastor and his son, at the village church, 
 on a day when the Holy Communion was 
 administered. 
 
 A few years afterwards, the writings of 
 Madame La Baronne de Stael having re- 
 awakened the jealousy of the French Go- 
 vernment, she was commanded to deliver 
 up her MSS. and doomed to fresh exile. 
 Her two sons solicited and obtained an in- 
 terview with Napoleon, at Fontainebleau, 
 with the hope that the rigorous measures 
 exercised against their mother might be 
 at least softened. Their filial piety, and 
 noble firmness, however they might strike 
 and even surprise the Emperor, did not 
 procure a relaxation of severity. M. de 
 Stael himself, indeed, was soon afterwards 
 required to retire to Switzerland, and for- 
 
102 , BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 bidden, without express permission, to set 
 his foot in France. 
 
 Madame de Stael and her daughter hav- 
 ing at length resolved to leave Switzerland, 
 he remained alone a year at Coppet and 
 Geneva; but, in 1813, rejoined his mother 
 and sister in Sweden ; afterwards visited 
 England ; and, in 1817, returned to France. 
 On the 14th of July, in that year, his highly- 
 talented mother died, and he accompanied 
 her remains to the family-vault at Coppet. 
 
 It appears that in the afflicted state of 
 his mind, after this loss, he gave a more 
 earnest attention than he had given before 
 to the great truths of religion, as momen- 
 tous truths, affecting every individual's con- 
 dition here and hereafter, and presenting 
 sources of consolation of which those deeply 
 feel the need who have learnt the instability 
 of all earthly good, and the insufficiency of 
 rank, fortune, and fame, to satisfy the thirst 
 of man for happiness* 
 
 The formation of the Protestant Bible 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 103 
 
 Society at Paris, was an event calculated to 
 call into action that sincere regard for the 
 Word of God, and the welfare of men, 
 which prevailed in the Baron de StaeFs 
 mind. He accordingly gave, not only the 
 sanction of his name and influence, but 
 personal aid towards its establishment, and 
 became one of its Secretaries. 
 
 In two years afterwards, he, of his own 
 accord, joined a deputation of persons, who 
 called from house to house upon the Pro- 
 testants to solicit subscriptions ; and by his 
 zeal, politeness, and affection, gained nu- 
 merous friends to the Institution, whilst yet 
 in its infancy. These visits gave him such 
 an opportunity of witnessing the purifying, 
 ennobling, and consoling influence of true 
 religion, even amongst persons in low cir- 
 cumstances ; and excited in him such a de- 
 sire to advance in personal piety, that he 
 cheerfully acknowledged himself a debtor 
 to this and other religious Institutions ; 
 since, whilst he endeavoured to confer 
 benefits, he had received benefits himself 
 for which he could make no adequate return. 
 
104 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 Amongst these he would doubtless reckon 
 the intercourse opened with individuals dis- 
 tinguished for talents and piety in France, 
 and other countries, and facilitated by his 
 perfect knowledge of the English tongue. 
 
 One of the circumstances most favour- 
 able to the increase of religious knowledge 
 in the French Protestant Church, is, un- 
 questionably, the diffusion of the Holy 
 Scriptures by means of the Protestant Bible 
 Society thus established at Paris. Before 
 that event took place, the zealous and bene- 
 volent Pastor Oberlin, of the Ban de la 
 K-oche, as we have already seen, had main- 
 tained a correspondence with the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society, established a Depot 
 in his parish, under the management of a 
 few persons, and circulated about 10,000 
 Bibles and Testaments in various parts of 
 France. When, however, a Central So- 
 ciety was at length formed at Paris, pa- 
 tronized by some of the Protestant Nobility, 
 (the Marquis de Jaucourt, President,) and 
 supported by the zeal of the Baron de 
 Stael, as well as the Protestant ministers 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 105 
 
 of France, the wide field that lay open 
 for exertions was more readily cultivated ; 
 so much so, that 313 Auxiliary Societies and 
 Associations have been since formed in 
 connexion with the principal Society at 
 Paris. In these efforts many of the ladies 
 of France have taken a very efficient part, 
 yet, in such a manner, I believe, as not 
 to deviate from the proprieties of their sex 
 and station. Conformably to the injunction 
 of a late eloquent Secretary,* their influence 
 has been, like the blood that circulates 
 through the human frame, rather felt in its 
 effects than obvious to the sight. Still, it 
 is but justice to say, those unostentatious 
 efforts from the first essays of the three 
 pious peasants,f already described, in the 
 mountains of Alsace, to the modest but ad- 
 mirable efforts of the Duchess de Broglie, 
 in the metropolis, have largely contributed 
 to the prosperity of the Institution. 
 
 * The late Rev. John Owen. 
 
 t For an account of their efforts see pp. 63—71. 
 
 f3 
 
106 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DEMORALIZED STATE OF PARIS — M. DE STAEL 
 CO-OPERATES WITH VARIOUS SOCIETIES POR 
 RAISING THE STANDARD OF MORALS IN PARIS, 
 
 AND GENERALLY IN FRANCE A SOCIETY FOR 
 
 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AMONGST THE HEATHEN 
 FORMED. 
 
 The interests of civil and religious liberty 
 being much under discussion, M. de Stael 
 published two pamphlets, in 1819, charac- 
 terized by a love of well-regulated liberty, 
 and patriotic attachment to his country's 
 weal. Other literary occupations also took 
 up much of his time, especially complete 
 editions of his mother's and his grandfather's 
 works. 
 
 His religious impressions were, happily, 
 so deep, that he was able gradually to 
 triumph over that secular spirit which his 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 107 
 
 connexion with individuals and circles of a 
 very worldly stamp might be in danger of 
 promoting. 
 
 Another snare he was also enabled to 
 avoid, that of uniting in sentiment with 
 those philosophical men, of a tolerant and 
 candid spirit, who entertain respect for 
 many great truths contained in the Holy 
 Scriptures, and who condemn the disingenu- 
 ous artifices, the gross raillery, and open 
 impiety of the school of Voltaire, and yet 
 do not fully and cordially embrace the pecu- 
 liar doctrines of the Gospel. M. de Stael 
 was also candid and tolerant, but he felt 
 deeply the necessity of uniting, to borrow 
 his own words, *^ the most extensive phi- 
 losophical toleration with the most intimate 
 religious conviction." He was averse, there- 
 fore, to indifference as well as to intole- 
 rance. The consequence of such feelings 
 was, that his philanthropy — for he was an 
 indefatigable friend to mankind, especially 
 the distressed and suffering — was Christian 
 philanthropy ; it possessed the high principle 
 of religion, as a paramount motive to action, 
 F 4 
 
108 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 in addition to other laudable but inferior 
 motives. 
 
 In order to furnish the fullest proof that 
 his benevolence was not limited to feeling, 
 sentiment, or verbal approbation, it will be 
 here desirable to exhibit some details rela- 
 tive to the moral condition and necessities of 
 France and of its Capital, and, in connexion 
 with such details, the efforts in which the 
 Baron de Stael engaged, personally or asso- 
 ciated with others, to provide suitable re- 
 medies. 
 
 In a city like Paris, where there is 
 little regard comparatively to the precepts 
 and restraints of religion, but where there 
 is extraordinary vigilance on the part of the 
 police-officers, it must be expected that the 
 state of public morals will be lax on all 
 points, except where the fear of the police, 
 and of punishment in the courts of justice, 
 shall operate to prevent crimes. 
 
 Perhaps one of the best criterions by 
 which to judge of the actual state of public 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 109 
 
 morals, is the statement of the sums ex- 
 pended on certain amusements and specula- 
 tions which are much in vogue in that coun- 
 try. For instance, it has been estimated 
 that at the Gambling-houses of Paris,* 
 about 24 millions of francs are lost and won ; 
 and that the Lottery- offices absorb 25 mil- 
 lions of francs. There are not less than 
 twenty-five great and small theatres at 
 Paris, which are kept up at an expense of 
 siK millions of francs, and the principal 
 evening for theatrical representations is the 
 Sunday evening. There are about 300 actors, 
 200 dancers, &c. attached to them. On 
 the other hand, a sum very little beyond 
 that, (6,520,000 francs,) is what is paid for 
 the support of Colleges and Schools of 
 Education. A statement of such particulars 
 cannot but be considered a very unfavourable 
 index of the moral condition of that great 
 metropolis, since the Gambling-house, the 
 Lottery, and the Theatre, are imquestion- 
 ably so many fountains from which streams 
 
 * The tax paid to the Government, in 1822, 
 amounted to 7,726,000 francs. 
 
no BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 of the most deleterious quality pass into the 
 whole frame of society. 
 
 M. de Stael was a member of a Society 
 formed to resist some of those reigning 
 evils, and others, namely, the ^'Societe de 
 la Morale Chretienne," which comprises 
 both Roman Catholic and Protestant mem- 
 bers, publishes a Journal, and, whilst it 
 especially advocates the cause of Christian 
 morals, in opposition to the Slave-trade, 
 (of which more will be said in a future 
 page,) Gambling, and Lotteries, directs its 
 attention also to the moral improvement of 
 prisoners,'^ and the care of orphans. 
 
 * The *' Conseil General des Prisons" meets 
 every Tuesday, at the Office of the ** Minister of the 
 Interior,'' to deliberate on what regards Prisons. 
 It has been just stated that the ** Societe de la 
 Morale Chretienne," devotes its attention to Pri- 
 soners amongst other objects. A volume has been 
 drawn up, and published in French, by T. F. Bux- 
 ton, Esq. M. P. and the Rev. Francis Cunningham, 
 (who has in other instances made laudable exertions 
 for the benefit of France,) with a view to suggest 
 methods for the amelioration of the state of those 
 unhappy persons. A benevolent individual, M; 
 Appert, has lately visited the condemned criminals 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. Ill 
 
 His regard for the temporal welfare of 
 the lower classes, led M. de Stael to take 
 an active part in the ** Caisse d'Epargne/' 
 
 in the Galleys at the French ports, with the hope of 
 alleviating their dreadful lot. 
 
 The French prisons cannot be seen without ex- 
 press permission from Superiors in Authority. This 
 I found on inquiry at the Prison-gates, and other 
 inquiries occupying my time, I did not apply for 
 the requisite permission in the proper quarter. I 
 may briefly state, however, the following informa- 
 tion. 
 
 1. In St. Lazare women are detained for years, 
 and are employed in works of industry. The women 
 thus acquire ability to work for a livelihood when- 
 ever dismissed, whilst part of their gains is also 
 reserved for their advantage. 
 
 2. In Les Madelonnettes women detained for 
 lesser offences are employed in sewing and spinning. 
 
 3. In Petite Force prostitutes who are confined 
 there are compelled to spin wool or cotton. 
 
 4. Grande Force, a prison with eight separate 
 departments. 
 
 5. Sainte Pelagic contains men detained for dif- 
 ferent oiFences ; and it may be feared, that for want 
 of due classification and proper precautions, pri- 
 soners harden each other in vice. The young boys 
 are employed in spinning cotton and wool. 
 
 6. Montaiguy a military prison, in which a school 
 hajs been very properly established. 
 
112 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 or Savings' Bank. The improvident habits 
 of the various descriptions of workmen in 
 France, rendered such an institution highly 
 desirable. Paris, however, had not been 
 wholly destitute in former times of Institu- 
 tions of a beneficial nature, calculated for 
 that class of men ; and I will here introduce 
 a slight notice of two establishments ori- 
 ginally formed for their advantage — the 
 " Societes de Secours Mutuels," and the 
 ** Etablissement de St. Joseph." • 
 
 The Friendly Benefit Societies at Paris, 
 
 7. UAhhaye, also a prison for soldiers. 
 
 8. La Conciergerie, a temporary prison before judg- 
 ment is pronounced at the Assizes. There the 
 unhappy Queen Marie Antoinette was imprisoned. 
 Her cell is now a chapel. 
 
 9. La Maison du Refuge is a prison for young 
 oiFenders. They learn various trades, and are taught 
 in schools in the prison ; as all juvenile delinquents 
 should be in English prisons especially designed for 
 the young, and in which old oifenders should not 
 be confined. 
 
 In French prisons, where persons wish to be in- 
 dustrious, one-third of their profits is for the prison, 
 one-third for the industrious prisoner, and one-third 
 is given to him when liberated. 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 113 
 
 called ** Societes de Secours Mutuels,'' are 
 dated from the year 1694, By weekly con- 
 tributions the workmen provide against the 
 time of sickness and death. There are 164 
 Societies of this stamp, comprising 14,000 
 members. 
 
 The valuable Institution for workmen, 
 called Etablissement de St. Joseph, 
 is intended to preserve the labouring class 
 of men from the influence of bad example, 
 to afford religious instruction, instil the 
 love of industry, and help them forward 
 to suitable employment. The establishment 
 exists in an old convent, where workmen 
 coming up from the country to Paris may, 
 if they have good papers of recommenda- 
 tion, have soup for two or three days, till 
 they find employment. There is a Roman 
 Catholic Chaplain attached to the Institu- 
 tion. A few such establishments, of Pro- 
 testant character, the inmates paying a mo- 
 derate sum, might be very useful in some 
 large cities in England, for the labourers 
 from distant counties, and from Wales; 
 especially if so managed as not to give 
 
114 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 undue encouragement to emigrate from the 
 country, and settle in overstocked cities. 
 But more especially are such establishments 
 expedient — under judicious arrangements — 
 to receive well-recommended females who 
 come from the country as servants, that 
 they may have this preservative from bad 
 company when they come up, inexperienced, 
 to large cities, and that, when afterwards 
 out of place, yet with untarnished character, 
 they may know both where to find a lodging, 
 upon moderate payment, and kind friends. 
 
 The condition of the lower orders in 
 Paris urgently requires such remedies as 
 the above, and similar Societies, bring to 
 their notice ; for the misimprovement of the 
 Lord's-day, and consequent immorality 
 amongst the lower classes, may be too pain- 
 fully noticed at the several barriers of the 
 city, near which there are Guinguettes, or 
 houses where men, who have been indus- 
 t rious labourers during the week, enter into 
 habits of vulgar dissipation, drinking to 
 excess, and dancing, &c. ; whilst, in one 
 neighbourhood, the cruel sport of setting 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 115 
 
 dogs against wolves, or bulls, is practised. 
 These are too evident proofs, indeed, of the 
 want of such evening religious services, 
 as well as Savings' Banks, and other Econo- 
 mical Institutions, as shall engage the atten- 
 tion and confidence, if possible, of an irreli- 
 gious and improvident people ; and obviate, 
 at least in numerous instances, that distress 
 which must be expected to overtake them 
 in the time of sickness or old age, and that 
 misery which awaits them in an approach- 
 ing eternity. 
 
 The education of the children of the 
 poor being one of the most powerful means 
 of raising the people of a country from a 
 state of moral degradation, M. de Stael cor- 
 dially co-operated with those benevolent 
 persons who were engaged in promoting that 
 important object. In schools connected with 
 the Reformed Church, he would naturally 
 feel a strong interest; and even others, 
 more expressly calculated to benefit the 
 children of Roman Catholics, had a share 
 of his regard. Accordingly, he was a 
 supporter of the ^' Societe pour Tin- 
 
116 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 struction Elementaire," which corresponds 
 already with 300 schools, and 22 local so- 
 cieties, publishes two periodical works — 
 ** Journal d'Education," and, *' Le Bon 
 Genie, Journal des Enfans" — and adopts 
 the use of De Sacy's New Testament in 
 its schools. 
 
 The necessity of great exertions in refe- 
 rence to education in France, may be too 
 clearly inferred from the painful but well- 
 ascertained fact, that above 14,000 com- 
 munes, or villages, are still unprovided 
 with the means of instruction for the poor 
 in the first principles of knowledge. As 
 a detailed account of the present state 
 of education in France has appeared in a 
 former page,'^ in the life of Oberlin, I 
 must now only refer to that statement, 
 and beg that the reader will re-peruse it 
 in connexion with this allusion to M. de 
 StaeFs zeal in the cause of public instruction. 
 
 * See page 46. Since these pages were penned, 
 a decree has been signed by his Majesty Charles X. 
 relative to the general establishment of schools 
 throughout France, 
 
OF BARON DB STAEL. 117 
 
 I am unwilling, however, to dismiss a topic 
 which I again find it necessary to touch upon, 
 without introducing a few observations re- 
 lative, first, to the low state of knowledge 
 amongst even Protestants of the inferior 
 class ; and, secondly, to the general ignorance 
 prevalent in particular Departments of 
 France, 
 
 One great benefit likely to attend the 
 efforts of that Society in which M. de Stael 
 took so warm an interest — the " Protestant 
 Bible Society" — is, that the researches of 
 its active members will, eventually, lead to 
 more strenuous exertions to promote educa*- 
 tion. The diff*usion of the sacred volume 
 will naturally excite numbers of persons 
 to attain the art of reading it. Meanwhile, 
 the inquiries instituted by the officers of 
 that Society, and of its Auxiliaries, have 
 brought to light affecting proofs of the low 
 state of knowledge amongst the poorer 
 description of Protestants — as the following 
 statement, extracted from one of its reports, 
 will at once discover — 
 
118 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 Population. Unabk to 
 
 LaTremblade 1,169 713 
 
 St. Chaptes, Moussac, Dions, 
 
 St. Dezeri, near Nismes . . 1,302 644 
 
 St. Geniez, Sauzet, La Rou- 
 
 vi^re, La Calmette, Montig- 
 
 nargues 1,862 985 
 
 4,333 2,342 
 
 Deduct one-fifth as probably " 
 
 under 7 years of age .... 866 
 
 3,467 
 
 From this account, which seems to afford 
 a very fair specimen of the condition of the 
 poorer Protestants in country districts, we 
 perceive, that amongst 3,467 persons above 
 the age of seven years, as many as 2,342 were 
 found unable to read the Scriptures. The 
 tabular view of the French Reformed Church, 
 in the Appendix, shews likewise that only 402 
 schools for the poor are found amongst 588 
 congregations. Such a state of things might 
 well excite M. de Stael and his friends to 
 attempt to open the fountains of knowledge 
 to the poor; and seems imperiously to call 
 for the adoption of circulating schools, long 
 
OF BA.RON DE STAEL. 119 
 
 since established in Wales, as the most rapid 
 mode of diffusing knowledge, especially in 
 conjunction with Sunday schools, amongst 
 the mass of an ignorant population.^ 
 
 My next observation refers to the igno- 
 rance so generally prevalent in particular 
 departments of France ; which is probably 
 to be attributed, in a great degree, to the 
 obstacles which the colloquial dialects, or 
 Patois as they are termed, present to the 
 dominion of the French language. The 
 Basque language, spoken in Basse Navarre, 
 Soul, and Labour; and the Bas Breton, 
 which is the vernacular tongue in the Depart- 
 ments of Finisterre and Morbihan, being, 
 though now distinct from each other, of 
 
 * Circulating Schools, established originally in 
 Wales, and since successfully adopted in the High- 
 lands, imply that the School-master, instead of 
 being long stationary in a village, remains only 
 12 oris months, and then sets up a school in another 
 village. The system is adapted to thinly-peopled 
 districts inhabited by a poor peasantry, like the 
 mountains of Dauphine, the Cevennes, &c. As one 
 master will, in the course of a few years, educate 
 the people of many villages, it is an economical plan 
 of education. 
 
120 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 Celtic origin, it cannot be hoped that the 
 people of those districts will emerge from the 
 gloom of ignorance, until elementary books,* 
 in their respective languages, shall be com- 
 posed, and schools instituted in which the 
 vernacular tongue shall be taught in the 
 first place, and French subsequently. Even 
 as it regards other provinces of France, 
 central and southern, where several dialects, 
 more or less tinged with Celtic, prevail, and 
 the people can neither speak nor understand 
 pure French, the probability is, that upon 
 accurate investigation it will be found neces- 
 sary to commence with the process of pre- 
 paring elementary works in each distinct 
 dialect, as the preliminary step, and then 
 lead on the learner to understand French in 
 corresponding passages : for it is only when 
 books shall be prepared in dialects which 
 the people understand, that they will learn 
 with facility and delight.f 
 
 * The New Testament was published in Basque, 
 at Rochelle, in 1571, and dedicated to Jane Queen 
 of Navarre. The Gospel of St. Matthew has been 
 recently printed at Bayonne. 
 
 t Compare the remarks in pp. 42—45. 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 121 
 
 As it respects the French tongue, it is 
 certainly one amongst other symptoms of 
 moral improvement in France at this time, 
 that many elementary books, of a useful and 
 religious stamp, have been printed and circu- 
 lated within the last few years. The impor- 
 tance of such works to the rising generation 
 will be at once appreciated, when it is recol- 
 lected that the natives of that country were 
 for many years intoxicated by false hopes of 
 liberty, or false notions of glory; led into 
 th^' labyrinth of a comfortless scepticism — 
 hurried through the scenes of a sanguinary 
 revolution — and, at length, stimulated in the 
 career of ambition under a military des- 
 potism. Amongst these works some are 
 designed for the intelligent, others for the 
 less informed. Some advocate the cause of 
 Christianity in opposition to Deism; others 
 are designed to advance the education of 
 youth ; and those of a third description are 
 calculated for the improvement of the middle 
 and lower classes, not only by imparting the 
 knowledge adapted to their station and occu- 
 pations, but by inculcating a sense of their 
 responsibility as accountable beings who must 
 G 
 
122 BRIEF MEMORIAL ^ 
 
 exist hereafter, and thus counteracting the 
 effects of those books, replete with deterio- 
 rating principles, with which France has 
 been long inundated. 
 
 It would be easy to name a variety of 
 admirable works that come under the above 
 description ; but I proceed to mention that 
 M. de Stael, with a view to render efficient 
 aid towards increasing the number of such 
 publications, 'not only concurred in the esta- 
 blishment of a ** Religious Tract Society" 
 at Paris, but became its Treasurer. In con- 
 nexion with the Central Tract Society, at 
 Paris,* sixty-seven Associations have been 
 
 * Chez M. Servier, Libraire, Rue de FOratoire, 
 near Rue St. Honore. I was happy to avail myself 
 of an opportunity, when last at Paris, to publish a 
 tract of prayers for families and schools, compiled 
 from the iLiturgy of the Church of England, and 
 arranged for every morning and evening in the week ; 
 and also a tract, as an introduction or ** First Step'' 
 to reading the Scriptures. Of these tracts, which 
 are stereotyped, the Paris Tract Society has permis- 
 sion to take and distribute any number of copies; and 
 I shall rejoice if the Freilch Protestants in the more 
 unenlightened districts should, like the Waldenses 
 in Piedmont, who had 1,000 copies of each, welcome 
 such humble visiters into their cottages and schools. 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 123 
 
 since formed in different parts of France, 
 amongst the members of the Reformed 
 Church. In this judicious attempt to disse- 
 minate religious information by means of 
 tracts, zealous Protestants in the Metropolis 
 had been anticipated by a very benevolent 
 individual, the Rev. M. Lissignol, of Mont- 
 pellier, who has for several years past, with 
 indefatigable zeal, translated and circulated 
 those useful little productions. 
 
 There is another religious society to which 
 M. de Stael was also a firm and cordial 
 friend — the " Societe des Missions evange- 
 liques" — a society which, though established 
 for the purpose of enlightening the distant 
 heathen, was likely to be of great utility in 
 France itself, by the collateral benefit it 
 would produce of reviving the declining zeal, 
 and exciting the dormant sympathies of 
 members of the Protestant church, and even 
 diffusing more correct views of the nature of 
 true religion. The impulse given to the 
 French Reformed Church, in this instance, 
 must apparently be traced to similar efforts 
 in England, as a secondary cause. When I 
 g2 
 
124 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 travelled through France in 1814, I found 
 that, in consequence of the suspension of 
 intercourse occasioned by our unhappy wars, 
 the French Protestants knew little about the 
 exertions which British Christians had felt it 
 their duty to make for the propagation of 
 Christianity in heathen nations. I was there- 
 fore induced, when I returned to England, 
 to draw up a work, entitled, ** The Spirit of 
 British Missions," containing not only argu- 
 ments in favour of missionary attempts, and 
 extracts to shew the condition of Maho- 
 medan and Pag^n nations; but also a brief 
 history of every British Society which had 
 engaged in evangelizing the world, from the 
 early Societies ** for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge,'* and *'for the Propagation of 
 the Gospel in Foreign Parts," to the latest 
 of the modern Institutions — in all twelve in 
 number. It was presented to, and printed 
 by, the Church Missionary Society ; and 
 translated into French, and published at 
 Geneva in the year 1820,^^ as well as after- 
 
 * A translation by Professor Blumliardt, of Basle, 
 into German, had been previously made, and widely 
 circulated in Germany, 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 126 
 
 wards made the basis of a more extended 
 work on Missions, entitled, "Expose del'^tat 
 actuel des Missions,'^ &c. It thus appears, 
 in some measure, to have contributed to 
 produce and extend that desire to benefit 
 heathen countries, which has since shewn 
 itself in France, and those Cantons of 
 Switzerland in which French is spoken. 
 From the latter, pecuniary collections are 
 remitted to the Bdsle Missionary Seminary,^ 
 whilst at Paris a Missionary Seminary has 
 been established since the year 1822, in 
 which a few students are trained under the 
 tuition of the Rev. M. Jeanpierre. f The 
 Associations formed in aid of that Seminary 
 throughout France, amount to above 100 in 
 number ; but the most encouraging circum- 
 stance, in reference both to the hoped-for 
 success of the missions, and the increase of 
 piety in the French Protestant Church, is, 
 
 * The Waldenses, through the influence of friends 
 at Geneva, have also formed a Missionary Associa- 
 tion, and remitted sums of money to B^sle. 
 
 t Three of those students have lately departed 
 from Europe to the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
126 BRIEF MEIMORIAL 
 
 that the members of numerous congregations 
 meet on the first Monday evening in every 
 month, and unite in prayers for the Divine 
 blessing upon the Christian efforts now 
 adopted to evangelize heathen nations. 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 127 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 M. DE STAEL VISITS ENGLAND WITH THE DUKE 
 
 DE BROGLIE PUBLISHES ** LETTRES SUR l'aN- 
 
 GLETERRE" PROMOTES AGRICULTURAL IM- 
 PROVEMENTS IN SWITZERLAND AN ADVOCATE 
 
 OF OPPRESSED CHRISTIANS IN THE CANTON DE 
 VAUD — TRAVELS IN FRANCE TO PROMOTE THE 
 INTERESTS OF THE BIBLE SOCIETY. 
 
 In the spring of 1822, M. de Stael visited 
 England, with his brother-in-law, the Duke 
 de Broglie. He arrived too late to attend 
 the great religious anniversaries, held in the 
 month of May; but was present at that 
 of the "British and Foreign School So- 
 ciety,*' and, when anxiously solicited, de- 
 livered an unpremeditated speech in English, 
 replete with the noblest sentiments. During 
 his residence in England, he employed him- 
 self in making accurate observations, and 
 
128 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 collecting documents, for the purpose of 
 composing his ** Lettres sur L'Angleterre ;" 
 a work which he published in 1825, and 
 which has been considered, upon the whole, 
 an eminently faithful representation of 
 English Institutions and Manners, and com- 
 paratively free from both undue partiality 
 and ignoble prejudice. He intended to add 
 a second volume, which would have em- 
 braced the State of Religion, and our Reli- 
 gious Sects and Denominations, but had 
 only written a few pages before his death. 
 He travelled, at this time, over several 
 counties, and as far as Scotland, and be- 
 came more fully confirmed, especially from 
 what he saw in the latter country, of the 
 importance of a general system of education, 
 and of religious instruction. He also be- 
 came acquainted, during this journey to 
 England, with many of the persons most 
 distinguished for their Christian zeal and 
 philanthropic efforts; and from what he 
 witnessed, was more deeply convinced than 
 ever, of the importance of combining family 
 worship with, instead of allowing it to be 
 superseded by, an attention to public duties. 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 129 
 
 A gentleman upon whom he called to assist 
 him in the selection of some good horses for 
 his experimental farm at Coppet, was in 
 the habit of having family prayers, and 
 the Baron begged to be permitted to attend. 
 On another occasion he passed a Sunday at 
 Mr. Wilberforce's house, and there witnessed, 
 in a high degree, the happy effects of en- 
 lightened Christian piety. These two visits 
 left an indelible impression upon his 
 mind. 
 
 I In the year 1823, M. de Stael engaged 
 in agricultural undertakings on his estate 
 at Coppet, from a patriotic wish to benefit 
 both France and Switzerland. He also 
 cherished the hope, that by introducing ob- 
 jects of utility of this nature, he should 
 acquire the greater influence and power with 
 respect to the moral improvements he might 
 attempt. He endeavoured, particularly, to 
 improve the different breeds of horses, by 
 importing a supply from abroad; to obtain 
 wool of superior quality, by mixing the dif- 
 ferent breeds of sheep ; to fertilize the 
 ground, and increase the quantity of her- 
 g3 
 
130 *: BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 bage, by new methods of cultivating and 
 manuring ; to introduce machines and agri- 
 cultural implements unknown in the neigh- 
 bourhood; to make useful expriments with 
 respect to planting and rearing trees ; and, in 
 other branches of rural economy, to promote 
 every desirable improvement. Lest any 
 failure should occur, and thus confirm the 
 peasantry in prejudices which he wished to 
 destroy, M. de Stael paid very assiduous 
 attention to those various objects. Instead 
 of exacting blind obedience to his orders, 
 he tried to convince those who acted under 
 him of the propriety of the plans pursued, 
 and from time to time held conferences, at 
 which the managers of each branch brought 
 their respective reports of results obtained, 
 and at which discussions took place as 
 to the utility or inutility of various mea- 
 sures. 
 
 These occupations, however, did not with- 
 draw his attention from religious subjects ; 
 and when an intolerant spirit shewed itself 
 in the Canton de Vaud, in 1823, M. de 
 Stael stepped forward as a champion of 
 
OP BARON DE STAEL. 131 
 
 religious liberty. Some of the younger mi- 
 nisters, and many people in that Canton, 
 who, from the influence of religion upon 
 their minds, paid more attention to the ob- 
 servance of the Lord's-day, and to social 
 religious exercises, than their neighbours, 
 were reproachfully denominated M&miers.* 
 Even the Government of the Canton, and 
 many of the Clergy, directed their influence 
 against these religious persons, and compelled 
 an English lady,f who had been active in 
 promoting piety, to leave the Canton. In 
 an Appeal, replete with eloquence and solid 
 argument, M. de Stael addressed the Go- 
 vernment and the public on the impropriety 
 of such persecution in a Protestant country, 
 which professed a regard for civil liberty, 
 and whose very Protestantism had been 
 built on the foundation of religious freedom. 
 In order to repress the unjust, and ungene- 
 rous, and unchristian attempts of Protes- 
 
 * A term of reproach invented of late years against 
 religious persons, at Geneva, who met for devo- 
 tional exercises. Momerie means mummery, 
 grimace. 
 
 f Miss Greaves. 
 
 g4 
 
133 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 tants to molest fellow-cliristians for their 
 religious sentiments, whether in Switzer- 
 land or France, M. de Stael, who was a 
 member of the Committee engaged in pub- 
 lishing the " Archives du Christianisme," 
 inserted also two valuable papers in that 
 periodical, in defence of the great and in- 
 alienable right of Christians to read the 
 Holy Scriptures, and possess liberty of con- 
 science, and freedom in religious worship. 
 This noble interference, in the spirit of true 
 wisdom and Christian moderation, was cal- 
 culated, in an eminent degree, to protect 
 those who were unjustly oppressed, and to 
 enlighten the Government, and the Clergy 
 in general, upon their principal duty — that 
 of fostering and directing, but not repres- 
 sing, that lively zeal and fresh ardour 
 which appeared to animate the despised 
 party; and hailing those symptoms as fa- 
 vpurable to the more general revival of 
 Christian piety, in an age when scepticism 
 and lukewarmness have so widely under- 
 mined the foundations of Christian faith and 
 practice. 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 133 
 
 The noble effort which M. de Stael made 
 on that occasion, was, however, only, it has 
 been truly said, *' an episode" in the course 
 of his laboriously useful life. 
 
 In the years 1822, 1823, and 1825, M. 
 
 de Stael undertook the task of preparing 
 the Reports of the Paris Protestant 
 Bible Society; when, instead of confining 
 himself to the mere detail of operations, 
 he introduced valuable observations rela- 
 tive to those ameliorations of which his 
 country and the Protestant Church were 
 susceptible and stood in need. One of the 
 remarks he introduced is so important, 
 although a very simple one, that it deserves 
 to be repeated wherever Bible Associations 
 exist. " To collect donations,'^ he observed, 
 *' is not the most urgent matter ; the most 
 important thing is, that the Word of God 
 should be read in every family." Such a 
 practice, in fact, is a source that may be 
 depended upon for donations to supply 
 heathen lands with the Scriptures. Those 
 who read them devoutly will desire that 
 others may be able to read them. 
 
134 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 M. de Stael gave a still stronger proof of 
 his attachment to the Bible Society, when, 
 in the year 1825, he quitted Coppet to 
 make a tour in the South of France, 
 chiefly with a view to ascertain the actual 
 state of the Protestant population, and to 
 excite the zeal of the churches in favour 
 of that Society and other religious Insti- 
 tutions. In his progress he visited Lyons, 
 St. Etienne, Annonay, Valence, Loriol, 
 Orange, Marseilles, Toulon, Nismes, Alais, 
 Anduze, Montpellier, Toulouse, Montauban, 
 Bordeaux, Rochefort, La Rochelle, and 
 Nantes ; rendering services which others 
 could not but highly appreciate, though 
 not disposed to set much value on them 
 himself. The details of the journey were 
 given in the Paris Bible Society's publi- 
 cations ; nor can it be doubted that the 
 increasing prosperity of that Institution, 
 which now includes 313 Auxiliary Societies 
 and Associations, was partly the result of 
 that excursion of beneficence ; — a tour com- 
 prising some of those cities which have been, 
 as the Introduction to this volume amply 
 proves, most remarkable in the Christian 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 135 
 
 history of France, as the seats of pure 
 Christianity in the Apostolic age, of its 
 revival during the dark ages, and of its 
 triumphs both at and since the Reforma- 
 tion. 
 
136 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 M. DE STAEL S EFFORT FOR THE ABOLITION OF 
 THE SLAVE-TRADE — HIS MARRIAGE — JOURNEY 
 
 TO ROME RETURN TO SWITZERLAND— DEATH 
 
 — CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS CONCLUDING OB- 
 SERVATIONS. 
 
 The humanity and the love of freedom for 
 which M. de Stael was conspicuous, in- 
 duced him to take a strong interest in the 
 welfare of the Greeks, groaning under the 
 Ottoman yoke, and of the Negroes exposed 
 to the cruelties inflicted by the Slave-trade. 
 
 When at Nantes, during his tour in 
 France, in the year 1825, M. de Stael 
 turned his attention afresh to the subject 
 of the Slave-trade. He had already, for 
 some years, engaged in efforts for its aboli- 
 tion. By active correspondence, both in 
 
OP BARON DE STAEL. 137 
 
 France and England, by the publication of 
 several pamphlets, by energetic efforts as a 
 member of the '* Societe de la Morale Chre- 
 tienne," and by personal representations to 
 persons high in rank and office, he had pre- 
 pared the way for the destruction of that 
 infamous trade, by the authoritative mea- 
 sures of the French Government. But, as 
 Nantes v^^as the chief port of that horrid 
 traffic, he resolved to investigate the matter 
 in such a way as to dispel the doubts of 
 those who were incredulous as to the extent 
 to which it was carried. He therefore col- 
 lected the names of persons who directed 
 those ^* speculations homicides ;^^ he visited 
 the slave-ships, some of which still retained 
 marks of the blood of the victims ; he found 
 out the shops where the instruments of 
 torture were made ; he ascertained by what 
 artifices and falsehoods the ships effected the 
 object of the voyage, from their leaving the 
 French port till their return ; and he 
 brought back to Paris a complete assortment 
 of chains, bars, thumb- screws, iron neck* 
 collars, and manacles, which, in order to 
 awaken activity in the attempt at abolish- 
 
138 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 ing the Slave-trade, he took from room to 
 room, from office to office, from palace to 
 palace, and shewed to the Royal Family, to 
 the nobility in the Chamber of Peers, and 
 to the friends of humanity at the anniversa- 
 ries of different Beneficent Associations. 
 It is not doubted that these exertions, prin- 
 cipally, led to more vigorous proceedings on 
 the part of the Government to suppress the 
 enormous evil. 
 
 In the summer of 1826, he again visited 
 England, hemg desirous to see the forms 
 and usages prevalent at the time of a general 
 election, and having also other objects in 
 view. It was, indeed, his expressed opinion, 
 that Frenchmen who engage in affairs re- 
 lative to politics or religion, ought to visit 
 England : and that Englishmen, also, might 
 derive great advantages from seeing other 
 countries; their views being enlarged by 
 this means, and their manners softened. 
 He returned from England to the Continent, 
 with an impression that the luxury and 
 (excess too commonly characteristic of the 
 social circles in England, appeared to attach 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 139 
 
 even to religious circles and enterprises, 
 and threatened to undermine that dignified 
 simplicity which marks the religion, and 
 should adorn the disciples of Christ. Such 
 an impression, it has been well observed, on 
 the mind of a nobleman so ready to admire 
 the English character, and to applaud the 
 models of Christian piety found in England, 
 deserves to be seriously weighed by reli- 
 gious persons of rank and opulence. 
 
 On leaving England he took the route of 
 Switzerland, and was informed, at the first 
 village, that a fire had destroyed his btrns 
 and out-houses, with all the hay. As might 
 be expected, he was resigned under an 
 event that was attended with considerable 
 loss, as well as delay in his rural improve- 
 ments. He soon afterwards paid his ad- 
 dresses to Mademoiselle A. Vernet, of Ge- 
 neva, a young lady, who, like himself, had 
 been instructed in religion by M. Cellerier, 
 of Satigny; and, on the 6th of February, 
 1827, that venerable pastor gave the cus- 
 tomary benediction at their marriage. 
 
140 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 During the first part of the year he tra- 
 velled to Italy with his bride, witnessing, 
 with much sorrow, those pompous religious 
 ceremonies in the Roman Catholic church, 
 which, no less than the gaieties of fashion- 
 able life, withdraw men from reflection and 
 self-examination; yet pleased to notice the 
 establishment of the purer Protestant wor- 
 ship, though in comparatively small congre- 
 gations, in seven Italian cities. 
 
 On his return from Italy, he again visited 
 Paris, and then returned to Coppet, de- 
 sirous to give renewed attention to a va- 
 riety of objects, namely, the schools he had 
 established ; the little public library he had 
 formed for the use of the peasantry ; chari- 
 table visits to the poor, in which he was 
 often their physician and minister, as well 
 as friend; his experiments in rural economy ; 
 and his extensive correspondence. Those 
 friends of M. de Stael who had the plea- 
 sure of seeing him at that time were de- 
 lighted to see his mansion so evidently the 
 seat of piety, benevolence, simplicity, and 
 domestic bliss, whilst at the family worship. 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 141 
 
 which he had established before his marriage, 
 the Baron himself read the Holy Scriptures, 
 explained them in a manner adapted to the 
 capacities of his servants, and prayed. The 
 Sunday, more especially, was a day pecu- 
 liarly delightful. The work of the house 
 was diminished, the dinner-hour was earlier, 
 that as many persons as possible might attend 
 at church; and, in the evening, he had a 
 service at the Chateau, at which many of 
 the farm-servants and peasants, Roman Ca- 
 tholics as well as Protestants, were glad to 
 be present, to join with the family and 
 domestics in their devotions. 
 
 All this happiness and usefulness were 
 mysteriously brought to a close, in the 
 month of November in that same year! 
 For on the 8th of that month, M. de Stael 
 was attacked with a bilious fever that re- 
 sisted every remedy, and, on the 17th, put 
 an end to all his earthly joys and pains. 
 On the first day of his illness he had 
 been able to write to the Duchess de 
 Broglie; but the progress of the disorder 
 was afterwards extremely rapid. When 
 
142 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 free from delirium, he devoted the intervals 
 to prayer, and to meditation on the love and 
 sufferings of his Redeemer; and, on the 
 evening before his death, raised himself in 
 his bed, and, calling for the attention of 
 persons present, offered up a fervent prayer 
 for himself, his family, and his country. 
 The ground of his hopes, at that awful 
 moment, were not any good works, (however 
 numerous those which he had performed,) 
 but the doctrine of reconciliation with God, 
 through the sacrifice of his Son ; and the 
 peace of mind which he enjoyed in the pros- 
 pect of so sudden a removal from this world, 
 was the result of humble reliance on that 
 love of God his heavenly Father, of which 
 so conspicuous a proof had been given in the 
 gift and death of his only- begotten Son. 
 It was to God, through one only Mediator, 
 that he addressed a prayer for himself, 
 imploring mercy to eternal life — for his wife 
 — the yet unborn infant — and his other 
 much-loved relatives. 
 
 His sister, and her husband, the Duke 
 de Broglie, hastened on the first information 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 143 
 
 of danger, but, before they could reach 
 Coppet, they learned at Auxonne that their 
 brother was no more. They did not arrive 
 in time to assist at the funeral,* but many 
 persons around came to pay the last tribute 
 of respect, and, the library serving as a 
 chapel, the pastor of the parish, M. Simonin, 
 in his prayers and sermon, tried to give 
 a religious direction to the grief in which 
 the auditory were absorbed ; but, when 
 the coffin was afterwards removed from the 
 Chateau to the vault, no one was able to 
 command his feelings sufficiently to utter a 
 word. The body was deposited in mourn- 
 ful silence in the tomb, close by the mauso- 
 leum which stands in an inclosure, surrounded 
 by shady trees, aud contains the remains of 
 M. and Mme. Necker, and Mme. de Stael. 
 At his own particular request, he lies buried 
 by the side of his mother, with his head 
 placed near her feet. 
 
 * Funerals in foreign countries often take place on 
 the day following that of decease ; a practice to be 
 condemned, since, in some complaints, there may not 
 be sufficient certainty that death has taken place. 
 
144 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 Not only benevolence, (of which so many 
 proofs have been afforded,) but humility and 
 sincerity, were qualities strikingly charac- 
 teristic of this accomplished and pious noble- 
 man. His humility made it always painful 
 to him to receive applause for those good 
 actions in which he could himself perceive a 
 great alloy of imperfection. His sincerity 
 was such, that he engaged in many under- 
 takings connected with promoting the tem- 
 poral happiness of his fellow-creatures, be- 
 fore he would venture to engage in those 
 strictly of a religious nature. The exalted 
 ideas he entertained of the Christian Reve- 
 lation, even prevented him from offering his 
 co-operation till long after his own mind had 
 been brought under the influence of religious 
 motives. Whilst some, with too much con- 
 fidence, appear before the public as more 
 eminent Christians than they really are, he 
 stood in need of sufficient confidence to 
 appear before men as what he really was. 
 Not that he wanted courage to oppose in- 
 justice, or to endure reproach ; but he was 
 long fearful lest he should not be equal to 
 the task, or worthy of the ofiice of an ad- 
 
OF BARON DE STAEL. 145 
 
 vocate of the holy cause of religion. It is 
 evident, indeed, that Christianity, in all its 
 simplicity and sublimity, was that which he 
 wished to imbibe, and to exhibit by Chris- 
 tian graces, virtues, and actions, in their 
 most genuine and attractive form. He loved 
 simplicity, in fact, in all things; simplicity 
 in divine service, as opposed to splendid cere- 
 monies; simplicity in sermons, which made 
 him prefer a warm extemporaneous to an 
 elegant and highly finished discourse ; sim- 
 plicity in his charities as opposed to ostenta- 
 tion ; simplicity in conversation, as opposed 
 to the affectation of religious phraseology; 
 simplicity in manners, in opposition to such 
 singular habits as are sometimes the off- 
 spring of vanity, and defects even in the 
 best characters. 
 
 What parent, what tutor, endued with 
 proper feelings, would not wish to point to 
 so virtuous, pious, sensible, benevolent, and 
 patriotic a nobleman for the imitation of 
 other young noblemen, who may be heirs to 
 still higher titles, and much larger estates ? 
 And what young nobleman, alive to the 
 
 H 
 
146 BRIEF MEMORIAL 
 
 responsibilities and duties of a higii station, 
 would not wish to follow some of the steps 
 of so amiable a private, so useful a public 
 character as the late lamented Baron de 
 Stael? In an age like the present, when 
 respect for rank and station as such, has 
 sensibly diminished amongst persons of the 
 lower classes, it becomes a matter of the 
 greatest importance that the noblemen of the 
 land should acquire that ascendancy with 
 which exalted moral worth alone can invest 
 its possessors. In an age of spreading 
 infidelity, which, generally accompanied as 
 it is by disloyalty, threatens not only to 
 loosen moral and social obligations, but, 
 ultimately, to introduce such violent changes 
 as shall endanger the very frame- work of 
 society, men of rank and fortune should ap- 
 pear openly on the side of religion ; not 
 merely by a cold acknowledgment of its 
 value for the purpose of restraining evil 
 by its sanctions, and thus strengthening the 
 arm of the Government and of the magis- 
 tracy; but by sincere personal submission 
 of the soul and its faculties, the life and its 
 actions, to the controlling influence of the 
 
OP BARON DE STAEL. 147 
 
 Gospel, SO as to exemplify its effects in the 
 multiform fruits of a truly Christian philan- 
 thropy. 
 
 For the same reasons is it of the utmost 
 consequence, that the gentlemen of England, 
 generally, as well as her youthful noblemen, 
 should be, and avow themselves, firmly at- 
 tached to Christianity, scrupulously attentive 
 to her prescribed ordinances, and cordially 
 obedient to her precepts. The growth of 
 irreligion amongst men of title, and men of 
 property, could scarcely fail to become, as 
 in France during the last century, the pre- 
 lude to a fatal crisis. It would involve the 
 probable loss of their estates in this world, 
 as well as of their souls in the next. To 
 raise a barrier against a possible evil of such 
 fearful magnitude, to arrest the tendency of 
 the rapidly growing degeneracy of an in- 
 creasing population towards such a result, 
 it is necessary to resort to such measures 
 as the Baron de Stael, and his benevolent 
 associates, adopted to repair the evils that 
 such a crisis had produced in France. Reli- 
 gion must be adorned by individuals, cherish- 
 h2 
 
148 BRIEF MEMORIAL, &C. 
 
 ed in families, fostered in schools for Chris- 
 tian education, and promoted by philan- 
 thropic institutions. Christianity must be 
 regarded as a Divine Revelation, not a 
 mere state-engine; and the piety of distin- 
 guished laymen should teach Clergymen to 
 regard their sacred profession, not as a path- 
 way to wealth, but to usefulness; and ex- 
 cite all, but especially those who are en- 
 trusted with the care of extensive parishes, 
 to meet more adequately than at the present 
 moment, the urgent wants of the ignorant 
 and profane, in this nominally Christian land, 
 particularly within the precincts and in the 
 suburbs of cities and large towns. 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 No. I. 
 
 ACTUAL STATE OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES 
 THROUGHOUT FRANCE, WITH REMARKS. 
 
 The mass of the Protestants of France may be 
 divided into two classes : — 1 . those of the Re- 
 formed Church ; 2. those of the '* Confession of 
 Augsbourg/' The latter are principally found in 
 Lorraine and Alsace, provinces in which Ger- 
 man has been a prevailing language, and which 
 were annexed to France at a period subsequent 
 to the era of the Reformation. Protestants of 
 the latter communion have a church at Paris 
 in Rue des Billettes. 
 
 The following pages refer to the first class of 
 Protestants — those of the Reformed Church. 
 
150 APPENDIX. 
 
 Instead of the severe edicts formerly promulged 
 by kings of France against Protestants, there are 
 now laws of a favourable and protecting nature ; 
 and amongst the laws now in force relative to 
 the French Reformed Church, I would more 
 especially notice the following : — 
 
 1. None but Frenchmen, (or naturalized fo- 
 reigners,) can exercise ministerial functions. 
 
 2. Those admitted to be ministers are required 
 to have studied three years at the French Protes- 
 tant University of Montauban. 
 
 3. Six thousand souls constitute a Consistorial 
 Church, (which includes the Pastor, or Pastors, 
 and from six to twelve Lay-Elders,) and five 
 Consistorial Churches suffice to form a Synod.* 
 
 4. The sum allowed by the Government to a 
 Protestant minister is, 
 
 3,000 francs at Paris. 
 
 2,000 where the population is 30,000 or more. 
 
 1,500 where the population is from 5,.000 to 
 
 30,000. 
 1,200 where the population is under 5,000. 
 
 * In the French Churches that adopt the Confessioa 
 of Augsbourg, five Consistorial Churches form an In- 
 spection-district, and one Ecclesiastic is to be chosen 
 Inspector, who, with the aid of two Laymen, is to watch 
 over the churches and ministers. 
 
APPENDIX. 151 
 
 N.B. The Chambers voted the sum of 676,000 
 francs for the Protestant Church, in 1828, and 
 the Government has frequently, of late years, 
 made grants to the Protestants to aid them in 
 building new places of worship. 
 
 5. The descendants of French families, exiled 
 on account of their religion in former times, may 
 return and become naturalized : — a regulation 
 worthy of the attention of pious individuals and 
 families in England and other countries, who 
 may wish to promote pure Christianity where 
 their forefathers suffered for it. 
 
 When age, sickness, or infirmities oblige a 
 Pastor to seek the aid of a Co-adjutor, the 
 Government has always permitted such relief, 
 and assigned a salary to the assistant, who is 
 termed a " Suffragan." 
 
 After these preliminary observations, I proceed 
 to a tabular and condensed view of the state of 
 the Reformed Church in France, (the Protestant 
 Churches of the Confession of Augsbourg not 
 being included,) extracted from " Statistique 
 des Eglises Reformees, par A. Soulier," pub- 
 lished in 1828. 
 
152 
 
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APPENDIX. 157 
 
 'Whilst it is delightful to observe that the 
 French Reformed Church, after having been more 
 than once, apparently, near extinction, through 
 severe persecutions, not only still survives, but 
 is acquiring fresh strength, it naturally occurs to 
 the mind to inquire what symptoms there are of 
 a revival of piety, and by what means that 
 church may acquire still higher improvements. 
 Having seen the French Protestant Churches at 
 different periods, as early as the year 1814, and 
 as late as the year 1829, I will venture to offer a 
 few thoughts upon this subject. 
 
 It is believed that the French Protestants of 
 the Reformed Church amount to between a 
 million and a million and a half; in which 
 case it is obvious that the 286 Pastors are a very 
 inadequate number compared with the wants 
 of their church. The poverty of many congre- 
 gations is a principal cause of this lamentable 
 deficiency. Some districts are without pastors, 
 having the advantages of the Christian minis- 
 try occasionally, but with a long interval be- 
 tween each visit. The necessity of studying for 
 three years at the College of Montauban, before 
 admission to Holy Orders, increases the difficulty 
 of applying a remedy, because it increases ex- 
 
158 APPENDIX. 
 
 pense and occasions delay. Such a state of 
 things evidently requires that the pastors should, 
 as far as their health and strength will permit, 
 exert themselves in preaching more frequently to 
 the congregations committed to them. A prac- 
 tice prevails amongst Foreign Protestants highly 
 prejudicial to their country congregations, I mean 
 that of committing sermons to memory, after 
 writing them. The consequence is, that a dry 
 theological dissertation, even if quite orthodox 
 and evangelical in point of sentiment, is delivered, 
 rather than a deeply earnest discourse, expressed 
 in simple language, adapted to the poor, and 
 calculated to search the conscience and raise the 
 affections. Unhappily, also, a preacher seldom 
 ventures to commit more than one sermon to 
 memory, and therefore preaches but once in the 
 week. If, on the contrary, the preacher would 
 read his sermons, and especially if, after carefully 
 studying his subject, he would preach from notes, 
 he might easily preach twice, and, if a strong 
 man, thrice on the Sunday, with more warmth, 
 and with more profit to the poorer class of hearers. 
 In this way one pastor would multiply himself 
 into two or three, because he would undertake 
 as many sennons as two or three now undertake. 
 One happy result of preaching evening as well 
 
APPENDIX. 159 
 
 as morning discourses, would be the better ob- 
 servance of the Lord's Day in France. Sunday 
 evening has been from time immemorial devoted 
 to pleasure. It is then that the theatres, as 
 well as the places of vulgar dissipation, are most 
 frequented. Whether the practice originated in 
 the commencement of the Christian Sabbath 
 on Saturday evening, in the more ancient times, 
 though unobserved at present, I will not stop to 
 examine, but it is an evil fraught with other 
 evils, which all true Christians should try to 
 correct. Protestant ministers, by having an 
 evening service and sermon, at six o'clock, or 
 soon after, would be able to preserve their 
 flocks, in a good measure, from the snare which 
 surrounding dissipation spreads for them, whilst 
 their example might eventually induce the Roman 
 Catholic Clergy, by degrees, to adopt so salutary 
 a custom.* Besides preaching more frequently, 
 the Protestant Ministers in France, who would 
 promote the spiritual prosperity of their flocks, 
 
 * When I was at Paris, there was evening service at 
 the English Episcopal Chapel at the Hotel de Marboeuf. 
 I also witnessed, occasionally, an immense congregation 
 in the evening, to hear the Roman Catholic Missionaries 
 at St. Genevieve. I have been informed that an evening 
 service has been established, within the last few months, 
 at the Protestant Church of the Oratoire. How essen* 
 
 %^ 
 
160 APPENDIX. 
 
 will find it essential to enforce the practice of 
 family devotion — a much-neglected duty amongst 
 members of their church — as well as to raise 
 the tone of piety in their congregations by a 
 selection of superior psalms and hymns, with 
 a suitable variety of tunes, better adapted to 
 express Christian feeling than the psalms now 
 in use. 
 
 In order to supply, in future, many pastors 
 disposed to apply themselves in this earnest 
 manner to preaching and other pastoral duties, 
 it appears desirable that the French Protes- 
 tants should not exclusively, or even chiefly, 
 fix their hopes upon unstable youth, or chil- 
 dren, and design them for the ministry, and 
 give them an education of many years' con- 
 tinuance, at considerable expense, before they 
 go to College, and encourage their entering 
 the ministry as a respectable profession, for 
 
 tial such a service in large English parishes is, the 
 crowds who attend open churches, and the crowds who 
 pass by the doors of the church if closed, best testify. 
 Tlie altered circumstances of society shew, on the other 
 hand, that the Wednesday and Friday Morning Prayers 
 are not congenial with the habits of the present age, as 
 few persons attend. 
 
APPENDIX. 161 
 
 the sake of a livelihood, whilst the reality of 
 their Christian piety and zeal may be matter 
 of doubt. For many of the congregations much 
 more suitable pastors would be obtained, if 
 young men of conspicuous piety were selected 
 from the Protestant congregations, withdrawn 
 from the trades in which they may be engaged, 
 and educated, at a moderate expense, under 
 some learned and devout pastor, in the ne- 
 cessary branches of knowledge. Even without 
 a College education, such men would be va- 
 luable pastors for the more obscure and seques- 
 tered village congregations, and if residence at 
 College should be absolutely required in future, 
 as at present, they would be likely to come 
 out so well qualified to instruct others as to 
 occasion no disappointment to those who had 
 contributed to their maintenance.* Endued 
 with the wisdom which is from above, and enter- 
 ing the Christian ministry with an aim to do 
 
 * I suppose, from the information given me, that there 
 is a small College, or Academy, at Dieu-le-fit, near 
 Valence, and another at Chatillon-sur-Loire, near San- 
 cerre, suitable for such students for the ministry. The 
 pupils of the Rev. M. Rousselotti teach in the Schools 
 for the poor, especially Sunday Schools. Such a practice 
 is a good preparatory step towards forming schoolmasters, 
 and even village pastors. 
 
162 APPENDIX. 
 
 good to others rather than to acquire gain, they 
 would, in all probability, be found wise in the 
 art of winning souls, and training them for 
 heaven ; and whatever falls short of that, falls 
 far short of the dignity and utility of the pas- 
 toral office. If, however, it be found inexpe- 
 dient to select such pious young men for the 
 ministry, their education under able pastors, for 
 the purpose of becoming schoolmasters, as well 
 as catechists of a superior stamp, is of great im- 
 portance. 
 
 The number of congregations in the preceding 
 table, namely 588, compared with the number 
 said to have existed in the year 1,560, namely 
 2,000, furnishes affecting evidence of the havoc 
 made by subsequent persecutions, partly by 
 putting numbers of the Protestants to death, 
 and destroying their temples; partly by expel- 
 ling other Protestants from the kingdom, to the 
 great loss of France in a commercial point of 
 view ;* partly by inducing many who remained. 
 
 • Some idea of that loss may be formed from the fact, 
 that Lyons once possessed 18,000 looms for the manu- 
 facture of silk, but that after the revocation of the Edict 
 of Nantes, the expulsion of the Protestants, and ruin- 
 ous wars that followed, they decreased to 4,000. Num- 
 
APPENDIX, 16 
 
 to unite themselves to the Church of Rome. Let 
 me be permitted to add, however, a passage 
 from another work,* in reference to persecu- 
 tion : — " If France was once distinguished for 
 the most disastrous effects of rehgious animosity, 
 it should be mentioned, to the honour of the 
 mild and amiable Louis XVL, that he granted 
 to the Protestants religious privileges which his 
 predecessors had withheld ; and it is due to its 
 Government to state, that at the present moment 
 Protestants are admitted as Peers and Depu- 
 ties in the representative Chambers of that great 
 kingdom ; and that Protestant ministers are 
 generously maintained, and their temples re- 
 paired, by an allowance from the public treasury/' 
 
 bers of the expelled silk weavers came and established 
 themselves in Spitalfields, London. The commercial 
 losses of France at that period, were stated in a work, 
 by M. le Comte de Boulainvilliers, called " Etkt de la 
 France," published in 1727. 
 
 * Peyran's Historical Defence of the Waldenses, 
 Appendix, page 439. 
 
164 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 ACT OF SELF-DEDICATION. 
 
 Eternal and infinitely holy God ! I earnestly 
 desire to be able to present myself before thee 
 with a feeling of deep humility, and with con- 
 trition of heart. I know how unworthy a worm 
 of the earth like myself is to appear before 
 thy divine Majesty, before the King of kings 
 and Lord of lords, especially on an occasion 
 like this, when I intend to enter into a cove- 
 nant with thee. 
 
 But thou, O merciful God, who hast formed 
 the plan of this covenant, hast, in thine infi- 
 nite goodness, proposed it to me by thy be- 
 loved Son : and it is thou who hast disposed my 
 heart to accept it. I come then unto thee, and 
 confess that I am a great sinner ; I smite upon 
 my breast, and say with the penitent publican, 
 ** God be merciful to me a sinner." I come 
 
APPENDIX. 165 
 
 because I have been invited in the name of thy 
 Son, and I rely entirely on his complete righ- 
 teousness. But I beseech thee, for his sake, 
 to forgive mine unrighteousness, and to re- 
 member my sins no more; — I beseech thee to 
 be reconciled to me, though so unfaithful. I 
 am now convinced of the right thou hast over 
 me, and there is nothing I more desire than 
 to belong to thee. Most holy God ! I solemnly 
 dedicate myself to thee this day. 
 
 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth ! I 
 avow this day that the Lord is my God ! I this 
 day declare that I am one of the number of his 
 children, and of his people. Hear my words, 
 O God, and write in thy book that I desire to 
 live henceforth wholly unto thee. In the name 
 of the Lord God of Hosts, I this day renounce 
 all other lords who have formerly had dominion 
 over me — the former pleasures in which I have 
 indulged, and the corrupt desires of the flesh. I 
 renounce all that is perishable, that my God may 
 be my all. I consecrate to thee all that I am 
 and all that I have; the faculties of my soul, 
 the members of my body, my property and my 
 time. Help me, O Father of mercies, to employ 
 the whole to thy glory, and to that alone, by 
 
166 APPENDIX. 
 
 obedience to thy will and commandments. To 
 be thine shall be my humble and ardent desire 
 through the ages of a blissful eternity. If thou 
 art pleased to employ me in this life to lead 
 others to thee, give me strength and courage to 
 declare myself openly on thy behalf; and grant 
 me such a measure of thy grace, that I may not 
 devote myself alone to thy service, but that I 
 may be able to persuade my brethren to con- 
 secrate themselves also. 
 
 It is my desire, O Holy Spirit, to remain 
 faithful to thee to the end of my life, if sup- 
 ported by thy grace. Enable me, therefore, 
 during the time that shall be yet allotted to me, 
 to acquire that in v^hich I am deficient, and to 
 amend my v^ays. Let earthly things have no 
 undue influence over me; but during the short 
 term of life let me live solely to thee. Let thy 
 grace strengthen me not only to proceed in that 
 way which I have ascertained to be the best, but 
 to walk in it with still greater activity. I resign 
 myself, and every thing that belongs to me, to 
 thy guidance. Overrule all circumstances as 
 thine infinite goodness shall see best. I commit 
 myself to thee for the ordering of all events, and 
 gay without any restriction, " Tliy will, not mine, 
 
APPENDIX. 167 
 
 be done !'* Employ me, Lord, as an instrument 
 ordained to thy service. Look upon me as one 
 of thy people ; wash me in the blood of thy 
 well-beloved Son ; clothe me with his righteous- 
 ness ; sanctify me by his Spirit ; conform me 
 more and more to his image ; purify and fortify 
 my heart ; grant me the comfort of passing 
 through life with a continual sense of thy pre- 
 sence, O my Father and my God ! and after 
 having sought to obey thee and to submit to thy 
 will, receive me to thyself, at the season and in 
 the manner that shall seem good in thy sight. 
 At the moment of death, at the very gates of 
 eternity, assist me to remember these engage- 
 ments, and employ even my last sigh in thy 
 service. And do thou. Lord, also remember this 
 covenant when thou shalt behold the anguish of 
 my heart in my last moments, and when I may 
 not even have strength to remember it. O, Hea- 
 venly Father, cast a look of mercy upon thine 
 enfeebled servant in his last conflict with death. 
 I would not presume to dictate, O my Father, 
 in what way I should be removed hence. I would 
 not even ask to be then preserved from severe 
 suffering. Nothing of that nature would I make 
 the subject of my prayers. But, what I earnestly 
 intreat, in the name of Jesus, is, that I may bo 
 
168 APPENDIX. 
 
 able still to glorify thee in the last days of my 
 pilgrimage, and in the midst of the sufferings 
 which thy wise providence shall perhaps see fit 
 to appoint, to manifest patience and submission 
 to thy holy will. Fortify my soul, grant me 
 humble confidence when thou shalt call me 
 hence ; receive me to thine eternal favour and 
 presence, to the mansions of those who have 
 slept in Jesus — mansions where inexpressible and 
 unfading joys will be the portion of thy saints. 
 And fill my soul with peace and happiness, 
 whilst waiting for the accomplishment of the 
 promise which thou hast made to thy people, 
 that they shall partake of a glorious resurrection 
 and for ever enjoy the bliss of thy presence. 
 
 And if, when I shall be lying in the grave, 
 these pages shall haply fall into the hands of 
 friends, whom I shall have left on earth, O grant 
 that their hearts may be deeply affected .; vouch- 
 safe them grace, not merely to read them as an ex- 
 pression of my feelings, but to feel themselves that 
 which they express. Teach them to fear the Lord my 
 God, and to come and seek refuge with me under 
 the shadow of his wings for time and for eternity ; 
 let them share in all the benefits and blessings of 
 a covenant-relation with thee by Jesus Christ, 
 
APPENDIX. 169 
 
 the great Mediator, To him and to thee, O 
 Father, and to the Holy Ghost, be ascribed 
 eternal praises by the millions of thy redeemed, 
 and by those holy angels of whose employment 
 and happiness they partake. 
 
 My God, and the God of my fathers I Thou 
 who keepest thy covenant, and pourest down thy 
 blessings, even to a thousand generations, I 
 humbly beseech thee, since thou knowest the 
 deceitfulness of the heart, to assist me by thy 
 grace, to enter into this covenant with all sincerity 
 of heart, and to continue faithful to that con- 
 secration of me unto thee which took place at 
 my baptism. May the name of the Lord be to 
 me for an everlasting testimony that I have 
 signed the promise to this effect with a full and 
 ftrm intentiorj to keep it. 
 
 Jean Frederic Oberli^t. 
 Strasbourg, the 1st January, 1760. 
 
 Renewed at Waldbach, the 1st January, 1770. 
 
170 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 AN EASY METHOD OF INSTRUCTING ADULTS 
 TO READ. 
 
 The chief object in instructing ignorant adults i& 
 read is to enable them to read the Scriptures. 
 With this view I thought it might be useful to 
 select and arrange all the words in the Sermon 
 on the Mount (5th, 6th, and 7th chapters of 
 St. Matthew,) beginning with the alphabet, then 
 proceeding to the monosyllables, and so step by 
 step to the longest and most difficult words. 
 Having published such a small introduction to 
 reading the Scriptures in English, I afterwards, 
 when at Paris, arranged the same chapters, for 
 the same purpose, in French, for the use of poor 
 Protestants in France, should the' plan be ap- 
 proved, and of the Vaudois in Piedmont. To this 
 latter piece, called '* Le Premier Pas," a short 
 address was prefixed, explaining an easy method 
 
APPENDIX, i7l 
 
 of teaching persons to read ; the substance of 
 which is as follows, 
 
 -: The ^* Premier Pas/' or "First step to reading 
 the Holy Scriptures/' calculated for either adults 
 or children, is more especially so for those who * 
 live in remote villages and thinly peopled dis- 
 tricts, where no school-masters or school-mis«^ 
 tresses can be supported by the peasantry. 
 
 -The ability to read the Sermon ou the Mount 
 (after reading ail the words in the ten pages of the 
 ^^ Premier Pas,'') may be soon acquired by those 
 who may be willing to give up one hour during 
 the long evenings of a winter, and one or two 
 hours on the Lord's day ; and when able to read 
 fluently the Sermon on the Mount, they will be 
 able to read other parts of the New Testament 
 with little difficulty. 
 
 Let us suppose that there are five persons in 
 a small village who can read, and whose bene- 
 volence shall prompt them to teach their neigh- 
 bours who cannot. 
 
 (1.) Let each of these five persons get about 
 i2 
 
172 APPENDIX. 
 
 ten persons who cannot read around him, every 
 one of them having the ** First Step," in his hand. 
 
 (2.) Let the teacher shew them where the 
 lesson begins, and then let him pronounce dis- 
 ~ tinctly a letter or word. Then let the person at 
 his right hand repeat the same letter or word; 
 and the next person do the same ; and so on till 
 every one shall have pronounced it. Let the 
 teacher afterwards repeat the same, and let the 
 person at his left hand next repeat, and the next 
 afterwards, till every one shall again have re- 
 peated it. The letter, or word, will thus have 
 been pronounced above twenty times; and if 
 each person has constantly looked at it in the 
 book, whilst it was pronounced by all present, 
 it will be deeply fixed in the memory. If any one, 
 through inattention, makes mistakes, he should 
 yield his place to one more attentive to the 
 lesson. 
 
 (3.) At the end of each lesson, in order to 
 ascertain the reality and extent of progress, 
 the teacher should question all the learners 
 indiscriminately, making them pronounce here 
 and there, not in exact order, the letters or 
 
APPENDIX. 173 
 
 words learned during that lesson. He should 
 do the same at the end of every week, with 
 respect to the lessons learned during that week, 
 
 (4.) When the learners are able to read fluently 
 all the words in the ** First Step," they will of 
 course read the Sermon on the Mount, either 
 in, or extracted from, St. Matthew's Gospel.* 
 When that Sermon has been read repeatedly, 
 and with attention to the stops, they may pro- 
 ceed to read other parts of the Scriptures, in 
 which only occasional difficulties will occur. 
 
 In this easy manner may the ignorant obtairr 
 access to the treasures of that Sacred Volume, 
 which is able, with the blessing of God's Holy 
 Spirit, to make them wise unto salvation, 
 through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 * In the National Schools the Sermon on the Mount is 
 printed in the form of a tract. So it is by the Paris Re- 
 ligious Tract Society. 
 
174 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 A PRAYER WHICH M. OBERLIN AND HIS WIFE 
 WERE ACCUSTOMED TO USE TOGETHER. 
 
 Holy Spirit ! descend into our hearts ; and 
 assist us to pray fervently, and from the in- 
 most soul. Suffer thy children, O merciful 
 Father, to present themselves before thee, to 
 implore whatever may be expedient for them ! 
 
 May we love each other only in thee, and in 
 our Saviour Jesus Christ, as being members of 
 his body ! 
 
 Be thou our helper, in order that, during 
 the whole day, we may look unto thee, walk 
 before thee, meditate and rest upon thee; so 
 that, from day to day, our life may become 
 more truly spiritual. 
 
APPENDIX. *175 
 
 Grant that we may be faithful to thee in 
 the discharge of our duties, and that we may 
 stimulate each other to the same, making known 
 to each other our faults, and seeking pardon 
 together through the blood of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Whenever we pray together — and may we do 
 so frequently — be thou, O Lord Jesus, one in 
 the midst of us ; and do thou, Heavenly Father, 
 make us truly fervent; and hear, for the sake 
 of Jesus Christ, what thou mayest teach us, by 
 thy Holy Spirit, to ask ! 
 
 Since thou hast placed those of our house- 
 hold under our control in the present life, give 
 us wisdom and strength to guide them in a way 
 pleasing unto thee. May we always give them 
 a good example, and do that which thou hast 
 told us of Abraham, who commanded his chil- 
 dren, and his household after him, to keep the 
 way of the Lord, and do that which is just and 
 right. If thou shouldst give unto us children, 
 and preserve them, graciously enable us to 
 bring them up for thee; to teach them, early 
 in life, to know, to fear, to love, and to call 
 upon their God, who hath made a covenant with 
 
176 APPENDIX. 
 
 them; in order that, in conformity with their 
 baptismal engagements, they may continue faith- 
 ful unto thee from the cradle to the grave. 
 Oh may we instil into them thy word, Hea- 
 venly Father, all our life-time, with meekness, 
 affeiition, and patience ; when they rise up and 
 when they lie down, when they are m the 
 house and when out of it, and in all other 
 suitable situations and circumstances ; since this 
 is both pleasing in thy sight, and proper with 
 regard to children, on whom thou hast bestowed 
 the breath of life, chiefly that they may delight 
 to approach unto, and walk humbly before 
 thee. 
 
 When we go together to partake of the Lord's 
 Supper, oh grant us, ever, new measures of 
 grace, fresh strength, and renewed courage, that 
 we may persevere in walking in the way heaven- 
 ward ; and since we can only receive that holy 
 Sacrament four times in the year, may we the 
 oftener, yea, daily and hourly, partake of it by 
 faith ! May we ever have death before our eyes, 
 and ever prepare for it ; and — if the request be 
 such as we may presume to utter — grant that 
 we may not be long separated from each other, 
 
APPENDIX* 17^ 
 
 but let the death of the one be followed shortly 
 afterwards by that of the other.* 
 
 Hear us, merciful Father, in the name of Jesus 
 Christ, thy beloved Son. Amen, 
 
 * Oberlin, for the happiness of his species, lived 
 forty-two years after his wife's decease. 
 
178 APPENDIX-. 
 
 No. V. 
 
 MONUMENT TO OBERLIN*S MEMORY, AND AN IN- 
 STITUTION TO PERPETUATE INFANT SCHOOLS AT 
 BAN DE LA ROCHE. 
 
 The friends of M. Oberlin have, since his de- 
 cease, erected a Monument to his Memory, in 
 the Church of Waldbach. It is a tablet of 
 black marble, on which a piece of white 
 marble — a sculptured portrait of the deceased — 
 has been incrusted. The inscription, in French, 
 is as follows : — 
 
 TO JOHN FREDERIC OBERLIN, 
 
 Pastor and Parent of this Parish, 
 
 during 59 years. 
 
 Born in 1740 ; died in 1826. 
 
 The memory of the just shall be blessed 
 
 Prov. X. 7. 
 
APPENDIX. 179 
 
 Not satisfied, however, to have raised a marble 
 tablet, his friends have been farther anxious to 
 erect a living monument — a monument of charity 
 — bearing the name of Oberlin, and transmitting 
 to posterity a perpetual record of his wise phi- 
 lanthropy, and his anxiety to promote the social 
 and domestic virtues. Accordingly, they have 
 determined that it shall be a Foundation for 
 granting, (if an adequate sum should be raised,) 
 a salary of 100 francs (£4. sterling) a-year to 
 each of the Conductrices who undertake to 
 teach in the Infant-schools, in the several villages 
 once under Oberlin's pastoral care.* 
 
 By this means, those benevolent but poor 
 women, who, being obliged to earn a livelihood, 
 could only attend , about once a week, will be 
 able to give up their time regularly to the 
 instruction of the little children. 
 
 The idea of Infant Schools is supposed by 
 some to have originated with Stuber, although 
 brought into full activity by Oberlin. At the 
 distribution of prizes, lately, at the French Aca- 
 
 ♦ An account of these Infant Schools, and of the 
 ConductriceSy has been already given in pp., 41, 42. 
 
180 APPENDIX. 
 
 demy, one, however, was adjudged, after an 
 oration by Baron Cuvier, to Louisa Schepler,* 
 Oberlin's housekeeper, as the foundress of In. 
 fant Schools. ._ 
 
 See pp. 71, 72 for an account of Louisa Scheplen 
 
 
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