REV

REV. WILLIAM NAST, D. D.

BY CHARLES NORDHOFF.

EV. WILLIAM NAST, D. D., was born June 15, 1807, in Stuttgart, the capital of the Kingdom of Wurtemberg. He came of a good family; his father held office under the Crown, as his brother does at this time. His parents were pious, and their son William was destined for the ministry of the Lutheran Church, the Established Church of Wurtemberg. From his early youth he showed scholarly capacity, as is evident from the fact that he was not yet fourteen when he was admitted a student of the theological seminary. After four years' study there, he was prepared, and entered the University of Tübingen. He completed a philosophical course in that celebrated institution, and then voluntarily broke up his theological career, feeling a strong inclination to devote himself to general literature, in which he pursued his studies.

The well-known Ferdinand Christian Baur, the founder of the Tübingen school of theology, was his professor while at the University, and the famous infidel, Dr. Strauss, was his classmate there. The paths of these two men have been singularly divergent; while Strauss labored with temporary-and only temporary-success, to destroy the Christian faith in Germany, his classmate was the means, under God, of bringing many thousands of his German countrymen to a true knowledge of the Gospel. Dr. Strauss now looks back upon a life spent in vain endeavors to break down pure religion, and mourns great powers misapplied, and, therefore, wasted; while Dr. Nast sees on every hand around him the fruits of his beneficent and zealous labors in behalf of religion, and a whole people rise up and call him father. Dr. Strauss stands alone, in his old age, with no one's sym

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pathy to cheer him; the love and blessings of thousands are the reward of Dr. Nast's labors.

The young university-man, correct but unsettled in his religious belief, and unhappy because unsettled, came to the United States in the year 1828, when he was but just twenty-one. Here he became, for a time, tutor in the family of a wealthy Methodist, and next held the position of teacher of the German language in the United States Military Academy at West Point. Among the students here were two pious young men, whom he instructed in Greek and Hebrew, and who prepared themselves to enter the ministry. While at West Point, also, he translated into English one of Tholuck's earliest works-"Theodore; or, the Consecration of the Skeptic."

His thoughts were at this time much disturbed upon the subject of religion, the Christian faith, and the salvation of the soul. He was deeply burdened, but struggled vainly, for a long time, to reach the light. While still teaching German at West Point he made the acquaintance of Bishop M'Ilvaine, and the conversations and instructions of this excellent man caused the struggle in his heart to be still further deepened.

Finished scholars like Dr. Nast were rare in this country in that early day; an accomplished linguist and general student, such as he was and is, was quickly known and appreciated; and he received presently a call to a professorship in Kenyon College. He left West Point and tried to take up his duties at Kenyon for a while, but his agitation and intellectual struggle at this time grew to that degree that he was entirely unfitted for any pursuit in life, and he left the College, and for many months journeyed about the Western and Middle States, seeking peace for his tormented and distracted soul, and not finding it.

His struggles lasted for nearly three years.

In that dreary period, a stranger in a strange land, wandering about a new country, homeless, and, by the very condition of his mind, almost friendless, he was often reduced to despair, and sighed for death to relieve him. At last in January, 1835, light came to him. In a letter published in the Western Christian Advocate, in July, 1854, Dr. Nast gives some account of those three years which he passed in a wilderness, before he saw the Promised Land. This letter, written to the Rev. D. L. Fobes, then stationed at Gambier, the seat of Kenyon College, gives also many interesting incidents of his life in those early and sad days. For this reason we reprint it here:

CINCINNATI, July 7, 1854.

My Dear Brother,—I have just returned from a missionary tour and found your interesting communication. It brought vividly to my mind the throes of the new birth which I passed through in Gambier, and the joy that followed. I want, of course, to share in the building of your church, and will send you as much as my means will allow before long. Gladly would I make an appeal in our Church papers, but I would only be justified in doing so with reference to my former connection with the society in that place, and I think this would have the appearance of egotism; at least another could do it with much better effect than myself. I have been repeatedly requested to write out a full account of my experience, but my story is a long one; and partly on account of having all my time filled up with indispensable official duties, partly under a sense of inability to do justice to it, I have not done it as yet, and I can give you only a few prominert points.

I was awakened to a distressing, almost despairing, sense of my lost condition as a sinner, at a camp meeting held in the Tuscarawas Valley, near the Juniata, in the Fall of 1832. The enemy persuaded me, that as I had known and loved the Savior in my boyhood, and afterward denied him, there was no hope for me; that I had now received conviction of sin, not for mercy's sake but for judgment. With a faint hope that peradventure my sentence of death might be changed, I was willing to become a monument of God's sin-avenging justice if I could not become a subject of saving grace, and I desired all men to know it as a warning for their souls. I considered myself as doomed to die shortly, and was entirely unfit for any employment. I resigned, therefore, my place as a teacher in the Lutheran College at Gettysburg, and wandered about seeking rest, and finding none.

In the Spring of 1833, under the impression that the religious experience of Methodists was far too high for such a sinner as I was, I was enticed by an agent of a religious impostor by the name of Count Leon, who made a split in Rapp's colony, below Pittsburg, to go out West and join his society. I arrived there, but had light enough to see their delusion, preached to them repentance, and left them after a few days. I staid awhile in Pittsburg, and there received a very kind letter from Rev. Bishop M'Ilvaine, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, with whom I had become ac

quainted in West Point, and who had heard of my distress of mind. He invited me to come out to Gam

bier. Tossed to and fro like a vessel without rudder or compass in a storm, I set out for Gambier several times, but returned on the road. My mind at that time was not indeed in a normal state, on which ac

count I can only remember fragments of my inward and outward history in that period. I arrived finally at Gambier, and was very kindly treated by Bishop M'Ilvaine, Professor Sparrow, and Mr. Bledsoe the author of the Theodicy-and others. But they could not do any thing with me. Professor Buckingham took me once with him to Putnam, when I heard that blessed man of God, Rev. Henry S. Farnandis, of the Ohio Conference-now in heaven. His preaching was like a refreshing shower upon a parched ground. I began to hope again; went with a brother down to a farm on the Ohio River; was, however, not much benefited, and returned the next Spring to Gambier, with the purpose to get the clothes and books that I had left; but was persuaded by Mr. Bledsoe to stay, and teach a class in Hebrew, and write an exposition of the Greek verb, and live more regularly.

Frequent fastings, succeeded by hasty, imprudent eating, added to my protracted distress of mind, had entirely deranged my digestive organs. How I was induced to live more rationally, and apply my mind to regular studies, I can not tell; only so much I remember, that I commenced at the same time to use again all the means of grace in the Methodist Episcopal Church near the College, on Shonk's Creek, I believe they called it. I remember a brother Brown, a steward, brother Clayton, a class-leader, brother Powell, and above all brother John Smith, a powerful exhorter. He was an Englishman, a reformed drunkard, and a shoemaker by trade. Brother James Wilson, if I mistake not, was preacher in charge, but the appointments were mostly filled by a humble lame brother, whose name I have forgotten. I think I gave my hand and name to him when I joined. Brother Werter Davis, a student in the College, was also a member of the society. He was received into the Ohio Conference in 1835, and last Fall transferred to the Illinois Conference, to fill the Ebenezer station at St. Louis.

To brother John Smith, who is now a member of the Southern Illinois Conference, I am, under God, more indebted than to almost any other brother for finding the way of faith. I spent my evenings generally in his humble log-house. When he prayed the very heavens seemed to come down. I was often blessed and comforted, but as often gave way to my doubts and unbelief. Finally, I was placed upon the Rock of Ages in the following manner: There was a quarterly meeting in Danville, which I attended; I staid with brother Baker, a son-in-law of father Brenneman. On Sunday morning, 17th of January, 1835, he called upon me to lead in the family worship. Great as the cross was the house was full of brethren and sistersthe Lord blessed me unusually. In the evening an invitation was given to mourners to come to the altar. The presiding elder, brother Poe, made a powerful appeal. A number came to the altar, and among them I tried it once more-how often before I could not tell. I believe some ten souls were converted that evening, but with me all was darkness-I rose without benefit.

The reason of it was, I looked only on myself, not on Jesus. I had a pair of scales with me, weighed my sins, weighed my repentance, weighed my faith, weighed every thing but the infinite merits of my Savior. The meeting was dismissed, and a brother, whose name I am sorry I forget, invited me to go home with him.

I was nearly at the door, when I looked back and listened to the shouts of those new-born souls at the altar, of whom I knew several to have been a few days before wicked, ignorant, and profane sinners. In that moment the Spirit seemed to whisper in my ears, "Is there not bread enough in thy Father's house?" In that moment I seemed to lose sight of myself, and the eye of faith being suddenly opened, fixed upon the infinite fullness of Christ. I hastened away into the corner of the meeting-house, and fell down on my knees to pray once more for mercy in Jesus' name. And, glory be to God! I came now truly in Jesus' name; and as I opened my lips to pray for mercy, and to confess my sins, my prayer was turned into praise; the love of God, like a baptism of fire from heaven, was poured into my heart, and on my head, and penetrated my whole being. I arose and shouted halleluiah! glory! and was soon in the arms of my good brother Davis, the student. The next morning when I returned to College, I told every body what the Lord had done for me; and before I heard my class recite in Greek, I begged leave to tell them of the happy and wonderful change that had taken place in my mind, and asked them to kneel down and join with me in returning praise and thanksgiving to the Lord for his mercy, which, I believe, they all did.

This is but a meager sketch of a few prominent points in my experience. I ought to give a fuller account of the wonderful dealings of the Lord with my poor soul, but, as I remarked above, I have not been able to do it as yet; and I must now close this communication by merely adding, that I can not see how I could possibly have held on in seeking the Lord, had I not been thrown among the Methodist people, whose powerful means of grace, experience meetings, sympathies, and acts of faith, bore me up in my helpless state, and never tired to lay me again and again at Jesus' feet, till, at last, the blood of Christ availed even for me.

A few weeks after my conversion, the 31st of January, I received license to exhort from father A. Goff, and the 2d of July, 1835, I received license to preach from brother A. Poe, presiding elder, and was recommended by the quarterly meeting conference of Danville circuit, Wooster district, to the Ohio Annual Conference, when I was received on trial at Springfield, and appointed German missionary in the city of Cincinnati.

four hundred miles. In this year he preached nearly every day.

The third year he was sent back again to Cincinnati, and there-1837-8-formed the first German Methodist society, which consisted then of some twenty-six members. Thus was begun that great German work, which now extends over the whole free States of the Union, including Missouri, and which reached, before the rebellion began, even to the farthest corner of Texas; from that insignificant society of German laborers and their families, who met together in a small room, and were reviled and persecuted by their neighbors and friends, has grown, under the wise care and with the zealous labors of Dr. Nast, a connection numbering 23,000 members, 233 itinerant preachers, and 224 local preachers in this country, and extended now to Germany itself, where it has over 3,000 members and 24 preachers.

In the Fall of 1838 the "Christian Apologist" was authorized, and Dr. Nast appointed its editor. The first number of the little sheet appeared on the 4th of January, 1839. It has been under the charge of Dr. Nast ever since, and from an insignificant circulation it has grown till now it is a power among the Germans of the United States, and has at this time about 22,000 subscribers.

In the year 1844 the German work of the Church had grown to such proportions and assumed such importance, that Dr. Nast was ordered by the General Conference to proceed to Germany to explore a proper missionary field there, in the father-land, and to form some connection with evangelical societies and organizations there. This was the commencement of the missionary work of Methodism in Germany. In 1857 he accepted an invitation to attend the great meeting of the Evangelical Alliance, held at Berlin. There, before Christians of different denominations, and of several languages and countries, he gave a summary review of the missionary labors of the Methodist Episcopal Church among the Germans of the United States, which was afterward printed in the published proceedings of the meeting.

In the year 1852 Dr. Nast was commissioned by the General Conference to prepare a German commentary on the New Testament; on this he has labored in the hours he has been able to spare from other and more pressing duties ever since. Last year the first volume was issued in German, and in the Spring of this year an English translation was published-both by the Cincinnati Book Concern. This work has received the highest commendations from scholars