TRIUMPHS OF THE GOSPEL IN GERMANY AND THE

ADJACENT COUNTRIES,

AN APPEAL BY THE REV. J. G. ONCKEN.

BRITISH Christians, accustomed to regard Germany as the "land of the Reformation," and to pronounce with reverence the names of Luther and his noble band of coadjutors, are generally but very slightly acquainted with the true state of the country, at the present time, in a religious point of view. No man can have a greater respect and admiration for the great reformers than I have, or can look back with more gratitude to our glorious Reformation. But great and glorious as it was, it did not go far enough: the Reformation stopped too soon; and the Reformers, instead of leaving open to their successors the course of enquiry and investigation which they had commenced, stereotyped for future generations their own views of truth; and Luther's Catechism and the Augsburg Confession of Faith have been, from that day to this, the creed to which every orthodox German must subscribe, and from which none can differ without entailing on themselves the charge of heresy and schism, and the certain risk of severe and relentless persecution. The path of progress was closed and a retrograde movement rapidly set in. By degrees the followers of the reformers ceased to study the word of God for themselves, with a sincere desire and determination, in humble dependance on His Holy Spirit, to follow in all things its dictates; and soon the great doctrine of man's utter depravity, and the only way of salvation, by faith in the Son of God, which had been so clearly set forth by the reformers, became obscured. The letter of the Protestant faith was preserved, but its spirit was gone. Man's reason called in question the truth of God; and at the close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, the whole country was sunk in the deepest rationalism and scepticism; scarcely a voice was heard from the pulpits of the land giving a faithful testimony of the divinity of Christ, the efficacy of His blood and righteousness, the personality of the Holy Spirit, and everlasting punishment.

The Bible has never obtained in Germany its position as the only unerring guide in matters of religion; it has never become a family book, a book for the people. Its place has been supplied by the works of the Reformers and other fallible men; in the schools, Luther's Catechism has been the standard book, and even in the religious families, devotional works have always held that position which should be given only to the word of God. These works contain much real evangelical truth, but are all more or less impregnated with the errors retained in the Lutheran Church. In the Catechism, the doctrines of baptismal regeneration, consubstantiation, the duty of confession, and the power of the clergy in virtue of their office to forgive sins in God's stead, and as Christ's representatives on earth, are clearly taught; the second commandment is obliterated from the Decalogue, and the fourth given as corrupted by the Church of Rome.

In the midst of this darkness, superstition, and terror, I was brought up. I was baptized in infancy in the Lutheran Church, and my religious education was confided to the care of two pastors, both of whom were not only utterly irreligious, but immoral men, and habitual drunkards; I received

from them the usual preparatory instruction, and was confirmed and admitted as a communicant at the Lord's table. But God had purposes of mercy towards me, and He led me in His providence to England, the land of the Bible and of religious liberty; there I first heard the gospel, and in the streets of your great metropolis I sought the Lord with tears till I found, by simple faith in the Saviour, the peace of God which passeth all understanding. Then my most ardent desire was that God, in His great mercy, would open a way for me to return to my native land, and preach to my beloved fellow-countrymen the unsearchable riches of Christ. This was granted to me in 1823, when I was sent out, as a missionary to Hamburg, by the Continental Society, of which Rev. Isaac Saunders, Rector of Blackfriars, was the Secretary.

The beginning was very feeble and insignificant, but the blessing of Him who despiseth not the day of small things was with it. At the first meeting, held in my own room, ten persons came out of curiosity to hear the " new English religion ;" and to them, after reading Isaiah lv, I spoke from verse 1, on the blessings offered in the Gospel, and the freedom of them. With a trembling hand the seed was scattered by the warm-hearted but inexperienced youth; but it was watered by the divine blessing; and, out of that little company, one poor sinner was savingly converted to God. The number of my hearers rapidly increased, one after another was pricked to the heart, and led to ask the only question which is of any vital importance to perishing sinners: "What must I do to be saved?"

But, as Luther says, "wherever the gospel comes it creates a sensation." No sooner did it become known in Hamburg that "conventicle meetings" were held, than the fact was told to the clergy; and they immediately called in the aid of the civil authorities to put us down. Then commenced a system of espionage, annoyance, and persecution; of threats, fines, confiscations, imprisonment, and banishment, which lasted for twenty years. But the work was of God, and man could not stay it. I soon had forty places in the city at which I was welcomed to preach the glad tidings of salvation; and, by constantly changing the place of my meeting, I generally succeeded in avoiding my enemies. Notwithstanding all their efforts, the work has gone on, and the Lord has crowned it with success: millions have heard the word of life, the people sitting in darkness have seen the light of truth, and many thousands have believed to the saving of their souls.

In the year 1829, having become convinced, from the study of the scriptures, (for I was entirely unacquainted with the sentiments of the Baptists), of the truth of believers' baptism, and the nature of a christian church, I relinquished my connection with the Continental Society, and became an agent of the Edinburgh Bible Society. Being then at liberty to carry out my own views, I and a few of the converts who had also seen the same truth, only waited for some one who, having himself followed the Lord in His ordinances, should be qualified to baptize us, and form us into a church. But for this we had to wait five long years, though we applied both to England and America. During these years we had ample time to count the cost of the step we were about to take a step so unheard of in Germany, and so dangerous, that we only expected to be destroyed whenever the fact should become known.

In 1834 a little company of seven trembling believers, in the dead hour of night, were rowed across our beautiful Elbe, to an obscure part of the shore, and there buried with Christ in baptism by Professor Sears, of Boston,

United States. The next day we were formed into a church, of which I was appointed the elder; and God made that infant church His peculiar care. Just at this time the only man in our senate who feared God was put at the head of the police, and the Lord inclined his heart to honour and protect us, as christians, although he did not agree with us as baptists. While he remained in this office, although we were constantly annoyed by the government, at the instigation of the clergy, yet we were not subjected to any severe measures; and when, after three or four years, he was succeeded by another, under whom the persecution began with great severity, we had already increased very largely in numbers, and grown in knowledge and grace, so that we were better prepared to stand the trials which soon came upon us. I had previously purchased my citizenship, and therefore could not be banished; but I was immediately thrown into prison, our meetings were broken up, heavy fines imposed, and goods confiscated; but, by the grace of God, all our members were enabled to stand firm; and many others, seeing their faith and love and holy boldness, were led to cast in their lot with us. The church was scattered, and could no longer meet in one place; but they met in twelve little companies, at each other's houses, and generally succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the gens d'armes. When the term of my imprisonment had expired, the church again met at my private house, with locked doors, for fear, not of the Jews, but of the christians. Our baptisms all took place under the cover of the night; and on my missionary tours, which were often very extensive, I was banished successively from almost every state in Germany. I could never travel, as an honest man, by daylight; but was compelled to journey on foot in the darkness, to hold services, examine candidates, administer the ordinances, and form churches in the dead of night, and take care to be over the frontiers before break of day, for fear of the pursuers.

In the year 1842, when my house had become too small for our meetings, we ventured to hire a large old warehouse, in an obscure part of the town, belonging to the Jews, from whom we had nothing to fear; and, just at the time when we were looking forward, with trembling anxiety, to entering it, the Lord interposed by a fiery judgment, and made our way plain before us. The great fire, in which one third of the city perished, broke out; and after raging for three days, left the city a heap of ruins, and thousands of the miserable inhabitants houseless and helpless. We instantly offered the government the use of our warehouse for the reception of the sufferers, and the offer was thankfully accepted. Eighty persons were sheltered for six months, and we appointed one of our deacons to take the oversight of this strange family. He watched with assiduous care over their temporal and spiritual welfare, and we afterwards received the thanks of the senate, with the gratifying intimation that our protégées had been better behaved, and given less trouble to the authorities, than any of the assemblies of the des titute throughout the city. During these six months we had held our meetings regularly in one floor of the warehouse, and now no opposition was made to our continuing them. The persecutions in Hamburg virtually ceased, although in other parts of Germany they were continued with undiminished rigour. Thus this awful calamity to the city proved to us, as a church, one of the greatest blessings God has ever sent us, and amongst the sufferers there was only one of our members.

The revolutions of 1848-9 were also made to work for our good; new fields were thrown open to us in every direction. I went immediately to

Austria and Hungary, and preached Christ among the benighted Romanists both at Vienna and Pesth. We circulated Bibles and tracts in these countries to the utmost of our ability, and the last great day only will disclose what good has been effected. I hired at Vienna a part of an old monastery, where our converts continued to assemble until 1851, when, letters between them and the brethren at Pesth having been intercepted by the police, they were surprised one Lord's-day, and men, women, and children were arrested and cast into prison. At the political re-action Austria and Hungary were again closed against us, and all we can do at present, is to pray constantly for our brethren and sisters there, that the Lord may keep them faithful under the very trying circumstances in which they are placed, and that He will be pleased speedily to remove the hindrances to the general diffusion of the Gospel in these countries.

During the revolutions, the Lord watched over all our churches in a very remarkable manner, inasmuch as not one of our 5,000 members took part in the overthrow of the governments; though we, above all others, on account of the severe persecutions to which we had been subjected, could but hail with joy an increase of civil and religious liberty. Thus a permanent impression in our favour was produced on the governments of Germany; and one of our senators, who twenty years before had said to me, While I can move my little finger, it shall be lifted up to crush you," now said, Mr. Oncken, your conduct, and that of all your members, during the revolutions, has been so noble, we must acknowledge you, and, henceforth, anything I can do to serve you I shall be happy to do;" and he has remained our friend ever since.

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One great object of my life has been to obtain the introduction into the schools and families of Germany of the word of God, divested of the books of the Apocrypha, which are always included in the Bibles printed by the continental societies. To a large extent this has been accomplished: we circulate annually between 70,000 and 90,000 copies of the scriptures; and, since the establishment of the depôt at Hamburg, 600,000 copies of the Scriptures. and 8,000,000 good evangelical tracts have been issued from it.

Our preaching stations are about 500, and we have about seventy churches, with between 6,000 and 7,000 members, all of whom have been immersed on a profession of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and every one of whom is in some way or other a missionary to the perishing sinners around; for the duty of active, personal exertion for the extension of Christ's kingdom, is a principle constantly impressed on the hearts of the converts, and prayerfully carried out in all these churches. Of the twenty thousand converts who, since the commencement of the mission, have joined our communities, about twenty-five per cent. have been Roman Catholics, and a few children of Abraham. Eighty brethren now devote their whole time to the work, as missionaries or colporteurs, in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, and France; and it is for the help of these beloved brethren that I now appeal to all who love the Lord in Great Britian. A greater number of brethren aid us in preaching the gospel, without receiving any pecuniary aid; for we hold it as most in accordance with the New Testament, that all the talents of the Church should be called into excercise, for the edification of the body of Christ,-the Church, or for the conversion of sinners.

Of the seventy churches only eight were provided with chapels; five others

have purchased houses or warehouses, which have been fitted up as places of worship; while, at one village, a coach lace manufactory is used for the purpose, and at another, a threshing floor has been converted into a meetinghouse. But, in most cases, private houses are used; a plan which must necessarily be attended with much inconvenience, being neither comfortable nor healthy. We should preach to double the number of persons every Sabbath at our 500 stations had we better accommodation; it has therefore been suggested that a fund of £2,000 be raised for assisting in the erection of plain chapels at places where they are most needed; and Joseph Gurney, Esq., has very kindly offered to be one of twenty in attaining the object by a donation of £100. Sir Morton and Lady Peto, and C. B. Robinson, Esq., of Leicester have also had the kindness to give their names; and I earnestly trust that Mr Gurney's most liberal challenge will be willingly responded to.

New doors are opening to us on every hand. The spirit of persecution, though still raging in some parts of the mission field, is gradually yielding to the conviction that our members rauk amongst the most loyal subjects of the different states. From all parts the cry meets us, "Come over and help us." We have no expensive machinery, no secretaries' or collectors' salaries to pay; our missionaries and colporteurs receive only from £35 to £50 annually, and they are a noble band of devoted men, ready to spend and be spent in the service of the Lord. But we have not one rich man amongst us; and, though our members give to the utmost of their ability, it is imposible for us to sustain the mission, constantly extending over so vast a field. Will not some churches and wealthy brethren in England undertake the support of one or more of these brethren? The journals with which they would then be regularly supplied, would tend to keep up the interest felt in their labours, and would be an ample reward to those who feel it to be their highest privilege to be "fellow workers with God," and His honoured instruments for the conversion of sinners, the ingathering of His elect, and the building up of His Church. One dear brother in London supports six of our colporteurs; a lady supports one of our missionaries in Pomerania; another brother at Aberdeen, one in Frankfort; and the churches in Glasgow and Edinburgh support three. Twenty are sustained by our mission churches at home, and the others have hitherto been supported by the American Baptist Missionary Union; but, owing to the failure of the funds of the Union, twenty-four of these brethren have, since Oct. 1, 1856, been thrown entirely on my hands. Our churches have made extraordinary efforts at this crisis, but we need help from our fellow-christians in other countries; and my earnest desire is to obtain the sum of £1,000, in ANNUAL subscriptions, that they may still be retained in their important spheres of labour, and that I may not be reduced to the heart-breaking necessity of dismissing them; for the salaries being only barely sufficient for their maintenauce, they must, if these be withdrawn, resume their respective worldly callings, and will then only be able to devote their leisure hours, instead of their whole time to missionary labours.

Brethren, I commend the cause to your earnest prayers and generous assistance!