study of his life, and, as he said, constituted his own consolation under all trials, the source of his strength, and the ruling principle of his actions:-how, then, could he do less than to recommend it to others? He was in the habit of citing very largely from it, from the conviction that the simple exposition of the Word of God was the best means of efficaciously interesting his flock. His sermons were almost always composed with the greatest care; and when unable, for want of time, to write them out at length, he made at least a tolerably full outline. In general, he committed them scru-. pulously to memory, but in the pulpit he did not confine himself to the precise words, and would indeed sometimes change the subject altogether, if he saw that another was apparently better suited to the circumstances of his auditory."

The biographer furnishes a few specimens of his discourses. One is taken from a sermon preached in Waldbach the day after the decease of his son Henry, which occurred in 1817. The text was John v. 24; the last words of which ("from death unto life!") were frequently repeated by him in his expiring moments. The style is eminently plain, but animated and eloquent. He recited the sonnet of Drelincourt:

"Le voici le beau jour, le jour tant désiré.”

Another extract is given from a sermon preached two years afterwards, when nearly eighty years old, in which he illustrates, in a very lively manner, the analogy between the changes of insects through the chrysalis state to forms of beauty and splendour, and that of the human body and soul, incorporating however some fancies which go beyond "what is written."

Besides his Sunday and catechetical schools, and prayer meetings,

"Every Friday Oberlin conducted a service in German, for the benefit of those inhabitants of the vicinity to whom that language was more familiar than the French. His congregation on a Sunday consisted, on an average, of six hundred persons, but on a Friday of two hundred; and Oberlin, laying aside all form, seemed on such occasions more like a grandfather surrounded by his children and grandchildren, to whom he was giving suitable admonition and instruction, than the minister of an extensive parish. In order that no time might be lost, he used to make his female hearers knit stockings during the service, not indeed for themselves or their families, but for their poorer neighbours, as he believed that this charitable employment need not distract their attention, nor interrupt that devotional spirit which generally pervaded the Friday evening assemblies.

When he had pursued for half an hour the train of his reflec

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tions upon the portion of scripture which he had just been reading, he would often say to them, "Well, my children, are you not tired? Have you not had enough? Tell me, my friends." To which inquiry his parishioners generally would reply, No, papa, go on ;— we should like to hear a little more,' though on some occasions, with characteristic frankness, the answer was, Assez, nous pensons, pour une fois ;' and the good old man would leave off in the midst of his discourse, or wait a little, and presently resume it, putting the same question again at intervals, until he saw that the attention of his congregation began to flag, or until they, perceiving that he spoke with less ease, would thank him for the things he had said, and beg him to conclude.

"Oberlin's tolerance," says a clergyman who visited him, "was almost unbounded. He administered the sacrament to Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists at the same time, and because they would not eat the same bread, he had, on the plate, bread of different kinds, wafer, leavened and unleavened. In every thing the same spirit appeared: and it extended not only to his Catholic, but also to his Jewish neighbours, and made him many friends among them all.”

He was in the habit of addressing circulars and addresses to his parishioners, either on such topics as were not appropriate to the pulpit, or making direct appeals to their consciences in regard to particular duties. This was sometimes done in the form of questions, to which they were expected to return exact answers. He was regular in his pastoral visits, and kept private memoranda of the moral and spiritual state of individuals, that he might be better able to adapt his conversation and preaching to their wants.

The infirmities of age at length made their inroads on the frame of the good father, and he was obliged to surrender the active duties of the charge to Mr Graff, his son-in-law. In his retirement he employed himself in unremitting prayers for his flock, and that no one might be omitted, he used in the morning to take the baptismal register, and at stated intervals pray separately for each there recorded, as well as for the community at large. Several essays, found after his decease, are supposed to have been written at this period: amongst which was a refutation of Cicero "De Senectute." On Sunday, the 28th May 1826, he was seized with his fatal illness. The symptoms were so violent, that he had but little opportunity of expressing the feelings of his heart in the prospect of dissolution. He was often heard to exclaim, "Lord Jesus, take me speedily! nevertheless, thy will be done!" After he had lost the use of his speech, and his extremities had become lifeless, he recovered strength enough to remove his cap, join his hands,

and raise his eyes to heaven, his countenance beaming with faith, joy and love." He died on the 1st of June. We must leave untouched the pathetic recital of the sensation created by this event, of his interment, and a more particular view of his character and talents. The following is his own estimation of himself:

"A strange compound of contradictory qualities. I do not yet exactly know what I am to make of myself. I am intelligent, and yet possessed of very limited powers: prudent and more politic than my fellow-clergymen ; but also very apt to blunder, especially when in the least excited. I am firm, yet of a yielding disposition; and both of these, in certain cases, to a great degree. I am not only daring, but actually courageous; whilst, at the same time, I am often in secret very cowardly. I am very upright and sincere, yet also very complaisant to men, and in a degree, therefore, insincere. I am a German and a Frenchman; noble, generous, ready to render service, faithful, very grateful, deeply affected by the least benefit or kindness, which is ever after engraven on my heart; and yet again flighty and indifferent. I am irritable to a formidable degree. He who treats me generously soon gains the ascendency over me; but opposition creates in me an astonishing degree of firmness, especially in matters of conscience. I have a lively imagination, but no memory, properly speaking. The histories which I have taken pains to impress on my mind remain with me, but dates and the names of persons I often forget the next day, notwithstanding all the pains I have taken to remember them. I used to speak Latin fluently and even elegantly, but now I cannot utter three or four words together. I make selections from books, and instruct others in some branch of science for a long time; but a few years after, my scholars, even if they know nothing more than what I taught them, may in their turn become my teachers, and the books from which I made extracts (with the exception of those of a certain description) appear wholly

new to me.

"I habitually work my way through my studies till I obtain clear ideas; but if I wish to penetrate deeper, every thing vanishes before me. I have a great talent for removing difficulties in order to render every thing smooth and easy to myself, and to every body else. I am so extremely sensitive, tender, and compassionate, that I can find neither words nor expressions corresponding to my feelings, so that the latter almost overpower me, and occasion me acute pain. I am always busy and industrious, but also fond of ease and indolence. I am generally quick in resolving, and equally so in executing. I have a peculiar esteem for the female sex. I am a very great admirer of painting, music, and poetry, and yet I have no skill in any of them. Mechanics, natural history, and so forth, constitute

my favourite studies. I am very fond of regularity, and of arranging and classifying, but my weak memory, added to constant employment, renders it difficult to me. I am given to planning and scheming, and yet endeavour, in my peculiar way, to do things in the best manner.

"I am a genuine soldier, but I was more so before my bodily powers were so much weakened; I was formerly anxious to be the foremost in danger, and the firmest in pain, but have now lost that desire. From my childhood I have felt a longing and preponderating desire for a higher state of existence, and therefore a wish for death. I am the greatest admirer of military order and subordination, not however in a spirit of slavery, but of that noble affectionate attachment which compels the coward to show courage, and the disorderly to be punctual. I feel no obstinacy or disinclination to yield to strong internal conviction, but on the other hand a fervent heart-felt joy in yielding to both great and small, high and low, gentlemen and peasants, children and servants, and thence a willingness to listen and an inclination to suffer myself, if possible, to be convinced. But when I feel no conviction I can never think of yielding. I am humorous, and a little witty or satirical, but without intentional malice."

The little work which we have named in the second place, at the head of this article, is a comprehensive abridgment of the various accounts which have heen given in France and England of this distinguished man. Much judgment is manifested in the selection and arrangement of facts, and the reader will find in its contents all the leading events and prominent characteristics of its revered subject. Being primarily designed for the Sunday School Library, it combines brevity and perspicuity with chasteness and propriety of style and diction. It is compendious, simple and unornamented. We have seldom laid down a briographical memoir with more lively sentiments of interest and surprise. A more forcible exemplification could not be presented of the power with which the exertions of a single benevolent individual are invested. It is truly observed of Oberlin by the compiler, "that he seems to have been led by moral instinct, to originate, in his secluded parish, all the great plans of modern religious enterprise, which many years and many minds have slowly brought into existence in more favoured parts of Chistendom."

It is our hearty desire, that the American Sunday School Union may receive ample encouragement in the laudable undertaking of diffusing such works, from able pens, through our whole community.

REVIEW.

1. An Address delivered at Bloomington, October 29, 1829. By the Rev. Andrew Wylie, D.D., on the occasion of his Inauguration as President of Indiana College. Published by order of the Board of Trustees. Indianapolis. Pp. 30.

2. A Discourse on Education.

Delivered before the Le

gislature of the State of Indiana, at the request of the Joint Committee on Education. By A. Wylie. Published in pursuance of a vote of the House of Representatives, Jan. 17, 1830. Pp. 23.

In these discourses we have not observed any remarkable novelties in the theory of education; but what is unquestionably far more valuable, a condensation of clear, just, and practical remarks and arguments, upon the liberal culture of youth, adapted to the western meridian. The population of Indiana has increased with astonishing rapidity since the report of the last census, and it is gratifying to learn that the appropriations of the state legislature have borne some fair proportion to the rising greatness of the people, and the consequent demand for instruction. They may congratulate themselves upon having obtained for their literary institution a gentleman well qualified, if we may judge from these productions, to guide their youth in the safe path of tried and sober discipline. We have heard enough of newly discovered and compendious methods of acquiring knowledge. Greatly as the field of science may be enlarged, and widely diffused as the experiments in communicating its fruits may be, education itself abides the same. Knowledge is the same in its general aspect, and in its relations to the mind of man, which is also unaltered. The royal way to learning has not yet been discovered.

The scope and argument of the Inaugural Address may be expressed in the language of the introductory sentence: "Of what advantage is a college to the community?" A grave and interesting question in any country, but above all in a newly-settled state, where the forming hand of academic institutions must mould the future destinies of the commonwealth. The subject is treated in a manner worthy of the