"SECONDLY. Besides habitual watching unto prayer,' every individual, if he be able, shall prostrate himself in mind and body, every Sunday and Wednesday, at five o'clock in the evening, to ask of God, in the name of Jesus Christ

"1st. That every member of this Society may be saved, with all his household, and belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.

"2d. Every member shall add to the list, all the friends of God of his acquaintance, and pray for them.

"3d. Every member shall include in his prayer all the children of God, in general, upon all the earth, of whatever religion they may be, supplicating that they may be united more and more in Christ Jesus.

"4th. Every member shall pray that the kingdom of Satan may be at length destroyed, and that the kingdom of God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, may be fully and generally established among the innumerable Pagans, Turks, Jews, and nominal Christians.

"5th. Every member shall pray for schoolmasters, superiors, and pious magistrates, of whatever name or rank they may be.

"6th. For faithful pastors, and male and female labourers in the vineyard of the Lord Jesus, who, being themselves devoted to his service, desire, above all things, to bring many other souls to him.

"7th. For the youth, that God may preserve them from the seducing influence of bad example, and lead them to the knowledge of our gracious Redeemer.

"THIRDLY. Every Saturday evening all the members shall ask God to bless the preaching of his Holy Word on the morrow."

LETTER FROM

UPON OBERLIN'S

HOUSEKEEPER

THE LATTER LETTER, ΤΑΚΕΝ FROM A GERMAN MAGAZINE PRINTED AT TUBINGEN, CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF OBERLIN AND HIS FAMILY, IN THE YEAR 1793-DEATH OF HIS ELDEST SON FREDERIC. *

ANIMATED by desires of usefulness, habitually relying on the goodness of their heavenly Father, and stimulating each other to active

*The editor regrets that she has not been able to procure any particular documents relative to Oberlin's proceedings, in the interval between the death of his wife, in 1784, and that of his son Frederic, in 1793. That his exertions for the good of his flock were, however, carried forward with unrelaxed energy, the improved appearance of the Ban de la Roche, and the extraordinary change effected amongst the young people there, during that period, bear ample testimony. Since writing the above lines, the editor has had the gratification of receiving a corroboration to her statement, from Mr. Heisch. "It was during this period," he writes, "that I mostly visited the Ban de la Roche once a year for a few weeks. I found the different intellectual, religious, and moral engines always at work, with more or less energy; and practical alterations and improvements always going forwards."

exertion in the performance of every Christian duty, Oberlin and his beloved Madeleine passed sixteen years in a union cemented by ties of the strongest affection. Their family now consisted of seven children, Frederic, Fidelité Caroline, Charles Conservé, Henry Gottfried, Louisa Charité, Henrietta, and Frederica Bienvenue, all of whom were brought up under the paternal roof.*

On the 18th of January, 1784, it pleased God that an event should take place, which had a most powerful influence both upon the cast of his mind and the whole of his future life. This was the loss of his wife. She died rather suddenly about ten weeks after her last confinement. No unfavourable symptoms, no incipient disease had prepared Oberlin for this distressing separation. When first informed of it, he was so much overpowered as to remain for some

* "I knew Oberlin," says Mr. Heisch, "as the playfellow and instructor of his children when they were young, and as their friend and counsellor when arrived at years of maturity. In the character of instructor, he so well knew how to mingle affection with earnestness, and even with severity when requisite, that his children both loved and respected him; and in that of a friend, there was an endearing tenderness that not only constituted their happiness, but formed also a constant stimulus to their exertions."

moments plunged in the deepest silence, and unable to give utterance to his feelings. At length, after this interval of melancholy stupor, he was observed suddenly to fall on his knees and return thanks to God, that the object of his tenderest solicitude was now beyond the reach or the need of prayer, and that He had crowned the abundance of his mercies towards her, by giving her so easy and gentle a dismissal. He has himself commemorated, in a written fragment, which will be inserted in a future part of this memoir, the emotions by which he was agitated in these moments of bitter suffering.

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Upon this occasion," he says, as upon a thousand others in the course of my life, notwithstanding my overwhelming affliction, I was upheld, by God's gracious assistance, in a remarkable manner."

From that time the passive graces shone as conspicuously in his character as the active virtues had hitherto done. Neither complaint nor murmur escaped his lips. It might be said that he had not ceased to live in the society of the Christian wife whom he had lost. Every day he devoted whole hours to holding com