Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

Jean Frédéric

-JOHN FREDERIC OBERLIN,

PASTOR OF WALDBACH,

IN THE BAN DE LA ROCHE.

COMPILED FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES, CHIEFLY FRENCH
AND GERMAN.

His "record is on high."--Job xvi. 19.

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION,

WITH A DEDICATION AND TRANSLATIONS.

BY THE REV. LUTHER HALSEY,

PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE WESTERN THEOL. SEMINARY.

Pittsburgh:

PUBLISHED BY LUKE LOOMIS & CO.

CORNER OF FOURTH AND WOOD STREETS.

Ger 11405.9.3

1852, Sept: 18
fr of the

Sdifphor The Logic
Shirogia.

Educk 6280.163.40
Educ 562-8179.3

WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit:

*******

*

*

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-third L.S.* day of October, in the fifty-fifth year of the Indepen******* dence of the United States of America, A. D. 1830, LUKE LOOMIS & Co. of the said District, have deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof they claim as Proprietors, in the words following, to wit:

"Memoirs of John Frederic Oberlin, Pastor of Walbach, in the Ban de la Roche. Compiled from Authentic Documents, chiefly in French and German. His "record is on high."-Job xvi. 19. First American Edition. With a Dedication and Translations. By the Rev. Luther Halsey, Professor of Theology in the Western Theol. Seminary."

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned," And also to the Act entitled, "An Act supplementary to an Act entitled 'An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

E. J. ROBERTS, Clerk of the

Western District of Pennsylvania.

[Note. In the London edition of these Memoirs, most of the addresses, sermons, hymns, &c. are given in the French language, and some of them thrown into an Appendix. In this edition, they are translated, and brought into their proper places in the body of the work.]

STEREOTYPED BY J. HOWE, PHILADA.

DEDICATION.

TO MY YOUNGER BRETHREN IN THE MINISTRY OF THE GOSPEL.

I COULD wish that we might ever set up as our model, the ministerial character of our blessed Lord and the Apostles. The more closely these are studied and copied, the more perfect and effective will be our ministry. Yet, when their history is read, as there was so much that was peculiar and extraordinary, we are not enough inclined to contemplate them as models for present ministerial character. But when a successful pastor of modern times is exhibited, we feel that we are contemplating “a man of like passions with ourselves," whose example is imitable-that, in like circumstances, what he has done, we may accomplish. This disposition to admit the claims of modern examples, has induced me to desire that the Memoirs of Pastor OBERLIN should be republished, and thus find their way to the study and heart of American pastors. One thing, belonging to these memoirs, is adapted to render them signally useful beyond most other pieces of clerical biography. While in their subjects there is often a splendor of genius, a fortunate combination of circumstances, or some peculiarity in the direc tion of Christian exertion, which, not belonging to us, therefore discourages or forbids competition-we feel that we are not fairly matched by nature or circumstances, and are excused from similar success. But the subject of this memoir is one that comes down to "the business and bosom" of every pastor. Here we see no peculiar grandeur of intellect or acquirement-no proppings of unusual circumstance to sustain him; but a pious, kumble, unattended pastor, with whose intellect and attainments we feel some fellowship, entering on a field, as humble, as arduous, as unpromising as ours; yet, in the

« EelmineJätka »