which also possesses a church. Solbath, the fifth village lies in a different direction. We sallied out soon after breakfast, and visited two or three ribbon weavers in the village, who industriously employed, were at work in their own houses. Then we turned our faces towards Waldbach, and at a little before twelve arrived at the Pastor's house. It is now inhabited by Monsieur Rauscher, who married one of Oberlin's daughters, and who has succeeded him as Pastor. Nothing can be more plain than the appearance of the house, and its furniture. It is entered by a little yard, where some wood is stacked, and after the luxury of an English parsonage, the effect is indeed different. As you go into the house, immediately to the left is the little room which was inhabited by the delightful Louise Schepler, who only died last year, and some memorials of whom still exist in the room. Fronting you is the dining-room, which looks upon the garden to the back. We went up stairs and found Monsieur Rauscher in the sitting-room of the parsonage, surrounded by recollections of Oberlin. There were his books, his pictures, the desk where he sat, and the registries of the parish, in which every event which happened was most carefully entered with his own hand. Here and there was hung up a text, or his scheme of colours, or his idea of the degrees of happiness and misery in the next world. Every thing was plain and simple, but every thing bore the marks of a very regular mind. In our morning walk Monsieur le Grand had created in my mind such an interest about him, that I looked at all these things with the greatest eagerness. It was now twelve o'clock-dinner time. We were asked as a matter of course to partake of it, which we accepted as readily. Besides Monsieur Rauecher and his wife, there sat down to

it two or three pensionnaires, and a son of Oberlin, who was formerly pastor of Rothau, but who now practices surgery in the parish. I had therefore as yet received hospitality, and in speaking to the villagers had perceived intelligence, and in viewing the features of the country, had been struck by the industry of the people, and by the goodness of the roads. Now I was to see in what manner Oberlin had trained his flock to piety and resignation to the will of God. In this house there was much sor

row. The pastor had just lost his daughter (Oberlin's grand-daughter) she had died at Paris, two years after her marriage to an accomplished and excellent young man, and just as we sat down to dinner, the letter arrived from the widowed husband, in answer to one of condolence from the parents. They knew that we should sympathise with them, and therefore the letter was read out loud-a most affecting one indeed; we were all in tears, and I now could see the kind of religion which Oberlin had endeavoured to instil into the minds of his children. Nothing but consolation from Jesus-the great sufferer-was talked of, and a kind of holy, serious joy pervaded the entire party.

After our simple repast, we walked out to visit the other villages, for as yet we had only been in two of the five. A pretty rivulet ran at our feet. The fields were of the most delicious verdure. Every thing I saw had a calming, softening effect. The villages all lie agreeably upon slight ascents, and the approaches to them are easy. It being Saturday, there was a great work of scrubbing going forward, for one of Oberlin's hobbies was extreme cleanliness. We entered a cottage where there was a poor woman, sixty-six years of age, Louise Paisible Claude, by name (I love to record it) busily employed in teaching hymns to

and

some little girls. She was a single woman, one of Oberlin's own éléves. When we entered, she had just espied out, whilst the children were learning, some sentiment about Christ which she had found in a French book of sermons, and which she shewed us. Her room was exceedingly clean, literally you might have dined off any part of it. Here I saw Christian conduct. She was, from the time we went in until we left, praising her Saviour with the most joyful countenance. And yet she had nothing! lived quite alone, and had refused to marry, that she might devote herself to the Lord. Now then I began to see that Oberlin's religion consisted in something more than a few theories-that it was practical -and that it was rooted grounded in love. I may remark, that throughout the villages very good French is spoken, so good, that the poor from other places where a patois is spoken, not unusually come and pension themselves among the inhabitants solely to learn French-a language hardly known until Oberlin came amongst the people. I visited another village, being still struck by the appearance of the people, and then noticed a remarkably well-kept farm, high upon the mountainside, belonging to Monsieur Daniel le Grand's brother, but kept by David Fortuné Scheidecker, a descendant, I suppose, of that Scheidecker mentioned in the English life of Oberlin. There we procured excellent bread, butter, cheese, and beer. They pursue on it a regular system of husbandry, and have many modern improvements. Late towards night we returned to Monsieur le Grand's hospitable house, visiting on the way, the ruin of the castle of La Roche, from whence the valley takes its name.

The next morning, being Sunday, Oberlin's successor was to preach at the village of Belmont, the highest of the three where there

A

is a church. I started from Fondai for Waldbach, early in the morning, and in half an hour arrived at the Pastor's house. Soon after, appeared a couple of strong horses accompanied by their owner, to convey him and his brother-in-law, the physician, to Belmont. pleasant walk of two miles brought us to it, where we found the whole village assembled before the church, ready to enter. We enjoyed a delightful view, and the pastor having put on his gown, we followed him into church. Each sex, and every different age, sat in their allotted stations; married men, single men, married women, single women, and children, all had their seats. They sung a hymn, then the pastor made use of some of the prayers out of the Prayer-book of the French Reformed Church, and afterwards preached. There was attention and decorum, but more like they of Thessalonica, than the Bereans, there were no searchings out of the Scriptures, to see whether those things which the pastor told them were so; a hymn and a short prayer, concluded the service. The people retired in order as they sat, and with the utmost decorum. The church was tolerably full, both men and women were well dressed, but one could not help being struck with the superiority in appearance of the women over the men, and I learned afterwards that this was the case in the progress of the mind. Now came the dinner. It has been the custom, from time immemorial, for the Pastor to dine at every cottage by turns in the village in which he preaches, and the inmates of that cottage also furnish him with a horse to carry him to the church. This does not happen too often seeing that there are three churches, and only one is used every Sunday. The utmost hospitality reigns among them. The schoolmaster of the village is always one of the party, and the pastor brings as many guests as he

pleases. Three friends accompanied him on this Sunday. We all squeezed round the table in this cottage, and I own I never enjoyed a dinner more. "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." The poor cottager had lost his wife but a few days before, and the conversation of Monsieur Rauscher and his wife was of the most consoling nature. After dinner each child of the family was brought up to receive a word of kindness, and a few tracts and pictures were distributed amongst them. We now returned to the church, where there was to be a catechising of the children. Whilst this was going on, I took the opportunity to survey the interior of the building. It was an oblong, with the pulpit placed in the middle of one of the long sides, fronting the door. A gallery runs round the other three sides. The communion table was not placed against the wall, but was advanced into the interior of the church, and from it the pastor read the prayers before ascending the pulpit. The furniture and benches were of the simplest kind, and a paint brush had hardly ever touched the interior. The only souvenir of Oberlin which presented itself to my notice, was an old paper or parchment hung upon the sides of the gallery, the writing on which was to this effect. Priez pour les volontaries du ban de la Roche, 1792.' Then followed their names. After the catechism, I visited in company with the pastor two or three cottages; the rest of the party distributed themselves to visit the sick, and I returned to the hospitable mansion of Monsieur le Grand.

I brought away with me feelings not easy to be obliterated. I will now mention a few traits which may help to mark Oberlin's character. There is certainly still wanting, a good life of him; even the records

which exist have not been well used.

He was extremely regular, and very conscientious. The entries in the registries of the parish, and in a kind of public journal of every event which took place under his eye, are made with a scrupulous precision. If he had been placed in a worldly situation, he would have been a saving public servant, and have made the most of the means placed at his disposal.

His mind seems to have been concentrated upon the temporal and spiritual welfare of the Ban de la Roche, and he left no means unused to turn the resources of the country (such as they were) to the greatest advantage. What the children were taught of botany, medicine, astronomy, &c. was from manuscripts mostly drawn up by his own hand, or from specimens sorted by himself. But he did not seem to have advanced them far in any of these pursuits. This may have arisen from his not having discovered that during his long life, the whole mind of France had got before him, and had produced upon all these subjects, better books than his.

He seems to have been unreasonably attached to his doctrines of colours, and of the degrees of happiness and misery in the next world (although I do not hear that these opinions had upon himself personally, any evil influence) for most of the cottages were furnished with pictures and plans of his lucubrations of this nature.

The main features of his character seem to have been a very simple love to God, and an earnest desire to benefit his fellow creatures. That his love to God was sound, is certain, from the results it has left behind in those few excellent women, who having been taught by him, are devoted to their Saviour, in a degree seldom seen.

I doubt whether this love to God fed itself with any of those

deep and consoling doctrines contained in the epistles, or that he ever understood them. I imagine rather, that he delighted in such simple texts as "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish but have everlasting life."

His love to his fellow creatures produced the greatest respect for them; the civility with which he treated every one he met was remarkable. I observed that Monsieur Rauscher, following Oberlin's example, scrupulously touched his hat and made a bow to every child he met on the road. As his economy made him turn every thing to account, so, in doing so, he shewed his acquaintance with the springs of the heart, unless indeed I am about to applaud Oberlin, for what may belong solely to Monsieur Rauscher. There is sometimes in the schools, a little painting taught. The productions I saw were any thing but good. There were soldiers, houses, birds, and beasts of every description. The worthy pastor distributed some of these among the children after catechising them. They were highly delighted, thus shewing me how easily these simple little creatures were made happy, and how much more valuable is the feeling with which a present is made, than the present itself.

In conclusion, let us adore the Providence of God, in preparing such a man as Oberlin for such a sphere of labour. If my ideas of him are correct, it is impossible not to feel that his character would have lost much of its distinctive nature in a large town. The very state of isolation and ignorance of the inhabitants was what enabled him to exercise such a beneficial controul over them. Like the Captain of a man of war who prefers to discipline his ship upon the blue waters, far out of sight of land, where no foreign influence

can thwart his intentions, so there was no pressure from without to break in upon Oberlin's plans before they were matured, and no mind within his parish capable of opposing him; and just as the Captain ventures his ship with confidence into port, when he has ascertained the power he possesses over his men, and finds each new scene they enter on gains them experience, and increases their efficiency, so Oberlin, when once he had laid a basis in schools, and otherwise established his influence amongst his parishioners, eagerly sought every means of adding to their communications with the neighbouring towns to the increasing comfort and improvement of the inhabitants of the Ban de la Roche.

He

But fancy him at Paris-certainly he would have been Oberlin still, but the subtle and penetrating parts of his character would have had no scene whereon to act. would have fallen by turns against all the various sects of religionists. At times claimed and rejected by all, at no time would he have belonged to any. His simple pharmacy gathered from the fields must have given way to the nostrums of the town Doctor, and his heartfelt artless appeals to the unsophisticated villager, might have been misunderstood and unappreciated in the crowded alleys of a city. Fancy him at the head of a theological seminary; his divinity would have been of too large and expansive a kind, for his hearers to know to what church they were bringing up, or what were the precise doctrines they were to hold, whilst perhaps the indistinctness of his views on particular points, and his great charity towards all who differed from him, might have militated against the progress of Protestantism as a church. In short, he would have been Oberlin, as we possess him now, no-where but in the Ban de la Roche.

NICODEMUS.

MY DEAR FRIENDS,-Owing to continued indisposition my usual labours among you have been almost wholly suspended during the year which has just terminated; but my anxiety for the promotion of your temporal and spiritual welfare has suffered no diminution : "God is my record," that you have been

been continually in my thoughts, and that it has been "my heart's desire and prayer," that you might "receive with meekness," from the lips of my beloved brethren in the ministry, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, that "engrafted word," which fell so powerless from mine. If the gospel be made, in any instance, "the power of God unto salvation," it matters not who is the instrument that may be employed, for the faith of the servants of the Most High must stand "not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." 1 Cor. ii. 5. Among the preachers of the truth there ought to be no jealousies or envyings-and among those who wait upon their ministry, no prejudices or partiality. God's glory manifested in the soul's salvation, ought to be the supreme object contemplated by all who profess to believe that they "shall stand before the judgment-seat of Christ," (Rom. iv. 10.) and " every one give account of himself to God." A dying hour is generally a trying one-and it too often happens that those who in the days of health and prosperity made light of serious things, and set their affection on the unsatisfying pleasures of a vain and sinful world-have at last found themselves bereft of every hope and consolation, and nothing remaining but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries." Heb. x. 27. MARCH 1839.

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"It

is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Heb. x. 31. And earnestly do I pray that none of you may ever experience the misery of it--but "how shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation? Heb. ii.

3.

"Who hath hardened himself against the Lord and prospered?" Job ix. 4. Your memory may fail to recollect the transgressions of years that are past-your conscience, often silenced, may now cease to alarm you by its stingsyou may now be at ease in a state of carnal security, and no more apprehend danger than the mariner dreads a sunken rock in some hitherto untraversed ocean. indeed unseen, and therefore excites no alarm, but its existence is proved by the destruction of the ship which strikes against it. "Be sure however, that sooner or later

It is

your sin will find you out.' Numbers xxxii. 23. And if this be so, it is your wisdom, your duty, and your interest to find it out, that you may not go down to the grave with "a lie in your right hand." Isai. xliv. 20. But that you may come with the burden of your guilt and lay it at the feet of him who can free you from it for ever-even Christ Jesus who though he "knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2 Cor. v. 21. It is one of the offices of the Spirit to convince of sin, to shew that it is the transgression of the law,-that it is rebellion against the God of heaven, -that it is polluting in its nature, -injurious in its influence and destructive in its effects, -and that it appears in its true features and most malignant character, when it leads men to disbelieve the glad tidings of great joy,-to "count the blood of the covenant an un