Memoirs of John Frederic Oberlin

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: text in his sermons; this, however, is not surprising, as he himself had not possessed a Bible for upwards of twenty years. No sooner, however, had Stouber placed these Bibles in the schools, with permission to the pupils to carry them- home, than the Scriptures began to be read in their differentyamiZies....
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: text in his sermons; this, however, is not surprising, as he himself had not possessed a Bible for upwards of twenty years. No sooner, however, had Stouber placed these Bibles in the schools, with permission to the pupils to carry them- home, than the Scriptures began to be read in their differentyamiZies. Some of them even found their way to the Roman Catholic villages in the vicinity. The priests, it is true, strictly forbade their perusal, but this prohibition only served, in many instances, as an additional stimulus to the inquirer after truth. The people secretly procured them for themselves, and sometimes, considering their poverty, at a very high price. I might, indeed, mention many anecdotes of the eager delight with which this new and precious privilege was embraced, but it is sufficient to say that the desire of possessing it continually increased, and that the diffusion of Spiritual instruction, both in the Ban de la Roche and its environs, was beginning to be attended with the most cheering results. A blessing also attended Stouber's discourses in the pulpit, for they were admirably adapted to the capacity and situation of his hearers. He endeavored in the simplest language to lead their minds to a knowledge of the happiness enjoyed by the people of God, and the means of attaining that happiness; and to convince them that, notwithstanding the poverty of their external circumstances, the Almighty would protect and bless them if they earnestlysought to do his will. He then brought them to consider the all-important doctrines of the Cross, that we can only be regenerated by the influence of the Holy Spirit, and that we must rely solely upon the Lord Jesus Christ for pardon and redemption. In 1776, when he had resided about six years at Waldbach, he was appointed pastor to...