place found for him. To the first of these principles the school owes much of its effect; to the other the society (the most efficient that has ever yet been established) no small part of the mighty influence which it has exercised for evil and for good. In the world there are so many disturbing causes, that he who finds his level, may, if he has to rise to it, be deemed fortunate indeed; and still more so if the place for which he is best fitted (in whatever station) be found for him. Both the subject and the author of the interesting volume which is now before us have been thus fortunate. The pastor of the High Alps could nowhere have employed his ardent zeal with more exemplary effect than among the forlorn mountaineers, to whom he devoted, and indeed sacrificed, his life. And when his biographer was rewarded for his benevolent exertions in behalf of the Vaudois with a stall at Durham, that well-bestowed preferment gave him facilities for pursuing his favourite subject of research, and enabled him to become more extensively useful. How,' says Mr. Gilly, in his Introduc

tion

'How came the author acquainted with scenes and people, whose history he alleges to be of moment to society at large, but whose names are perfectly new to us? How has he had access to records, which we did not know to be in existence? I hope to answer these inquiries satisfactorily-and to show that those who have extended their rambles to some of the obscurest corners of civilized Europe, or who have been poring over the most neglected, dull, and wearisome pages of writers and chroniclers of days long since, may bring facts to light which had escaped notice, and may illustrate some of the most important subjects in history.

It has been my good fortune to have had opportunities of examining the treasures of ecclesiastical history, in libraries rich in such stores; and the more I have read, the more I have felt convinced that the secluded glens of Piedmont are not the only retreats, where THE DESCENDANTS OF PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS may be found. Under this term I mean to speak of persons who have inherited a Christianity, which the Church of Rome has not transmitted to them, and who, from father to son, have essentially preserved the mode of faith, and the form of discipline, which were received when the Gospel was first planted in their land. I have discovered ample reason to believe, that there is scarcely a mountain region in our quarter of the globe which is poor, and uninviting, and difficult of access, where the primitive faith, as it was preached by the earliest messengers of the truth, did not linger for many ages, after the Romish hierarchy had established itself in the richer countries, and in the plains; and moreover, that there are still many mountain districts, where the population has continued Christian, from generation to generation, to the present hour; Christian, in nonconformity with the church usurping the appellation Catholic. It was their obscurity and non-intercourse with the world,

during the period of almost general submission to the Romish yoke, which preserved them from corruption.'-p. 1-3.

The first account which Mr. Gilly received concerning Felix Neff was from the Rev. Francis Cunningham, to whom the Protestant cause owes much ;' and to whom English readers are much indebted for having been greatly instrumental' in making them acquainted with the life of Oberlin. What Mr. Gilly first learnt from him was this,-that a young clergyman was then toiling among a people in Dauphiné, so poor, that they had no means of providing salaries for ministers or schoolmasters; and so little favoured by nature, that for seven months out of twelve, their land lay buried in snow.' He afterwards received from the same quarter, a paper drawn up by Neff himself, describing the nature of his charge, and some of the difficulties he had to encounter. As he was about to make a second journey to the Vaudois, this induced him to visit the scene of Neff's labours on the way. Neff had gone to his reward a few months before this intention was carried into effect; but from all that Mr. Gilly saw and heard of the effect of his ministry, he judged that a memoir of his short, but extraordinary, career, would not be an uninteresting addition to the Christian records of the age in which we live. Neff's own journals were afterwards communicated to him by Miss Mary Elliott, of Westfield Lodge; and if, he says, 'I had been put in possession of all the circumstances relating to these papers, I believe I should have had to state that many of Neff's noble projects could not have been carried into effect, but for the benevolent friend in England to whom his journals were consigned.' The information relating to his early life and to his death was obtained from a brief biographical Notice published at Geneva. From these materials, with the advantage of having made himself acquainted with every hamlet within Neff's extensive charge, and of his own fresh impressions made upon the spot, Mr. Gilly has composed the present volume-a volume as honourable to himself as it may be instructive and useful to others.

Felix Neff was born in 1798, and brought up by his widowed mother in a village near Geneva. Like many other excellent men he owed his first strong impressions to the effect produced by maternal vigilance, and to lessons taught by female lips.' She laid the foundation, and the village pastor instructed him in Latin, history, geography, and botany. Of the few books within his reach, Plutarch's Lives, and some of the unobjectionable volumes of Rousseau, are said to have been his favourites; the former because they filled his mind with the exploits of great men ; the latter because they encouraged the delight which natural scenery, whether beautiful or grand, excited in him. His boyish

aspirations

aspirations were for military fame, or for scientific research. When it was time for him to enter upon some way of life in which he could earn a subsistence, he engaged himself to a nursery-man and floristgardener; and at the age of sixteen published a little treatise on the culture of trees, which was much praised for its arrangement, its accuracy, and the habit of careful observation that it evinced. At seventeen, however, he entered as a private into the military service of Geneva, and exchanged the quiet and humble walk of the florist's garden for the bustle of the garrison.' Two years afterwards he was promoted to the rank of serjeant of artillery; and having obtained notice by his knowledge of mathematics, he made that science his study during his continuance in the army. That continuance was not long. But this second change of pursuit was occasioned by no fickleness or infirmity of purpose. It is said that his officers were jealous of the influence which he obtained over his comrades; that he was too religious for them, and that they wished him out of the service;-the serious turn of his mind in fact became so marked, that he was advised to quit it, and to prepare himself for holy orders.

Accordingly he quitted the army, and placed himself under proper instruction, after due deliberation and frequent prayer. That he might the better mark, learn, and inwardly digest' the scriptures, he made a concordance for himself, and filled the margins of several Bibles with notes. 'Some of these are still in possession of his friends, and are consulted as the voice of one who being dead yet speaketh.' His powers of acquirement and his aptitude for abstracted study were remarkable, and his conversation not less so; it was prompt, easy, and agreeable, but always to the point, in short sentences, and in few words.

A good practice which obtained in the primitive churchesand of which we find some traces in the ecclesiastical establishment of Scotland-is in use among the Protestants of France and Switzerland. The theological student, after certain examinations, is received as a Proposant by those who exercise the pastoral office, and employed as a lay-helper, or catechist, in their parishes. He is not permitted to perform services which are strictly sacerdotal, but to instruct the young, visit the sick, and, at the discretion of the pastor to preach from the pulpit. He is acting under the eye of an experienced minister; he has an example and a teacher before him to regulate his actions and opinions; he is trying his own strength, and feeling his way, and assuring himself of his preference and fitness for the sacred work, before the irrevocable step is taken. It is not too late to retire if he finds himself, in any degree, unequal to the arduous charge.' We entirely agree with Mr. Gilly and with Dr. Adams, whom he has quoted

on

on this subject, that such a system of probationary exercise might most advantageously be introduced in our own establishment. It is greatly required; and the church would thus obtain an accession of labourers, which it much needs.

In this capacity Neff was employed during three years in the neighbourhood of Geneva, and in the cantons of Neufchatel, Berne, and the Pays de Vaud;-in the latter at a trying time, when religious controversy was carried on, as it usually is, in a most irreligious spirit. There was no bitterness in Neff's nature; he saw that there was too little zeal on the one side-too little faith-perhaps too little sincerity; but that on the other, with which he was otherwise in union, there was a want of discretion and of charity. The Lord,' said he, has opened a wide door for the preaching of the gospel in this canton, which will not soon be shut, provided that the preachers conduct themselves with prudence, and are cautious not to agitate any question which is of secondary importance only, and which, without being directly necessary to salvation, may excite suspicion that some schism is intended.' Were all of his profession to feel and think thus, and to act accordingly, there would soon be no sects in the Christian world, except such as were purely fanatical or purely factious.

When he was in his twenty-fourth year he was invited, still in the same capacity, into France, to Grenoble ; and after six months tarriance there, to Mens, in the department of the Isere, there to supply, as far as that capacity admitted, the place of an absent pastor. Here he had many difficulties to contend with: He was a stranger, and an object of suspicion to the local authorities; his office and functions were but ill defined; and he had to acquire the patois of the people, which is widely different from the French: worse than all, a cold and heartless Christianity prevailed among them, in consequence of that rage for controversy which made them think more of other people's spiritual condition than of their own.' To counteract the dispiriting tendency of these circumstances, there was that incessant employment for which his soul thirsted. There were in that department about eight thousand Protestants, scattered over a surface of about eighty miles square, with only three regular pastors to look after them, and of these one was now absent. Nothing but an iron frame could enable Neff to go through the toil which his reputation soon imposed upon him ;— perhaps he trusted to it too confidently, and exacted from it too much. But it rather seems that he had not an iron frame to begin with: With respect to my health,' he says, at this time, it is much stronger since I have been constantly on the move, and making long excursions, although many of them are very fatiguing; for it often happens that I go several leagues, and perform as many

E 2

many as four or five services in one day, especially on Sundays. I have not unfrequently been thus engaged from five o'clock in the morning till eleven at night, and all this without any cough, or ailment of the stomach. I have recovered my appetite, and can drink wine at my meals without any inconvenience.' It is apparent, therefore, that his constitution was not strong, and that the form of that malady which at no distant time destroyed him had already shown itself. But he had devoted himself to his calling, with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength; and his inclination entirely accorded with his duty. A sedentary or a fixed life,' said he, has no pleasures for me; I should not like to be constantly labouring in one place; I would infinitely rather lead the wandering life of a missionary.' This is not a healthy state of mind for civilized man; but it fitted Neff for his work. And thus,' says his biographer, among the diversities of gifts, and among the differences of administration by which the manifestation of the Spirit is granted for man's profit withal, the Almighty was pleased to raise up a teacher for the natives of the French Alps, whose habits and tastes exactly suited the wants of a people who had not the benefit of a sufficient supply of resident pastors.' One of the districts, which he visited with the greatest personal satisfaction to himself, was that of Vizille. Its situation, on the banks of the Romanche, one of the wildest mountain torrents in France, with lofty mountains encircling it on all sides, had great attractions for him. The place, too, where his little flock was folded, had charms of a peculiar nature for his turn of mind. It was a large hall in the Gothic castle of the family of Lesdiguières. The celebrated constable of France, of that name, was the champion of the Huguenot cause in his youth, but apostatized from it in old age, when ambition and cold worldly calculation got the better of the more generous feel. ings of his earlier days. The present possessor of the castle, actuated by a better spirit, lent his fine baronial hall as a place of worship to the Protestants; and the congregations which gathered round Neff were so attentive to his lessons of piety, that he always spoke of Vizille as his "dear Vizille."—pp. 56, 57.

An interesting passage occurs in one of his letters written at this time:

I was lately accosted by several peasant women, one of whom begged me to give her a copy of the prayer, which I had delivered on the previous Sunday, before my sermon. I asked her name and resi

dence, and told her to come to me on the following Sunday. She kept to her appointment, and I then gave her the prayer, and with it a little tract containing the parable of the ten virgins. These interviews made me desirous of knowing more of her, and I proposed to accompany her some day to her own village. Yesterday Elizabeth and I set out together for her parents' cottage, and as we walked along, she told

me