Alexandria Gazette, Commercial And Political

Religious Intelligence
INTERESTING TOUR THROUGH
GERMANY.
The following Report of Dr. Schwabe was
communicated to the British and Fo-
reign Bible Society at their last An-
ual Meeting.
IT cannot be doubted, that a want of
Bibles exists along the whole tract of
country through which the retreating and
pursuing armies have passed, as many
villages have been nearly destroyed, and
many more completely pillaged. I was
forced to travel with as much rapidity as
possible through these scenes of desola-
tion ; but the account given me during
my stay at Eisenach, by the Rev. Mr
Appel, Member of the Consistory for
that Duchy, is certainly applicable to
other districts which have shared the
same fate as the vicinity of Eisenach ; I
will give it in his own words :
" To the most melancholy consequenc-
es of the war in our neighborhood, be-
longs also the loss of means of edification
and instruction, which many families
have sustained, and which their present
situation renders them unable to repair.
After the retreat of the French army
fathers and mothers of families came and
complained to me, that they had lost all
their Bibles. Hymn-books, and other re-
ligious books, and requested me to sup-
ply them with some books for their con-
solation. But still more lamentable is
the situation of children : one School of
this town cannot be frequented at all.
and in another, the greater number of
the children are obliged to stay away for
want of books, and the inability of their
parents to purchase them. I succeeded
in obtaining sufficient aid to supply them
with Catechisms, but still most of them
are without Bibles or Hymn-books. " Nor
is the situation of the villages in the
vicinity of this town less deplorable; for
in many families . not a book is to be
found. The distress in Fortha. a village
two leagues from this town, is in this re-
spect peculiarly great. Its Minister as-
sured me, that he was entirely destitute
of books requisite for the due performance
of divine worship, for he had not even a
Bible or a Hymn-Book left; nor did he
know how to procure them, as his Church
was completely ruined, and his congrega-
tion impoverished. I have endeavoured
to obtain some assistance to relieve these
pressing wants. A Russian officer, who
became acquainted with them. gave me
three ducats,* and by the addition of
some other gifts, I have raised about
twenty dollars:† but these are far from
sufficient to procure the necessary sup-
ply.
While visiting one of the largest silver
mines at Freyberg, where above 1000 per-
sons are employed, I learn that the prac-
tice of assembling for the purpose of im-
ploring the divine protection before they
descend into the mine in the morning
and of closing the day in the same way
with united devotion, is not only faith-
fully adhered to, but also much respected
by them, and that in general they
are peculiarly anxious for a proper and
religious education of their children.
The Rev. Mr. Trisch, at Freyburg, who
has lately become the benefactor of the
numerous poor of that vicinity by the es-
tablishment of a well regulated School
of Industry, represented to me the want
of Bibles in the school of the suburbs of
Freyberg, principally frequented by the
children of miners, and deprived by the
war of the funds which formerly sup-
plied the necessary books. Among 5000
children capable of reading the Scrip-
tures. 100 were destitute of them; . and
as the sum of fifty dollars was deemed
sufficient for the present exigency, I was
happy to grant it. It cannot be doubted.
but the late established Saxon Bible So-
ciety will direct its attention to a district
lying so near the capital, and to a class
of persons to whom Christian charity
must be particularly desirous of sup-
plying the comforts of religion, as the ar-
duous and cheerless labor by which they
earn a scanty livelihood has, also a ten-
dency to shorten their life, which, as I
have been informed. very seldom reaches
the age of fifty years.
Permit me here to notice the short
visit which, on my way from Erfurt to
Dresden. I paid to Halle, and to the Can-
stein Institution, because it enables me
to give or confirm the gratifying intel-
ligence of the existence of so great a de-
mand of Bibles in the German language
that even the greatest activity and exer-
tion in the printing office of Halle were
scarcely capable of satisfying it. The
warehouses. which a few years ago were
filled with copies of the Scriptures, were.
at the time of my visit, almost entirely
empty; of some editions no copies re-
mained on hand; and not only all the
presses belonging to the Institution, but
also those of the printers in the town.
were employed, in order to execute the
orders which had arrived there from all
parts of Germany, as well as from Rus-
sia. That this excellent Institution has
been preserved uninjured, amidst the
many calamities which the town of Halle
in general, and the celebrated Orphan
house, that glorious monument of pious
zeal and faith in particular, have expern-
enced. must be matter of rejoicing to
very friend of the dissemination of di-
vine truth
* About thirty shillings. † About four
pounds communicated. The countess
herself went a few days after to Halle,
to order the Bibles.
called to that interesting class of sufferers
At Dresden, my attention was again
by the war, the orphan children. I visit-
ed the depot of orphans established at
Hermsdorf, the estate of count Dohna.
where orphan children, from all parts of
Saxony found a temporary residence
ind experienced, under the immediate
direction of the amiable countess, the
kindest treatment and attention, with
regard both to their bodies and their
minds. until permanent situations were
provided for them by the committee es-
tablished at Dresden for that purpose. A
similar Institution exists at Dresden, un-
der the care of the sister of the countess
of Dohna, the Baroness Schouberg
These two sisters daughters of count
Stolberg in whose family, piety and
philanthropy seem to be hereditary dis-
finctions. have devoted themselves, dur-
ing the late period of distress, with such
,nremitting activity to the cause of the
helpless children, that their grateful
ount y has bestowed upon them the ho-
forable appellation of the Mothers of Or-
phane; and I thought, that I was acting
perfectly in consonance with the wishes
of the committee, when I requested them
"add to the gifts with which the chil-
dren were usually transferred by them
o families and permanent situations.
that of a Bible. as a donation from the
British and Foreign Bible Society. A
hundred dollars. which I consigned to
them for that purpose. were accepted
with expressions of gratitude and joy,
and a particular account of their applica-
tion will be regularly received.
The next place to which I beg leave
o request your attention, is Potsdam,
a town which is remarkable for conceal-
ing by an imposing appearance, much
poverty, wretchedness. and immorality.
I found there, in my friend the Reverend
Mr. Bernhardt, the superintendant
of all the schools of the town, a most
zealous and active friend of the Bible.
who having a few years ago, been called
by the Prussian government from Halle,
to his present situation, has done much
to reinstate the sacred volume in those
rights, both in Christian schools and fa-
milies, from which it has before been al-
most utterly excluded. He found but
few Bibles in the hands of the children
lof the middle class in society, and drew
upon himself much dissatisfaction, many
sneers. and even open complaints and
opposition, when he insisted upon the
luse of the Bible as the principal source
of instruction to youth. His perseverance.
supported by the countenance of his su-
periors in the consistory and the govern-
imment, has, however, triumphed over
these difficulties; and the Scriptures are
again the leading book used in the popu-
lous and well regulated schools at Pots-
dan. The information I gave him of
the operations and success of the British
and Foreign Bible Societies, warmed
his whole heart, and filled him with a
desire to co-operate in the promotion of
their object. I tendered him 100 dol-
lars. as a small beginning of a fund ; and
so zealously did he take up the cause,
that when I passed again a week after
through Potsdam on my return from
Berlin, he had already succeeded in
forming an association for the dissemi-
nation of the Scriptures, under the aus-
pices and active co-operation of the
president of the regency. and received
several contributions from the inhabi-
tanis of the town. I added fifty dollars
to my former donation, regretting that
I was not able to give encouragement to
such zeal by a larger sum. I trust that
the association of Potsdam will become
a very useful auxiliary to the Prussian
Bible Society at Berlin.
"In the latter city, I had an opportuni-
ty of conversing with several members
of the Bible Society established through
the active exertions of the Reverend Mr.
Pinkerton, aided by a liberal donation
from this committee; particularly with
Baron Schuckman, his Prussian majes-
ty's minister of the interior. His excel-
lency expressed much interest in the
success and extensive usefulness of the
new institution, and accepted with much
pleasure a set of the Reports of the Bri-
tish and Foreign Bible Society, which I
had the honor of presenting to him. It
is, perhaps, under the present circum-
stances, not to be expected, that the
progress of the operations of the Pruss-
an Bible Society will be very rapid ; but
it will undoubtedly flourish, as its ob-
ject is so fully in unison with the senti-
nents and wishes of the king, and the
ministers presiding in the principal de-
partments of the government. An en-
creasing spirit of piety and attachment
to the Scriptures is strikingly visible in
many parts of the Prussian dominions:
and. I have been assured, in the capital
itself: and the efforts of the Bible Soci-
ety will every where meet with sincere
and zealous supporters. The high re-
gard which its very existence shews for
the sacred volume, will, independently
of the value of the gifts which it will be-
sto, produce a most beneficial & wide-
ly extended effect in a country, where
the inferior classes of society are so pe-
cularly accustomed to look up to their
superiors, and imitate their example.
With peculiar pleasure, I left 150 dol-
lars for the purchase of Bibles at Wer-
nigerode, the residence of the family of
Count Stolberg, in the mountainous dis
trict of Hartz I have already mention-
ed the piety by which that family is dis
inguished. They had just returned af-
ter an exile of five years, to their exten
sive estates, but lamented, not only that
many of the fruits of their former philan
thropic exertions had been destroyed du-
ring the prevalence of a despotism which
tended to blight every flower of humani-
ty and piety, but also, that they were
now less able than formerly, to make
sacrifices for the dissemination of know-
ledge and piety around them. The de-
light with which the aged countess un-
dertook personally to conduct the proper
distribution of the Bibles, was in propor-
tion to the high value in which she holds
the Word of God. " The blessings of
young and old," she said, " will unite
with mine on the Society, which pro-
cures me the happiness to impart to them
the benefit of that book. from which
alone we have, during the period of ac-
cumulated sorrow and loss, derived sup-
port and strength to bear our lot with
resignation and even with cheerfulness.
I myself shall visit the houses of the
poor, and when I give them a Bible. in-
form them, that in a distant land God
has raised up for us benefactors."
At the same time, I eagerly seized
an opportunity to make the unfortunate
inhabitants of the small town of Bulte-
rich, near Wesel, partakers of your
bounty. These poor people, to the num-
ber of 1500, had been compelled, by the
French, to quit their habitations, and to
witness their destruction. on account of
their being too near to the walls of that
tortress. When two months before I
passed over the heap of ruins. and saw
the distressed state of many of the late
inhabitants, who had either taken up
their residence in the neighborhood, or
returned to the spot of their former a-
bode, in order to seek shelter in excava-
tions made under the remains of their
houses. I was very anxious to bestow a
part of the sum which the Society had
committed to my administration, on these
poor people ; but found no channel. thro'
which my wish could be accomplished.
At Werningerode, I met in the house of
count Stolberg. Mr. and Mrs. Wiltgen,
who reside near Wesel. and of whose
philanthropy and zeal in the cause of re-
ligion I had been informed in that town,
and as they were about to return imme-
dliately to their own home, I paid what I
had always considered a debt to Butte-
rich, by placing 100 dollars in their
hands for the purchase and distribution of
Bibles among the most distressed inhabi-
tants of that place, which was just begin-
ning to rise from its ruins,