"Sometimes, instead of a text a few verses were inscribed on the cards. "Mon Dieu! pour etre heureux ! Tu me mis sur la terre. Quels sont mes vrais besoins ; Le cœur de ton enfant S'en rapporte à tes soins; Qu'il me faut pour te plaire." "Oberlin's house was, as the writer of the preceding letter remarks, literally papered with pictures, inscriptions, verses from the Bible, and directions for missionary and other prayers; and on the door of one of them the Moravian text-book was fastened. The inscription placed on that of another will give some idea of the cordial and warm reception with which he always greeted his visitors, and formed, indeed, throughout, the law by which they were governed: : "Constante bonté. Charité mâle et inaltérable.'" In 1793 he lost his eldest son in one of the first battles of the French revolution. The religious persecutions attendant upon that event did not extend to the Ban, but the people suffered from the general stagnation of business and the horrors of the times. Oberlin now declined to receive a stated salary, or contribution to the support of the various public institutions, leaving it to those who could afford it to bring to him whatever sums they could spare. The usual pastoral fees he had always refused. "My people," he used to say, "are born, married and buried, free of expense, as far as their clergyman is concerned." To supply the deficiency thus created he undertook the tutorship of ten or twelve pupils, the sons of foreigners; and he spared a large part of his revenue from this source for the good of the parish. He punctually devoted three tithes of all his receipts to benevolent uses: sharing them amongst the various objects of religious charity and education which required his care. Nor did he confine his liberality to his own limits; he sold the whole of his plate, with the exception of a single spoon, and contributed the proceeds to the French Missionary Society: a cause which had always his warmest support, and in which he at one time would have engaged, by coming to Pennsylvania as a missionary, had not our revolutionary war prevented his departure. A description of the treatment of slaves in the West Indies so strongly affected his sympathy, that he abandoned for ever the use of sugar and coffee. The following record is a striking instance of his scrupulousness and illimitable benevolence: "When the assignats lost their value, he feared that this would bring a curse upon France, and diminish the confidence that the people ought to have in the government. Convinced that it behoved every individual to use his utmost endeavours, as far as his influence or means extended, to prevent such a calamity, (leaving it to God to bless the example,) he made a public sale every year of agricultural implements and other useful articles amongst his parishioners, or rather offered them in exchange for assignats. By this means he managed to redeem, in the space of twenty-five years, all the assignats of the Ban de la Roche, and of some of its environs. "I possess one of these assignats purchased by Oberlin. It is dated Waldbach, May 9, 1798, and has this superscription upon it in his own handwriting: "Ainsi graces à Dieu ma nation est encore déchargée d'une manière honnête de cette obligation de 125 francs.' "He gave texts of scripture, as a receipt for the assignats, and generally wrote on the back of the card:- Assignat de de M. le ministre O.' with the date." reçu We are compelled to pass over the interesting details the biography affords of the active and extensive operations of the Christian charity of this remarkable man and his parishioners, who were now excited to join him in all his undertakings. In the care of orphan children, the establishment of a Bible society, of associations to lend and read the Bible to the destitute and ignorant, his exertions were earnestly seconded by them; and thus encouraged, his plans ramified into every scheme of good which his heart could suggest. In the first, second and eleventh Reports of the British and Foreign Bible Society his services are honourably mentioned, and some interesting letters of his published. Oberlin had now attained the age of seventy, and was reverenced as a patriarch by his people. The population had increased from eighty or one hundred families, to three thousand souls. The children kept his birth-day as a festival, and brought him garlands of flowers to testify their affection. His visits were received with honest pride, whilst his unassuming manners removed all constraint, but maintained his personal dignity. The general control of the affairs of the population was cheerfully submitted to him as their rightful head, and his authority was undisputed, in whatever capacity he employed it. His children were now capable of assisting him: one son was pastor of Rothau; another had entered upon his theological studies; a daughter was married to the Rev. Mr Graff, who, in 1813, removed to Waldbach; another to the Rev. Mr Rauscher, of Barr; and a third to the Rev. Mr Witz, of Colmar. The arts of riband-weaving, straw-platting, dyeing, and cotton-spinning were introduced with the comforts and refinements of civilization, whilst the primitive simplicity of rural manners and innocence was remarkably preserved. The happiness of the "dear papa" was greatly promoted by the termination of a law-suit respecting a right to the forests, which had been pending for more than eighty years between the peasantry of the Ban and the demesne-lords. This suit had been a source of continual grief to Oberlin's heart, and in his characteristic style, he had for many years this prayer affixed to one of his doors: "O Gott, erbarme dich des Steinthals, und mache dem prozess ein ende." [Oh God! have mercy on the Steinthal, and put an end to the law-suit.] In 1818 the By his urgent pleas to his people, and the influence of his pacific disposition upon the prefect of the province, he at length succeeded, in 1813, in bringing the parties to an accommodation. The day on which this was consummated he declared to be one of the happiest of his life. Royal Agricultural Society of Paris, on motion of count de Neufchateau, honoured Oberlin with a gold medal, in acknowledgment of the services he had rendered to the agriculture of the kingdom, and in testimony of their veneration for his character. The decoration of the legion of honour had already been conferred on him by Louis XVIII. These distinctions were wholly spontaneous and unexpected. To his person all but his fellow-citizens and visiters were strangers, as he never went far from his settlement, and did not see Paris in the course of his life. We must refer to the volume for numerous interesting anecdotes of this remarkable personage, as well as for copious accounts of his domestic and pastoral habits, as furnished from the journals and letters of some of the visiters who were attracted to his seclusion by the fame of his character. We have also to omit any reference to some of the more conspicuous inhabitants and coadjutors in the work of reformation, notices of whom abound in the pages of the interesting narrative. With respect to the doctrinal opinions of Oberlin, we copy the statement of the biographer: "In most of his religious tenets, Oberlin was strictly orthodox and evangelical. The main doctrine that seemed to occupy his whole mind, was that God was his Father.— Our Father,' as he would not unfrequently say, and thus we may always feel Him.' The doctrine of sanctification also held a high place in his creed, though, in his discourses, he principally dwelt upon the freeness of the gospel, the willingness of Christ to receive all who come to him in sincerity of heart, the blessed efficacy of prayer, and the absolute necessity of divine grace. "It may here be considered necessary, for the sake of biographical faithfulness, to observe, that upon some points he certainly held very fanciful and unwarranted notions, more particularly upon those relative to a future state. In the interpretation of John xiv. 2, for example, (In my Father's house are many mansions,') he considered that there was an exact relation between our state here and the very mansion we should enter hereafter; and this relation, or proportion of happiness, he seemed to himself to have so accurately ascertained, by the help of types drawn from different parts of the Temple, beginning with the outer court of the sanctuary and ending with the Holy of Holies, and from expressions denoting the state of the redeemed in the Book of Revelations, as to be able to draw a map of the other world; and this map he printed and hung up in his church. He also held the doctrine of an intermediate state, which he supposed to be one of continual improvement, and likewise believed that we shall become progressively holy in heaven. He seemed to hope that the passage, 1 Cor. xv. 28, where it is said that all things' shall be subjected unto the Almighty, and the Son also himself shall be subjected, that God may be all in all," might include not only the little flock of Christ's immediate followers, but, ultimately, at some almost indefinite period, through the boundless mercy of God, and the blood of Jesus, which was shed for the sins of the whole world, all the race of mankind. And he was strengthened in this belief by understanding in another than the ordinary sense, that as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. It is needless to say of these doctrines that they are fanciful and mistaken, and not to be defended by an accurate application of scripture. But, whatever hold they had upon Oberlin's mind, they appeared very little in his preaching, and did not at all interfere with the plainest statement of the doctrine of justification by faith in the merits of our Redeemer, and sanctification by his Spirit, and of the absolute necessity of both the one and the other to meetness for the heavenly inheritance. "Oberlin was accustomed to preach very alarmingly on the judg ment to come, and the punishment of the wicked; though, at the same time, he held out the fatherly love of God to every returning sinner, who would seek him through Jesus Christ. These last mentioned doctrines may be said to have constituted the leading features of his ministry. He had a remarkable reverence for the Bible, and especially for the Books of Moses, and the Gospels. He was led to adopt many of the laws of Moses, because, he said, although the ceremonial law is rejected, the object of that law, the glory of God and the good of man, remains, and therefore the law itself ought to be retained. The subjoined note marks a number of passages from the laws of Moses, which Oberlin adopted, and which he applied with great force and interest in his own conduct, and in his instructions to his people*." Of his preaching we have the following account: "In his sermons, Oberlin was simple, energetic, and affectionate, continually speaking to his people under the appellation of 'mes chers amis.' He appeared to study a colloquial plainness, interspersing his discourses with images and allusions, which, had they been addressed to a more refined audience, might have been deemed homely, but which were particularly adapted to the capacities and wants of his secluded villagers. He would frequently introduce biographical anecdotes of persons distinguished for their piety; and the boundless field of nature furnished him with striking illustrations to explain spiritual things. But the Bible itself, la chere Bible,' as he exclaimed with tears of gratitude a short time before his last illness, was the grand source of all his instructions. It formed the Exod. xxi. 33. Lev. xix. 33, 34. xxiv. 22. Num. xxvii. 19. * Alms. Deut. xiv. 28, &c. xv. 7. Mat. iii. 10. Prevention of Dangers. Deut. xxii. 8. Strangers. Exod. xxii. 21. xxiii. 9. xv. 14. Deut. x. 18, 19. xxiv. 14, 19. xxvi. 12. Also for Strangers. Exod. xii. 19. Num. ix. 14. Solomon appointed a court for Strangers: 2 Chron. vi. 32. This court the avarice of the Jews suffered to become a market, and from this market Jesus drove the buyers and sellers. Fertility. To make a country fertile, it must be guarded from bad seasons, dearth and famine. Lev. xxvi. 3, 14. Deut. xi. 13, 16. Mal. iii. 10. Politeness. Rom. xii. 10. 1 Cor. xiii. 4, 5. To protect ourselves from the evil of war. Lev. xxv. 18, 19. Deut. xxxiii. 28, 29. Prov. i. 33. Doctors. Exod. xv. 26. 2 Chron. xvi. 12. Law-suit. Matt. v. 39, 40. First fruits. Exod. xxii. 29. Deut. xv. 19. Payment. Lev. xix. 13. Deut. xxiv. 14. Jer. xxii. 13. Rom. xiii. 8. Mat. |