FRIENDS OF BIBLE RELIGION. The citizens of New-York, who, as good Protestants, deem it their duty to make every effort to promote Bible Religion, convened lately in great numbers, to devise and adopt measures, to carry into effect the resolution of the American Sunday School Union, "That the American Sunday School Union, in reliance upon Divine aid, will, within two years, establish a Sunday School in every destitute place, where it is practicable, throughout the valley of the Mississippi." Chancellor Walworth and several Reverend Gentlemen offered some very appropriate remarks on the importance of the grand object. It appears that upwards of 20,000 dollars have already been subscribed, and it is said that 10,000 more can be raised with greater case, than to abandon the project. One individual subscribed for himself, 4000 dollars.-Editor. The Chief Magistrate of the United States of America, passed through Frederick on Friday the 18th of June, to spend a few months at his farm in Tennessee. LOTTERY RICHES HAVE WINGS.-Mr. Bodine, of this County, says the Newburgh Gazette, of the 5th inst. was robbed of his pocket book, containing $575, while he was asleep, on board the steam boat Albany, on her passage up yesterday. "Mr. B. who was the lucky holder of a prize ticket in one of the lotteries lately drawn, had been to New-York to receive his prize money, and was taking a comfortable snooze, when some still luckier fellow, (so far,) took the liberty to cut open his pocket, and draw the money over again without the ceremony of buying a ticket." MUSTARD SEED.-The common white and brown Mustard seed, which grows with very little cultivation, and is easily gathered and cleaned by those who have clean floors for threshing wheat and flax seed, will always bring from three to four dollars per bushel, being in great demand for medical and culinary purposes. An acre of good land will produce from 15 to 20 bushels. The principal reason why the preference has been hitherto given to the European seed, is the superior maner in which it has been cleaned.-N. E. Farmer. Mr. Calvin E. Stowe, lately an assistant teacher at the Theological Seminary in Andover, succeeds Rev. Mr. Rand, as junior editor of the Boston Recorder and Telegraph. Mr. Rand will hereafter edit the Education Reporter. INTELLIGENCER. The Bible our rule of faith!-The right of private judgment our privilege.` VOL. V.J AUGUST, 1830. [No. 6. PASTOR OBERLIN. The great advantages resulting from infant schools, have been witnessed in several cities of the United States, and we are certain, they will increase, until they shall be established in all our towns and villages. Not only, are the little plants less liable to accidents, which frequently befall those, that are entrusted to young and inexperienced nurses, but the mind as soon as it acts, is properly modelled, and directed to such objects, as will render the rising generation more virtuous, more useful and happier than those generally have been, who were for years permitted, to follow the unrestrained desires and propensities of the heart. In our opinion, that children ought to be taught and directed as soon as they can articulate, we are not now singular, for many have been convinced of the propriety and necessity of some plan to cultivate the mind at an early day, although they formerly believed, that children should be permitted to stroll about, at their pleasure, for the first six or eight years. It is with great pleasure, that we record a notice of a Divine of our Church, to whom the christian world is indebted for inventing the plan of Infant schools. We extract it from the Saturday Morning Journal.—Editor. Infant Schools owe their origin to an obscure Lutheran minister in a half-savage corner of France-the Ban de la Roche, or Steinthal. The merits of their remarkable founder were buried in the remoteness and insignificance of his little parish, and it seems as if by mere accident the intelligence of his existence had been discover ed. We allude to John Frederic Oberlin, Pastor of Waldbach Vol. V No. 6. 12 whose life was published in London last year, edited by a benevolent female, and which, whilst scores of pernicious English works have been reprinted with disgraceful haste, remains not only unpublished, but so far as we remember, unnoticed in this country. The District of the Ban contains about 9,000 acres and when discovered, had probably less than two hundred families, scarcely civilized. A barrier of mountains sccluded them from common intercourse with the neighbouring provinces, and they hardly tilled the ground. The first effort to improve their condition was made by a German Lutheran minister, named Stouber. Upon coming iuto the district, he indeed found what were called Schools, but the instructor of the first he entered, was a superannuated swineherd, too decrepid to leave his bed; and the rest were shepherds who imparted their scanty knowledge to the children in the winter months. Many of the teachers could not read with any fluency, and few made pretensions to the art of writing. Stouber's first effort was to procure better teachers, and in order to encourage the more informed class of the inhabitants to undertake the task, abolished the name of schoolmaster, to which there was a decided aversion on the part of the recluse aristocracy, and substituted that of regents, or superintendents, under which title some consented to co-operate with him. By his exertions aided by donations from the German border, he provided books and a school house. Some opposition was made by the peasants to the system of instruction, from the dread that some occult mystery was concealed beneath the unconnected syllables of the spelling lessons.' The progress of the bolder spirits, however, so effectually overcame this objection, that in a short time an adult school was established, which was taught on part of Sundays, and in the evenings of win ter. The Bible was only known to the people by report. Stouber procured fifty copies, each of which he divided into three parts, for the purpose of more general distribution. Aided by the simplicity of his weekly sermons and private instruction, they soon were enabled to read with pleasure and understanding. In these employments the indefatigable minister spent seventeen years of disinterested labour, when he was called to a church at Strasburg. Anxious to provide a successor who would follow up his plans, he prevailed upon Oberlin, a native of Strasburg to succeed him ; who, with his wife, undertook the charge in 1767, in the 27th year of his age, residing at the parsonagehouse, left by Stouber at the village of Waldbach. Oberlin projected more extensive plans than his predecessor had attempted. His first effort was to persuade his parishioners to open a passable road, by which their territory might be reached, and the means of communication with the more civilized districts increased. The proposal was listened to with astonishment and incredulity; but when the worthy pastor took up a pick-axe and set laboriously to work himself, he was soon joined by his people. He continued to direct and share their labours, until in 1770 a communication was opened with Strasburg, and a bridge thrown over the intervening river. He introduced trades, by selecting from the elder boys the best qualified, and apprenticing them to mechanics at Strasburg. The dwellings of the peasants were wretched cabins hewn out of the rocks, or sunk in the mountains: Oberlin caused them to build comfortable cottages. He taught them agriculture, and the method of raising fruit-trees, which made a magical change in the barren appearance of the county, and he finally established an agricultural society. Oberlin directed his principal efforts, however, to the education of the youth. In the course of a few years he procured the erection of a school house in each of the five villages, into which his parish was divided. "During the construction of these buildings," says his biographer, "the preparation of masters continued; but as Oberlin had observed with concern, the disadvantages to which the younger children were subjected, whilst their elder brothers and sisters were at school, and their parents busily engaged in their daily avocations, he laid down a plan for the introduction of infant schools also." He therefore, in conjunction with his wife appointed a conductress for each village. Instruction and amusement were blended. Two women were employed in each school, one in directing manual tasks, the other in instructing and entertaining the children, who were from two to seven years old. When weary of sewing or knitting, the conductress would exhibit and explain to them, pictures relating to scripture-subjects, natural history, and maps. She would also instruct them to sing moral songs and hymns, taking care to prevent the use of the barbarous patois, which was their vernacular tongue. Thus trained, the children in due course entered the higher schools, in which a more elevated course of instruction was pursued. Every Sunday the children of each village assembled in rotation at the church, to sing the hymns and recite the religious lessons they had learned during the week, and to receive the exhortations of the good Pastor or dear Papa, as they called him. Besides this meeting, all the scholars were assembled weekly at Waldbach, where they were examined by Oberlin. His friends at Strasburg subscribed liberally to aid his schools, and he was thus enabled to establish a circulating library for their use, to print a number of elementary works exclusively for them, and to procure some philosophical and mathematical instruments. Prizes were awarded to, masters and scholars, to stimulate them respectively to diligent, exertion. He prepared an almanac, filled with useful instruction and advice. He taught his pupils botany, and to daw flowers from nature. Every child, at a certain period, was required to plant two young trees, to impress early upon their minds the duty of contributing to the general prosperity. ་ We cannot follow the detailsof his patriarchal life: it was one scene of active benevolence and zealous piety. At one time he was so deeply impressed with a sense of the religious wants of America, that he determined to emigrate to Pennsylvania, à design which was frustrated by the revolutionary war. As the population of the Ban increased, Oberlin introduced cotton spinning and weaving. The thriving settlement attracted much attention, and in 1818 the Royal Agricultural Society of Paris presented Oberlin with a gold medal, in testimony of their sense of his services to mankind, and especially in the science of agriculture. The decoration of the Legion of Honour was awarded him by Louis XVIII. He was visited by several travellers from England, who expressed the utmost gratification and astonishment at the good order and happiness. which prevailed. Oberlin died in June, 1829, aged eighty-six. The Memoirs before us are of a cast which must captivate every reader. All that Utopians have dreamed of, seems to have been realized by the community, whose history is identified with the life of the Pastor Oberlin. ALL MEN CAN BE SAVED! Yes, God is just and true, benevolent and gracious. Whatever is said, to the contrary, we consider nothing less than vile asper sions, against the character of Jehovah.-He With ceaseless, unexhausted love Unmerited and free Delights, our evil to remove And help our misery. When God created man, he created him a pure, holy and intel ligent being, and, to be happy, he made him free. But alas, he soon abused his liberty, and plucked the forbidden fruit. Awful was the result, for Earth felt the wound, and nature from her seat Sighing through all her works gave signs of woe, That all was lost! The penalty was death, not temporal merely, but eternal, for the crime was committed against an eternal Being. Now by the offence of one, judgement (condemnation) came upon all men-the nature of man became diseased, and naturally all his posterity, inherits the disease. The soul, enfeebled and diseased, could no longer act, as it did before the fall of man, and hence the doctrine, that the nature of every man, that cometh into the world, is depraved and cor rupt. To change this state of things, required the interference of a God, and praised be his name, he did interfere. He was under no obli |